Category: General

Working through injury

Life update; feel free to scroll.

Tweaked my shoulder about three weeks ago, and it’s been causing some issues. Was working out, and just felt it go “ping!” during the second set of reps on the bench press. And since then it hasn’t been the same.

It’s been a real challenge, as it limits me not only in the gym, but also in daily life. I can rest it for a week, but then a little housework, or having to shovel the snow (because we got a whole lot), and it flares right up again. So I’m limited to some lower-body cardio or body-weight leg exercises.

This is starting to have negative effects overall, most notably in discouraging me from hitting the gym as regularly as I need to, to help maintain overall health.

So I’m looking for solutions, and will consult the advice of some professionals on this.

But working on the challenge of staying motivated.

I think that’s why I’ve been posting so much more on the podcast lately; I’m channelling the motivation there. Which has had positive results, but now I need to get back into the gym too.

Learning to build

I was asked today what my first Lego set was, and I sent them a link to the image shown above: Lego set 375, the original yellow Castle set. A classic, a collector’s item, if I still had it, or all it’s pieces, or even a fraction of it.

Now it wasn’t 100% my first, as we had other sets without the figures before that, boxes of colored blocks and shapes that we would have to figure out how to put together in ways we wanted, using our imagination as best we could.

We did okay; of course we did, we were kids.

But the Castle set was the first set I got, that felt like a whole thing, and I still remember it fondly.

The reason this came up today is that someone I care about built their first set ever today, at the age of 39.

And it was magical!

And I hope they remember it as long as I’ve remembered the Castle. 🙂

Month of posting

After the monthly WordPress Meet-up group (which I highly recommend if one is in your area; well worth it!), one of the members issued a challenge to post daily for a month.

Part of this was to get into the habit of doing it, of getting it done, and partly to learn more about WordPress through the repeated exposure to it.

So I said, sure, I’ll join you.

And as with anything, even if the best time to start was 5 years ago, the second best time to start is right now. There’s no sense in waiting to make a positive change, to put something off until New Years or whatever.

So let’s get started. 30 days of posting, starting right now.

…

(This one counts, right? Right?)

Alright, see you tomorrow or sooner.

Content (it’s all content)

There’s a post that pops up on occasion on Mastodon or the other socials from time to time, where an artist or creator chafes at their work being labelled as ‘content’.

And while I can sympathize, I hate to break it to them, but the genie is out of the bottle.

It’s all content.

It has been since the late 1900s.

I was reading Jenkins et. al. (2018) recently while prepping Episode 16 of the Implausipod, and even there “content” was being referenced.

So for future reference, let’s cover off why ‘content’ is fine.

Imagine, you have a pizza shop. You make some fantastic pizza. Best in town. Maybe as a customer I’m feeling like a pizza, maybe deep dish, maybe thin crust, maybe even a calzone. I’m not being picky.

But sometimes I’m feeling like a steak, or a stir fry, or a pho, or a Reuben, or breadsticks, or whatever. (Clearly I need to stop writing this before dinner).

And maybe, just maybe, I want to make something myself. At home, or on a campfire in the mountains (or whatever).

Regardless of what I’m having, we can all agree that we’re talking about food.

So too with content: it doesn’t matter if it’s a video or a blog post or a podcast or a digital comic, or even traditional art. It’s a bit of a mouthful to spell it all out, listing each and every type. Especially if we’re really interested in talking about food (sorry, content) in general.

And if someone objects, and says “I don’t make food, I make pizza!“, well, you go, you do you. But it comes across as weird to deny that what you’re making counts as food too.

So, yeah, let’s not do that. We used to call it “media”, and while that still holds true, in the 21st century we refer to it as “content” too.

So enjoy! Mange! Dig in. Find something tasty.