Chapter 90 - February 19, 2013

I'd like to dedicate this blog to my assistants. One in particular helped save my life the day I had my injury, brain bleed.

Hi everybody. You know, I always tell these stories because I've laid on my back for about 4 years now. It's good to remember things to get you through the tough stuff. I'm going to name this week's blog, "Promises, Cherrypickers and the Authorities."

I'll tell a few random stories to begin.

There's a few things I really can't tell you. One story I won't tell because I made a promise not to tell. I will tell it involves warriors and a war party hunting me. Have you ever been hunted? It's not a comfortable feeling.

There's a couple of stories I can tell. The next story involves a cherry picker. I was in the desert. It never rains in the desert right? Well, not when I went there. It was like the first time in ten years that it rained where I was. I was on a commercial photographic shoot. I was supposed to photograph a girl from above. I was going to be on a cherry picker. It was a big production. A commercial job. Well, it was raining and the client was freaking out. He started to say, "What are we going to do?" I said, "Just wait a minute." I went back to my room and closed the door. I said, "Holy shit, what am I going to do?" I started freaking out. I said, "Calm down." I turned on the TV. I turned on the weather channel. I saw it was sunny in Puerto Rico. I said, "Ah Ha! Let's all go to Puerto Rico!" I went out and I confidently said to the art director, the client, I said, "We're all going to Puerto Rico." He calmed down. He said, "OK good idea." I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Well, we got on the plane early that morning, and we were shooting by the afternoon. On the way to the beach, I saw some house painters using a cherry picker. I gave my assistant $100 cash. I said, see if they would come over for about 2 hours and hang out with the cherry picker. They showed up and the shoot went great, thank God. I had a good margarita that night.

Well, the next story, I really can't tell because I don't want the authorities knocking on my door. No one got hurt, it's just that, well, I can't tell you.

One more story I can't tell you because I don't kiss and tell. Not to anybody. That's it. 

I'm going to talk a little bit about Traumatic Brain Injury. You know, when you're like this and you have a Traumatic Brain Injury, you can't let the rest of your life go by. Just this morning I went to the dermatologist. I had to get my body checked. I wouldn't be surprised if I survived a brain injury only to be taken by a bad mole. Anyway, the checkup went really good and I'm fine. The point is, keep everything up: the dentist, other doctors, etc.  My friend here pointed out, I probably really couldn't go before. And it's true. It was a lot of effort to go right now. Imagine a few months ago. No way I could have gone. So that right there is progress. I keep going on and on how I feel like I'm not getting better, but little things like that are baby steps. It's easy to become frustrated cause you're living your injury day to day, but people, they come by every once in a while, remark how I'm making progress. It's another good reason to have visitors stop by.

When you're in a condition like this, it's really good to have a project or keep busy. The other day we joined AAA and they sent me a bunch of maps and books. I can't really see but I have the stuff read to me. It's basically a bunch of stuff to get me ready for the big trip coming up. I'm going to go see my daughter and go out west. It should be a fun project. I'm also doing it to show people, even if you have a brain injury, you can still stand up to challenges. I guess before I had challenges like records for running, surfing big waves and dangerous stuff. This will kind of be the same thing but in a different light. I mean, hell, it's just a challenge to sit up. That reminds me, I want to tell you guys something I just found out. You know, when you get up from sleeping, it can be real difficult. You know how you feel a little groggy when you wake up from a nap, well, holy shit, this is crazy feeling like I do when I wake up. It's tough to wake up. So don't be surprised if you feel like hell when you wake up and you're like I am. Nothing surprises me anymore. It's all uncharted territory. Every day I feel different. Hell, a bunch of big elephants could walk by, I wouldn't even flinch. So basically, don't be surprised by new things.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. Not much else to really tell. If you have a brain injury, keep working hard. I'm going to have my friend here link my trip I'm planning for and some cartoons I did back in the day. I hope I can get back to doing cartoons. I miss it almost as much as I miss playing the guitar. Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice.

https://mypointofviewproject.wordpress.com/

Chapter 89 - February 13, 2013

Hey, my friend here just reminded me it's almost Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day everybody.

I'd like to dedicate this week's blog to my two friends who are helping me put my trip together. They're going above and beyond as far as putting everything together. Check out the link. It's pretty cool.

https://mypointofviewproject.wordpress.com/

I'd like to name this week's blog. I'm going to start naming chapters anyway. This week's blog is going to be called, "Bears 'n Boobs." Let's start with the Bears.

I was on a commercial shoot somewhere in the Canadian Rockies. We were taking 4-wheel drive vehicles into the mountains. I was in the lead vehicle when I came across a big bear just sitting in the road eating some berries. I said, over the walkie talkie, "I'm going to get out and get a photograph of me and the bear." I heard the ranger who was with us say, "Negative. Negative. Do not get out of the vehicle. Negative. Negative." The guy was freaking out. I just said it as a joke, but when we got to the top of the mountain, the park ranger explained to me that some tourists get mauled. They really do try and do group photos with a bear.

The next bear story I have is I was on a commercial photographic shoot on the outskirts of Aspen Colorado. We were at a beautiful Bed & Breakfast. It had a beautiful view. The owner was some young kid who just graduated from school. He didn't know what to do so Mommy and Daddy bought him a Bed & Breakfast to run. Poor baby. Anyway, he was flirting with the models all the time on the first day. Well, we also accumulated a lot of trash on the first day. He brought all of our garbage out on the porch. The guy had more money than sense because the garbage attracted a lot of bear. Anyway, there was this one big bear that showed up the next day, so what does the guy do? Mr. Macho breaks out his gun and shoots the bear. It was a beautiful bear. Anyway he hauled the bear off to the garage and covered it with a tarp and called the park ranger. The park ranger shows up, sees the bear and freaks out. The ranger was pissed off. He said to the young kid, he said, "You don't shoot a bear. You call us first. We trap them and move them. We have a special trailer for that!" While they were arguing I went over and put my hand against his paw. He was huge. Each claw was like the size of my finger. He was still warm. Anyway, enough of this downer stuff. Let's talk about boobs.

I was going out with this girl. We went to the movies one night. It was a hot summer night. She was wearing a tube top. Anyway, we got our tickets early so we went to the magazine store to look at magazines. We were at the rack reading magazines, her back was to me and there was a guy I saw over her shoulder. The guy was bright red with sweat coming off his forehead. She said, "What are you looking at?" And she turned to me and said, "Some people are so rude." I looked down, her tube top was all the way down. Her breasts were sticking out like two torpedoes. She didn't even know that they were sticking out. I would have liked to see the surveillance video on that.

Another night I went out with the same girl to have a dinner. We were at the restaurant having a few drinks. Actually we were quite loaded. At dessert we started taking pictures of us. The guy next to us offered to take our picture. We said, "Yeah, that's a good idea. Thank you." The guy was Italian. He was with his wife. Anyway, the guy took our picture and then he said, let me take another picture. We said "Sure, go ahead." He had a big smile on his face. He said, "Let me take another." His smile got bigger. His wife looked really annoyed. He said, "Let me take another picture." She said, "OK that's enough." She grabbed the camera and gave it back to us. I didn't know what was going on until I got the film back. The shots of us were nice, but the whole time my girlfriend's boobs were hanging out. Who knows why she didn't feel it. No wonder why the guy was smiling so much.

The next story I'm not quite clear on what happened but this is my perspective. I was on a commercial photographic shoot. One of the girls I was working with really liked the horses we were using in the shot. Well she reached over a fence to pet one of the horses. You know that little piece of flesh under your chin. Well, she leaned over and got electrocuted right there. She threw her hands up and then her boobs got electrocuted. She got thrown back onto the road. She was lying there on her back, totally stunned. All the cowboys that were there started cracking up. They couldn't contain themselves. They had to hide behind the barn they were laughing so hard. Yeah, but she was all right. A little stunned but all right.

I'll talk a little bit about Brain Injury now. My friend here read the previous blog and I was talking a little bit about attitude. To stay positive and joke around or make light of your situation is so important. I mean, who wants to hang out with a grumpy person? You know, a nurse is more likely to help you and hang out when you're a positive person. It's really important. I always say, "Patience is a virtue." But, you know what, all virtues have their limits. I have to practice what I preach. Be patient. It's always something like this week, my right side and my speech is really difficult to deal with. But I plow through it. Keep doing therapy. Remember, your job is therapy. Your job is to work hard at getting better.

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you guys have a good Valentine's Day. This is Mr. Nice signing off. I'll talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

Chapter 88 - February 6, 2013

Hi Carl. Hi Marilyn. I get a lot of emails from people that were in my past. If I could, I'd email all to say "Hi" individually. But, I can't, so I'll just say a general "Hello!"

Hi everybody. Another week goes by. I was just at my outpatient hospital. You see, I go every day to the hospital to do rehab. Every time I push my wheelchair down the hall, on my way to rehab, people say things like, "Hi Brian." "What's up Brian?" "Have a good day Brian." My father, who takes me there, remarks on me knowing everybody it seems. I say to him, "Well, yeah! The first time I was here for 5 months. The second operation, I was here for 4 months. I'm still an outpatient. What do you expect?" I should get a freaking condo here. It's like my second home. Nice place though, Helen Hayes. They have great therapists. Speaking of hospitals, I'd like to say something. You know, my friend here was reading my last blog to me, and I forgot to mention, when you get in the hospital, it's so important to have someone hold your hand. I'm talking about when you're in ICU (Intensive Care). It's really important to have someone hold your hand. That, and you need someone like your coach or your point person to keep reassuring you that everything will be all right. Have that person tell you what's next. Those things, and the things I talked about in the previous blog, really helped me.

This past weekend I got to see my little one. It was only for one day, but man, it was great to see her and hang out with her. Kids grow up so fast. My sister's kids also came over, and they all hung out. I wish I could play with them. I guess watching them play is the next best thing, and a little less exhausting. I said it before, but I'll say it again. You know, I'm doing this blog to help other people. There might be some information in here they could use. You know, help them out. I'm not a doctor or anyone connected with the medical field, but I'm just talking about my experiences. You know, from my point of view. Anyway, it might help.

https://mypointofviewproject.wordpress.com/

I've been doing a lot of water therapy. It's so helpful. I can walk in the water. It's fantastic. My mom was taking photos the whole time. I forgot, but when she showed me the pictures, remember my eyesight is not so good. She was showing me the pictures and I look like I've got freaking implants. I said, "Mom, who's that chick?" It was me! The instructor was holding me in a way that made me look like I had a big rack. I looked quite sexy. Other than the water therapy, I've just been working hard at building my strength and my core as well. Core strength is what's so important. One good way to build up your core is you have someone like my mother drive you to therapy. Her nick name should be Mario Andretti. Enough of the medical talk. Let's just tell a few random stories.

This week I saw on the news how they had an earthquake near New Guinea. It reminded me of a time I was on a shoot in New Guinea. Anyway, I was photographing a model. She was on a rope bridge. It's basically a bridge made out of rope. She was in the middle of the bridge. I was on the land. A huge earthquake happened. Rocks were falling around me. Trees were falling over. I just laid down on the ground. She looked at us like we were aliens. She didn't know what was going on. The bridge was going up and down, but it was before the earthquake anyway. Thank god the bridge didn't fall apart with the trees it was tied to. Cause, if she fell, it would have been instant death. Hey, anything for a great photo, right. When I think about what we did, I can't sleep sometimes.

I've got lots of situations I went through that won't let me sleep at night. One time I was doing a swimwear shoot on Bondi Beach in Australia. It was a big advertising shoot. Lots of talent, a few location vans. You get the idea. It was a big produciton. Well, we all got there, had some breakfast, and it started raining. I called the airport because I had the number for the tower. The guy at the airport said, "Oy Mate, how'd you get this number?" I said, "My friend at the fire department gave me the number." Well, I could hear the guy cover up the phone with his hand. I could hear him shouting out, "Hey I got some yank on the line who wants to know the weather." Then I heard a voice say, "Tell him to look out the window," and then the phone hung up. Well, after I called the tower and basically got no response, I decided, in my infinite wisdom, I decided I'll just call the shoot off. We'll reschedule it for a few days later. I was being a New York photographer. Well, the guy that owned the company I was shooting for flipped out. He said, "You can't call the shoot off!" I said, "I just did." Funny, I never worked for them again.

I'm going to finish it up. Make a short one this week. I've got link here for my drive across America. I hope you get a chance to check it out. When you're like this, it's good to have a project. Something to look forward to. I'm really messed up, but you know, this will be a different type of traveling for me. You know, it all comes down to your attitude. Stay positive. I'll talk to you guys next week. Love, B. Nice.

Chapter 87 - January 29, 2013

Behind every great man, there's a great woman....rolling her eyes, shaking her head, crossing her arms, and tapping her foot. Hi everybody! Welcome to another week in Paradise. I'd like to dedicate this blog to my friend who's sitting right in front of me. She's typing as I dictate. I still can't really type, (nor could I type before, actually). Anyway, she's been doing this blog with me. It's been almost 3 years. You know, I always say I'm getting better, but I never really talk about what I'm getting better at. It's good to have goals. You know, a friend of mine is in the military and they have a program for their training. It's to get them through the rough stuff. It also applies to anyone going through surgery. It's basically a 4 step idea. It's something people should study before surgery and after surgery. The four steps are these: 1. Take each day step by step. In other words, get yourself through breakfast. Then get yourself through lunch. Then get yourself through dinner, etc., etc. What I mean is, break up your day. Have something to look forward to. 2. The other thing is visualize where you want to be. Have a strong vision or goal or challenges you're going to meet. 3. You know, we talk to ourselves all day long. We make comments to ourselves all the time. When you talk to yourself, talk positively. Talk to yourself in a positive way. Don't say things like, "I feel terrible," or "I have a headache." Say things like, "I feel good." or "I'm going to do this," or "I'm going to do that." Keep things positive. And the 4th thing is, breathe. Take deep breaths every once in a while. Just breathe.

You know, right now, I have a goal. I'm working towards traveling across the country taking photos. I'm going to stop and see my daughter along the way. But, you know, it's a huge challenge for me to travel like this. So my goal is to work up towards making this long journey. Right now I'm working on stepping up into my trailer. You see, I have to pull over every 4 hours or so and take a nap. Just talking like this is exhausting. So I'm working on stepping up into my trailer. You'd think that would be easy, but it is like an Olympic event for me. I'm even doing water therapy to get better at taking a step up. The other thing I'm doing is I'm taking small road trips in my special car. Right now I'm up to an hour, an hour and a half. It's to build up my endurance. But they won't let me drive for some reason...

Now that we're talking about therapy, I'd like to talk about altitude. You see, I can't go to altitude right now. That's why I'm planning on taking a southern route when I go west. I have to stay at sea level as much as possible. A friend of mine said, "How high can you go?" I replied, "I'll let you know." Anyway, I've got to stay at low altitude and I can't fly either. I'll research neurological ERs that are on my route. Always have back up, and remember, if you're in a condition like this, you'll always want an ER that has a neurological team. Many ERs have no neurological team.

https://mypointofviewproject.wordpress.com/

Other things that are getting better, when I say I'm getting better, are I don't feel as claustrophobic as before. Before I couldn't even sleep in the dark. I would have to have a light on. I couldn't lie on my stomach. I'd freak out. Now I can lie on my stomach. It sounds boring, but I can guarantee it's a big deal when you're in a state like this.

OK, enough of the boring talk of my medical condition. Let's tell a few stories. My friend here has some scans from Nevis. I went on a great shoot to Nevis. One of the better moments was I had the afternoon off so I decided to go to the driving range and hit a few golf balls. I didn't have anything with me like clubs or stuff like that so I called the front desk. They said, "Oh, Mr. Nice, you want to go to the driving range? No problem. We'll pick you up in 10 minutes." In ten minutes a golf cart showed up with a pitcher of cold water. The golf cart and the chauffeur took me to the driving range. When I got there, it was amazing. they had an umbrella set up for me, a chair, a pitcher of water and ice, a towel, a beautiful stack of golf balls in the form of a pyramid. A full range of golf clubs, some tees. You get the idea. It was a first class driving range. Oh yeah, I had a butler as well. My view was amazing. There was a long fairway with palm trees on either side, going off into the distance, and at the end of the fairway was a volcano. The butler said, "Would you like anything sir?" I said, "Yes, actually, I'd like an extra dirty martini, 2 olives in a chilled glass." It was a great afternoon.

Now I'll tell a few random stories. When I was in college, my roommate had a friend. This guy would always hang out. He was like a piece of furniture. The guy would show up in his car which was a car that I always wanted. It was a 442 Oldsmobile Cutlass, cherry red with mag wheels. It was a convertible. Anyway, the guy would show up with a bunch of video games in his car like PacMan, Astroids, etc. He worked at a game store repairing video games. Our whole apartment was filled with video games. You know, like the ones they have in bars. Anyway, my neighbors hated me because all you heard was "hoooo hoooo hooo" the sounds of PacMan and Astroids. It sounded like a gaming arcade 24/7. We had fun though. Thank god I was a photography major.

The reason why I went back to Australia many years ago was not only to start my career as a photographer, but I went there because I loved the place. My grandfather and grandmother used to go there all the time. My grandfather would go to the middle of Australia, mine for black opals, and bring them to Hong Kong to sell. With the money he made in Hong Kong, he bought a ranch in northern Australia. He wanted to start a macadamia nut farm. I used to go there a lot. It was a great place. Anyway, one of my fondest memories was he brought me to the rain forest to pan for gold. Well, we used to always go into this specific spot. It was a stream in the rain forest. It was beautiful. Shafts of light would come down to the stream as we were panning for gold. And the shafts of light, huge butterflies, like the size of your head, could dance in the shafts of light. It was beautiful. Anyway, I went back to there as an adult. I wanted to show my wife at the time were we used to pan for gold. I couldn't believe I found the stream, but it was all dried up. There was actually no trees. No rain forest. It had been cleared as far as the eye could see. All there was was bull grass. It makes me teary eyed just to think about it.

Anyway, now there's a big dam where the rain forest used to be. Those dam forms made a huge man made lake. My friend used to take me water skiing there. The guy was crazy. He'd say, "Come on mate. Let's ski close to the shore. The water's really smooth there, but don't fall because there are ironwood trees right below the surface." The trees never rotted because they are ironwood, a really dense wood. They were like 4 feet under, but every once in a while one would be close to the surface. It was good incentive not to fall. It was fun there, but there were things like giant spiders, big poisonous snakes. I could go on and on. It was a beautiful place though. I miss it. I wish I could go back there. The stars were incredible.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. If you're like I am, keep working hard. Stay positive. Oh yeah, I wanted to say one other thing. It's so weird but I keep saying how the body wakes up, you know this has been going on for like 3 years now, but it's as if, over the past year or so, I'm waking up more and more and more. It keeps going on. But I'm definitely more aware. I keep saying it, and I've said it before, but it's amazing. I can't believe the stuff I've been through. A lot of shit. Maybe ignorance is bliss, cause I'm starting to get positively pissed off. Anyway, see you next week. Love, B. Nice

Chapter 86 - January 22, 2013

Barack Obama, our president, sent me an email (see below). He was responding to a letter I wrote him. What a cool thing to receive. It was Barack Obama's inauguration, Martin Luther King Day and it was my birthday. I had good company.

Hi everybody! Welcome to another week in Paradise. This week has been kind of tough. You know, you have ups and downs when you're like this.  I am getting better overall, but some things, like my vision, are a little upsetting. Actually, you know what? I'm going to talk about something else, because the thought of talking about my condition is kind of upsetting.

A friend of mine stopped by. He's a film producer. He and I agreed we should tape the adventure I'm going to partake in this October. It's pretty cool. We'll document my adventure as we go coast to coast (please click on the attached link). When you're like this, it's good to have something to look forward to.

https://mypointofviewproject.wordpress.com/

I'm going to have my friend here pull out some random journals and we'll tell a few stories on what we pull out.

I'm going to tell some random stories. I would think about things when I was in the hospital. Here's a few stories. One day I was in the Caribbean and I was looking for locations. I always wore a hat and a long sleeve shirt to cover up from the sun. anyway, I was walking down to a beach carrying my Polaroid camera and all covered up from the sun. I walked down to the beach and started taking pictures. Then I stepped over someone. He was completely nude. I looked a little closer. I was on a nude beach. It didn't look so good. Here I am all covered up, walking down the beach with a Polaroid camera. Not a good look. For some reason, I was getting peculiar stares. Anyway, I got out of there pretty quick.

Another story or stories have to do with windsurfing and surfing. You know, my job was pretty stressful. I would often get rid of stress by windsurfing or surfing. It was a great way to unwind.  There's nothing like being in the open ocean on a fiberglass board. You know, we'd get up to speeds like a jet ski full on out. All good until you wipe out. It was cool cause we would come up on big sea turtles, whales, sharks. There's lots of wildlife out there!

One other story I have or stories is I had to work my ass off to pay for my dream house. It was a great house. My friend here will include some photos of the house as I was building it. She will also include some cartoons. I don't have much else to report for this week. I'm going to make this a short one. I hope you have a good week. Oh, yeah! I found out that facebook is great for your birthday. I had many birthday wishes. Thank you all so much. And Happy birthday to my friends who are having their birthdays this week. That's all for now. I'll talk to you guys next week.

P.S. I'd like to dedicate this week's blog to my mom. I know I did it before, but I'm amazed at how much work she does. You really need someone to take care of you. Hell, it's either that or a nursing home. Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

Oh yeah, one other thing. I was going through the books and Paris kept coming up. Man it was cold in Paris a few years ago. I guess they're going through the same thing right now. But man, I remember, I had to go to the cafe just to warm up. My friend will include some drawings from my journal.