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    Swimming: A New and Fun Sport

    A lot of my mental energy recently has been focused around my injured shoulder (cool exercise discussion forthcoming!), but I’ve also been considering how to incorporate swimming into my workouts. I love swimming as a opposite to running–it’s much more upper-body intense, and doesn’t have all the impact. Seems like a deadly duo. I haven’t really been a swimmer since I was a pre-asthmatic child, when I could do pretty much any stroke other than the breathing coordination-requiring freestyle, as well as all sorts of diving-esque things that make my lungs seize up in horror to even think of now. The new apartment has a nice little pool just long…

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    Physical Therapy: Consultation and Fun Treatments

    My first physical therapy session yesterday was pretty cool, albeit painful. The PT put my shoulder–which was already hurting from busing/backpacking through town–through the usual contortions (*tear*). By the end, she would raise my arm in such a way, push lightly on it, look at my face, and go, “Hmm, I’m not going to put you through that.” Her conclusion was the same as the sports doc: decently likely it’s a small cuff tear. What followed was far more interesting than my usual pain, though. First, I got a therapeutic ultrasound. And the gel was warm! (Quite the novelty in my experience.) I didn’t feel any warmth or hum from…

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly Linkage: A Microaggression, a Game, and Some Dancin’

    This week’s internet cruising: Microaggressions submission – I love microaggressions.com, and this one is actually cute. Learning from Fable III’s UX Mistakes | UX Booth – A nice look at the usability issues of Fable III. Email Management Made Fun | The Email Game – Okay, this is a cute and fun spin on the (in my mind) GTD principle of fast processing an inbox. I got 2375 points in my first game, and 2250 on the second. Make Love, Not Flamewars – bitquabit – I don’t care about mercurial vs. git (I use and enjoy both), but I like the approach of giving up the silly flamewars and debates…

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    Shoulder Update: Steroid Shot!

    I got in to see the rather awesome (medical bill pending) sports doctor at my doctor’s office yesterday, and got my (*tear*) first ever cortisone shot. She ran me through a painful battery of tests (painful because they were designed to find my limits) and determined that, yup, I did a great job of aggravating and maybe worsening my old injury. May have been a small rotator cuff tear back then or now, but the result now is a loosey-goosey shoulder joint (very weak stabilizing muscles) combined with some super-tight (ow) tendons. Given that I can’t take NSAIDs, she recommended the steroid shot. I also start physical therapy next week.…

  • On Life and Love

    Too Human Was… Too Human

    Sorry, I really couldn’t come up with anything wittier than that. I finished Too Human about a month ago at this point, I think. Let’s celebrate that for a moment. Given my propensity for games like Sims, GalCiv 2, and Civ 4, getting to finish a game is always a miracle. Guy totally warned me about some of the game’s disappointments, so I went in with eyes open. It was… alright. Kinda fun early on. Really frustrating later. I want more, but not more of what was in Too Human. (I’m restarting Fallout 3–which I never finished–as the balm for my ache.) A couple of nights ago, Greg and I…