Month: October 2013

Injuries are a bummer. Not only do they suck when they happen some of them will stick around and bug you later in life. Over the years I acquired quite a few injuries playing basketball, snowboarding (a lot), and doing other activities.

A lot of injuries can be avoided. You just got to chill and focus. For example, if you are a snowboarder (more specifically a freestyle rider) or doing any other extreme sport then you’re entering an arena where there is a lot of risk. There’s a chance that you will get hurt. Life’s dangerous and even more dangerous when you’re doing extreme stuff.

Think about the long term. Is trying a back-flip today really important? Are you doing this to impress someone? Don’t do that.

So I mentioned that I have received a lot of injuries. And for the most part bones heal, but injuries to ligaments do not heal so well.

Here’s a list of some of the injuries that I have received:

1. Sprained ankle (basketball)
2. Torn MCL knee (snowboarding)
3. Dislocated finger (snowboarding)
4. Bruised ribs (snowboarding)
5. Cracked coccyx (snowboarding)
6. Torn rotator cuff (bike)
7. 2 broken noses (basketball and snowboarding)
8. Fractured clavicle (snowboarding)
9. Fractured arm in two places (snowboarding)

What healed and what didn’t so well?

Aside from the last one which was fairly recent all of my broken bones healed o.k meaning they don’t bother me anymore. The arm was in 2012 and my wrist gets sore now sometimes when I do Jiu Jitsu. I suspect that it will get better with time. As my fractured clavicle took about 2 years before I would say that it was 100%.

My ankle is pretty much fine. I sprained it when I was 18 and the only thing I can really say about it is that it is tighter now than the other. Once in a blue moon it might ache momentarily.

My left knee healed somewhat o.k after the MCL tear, yet within a few years the doctor told me I had developed patella tendinitis in it. That was on and off for a number off years then I twisted my knee again snowboarding and really I can say that I probably still have patella tendinitis. So my knee has bothered me fairly continuously since that MCL tear which was in (’96). Bothers me means that it doesn’t always hurt, but it cannot do squats, bear a lot of weight/activity or do a lot of hills without it hurting.

I am doing a program now to rehab it that includes some stretching, massage and exercises. The thing is when you injure something the whole body is affected. The muscles connected to that area are affected as well. Not only does my left knee hurt, but the muscles in my left quad have atrophied some, the iliotibial band is tight and the muscles in the calve are also sore. So I will continue to rehab it.

So I’d say that the muscles surrounding an injury contain some memory of the injury as they may have been over or under used following the injury.

My dislocated finger is fine yet sometimes a lot of grabbing like in Jiu Jitsu can make it hurt.

The shoulder with the torn rotator cuff is fine most of the time, but again overuse can make it act up to the point where I can’t do push ups or other strenuous activities well. It’s debilitated at the moment from overuse and if it’s like the past it will just go away and it will return to normal. Massage seems to be beneficial.

My advice is to stay healthy and think of the long term.

I don’t think so, yet some people I encounter seem to consider busking/street performing to be the same as begging. Once while I was all painted and dressed up in my garb I had a cop say to me “you can’t panhandle here.” Another beggar once referred me as “us panhandlers.” I told him I don’t consider myself a panhandler.

I think of a beggar or a panhandler as someone who doesn’t do anything except ask for money. A performer is actually doing something. That’s the difference.

If I am a beggar then so is Wikipedia and all the non-profits in the world. How does Wikipedia raise money? Well instead of putting a can out there to collect tips they ask. It’s not any different really. Both a performer and Wikipedia provide a service and then ask for money. Wikipedia provides an information service and performers such as statues, mimes, puppeteers and musicians provide an entertainment service.

There are people out there though that think of it like that. So if you are planning on performing on the street and putting a can to collect tips you’ll encounter that at some time. To some people it’s considered pretty low on the totem pole of status and they’ll look down on you for doing so. But I think it’s pretty cool to see people doing that at least when you like what they are doing.  The bottom line is people appreciate art. So continue to make art and who cares if some snobs think it’s begging.