Merry Xmas!

I would like to take a moment to talk to everyone about drugs.

Do not drug and drive.

That is all.

I missed my customary giving thanks post around thanksgiving!  :-o  I'm shocked.  My only excuse is that my mom was having some health issues around that time, which she is all better from now, so, here I am.  And I am thankful for that and of course, for computer games.  Which I have been playing pretty much non-stop since Thanksgiving.  So.  There's that.

Did you understand all that?  Yea, I re-read it and my grammar is probably a little off.  It's Christmas Eve!  So, everyone have a happy and healthy new year, Merry Xmas / Yule / Holiday of choice, whatever.

My Holiday Xmas movie list pretty much consists of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  Yea.  That's pretty much about it.  I like other holiday movies, but that one is right there at the top.  Nothing even comes close to the chemistry between Clark and Cousin Eddie.  lol  I think the biggest obstacle to making another vacation movie (and supposedly there's one in the works, focusing on rusty instead of clark, which I just don't agree with), will be getting Randy Quaid cleared of whatever legal trouble he's having and extradited back to the states.  Perhaps he can do some community service in the form of making another vacation movie!  :-D

Mindy Abair (I think that's the spelling) also has a very nice song about being ready for Xmas, that I find quite jazzy this time of year, but rarely hear on the radio nowadays.  Something titled "Can't wait for Christmas" I think?  Anyway, it's currently my favorite Xmas song.  It even beat out Silent Night!  Which, I never hear on the radio either.  Hmmmm.  Mostly, I think I like it because the song talks about being ready for Xmas, which, we never, ever EVER are.  At least, not until very late on Xmas eve, and usually sometimes not by Xnas day, which, I suppose is pretty normal, but wouldn't it be nice to actually be ready BEFORE the holiday sometime, so you can sit back, relax and enjoy it?  I think so.  If nothing else, it would be a nice change from normal.  lol

So here's a little internet myth I'd like to destroy.  And I'm not afraid to just throw this out there and utterly denounce the internet in this case, because I have testicles.  That's right.  I do.

The sound that comes from cracking your knuckles is NOT the popping of an air bubble in your joints.

I know, this goes against everything you've been told by the internet.  But guess what?  Just because you read it on the internet, doesn't mean it's TRUE.  I know, this is confusing, because you've heard this many many gazillion times before and you went HAHA HAHA HAAAAAH and then thought secretly that it WAS true, JUST because it was on the internet, but NO.  No.  Stop that.  Bad doggy.

So here's the internet theory, and I actually first heard this from a guy I was sitting next to in computer class back in 1998, so it's not a new theory.  Supposedly, what happens when you crack your knuckles, is air either builds up in the synovial fluid between your joints, or the very cracking of your knuckles causes the air to build up there, something called the cavitation theory.  Now, cavitation is what happens behind a submarine when it rides through the water, but you can see a similar effect when you pour a glass of soda pop.  All that fizz coming up, is air bubbles forming in the liquid and rising to the top to pop.  That happens behind a submarine because of the giant blades of the sub's rotors forcing the liquid to stretch, which, according to the internet's explanation, happens when you crack your knuckles because you are stretching them to 3 times their normal range of motion.

Now, cavitation is real, carbonation is real, and if you actually DO stretch a liquid to three times it's normal volume, or something like that, I suppose it's entirely possible for bubbles to form in it.  So theorhetically at least, the whole "air bubbles forming in your joints" thing might SOUND correct.

But let's put it all together and see if it adds up, shall we?  First off, my joints, and those of most people, crack just going through the normal range of motion, not THREE TIMES the normal range of motion.  That's just ridiculous.  You're talking about twisting your head around from maybe 45 degrees to the left or right to like 130 degrees or so.  You twist a person's neck that far and well, you're talking about The Exorcist.  Knuckles go through a range of 90 degrees normally.  Three times that would be your knuckles pointing up through the back of your hand.  Next, you've got the actual sound.  Have you ever heard the sound a glass of pop makes when you pour it?  is it a loud POP?  No?  More of a fizzing noise, you say?  So, have you ever heard someone's knuckles fizz when they cracked them?  Yea, me neither.  Next, let's take how your joints feel after you actually do crack them.  They feel better, don't they?  More flexible, less painful?

I don't know about you, but that sounds like realigning joints that have gone slightly out of joint to me.  Which would also explain the crack noise.  But hey!  If you want to believe a bunch of little tiny bubbles form and then all pop at the same time, which makes a loud cracking noise through layers of bone, ligaments and muscles and flesh, well hey!  Who am I to disturb your beliefs, eh?

Next week, I take on catholicism.  lol

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!