I've been away, and I can't say that I've entirely returned... but I feel I need to check in. I've always imagined that in my old age I'd re-read my posts chronologically and enjoy some "oh yeah!" moments (if these digital copies survive the years). That said, I know I'd be upset with myself for leaving some glaring gaps.

Everything culminated in back surgery a couple weeks ago - a lumbar laminectomy to be precise. A herniated disc from basketball proceeded to create possibly the worst 3-4 months of my life so far. What began with back pain transformed into lightning shooting down my right leg, and eventually, a permanent fire from Satan made said leg its home, and some little helper devils stuck a bunch of daggers in my calf for good measure.

Permanent pain is one thing - but I didn't realize what it can lead to, which is ultimately a sort of depression. I couldn't sit down. This made it difficult to work. The pain prevented me from falling asleep (this was the most frustrating time for me, with some nights spent punching and yelling into pillows), and the same pain would wake me up early after I exhausted myself into passing out. Every. Night. I couldn't walk the frustration off, and the initial medication (prednisone) just gave me nightmares, stomach problems, and 20-hour intervals of alertness (even when tired). Failed results from medication prompted an MRI which revealed the herniation pressing on the poor nerve that sends the signals down my leg. When I started losing sensation in my right foot, it was time for surgery.

Contrasting with the sentiments of those around me (especially my family), I had no hesitations - go for it, Mr. Neuro Surgeon. I had grown to hate this tiny piece of herniated disc, this ultimate traitor, and I wanted him removed. Cut me open.

I won't bore you with all the details - a blur of an IV, morphine, nurses and doctors. I had the procedure, woke up, and the pain was entirely gone. I'm just beginning physical therapy but I feel... awesome. There's a nice big scar in the middle of my lower back and I couldn't care less.

It's pretty much all over, aside from strengthening exercises to build up my right leg. I'm not allowed to play basketball for 6 months - which lands right around my birthday - so that'll be my gift to myself.

Some other stuff happened:

My friend Chris has had a bunch of standup gigs at local comedy clubs (The Ice House) and some on Sunset (The Comedy Store). I admire his guts. His pursuit of this goal is inspirational, and his future in comedy is a bright one; you'll be hearing about him.

I got to watch Walnut for a few days. If you know her, she's quite the 'fraidy cat. Except that she's not. What may seem like hiding under your dresser is not hiding at all - it's merely sitting in a nice fort. My goal was to have her think of me as a friend by the end of my pet-sitting, and it was a success. She slept at the foot of the bed on the final day. And I got one good photo of her because it was almost impossible.

Christmas was... Christmas. We had a pretty awesome white elephant Nucleus party at Ben's, and I enjoyed the rest of the holidays with my family and some friends we haven't seen in ages - it was great to reconnect and talk science.

I recently had a difficult career decision to make, but I went with my gut and it feels good. 2010 is a blank slate to prove that I made the right choice.

My friend Gordon released his fun and addicting iPhone game, Skybox. It was pretty much a hit around the studio from day one. Grab it from the AppStore, you won't be disappointed.

Backwords 1.2 is out - you can tweet your recordings and make/manage your own categories for party mode. I'm interested to hear other people's backwards speech - and you can too! You'll be able to search twitter for #backwords, and there's also the official Posterous blog for anyone who decides to post to it from the app (there's a couple up there now... this was obviously a great idea - technology at its finest).

If you're in town, don't miss Zombies in Love tomorrow at Nucleus. There's so much going on for this show - a zombie walk through Alhambra, a zombie shooting gallery, a zombie costume contest, and of course zombie-related artwork. Plus, some secret zombie surprises. It's $2.00 unless you're a zombie or dressed like one, or have blogged/tweeted about the event. See you there, I'll be all bloody.

(Yeah, I work with these zombies.)

The Appelhans' are a talented bunch. If you're my friend, you most likely know of one of them. Want proof that they're a bunch? Check out Kira's awesome work! Mo showed me a couple of her prints a few months ago and I loved them immediately. They walk the line between abstract and science - in my opinion a 180° turn from pure abstract (which I can't really handle). Enjoy the texture and aesthetic! In fact, looking again at the image above, I think it would make a beautiful album cover.

Slowly but surely, I've been working on illustrations for Memori #3. I know, it seems as though as it's been five years since #2, but the project is not forgotten! I made some drawings for #3 a long time ago, but I was never satisfied with the characters in the scene (to be honest I'm still not satisfied with the characters in #2), so I resisted from pressing forward with lame source material. Anyway, here are some of the drawings for the next Memori!

Thanksgiving has been nice and relaxing so far. I'm spending the weekend with the family in Temecula and we've purposefully set out to have a low-key holiday. Good food, local wanderings, lots of geocaching with my brother, visited the Palomar observatory and other nearbies. Happy Thanksgiving!

Something we can be thankful for: unfiltered google search results.

I'll send you off with a science section!

• This is one of the most promising articles I've read in a long time... a possible cure for MS.
• An interesting article about microbes that create fuel.
• I've been watching all the STS-129 mission videos, but there are too many to link. Just enjoy NASA's youtube channel.

So our self-proclaimed pet peacock has been somewhat of an annoyance. He's a little too proud for his own good (in general), but the other day I awoke to loud noises in the kitchen. I thought one of my housemates was cooking obnoxiously, but lo and behold it was Peacock, knocking over pots and pans. No big deal I thought, I've seen him wandering our halls before, but he outdid himself. He was constantly pecking at the glass screen door, trying to escape, and worked himself into such a frenzy that he must have pooped every five minutes. All over the floor. For some reason (he's a bird?) he couldn't just leave through the open back door, how he got in. Oh well... at least our floors are concrete.

So I don't think the prednisone did anything. Well, it changed things so that my leg is now constantly on fire. I'm not sure if this is a normal condition of sciatica, but I have an appointment with a neurologist tomorrow to at least find out what the heck is wrong with my back/leg. I can't really sit. Or stand. Or lie down. It's a little hard to just be. I really really miss playing basketball, and I've been catching most of the Laker games this season which is a little masochistic.

Cosmos is a beautiful series, and I'm definitely sad that it's over. I watched some more Charlie Rose interviews with Carl Sagan, and I'm almost as angry as the man himself that he passed away so early. Such a champion of the scientific method, of exploration, of curiosity should have lasted longer. In any case, it's re-ignited my fascination with space and I'm hunting down space videos, NASA updates, and any other related material in my spare time. More specifically, I've been following mission STS-129 (Space Shuttle Atlantis) - all the briefings, videos and updates. The NASA iPhone app is a wonderful resource for this.

Halloween prompted a pumpkin-carving party, and a Napoleon Dynamite-themed cast of characters (I was Pedro). We went to the Hollywood madness on Santa Monica Blvd, but didn't want to try and park out there, so we parked downtown and took the bus. For almost 3 hours. Along with a ton of other disgruntled, in-costume passengers. It was actually pretty funny and somewhat memorable (along with some entertaining new acquaintances). Photos.

Our Nucleus five-year show came and went, and we enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces at the event. I was a little bit overwhelmed, it was hard to talk to everyone, but I'm glad everyone made it out! Back to work, marching towards the 10-year show...

Sorry, blog. I've been seriously lagging with any updates, but my desktop is cluttered with little tidbits that I've been saving up and I can't handle the mess. In an attempt to power through this, I'm not going to try and cleverly string all the topics together.

First off, I'm loving the new Muse album, The Resistance. It's brilliant and very queen-esque (in a good way), but still very Muse. The songs feel more open than Black Holes and Revelations but I don't think it's an emptiness, just a patient space between that feels relaxed. The melodies are slightly more nostalgic and less 80's, but man are they beautiful. Cannot wait until they come through LA on this tour; there's probably about 30 of us going.

A couple weekends ago we went on a Yosemite trip with Khang & co., which was a good time to take a bunch of photos again (it's been a while). Saturday was absolutely perfect weather for exploring and hiking, and Sunday ushered in the first snowfall of the season. The recent fire revealed a landscape that was simultaneously sad and awesome. So picturesque and serene! I think the weirdest part was getting there Friday night and walking in on everyone playing Backwords and going crazy. I haven't seen people that excited playing my iPhone games! It would have made a great commercial. We also had the most epic game of Ro Sham Bo - it was almost half an hour of ties. I'm not joking. People were screaming.

I don't know if this is of any interest, but it is to me. My Jetta is finally all fixed up... new rearview mirror, new windshield, all scratches removed, and the trunk stays closed again. That's a lot of damage for not actually ever getting in an accident. That cursed gate that fell on the car three times is out of my life.

Watching Mo's yarn winder is mesmerizing. I'm going to need to get one at some point.

Danny, Chris and I have attempted 4 or 5 geocaches and I have to say, it's fun! It brings out the treasure-hunting kid in you, and you find yourself hanging around and exploring locations right around you that you'd never give a second a glance otherwise. The last one was up on top of a local hill in Eagle Rock, and there was a camera inside the cache requesting a photo of the treasure hunters, so we obliged.

If you're interested in the Last Guardian, check out the brief video with Fumito Ueda above. It has some new clips of the game, which is obviously looking beautiful. I love the fluttering of the feathers - the animal is so full of life.

Nucleus was a proud co-sponsor of Street Fighter Bar Fights II here at Jake's in Pasadena, and it was a good time! It was more organized than the first event, but I'm not sure in an entirely good way. Unless you were right amidst the players, it took forever to actually see any matches, or for the general public action to get started. There were a bunch of big name pros, but we had to head out early.

I've always been curious about the Ice House in Pasadena, and it was a great opportunity to check it out since Chris had a few tickets for us from his stand-up class. I've only been to a comedy club a few times, but this was painful. It was a chore to watch most of the bunch, and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself when the comedians are so not funny... it makes me embarrassed for humans and I squirm. I think Danny was in agony (he was actually holding his head in his hands). A 2-drink minimum at least helps you laugh out loud - whether it's with or at the comedian is a different story.

Last Cannon made it into Edge Magazine's Top 50 iPhone games! What a treat! I had no idea about this, Khang had to let me know (you'd think they'd let the developers know), so I picked up a copy. It's neat to see a (quite honest) review of the game in print, especially amongst such great company.

Speaking of the iPhone, I find myself wanting to drag the contents of windows on my mac up and down with my mouse instead of using the scroll bars (or wheel). I'm flicking the page, like you do on the phone, but nothing happens. You know they nailed the interface when you end up trying those gestures by mistake on other devices.

Science Section!

• This story about the Pitch Drop Experiment is fascinating. To think that this material is 100 billion times more viscous than water, and has been dripping in the jar for 77 years, and no one passing by has ever seen it actually drip is, well... charming!

• You guys know that I love anything to do with Octopi, and this article discusses building better robot arms using Octopus tentacles as an efficient example. It touches on the dynamic nature of an Octopus' nervous system (rather than a central location sending main signals, like us).

• Elephants talk to each other through the ground. Read.

• The levitating train! This is a great demonstration and a great explanation of the mag lev phenomena.

That's about it for now. The reason for my absence is pretty much sciatica. A visit with the doctor revealed the source of my back/leg woes after that fateful last basketball game - an irritated sciatic nerve. So I'm couch-ridden for 6 days with some high dosages of Prednisone. I'm not a fan of any drugs, but these are seriously messing with me. They keep me awake for 20+ hours, my stomach feels like it's on fire whenever I eat, and my whole body is buzzing, like I'm electrified. Only 3 days left - hopefully it allows for the nerve to heal. I've been limping around for a month and I'm dying to play some bball again (especially since the Laker season is starting up now).

Sketched some Victorian buildings (from photo reference). I think I'd like to go sketch-crawling soon.