I thought I’d share the story of how I herniated a disc in my back to hopefully education some programmers out there on why it is important to get up, stretch, work out, drink water, and all that healthy jazz you hear people talk about. Getting in the zone is great, but as you get older, it’s not a good idea to get in the zone for more than an hour at a time.

I’ll admit, the older I get, the less active I get. In high school I played sports non-stop, moving from football, to basketball to baseball with the passing seasons. My motto in life was “I don’t believe in exercise unless it is in the form of a sport.”

That hasn’t worked out for me so well the older I have gotten. I always figured I would go on to play college sports, but I broke my arm pitching in the state tournament my senior year, then recovered and served a two year mission and put on about 40 lbs. while there. When I got home, my priorities changed and I was more concerned about earning money than playing sports.

Since then I like to get in on all kinds of pick-up games such as basketball, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, softball and even some raquetball on occasion. That was about the extent of my exercise – basically whenever I could find a sport to play.

On New Year’s Eve, our church ward/neighborhood has a tradition of playing basketball. My lower back had been sore for a couple of days, but I generally tolerate pain pretty well and thought I could play anyway. I figured I could use the exercise since it had been a few months since I had played ultimate frisbee due to cold weather. To be honest, it hurt worse that I admitted to anyone. I could barely put on my shoes without wincing in pain.

This should have been a major red flag! I wish I would have taken the time to learn WHY my back was so sore. But, hindsight is 20/20.

So I started playing with a sore back. I didn’t play too hard because of it. But after a couple of short games, my left leg was hurting clear down to my foot and it was starting to go numb. Still, I didn’t do much about it. We had plans for the day. We went to lunch at Chili’s and by that time I couldn’t sit without being in major pain. I kept having to stad up and walk around. I’m sure I looked odd standing while my family was sitting and eating.

We then did some shopping when I finally admitted to my wife that I couldn’t take the pain any longer and I need to go home & lie down.

I pretty much stayed on my back lying on the floor the remainder of the day and that night. I took 800 mg of Ibuprofen, but I didn’t notice any difference. I probably would have gone to the doctor that day, but I the next day my health insurance was going to change and I didn’t want to deal with the confusion. By 4:00 AM the next morning, I woke up Rachel and asked her to take me to the ER. I didn’t know if I could even stand or walk to ge to the car. I didn’t know how I would survive the drive to the ER.

The pain was excruciating. My legs were shaking uncontrollably and my teeth were chattering from the pain. Fortunately, once I got in the car, I found a position that was comfortable enough for the ride.

At the ER, they gave me a shot of painkiller and a prescription for some stronger pain killers. Then they gave a prescription to have an MRI done.

My first attempt at an MRI was a miserable failure. My pain pills had worn off completely and I wasn’t given Valium or anything. I lasted about 3 or 4 minutes in the MRI machine before I was screaming in pain for them to get me out. They said there was nothing they could do for me so they just sent me on my way. By this time I was very frustrated – mainly with myself for not being able to take the pain and being so stupid to play basketball with a sore back.

A couple of days later I had another MRI scheduled at a different facility. They gave me Valium to help calm me down. Again I didn’t last more that a few minutes in the MRI. I took a break and took the prescribed painkillers and waited for them to kick in to try again. They also tried putting my on my side, which was awkward for the MRI machine. That didn’t help either. Same result. Then they gave me an epidural with some pain killer and cortisone. Again I waited a bit for it to kick in and went in for my 4th MRI attempt. I don’t know how long I made it – probably 5 to 7 minutes. When they pulled me out they said it would just have to be good enough.

Once the cortisone kicked in, it helped out a great deal. But, I was told that it would likely be temporary relief, then I may be back in the same pain. So the next day I set up an appointment with my primary care physician to have him look at the MRI results and make plans going forward. I couldn’t get in to my doctor as soon as I wanted so I scheduled an appointment with different doctor in that office that I guess had just barely joined that practice.

It turns out that my new doctor had a herniated disc. I came in and never sat. He preferred to stand. He tole me about his experiences and how he had opted out of surgery. He had to manage his condition, but he was able to run and hand been on a mile mile run up the canyon that morning. I think after that appointment was the first time I started seeing hope. I asked for a referral to a Neural Surgeon just in case though so I could get a relationship established just in case I did decide to have surgery.

In the meantime I started doing a lot of research on the internet on things I could do to improve my condition. I bought this eBook that was VERY helpful in helping me understand what had happened, why, and what I could do to improve and live with it, without surgery. It was almost like reading a slideshow with a helpful picture on every page. It took me about an hour to read the whole thing and I understood what was going on.

At my appointment with the neurosurgeon, I was prescribed physical therapy, told to try to walk 3 miles per day and if things didn’t improve I would likely need a discectomy. He explained that my disc blew out so bad that I had cartilage from the disk sitting on my nerve, which explained the constant numbness in my foot.

I snapped some photos with my iPhone of the MRI results showing the herniation:

So I’ve been doing physical therapy three times per week and walking about 1.5 miles per day. I think things are improving and I’m hopeful that they will continue to improve and I can gett the feeling back in my foot.

So again, to recap… If you sit at a desk all day, get up and stretch at least once an hour. Drink lots of water (this will help you get up and stretch as you are constantly running to the bathroom). If you’re having lower back pain, DON’T PLAY BASKETBALL!  Instead, do stretches by laying on your stomach and pressing your upper body up to arch your back more and use ice for relief. Sit up straight in your chair. Raise your monitor, work on good posture. If you really are having back pain, I recommend reading The Herniated Disc Survival Guide which show great stretches you can do and principle of good posture and lifting to improve your back.

Also, I’ve ordered a GeekDesk for home and my work also bought one for me so I can sit or stand as I please. It’s hard to stand and work ALL day.

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So my life is not quite exciting as Brandon’s. I haven’t packed up my family and moved to another country. But my life is still eventful. I thought I would take some time to look back on 2010 to see what I have done.

1. Celebrated 10 years of happy marriage.
2. Had our fourth child.
3. Baptized & confirmed my oldest daughter.
4. Blessed our fourth son.
5. Remodeled master bathroom.
6. Threw up blood.
7. Had my first stay in ICU.
8. Had two scopes down my throat.
9. Diagnosed with Cancer.
10. Had my first CT Scan.
11. Had surgery to remove tumor.
12. Lost 15 lbs.
13. Changed health insurance 3 times (not by choice).
14. Worked at a job I love.
15. Bought a Kindle.
16. Increased my income by 60% from a 5 yr old website.
17. Put home up for sale & later took it off the market.
18. Refinanced our mortgage.
19. Started taking Gleevec.
20. Bought a snow blower.
21. Checked my credit report for errors.
22. Wrote Snirk.com
23. Played church ball.
24. Got a free laptop from Google to test Chrome OS
25. Caught a baseball at a Bees game.
26. Painted our deck.
27. Painted our fence.
28. Fished toys out of a toilet.
29. Coached T-ball.
30. Camped out in the snow at Father’s & Sons.
31. Visited the Hill Air Force base museum.
32. Got a couples massage.
33. Camped out with the boys at a family reunion in Roosevelt.
34. Attended two younger siblings’ weddings.
35. Went on a Daddy-daughter hike with Gracie.
36. Surpassed 1000 users on Inzolo.com.
37. Put offers on 4 different houses. Bought none of them.
38. Taught two kids to ride a bike.
39. Had lunch with an old mission companion.
40. Played a lot of Ultimate Frisbee.
41. Created Ultimate Frisbee sign-up website.
42. Replaced breaks in both cars.
43. Bought new tires for the Maxima.
44. Got a free flip video camera as a gift from Clearlink.
45. Replaced the starter motor in the Maxima.
46. Did all my Christmas shopping on Amazon.com.
47. Gave a presentation about Inzolo at LaunchUp.
48. Read the Book of Mormon (I’ve lost count of how many times).
49. Took the family to the LDS Church History Museum.
50. Added new icon sets to Inzolo.
51. Bought new front-load washer & dryer.
52. Ate at La Caille.
53. Upgraded to iPhone 4.
54. Got an i7 PC at work.
55. Went to a baseball game with my Dad.
56. Switched to DIRECTV (from Comcast)
57. Wrote a mobile web app for Inzolo.
58. Used Ubuntu & Mac OS more than Windows.
59. Spent a night at Inn on the Creek in Midway, UT.
60. Shot clay pidgeons.
61. Dressed up for Halloween.
62. Took my daughter to where I proposed to my wife.
63. Turned the dashboard back on in Inzolo.
64. Became more fluent in Python & Django web development.
65. Sent & received a lot more greeting cards.
66. Learned to solder fixtures on copper plumbing.
67. Backed up all our family photos to Picasaweb.
68. Bought new headphones.
69. Replaced my keychain pocket knife the TSA took.
70. Got my mini fridge back & set up in my cubicle at work.
71. Hired a full-time employee in the Philippines. (& later let him go)
72. Created a new satellite comparison website.
73. Had my boss replaced twice at work.
74. Noticed my eyesight going blurry for the first time.
75. Attended an open source conference.
76. Switched from an ergo keyboard to a Mac chicklet keyboard.
77. Stopped sending invoices.

Now I look on to 2011. Making this list has been a fun exercise. It made me think of a number of things I would like to put on a similar list next year, such as reading more books, attening the temple at least 50 times, etc.

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I play Ultimate Frisbee about three times per week during my lunch break. If it weren’t for competitive sports, I don’t know how I would get my exercise. For some reason, after playing ultimate or basketball I crave dairy. In the past I would often stop at a grocery store on the way back to work and get a chocolate milk, strawberry milk or drinkable yogurt. I have the luxury of working from home now so I’ve found it very convenient to make milk shakes.

A friend told me about this Magic Milk Shake recipe. I’ve made a few times and its pretty good. I like to add bananas and peanut butter to mine. I’ve sort of played with the recipe and found shortcuts to make the process quicker and I have the recipe down to 5 ingredients and its super delicious. Today I measured what I generally add and I wrote it down so I could share it:

• 1 cup water
• 16 ice cubes (from ice maker)
• 2 scoops hot cocoa mix (instruction on hot cocoa says to add 1 scoop to 6 oz of water)
• 1 banana
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter

Throw all this in a good blender and blend until smooth. I also added two tablespoons of powdered milk today to make it a bit creamier, but I don’t think it is necessary. You can play with it all you want. The magic milk shake recipe talks about adding oil for fat and cooking spray as an emulsifier. I’ve found that by just using hot cocoa mix I don’t need to add powdered milk, sugar, and cocoa – it’s all there. I’m not an expert, but I think that adding the peanut butter takes care of both from what I can tell.

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I know i have changed my theme a number of times in the past, but this is probably the first time I felt a reason to. I was thinking my site looked too red. I wanted something more green (pink crossed my mind, but only briefly!). That’s what I love about WordPress and the WordPress community. It’s so easy to change the look and feel of your blog in just 2 minutes and keep all your content intact.

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What is Dave Ramsey’s Economic Recovery plan? He laid it all out on Feb 27, 2009:

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After huge success last year, Dave will be returning to Salt Lake City this year for his Live event. The Live Event will be held Saturday, May 16th at the E-Center. General admission will be $41 per person, but you can use the promo code “Alpine” to save $15 per ticket! Tickets sold out fast last year (especially VIP and Platinum) and I expect the same will happen this year. Click here to get tickets now.

I highly recommend attending if you live near this area, and, if you are married, bring your spouse. Dave makes money management and paying off debt fun and exciting! He will help you get you and your spouse on the same page so you can start winning with money.

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When my friend built his own computer, I was quite impressed. I’ve always been computer savvy, but building my own computer seemed over my head. What if I bought all the parts and ended up getting a processors that was not compatible with a motherboard for example. I was sure I could figure it out, but how much time and money would have I have to spend trying.

I was fortunate though. I have a client that I maintained and hosted a website for who came to me asking about computers. He just wanted a cheap one. “Should I just go to Costco and get the one for $500, or would I be sorry for that?” I knew which one he was talking about. It was an eMachines. Now, I don’t hate eMachines. I owned one myself in the past. It was the first computer I was able to afford.

So I had an idea. “Why don’t you give me the $500, and I’ll build you a computer.” I explained that for that money I could possibly get better parts that were not so integrated. That way, he if every needed to upgrade some portion of it, it would be a lot easier. He agreed without hesitation.

My friend told me long ago that he got all his parts at Newegg.com. So that is where I started. They got all the categories laid out so nicely that it would be hard to forget something. I think shopping for parts was the longest part only because there is such a huge selection and so much information for each part. I spent a lot of time reading reviews and learning.

The more I learned, the more I realized there was not that much to learn.

So I did it. I bought all the parts from Newegg. They were all at my doorstep within a few days.

I had the computer put together within an hour or two and then spent some time installing the operating system and updating it.

It was much easier than I though and I even kept $50 for my time. My client was perfectly happy with his PC.

So having confidence, I saved up and built my own computer. I’ve been using it for over a year without any issues (Oh wait, there was a slight issue, I couldn’t use my front audio ports. I fixed it though. I had just not installed the audio drivers, after I did, it has been working fine).

Now, I’m saving up to build my own media center PC.

After the experiences, I can highly recommend Newegg! I’ve never purchased a computer part anywhere else. Newegg rocks!

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I’m posting this because it seems rather simple, but it took me a while to find – even with some tips from some helpful people in the #django IRC channel.

Let’s say you have a ChoiceField set up like the documents describe:

class Foo(models.Model):
    GENDER_CHOICES = (
        ('M', 'Male'),
        ('F', 'Female'),
    )
    gender = models.CharField(max_length=1, choices=GENDER_CHOICES)

Now, you want to display the gender field in a template. If you use the {{ person.gender }} variable, you would get “M” or “F” to display on your page. But what if you want “Male” or “Female”? Then you would use {{ person.get_gender_display }}.

Nifty.

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So it was labor day. For some reason – likely do to excessive advertising, I think of RC Willey on Labor day. My wife has been wanting a bedroom set. We were planning on ordering from Canopy, but I thought it would be fun to go look at RC Willey and see if they had any sales going on. Big mistake!

So we found a set we liked and decided to order. We were told we could pick it up at the warehouse, way out west, so we drove down to Alpine and borrowed my father-in-law’s truck, since my truck was not registered at the moment (a long crazy story).

Once we get there we were told that the bed frame was on back order and won’t be available until next month. Frustrated and angry, I told them to cancel the order. One the way back I called the salesman (Michael F. Langeland) and asked if he knew that information and didn’t bother telling us just so he could get his commission. He said he wasn’t aware of that. He pulled it up in the computer and said, yeah, the bed is on back-order.

We looked around at other furniture sets and we decided to order the Canopy one we wanted originally, but found that one piece we wanted was also not in stock. So as long as we were going to wait, we figured we would get the RC Willey furniture because it was a little cheaper and we wouldn’t have to put it together. So we called back and said, OK we’ll get this set as long as you deliver it free. We were still mad about wasting all the gas to go pick it up. So that deal was made. In the process of that deal they double billed us.

A few days later my wife is wondering when they are going to arrive with the furniture that was in stock. So she called and learned that no delivery was ever scheduled and now all of the furniture set was on back order. We were really annoyed with our salesman now, so we went in to another store to talk with another salesman (we didn’t want Michael to get any commission at this point) and look around at other furniture sets. We found something we like, but a bit more expensive. So we decided to just cancel our order and save a bit longer. We stood in line and eventually had them cancel our order and fix the double billing problem and return all the money to our account.

So now its two weeks later. We’ve had one charge returned but still have $1100+ that needs to be returned to our account. It shouldn’t take two weeks to get a return right? So I called again to find out what is going on. It turns out they never canceled our order. The question was “so you don’t want your bed?” Uh, no! We were in the store and we canceled that. The response was. “No, you didn’t. Do you want to cancel it now?” Oh, I didn’t huh? Whatever. “YES. CANCEL IT!” Now it can’t just be that easy. She said, “you’ll have to call back at ten o’clock to speak with a cashier to get your money back.” Seriously, it was 9:56!

So I called back and I think I got it taken care of. But something that urks me about the whole process is how everyone seems to treat me like I’M stupid.

“What’s your account number?”

“I don’t know”

“What’s your social security number… You account doesn’t come up with that. What do you need?”

I need my money back. Then I swear, I’ll never BOTHER you people again!

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This is a test post from Windows Live Writer.

Someone said it was the "bomb diggity" so I had to check it out!

Not bad indeed!

It certainly looks cool:
 

And it’s like editing directly in my blog as it uses my existing CSS!

Wow!

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