Author Archives: Chris

About Chris

Chris is an IT/IS management professional with over a decade of experience in IT, IS, Network Engineering, and Telecommunications integration. Chris specializes in web server deployment and information management. This includes CMS, CRM, and dynamic content deployment. Chris also manages a full service Video Head End with over 200 digital TV channels. Chris also has five years of project management, knowledge management, and engineering design experience. He specializes in both the Agile and Scrum project management methodology. He also has a background in computer forensics and information security including federal or state compliance audits (such as SOX).

Making Sense of Things

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Emperor Penguin

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be lots of random pics of Emperor Penguins on the Net. We can change that one blog post at time! (© Samuel Blanc - http://www.sblanc.com)

I spent some time over the last twenty four hours building out better menu sorting for the digitalflood Pirate Radio episodes that I think you’ll find quite the time saver. If you hover over the “Music” menu at the top of this page and then hover over “DF Pirate Radio Webcasts” you’ll see a new sub-menu shoot out that breaks down all of the episodes season by season. I know this is long overdue, but better late than never (as they say).

I’m still mulling over what I want to do for “digitalflood Pirate Radio Vol. 6 Episode 4”. I don’t have any guests setup for the show and MC Mary @ The Disco! is back on college hiatus (as she continues pursuing her degree in nursing) so it looks like another solo session. If any one is interested in being on let me know. You probably won’t be able to make this episode, but at least I can maybe get another show going at a later date with actual people on it. In the meantime, I’ve been dying to trying out some new tricks I learned online from some tutorial videos. I picked up a new technique for using the cross channel frequency mixer to blend songs together and maybe that’s what I’ll record either Sunday or Monday night. Release date is still to be decided, but I’m aiming for either this Tuesday (1/26/10) or Wednesday (1/27/10). More on that as things begin to gel and actual recording takes place.

I have to tell you, my search page referrer hits for shoulder surgery have taken off as of late. I’m getting tons of visitors coming across this site just from my weekly recovery logs and it has been a pleasant surprise. I apparently rank pretty high across the various search engines (Yahoo, Google, etc…) when it comes to shoulder surgery searches. My hope was when I began all of this recovery logging that it would both allow me to track my recovery, as well as, help others as they go through the struggle of recovering themselves. Judging from the hits and feedback that seems to be the case. So now we can say digitalflood.com is more than pure fluff– there’s some science and biology in there as well. Who would have thought that?

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Shoulder Surgery – 13 weeks in

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Arm Bike Physical Therapy

Arm Bike Physical Therapy helps overall strength - Courtesy of: Physiotherapy-treatment.com

Catching up since my last post, my recovery from Open Bankart Surgery on my right shoulder is progressing rather well. Our main focus for my physical therapy has been strength training. This means all exercises have added 3 lb. weights to their motion and my PT has introduced an outward/upward arm lift while lying on my stomach. Other than that there has been little to no change. The PT also introduced the hand bike on it’s lightest setting. I do two minutes and thirty seconds of forward rotation. Then I do another two minutes and thirty seconds of reverse rotation.

Overall this portion of therapy has been physically challenging because I’m going from doing nothing but motions to actually stressing my arm with extra weight. The hand walk while on the exercise ball continues to be my absolute least favorite exercises. The other exercises challenge my strength and range of motion, but that exercise in particular truly tests my arm (keep in mind though I have lost 10 lbs. since starting PT, I’m still a solid 235 lbs. at this point– that’s a lot of me to keep lifted in the air).

I now have 180 degrees of inward motion (full range of motion) with little to no pain. I also have 72 degrees of outward motion with serious discomfort. This outward range is above normal and the last area to return as far as muscle conditioning is concerned, but it is returning slowly and surely.

Finally, my left shoulder continues to exhibit minor discomfort. It is obviously has some residual damage from all the stress put on it, but it’s not a complete loss. I will clearly need minor PT on it to clear up issues, but I think long-term it should be okay.  There has been no dislocations in the left shoulder for a month now, but there is noticeable limitations in range of motion/ease of use and extra pain during full extensions at the limits of motion. Still– my orthopedic surgeon wants me to wait on rehabbing it until the right side is “normal” again.

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DF Pirate Radio – “Absolut Pimping@The Disco!”

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Title: Vol. 6 Episode 3 (Click link to play) Rel: 1/21/10
Description: “Absolut Pimping @The Disco!” – MC Mary @ The Disco! turned twenty one years old on January 17, 2010. That turned out to be a Sunday. The original plan was to record a mix session ahead of time and then record the live interludes at the bar during her birthday party. The mix session went well enough (and is the actual session you’ll hear here), but that’s about all that went right. First it got really icy out and down poured the whole night of the birthday party putting a kabash on any plans to record at GW’s Pub & Grill in Chester, NY. Then when we moved the party to Fratello’s in Warwick, NY it turned out that even though the next day was Martin Luther King Jr. day that most of the Chaos and Fiesta Crew had to work the next day– thus only a limited number (read: five) of people turned out.

Things started looking up when DJ digitalflood and MC Mary’s brother Tom knew the bartender. The drinks started and that itself proved to be a problem (more on that in a bit). There were also an odd number of older middle aged folk at the bar who insisted on blasting bad glam rock thus further kabashing any plans to record live. So we resorted to drinking and that lead to MC Mary consuming enough alcohol to kill an entire herd of moose. That didn’t complicate the party itself (which was fun enough either way), but it did kill any plans to record the next day.

Exhausted by a long weekend, DJ digitalflood took the next night off from production and was only able to catch up later in the week to actually mix the raw live session into the final cut you see here. Now given all of this, this episode should be an absolute disappointment at the disco– it is not though.

What you are about to listen to is the finest “Cut Like Crack” mix session to date. It breaks all boundaries of rock, rap, and everything in between. It is part noise experiment and part dance party soundtrack. It is an accumulation of all that DJ digitalflood has mastered over the course of the last year. It is at times raw. At times confusing. But when things come together there is an undeniable sense of absolute perfection at the disco. And so, the session is published as a stand in for the MC Mary annual Fiesta Party mix, but in no way is it a poor substitute. This is the real deal mix. Enjoy.
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Vol. 6 Ep. 3 Rescheduled to Tomorrow

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Due to some production delays I’ve pushed back the release of “digitalflood Pirate Radio Volume 6 Episode 3″until tomorrow night (1/20/10). I’m just over 30% into post production and there should be no issue getting it out by then. Sorry about that.

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What a Weekend

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DJ digitalflood and Tito's Vodka - Yeah I didn't get that far.

DJ digitalflood and Tito's Vodka - Yeah I didn't get that far.

I began this week by figuring out I had asthma. If you recall, I spent New Year’s Day in local ER. I was told by the doctor I was basically having a panic attack and to not worry about it. When the symptoms kept reoccurring minus the stomach flu issues I began to suspect I was having some sort of respiratory problem. These type of issues do run in my family with multiple members of my immediate family being diagnosed with bronchial asthma. I hit WebMD.com and looked up the symptoms out of pure curiosity. What I found was I had every single symptom they listed:

  • Shortness of breath
  • Dizziness
  • Tightness in the chest
  • Lingering soreness in the chest
  • Feeling like you cannot take another breath
  • Random sore throats
  • Runny nose
  • Coughing/hacking/wheezing
  • Heart palpitations
  • Trouble sleeping
  • General moodiness
  • Tiredness after brief exercise
  • Cold like symptoms with no temperature
  • Panic attacks/anxiety

So when the symptoms cropped up this past Friday (1/15/10) I ran over to my local drug store and picked up a Primatene Mist asthma inhaler. With one puff and two minutes my symptoms subsided. I notice since using the inhaler I’ve had improved lung function and at times feel 100% normal (which I haven’t in a while). Needless to say, I plan on following up with a doctor on this; but at least I have a temporary fix for the issue. It’s sad the Internet beat my local ER, but it’s a true story– so it is what it is (as they say).

I stopped in to visit JDiddy with the Chaos Crew on Saturday (1/16/10). You’ll find a picture of me holding a bottle of Tito’s Vodka on this post, but I never got that far– two of JDiddy’s margaritas were more than enough for me! Good times with good friends.

Finally, quick thanks to all that turned out for MC Mary@ The Disco!’s Twenty First Birthday Fiesta. It was a small crowd, but it was quite the rowdy party. MC Mary got good and toasted– but alas she has had her fill and swore off the booze for good. Yeah, it was that off the hook and then some. We didn’t record (too loud in the bar) but I figured such an event might happen.

Instead I’ve got a mix show I put together last week. I will be doing post-production on that show starting this evening and I expect it to be out by tomorrow evening (1/19/10). You always need a back up plan in radio production and fortunately this time around I had one. Stay tuned!

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