Laptop Injuries and Sickness

My laptop is my office.   My laptop is my best friend, or maybe not; that may be too shallow a connection.   My laptop is an extension of my body and a mirror of my soul.   I practically sleep with my laptop.  Just a few hours away from it already makes me suffer from withdrawal symptoms.  It goes without saying that my laptop should be partnered with a wifi connection.    I will not get past one day without internet access.  You might as well just kill me.   

Now, who would have thought that laptop-ping could be such a dangerous sport?  Seriously, it is bad for one's health.  Here now are some of the ways this laptop addiction has afflicted me:

Finger Numbness.  Too much typing from all that e-book writing (note that I'm putting the blame on the writing, not the chatting) sometimes causes my fingers to become numb and have a bloated feeling about them.  There are days when it is so hard to ball them up in a fist.   Of course, the heat emanating from the laptop also exacerbates my sweaty palms problem.  But the real culprit for sweaty palms is too much texting (SMS), and that's another story.

Wrist Pains.  Fortunately, I don't have carpal tunnel syndrome yet.  But I am probably at risk.  Oh, I blame those darn facebook games!  I take my games seriously.  Caring for my pet in one of my games requires advanced hand maneuvers and sophisticated wrist actions in an almost sleight of hand fashion.  Yes, it can be magic, but it can be bad for the wrist.  

Forearm marks and discoloration.   During the day, I use my laptop and place it atop a regular desk.  Because my forearms are resting on top of the desk, the edges of the table leave marks and lines on my forearms (the skin on the under side which touches the surface of the desk).  Maybe I am applying too much pressure while tinkering with my laptop, or I simply have heavy forearms. Whatever the case, I get the unsightly marks that even become discolored.  

Lower back pains.  I don't have a good posture, and this becomes aggravated by sitting in a slouched position in the chair or in the bed.  Hours on end in that manner equals lower back pains.  No, it's not the age! It's the laptop!

Bottom heaviness.  A cousin of the lower back pains is the relentless expansion occurring in the glutes, hip and thigh area. Because I am reduced to sitting down, I get heavier in that area by the day.  If I could use my laptop while walking in the treadmill, I would.  But I'll get too nauseous; I wouldn't want to vomit on my precious laptop. It makes complete sense anyway; there won't be a lap if I were standing up; hence, no laptop-ping while standing. It has to be done sitting down.  But I am such a genius sometimes.  I transform the laptop to a tummy-top when sitting down becomes too tiring.  I slide into my back and lie down in bed, pulling the laptop up to settle on the tummy, while my head rests on top of many pillows.  Laptop or tummytop, either way, it does not bode well for the figure.  

So there, my list of laptop related injuries is long.   To cure them would not to wean me away from the laptop.   That could be fatal for me.  To be honest, I just need a lap desk.  All these bullshit only for a lap desk. Hahaha. I hope there are lap desks like these available locally.   

The Hunt for Gollum

My friend Oliver posted a note in Facebook about his movie review of The Hunt for Gollum.  Being a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, this naturally piqued my curiosity, so I immediately watched the said movie on this site. (click here). 

The Hunt is just under 40 minutes long.  The plot is inspired by the events occurring right before convening the Fellowship of the Ring in Rivendell, i.e., Aragon's quest to capture Gollum to learn whatever information he has about the ring and how much Sauron already knows.    

As a background, this movie is created by die-hard Lord of the Rings fans in Britain.   Yes, it is fan fiction or fan flick, however you may want to call it.    This movie was made on a shoestring budget of 3,000 pounds.  This non-profit, independent film is not available for commercial release and can only be viewed through video streaming from the official website.  None of the people who worked on this movie got paid.   Given all this in mind, I was half expecting to get an amateur-ish feel to the movie, but I didn't get that all.

Aragon's quest for Gollum was never shown in the movie adaptation by Peter Jackson, so the Hunt for Gollum is a good accompaniment to Peter Jackson's trilogy.  As a matter of fact, the Hunt does feel like it was created by Jackson.   I am no film critic, so in my layman eyes and ears,  the cinematography, the soundtrack, the acting, the costumes were reminiscent of the movie trilogy I so dearly love.  In fact, the cast were dead ringers for the actors in the trilogy, with the exception of Arwen (Rita Ramnani); I thought she was a poor choice.   But I swear I could see Viggo Mortenssen in Aragorn's character in the Hunt (Adrian Webster), especially when his eyes were closed while sleeping.   

The fighting scenes with the Orcs and Nazgul added the layer of suspense, and I remembered the jumpy feeling I had watching the Battle of Helm's Deep in The Two Towers.  Well, to be honest, the fight scenes were not that superb, but they were good enough to take me back to the best scenes in Jackson's trilogy.   Seeing Nazguls almost had me looking for our Lord of the Rings DVDs to do a marathon right away.   And given that this movie was created by non-hollywood professionals with no intention to sell and profit from it already predisposes one to have a soft spot for it.  

I am a big fan of both the book and the movie.  I wonder what the purists have to say about the liberties or the adaptations taken for this movie.   But to me, there weren't many departures (or maybe my memory is that bad, I vaguely remember how Aragorn captured Gollum as described in Tolkien's novel). But like I said, this movie is a fitting complement to Jackson's Trilogy.  

I guess what I am saying is this: The Hunt for Gollum is worthy of being called "My Precious".  Go watch it.  

Augustana

I am glad I am back to blogging again after being saddled by a writing gig.   I am proud to report that I just finished my first e-book.   Even if I got paid only peanuts for it,  I am so ecstatic over the feeling of having accomplished something, however small that is.  It takes only a little to make me happy these days.  I hope my bubble doesn't burst.

Moving on to the topic of this blog... I am so loving Augustana!  I must confess I only took a liking for the band recently, even if they have been around since 2003.   Their track Boston has gained huge mainstream success especially after being featured as a soundtrack to One Tree Hill. I like that track; the lyrics are beautifully melancholic.  It is a great song to listen to when you feel like escaping or running away.   But the band didn't appeal to me then.  Maybe because I don't watch One Tree Hill, nor do I have intentions to watch it.   I just know the song, but I didn't know the band.

Then I saw the Counting Crows performing Cecilia on Good Morning America and I noticed that they were jamming with another band.   Click here to watch the video.  (BTW, Counting Crows is probably my favorite band of all time.  I love Adam Duritz!!!)   After a quick google search, I learned they were performing with who else, Augustana.   So I instantly Last.Fm'd Augustana and downloaded some of their tracks. And the rest, as they say, is history.   I am now a huge fan of Augustana.

I think Augustana is like the Counting Crows and the Googoo Dolls combined.   I love that some lyrics are painfully sad, a testament to the heavy Counting Crows influence, but they are a little edgier ala the Googoo Dolls or maybe Lifehouse.  Last.fm describes the band this way: Characterized by piano lines and the breathy vocals of Dan Layus (the lead singer), Augustana’s sound is at once contemplative and slow, but also captivating.   It is no wonder I like Augustana.

From the songs I've downloaded, I have been so taken by the track "Found My Place". It is one of their more obscure songs, and generally unheard of unlike their hits Sweet and Low and Boston.   It is definitely my favorite Augustana song.  I love the acoustic guitar background, and this track sounds very similar to Time of Your Life/Good Riddance by Greenday.    The lyrics are very simple; there are only a few lines but you get the message.  It is a song about redemption, about being lost and being found.  I hope I can find my place too.  

Listen to the track below: