overt.org

You thought I’d given up, didn’t you? How wrong you were.

Oscars is a place I went once last year and have gone several times since we moved to Berkeley; it’s so close. It is a straight-up burger joint. It’s kind of like a Dairy Queen but not a chain, and without the frozen treats. It’s dirty, simple, and cheap. But when what you want is a burger and fries, it really hits the spot. Not a fancy, 1/2-inch-thick, ranchero-style restaurant burger. No. What you get is a thin, flat slice of beef (or turkey or veggie) cooked in front of you with some good fries (if you like high fry to potato ratio), optionally with quite decent non-chemical lemonade. I will go back.

So, I got back about a week and a half ago from SIGGRAPH and SCA. They were both fun, it was exciting to give a talk, it hurt to crutch around downtown LA, but I survived. Since I got back Leslie and I have been very lazy… doing nothing all day, reading, playing video games, and generally being worthless. We decided to call it a vacation from activity.

But today, Leslie is a real student again… she left this morning to go her “math camp,” something that’s supposed to help get her prepared for all the statistics and such she’ll encounter in policy school. I, meanwhile, am starting to study in earnest for my prelim.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that when I visited the doctor last week, he refused to give me a walking cast but did take a week off of my cast time. So a week from today I will be off the cursed crutches nursing my wizened leg back to health.

I hate them. When my six week tenure with them is over, I will crush them, mangle them, smelt them down and reforge them into a mythical sword that I will use to slaughter their maker and his family. I will then fling their bodies and the sword into the sun.

Anyway… the day after the accident I went to a specialist to get a cast. The doctor told me that the ankle dislocation was very rare since I had to tear (but not separate) all three ligaments in my ankle to get the foot to do that. But as bad as that sounds, it could have been a lot worse. There were a couple of chipped bones, but the chips were minor and all the bones ended up in the right place. I’m stuck in the cast for 6 weeks, then I’ll probably have a couple of months of physical therapy to regain the motion in my ankle, but I’ll probably avoid any arthritis or lasting effects. Yay. Also no surgery. And yeah, I’m really fucking tired of crutching around everywhere and I’m only 1/3 done with it. I have bruises on the palms of my hands and pain in my elbows and shoulders, but at least I’m still getting plenty of cardiovascular exercise (I’d say crutching at a walking pace is at least as taxing as jogging at a good clip).

So, Friday was my last day at Apple. Oddly I left handing off the same project that I handed off the last time I left. I think maybe it would have gotten picked up if the whole crazy Intel thing hadn’t happened. Anyway, the money was good but I’m glad to have my freetime back to enjoy Berkeley and start studying more for my prelim.

But that also won’t happen this week, since I’m in LA at SIGGRAPH. It’s overhyped but fun anyway. I had a talk at a little sub-conference called SCA (Symposium on Computer Animation), which has kept me extra-busy over the last few weeks. SIGGRAPH itself is basically continuous schmoozing punctuated by people presenting academic papers where you repeatedly hurl your brain at slides stuffed with double integrals and, invariable, bunnies.

I’m heading home Thursday, where I will sit (for those of you who don’t know, when you sit you’re not on crutches).

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Comments

Callie — 2007-02-24 08:09:54

Omg, I just had the same thing happen to me, my sides hurt so bad from them rubbing on my sides, i hate them so fucking bad!!!!!!!!! so yea, i can relate

bryan — 2007-02-25 11:15:28

i feel your pain. hang in there… soon the crutches will only be a memory.

JZAP — 2009-09-18 08:26:40

i hate them so much, i will burn those things when im done with my 6 weeks… but i was wondering does anybody know how to relieve pain in my foot it hurts everytime i get up… will there be pain all 6 weeks or just the few weeks….. pain meds, endorphin releaving etc. anything

Well. Yesterday I was at the climbing gym and had a bad fall when bouldering. I heard a sort of crunch, and I thought I’d twisted my ankle. What I actually did was dislocate it pretty badly and chip a couple of bones. That was the one unlucky thing that happened to me all night. The rest of the night was a series of lucky breaks. Also bouldering in the same area were two EMT’s and a doctor. They swooped in and took a look at the foot, elevated it, immobilized it, someone called an ambulance. I would put a picture of the foot right here, but it might bother some of my readers so I’ll just give you a link: here.

I got the first ambulance ride of my life. I foolishly turned down pain medication because I was still in shock and the ankle didn’t hurt too much. By the time we got to the ER I was probably in the most pain I’ve ever been in. About 20 minutes later they gave me some morphine, which evened things out a bit. They took an x-ray, then wheeled me back. Then a few doctors came in grabbed my leg and foot in various places, and crunched things around until my foot was pointing in the right direction again. At that point I felt a lot better. There’s something very psychologically unsettling about having a dislocated body part (at least for me). They said that I was very lucky that nothing broke, since it will probably save me from some arthritis 20 years down the line.

They splinted my leg and told me to get a cast put on the next day. I’ve got an appointment to get that done this afternoon. In the meantime, I’m not much use around the apartment. Hopefully I’ll be a bit more durable once I get in a cast.

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Comments

Eoin — 2012-01-16 07:51:50

Cor blimey dat look a wee bit painful man i feel for ya bra. if i had done that in thee cape town i would have had to get myself to the nearest hospital.

John — 2012-02-04 13:51:46

I did something simialer like two days ago, I was playin basketball with my friends and my foot rolled of the concrete into the grass. I was on my back and i saw my foot for a split second and it looked just like that. Before I could really understand what happened I grabbed my foot and popped it straight back. I knew that since I was still in shock that it wouldnt hurt as bad if I popped it in now rather than later at the doctor. It must have helped a lot because I’ll I took for pain that night was 3 Advil. The next day I got some good x rays and nothing was broken either. I’m still currently in a boot and a couch potato as we speak.

We’re here. Actually, we’ve been here since Saturday, but this is really the first time that I’ve been still and unoccupied long enough to record anything for posterity.

Last Thursday we met Reza to get our keys and sign the lease. It was quick and painless, and we got to go in and look at our place, which looked great. Gone were the bare slats of the wall and the half-ripped-out ancient carpet. Instead, nice textured yellow paint covered the walls, and we had brand new hardwood on the floors. Very nice.

Saturday morning we narrowly avoided a huge traffic jam and picked up the truck in Berkeley (El Cerrito, actually, hometown of Creedence Clearwater Revival). Back down to Fremont, and the packing began. It went of without a hitch, with helpers trickling in until about 4pm. The process was complete by 6pm, when my parents showed up. We strolled down to a decent Italian place called “Fontina” on Shattuck where I rewarded all the movers with free food.

Sunday was a great day. It made obvious the benefits of living so close to the middle of a town like Berkeley. We woke up, had no food, so just walked out for breakfast. Then, I was setting up the desk, and it needed to be hacked up a bit to get the legs in the right place, so I walked around the corner to the hardware store for the things I needed. Later, we went from hungry to fed in less than 30 mins by strolling to another nearby restaurant. I’m definitely going to take this for granted very soon.

But not yet. For now, I have to cope with the commute from Berkeley to Cupertino. One hour, fifteen minutes, on a good day. It’s not so bad, and only for two weeks, but it feels silly all the same. I look at the gray haze on the horizon and imagine that I’m personally responsible for it being a shade darker.

The last few days have been spent, predictably, trying to impose some order on the mess of all of our stuff. We’ll have more pics and a complete tour of the place online soon, no doubt. In the meantime, witness the OCD of our computerized apartment layout (this is one of several versions that closest matches the current reality):

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Comments

amy — 2005-07-20 07:32:15

congratulations, both of you! and bryan, i’m really sorry to hear about your ankle. i’m happy it wasn’t as serious as it could have been, but it still sounds pretty traumatic. you’re lucky to have such caring people about (coughcoughlesliecoughcough) to take care of you.. : )

bryan — 2005-07-20 09:44:30

yeah, she is a genuine sweetheart. i lucked out on many levels.