So what am i doing for two weeks off? The options seems limited when I’m forced to just stay home.

Let’s see…. TV, Movies (DVD, Netflix streaming), books to read, video games, or just more time on the computer (ex: my blog). Oh right, and possibly some house organizing / cleaning that I’m able to do, that my left leg can put up with.

I’m actually curious to see what all this free time is going to bring me. Will I be able to do all that above, or will I end up just focusing on one or two of them. This is like a test of what it could be like if I was already retired, but forced to stay at home. It’s unfortunate that I can’t go out to the movies by myself, since I can’t drive my car at the moment (Cop Out, Alice In Wonderland, etc… are going to have to wait).

My doctor told me that I pretty much sprained a leg muscle in my left leg. So while my leg does feel like it’s healing quite nicely, it’s far from being 100%. I can stand and walk (limp) around without crutches; but still using the immobilizer, however I can’t do that for long periods of time. My right leg is primarily bearing the weight of my body so that can be tiring. My left leg also starts feeling aches and pain when it isn’t elevated for an extended period of time. This means that while I can ride along as a passenger in a vehicle or eat at a restaurant, my left leg will eventually reach a point where it’s going to want to be elevated again, unless I’m willing to put up with the aches and pain.

In regards to sitting down, I’m also going to need some room space for my leg as I can’t really bend it normally either. I definitely can’t sit on bars or in booths, plus I’m most likely going to need to take the outside corner of a table for the leg room. So that Jason Mraz concert that I’m suppose to be at today, I had to skip it, because if the Long Beach Terrace Theater sits are like most theater sits, I’m not going to be able to stretch my leg properly. I WAS considering going to it anyway, but I suppose I should be reasonable (or responsible) about this. Even though I couldn’t go to the concert, at least my money for the ticket is going to a worthwhile charity (spinal cord, I believe).

The doctor did give me two weeks of medical leave from work, which is disappointing to me since I’m concerned about not getting a pay check. State disability is the answer… if I knew how to request for one (I’ll research about it afterward). I’m also suppose to still see an Orthopedic doctor, which I have an appointment with several days from now. I still have to wait for “authorization” by my CIGNA-HMO insurance to see the Orthopedic doctor, which I still have to confirm with my personal doctor that he requested for the authorization. This whole insurance thing isn’t something I normally use, so wow are there some hoops I have to jump through in order to take advantage of it. I guess it’s asking too much for health insurance to be easy.

So two weeks of primarily staying home…. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve had this kind of time off. People says I’m going to be bored out of my mind, but those who say that clearly does not know me very well.

Random River

Windows 7 Parody (video)

1986 Manitoba Curling commercial (video)

Hammerfall’s Hearts On Fire – the Curling Version (video)

Epic Beard Man – Mortal Kombat style (video)

Rihanna gets a lil’ lapdance (video)

I’m Deeply Sorry Slow Jam Remix of Tiger Woods (video)

Susan Boyle Death Metal (video)

pigeon riding the train (video)

Possibly The Tightest Trouser Pants You’ll Ever See (video)

The Many Talents of Dolph Lundgren (video)

My Little Pony Live (video)

We Are The World 25 For Haiti – YouTube Edition (video)

*edit* Reviews below are clearly not finished. Just copy and pasted what I wrote on Twitter about the movies when I first saw them. Feeling really lazy…

Movies I’ve seen recently…

The Blind Side (2009)  C+

Sandra Bullock pretty much made the money. However, for a story based in reality, it felt rather fake. It was okay.

Precious : Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire (2009)  B

Had some powerful stuff, but right on the edge of being too melodramatic. It was okay.

Valentine’s Day (2010)  C+

Cheesy romantic film that’s more or less forgettable. Had it’s moments though. It was okay.

Whip It (2009)  B

Good movie, but pretty much by-the-numbers. Has a lot of heart though. Enjoyed it.

What Do You Have To Smile About? You Have Your Ideas to Smile About

The thing that makes you happiest is your own little inner world. You always have a new thought that delights you. All you need in this life is your imagination. You can never be too bored or too depressed. People make think you are a bit of a flake or that you have your head in the clouds. They truly don’t understand what makes you tick and why you’re smiling. If people could read your mind, they would be truly amazed!

What I’m listening to this week…

1) Owl City – ocean eyes
2) KROQ 106.7 – the kevin & bean show
3) Rob Zombie – hellbilly deluxe 2
4) G4tv Feedback – dice 2010, heavy rain
5) Lights – the listening
6) Metallica – kill ‘em all

So I was squatting down to pick up this AA battery that was on the ground, when I hear this “pop” sound from my left leg, and immediately I involuntarily dropped to the floor in pain. I thought at first that it was just some cramp or spasm or whatever, but the pain did not go away, and I couldn’t stretch my left leg without feeling pain. Then it hit me… “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.” No, I did NOT call 911 at that time. If it was a broken leg, I would be in so much more pain, but I wasn’t, so all I needed was help to get to the Emergency Room.

Crawling to my laptop, I dialed up my wife on Skype. Since I was down on the ground, all she could see via the webcam was me waving from the floor going “here I am, can you come home please?” I also called my Mom who works in a hospital, who then called my Dad, and then I also called my brother who worked nearby. I of course had to call my work place and tell them that I’m likely not going to work that night, and most likely the next days. So while I was waiting, what else did I do? Why go and do an update status on Twitter / Facebook! d’uh. LOL

My wife and brother eventually gets to the house and helps me to the car. We drive off to my Mom’s hospital and my Dad was also on the way. Since I’ve never gone to the hospital via ER reasons, we ended up at the front, so we had to find ourselves around to where the ER was. It was busy, but luckily due to my Mom working there, they were able to put us on the fast track (sorry other patients). In a span of 3 hours, they got my info, gave me an x-ray, gave me an ultra sound, and the conclusion was “we don’t know what’s wrong, but we do know it’s not a broken leg or blood clot.” I was told that I’m most likely going to need an MRI, especially if the pain does not subside 2-3 days from now. They gave me crutches (I get to keep them?!) and away I went home.

Thank goodness for my wife, and my family for helping me out. Thank you to my Blackberry for allowing me to connect with people, without requiring me to get off the floor. I’m not going to be able to move around much, so items that are mobile and can go to me (like my laptop or a remote control) is very very welcome right now. I realized I’m not going to be able to go upstairs to the bedroom for now, and going to the bathroom is going to take some effort. Me going to the Jason Mraz concert this Saturday doesn’t look possible right now (damnit!), nor am I going to be able to see the movie “Cop Out” (damnit!) which I was really looking forward to watch. It looks like I’m going to be stuck downstairs on the sofa in front of my laptop / HDTV / DVD player, xbox360 for I don’t know how long. I suppose I can see this as an opportunity to just relax and veg for (hopefully) the next days.

On a side note, I received a Jury Duty summons in the mail today. (damnit!)

LOL, this angle makes my thigh look hhuuuuggggeeee!!!!

Drive My Random Soul

The Tiger Woods Apology Word Cloud (pix)

The 16 Coolest Helmets At The Olympics (pix)

STDs in America (pix)

Fat Cat’s Photos – The legend of Fat Cat (pix)

Remix: Two and a Half Men Groan Track (video)

Awesome Runner Animation (video)

Star Wars Family Guy Remix (video)

Axe Cop Trailer (video)

The Shoulder and Death Vignette (video)

Bad Loser (video)

Weatherman Goes Diarrhea On Air (video)

origin for “That’s What She Said” – NSFW? (video)

I try and avoid discussions about the legality of downloaded copyrighted music / videos, because it’s honestly just tiring. Whether there’s still a debate on why they shouldn’t be considered illegally downloaded items is a moot point. The simple truth of the matter is that if you get caught “sharing” copyrighted music / videos via the internet, there’s a good chance you will either get an account shut down, pay a huge fine for such an act, or at worst get jail time. Is that something you want to deal with?

Time and time again however, somebody has to try and justify that downloading copyrighted music / videos shouldn’t be a punishable act. They talk about how radio is free or how we can record stuff from the TV with no problem.

First point is really easy, WHO really likes the radio and the stuff they play, yet alone record music from it? Compare that to on-demand music that you can get off the internet, is it a wonder that radio is free, what with all the commercials they play? The music studios simply have the power to determine where their music should be available to the public, and what business model they support (iTunes, Amazon, LastFM, Pandora). You don’t want to play by their rules, that’s your call. If you want to get your music through “illegal” means, that’s your call, just don’t try to justify that what you are doing isn’t really wrong. It is and don’t be insecure about that fact.

Second point is a little bit of a give and take, because while the studios allow people to record copyrighted videos off the TV, they really rather you didn’t. There is a limit to how much you can record on a DVR so that’s a benefit for the studios, and the people who actually transfer their recordings to a more permanent media are a small enough minority that they don’t care that much. There are legal means to download or watch these copyrighted videos on the internet with the support of the studios, such as an iTunes, a Netflix, or a Hulu. People downloading or watching those videos through other unsupported methods via the internet is what the studios want to stop, because they get nothing out of them. The upside seems to be that the studios don’t seem to care as much about illegally downloaded TV shows, but getting illegally distributed movies is a huge deal for them. It’s pretty cut and dried to say that it’s wrong to have downloaded a movie that is still playing in theaters, because that clearly takes money away from that market. So once again I say that if you have illegally downloaded videos, understand that it IS wrong, just don’t be insecure about that fact.

There’s already enough cases in courts out there that are still “fighting the good fight” on the legal issues behind this downloaded copyrighted material debate, that you don’t have to throw yourself into the mix. Once again it has to be said, but downloading copyrighted material off the internet, via methods that isn’t backed by the industry, is currently illegal. There’s just no “buts” to this fact right now, so there’s no point justifying that you aren’t doing anything illegal. Don’t even resort to the “everybody is doing it” argument, because that’s just stupid. Now if you’re going to do something illegal, just don’t get caught. Just take comfort on the fact that this criminal act isn’t as bad as attacking or murdering somebody. Yes you are technically stealing profits away from the studios and the people who worked hard to get these copyrighted material out there in the first place, but it’s not like this is a home invasion robbery… or is it?

My recent Status Updates, Texts, and General Thoughts

- pirated DVD vs legally bought DVD – http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg

- Living without electricity is so limiting this day and age.

- darn, there’s a power outage in my neighborhood. My laptop and my cellphone are the only thing with power. bleah. I think I’ll go read a book.

- The heavy metal album of 2010 to beat right now is Overkill – “ironbound” because it’s freakin awesome! Head banging, thrashing goodness.

- stuff you post online that gets you in trouble – http://tinyurl.com/y9ec62p – audio segment from the Kevin & Bean show

- ZERO is the number of times I’ve seen the stray racoon roaming my work place in the past six months. This week alone, FIVE times!

- No eating meat Fridays! ….. “that’s what she said”

- Happy Lent to all the Catholics! Wait, “happy” Lent? …

- I’m loving how we really are slowly but surely getting answers in this final season of LOST.

- Somebody pointed it out to me. Whenever I mention how I accidentally killed the bunny, I automatically laugh afterwards. It’s like a reflex that I couldn’t control! A defense mechanism. It’s not because I find the situation funny, as I’m actually sadden by it. Weird reaction though.

- I’m sad. A rabbit just ran in front of my car and I did not have time to swerve away. Yes, i just accidentally killed a bunny. =(

- http://twitpic.com/13duiu – There’s a racoon in this cellphone picture. Do you see it?

- Me and the wifey finally got an HDTV for our bedroom. So now we’ve got two HDTVs at home. Woot!

- http://twitpic.com/139cnw – My official shirt for the year of the tiger. Happy Chinese New Year!

Random Saviour

Marathon Runner Falls at Finish Line (video)

Mascot Eats Cheerleader 2 (video)

Squirrel Argument Leads to Fist Fight (video)

Tough Guys Sing Savage Garden (video)

Where Does the Star Wars Text Go? (video)

8-Bit Mega Man Deathmatch 2 (video)

The Films of the 2000s (video)

Mirror Scares (video)

Don’t blow the rape whistle! (video)

L.A.R.P. Live Avatar Role Playing – NSFW (video)

The 6 Baffling Mistakes Every Horror Franchise Must Make (link)

Interview with Fedor Emelianenko in Kiev (video)