Unemployed Ben

Someone appears to be stealing my internet persona and attempting to co-op laziness. You sir are at least four years too late.

Holy fuck nuts I haven’t posted here in a long fucking time. The reasons are many but can be summed up simply as I have other shit that is cooler to do then writing for people that don’t give me stuff, be it oral sex of just a compliment on my sublime buttocks. Recently I learned some things, one of them being the fact if you aren’t sitting in front of a computer typing mundane opinions about shitty movies with celibate vampires then you are most likely doing things outside and well isn’t that a refreshing change.

Just last week I noticed that I live right on the water and on that water people have things that float and then upon these floating objects you can lay and drift aimlessly until you either run out of beer or your weed high starts to fade. Maybe that chic that is in that movie where she isn’t being humped by vampires would like to join me while I float on stuff, I think this could happen because she always looks super high and I usually have weed and lets face it women with nice boobies don’t like to pay for weed. That reminds me about the 3rd time I ever scored weed. I had interrupted my dealer and his woman* getting it on, so she ended up answering the door topless which in its own right was awesome. The story continues with the dealer being pretty preoccupied, obviously, so he ended up putting in way too much weed in the baggie. So not only did I see some awesome boobies I also got the ever elusive buy one gram and get three for free deal, which actually doesn’t exist so don’t ask cause you’ll just get that look from Saul, you know Saul right, he sells weed.

Sidenote: About a year later that very same topless drug dealer humper girl called me crying about how her man called her a coke whore for having sex with a guy who offered (which she accepted) her some cocaine. I let her do all the talking and weeping cause I was like 15 and had no idea what to say. So a week later she had me drop by her place to tell me how supportive I had been and that her breakup was for the best. A few minutes later she asked my opinion on some new clothes purchases including some panties which she insisted on modeling for me, they had little strawberries on them. For some reason they looked better on the floor, she was my first natural blonde. Without weed this never could have happened, hooray for weed.

So the moral of the story kids is that while computers are cool for masturbation and stealing songs they have yet to make a topless drug dealer chic bone you big time for doing nothing but listening to her whine about stuff you forgot about as soon as the telephone hung up. So get out there and do stuff cause doing stuff is much better than writing about how Vegan vampires make no fucking sense.

PS: Do 20 yr old topless blonde girls that want to model underwear for me still exist? I sure hope so cause I love strawberries…

I am officially sick of all the articles announcing to the world that Seattle just had the worst year in the history of professional sports. You know what city had a worst season? Every fucking city too shitty to even have a team and I’m looking at you Austin with your bloated festival, the one that has more shitty bands playing on the sidewalks than all the crappy L.A. bands who moved to Seattle in the early 90’s trying to get that a sloppy second record deal. Take your fried plantains and shove them up your pretentious ass, that is if you can remove those way too fucking tight designer jeans. I hope I wasn’t too subtle, if so then I apologize.

I’m from Seattle, now go fuck yourself.

It seems to be a widespread opinion that Religion and Politics are the two things that people shouldn’t talk about. I don’t agree as these are the things that indicate what a person is truly all about. I want to know if someone thinks that a talking snake and a virgin birth is the basis for all humanity. If they think that Roe Vs Wade will be overturned if they just elect a conservative.

Why is that the people that have no interest in looking at all sides of an issue always seem to be the most passionate? They can be angry, mean and usually have unwavering commitment to their beliefs. They don’t want to hear from the opposition and will do anything to distort what the other side has to say. They will lie, cheat and even condone acts of hatred as long as those people are on their side.

This is why I am always leery of someone that is too passionate about Religion and Politics. Its great to have an opinion but if someone believes something you don’t, it doesn’t mean that it takes anything away from your beliefs. No one is saying you are wrong, they simply are saying they don’t agree with you that a man rose from the dead and turned water into wine or that a man that has $30 million and a dozen houses knows how a blue collar family struggles to live on $35k a year.

Many are inexperienced at things until they start doing them. There is no training for being President, no apprenticeship. It’s the people that one surrounds themselves with that will help determine their success. Hiring only friends and people that unflinchingly agree with you will never be the best path. Hiring and appointing people that disagree with you creates a need for debate and in the end gives everyone a larger perspective and the opportunity for fresh ideas to burgeon and grow. Changing your mind is both healthy and empowering as it means you have seen a different perspective that can and will influence future decisions. The greatest and most successful leaders in our country have used this template to ensure that they are given all sides to a particular issue. Lets hope this is where we are headed in the relatively near future.

In the next couple of months I will be heading to Seattle and then Portland, before embarking on my return to academia. Even if the classes don’t or cant lead to anything its still knowledge gained and that is never a bad thing. Debating whether to take GIS or Geographic Information Systems classes as it seems to be smart thing to get into and try to stay out in front of as it is a young and promising industry.

On another note their seems to be an odd vibe in this country right now, its as if we are waiting for widespread economic disaster that could happen at any time. The nearly $4.00 a gallon gas isn’t inspiring any confidence in anything but OPEC and the big three. I’m basically ready for the next depression, so bring it on, as I have been living a pretty frugal lifestyle for some time now. Not having a couple hundred in cash at all times was a hard adjustment to make for me, but I got through it. To be honest I would like the housing market to crash where I live as its at least 60% inflated. Might sound harsh but isn’t that what living in a small town is all about?

Hilary claims victory really really early in the night and it pisses me off and then a couple hours later she wins Cali. I mean WTF Cali, I like you most of the time but last night you were Oakland Raider fan. The guy thats too loud in the movie theater, the taxi driver who takes the long way around, and the psycho first date all rolled into one.

Barrack still did really really good and the states he won he dominated and yet some people just aren’t paying attention, I’m looking at you Cali. He will do really well in the next month as the momentum is still building and I am sure he will have a landslide in Washington, mostly because we just get it here.

I hope that women in general aren’t thinking if they don’t vote for Mrs Clinton that they are letting down their sex, it still boils down to who is the best person to lead and lets be honest she has been taking money from some very nasty people and a whole lot of it. Plus she made Bill defend her as rightfully he should but it just made him look so un-presidential.

And then all of a sudden a chill ran down my spine…no politician that I ever wanted to win ever ends up winning. Even locally, not even in high school. I guess there is always a first…hopefully.

And yet I sent a random text message to a friend and asked if he was psyched about Super Tuesday. He responded with a succinct ‘Fuck Politics’, in the end he might be right. Election night in 2004 was one of the worst nights in my life so maybe I would be better off without it. I guess it makes me feel apart of a bigger thing.

Check back with me in 9 months and we shall we if I have that same point of view…

‘It aint no joke at xmas to be broke’
T-Bone

As you might be able to tell I have been watching a lot of The Wire lately and its made me consider putting a package onto the street so that I dont have to sell my kidney on the black market.

One of my uncles is loaded, no I mean seriously he is Mr. Bank. He sold a regional cable company that he owned (and built) to Paul Allen’s company Vulcan Enterprises in the late 1990’s. He had worked very hard to build the company so when it sold it was good to see the little guy rake in some cash for once. No one knows how much he sold it for as it was a private company but it was at least in the low seven figures and probably a lot more.

As soon as he sold it he realized he no longer had any thing to do, so he decided to start taking classes in an area of interest and then put the skills he learned into action. But he did this a little differently than most of us would or could. Example: He went to wooden boat school for a year and then built his own 50 foot sailboat. He learned about cabinet making and bought 200k worth of equipment for his personal shop, to date he has only made cabinets for his own house some 6 years later.

And this all leads to his new venture, he went to school to learn about greenskeeping. You might have already figured this out by now but he has now just finished his 9 hole golf course on his property. The first nine of a planned 18. The course has sand traps, a full state of the art drainage irrigation system, and even tee boxes. The odd thing is, well he hates golf. Hates people that like to golf. Thinks its a waste of real estate. So why did he build it? Because he needs something to occupy his time and a way to spend his money. He is not the type of guy that will ever buy a Rolls or even a beach house in Hawaii, he drives a VW van that has about 400k miles on it.

And I am sure he is not alone in this lifestyle, there are people all across this land that have no idea how to spend their bank vaults full of money. They feel guilty spending it without having a practical reason and something to show for it.

So I have decided to start an new endeavor, Unemployed Ben’s money spending school. I will teach these lucky bastards how to spend money guilt free, ya know just like Republicans do.

What two things does it say when someone buys you an axe? It’s either good luck on that burgeoning serial killer career or add this to your collection you manly lumberjack you. I am neither of these things. I have chopped wood of course but not in awhile. I have thrown axes and hatchets before but not since my hard drinking days. So here I am the proud owner of a carbon steal blade that I could probably cut a car in half with, seriously this thing might be a tad overkill for even Paul Bunyan.

So what to do. I would shit myself if I saw me walking down the street wielding this bad boy, so maybe I could start a protection service in my beach community. ‘Pay me 10% of all your money or I don’t leave the axe home tomorrow’, would be our motto. Yep I see big things because of this.

So everyone seems to have Rock Band and its cool to play but I just never envisioned my older family members being so interested in a video game. Let alone the music being a lot of what I grew up on, this made for a few odd glances at the family gathering.

Went a different route with the food this year, hand served and that meant no casserole dishes packing the table (thank Jebus) . No, this was Cognac Creme’ Roasted Reds, Prime Rib with a port reduction, and dessert by TBone himself. This is the tradition I want to see repeated over and over again. Fuck that turkey and ham bullshit.

T:Mobile - The once innovative wireless provider has become an also ran, their seemingly foolish choice not to build out the network and stay ahead of the curve has led to its demise. If and when they get a serious high-speed wireless data they will be so late to the table it wont matter. AT&T might not be much better but they have the iPhone, what do you have? A Dash, a SideKick, and zero high end Nokia handsets make us wonder maybe a executive from Walmart wasn’t the best decision to let run a wireless company during a time where there couldn’t be more on the line. John Stanton and Bob Stapleton built the company that had all the wireless companies scared with huge activation numbers which some even counteracted by switching their networks to GSM. Spending money stopped when Deutsch Telekom came along and along with them all the baggage of a large company.

Prediction for 2008: Much of the same and will find no real answer for the future of wifi, a huge part of their wireless strategy, and one that is perilous at best when demands for free wifi access are at an all time high.

Microsoft: Vista was slow, bogged down with trial software, and damn expensive to be able to run its most entertaining features. Not to mention the fact that the lack of drivers for peripherals made it impossible to not have a dual boot system unless you wanted to brick both high and low end products that a lot of people have built up over time. To simply have the view that people should buy new products or be very very patient is a sad state of affairs for a company that can do so many things so well and yet other times look like a startup, and a poor one at that.

User account control. Who stood up at a meeting with this idea? And who in the world then agreed with it? Pop Ups will save the day? This just might be the biggest misjudgment of the decade, note to Microsoft we do not like things ruining our experience. Once click should keep us safe and be enough to know we want our computers safe from prying eyes and from malicious code that destroys our data and privacy. And how about doing all this when the computer is in sleep mode and not when we are home and awake on a weeknight.

Entire computer industry - Why so slow to innovation? Video game consoles are dominating you in the fun factor and you have had little response. I want to play every game that is on a console on my computer, why would anyone leave this massive revenue stream so barren?
And why cant I yet literally walk into my computer with full touch controls for a hugely immersive experience. Monitors should bend around us and let us become a part of the game.

When people saw the Minority Report computer interface their collective jaws dropped and then wanted it for their own. Its now five years later and we are still pointing and clicking. We are past the time where our computer at our jobs and the ones we have in our homes should even remotely be the same. And sticking a webcam into a monitor is not a great leap forward, thats where we all hang them correct?

Saw some guys from my old days as a working man and watched football at a 7 plasma bar, I being the apparent pussy of the bunch was ordering Cranberry juice while my cohorts were downing pitchers and nachos at 10am. Shit I even nodded off once or twice in the first half, not too unlike the Seahawks. It felt like a let down game and it became one. A trip to the East Coast with nothing really to play for, can do that for a team. However the papers this morning made it seem the Hawks were shutout 45-0, calling them fatally flawed and destined to be seen only on golf courses after the first round. Reporters tend to be a little harsh around here when they have to watch a boring football game, makes it hard to write about the game itself so there must be some underlying story about failures so obvious its a surprise that the PlayBook hasn’t been sent to every defense coordinator in advance of all the remaining games.

Good to see and hang with some old friends though, things feel very different and yet the same all at once. These are good guys living good lives and they deserve it, a tad too focused on work though maybe. As we worked in the same company and building for a few years one of them hasn’t missed a day of work in like a decade and the other went a sketchy part of our country to help out the company, well at least it wasn’t Tampa Bay.

Just email me with your invite request for Grand Central

There is an expression that I really dig and its not something that I come across as much as I used to. The phrase is ‘They just get it”. Its not something that is easily explained, it can show up in a simple nod or perhaps even a joke told in the back of a bar but when it happens there is this unmistakable sense of recognition that tells you the person in front of you is cut from the same cloth. Its usually followed by a hey or whoa and that is all is needed.

This can also go for people you haven’t met, take Judd Apatow for instance, he just seems to get it. His writing is dead on with the way a lot of people talk and act, even if it offends. This couldn’t be any more apparent than in his newest movie Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and in particular the following scene.

How obvious is that scene and yet it appears for the first time in 2007. Something so natural and yet so dang funny, as if you were just talking to a friend. Looking forward to this one as all the Ray’s, Doors, and Walk the Line needed a little mocking.

The words of a guy that just gets it:

I’m a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That’s what kind of man I am. You’re just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It’s science.

Well if you were a man, I’d punch you. Punch you right in the mouth.

I don’t know how to put this but I’m kind of a big deal. People know me. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.

I’m gonna punch you in the ovary, that’s what I’m gonna do. A straight shot. Right to the babymaker.

We are laughing and we are very good friends. Good buddies sharing a special moment…laughing and enjoying our friendship, and someday we’ll look back on this with much fondness.

Sorry about the previous days of blogging, I told you the rust needed to be shaken off or more like sandblasted off with a million throwing stars.

In watching some recent sports highlights I am amazed at how much influence the referee still has on games, they make about 100k a year and can change the direction of the entire multi-billion dollar league. Seems to me even more mistakes still occur, sure the 10 camera angles help us see the miscues a whole lot easier but shouldn’t the goal of any league be to just get the call right. This is part of the reason I paled back my interest in sports and thats brings up an interesting question, where does interest become fanaticism?

More than a few times I questioned why I needed to know who the backup tight-end of the Jets was and why I felt the need to ponder if he had to play, how that might effect the teams weak side pass protection. Now consider that I don’t like the Jets and that this knowledge is only useful if I am a scout for the NFL or a obsessed fantasy football geek.

Very few of the people I hang around with would see this as a problem, actually it would be considered as an asset. However, there is a line you cross when it goes from wants to needs and obsession begins to creep into the picture, then that line is awful fuzzy. Its the highs and lows that make it so damn interesting, a roller coaster of emotions and if you come out on the winning side it can make you feel invincible. I won, so in the end if felt good at the end of the day or year but that doesn’t exclude some door slamming, desk kicking and even a few shattered CD’s. It became less fun and more like a chore, I essentially treated it like a job and the actually games were irrelevant even with my hometown Seahawks, sure I rooted for them but not if it could cost me a fantasy game.

So took a step back and it feels good, I don’t watch a game unless I want to. I don’t have to read the sports page or even worry about things like injury reports, which coach is on the hotseat or why Terrell Owens is such a gigantic tool. I let others take up where I left off and to them it might be a more enjoyable experience, I was holding on too tight and for something as silly as rooting for some millionaires to beat other millionaires in a half a billion dollar stadium I helped build and maintain with my taxes and $7 beers. Not a real complaint it just seems I am more distant from the modern athlete than at anytime in my life.

So I am a dick again, a dick to my family and to others. Why do you say? I’ll fill ya in. Its simply because someone invited themselves to the family x-mas eve party and I simply reacted in a normal fashion, which was ‘you are not related to us why would you be coming?’. Apparently this was worse than anything Hitler ever did because people freaked big time, I mean they aren’t fucking related to us and it would be uncomfortable so I said what everyone was thinking. So now that I am the designated asshole this year, I guess the gloves are off.

O.A.N. - No Country For Old Men is an amazing flick with an odd ending that caught me and seemingly the whole audience off guard, however it really made me think and I cant say that has happened in awhile, not that anyone gives a flying fuck. It was faithful to the book and that is always a good thing as the source material should always be celebrated. It reminded me of Blood Simple, a movie a lot of Coen Bros fans haven’t seen, its dark and violent and is ages away from the next movie they made, Raising Arizona. And no matter how violent or disturbing this movie was, it was still quite funny at times and thats a hard thing to do with there is evil incarnate on screen for a large portion of the movie. And good news to all their fans, they are making a flurry of movies in the next few years.

Observation: Is it just me or is Josh Brolin the new bad ass in town having nearly stole the screen away from Denzel and Russell in AG and now having the lead role in one of the best films this decade? Hopefully his B Movie days are now behind him.

X-Mas is creeping closer and closer and I haven’t purchased so much as a wreath, not even for my nieces, I feel like a bad uncle and perhaps thats because I am as I could have gone to a bball game of theirs today but I used the snow as an excuse not to go. Don’t mind driving in snow its just the other people, I see people doing many a stupid thing on dry and warm days so when snow is around I tend to stay home and make a big batch of chili. It was only average tasting but on a day like this it just seems like the thing to do and a little fire in the belly and ass will make the cold seem like a mirage that only exists outside my window.

Not sure I will ever get used to being broke, it sucks…it truly truly sucks. So many things I want and or need and yet I’ve had to pretty much repress my urges of commercialism.

Blogging is an art and I’ve never been all that artistic, I think it was all the drugs my mother did. This has been a strange week for me as I have been sleeping the exact opposite as pretty much everyone I know, people call and either get me sending them to voice mail or a groggy version of myself pretending to be sick to they will leave me alone. Luckily my circle of friends has been getting lower and lower since my retirement, so only a few calls have interrupted my ugly sleep.

Speaking of sleep, my patterns have been a little out of whack due to some tossing and turning I did for two days that left me exhausted. Ive been on some new drugs and they have left me pretty much wasted the past few days and its all 100% legal, my back still hurts but I care less about it. In relation to drugs Ive come to realize that this generation rarely has a true emotion as everyone I seem to know is on something or the other. This might be a direct correlation to our political climate, either people are really angry or seemingly comatose. This might actually describe every emotion Ive ever had, you see I am a boring person with a rage problem.

The one thing about drugs though is you tend to live month to month or as long as the prescription runs and with schedule two’s you have to get an actual paper prescription to get a refill, so you actually have to go to the dr for a so called exam. Now I am sure this law has something to do with the safety of patients but I am sure dr’s aren’t complaining with the increase in visits resulting in even more vacation homes. But the one draw back is trying to get an appt with a new doc, this is now something that takes months and months to do. My newest physiatrist took over 4 months to see and when I got there it was pretty much, take all these new drugs and see you in 60 days. The appt was about 15 min and that includes waiting for her to show up, if it wasn’t for a diagram of a spine on the door I wouldn’t have been able to tell it was a dr’s office.

What does this all mean? Pretty much that my life consists of drugs, pain, Phd’s, and some 10 am dinners. This makes me a sad figure but what the hell its now almost December so things could be worse, I could be working for a living and thus be forced to buy presents for tons of family members. However with my visit to Turkey day my family is now well aware of my broke-atude and hopefully will have pity on a man with a smaller heart than wallet. Actually it wasnt so bad as my bro brought a killer anti-pasto plate so it wasn’t all things with marshmallows on top of things, I mean haven’t we grown past the casserole phase of humanity?

On another note I had to give up my BlackBerry and move to AT&T, so I am struggling with the T-9 text for the past 6 weeks or so and to be honest it kinda sucks. I also dont dig the expensive monthly charges associated with a retail plan but hey we can’t use our friends who work at T-Mobile forever right? Actually if any of my friends still read this I would be willing to go back and then you’ll have the cache of having a T-Bone on your account, trust me when the ladies hear this you’ll be getting boy bad ass.

There is a lot of debate in the world of photography about what is the hardest picture to take, some swear that sports photography is the most difficult and its hard to challenge that theory except for the fact sports photographers have the greatest and most up to date equipment. So for my money I think the portrait is the most difficult picture to take and for one main reason, it is incredibly hard to capture that moment that defines an individual.

The uniqueness of the subject is near impossible to capture as they have their guard up and tend to be stiff. Add to this the various issues of fake smiles, closed eyes, uncooperative kids and you have a shooters nightmare. Even in the best of circumstances you can take a great photo of a subject that genuinely has a beautiful smile but has a complexion problem that detracts from the photo. Most customers don’t come to a photographer to see their acne accentuated for all to see, they want the Cosmo look but aren’t willing to pay for it.

Correcting facial blemishes issues on a close-up portrait photo can be a time consuming and frustrating process that often ends up in a plastic look and an end result that is less than ideal. There are many options out there for professional cameras but they come at professional prices that can be more expensive than PhotoShop itself. Fashion photographers don’t hesitate at purchasing such photo filters as they have become essential in the fashion industry, and yes even Giselle Bundchen and Alessandra Ambrosio get the occasional pimple.

So after trial and error and many long nights trying to speed up and improve my digital work flow, I came across a product that has become one my most trusted tools. The product is called Noise Ninja and can be had for as little as $34.95, which I believe pays for itself the first time you use it. It is a standard PhotoShop plug-in but it has something special, a vast amount of digital camera profiles that can be downloaded for free to help you get the absolute best results possible. The result is skin that looks as smooth as a baby’s bottom and amazes everyone that is lucky enough to have had their photo taken by a photographer that uses the amazing product.

Don’t think this is just for portraits either, anywhere that has a low light situation that causes you to pump up the ISO will have the benefit of this product as well. Previously unusable photos are brought back to life with a product anyone that is serious about taking good photos should have in its arsenal. Thanks for stopping by

Before

After

Today I’d like to share with you one of my favorite and easiest PhotoShop tutorials. We’ve all been in that situation where it seemed as though we have taken a pretty good photo but when we get back to check it out on our computer the photo just doesn’t pop. Take a look at example A below, this is a nice photo of a boat in near silhouette at sunset and yet they colors are pretty bland, it makes a pretty ho hum picture.

Of course there are many things you can do to the photo to give it a little more polish, like increasing the color balance in the water, sky and clouds. But after all that work it just doesn’t seem to be a very honest representation of the original photo.

My answer to these types of situations is the following:

1. Bring the original photo into PhotoShop (File - Open)
2. Create a duplicate layer (Right Click - Duplicate Layer)
3. Set Gaussian Blur to 2.0 (Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur)
4. Create Overlay (In Layers tab change Normal setting to Overlay)
5. Merge layers (Shift+Control+E) and save image

In the example image below you can see how the colors are vibrant and stunning, it also keeps the integrity of the original image. To lessen or strengthen the effect you can experiment with altering both the gaussian blur and the overlay opacity. Good luck and thanks for stopping by.

How many times have your kids asked for something cool for their bedroom for x-mas or even a birthday but you couldnt think of a thing? Well those days are over with Vision Bedding, a destination everyone should visit for their bedding needs. It could be for your toddler, grade schooler, teenager, or just the little kid still hiding inside you grown ups. This website has virtually everything you could ever want for your bed and at low prices that just can’t be beat.

You can even design your very own custom Photo Blanket Online where you can add your personal pictures and complete a special process that ensures a gentle fabric texture where the picture won’t fade. You can choose from 13 blanket colors and even add text for free. You can create these sensational custom creations on shams, blankets, and even pillows.

There are also plenty of ready-made designs to fit just about any personality to make any bedroom the envy of virtually everyone. These exciting bedding options will surely satisfy anyone at any age and all from Vision Bedding, a company that you can always trust to be both reliable and customer service oriented. All this and more solidifies the fact that this is the perfect destination for all your Teen Bedding needs.

For those that know me this might give you a little insight into whats been going with me lately.

About 9 years I hurt my back, then 5 years ago I hurt it again but this time it was much worse. After 3 years of the condition worsening I was unable to work. This depleted my somewhat rosy financial outlook, quickly. Over the past 15 months, a dozen doctors, and a variety of exams I was finally given a complete diagnosis on Monday. The doc went over the MRI with me and gave me a copy, it consists of over 148 images from virtually ever angle possible.

The one I show here is the best angle, I will go one by one.

1.This is a perfect disc and vertebrae, note the narrow oval shape that has defined endings on each side. This means the disc is cushioning the vertebrae well and is in great shape. This is what will be our guide to how a disc should look.

2. This one is in good shape too but you see the dark lines above aren’t as uniform and on the left side you see darkness. That is the disc which is essentially leaking out due to pressure. The darkness is spreading both up and down.

3.The oval shape is gone and it doesn’t come to an end on the left that it does on the right. The black line in the middle is degeneration, and once again the disc is leaking (Blown out).

4. The dark spot above the disc is also degeneration but this is in the vertebrae and that is causing imbalance and pressure on the spine as a whole. Compare 1, 2, and 3 and see how smooth of an arc the spine makes on the right as it runs down the spine, fairly smooth and uniform. Compare that to 4, 5, 6, and 7 and you start to see how jagged and out of line they get. This issue causes muscles, nerves and ligaments to pull on the spine to get it in balance but it fails causing spasms and tightness.

5. This disc is blown out on both sides as indicated by the darkness and the white shading indicates arthritis. The arc shape is now virtually a square.

6. The jagged shape of the top of the disc shows massive degeneration and the darkness on the left shows it not only herniated but is putting extreme pressure on the nerves. the dark spot right underneath shows the severe degeneration of the vertebrae.

7. This is the one of the worst discs the doctor has seen. The white shading all above and below is the worst form of arthritis and the disc has been virtually squeezed into oblivion. This has caused the huge bulges on each side and the most defined black spots. The disc is so jagged and un-uniform it hardly even resembles what figure 1 does.

8. This one actually is the best looking structure since figure 2 but still has the blackness inside and its completely blown out on the left. However the vertebrae above it looks like it is being squeezed in a vise.

9 & 10. They both are virtually the same, the faint black lines indicate where a disc should be but doesn’t, this is bone on bone rubbing against each other with virtually no cushion.

So in summary, two partially herniated discs (2&3), four herniated discs (5-6-7-8), severe disc degeneration in 3 discs (6-7-4) and arthritis in four vertebrae (7-8-9-10). Pinched nerves in three locations between 5-6-7. All these issues cause the ligaments and muscles to pull very hard to try and straighten the spine which causes many spasms in multiple areas and tightness muscles up and down the spine.

The head on view here shows how out of line the actually spine is, this is everything trying to compensate for the issues which in turn causes more.

Now to the bottom line, the only thing than can be corrected is the herniated discs but with the large amount of them and the other conditions no one will perform this operation. The degeneration will worsen and could spread, the arthritis will worsen considerably and for both of these there is no treatment. They consist of , severe arthritis, and multiple herniated discs. None of these conditions are treatable and will only worsen and become more painful (if that’s possible) the older I get. These conditions induce pinched nerves, muscle spasms and the curvature of my spine. I am only 35.