Muffinman

[brinard]

happy b day!

keep drawing!

<3 brain

[hacksterbator]

I'm not doing anything, and my shins hurt soooooo much

stop playing. give your self another 3 weeks (or more) of rest and then start back slow.

[Muffinman]

I think I might have a stress fracture. (How would I know?)
I should make a doctor's appointment... but that will probably take MOOONTHHHS before I'm able to get, like, x-rays

EDIT: I did a bit more research. It says it's really hard to tell if you have a stress fracture or not, even by x-ray. I don't really know what a stress fracture is, but one article I read seemed to think that if the pain lasts for a long time and is quite severe, that that is a great possibility. And apparently if that is the case, the best solution is rest for a number of months and get lots of protein and calcium. I'm lactose intolerant, so I don't drink a lot of milk, but I'm going to try to have a lot of cereal every day and see if that helps. I eat really... poorly, I'm sure. I do eat lots of meat, though. I guess fish is good for you. I'm going to go eat that sort of stuff now, since I happen to be hungry.

I found some exercises that I posted in the shin splints thread, that I am going to try. I may have massaged too intensely too, two days in a row, so I'm not going to do that. I think I will have a long bath and make the water super hot. That must help somewhat.



I just want to play footbag








EDIT:

"I JUST WANT TO PLAY FOOTBAG!!"
RAHR!

[Zac Miley]

I just want Erik Chan to play footbag.

And draw.

[hacksterbator]

erik, you can get calcium fortified orange juice. it's pricey, but if it means you'll ingest more calcium i'd say it's worth it. unfortunately, uptake of calcium into your bones is minimal once you have finished growing. Still can't hurt.

[ericksonj]

Erik happy belated birthday!

I really like your latest drawing it is really awesome. Have you ever tried any animations? Your drawings of yourself look a lot like anime, it would be super cool to see an Erik Chan short anime! Maybe the worlds first footbag anime?

I hope your shin splints/stress fractures go away soon. Aaron gets those and he refuses to play on anything except our padded astroturf. Maybe you could get yourself some really padded mats to shred on? The turf seems to help aaron out a lot.

[Muffinman]

Thanks James.
Yeah, I have mats. When I start playing again I will definitely use them more. I was trying to think of how I would use them indoors, on hardwood, though, without them slipping around, since they are light foam.
This is the closest that I've ever done to an animation. This was going to be just a rough, but I never got around to making it nicer. I drew this about a million years ago when James Risden was, like, one of the best in the world. It's supposed to be a mullet:
http://www.hackrifice.com/chanarchive/footbag.avi
(Also, I'm yelling a fearless combo I want to try, in the picture )

[ericksonj]

whoa that's awesome! You should do more animations! James Risden was the shit back in the day, did you do this off of footage of Risden? That seems like the best way to get the body movements perfect. You should really do a short of yourself hitting a 3 move combo and maybe a bit of animated dialog, or perhaps shouting out the combo into a bubble and then covering your mouth with your hand destroying the bubble.

For the mats, you might be able to place those no slip stickers you can get for bathtubs on the bottom. They also have no slip tape for staircases that you can probably get at a home improvement center. I bet a couple of strips on each pad would stop the slipping indoors.

[footbagi]

Please put your body first. I know it's tough. Footbag is sooooo addictive and I pray every night for my pains to go away so that I can play the next day. I'll pray for you buddy, if it means anything.

Hope to see you soon!!!

jb

[Moxie]

Don't drink extra milk if you're lactose intolerant; there is no need to feel sick in order to get calcium. Calcium pills, baby! Wooo! Actually I dislike taking pills but when I'm out of Viactive Calcium Chews I do take calcium pills. According to several older people (than myself), calcium chews were known for tasting horrible until Viactive came around. They also have some vitamin D which you need to absorb calcium. Viactive Chews taste good too, like you’re eating a caramel or something. The caramel flavored ones, anyway.

My friend is lactose intolerant and takes calcium pills. She went to the vitamin store and the people at this specific place are really well trained. They said that you should take extra vitamin D even if there is some in your calcium pills/chews because only ____ (some small percent) gets absorbed properly.

Another benefit of taking calcium besides for bone strength:

About 99% of the calcium in the body is in the bones and teeth and 1% is in the blood, muscles, and other soft tissues (such as the nerves, organs, etc.) This 1% plays a major role in our health.

[Psilocybe]

Chan! I am an expert on stress fractures, as I've had one for the last two months. Its still not better. Want to know why? Because I kept playing. Don't let others tempt you play.

First off, DON'T play! Seriously. At least not with the leg in question. Its just not worth it. I would have better 6 weeks ago if I didn't keep playing. Maybe if you're careful you can do symposium runs where basically you only play with one leg. Possible tricks: pdx drifter, symp revwhirl, gyro legover, vortex, datw, swirl, bs smear, symp mirage, symp butterfly, pixie muted clipper....stuff like that.

I got an xray. The doctor told me to ice three times a day, don't take any anti-inflamitories, and do shin strengthening stuff. If you have a bump on your bone, thats surely a sign that your bone is damaged. I have a bump on both , but only my right leg hurts.

Good luck. I miss footbag.

[Muffinman]

Stress fracture = no hacky
Hey, thanks man!
That's helpful. I will call for a doctor's appointment on Monday.
Yeah, I haven't played since last Saturday, and I don't think I plan to, especially now, until I get some advice from a doctor. Blech. My knees are quite raw right now, like aching. I've been taking ibuprofen as an anti-inflammatory for my knees, (usually 1-3 times a day) -- should I not?
I think I've definitely got those dents in both shins, and yeah, I only have major pain in one side too. I found this page on shin strengthening the other day, what do you think? ( http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/arc ... cture.html) Can you suggest others?
Thanks so much for posting, Brian!!
Oh yeah, one other thing -- Andrew suggested that I don't do toe taps while I am having pain like this; what do you think? What kind of strengthening exercises did you do/are you doing?



Filming
So, yeah, I didn't play today, but I did some pretty creative filming of Manna and Andrew, and I hope it comes out okay. It kind of took a lot of energy to think of new and creative ways to film for almost 2 hours. Man alive. So, I should have an okay video soon-ish. I also plan to work on more KICKASS stuff.
EDIT: I've captured half of last night's session. It's fun, but I definitely have some things I want to fix on my filming next session. This is fun, and I think what I'm going to do is save a handful of sessions' worth of footage and make a "Hackrifice Winter 2007" video. I hope Jess and Josh show up, 'cause... I like don't have any footage of them, except those videos from, like, winter 2004 (double camera sessions #1+2)
I've kind of got a rad vibe about this. I want to get awesome at filming, and this is brilliant practice for when I can afford a good camcorder. I've got lots of stuff I want to try, and if I find enough time, or feel it's worthwhile, I want to make a homemade dolly, maybe to even practice with my crap camcorder with (I didn't want to end the sentence with a "preposition"(?), but that's how I said it in my head at that moment...) The one's I've kind of researched have roller blade wheels, and watching this footage, I was just, like, "Those wheels would slide so nicely on this slippery floor" = awesome pans!



Drawing
I'm also in a rad drawing groove. I'm taking pictures of myself in all these random poses (though I'm finding it hard to think of good ones), and extreme facial expressions and just studying them. It's fun because it's easy, and they look good. I'm playing with markers and did a bit of brushwork tonight, and that is really new for me, because I'm so used to the forgiveness of a pencil and eraser, so that's the main reason I liked those two self sketches I posted a bit up. I kind of put it in terms of footbag to myself. 'Cause what I really want to be doing is drawing poses and anatomy from my head, and nothing else ever really seemed worthwhile to me. It's what I want to do. I want to draw comics. Having Mike Faille as a kind of mentor for a while really gave me great perspective. He stressed how important figure drawing is... so I'm going to stick with this for a long time, I think, build up a whole sketchbook or two of these drawings and hopefully a bunch of it will stick and maybe I can give a go at drawing from my head again and see where that gets me (So yeah, the "in terms of footbag" bit that I didn't explain is kind of like, trying to draw from my head at this point is like trying to hit marius without schooling my torques... but really more akin to trying marius if I were tiltless and needed to practice mirages. That's kind of how I feel with my drawing right now. But it's great that I finally have some motivation.)
I feel quite optimistic at this particular moment, despite the devastatingness of not being able to play footbag for who knows how long... (again, again, again)

Oh yeah, Becky Cloonan's short story anthology, "Minis" really inspired me too, comics-wise, 'cause she explained her struggle getting into comics and how she started off with a million one-pagers, and then really progressively moved up from there. I did a one-pager while I was reading it, and it felt great!

Some random thoughts are:
-Ico is incredible. I'm kind of in the mindset and can figure out puzzles without using a walkthrough!
-Things are smashing with the girlfriend lately.
-(I seem to have picked up some British slang from the BBC Office, which I finished recently...)
-I'm excited to make more footbags



Awkward, funny phone call
PS: HILARIOUS moment from tonight that I've randomly remembered and laughed about, like, 20 times since. I will just copy what I wrote in a message to my girlfriend, instead of writing it out again:
Andrew was late, so I tried to call him. A woman answered, and I assumed, oops it's Andrew's mom, answering his cell phone, but no, she had an accent and it was Manna's mom! Manna was right beside me, but I couldn't think of anything to say, so I asked, "Is Manna there?" (Manna started laughing in the background, not knowing what was up, but maybe making it sound like a failed prank call...), but I guess they have call display, so she was, like, "Is this Erik? Isn't Manna with you?" And I was, like, "Yeah, he is." And then we were like, "Okay, bye".
It was the most awkward thing in the world. Then I tried to call Andrew again, but ended up calling his cell and made a mess again thinking his dad was him, and all this rubbish.
So, to sum up, this is how the conversation went:
"Hi is Manna there?" "No, isn't he with you?" "Yeah, he is." "Thanks. Bye."



And some pictures...

Here's #026. I didn't post it before because I wasn't too happy with it, but looking back, especially after my most recent two bags, I like this one quite a bit.


Here are the most recent comics I've got in the mail. These are from a 12-book series that I've been searching for for, like, probably 10 years. I found this online store that has a lot of really rare imported books. So, yeah, they're in French, and I can't read them, but I'm a big, big fan of the Cybersix animated series (which is REALLY toned down, as you can tell from the one cover), and I am a fan of Carlos Meglia. So yeah.

[BuckRuckus]

Reading about that awkward phone call made me laugh out loud at work.

[Psilocybe]

In regards to drugs, the doctor said it was a relatively new study that showed anti-inflamitories are bad for bone damage. Its always been kinda iffy though. I'm not sure how bad it is but you might just have to assess the situation of knee vs stress fracture.

Perhaps you could take calcium supplements. I take them and its hard to tell if they're working but I don't drink any milk so probably.

I haven't been very good on the shin strengthening stuff. Sometimes I just do a bunch of tippy-toe raises while I'm in the shower until it burns. I think those exercises primarily help avoid shin splints, not stress fractures. But the doctor seemed to imply that stress fractures most always come after shin splints. It did for me. You might also want to invest in one of those rubber-band things.

You could avoid carbonated/caffeinated beverages if you want. I hear both things deplete calcium.

HenG has been all anti-gunit lately, so he helped me decide to go back to lavers to help my form. After that is when the stress fracture happened! When you get back into hack, gunits should probably be in order. At least at first. Mats too!

I'd say if it hurts to walk, at all, you have a month or more left. If it doesn't hurt to walk, but hurts to do a tippy toe on, 3 weeks left. If you can do a mirage without pain, maybe 2 weeks left. I would always get to the point where it doesn't hurt to walk, but play again and it would send me a week or two back.

[HG]

boooo g units!

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Happy belated b-day Erik!

That's sour news about the stress fracture. listen to your body. nothing but best wishes for you!

[Muffinman]

Pan flute? No pan flute?
Great memories from Worlds




EDIT: New MOTWs on Hackrifice.

[Sitarski]

1. Rest and use some type of therapy for decreasing inflammation such as cryotherapy (icing).
2. Stretch and strengthen the surrounding areas such as the shin muscle, calf, quad, and hamstring. You can find numerous ways of doing so, but that article seemed to hit it right on.

Research pubmed.com and medline.com for articles about conservative therapy for tibial stress fractures. Hard to find free articles anymore on these websites but you can read the abstracts and see how they proposed doing it and wiki or google it.


Adam

[abstract]

heya erik. sorry to hear about your stress fracture.

ideally it should be about 6-8 weeks to heal a stress fracture.

my family runs a natural health clinic as well as a supplements outlet, and they were incredibly influential in the healthy portion of my recovery from a fracture in 2004.

ice, ice, ice.

others have mentioned calcium, as well as vitamin d to increase absorption. my little addition would be to look specifically for Coral Calcium. Coral is rich in trace minerals, which calcium requires in order to be fully absorbed into the body.

glucosamine sulphate is great for the healing of joints / arthritic pains.

the most recent supplement to my diet is "Bamboo Sil", which is a form of silica. this little number is now the most influential part of my supplement diet. i've noticed improvements not just related to physical exertion, but also several cavities in my teeth are beginning to fill back in & my minor carpal tunnel symptoms from being a desk jockey have all but vanished.

here are a few choice excerpts about silica...

"Silicon is thought to improve the cardiovascular system, as it is essential to the structural integrity, elasticity and permeability of the arteries. Silica may be useful in reducing blood fats & cholesterol."

"Silicon improves the condition of the hair, nails, teeth, gums and skin and has been used to alleviate eczema and psoriasis."

"Silica plays an essential role in mineral absorption and may help in recalcifying decalcified bones & decalcify soft tissue deposits of calcium. Silicon enhances the function of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and boron, and is essential for normal bone development which may help prevent osteoporosis. Silicon helps to maintain the correct calcium-magnesium balance.

Silicon may be useful in strengthening the musculoskeletal system, preventing injuries and helping bones to heal in athletes & others."

full information can be found here:

http://www.enerex.ca/products/bamboo_sil.htm

hope this helps, sorry for the long post. get well soon, good sir!

ps. a quick note about anti-inflammatories...the majority of their effect is in pain relief, and in the long run they do not help the healing progression as they can fool you into thinking that your body is in better shape than it actually is.

[Muffinman]

Wow, page 2. That hasn't happened in a while.
I guess I haven't played hack for about 2 weeks Occasionally I will do muted magellans, spur-of-the-moment in pants, or barefoot clippers.
I bought some expensive markers today. They were, like, almost $10 each I drew a sketch, and I wasn't sure how I liked it, but I just came home and I like it with fresh eyes, so yay!


I've never really used markers before, and stuff, so this is new to me, plus these were all with that straight-to-marker style that is also new. I think I am getting more comfortable with that, though, so I think I will move on to something else. Oh yeah, we saw that Beatles movie tonight, and it inspired me to draw more on my wall real big, so, yeah -- exciting! I can't wait to use a big brush!


Latest hacky that I stitched in the hospital.


So, I was cleaning up my room a couple days ago, or something, and went through my old comics. Here is an issue of Uncanny X-Men, where Scott and Jean end up stranded in Winnipeg Haha! (That's where I live...)


Here's the issue number. This was right after Joe Madureira's epic run on Uncanny.


And here's a couple panels from an issue of Savage Dragon that my brothers and I always quote.



PS: Thanks a bunch for the info, Greg. I looked for that Bamboo Sil briefly when I picked up some medicine the other day.