So... I'm back at RadioU HQ. I was actually back yesterday but ended up leaving early because I REALLY didn't feel good. I'm in much better shape today, but let me just say: BUMMER. I hadn't really thought past the first or second post-surgery day because, somewhere in my head, I thought I would resolve this whole mess by taking a day or two off. Here I am three days later with my arm in a stupid wrap, some minor pain, and a general feeling of annoyance toward the staples in my arm. (Is it too early to get rid of these???) I've been training hard for the last three weeks for the Urbanathlon and figured this would knock me out of training for a couple of days... but it looks like it will probably be AT LEAST next week before I'm up to running and I don't think I want to lift until the staples are out. It's all a major inconvenience...
...and just so we are clear: YES, I realize I'm whining. The fact of the matter is that I'm blessed that this was such a minor event and that my recovery time is being measured by a couple of weeks and not longer. I'm being self-centered and ridiculous. This is a BLOG, people. What do you expect? Blogs are self-centered blab fests by their very nature. Cut me a little slack. This is my little catharsis before returning to the mature, well-balanced individual that real life demands.
Best Buy?
Well... let's talk BB. I have not gone into that store to purchase anything since before Christmas. Sure, I've stopped in to glance but never with the intention of actually exchanging legal tender for goods. The RIOT joined up with Amazon Prime last year and it has pretty much killed our desire for the brick and mortar store. Today was different, however, because the absence of a workout has freed up my lunch time. Why not use this time to head over to Best Buy and pick up my desired item rather than wait through two days of free shipping? GREAT IDEA!!!!
My mistake.
The object of my desire was not present at Best Buy despite the fact that it is release week. They didn't have it on blu-ray OR DVD. Fine. Maybe my taste has become so mainstream that lots of people share my taste and we all wanted the same thing. Demand outweighed supply and I was left in the dust. I consoled my self by doing some window shopping... only to discover something that I had forgotten: Best Buy is one of the most overpriced stores in the world. Holy crap. They sell things at RETAIL price. Retail? What is this? The dark ages? I could start quoting TV or movie prices, but take my word for it: Best Buy is not the best buy.
The end result? Best Buy and I have officially broken up. It's over. We were very close during the DVD boom but Amazon is just so much better looking in this Blu-Ray era. I'll cherish the memories... all those Tuesday lunches waiting in line for the latest releases.... but the memories aren't enough to squelch high prices and lack of availability. Sorry. No. I have to go. Please don't make this awkward.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Matt formerly with Showbread - Help Him Out If You Can!
He is heading to Ecuador for Missions - a really great guy doing a really great thing!
In case you missed him on the show this morning check out an archive which is posted at riot.radiou.com.
If you want to help support you can contact him at mattsinecuador@yahoo.com and for information on the Casa De Fe Orphanage just click on the name.Monday, July 28, 2008
Obadiah Convalesence Blog: Part 3
I'm back! I have not slept, but I have been eating. The light headedness is not as bad but the pain in my arm is getting a little worse so I went ahead and took some of the pain meds that they gave me. I had some friends stop by to see me and they said I look pale. As white as I am, you know I must REALLY look pale if someone notices. :) They brought me a big bag of M&Ms. I gotta be careful not to pack on pounds with all this stuff. :)
The day:
The day started early and the biggest bummer of it all was that I wasn't allowed to drink. Are you kidding? Nikki will testify to the fact that I drink probably 2 liters of fluid before 9 o'clock. Seriously. I got up around 8... and it was a lot of time to go without water!
The hospital sign in process was pretty painless and after a short jaunt of sitting in a waiting room I was back in the pre-op area. (I actually purchased a magazine which we all realize is nothing more than someone printing out the internet... but I did it anyway. EGM isn't bad, but at $6 it is WAY overpriced.) This brought me to the most "revealing" part of the entire day: the hospital gown. Because I was getting general anesthesia I had to be COMPLETELY naked under my hospital gown. I had never given much thought to how much of our personality is built into our clothing. It is, in many ways, a physical barrier to the most private parts of our bodies just as our "surface" personality is a barrier to the most private parts of our hearts and minds. The "forced" removal of this physical barrier had a profound impact on the psychological barrier as well. I felt as if any "bravado" that I had brought in the door with me was taken away.
Now, this all sounds a bit ridiculous given that I was given utter privacy and was not left naked but was given a gown with which to cover up. The initial effects diminished but the level of control that I willingly submitted myself to was amazing. I went into a room where I let them tell me how to dress, I let them draw my blood, and was even willing to put myself completely under their power by willingly robbing myself of consciousness.
It made me think of two things:
1. Death row inmates are not allowed to wear their shoes into the death chamber. In Dead Man Walking, the inmate on death row was adamant about keeping his shoes on and was totally broken when forced to exchange them for slippers.
2. We've all seen photos of genocide that happens the world over and one thing that is common in these photos is that people are stripped of their clothing. I always viewed this as a physical form of cruelty but my heart broke a little bit more today as I realized that it was and is more than a physical violence.
These are heavy thoughts and I wouldn't want to in any way equate the experience I had today with the things I have listed above. I'm simply saying that those brief moments have given me a deeper understanding of things I have seen in the past and I'm certain that it will give me a greater capacity for compassion in the future.
All the nakedness aside....
All those years co-hosting the RIOT came back to me in those moments before surgery as I remembered all the stories we laughed about in which people were operated on for the wrong things, found tattooos on their bodies, etc. This concern was misplaced. They went to painstaking lengths to be certain that I was the correct patient and to more than quadruple confirm on multiple occassions that I was receiving the proper procedure. They even shaved my right arm... yeah... My right arm is missing about half of its hair. That's REALLY cool. I told the orderly to shave the other arm so it matched. He laughed... but only a little.
Heading into the op room I was subjected to Sunny 95 and found out that my doctor actually prefers QFM96. I was about to suggest RadioU when I woke up in recovery. Seriously. I knew they had started the IV drip on my knockout juice but I had no idea it would hit me so quickly! I woke up in recovery with minimal nausea and I was out of recovery in about 30 minutes!
The rest of the day has involved me sitting on my butt. I have played a minor amount of PS3 and probably shouldn't be sitting here typing as my arm is supposed to be eleveated but I thought I'd just give all of you a shout out before diving back into my recovery cave. Thanks for your prayers and thank you, Nick, for covering for me! (and Nikki for being Nikki and "having no problem with that whatsoever")
-Obadiah
The day:
The day started early and the biggest bummer of it all was that I wasn't allowed to drink. Are you kidding? Nikki will testify to the fact that I drink probably 2 liters of fluid before 9 o'clock. Seriously. I got up around 8... and it was a lot of time to go without water!
The hospital sign in process was pretty painless and after a short jaunt of sitting in a waiting room I was back in the pre-op area. (I actually purchased a magazine which we all realize is nothing more than someone printing out the internet... but I did it anyway. EGM isn't bad, but at $6 it is WAY overpriced.) This brought me to the most "revealing" part of the entire day: the hospital gown. Because I was getting general anesthesia I had to be COMPLETELY naked under my hospital gown. I had never given much thought to how much of our personality is built into our clothing. It is, in many ways, a physical barrier to the most private parts of our bodies just as our "surface" personality is a barrier to the most private parts of our hearts and minds. The "forced" removal of this physical barrier had a profound impact on the psychological barrier as well. I felt as if any "bravado" that I had brought in the door with me was taken away.
Now, this all sounds a bit ridiculous given that I was given utter privacy and was not left naked but was given a gown with which to cover up. The initial effects diminished but the level of control that I willingly submitted myself to was amazing. I went into a room where I let them tell me how to dress, I let them draw my blood, and was even willing to put myself completely under their power by willingly robbing myself of consciousness.
It made me think of two things:
1. Death row inmates are not allowed to wear their shoes into the death chamber. In Dead Man Walking, the inmate on death row was adamant about keeping his shoes on and was totally broken when forced to exchange them for slippers.
2. We've all seen photos of genocide that happens the world over and one thing that is common in these photos is that people are stripped of their clothing. I always viewed this as a physical form of cruelty but my heart broke a little bit more today as I realized that it was and is more than a physical violence.
These are heavy thoughts and I wouldn't want to in any way equate the experience I had today with the things I have listed above. I'm simply saying that those brief moments have given me a deeper understanding of things I have seen in the past and I'm certain that it will give me a greater capacity for compassion in the future.
All the nakedness aside....
All those years co-hosting the RIOT came back to me in those moments before surgery as I remembered all the stories we laughed about in which people were operated on for the wrong things, found tattooos on their bodies, etc. This concern was misplaced. They went to painstaking lengths to be certain that I was the correct patient and to more than quadruple confirm on multiple occassions that I was receiving the proper procedure. They even shaved my right arm... yeah... My right arm is missing about half of its hair. That's REALLY cool. I told the orderly to shave the other arm so it matched. He laughed... but only a little.
Heading into the op room I was subjected to Sunny 95 and found out that my doctor actually prefers QFM96. I was about to suggest RadioU when I woke up in recovery. Seriously. I knew they had started the IV drip on my knockout juice but I had no idea it would hit me so quickly! I woke up in recovery with minimal nausea and I was out of recovery in about 30 minutes!
The rest of the day has involved me sitting on my butt. I have played a minor amount of PS3 and probably shouldn't be sitting here typing as my arm is supposed to be eleveated but I thought I'd just give all of you a shout out before diving back into my recovery cave. Thanks for your prayers and thank you, Nick, for covering for me! (and Nikki for being Nikki and "having no problem with that whatsoever")
-Obadiah
The RIOT Tumber is now for sale
Be warned - there's not a lot of them. To check them out or to get one click HERE :o)
Obadiah Convalescence Blog: Entry 2
I'm back from surgery. I have all kinds of stuff to share about it, but to be honest I dont' really feel like it. I'm light headed, a bit woozy, and very much looking forward to climbing into a recliner and sitting still.
Surgery went great! Thank you to everyone who prayed for me! I am having minor pain in my arm... but, hey... no big deal. If I feel like I'll blog some more later.
Surgery went great! Thank you to everyone who prayed for me! I am having minor pain in my arm... but, hey... no big deal. If I feel like I'll blog some more later.
The Obadiah Convalescence Fund: Blog 1
Ahhh....a morning of sleeping in at home while someone else does the RIOT... a morning where my air conditioning doesn't work, people are sick, and I can't even have a freaking glass of water! AHHH!!! A glass of water could make everything so much better. Of course, this raises the question of whether I would have a glass of water or a working air conditioner and this is a question I can't answer.
Everyone keeps asking me if I'm scared for surgery. The answer: not really. More than anything else I'm not looking forward to a bunch of needles. I'm not really scared of needles but I'm fat enough that my veins are always hard to find so we spend hours getting poked over and over again until they finally find some weird place in my foot. (This is exactly what happened to me when I broke my arm. They finally found a place in my foot and then some nurse came in and bumped the needle out. She didn't win any points with anyone that day.) My other concern, as ridiculous as it sounds, is that it will interfere with my urbanathlon training schedule. Obviously I have to take a couple of days off (which will probably be good for my muscles) but I want to be able to keep going.
I guess there isn't much more to report. I snagged a season of the X-files on sale to watch while I'm laid out. I was in the mood for it after the movie but the movie was TERRIBLE. Please don't waste your time. Send the money to RadioU instead. :)
I'm off to get cut on! See ya!
-Obadiah writing from the Center for Morning Show Convalescence
Everyone keeps asking me if I'm scared for surgery. The answer: not really. More than anything else I'm not looking forward to a bunch of needles. I'm not really scared of needles but I'm fat enough that my veins are always hard to find so we spend hours getting poked over and over again until they finally find some weird place in my foot. (This is exactly what happened to me when I broke my arm. They finally found a place in my foot and then some nurse came in and bumped the needle out. She didn't win any points with anyone that day.) My other concern, as ridiculous as it sounds, is that it will interfere with my urbanathlon training schedule. Obviously I have to take a couple of days off (which will probably be good for my muscles) but I want to be able to keep going.
I guess there isn't much more to report. I snagged a season of the X-files on sale to watch while I'm laid out. I was in the mood for it after the movie but the movie was TERRIBLE. Please don't waste your time. Send the money to RadioU instead. :)
I'm off to get cut on! See ya!
-Obadiah writing from the Center for Morning Show Convalescence
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Beans! Jared's new dog
His other one is called Frank - so it's Frank and Beans. That makes me want to get a dog and name him Bob Barker or a cat and name him Chairman Meow or Mr. Meowgi.
Got any old VHS tapes?
I know I have a box somewhere that has some... are they worth saving? I'm not sure. Maybe? I'll bet your parents have stuff on VHS they'd like to save and they've probably even asked you if there was a way for them to get those memories on DVD.
Friends, here is the answer:
The good news is that it looks like it would be simple enough to use that you could buy it for your parents and then let THEM do the work instead of getting stuck spending hours going over their home movies. :) Click here if you want one.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Stores are engaged in mind control!!!!
You will obey.
Dramatic? Yeah... probably... but there is a nugget of truth here! I found this great article on Yahoo today that talks about different methods that stores are using to influence what you purchase. Stay educated and alert, Citizen!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
British Candy.
Remember when George left the United States and returned to the Mothership that is Great Britain? No? Well, let me remind you. George is our intern from the UK.
He looks British, doesn't he? George recently went home to the UK and came back with a bunch of British candy. You can hear us trying it on today's Riot Archive (Wednesday, July 16) or you can hear it in next week's podcast. Either way, here are the pictures:
That is the Kit-Kat Chunky Bar with Peanut Butter. It is basically a REALLY big Kit Kat with peanut butter inside it. It is by far the most self-explanatory of all the candy that we had.
This is the Aero bar and it is what you see Nikki eating in the picture above. It is "minty". It actually tasted pretty good, but I'm not to thrilled about the slogan "Have you felt the bubbles?". It sounds like something you would discuss with a gastric specialist.
Those are the Fruit Pastilles. They're basically like sour patch kids without the sour. George said that it was "manly" candy in the UK so I'm officially a British-sort of manly. REALLY good stuff.
This is a picture of George becoming smug as my body slowly begins to decay. He's holding "Eclairs". They are chocolate wrapped in a toffee exterior. (Kinda like a fat tootsie roll) They were pretty good, too.
He looks British, doesn't he? George recently went home to the UK and came back with a bunch of British candy. You can hear us trying it on today's Riot Archive (Wednesday, July 16) or you can hear it in next week's podcast. Either way, here are the pictures:
That is the Kit-Kat Chunky Bar with Peanut Butter. It is basically a REALLY big Kit Kat with peanut butter inside it. It is by far the most self-explanatory of all the candy that we had.
This is the Aero bar and it is what you see Nikki eating in the picture above. It is "minty". It actually tasted pretty good, but I'm not to thrilled about the slogan "Have you felt the bubbles?". It sounds like something you would discuss with a gastric specialist.
Those are the Fruit Pastilles. They're basically like sour patch kids without the sour. George said that it was "manly" candy in the UK so I'm officially a British-sort of manly. REALLY good stuff.This is a picture of George becoming smug as my body slowly begins to decay. He's holding "Eclairs". They are chocolate wrapped in a toffee exterior. (Kinda like a fat tootsie roll) They were pretty good, too.This is probably my favorite item of the day. This the back of the "Tooty Frooties". They are like skittles but they are square instead of round. Best part? Look at the little Tooty Frootie on the back that is reminding the British kids to brush their teeth. Who says the British have bad teeth?
I'm dead. The candy killed me.
Seriously, though, the candy made me SICK. I kept noticing a bizarre flavor to all the chocolate. It was very hard to nail down and then I had a thought: High Fructose Corn Syrup. Did the British candy have any or was it straight sugar? A quick glance at ALL of the candy showed me that NONE of it contained HFCS. Instead, the main ingredient in all of it was sugar. I have heard lots of people say that Americans would eat WAY LESS candy if it contained sugar instead of HFCS because HFCS is sweet like sugar but it doesn't spike your blood sugar the way that real sugar does. As a result, you can eat way more of it before your body says "WHOA!". I think they may be onto something because my body shut me down. BIG TIME.
The best part of the candy making me sick was the role reversal that George and I enjoyed. When we took George to Nashville, we ate all kinds of crazy food and he kept saying that he was feeling sick and he would randomly burp. The belching was especially odd to me because the only time I burp I can trace it back directly to drinking some soda so I found it very odd that food alone would make him burp. The tables have definitely been turned! I burped several times while we were eating and it was directly related to the food I was eating. Yuck.
I've had my British Candy experience and while it was good in small doses I will not be importing anything for my next trip to the movies.
I'm dead. The candy killed me.
Seriously, though, the candy made me SICK. I kept noticing a bizarre flavor to all the chocolate. It was very hard to nail down and then I had a thought: High Fructose Corn Syrup. Did the British candy have any or was it straight sugar? A quick glance at ALL of the candy showed me that NONE of it contained HFCS. Instead, the main ingredient in all of it was sugar. I have heard lots of people say that Americans would eat WAY LESS candy if it contained sugar instead of HFCS because HFCS is sweet like sugar but it doesn't spike your blood sugar the way that real sugar does. As a result, you can eat way more of it before your body says "WHOA!". I think they may be onto something because my body shut me down. BIG TIME.
The best part of the candy making me sick was the role reversal that George and I enjoyed. When we took George to Nashville, we ate all kinds of crazy food and he kept saying that he was feeling sick and he would randomly burp. The belching was especially odd to me because the only time I burp I can trace it back directly to drinking some soda so I found it very odd that food alone would make him burp. The tables have definitely been turned! I burped several times while we were eating and it was directly related to the food I was eating. Yuck.
I've had my British Candy experience and while it was good in small doses I will not be importing anything for my next trip to the movies.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Obadiah won't be Batman after all...
Remember all those big words I've been tossing around about the New York Men's Health Urbanathlon... well, those big words might fall flat. I came in today to find out that the registration is closed because it is sold out! SOLD OUT! AHHH!!! I'm trying to use my press credentials to cut through some red tape here, but I may end up having to go to Chicago which means I may not be able to run the Columbus Half Marathon. I'm not sure. Why does everything always have to be the same weekend?
This news has severely cut into my training momentum which means that it will be longer before I'm ready for my final transformation:
It's true that all of this training is specifically designed to turn me into the Caped Crusader. Everyone was giving me strange looks but it turns out that it is feasible for me to become Batman. The article is from Scientific American. You know what that means? It's smart and stuff...
This news has severely cut into my training momentum which means that it will be longer before I'm ready for my final transformation:
It's true that all of this training is specifically designed to turn me into the Caped Crusader. Everyone was giving me strange looks but it turns out that it is feasible for me to become Batman. The article is from Scientific American. You know what that means? It's smart and stuff...
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Obadiah is getting excited...
The game is called Mirror's Edge and it looks unbelievable. Explaining it to you would be stupid. SHOWING it to you is better. Check out the video below. It reminds me of a very fast paced, first-person Tomb Raider game. Oh... and it's from DICE. Yes, DICE. You know, Battlefield DICE? Yeah. I don't think they know how to make bad games.
I'm going to talk about it on the show tomorrow but I felt like giving you a head's up this afternoon. Enjoy.
I'm going to talk about it on the show tomorrow but I felt like giving you a head's up this afternoon. Enjoy.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Urbanathlon training...
It isn't decided upon yet... but it is about 90% that I am going to be heading to New York in September to take part in the Men's Health Urbanathlon. I'm excited about it... but also a little nervous. I'm in NOWHERE NEAR good enough shape to participate in the event right now. I'm topping out at running around 5 miles right now and haven't actively and consistently participated in strength training for at least a year (if not longer). Luckily for me, they have layed out a training program for backsliders like myself to prepare for the event. I did the first strength session last night. Holy crap. Here it is.
Let me tell you friends: ROUGH. I was unable to do full reps on every excercise that is presented. My biggest problem was with the push-up like exercises. This mostly revolves around arm injuries from my childhood so I had to improvise a little in order to make it work... but it was still very tough. I'm definitely feeling it today. The great news about today is that it does not involve a muscle workout. Instead, it's a "volume" run which just involves me cranking out about 4 miles. (They're only calling for three but if I'm going three I might as well go for four while I'm out there.)
Anyone else thinking about doing this? Is it just me?
Let me tell you friends: ROUGH. I was unable to do full reps on every excercise that is presented. My biggest problem was with the push-up like exercises. This mostly revolves around arm injuries from my childhood so I had to improvise a little in order to make it work... but it was still very tough. I'm definitely feeling it today. The great news about today is that it does not involve a muscle workout. Instead, it's a "volume" run which just involves me cranking out about 4 miles. (They're only calling for three but if I'm going three I might as well go for four while I'm out there.)
Anyone else thinking about doing this? Is it just me?
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
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