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Posted on 07/13/2004 9:49:23 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Eleventh Thread: Wedding Edition: The Hobbit Hole XI - No One Admitted Except on Wedding Business!
New verse:
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Upon the hearth the fire is red, |
Still round the corner there may wait |
Home is behind, the world ahead, |
Nice poem--what's that from?
"I think I'm gonna have to have it x-rayed."
It's that bad, huh? Hope it's nothing serious.
It really hasn't healed from when I fell thru the attic in January. Dr. thought it would be okay after the inflamation went down, but it's been week since then.
I should've been wearing a brace last night. I always do for performances, just didn't think about it for class.
I find JSA interesting, because it mixes about three or four generations of heroes: the Golden Age Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Wildcat, etc.; some Silver Age heroes, such as Black Canary; some adult heroes taking the names of Golden Age heroes, such as a new Dr. Midnight, a new Mr. Terrific, etc.; and some teenage heroes, such as Stars (a young girl with the cosmic converter belt that the old Star Spangled Kid had, as well as Starman's latest cosmic rod) and Jakeem Thunder, a kid who "inherited" the Thunderbolt from Johnny Thunder. A lot of the focus of the storyline is the older heroes acting as mentors for the younger heroes.
The latest Teen Titans (the one not connected to the TV show) involves the old Teen Titans (Nightwing, Starfire, Cyborg, Wally West Flash) gathering up the young heroes who used to be in the team Young Justice: Robin, Superboy, Impulse (who soon changes his name to Kid Flash) and Wonder Girl. I found the first several issues to be just great, with lots of wonderful character touches (Superboy to Robin: "You just lied to Starfire!" Robin to Superboy: "I lie to *Batman*.")
Also, the story of how Impulse becomes Kid Flash (which occurs over the first 2-3 issues) is just amazing, imho.
That's a pain to deal with. I once twisted my ankle so badly playing basketball in high school that I had my leg in a cast for months and the swelling was constantly bugging me--had to put my leg up on the desk in class and stuff. Also have had strained knees from doing a martial arts move wrong that took me like 6 months to fully heal, because every time it was starting to heal I'd do something too vigorously and reinjure it. Hope yours clears up relatively quickly.
Thanks. My age and weight don't help.
I noticed the cartoon TT was different than the comic as I'm used to it. I read it mostly in the 80s Wolfman/Perez era. The New TT you describe sounds cool--I always wished they did more with Kid Flash.
The JSA is one of my favorites--I loved the old "All Star Comics" series with the "other" Superman and Flash and GL and Hawkman, Power Girl, Dr. Midnight, Dr. Fate, Wildcat, etc.
You do any stretching to help your joints? You swim, right?--does that feel any better when you do that?
LOL
Yeah. I've gotten out of my regular routine at the gym. But swimming helps. Once we get back from the beach I want to set up some time with a trainer and get back on the weight circuit.
My chiropractor also has helped the knee. Can't fit in a visit until Monday tho.
The swimming and gym routine sound good.
Here's something I wrote up recently for a friend with leg circulation problems. It's sort of geared towards that but you may find it applicable, or you could modify it to focus on your knee or whatever joints you want to work on.
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Introduction to Leg Stretching
Upper Body Warm-up: Neck, Shoulders, Face, Upper Chest
For several reasons, it’s a good idea to stretch the rest of the body along with the legs, so here is an upper-body warm-up to start with.
First of all, smile :) Smiling is one of the best ways to relax your face muscles and the rest of your body. If you smile while you’re doing these exercises, they will prove more effective. Also you’ll find that when you smile while you’re not doing these exercises, it will remind your body of the sense of being relaxed during these exercises, so you can use smiling as a way to trigger a sense of relaxation.
Now to get the blood flowing to head, start by stretching the neck and shoulders:
Bend your head forwards and hold for a few deep breaths--at least 3 and up to 10.
Bend your head backwards and look up and hold for 3-10 breaths. Be careful not to bend so far you get dizzy or lose balance! To be on the safe side you might want to try this sitting down until you get used to it.
Bend your head to each side, one side at a time, and hold 3-10 breaths as before. (For the rest of the instructions below, assume the 3-10 breaths holding period unless specified otherwise.)
Turn your head and look to each side, one side at a time.
Now the shoulders:
Shrug your shoulder up and hold.
Shrug your shoulders down and hold.
Hold your arms out to your sides with your palms down.
Hold your arms out to your sides with your palms down.
Hold your arms over your head.
(You may also choose to stretch your wrists while you’re stretching your arms, especially if you get sore from typing like I do. Flex your wrists forward, backwards, and rotated gently to the sides (for this last one, use your free hand to flex your wrist back towards you and then rotate it slightly towards the outside of your arm, gently so as not to strain yourself).)
By now your neck and shoulders should feel more relaxed and there should be more blood flowing to your head. This is a good time to take advantage of the increased blood flow to stretch your facial muscles. The ones around your eyes are especially important for a sense of overall relaxation.
Now massage the top of your head with your fingers.
Then massage the base of your skull.
Now rub your temples.
Wipe your palms across your forehead.
Wipe your palms up and down your face.
Yawn to stretch your jaw muscles. Then swallow a few times to relax down into your neck and upper chest.
Close your eyes for a few deep breaths, holding your palms over your eyes. This is also a good exercise to do by itself for up to 10 minutes to improve blood circulation to the eyes.
Open your eyes wide, opening your jaw in a yawn at the same time. Then blink a number of times. This is also good to do for your tear ducts.
Move your eyeballs in various directions, looking up and holding it; down; to each side, one side at a time; as if you’re alternating between looking at something near to you and something far away; and in circles.
Take some extra deep breaths to feel your nostrils and cheek muscles stretch.
Click your teeth together a few times and swallow, and feel the effect in your ears, neck, and upper chest. Pucker your lips and then stretch your mouth wide to help relax the muscles at the sides of your jaw.
As you’re relaxing your jaw and neck, you’ll feel an increased awareness of your upper chest muscles, which are also important to relax. To stretch these, first pull your arms back and puff your chest out, to stretch the muscles across the front of your chest. Then reverse this by rolling your shoulders forward and caving your chest in. Hold your arms to the side and twist slightly to get the sides of your chest. You can also hold your arms diagonally in a straight line. After doing this, take some deep breaths and feel your upper chest fully expand.
Stomach
Now that your upper body is warmed up, it’s time to move towards your lower body and legs. Just as you stretched your upper chest, you also want to stretch your stomach. Bend forwards and backwards, turn to each side, and bend diagonally. Then take some deep breaths, feeling your lower abdomen filling and emptying completely with each breath. This will help relax the muscles around your internal organs as well as your stomach muscles per se, which is good for your internal circulation. Because of this, spend some time just taking deep abdominal breaths. You can do this for a while, up to 10 minutes, in either a lying, seated, kneeling, or standing posture. Standing is best because the force of gravity works with you, but it’s also more strenuous because your leg muscles do more work, making it a more advanced exercise; I will describe how to do this more later, but basically you stand in a relaxed way so that your upper body is relaxed and your knees are bent slightly to receive your weight, allowing your stomach to expand more fully with each breath because it’s not holding up as much weight from your lower body. You can apply the same principle if you do this while lying, sitting, or kneeling: just let go with your upper body and let your weight drop all the way into your lower body with each breath, so that your abdomen is allowed to expand fully with each breath.
Lower Back and Sides
Now that you’ve stretched the front of your stomach area, you should also stretch your lower back and sides.
There are several ways to stretch the lower back. One of the good ones is to kneel down with your feet folded under you, bend forwards with your arms trailing out behind you, and lower your face to the ground to hold for a few deep breaths. You can also try this with your arms stretched out in front of you or pulled in under you, which will each get slightly different muscle groups. Sitting this way will also stretch your ankles (see below on ankles).
The reverse of this exercise is to start in the same starting position, kneeling with your feet folded under you, and bend backwards so that you’re looking up towards the ceiling. However this can be a bit strenuous if you’re a beginner, so an easier way to move in the same direction is to lie on your stomach as you look up to pull your head off the ground, bend your knees to fold your feet back towards you, and reach up to grab your ankles and hold yourself there for a few breaths.
Also stretch the sides of your waist by turning to each side.
Hips
You can stretch your hips both from a standing and a sitting/lying position. I recommend beginning from a standing position in the following manner:
Shift your weight to one leg, and flex the weightless leg forwards and backwards (which will look sort of like you’re standing on your toes on that foot, but you’re really just balancing on your toes with your weight on the other leg). Then move your knee towards you and away from you to move your hip in and out (which will look sort of like Elvis dancing). Also move your knee around in circles to rotate your hip socket.
Stretch each leg in this manner.
For a more strenuous stretch, sit on the ground with one leg crossed in front of you and step the other foot over its opposite hip (i.e., over the hip of the leg that’s crossed in front of you). For additional stretch while doing this, turn your upper torso to look in the direction opposite the side of your body your foot is stepped over on.
Backs of Knees/Calves
Some of the above exercises will have also warmed up the backs of your knees and your calves. For additional stretching of these areas, try these:
Just as before you shifted your weight to one leg and flexed your hip forwards and backwards, do the same now with an emphasis on feeling the stretch in the back of your knee. Also rotate in circles. You can go side to side a bit but not too much, since your knees unlike your hips don’t really move in that direction.
For the calves, lower each leg up and down, like you were about to stand on your toes with your weight shifted to one leg. You can also actually stand on your toes with both legs at once.
After this, sit on a bed or couch with one foot on the ground and the other stretched out in front of you. Bending from the waist, reach towards your feet and grab your leg to hold on so you can stretch your hamstring. Don’t try to strain if you can’t reach all the way to your feet. The purpose is to stretch the backs of your legs, not your back; if you strain you’ll actually be stretching your back rather than your legs. Just relax and bend as far as you feel comfortable, and hold it a few deep breaths. You’ll find the longer and more often you do this exercise, gradually you’ll be able to stretch progressively farther.
Ankles
Sitting with your feet folded under you as described above will help stretch your ankles. For additional stretching, shift your weight to one leg and flex the ankle of your free leg forwards, backwards, and rotated in circles. As with your knees, you can’t really get much sideways motion with your ankles, so it’s sufficient to go forwards and backwards and in circles.
Thanks.
PS: The stuff I posted there is an intro so it's mostly static. There are also moving versions of the same exercises which might be beneficial for joint stiffness.
That is a good guess, but no, actually he put in themovie. He was watching the second half of it alone downstairs with all the lights off. *We* were upstairs and saw him watching, so I sent PE to get the camera :-)
PE sneaked downstairs behind elf-boy, and took the picture, the flash surprised him and hence the hands were raised.
I'm gonna start moving towards bed here, so g'night, all!
Me too, g'night all
late-night spam...
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