Shoulder Surgery – 12 weeks in

The forward and back push up-- not fun. Courtesy of: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com

The forward and back push up-- not fun. Courtesy of: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com

Since my last post, my PT has been focused on slowly building my strength. We’ve session over session moved away from the stretching and instead focused on the strengthening of my shoulder via light weights. The wall climb and pendulum were discontinued early in the week. Instead we focus on the cane isometric extension with 3 pounds of weight. The bicep curl went through stages of one, then two, and finally three pounds of weight. The tricep curl was introduced with a pound and has session over session climbed to three pounds. We started the hand bike on two minutes thirty seconds forward and two minutes thirty seconds reverse. I continue the neck stretches and the pulleys.A second pulley stretch has been introduced that extends away at 45 degrees from my body. Since many of the exercises are done with both arms this has finally started to help my other shoulder. We continue the massages and over head stretches, as well as, more external rotation. I’ve also started weight lifting two (and later three) pound weights laying on my left side and extending away from my body upward. The scapular stretch has also been weighted at three pounds. Finally the whole thing accumulated with me at twelve weeks doing a non-extended push ups on an exercise ball. This is the most weight I’ve put on my shoulder since August 2009 and shows the true distance I’ve come. All in all, I’m sore; but not in complete pain. I feel stronger day over day and there is slow, but noticeable improvement. This strength training will continue over the next six weeks. Now that I’m at twelve weeks I’m considered “healed” and capable of intense exercise. The focus will be to strengthen my arm to its pre-operation best. I already notice my strength returning.

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Help Haiti Recover via The Red Cross

1/12/10 Earthquake in Haiti Map - Courtesy of BBC.co.uk

1/12/10 Earthquake in Haiti Map - Courtesy of BBC News (http://news.BBC.co.uk)

As you may already know, Haiti has suffered a completely devastating earthquake that rated a whopping 7.3 on the Rictor Scale. The earthquake was centered only a few miles from Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince. The earthquake hit yesterday (Tuesday January 12, 2010) and was followed by multiple aftershocks. The end result of the earthquake is the entire city and surrounding area is completely destroyed.

An estimated 100,000 people are dead already. Another 3 million people hae been injured. The survivors and wounded are left to attempt to survive in a completely crumbled city with little medical facilities and even less fresh food or water. The scope of this natural disaster is unprecedented for this century. In fact, you would have to go back some two centuries to find another earthquake of this magnitude occurring in Haiti.

Haiti is a highly impoverished country to begin with. They have suffered mass outbreak of HIV, a civil war that ravaged the country, and a series of hurricanes– all in the last five years. This event, however, eclipses those previous tragedies and has only escalated the suffering amongst the Haitian people. The average person in Haiti lives on $2 a day (or around $60 a month). Compare that to where I live in Warwick, NY where the average person lives on $62,000 a year (or roughly $5,167 a month) and you can see how little the people of Haiti have to start out with. Lump something of this size on their backs and there is no way Haiti can recover on its own.

Thus, digitalflood.com will be running for the next month a banner on the site pointing you to the American Red Cross donation web portal  where you can select the “International Response Fund” and directly send money to Haitian relief efforts. We ask that you please send whatever you can whether it be a dollar or a hundred dollars. Every cent literally counts and time is of the absolute essence. We thank you for both your generosity and support in advance. The people of Haiti will appreciate any effort you can make to assist them.

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DF Pirate Radio – “The Worst of 2009”

Title: Vol. 6 Episode 2 (Click link to play) Rel: 1/12/10
Description:The Worst of 2009” – Every now and then we do a show to recap the worst songs of a given year. This happens to be one of those shows. This volume’s “Worst Of” episode we recap the absolute worst songs (and artists) of 2009. It’s the way we like to ring in the New Year– by maliciously tearing into every artist who released a lame track during the previous year. How brutal is the show? DJ digitalflood manages to within the first five minutes offend not only MC Mary @ The Di$co!, but his wife (Cee Money) as well. Things escalate from there. In the first ten minutes he offends several major religions, one or two racial groups, and possibly the human race in general. When the show takes a wrong turn at the “Beyonce Hovah” reference it’s all down hill from there.

The next thing you know rappers are hanging out with gender confused pop stars to crochet sweaters and proto-black artists who threaten to transform your face by beating it in are mixed into post-grunge crap rock. There’s some transgendered dance music, the most likely to OD movie stars list, and DJ digitalflood calling just about everyone in pop music a douche. MC Mary @ The Di$co announces her favorite birthday hobby to make things even more awkward (Hint: It’s not birthday Facebook messages). It should get better from there, but it doesn’t. There are several screaming matches and even MC Mary @ The Di$co insisting her name includes a money sign (hence the spelling for this week), but at the end of it all 2010 looks like it can only be better than 2009– all things considered though with a playlist like this there is no realistic way where it could be worse!

The show rings in the New Year at over two hours long and depending on your taste is a great mix to party to or a bunch of stuff to make you want to puke. Either way you’ll be entertained by some of the funniest arguments to date. How funny is the show? We suggest you don’t listen to it while drinking any beverage to avoid drowning– it is simply that hilarious.

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Next DF Pirate Radio – 1/12/10

Times Square in NYC back in 2006 - We don't plan on having this many people around for our version of the event.

Times Square in NYC back in 2006 - Needless to say, we don't plan on having this many people around for our version of the event. Four people is about all my house can hold before breathing becomes a problem.

We’ve finally got around to scheduling the recording of “digitalflood Pirate Radio Vol. 6 Episode 2”. That recording will take place this evening and production will follow shortly thereafter. Expect the show to be released the evening of Tuesday January 12, 2010. This will be our New Year’s 2010 show and we’ll be doing our annual “Top Ten Worst Songs/Artists” for the year of 2009. It’s always a blast (check the previous New Year’s show from 2006 to get an idea on how this works). MC Mary @ The Disco! will be on; as will Chrissy. Wait until you hear who got picked this year. You may want to listen with a puke bucket nearby– just in case.

I think I finally figured out the logistics of how we’re going to run “The 2010 digitalflood Metal Challenge” as far as voting goes. I’ll probably use the polls feature on df.com and break down each race by sub-genre. The sub-genre winners will go on to to battle each other in another poll and so on. Ultimately the whole thing will accumulate in one winner. It’s going to absolutely rock so I hope you’ll be sure to vote. We’re still taking applications for judges, so if you want in on picking the candidates be sure to drop me a line ASAP. You can do so either using the comments of df.com or though any one of the many social networks we are on. Once all the candidates are in that is it– the line up is picked and voting begins. We’re going to ideally kick off the contest no later than 2/1/10 so time is of the essence if you want to add your choices to the list as they say.

Finally, we’re still taking guests for DF Pirate Radio Volume 6 and I’ve added a new way we can record the whole deal. I’ve setup a Skype account (djdigitalflood) and plan on using that for guests all too lazy to venture out. I’m also going to be experimenting with remote on site shows recorded with my Zen IV MP3 player, which has built in recording features. Stay tuned as we’ll be announcing where we’ll be recording (hint: somebody is about to turn twenty one years old who is pretty frequent on our show… yeah… that one). This will bring a whole new twist to Pirate Radio. Another surprise from df.com and one I know you’ll enjoy.

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2010 DF.com Metal Challenge- Preview

Skinny Puppy - "Too Dark Park"

Skinny Puppy - "Too Dark Park"

Want to see an exclusive preview of my list? You got it brother man!

* 25 Ta Life – Strength Through Unity: The Spirt Remains (1997) Hardcore
* AC/DC – High Voltage (1976) – Classic
* A Perfect Circle – Mer De Norms (1999) – Goth
* Alice In Chains – Dirt (1992) – Alt. Metal
* Candiria – 300% Density (2001) – Hard Core
* Clutch – The Elephant Riders (1998) – Alt. Metal
* Deftones  – Adrenaline (1994) – Nu Metal
* Faith No More – The Real Thing (1989) – Alt. Metal
* Filter – Short Bus (1995) Industrial
* Garbage – Garbage (1995) Industrial Goth
* Godflesh – Songs of Love & Hate (1996) Industrial
* Guns N’ Roses – Chinese Democracy (2008) Hair Metal
* Helmet – Meantime (1992) Alt. Metal
* KMFDM – Symbols (aka Windings) (1997) Industrial
* Korn – Korn (1994) Nu Metal
* Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake (2004) Metal Revival
* Linkin Park – Meteora (2003) Nu Metal
* Live – Throwing Copper (1994) Alt. Metal
* Living Color – Vivid (1998) Nu Metal
* Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar (1996) Industrial Goth
* Megadeth – Youthinasia (1994) Classic Metal
* Ministry – Rio Grande Blood (2006) Industrial
* Nine Inch Nails – The Downard Spiral (1994) Industrial
* Nirvana – In Utero (1994) Alt. Metal
* Nothingface – Pacifier (1997) Industrial
* Pearl Jam – Verses (1994) Alt. Metal
* Pig – Sinsation (1995) Industrial
* Rage Against The Machine – RATM (1992) Alt. Metal
* Rammstein – Sehnsucht (1997) Industrial
* Sister Machine Gun – Burn (1995) Industrial
* Skinny Puppy – Too Dark Park (1990) Industrial
* Slipknot – Volume Three (2004) Nu Metal/Industrial
* Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness (1995) Alt. Metal
* Snapcase – Progression Through Unlearning (1997) Hardcore
* Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger (1996) Alt. Metal
* The Mars Volta – Francis The Mute (2005) Metal Revival
* Toadies – Rubberneck (1995) Alt. Metal
* Tool – Undertow (1993) Alt. Metal
* Videodrone – Videodrone (1999) Industrial
* Vision of Disorder – From Bliss to Devastation (2001) Hardcore
* Weezer – Weezer (1994) Alt. Metal

Let me know what you think.

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