Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Endorphin Machine

This morning, I was reading an interesting article at Cracked.com about immunity to pain. Here is a snippet:

"Welcome to the wonderful world of endorphins. The very name of this miracle substance means "morphine produced naturally in the body." It's the ultimate feel-good substance. It's released into the body during exercise, excitement and orgasm, and it has the power to dull or completely eliminate pain by coating the receiving end of the synapses in the brain that would otherwise receive pain signals from the rest of your body."

I had to chuckle as I experienced all three examples of endorphin release (exercise, excitement, and orgasm) last night. Looking over the Black Friday flyers, I thought it might be a good time to get a widescreen TV. I had planned on going to Wal-Mart to get one early Friday morning, but first wanted to stop somewhere to see what size TV would be best for our family room.

Yesterday evening, after eating at Friday's, my wife and I went to Best Buy. An employee greeted us at the door. I said to him, "You ready for the weekend?" He replied that retail employees are never really ready for the pandemonium that occurs the day after Thanksgiving.

We headed back to the TV's and realized that a 19" is way too small of a set. A 32" set would be much better while still being affordable; Wal-Mart's set was about $50 cheaper than Best Buy's. It was then that I noticed a sign which said, "Why wait until Black Friday to get this set when you can have it today?" Paying a bit more for Best Buy's set might be worth not having to get up early and braving the crowds on Friday for a TV that might not even be available by the time I got to it.

My wife and I discussed the matter before heading into the can to clear our heads a bit. The thought of having a 32" widescreen LCD TV in my home that very night is what caused me to feel genuine excitement. I was a bit light-headed and giddy, something that I rarely experience.

Once we brought it home, I wondered what DVD I should watch to test it out. I settled on the first "Lord of the Rings" movie (my favorite film of 2001). It was pure heaven.



The LCD made the picture much brighter and the colors were incredible. I laughed at many of the same parts as when I initially viewed the movie, something not typical for me.

I watched the first half of the film last night and plan to continue tomorrow; I have the extended edition (that's what she said) of all three movies which comes out to close to eleven hours, so I'll be occupied with them for the next several days.

Before watching "Rings", I walked 22 minutes on the treadmill which is where the exercise portion of the endorphin equation came in. I plan to put even more time on it this evening. The orgasm element came into play a bit later. I don't know which of the three gave me a greater high last night. Ultimately, it doesn't matter as I can do any and all of them pretty much anytime I want.

9 comments:

Rocketstar said...

That's it, a quick mention of the orgasm, no details of wild monkey sex witht he wife, nothing?

Rocketstar said...

email follow up comment

Unknown said...

gr8 buy tomsy!
$50 xtra to avoid heavy traffic......very smart.....!
Ok now! when, where and how did the orgasmic endomorphin kick in? don't tell me you experianced from LCD "endomorphin machine" eh.....!?!
"Looking forward to a post on the joys of orgasmic endorphin by years' end".......lol

Dave said...

Ok now please forgive me for what I am about to do but I really need some help on this from someone who I feel has a similar love of the art of film making as myself. I don't admit to this easily but it is something I have wanted to ask for a long time. Can you please erm... explain to me just what the hell is Lord Of The Rings all about?

There I have said it now please go easy on me but... it just seems to be an endless film about erm... WALKING!?!?!?

I watched the films at the cinema when they came out. I have the DVD box set but I still just do not get it. Everytime I watch them, or attempt to, all I see are people (or hobits etc)... walking??

I do understand it is the battle for middle earth but why is it considered so good? Why is it this huge cult that I just dont understand?

Sorry to be a philistine but I really haven't got this at all have I???

Thomas said...

Rocket, the reason I didn't go into detail regarding the orgasm is mostly because Fay covered it ridiculously well a couple days ago on her site; there was absolutely no way I was gonna be able to compete with that.

Narkissos, see above reply. You're right in that viewing a movie on LCD wasn't what gave me the O.

Dave, I appreciate the question. There are a number of film franchises I don't get, either, most recently Twilight. However, Twilight is not going to be nominated for Best Picture as all three Rings movies were. Nor will one of its films ever be the number 2 worldwide moneymaker (as the 3rd movie, Return of the King, is).

Now as to why I dig it, a little over a year ago, I wrote about my favorite movies of 2001. Here is what I had to say about Fellowship, the first one:

"I first became familiar with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien as a child when I saw an animated version of "The Hobbit" on TV. I loved the idea of a mythical world, a world in which an unassuming man could go on a great quest that would take him to the ends of the earth. The things he encountered would try his soul, but in the end, he would be a hero to all.

I was enthralled from the start as Gandalf came to visit Bilbo, the dwarves were introduced, Bilbo got lost in the cave and shared riddles with Gollum, Bilbo and his padres almost became troll soup, and the stirring conclusion in Smaug the dragon's cave.

As a youngster, my mom bought me a 4-book Tolkien set which included "The Hobbit" and the 3 Lord of the Rings books. I read some of the Hobbit, but never got around to the Rings (it was a bit over my head). I read a Rings knockoff called "The Elfstones of Shannara" by a guy named Terry Brooks when I was 14 and found it quite captivating, though I didn't purchase any of the sequels.

Though I was not familiar with the particulars of Rings, I was quite excited to hear in the late 90's that three movies were being made (at the same time) based on the novels. Call me lazy, but I much preferred to delve into Middle-Earth on the big screen rather than on the printed page.

As I mentioned earlier this week, "Harry Potter I" was a decent movie, but didn't seem to have a lot of magic to it. It sure wasn't a movie I planned on revisiting with any type of regularity. Some of the early reviews of "Fellowship of the Ring" were saying it was a top-notch movie, perhaps even a candidate to be nominated for Best Pic at the Academy Awards.

I didn't see it the first couple days it was out. I asked my friend if he would like to see it on a Saturday afternoon at the new theater (he hadn't been there yet). He was interested, so I went to pick him up. He was taking quite a while to get ready and it looked for a time like we might not make it to the show. We speeded to the Chateau and got our tickets.

There were quite a number of people waiting to be admitted to the screening room where "Fellowship" was to be shown. In fact, the people waiting made a kinda-circle around the interior of the theatre. My friend noted that this was quite appropriate since we were about to see a movie about the "one ring". He also was quite pleased with the design of the theatre (it had a castle theme with an 8-foot dragon on display and the ceiling painted with stars).

We ended up having to sit fairly close, but it didn't negatively affect our viewing of the film. My friend noted the great comfort of the seats and their rocking ability.

I was aware that the film took place several decades after "The Hobbit". I was enraptured from the start, especially at the sight of Hobbiton near the beginning of the movie.

I loved seeing Elijah Wood as Frodo reading a book and smoking a pipe while he laid against a tree. I chuckled as references were made by Bilbo and Gandalf to the experiences they had in "The Hobbit". I especially loved the mystical aspects of the film such as when the group went to Rivendell where the immortal elves lived."

Thomas said...

"I also enjoyed the fact that the movie was 3 hours, giving me plenty of time to soak up Middle-Earth. As the credits rolled and an Enya song played, I knew that I had seen something special. Perhaps it would end up being this generation's "Star Wars".

I knew it wasn't going to have a super satisfactory ending since it was the first of a trilogy, but thankfully instead of having to wait 3 years like most sequels, the wait would be a mere year. Course if I wanted to, I could just read the books and find out what happened, but I preferred to experience parts 2 and 3 at 24 frames per second.

I went to "Fellowship" 2 more times over the next couple months and bought the soundtrack a few months after that. On evening walks when passing houses that had lighting that automatically turned on, I would sometimes raise my arm just before it turned on and imagine that I was Gandalf lighting the way.

Though "Fellowship" didn't blow me away like "Titanic" in '97 or "American Beauty" in '99, it was a very rousing way to bring in the 21st century. Perhaps "The Two Towers" and/or "The Return of the King" would give me that high once again."

Unknown said...

wonderfully summarized LOR tomsy.....well done :)

Dave said...

Thomas, like you said the first film was never going to have a satisfactory ending because... well it wasn't the end but it did leave me wanting more. The second one I didn't like at all but I knew I was going to have to see the third one just to see how the story ended. The third film I also enjoyed. However, others seem to have more than enjoyed them and I have always felt like I have missed out somewhere on these films. I so want to really love them but have not been able to. Maybe they are due for another viewing some time soon - I will let you know how I get on.

Timothy Smith said...

I think you are right about LOTR being this generations Star Wars.

They could re-release it at any time for the next 50+ years and it would rake in the dough every time.

I was really into coding a MUD back in the day (like a text version of World of Warcraft back in 93-95) So I was burned out of the Magical D&D type world. I know the movies are top notch but I just dont get lost in them like most.

Congats on the TV.