My Amazing Race Spoiler Post is up on TVS

The Amazing Race makes its debut on September 28, but I've tracked down the timeline, the countries, and a bit on the teams. Beware -- definite country spoilers, team spoilers to an extent, some task spoilers.

But if you want to peek, it's over on TV Squad.

Big Brother 10 is Just Around the Corner

Yep, a new season is almost upon us! Graphic arteest Zoetawny has made a cool new season logo for the blog and we're just about ready to rock and roll. (Zoetawny rocks already and that's how I roll.)

You've all been fantastic hanging in while I've been tied up with the healing process. You have no idea how thrilled I am with the community which has developed here. I love it! I also enjoy the fact that new folks come along and are welcomed as they make the leap to posting comments. You all rock! A huge thank you is in order for Sydney who has been such a tremendous help as I went through the surgery and to this date as I go through rehab.

Ah, but this post is about Big Brother 10, right? I have a new article up over on TV Squad which delves into scheduling, some facts, and plenty of rumors. Of course, I'll have the feeds once again this season. Technically, I never don't have them as I've had the Real SuperPass for a number of years now. I generally take advantage of the $10 monthly music download credit from them and it evens out the cost of the subscription payments. Or, at least I tell myself it does.

I plan to cover the feeds both here and on TVS (different content for each just as I did last season), plus I'll live blog all of the shows here and write the Tuesday and Wednesday show review/recaps for TVS. At this time I plan to purchase the BBReloader once again. That enables me to record video to post to YouTube as well as to enlarge the actual screens more, watch all four feeds in separate windows at once, and lots more. As I will be off from work for most or all of the season, this is going to be a good diversion for me as it was the first summer I did this. Plus, I'll have the time to really get into it without suffering total exhaustion! Cool. :-)

That's the skinny and I have to head off to physical therapy to have my knee treated by my favorite physical terrorist soon.

George Carlin and Last Night's 1975 SNL Debut

When George Carlin died last week, I was saddened. In my high school, college, and young adult days Carlin was almost an obsession of mine. I still have all of the vinyl albums from those days and regard him as one of the most cerebral and innovative comedians ever. I was aware of his heart problems in the past, but he was only 71 years old. That's too young. Sigh.

When I saw a promo for Saturday Night Live during the week, I got all excited. They were going to show the first ever episode of the show from September 1975 and its first guest host -- George Carlin. Woohoo! Vintage Carlin and something I've never seen! I was in college in Albany back in those days and the local network refused to carry the first two SNL shows as it was all so controversial. They buckled under pressure and I was a huge fan of the show into the '80s, but I never did get to see the first two shows ... until last night when I saw the debut.

Whoa! Not one, but two musical guests -- Billy Preston and Janis Ian. Each sang two songs. I would have preferred that Billy do "Will it Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from Nothing" (which he did do) and that Janis Ian had sang "At Seventeen" (which she did) and "Society's Child." But, still ... I had forgotten that they didn't limit it to one artist early on in the show.

I had forgotten how good Chevy Chase was in the early days. Oh, this was before the "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not" bit, but good nonetheless. John Belushi wasn't hugely featured, but would become one of my favorites in the early years. Dan Ackroyd looked like a child. I guess we all pretty much were back then.

In the Carlin bits, there wasn't that much I don't have on the albums, but he did do a bit about religion and secularism towards the end of the show which was specifically for the show. At the end of the show he was smoking on stage, but back then people did. I remember Johnny Carson and the ashtray; Tom Snyder was a regular chimney. One bit which got me was when he mentioned watching old movies and wondering if people in the crowd scenes were dead. Here I was watching this show thinking he's gone, Belushi is gone, Gilda Radner is gone ... all way too soon.

I think Saturday Night Live did a fine thing by honoring George Carlin in this manner. It was great to see him in his heyday and a spiffy trip back in time for me.

TV and Stuff

This is a photo I took of a tiger lily which I edited to create the black and white background.

In television doings --

• Big Brother 10 -- Since the start date is a week later than past seasons, I don't think there will be any official cast news for another week or ten days minimum. I found this article which states that the casting has indeed been completed.
• I think the only prime time shows I've been really, really following have been So You Think You Can Dance and America's Got Talent. I'm running behind on Hell's Kitchen due to the latter.
• Call me silly or even simple, but I'm looking forward to the upcoming show on CBS about America's Greatest Dog. Of course, cats wouldn't fall for such a ploy. I could do my cat's trick, but if she were surrounded by strangers and cameras she would freak. I hold my hand out to her and say, "Show me the love" -- she licks my hand. Now if I could just get her to do a fist bump.
• Oh! I'm also still watching Groomer Has It on Animal Planet. Now that it's between Artist and Jonathan, I want Artist to win because Jonathan is so arrogant.

As for me --
It's weird how this knee is consuming my life. I had my five week check up with the doctor last week. He's very pleased and claims I'm ahead of the game. My physical therapy is down to two times a week to spread out the visits as my health insurance only covers twenty visits. My range of motion is up around 113 with a forced 120. My muscles are strengthening every day. Unless I plan to be on my feet a lot, I don't use any aids in walking. I'm still at the point where I have to remind myself to walk heel to toe and bend my knee with each step. It can get a bit unstable if I stop thinking about walking, but that should improve.

I still do my home exercises three times daily followed by ice. There is still some pain and I ended up asking the doctor to give me the heavier stuff back (after requesting lighter meds) especially for my PT sessions and nights. I have yet to get a full night's sleep.

I'm also going out to have blood drawn weekly for the Coumadin levels. Now, instead of being on the Coumadin regiment until August, I'm on it until December. Sigh. I'm going to look like a chunky junkie by the time December rolls around.

But the recovery hasn't been as horribly painful as in my imagination pre-surgery. It's not really easy and I have had the complications of the blood clot and the Baker's Cyst behind my knee. (Did I mention that?) That's behind my operated knee causing pain and limiting my range of motion to an extent. But it's not the stuff of my worst nightmares I had envisioned. It's just tiring, somewhat painful, and weird.

I want to thank everyone for hanging in.

OFF TOPIC: Knee/Me Update and TVS Post

Vampires beware! For some odd reason, I have no desire to use the phone in this photo I took before my surgery!

I finally got a new post published over on TV Squad -- it's about the first season of Big Brother and includes some YouTube videos.

Recovery is going along okay, I guess. I still get tired very easily and yet can't sleep well. I have good days and bad days. This past Friday I had the best day ever in physical therapy (range of motion up to 120, consistently able to go backwards full revolutions on the bike, only my operative leg used in total body machine to lift my weight for three sets of ten times).

Then I blew all my progress by going out with a friend on Saturday. We went to lunch sitting two hours, then shopping and such. I pushed my knee way too hard being on it for more than a few hours. It let me know by getting all swollen, hot to the touch, and stiff. I couldn't do my exercises well yesterday and continue to have problems today. Thankfully I don't have PT today. I'm down to two times a week starting this week trying to spread out the whopping 20 visits allowed by my insurance company.

I go to PT tomorrow, go out to have blood drawn for the Coumadin levels on Wednesday, to the orthopedic surgeon for my five week follow up on Thursday, then PT on Friday again.

I won't be dancing soon.