Gordon's Alive!!! - MIcrodiscectomy +24

Recovery Update
The spasms have stopped and my walking is getting better and better. I went to the pub quiz again last night and whereas I seized-up from sitting down last week, this week I wasn't badly affected at all. So this is welcome evidence of improvement. I still can't sit for too long without pain and stiffness, or be too active without soreness. Last thing at night I sometimes find the twisting motion of rolling over painful, but even that is less and less the case. Things are moving in the right direction. On Thursday the Doc will tell me when I can return to work, and on Monday I have my first physio session.

I need to build up my physical strength again. Before my op, on every working day I was walking for 50 minutes just getting to and from work. A month without even that degree of exercise has taken its toll. I have little stamina at present. I suspect it will be a while before I build it back up. So more walks are in order, and when I'm allowed some swimming and hopefully I will be on my way.

It's been a while since you've had a scar pic. Well this is the state of my wound 3 weeks and 2 days after the operation. Ain't the human body brilliant! As crappy as my spine was, you can't argue with my ability to heal myself. Having said that, the spot where my cannula was placed still feels bruised. So perhaps my resilience is patchy.

An honourable beardy precedent
I'm getting quite fond of the beard, but there remains the two-toned hair issue. Hair on the top of my head going grey, hair on my face a melange of brown and ginger with hints of grey. So imagine my joy when I spotted a precedent. Ok, so I won't go as big and bushy, but even so...

"Gordon's Alive!!!"

Gruff's Geek Zone
A few websites for you. I'm not claiming to have discovered them, but I do like them:

XKCD.com
Billed as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language" xkcd is one for geeks with a science bent.
The comic section is a mix of the funny and the niche. Try clicking the random button and see what you get. My latest click got me:

Better than the cartoons in my opinion is the uber geeky What If section. So someone poses a question such as: 

"What happens if you try to hit a baseball pitched at 90% of the speed of light?" 

Without wishing to spoil it, the net result looks like this: 

Whether this is serious science or pseudo science it is great fun.


whosampled.com
Love music and want to waste hours of time? This is the site for you. Take a musician or composer and it will tell you who has sampled clips of their work. The site even places the clips side by side. Or on the flip side, take a song you like that features a sample and this site will tell you where it came from.

Some are obvious samples, lifted direct from a record. Others are well known to be based on an earlier piece of music, and some are potentially spurious. For example, We Will Rock You by Queen is alleged to be 'sampled' from Fanfare For The Common Man by Aaron Copland. I wasn't convinced and had never read that anywhere before, but listen to this.


knowyourmeme.com/
It's hard keeping up with the latest memes. You have just cottoned on to Gangnam Style while all the cool kids have moved on to Harlam Shake. Of course by now the really cool kids are on to something else.

To keep up with the world of memes, work out what the hell is going on or how the meme started, or just for an entertaining surf visit this site.

You know when someone posts a cool pic or video on facebook? The chances are that's because it has gone viral. So if you are the kind of person who thinks a pic from the top of the Great Pyramid is cool:

or saw that pink equals sign in a red square, was mildly confused and is now bamboozled by variants:

or you simply want to know if Cancer Slam is the new Harlam Shake then make sure you check out the Daily What section. Knowyourmeme and Dailywhat are actually part of cheezburger.com but that's a whole new kettle of kitties. Prepare to surf for a long time.