I HAVE (physically) RECOVERED

So at my gym, they introduced me to the plank exercise (click to see what I'm yammering about). It's a deal where you try to hold a certain position as long as you can. My first one was a measly 10 seconds. Yow, yikes. But I was determined to improve. I began doing them when I woke up, and before I went to bed. My time was improving, like to 4 minutes & 1 second. Then for a short while, I was doing it right around every meal. Recently I was doing planks at my gym and someone new was watching me, and the "gotta show off" piece of my brain kicked into overdrive (this is after I wised up & stopped doing this 3 times a day), and I pulled it off for 4 minutes & 31 seconds.

Now, the owner of my gym and his buddy do planks every single day. They've told me they're up in the FIVE MINUTE range. That has been my goal for such a long time. I mean, you can't claim you've physically recovered until you're on par with the owner of your gym. And I admit, the last few weeks, I've been really slacking off.

BUT... goal set. Goal achieved. I just did FIVE MINUTES AND ONE SECOND. I hear an army chant-- "What's that you say?" "UH HUH UH HUH" "Who wants to improve?" "I DO I DO" "Who won't rest until he surpasses all expectations?" "I WON'T I WON'T" "What's that you say again?" "COME GET SOME!"

I now know what motivation looks like. Motivation looks like:

0:00:10

0:04:02

0:04:31

0:05:01

Now, this in no way means that I'm gonna be able to do this every time. And it's very possible I wasn't correctly positioned, I was alone in my living room reading a book. But hear me now Darren, I'm coming for YOU.

my story in the press, round 1

So as I wrote before, a newspaper reporter came and watched me work out at my gym and did an interview with me and my folks. His story finally hit the paper. I guess that should say my story finally hit the paper.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009912270302

See anything missing? How about the glaring omission of the word 'DRUNK'? The real lesson of my story is that you are more than welcome to go kill your own brain cells with alcohol, JUST DON'T KILL MINE, so stay far away from any driver's seats. I mean, at last count, I only have 42 brain cells left, and no one will mess with those.

oh, the irony

WOW. Words, appropriately, fail me. Pastor shoots 21-year-old son to death during Christmas dispute. (link is to Google News) There's so much to say, but really nothing needs to be added. Saying nothing here is saying a lot. (Ooh, how ya like me now, Tao Te Ching? You wrote the tune, but I can play it)

But all sadness & the "spirit of Christmas" & grisly death aside, happy holidays to you!

honest kid

Yikes. He's gonna need to learn some "tact". 36 second humorous video.

holiday greetings

MERRY FESTIVUS, EVERYONE!

We are -not- alone

Take a gander at the Hubble Deep Field. Woah. We've got a lot to learn. Brush up on your E.T. Beeeeeee... goooooood.

Walkability Workshop 1 & 2

So I could live anywhere, nothing's really tying me to Greenville. No job, no girlfriend, just a love of what this town has to offer. I considered NYC... nah, too much Southern blood. I thought about DC, I even heard their public transit comes by every 8 minutes. But, I love this town enough to give 'em a fair shot at fixing what's broken. And with me riding buses a lot, and with my parents being so supportive (thanks), I've discovered the bus system is only kinda half-broken (public transit comes by once an hour, if you're lucky), but making steps toward improvement. Well, the only step I've seen real evidence of so far is adding a new bus stop by the Humane Society, at my request, since the bus went right by there anyway. Now they are about to get (some number I forget, 10-15) new buses, but instead of using them to increase it to one bus every half an hour, I hear they'll just replace the current buses. Huh. More work yet to be done on that cause.

Oh right, sorry, I forgot my point. This city is doing things to make it more live-able for us pedestrians. Apparently, some years ago, Jeff 1.0 signed up for emails from the city of Greenville. I got one saying that they were having a "Walkability Workshop" on Monday 3 days ago, at City Hall, with a national walkable-cities expert. So I go to City Hall, right past a crowd of folks gathering in front, and ask about the workshop. "Um, you just passed them." "OH, that was the Workability Workshop! I assumed it would be inside, where you can't really walk anywhere." (Did I mention the TBI?) I even went to the follow-up workshop at 7:30 this morning. I was one of only a few members of the general public, the rest were mostly all city council-type positions. As evidenced by the fact that when I first walked up to the group, some lady kindly asked me "And who are you? A member of the public?" My answer, since I didn't know yet that they were mostly city councilmen, "Um, yeah, I mean, really, when you think about it, aren't we all? I mean, you're not?"

So, all in all, this town is proving they're serious about becoming more of a pedestrian's city. This walkability goal is going to become an ongoing project for them. (well, since I live here, I guess that should be "for us") And I learned at the follow-up session this morning that, apparently I was involved enough on the first day, since they (city councilmen, etc.) were all calling me by name! Huh! I even met the director of public transportation, and he made some comment like "Wait a minute, you're not Jeff Knox are you?" "Um... (uh oh)... no... that's a different guy... that is 6'2" and has black-ish hair & a beard. Uh oh, whoops, I MEAN not at all, why?" (We've been bugging him on the phone to get the community bus to serve the community college)

So the bigger lesson is that the story of what happened to me, and my (and my loving folks') ongoing pursuit to have things at least be available to me is touching enough to be the catalyst to enact changes. Jeff 1.0 wasn't involved AT ALL, that was my problem, but J2.0 is involved way deep in leaving this town better than I found it. I've been invited to speak at a city council meeting in Jan.! This town may have so many features that I love, yet not be my ideal place to live right now, but between my parents & I, we're sure as heck gonna try to make it ideal. Thanks for the help, guys.

more about the Google phone

So I mention the Google phone here, go look through my email, and there's the link to it. More information will be found at http://thenexusone.com/

If you have free time: Google Blog / the year in Youtube

So I love almost everything Google does, 'cause they do it oh so right. That's why I got a G1 cell phone (my only phone). Anybody can write applications for it, so it's got TONS of incredibly useful applications and very cool games (often free or very cheap). If you're already paying for, say, a Blackberry, the G1 is $10 cheaper a month! (I'm pretty sure) And it's getting better all the time, since it runs software maintained by a global open network of volunteers, Android. Like, the Google Maps application just got updated to where it will use the G1's built-in GPS to SPEAK the turn-by-turn directions somewhere, whether you're driving, walking, or taking public transit (as long as it's on Google Maps), so your eyes stay on the ol' road. And if you miss a turn, it re-routes FAST. We've had several car GPS units in my family over the years (anybody wanna buy KITT (in action) for a seriously reduced price?), and this just became the best. (and I should say here that running out and buying a G1 right now may not be wise, as word on the street is that there will be a Google Phone, sorta made by Google or something, within the year-- should be wicked cool, but if the rumors are true, also prohibitively wicked expensive)

So back to the point, Jeff. Okay, right. So I get the Google blog daily in my email, and they just posted a year-end review of Youtube videos (Google owns Youtube). The highlights were humorous enough to share:

Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):
1. Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)

My story STARTS to hit the news

So... this is in the VERY EARLY stages, but this could become big. We all know that my story is fairly moving & touching-- I mean, here I am trying so very hard to do the right thing, maybe even save somebody's life, and I almost die for it.

So this was unexpected, but some lady who works for a hospital publication came by and watched my workout today, and then right after, my folks & I sat down for a chat about things with her. Now she knows the true story of what happened to me. She was very moved. She's going to try to push this story to publication in many actual newspapers before the New Year's Eve drunk-fest. She even mentioned that it is very probable this story will go out on the A.P. wire. MY STORY -COULD- BECOME NATIONAL!

A guy who works for the hospital, their head of I.T., was at one of my speeches, and thought "Huh, if this gym has done this much good for this brain injury patient, they might do me some good." (He's afflicted with Parkinson's disease, and if you don't know my history with that, my beloved grandfather Papa waged a war with Parkinson's for years) Well, help him it has, as he started attending A.S.I., and told my folks today that he has already stopped taking L-dopa!

THAT'S HUGE! At first, this gym was used only by professional athletes, but because of my successes, it's opening doors into total other lines of thought so that they're now serving other populations, including childhood obesity sufferers, breast cancer patients, diabetes patients, and (maybe, eventually, hopefully) the Wounded Warrior project. The Wounded Warrior project would hopefully someday provide means for soldiers who've suffered injuries, even brain injuries like mine, to travel to this facility to get stronger.

And I feel like I should throw a few words in about why this program is so good for us brain-injured folks. NO DOUBT that this program serves "normal" folks very well. But for us brain injuries, it's astounding. The trainers are very good at their jobs, but also the machines are incredibly cool. What's so cool about them is that you don't set how many pounds you wanna push around (free-weights are scary since I'd probbly hurt myself), but with these machines, the resistance you feel to the movement you supply is directly proportional to the speed at which you push. (huh?) In layman's terms, the slower you push, the easier it is, and the faster you push, the harder it is. THIS IS WHY I LOVE THIS GYM: as long as you push as hard as you can, it will be just that-- exactly as hard as you can.

So, in an incredibly weird way, this almost-deadly car-wreck/coma event was the best thing to ever happen to me! (and there's so many other reasons why that's true) Look at all these folks who are getting help now, because of me, that might not have otherwise! WOW. Didn't see this coming two years ago.

ha!

Random internet humor.

Anybody else find it odd that 'monosyllabic' is 5 syllables?

huh. fair.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low, and the doubts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with it's twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about,

When he/she might have won had they stuck it out,

Don't give up though the pace seems slow,

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,

It's when things seem worse, that you must not quit.

making Greenville more accessible, phase 2

So phase 1 of making the environment more suitable was about the Humane Society. I volunteer there weekly. I did for the 2 years leading up to the car incident. That played a huge role in my choice of the veterinary career path that I'm doing very well on now. (I just got a 94 on my final exam!!! YAY!)

On to phase 2: I attend Greenville Tech, which has several campuses. Their main campus is pretty much near town, or more importantly, the bus goes there. But all veterinary classes are at the Northwest Campus, which the bus does not go to. A community college that's not served by the community's public transit. Hmm. That is why my folks were driving an hour to come to Greenville weekly, just to transport me to class, and then an hour back.

So my folks and I just attended a special meeting about this. It was also attended by 3 county council members & Greenville Tech's vice-president & disabilities specialist. This wasn't some regular meeting that my folks & I just sat in on. This meeting was called to hear my story and complaint. County council members! Now we're getting somewhere.

And speaking of getting somewhere, several times during the meeting they called Knox on their cell phones, and I'm like "Hellooo, I'm sitting right in front of you!" OH OH OH, Knox White, the mayor of Greenville. Now we're talking.

And so the long and short of it is that all of the people who were there will meet with the mayor about this... next week!

This isn't just to help me, and not even necessarily just all disabled folks, but to help all kinds of folks who just don't have transportation. It was discussed that this would benefit Furman University's employees, as well as their students, since that campus is fairly near where this bus route would run.

All in all, this was a team effort to get this going. There's my heart-wrenching story which was the impetus, but there's also the fact that dad has put in a ton of effort, one part of which was setting up this meeting with county council members. (Things I Never Foresaw I'd Do, chapter 42)

Some things may be unchangeable... but you never know until you try. You might be surprised what you find out, once you put in the effort.

temperature guage & surfice dog

I just had dinner at a restaurant. I arrived there in my jacket since it's a bit cold out. In case you weren't aware, it's December. I took the coat off to eat my meal, ate well, and then got up and left. I walked out the door, and was thinking "Man, it's chilly! I can't believe it got this much colder over the course of a meal! I mean, I didn't think I-- oh right, my jacket!" I had only gone about 20 feet, so I went back & it was still where I had taken it off.

Now the reason I'm so happy about this incident is that 2 years ago, I couldn't feel coldness. I'd be shivering, not noticing my teeth chattering, and have to be told "Jeff, you're obviously cold. Put a jacket on." But now, I'm feeling temperature enough to cause me to think that I should have a jacket on, then remember that I have a jacket... back there.

So it shows that my temperature gauge, among many others, is slowly returning back to where it should be. None of us had any clue what Jeff 2.0 could or could not do, and it's just good that I can feel this! And as far as things you may have thought Jeff 2.0 could do, go ahead and cross "levitate objects with only his mind" right off that list. I'm not saying it's not possible, just not yet.

And this dog has learned, as I have, that having a bad thing happen to you can be turned into a great thing. Jeff 2.0 is way more into keeping my body fit, and nice to a fault to everyone I meet now. "Turning disappointment into a joyful new direction" is well put. Agreed. And I feel his pain-- I can't stop chasing birds either. :-)