The brace, and a catch-22

We took the brace to NYC with us (via train, not plane or automobile), and both because it is hard to pack and I was certain I would be in pain, I wore the brace on the train. It is my feeling that the brace contributed to the pain I had afterwards, which was considerable. The problem, I believe, stems from the fact that in physical therapy and on my own, I have been trying to strengthen the muscles that the brace is designed to prevent from moving.

In terms of my spine not moving, it did what it was supposed to: my spine did not move, at least not my lumbar spine. But all those muscles I'd been so carefully strengthening and limbering up were constrained in this plastic tube, preventing them from doing what I'd been teaching them to do. So, naturally, they're sore as hell. This is of course counter to what the stupid brace is supposed to do to begin with. In fact, as I stretched myself on Sunday (after missing the second day of the fucking Summit, goddammit), I got to a point where I could get out of bed, walk around, and generally felt better.

It seems to me in this case that the brace didn't allow a weaker muscle to function where otherwise it would have hurt; instead, it took a healing, useful muscle, and put it in a position where I couldn't use it, causing me more pain than I otherwise would have had. That makes me angry. I paid for that summit. I missed a venture capital panel, and Spun desperately needs VC.

On a positive note, I did get to have a sort of Sunday brunch with a friend that included a pretty good (since I last had one at Fins in San Diego) shrimp burrito. Of course, by the end of the day, either the NYC water (really hard, for some reason) or the Mexican food turned my stomach into cholera in bullet-time, so it wasn't all butterflies and unicorns.

I did enough damage this weekend that I am doubtful I will be able to do any stretching tonight or even this week for PT. I think what I need right now is anti-inflammatories at the facet joints or a local toradol administration, which the PT people may be able to do (but they're not MD's...). I think it might be time to push forward the date with the orthopede.

Just a complete and utter wreck. Oh, and my impression of NYC? Eh. It's like southeast DC grew some really big appendages and moved north. The cabs are exorbitant and no more competent than those of tijuana.

I'm going to go scrub the filth of the subway and amtrack off my poor beaten corpse.

Singularity Summit 09 notes

I'll be publishing excerpts of my notes from the Singularity Summit here in the days to come. Overall, it was fantastic, despite my not being able to attend the last day. The first day, though I attended in a wheelchair, the activity of getting into and out of the chair, managing the (mostly pretty decent) subway, and up the stairs to the fourth-floor loft we're staying at have, taken a serious toll on my muscles. Legs, back, obliques, abdomen. I have some skeletal pain in my pelvis, but in my experience the stretches will fix that (but were super duper painful this morning and last night).

One thing's for sure, PT this week is going to be a bitch.

A split has occurred

For details relating to the device I've been building, which has taken a lot of my time these last few months, I've actually started a company, Spun Flight Research, which accordingly has its own facebook, twitter, and weblog pages which are necessarily separate from mine. I work for Spun. I am not Spun, as it were, by myself. This causes a necessary split. Most of the stuff over there will be boring, business-related stuff, and the stuff here will be more of me bitching and moaning. (sorry sambo)

Fate of the hammer

While we are (and by me, I mean my wife) terrorizing Arlington on the gixxer, the Hammer has officially changed hands. We are now a one-bike family, with the war chest to buy on the cheap this winter. She is thinking Ducatis, I am thinking BMW's, but the sad truth of the matter is that both of us would have bought the Gixxer Thou', were it not for the stupendous insurance rates. The BMW and Duc bikes are a lot cheaper to insure because I suppose there are fewer hooligans on them.

Another note given to me by my insurance company is the reason our policy is so much despite our driving records is that (according to Geico) the Subaru STI is the #1 most damage-causing vehicle they insure. He went on, "think about all the honda accords out there, and how few of these STI's are. Yet, they dwarf the amount of damage done to both their cars and other cars compared to even the car next down on the list (#2), which he declined to identify.

So, along with having the very-evil STI, it would seem Geico just isn't real happy about us owning a Japanese litrebike, but they're cool with us buying a 1300cc self-proclaimed "streetfighter" from Ducati or BMW, or even Bimota.

At least now, with the Hammer sold, we do have the war chest to go out and buy pretty much whatever we damn like. I am leaning towards a K1200R. I think Wifey wants an 800 Dark Ducati. She likes the 848 and 1098/1198 (who wouldn't?), but is prepared to admit that it's Too Fucking Expensive. If the R800R comes to the US as a 2010 model, I will be very interested in that bike.