Celiac's Back...

Well it seems as though I have eaten some bad stuffs over the Christmas holiday's...

I feel like complete and utter SHIT today and look probably worse than that even...

One of the major signs that you are a long time celiac is when you have a Distended Belly. This is also known as (intestine dysmotility) and I can assure you it's quite uncomfortable. The bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine causes bacterial peritonitis. Painful swelling that also causes bad breath and chronic fatigue.

Once again, I translate all that gobbledegook into plain English for us all...

I feel like complete and utter SHIT today and look probably worse than that even...

Nothing I can do except I have found that drinking lots of ice water helps I suppose it's a swelling thing. The day started off quite well, I got a problem with the basement washroom's exhaust fan sorted out and now it's properly venting to the outside world again...

Bah, I hope I feel better tomorrow...
Other than that not much exciting news going on I installed this live camera so you can see how miserable I really am and way down to the bottom right of the page under all the ads etc I installed a simple little counter script from some free counter place... Seems to work rather well.

Blah...

Death, Misery and all wonderful things...

Lets get something straight before I start to befuddle you with misery. I had a fantastic Christmas. In fact one of the best Christmas years to date... Oh sure I was sad about all the losses in 2008, my family and I have had a total of 3 family members die and a long time friend Marilyn Seeley. Got word that a dear neighbor passed away while giving birth to a baby boy (who by the way is healthy and doing well with his father). And our life long friend Deanna had a stroke two weeks ago but is recovering quite well at home with her family. We are waist deep in the world of medical miracles, five months into our lung transplant journey. We lost pets to Cancer, struggled financially too. But you know what? We still had one of the best Christmas seasons ever. And I can tell you without a doubt why...

We enjoyed the company of each other. We hugged frequently, we sang, we danced, we cooked together. We laughed and cried together, we went sledding together. We watched movies together and created crafts and music for each other. And by golly, if the powers that be think they are gonna come down and swoop up the last slice of joy we have. They are sadly mistaken because no matter what may be in store for us good or bad, there is one thing that can never be taken away. That one thing is our happy memories, the ones that have already happened. I believe that nothing can destroy what has already happened. It is forever recorded in time and so we have left our signature on the waves of time. Yes, I have much to be grateful for, the smiles and giggles of my children, the cold, glorious fresh breath I felt Christmas morning when I stepped out onto my porch to look at the white snow everywhere... The smile my daughter gives to me the moment just before she hugs me and says "I love you daddy" The way my boys explain to me how things work, how Santa magically soars through the atmosphere to bring all the boys and girls their presents. "It's not so amazing" they say to me, "It's just magic dad!". The rabbit who has been living in our serene undisturbed back yard. It's completely fenced in and with lock on the gate I won't even go into my back yard now because there is a rabbit there. I want the rabbit to feel totally safe and know that no dog or human will harm him. He or she is welcome to stay as long as they want. Or at least till spring when I start turning the earth to make my garden in 2009.

Thanks to noradsanta.com and santa's live webcams we were able to rekindle our kids Christmas spirit. The santa side of it anyhow... When they get a little older that is when I will explain the other side to it, the less magical side, the more realistic side of it.

We talked about the homeless with our kids, asked them to remember them each year as they enjoy their Christmas meals. "It will help put it into perspective for you" I say to them. "You'll understand just how it is to be grateful for something, when you can see that someone else clearly does not have the same simple pleasures that you do" Compassion is something that I hold high on my list of priorities. I believe I am a compassionate person, and I want my kids to be twice as compassionate as I am.

So all in all I guess the message here is that we are doing alright despite the constant words of sympathy I receive almost daily. People who know our story seem to feel sorry for us, but they really should not. People who tell me they can't believe that we are going through so much say they are not sure they could do it themselves. Well I say "bring it on", we are ready. And if the religious texts are right then God will not give me more than we can handle. I have to believe that in some complex plan that I do not yet understand, I am a part of a master plan that is perfect in every way.

All the best to each and every one of you in 2009 and beyond!

Mr Frantic...

OK so here I sit, taking a 5 minute break it's only early afternoon and it feels like 11pm here.. My bones are aching from the 3 hours snow shoveling event for which I crossed the finish line with the help of my neighbor. He and his family live behind me, there's quite a bit of distance between our houses and I only ever interact with his family during the summer when I'm in the back yard picking a peach off the tree or mowing the lawn. It's usually a 5 second "Hey how are you doing?" "Oh, I'm doing fine... Well have a nice day!"

So here I am bordering a cardiac event lifting the wet heavy snow with the old worn out shovel I bought from Rona last year... And I hear something off to the side of my house.. A familiar sound but one that is usually not so close...

Varoooommmmm, the sound of his snow blower making it's way down my long corner sidewalk... I guess he took pity on me because of all the cursing and swearing between gasps for air. His snow blower, I'm sure it's a bazillion horsepower or something. Snow tires and chains included... Came a blustering down the sidewalk with fury. Blowing that sloppy wet mess clear into the street. He waves to me, smiles then turns back the other way for the second pass. It's like he's both mocking me and lending a hand all in one.

:) Nice man

It's Christmas eve.. Merry frickin Christmas... For the love of fried chicken, go spend time with your family instead of reading this stupid blog!!!

I know I'm gonna go return to my family now...
Cheers!

Kitchen Fire... Quick, Someone Email 911!

OK so here I am helping a neighbor to set up his surround sound system and digital television terminal. My mother so graciously agreed to keep an eye on the chicken I left cooking on a relatively low heat in the oven. "I'll be back in ten minutes" I say to her as I swoop up the fibre optic patch cord to bring perfect digital sound from his receiver to his surround sound amplifier.

The systems all hooked up and we are enjoying the preview. The phone rings and my neighbor says "Just a minute he's right here".

"Hello?" I say...

"It's just your mother, Ummm the chicken smells like it's well done here could you come check on it?"

"OK mom, I'll be right there."

Hopping through the snow banks like a 220 pound jack rabbit I pounce onto my front porch and then into the house. I look in the oven and see quite a lot of smoke but the chicken's not burned, it's only about half way cooked in fact. So I get the oven mitts like a good housewife... errr I mean househusband and I proceed to remove the 3 inch deep dish from the oven. As I lift and begin to remove the dish I spill about 1/3 of the liquid into the oven. With the elements red hot like they were it only took about half a second after I had safely placed the chicken on a wooden chopping board. I've done this a thousand times before but all that chicken fat... POOF instant flames. I slam the door shut on the oven but there are flames jetting out from the seal on the door. In an instant I ran to the garage door and quickly grabbed the ABC fire extinguisher we purchased this past summer and return to put the fire out. POOF a puff of white extinquisher powder puts the flames out instantly. No damage to anything whatsoever except...

The kitchen, most of the hallway and my mother's bedroom are now covered in a snowy layer of extinguisher powder. A non flamable but probably toxic or cancer causing. OMG

So if that's not bad enough the nurse shows up to change the IV pic line in her left arm because it sprung a leak. Blood and IV fluid everywhere... We safely put away the german sheppard dog but forgot to put the retarded cocker spaniel in another room so when she walked in she started yelling at us that she's been bit by a dog recently and that I was to put all animals away. Ughhhh my blood pressure was through the roof at this time but I remained calm and put the dog away then proceeded to clean the oven. Four hours later I had to break the news to my wife that I had made a bit of a mess...

Anyhow being the typical geek that I am I enjoy watching the IT crowd, a British comedy that I wish I could find new episodes of but none the less here is a clip from one episode that I found rather amusing.

Life changes in a heartbeat...

Took me several hours to actually swallow the news. Another person I know has past away. I know her through my extended family and shall not name her out of respect for them all. I will say however that she was one of the kindest people I have ever met in my life and that I always looked forward to talking to her. Being a neighbor once in a while I would meet her at the grocery store where she worked, or in her front yard while she watered the lawn etc. She had a positive energy that radiated outward from her smile as she joked and giggled and I will miss that. She was also kind to my kids, her Son and my kids have had many hours of fun and a few friendly arguments and fights. Kids being kids I suppose. What makes this even more unusual to swallow for me is the circumstances behind her death. She had just delivered what I'm told is a baby boy who is in good health. Can you imagine what kind of emotional roller coaster this puts the new father into? What should be one of the happiest days of his life is also one of the worst days of his life, to top it off he has to help the boy he already has deal with losing their mother. And then on top of that we are days away from Christmas...

Life can be cruel sometimes...

All I can say is, not only does my heart go out to her family in the biggest way possible. I also feel for my family who I know were super close to her and her family. They were in all senses of the words, "Best Friends" and I pray that they will all get the healing they so need at this time...

Santa's Webcam

Yeah that's right, Santa's got a webcam...
Don't believe he's real?
Check it out for yourself by clicking on the image! My kids and I tune in every year to see this, we also goto NORAD and track santa, it's a fun Christmas eve tradition we've had for a few years now.

Christmas is fast approaching and my kids are getting excited...

My Son's New Friend...

Just a short video clip, my kids all got new pets recently, the two boys got rats and my girl well she got a new hamster because the boys left the girls hamster in the rats cage overnight.... Ummm I do not recommend you try this at home kids, it never turns out well and there is a lot of crying involved. Anyhow on with the short video my son made for Gord, his new found friend and hero :)

Lung Salvage

My mom is part of a research study called "Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion" You can read about it at CTV's website.

This study we have been told can increase the chance of finding a suitable donor since they will accept donors who are not just brain dead and will also use lungs that may be damaged. Car accidents are one such situation where lungs are normally not donated if the lungs are damaged in some way. Although that is not at all why we signed up for the program since there are obvious risks to trying a therapy that is so new. We signed up for it though because we recognize that our success or failure in a study like this will definitely benefit others who are going through a similar life saving event in their life.

More information can be found here!

Snow Day!!!

Ok so it wasn't a snow day for the kids, "THANK GOD!" hahaha It was rather a snow day for my mom and I. Wife had to work so here is how the day unfolded...

Woke up early around 6am and did some computer work while the rest of the family stumbled out of bed... We decided we would leave a bit later for Toronto despite the weather warnings because heck I spent 500 bucks on good snow tires so I was not worried about going to Toronto on a day like this. I love driving in this weather and even though I miss my dodge durango like crazy 4x4 was amazing in that thing I have no troubles getting through the foot and a half of snow that is on the road...

So 8:30 rolls around snow's starting to get crazy, I drove my kids to school, made sure they were open and then drove my wife to work. After that my mom and I were on the 410 on the way to Toronto...

Well... this is where the fun started... This one and that one slipping and sliding like crazy. So by the time we got down near the Hersey Centre I looked at my mom and said..

"You know what mom? We deserve a break today!"

hahahaha Off to Walmart we went, then to Zellers... had a great time shopping for friends. And I gotta tell you, it was a friggin' HOOT watching my mom crash into all them shoppers with the motorized cart Walmart so graciously loaned her..

OMG I wish I had captured some of it for YouTube. My mom and I were laughing are heads off and it was so funny because when she crashed into someone they quickly turned to us like they were going to screem.. Then in an instant their faces turned to sympathy as they looked down at my mom's terribly bruised arms. She's got a 24/7 IV pump giving her a strong dose of antibiotics to fight of some insane ARO which means "Antibiotic Resistant Organism"

I had a really great day with my mom today, we really connected and after so many months of just doing the daily grind.. hospital to clinic to home then back to hospital... It was the break that we truly needed...

It's close to 6pm now and the nurse who was suppose to be here at 3:30pm isn't here.. I guess it's weather related but I'm gonna have to just phone and make sure she didin't forget us.

And The pharmacy who I faxed mom's latest prescription too says they won't be able to even get a new medication my mom's been prescribed, until Monday... W00T??? doesn't the delivery guy have snow tires?

For got sakes people we are Canadian we should be used to this crap already!

Anyhow I have a new SDHC memory card for my pocket PC but I'm having trouble getting my laptop to recognize it... On my way back to the task I go...

OH FARK! Forgot to mention the 3 feet of snow and how fun it was to clear off our driveway... The kind neighbor took a quick run on one side of my house with his snow blower so that took away about an hour worth of hard labour but it was still a bugger to clean... I expect MUCH more by tomorrow :)

I Can't wait!

Spreading Christmas Cheer...

If your the kind of person who loves to give liquor as gifts, and you feel you might be offended by what I have to say.

CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO A BETTER PLACE!

The rest of you not so easily offended, keep in mind these blogs are MY opinion, not yours so you don't have to agree. While finishing up the Christmas shopping with the wife today we were discussing how some people give liquor to people as gifts. I suppose if you know the person really well you might know if that person had an addiction problem. However I have known people in my life who functioned very well as alcoholics, even better than some who were not addicted to any vice at all in fact. But I reflect back on how I had given them little bottles of whiskey or something similarly toxic and wonder if perhaps I had contributed to the state they are in now. It was a completely harmless gift I thought, or was it?

I guess I'll never know how my gift of booze affected my friends, but I think I will refrain from giving addiction based materials in the future gifts to those who I feel so inclined to give a gift too.

And what's up with the whole Secret Santa thing anyhow? I hate the pressure we all endure during Christmas to begin with. Why do we give gifts to people just because we feel it is necessary to, or because we were put into some raffle? I can literally smell a mile and a half away when someone gave a gift out of obligation and not from the heart. I won't mention anyone's names, I'm not spiteful but I just wish people would avoid giving me gifts if they really don't give a damn about me...

I reflect now on a truly heartfelt gift I received when I turned 30. At my 30th birthday party the girlfriend of a close friend and coworker gave me a simple yet heartfelt gift. It was an English fedora with a quail feather in it and some fishing hooks. It was a gift that at the time reflected a really great fishing trip we had all taken that year and I never forgot it.

I miss them dearly, grew farther and farther apart... well 4000km's or so at minimum... :(

I hope they are doing well but I've lost contact with them...

Teenaged Bug Guts!

OK so It's 3:45pm and the dog starts getting restless, she knows that my three little amigo's are always home from school at that time. I've drilled it into them for years now that they are to always stick together no matter what happens and they are to never leave their siblings alone because that would create a very unsafe situation for them.

So 3:50pm still no kids, I look out the 2nd floor window down the street and no kids... Dog's freakin' out at this time she's usually there at the door and the kids are never late they get their somewhat anal attitude about being on time from me... So I hop in the car and drive down the road. No sooner do I turn onto the main street my three little monsters begin to smile, obviously happy that I have come to rescue them. They get in and explain that one of them (my oldest boy) had detention for swearing at some kids who were bullying him. Well I know that he is constantly being bullied I have witnessed it myself in the neighborhood. He has some developmental delay issues that we are trying to work out with his pediatrician and so I do not focus on issues like this. I am however in a struggle with the teachers trying to reassure them that I am doing everything I can to sort this out with the doctors and that they just have to do what they can to keep his world full of education and not negativity. So far so good.. I think...

Anyhow at this point, being the fantastic husband that I am I make the decision to go get coffee from the Tim hortons for my wife and my mother with the spare change I have in the car... Fair enough, everything goes well up to this point "Welcome to Tim Hortons blah blah blah... " You get the idea.. I leave the parking lot with the coffee's secured in the cup holders, change over to the turning lane where I'm going to turn left. As I accelerate towards the intersection, now doing about 40km/hr out of nowhere two fucking teenagers jump through traffic and into the lane I'm in... With NOwhere for them or myself to go I slam on the brakes and move over to the left as far as I can. I stop inches from both girls and with one of them having placed their hand on the hood of my car they both stare at me for about 3 seconds then break into laughter!

W000T! what the hell are they thinking? At 40km/hr had I not been able to stop both of them would have been either killed or seriously injured and I would have spent Christmas thinking about what a shmutz I was for what happened and as I opened my presents would have broken down into a pile of guilty goo!

Rush hour traffic, hundreds of cars on the road and these two whacked out kids decide to play frogger on the highway...

AHHHHHHHHHHH!

:) I'm ok now, had the chance to vent... and they aren't dead they are ok... So all is well and I can relax again...

Split Personalities...

Well it's no secret that I post my thoughts in many different place on the network. It seems though that this particular blog has become very personal and is more like a diary than anything else. I have decided to start a new blog where I can place my geeky comments and reviews of various technology bits and bytes.

You can visit that blog at http://terminalgeek.blogspot.com Don't expect much just yet I've only just begun but I will try to keep this one more personal and that one more related to my hobby...

An open letter to all my friends and readers...

First off...
I've started sharing some photos on the menu bar to the right. There are only a few there right now but this will increase as I crop and clean photos of my choosing. These are my photographs and shall remain my property until the day when my organs are harvested and shared with others. Until that time, you are more than welcome to view and quite possibly enjoy them.

(speaking of sharing with others)
So what are you getting me for Christmas?
You really shouldn't have, I don't want you to purchase anything. The economy sucks right now and besides I always feel like if there is something I want, I'll just buy it myself... I don't even want you to make anything for me this year. No Gluten free Christmas cakes or wooden trinkets you carved with only your fingernails and a shot of whiskey. I do want you to consider one gift for me though. Even if it takes until the new year to decide. I receive Christmas cards just like most people do. I have received a few from you already in fact and I thank you very much, your very kind.

I would like to make one quick request. The gift that I want from each and every one of my readers is for you to sign your donor cards OR to at least speak to your relatives about your wishes to donate your organs.

"OMG this nut job is asking me to give my organs to him?"

No, my dear friends I'm not asking you to rip your beating heart out of your chests. I'm not wishing you were dead either, in fact quite the opposite! What I'm hoping for is a world where we ALL have signed our donor cards and so when in that very dark time in your life you meet face to face with death. That you and I might BOTH have a chance to remain alive because some amazing person had thought ahead and signed their card and discussed their wishes with someone who they knew would be there when they did die.

And have you considered, that when your family or friends are there with you at your life's end, that it will be one of the most difficult times of their lives? It won't really matter to you because when your dead you'll be floating on a cloud next to that crazy Philadelphia cream cheese eating lady from the commercials. Yeah, you know the one I'm talking about...

Organ donation will make it just that much easier for the people responsible for you when they know that you've requested it personally. They won't have to question it, they will just KNOW that you asked for it and that will give them peace. The peace that they will require in the greatest time when they feel "helpless" and "powerless". They will feel that they do have a choice, and that their choice can help others to live... What could possibly be more powerful than that? And ultimately it will be them who decides, not you.

It costs NOTHING except perhaps the cost of a postage stamp, even less if your just talking about your choice with your family. But what it means to me and to so many others is that the struggle to stay alive might finally find a solution. The grim suffering on one end, can help multiple others on the other end. This relationship happens anonymously. For me, my mother will be able to live for many more years instead of the one or two years the doctors predict in her current condition. Her quality of life failing just a little each day.

The color would return to her skin soon after her surgery. That warm color that every child remembers seeing in the face of their mother as a child. And her struggle to breath as she performs simple tasks such as walking from her bedroom to the washroom, or pushing a vacuum around on the carpet. Being her primary support person, a job I can assure you is full time. The chance that my life might return to normal again too is tantalizing. I will be able to work during normal business hours instead of filling oxygen tanks and eating fast food from the hospital. Or driving to and from doctor's appointments and pharmacies.

I have met literally hundreds of people in the past 6 months who are experiencing the amazing gift of life in one way or another. From soft spoken people from the east coast, to big burly lumberjacks from British Columbia they are all human beings like you and I. All of them had healthy productive lives at one time. Now they are doing the best that they can to maintain their lives. While I believe their quality of life could improve, that would be purely based on individual situation. You see, I believe my mother's quality of life is affected by her illness but that in any situation you will find that people make up their own quality of life based on how they react to their surroundings. My mother for example, loves her 7 grand children so much. She has fixated on this to be her main reason for living and it reflects in her smile every day. Literally between the gasps of air I see her crack a smile when the kids do something ridiculous. It's uncanny that when your suffering so much you can still find joy. She does have enjoyment in life and has stated many times that she loves life but she is constantly trying to balance it with the hardships of illness.

The Gift of LIFE!

Please sign your donor card...
Talk to your family...

You certainly don't need your own blog or web page to make your wishes known. Just mention it to the people who will most likely have to deal with your death when it happens.

IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE!

Take your head out of the sand and start thinking about your future. Consider how much easier it will be for your family to deal with your tragic end when they know that this will give others life. I am making my wishes public to show you that It's so easy to share your wishes with your loved ones and that organ donation is not some taboo subject that needs to be private.

"Friends, Family, and all who are reading this... In the event of my death please know that I wish to share the gift of life by donating my organs to others."

Ok, Ok, so how do I go about doing this?
Once again, talk to your family? It doesn't have to consume your entire day but just make sure they hear you say "I want my organs to be available to others when I die" You can also sign a card when you go to the motor vehicles office to renew your license and pay your tickets...

If your in Canada You can go (HERE) to register your wishes!

And if your an American you can go (HERE) to register your wishes!

Did you know you are able to choose which organs you donate?
It's all handled with absolute respect for your family, your religious beliefs and if they have specific wishes in how you are handled or just preference of which organs they do not want harvested they will be heard.

In closing friends...
From the bottom of my heart I want to thank you, I believe the choice is a natural one for all of us. And if you have any medical or personal questions about it or spiritual reservations about it I know of someone at the Toronto General Hospital who I would be more than happy to forward your questions or concerns too. Take it from some one who is submerged in the lives of so many transplant people, I have seen the sucesses come back from surgery one at at time and they all glow with an amazing rejuvination. The color of their skin, the bounce in their step... I am so excited each time I see another success.

Feel free to comment on this message or email me and I will try to answer your message as quickly and accurately as possible.

Have yourself a "SAFE" and Merry Christmas in 2008.

Daddy Cam...

OK well for no other reason other than to amuse myself the webcam will be streaming this weekend...

Seeee? My webcam is live! ------------------------------------------------------------>

It will also give me the ability to see which of my children is using the computer behind where I sit. While I'm out and about I'll be able to check home to see if they are behaving themselves...

Bah, I'm really exhausted today for no reason other than working on a perl script for the past two hours and having problems debugging it...

I am quite pleased however that the new 2.3GB iso I mounted under a virtual machine is functioning as expected...

Gawd, I'm such a geek...
I sure hope admitting it is the first step to recovery because it seems I'm stuck in this damn loop...

Microsoft's Brain Fart!

Imagine I build a new brand of car. Millions of them are sold, and occasionally when you get to a red light, as you slow down to stop your car suddenly stalls without warning. You have to start it back up again and sometimes the engine just turns over for a while before starting. So you take it to a garage and tell the mechanic.. "My car stalls without any apparent reason, just quits sometimes while I'm using it..." "In Fact" you say, "I think it's rather dangerous... " The mechanic looks at you and says yeah it's just the way this model of car is.. you'll just have to deal with it because there are problems deeply embedded in the makeup of the car that the manufacturer just isn't willing to deal with.

Out of Redmond Washington on November 18th, 2008 Microsoft announced their plans to release a free anti virus software solution that runs with such light resources that it can even function on a windows 98 machine... Uhhhh pardon me but guys Isn't this a decade too frickin' late? You create an entire line of computer operating systems that are riddled with problems and somehow manage to go from the extremely unstable 3.x versions to the fairly stable XP and now Vista and now suddenly you release this band aid solution to keep external problems out?

Now don't get me wrong, I've used the free windows defender for a few years now and feel that it has protected me quite well. But just how is this new project code named "Morro" suppose to be accepted by the thousands of people who avoided this operating system for stability and security reasons?

Rootkits, and trojans, spyware, and viruses... All have become sort of like the much anticipated car that stalls at every fourth or fifth red light. You just deal with it.... Reboot your computer and the problem will go away right?
Your solution is entirely toooooooooo late!

The other thing that bothers me, I have always felt that somehow the antivirus software developers of the world have had a hand in creating and or at least perpetuating both the virus scare and the streamlined code that makes up these nasty little "de"buggers... I mean come on, can you think of a better way of selling ice cream than to get all the teenaged kids in the neighborhood hooked on pot? Munchies anyone?

In closing, how is this going to affect companies like Mcaffee or Norton... I find it hard to believe that people are going to be continuing to renew their licenses when they can get protection right from the horses mouth... The demise of the anti virus software industry may happen quicker than you can say "Mass Lay Off's".

Anyhow, congrats Microsloth for finally including the protection that should have been built into your product from day one... I would not have minded a six floppy disk install instead of the five I received when I purchased windows 3.0 and probably wouldn't have seeked out an alternative operating system had yours not stalled at every fourth red light...

Oh and, Bahh Humbug day is approaching... UghhhH!

A new week begins...

Well a lot has happened in our family this weekend... Returned a ring to it's owner, bought a pet rat for my son etc... But the one thing that I am most thrilled with is that I dedicated some time to rekindling a few friendships by way of Facebook and MSN...

Asside from a few distant family members and such, 90% of the people on my facebook list are people that i've literally known for 30 years'ish. I was a troubled kid but really valued my friends and thanks to the wonders of technology I have been able to recap on some pretty amazing life changing memories shared by some of my dearest friends from the past.

I don't believe in mentioning names in blogs or elsewhere on the internet for that matter because I believe that those details are better left anonymous. Being a geek I am well aware of how something you write online can bite you in the a$$ many years later. Here is an example of a news group post I posted in 1995. Nothing you do on the internet is erased there is always some sort of trail... :) Big brother is watching you... The earliest post I found of myself was in and around 1985 I remember using the TIN news reader through a telnet session from my Amiga 1000. The owner of the Computer Shop of Calgary set me up with an account at Canuck BBS and showed me a few things I could do...

Anyhow a huge thank you to all the people I knew from the past we all seemed to have turned out to be pretty decent people despite the storms we weathered as a child...

Cheers!

Lord of the Rings...

The other day while driving home from the hospital my mother begins talking about a ring that was in my youngest boy's possession. The ring had a blue stone in it, was obviously some kind of graduation ring and had a name inscribed on the inside of it. When my mother brought the ring to my attention I started to ask the questions... Son where did you get this? his answer was that he found it with a friend while walking across the bridge near his school "TWO YEARS AGO" wow... I was flabbergasted that he had it this long without us knowing. He had apparently placed it on a teddy bear of his and there it remained all this time. Well since it had a name inscribed I figured being a high school grad ring that person would probably be on facebook. Sure enough they exist within the realm of facebook. It was really strange because I had just been so focused on returning the ring that I didin't stop to think how the other person could possibly view this as an internet stalking... hahahaha The name on the ring I thought was a guy but turns out it was a girl so that added to the scaryness of it all.

So what happened was I took a few pictures of the ring and one with my son holding the ring. Immediately she recognized my son as one of the kids that went to her son's school. I think at that point she started to relax a little since she gave me her address and we dropped off the ring...

Anyhow after finding the person we realized that my son had been given the ring by her son who for some reason had a habit of taking stuff from their house and either giving it away or losing it... Not really an unusual thing for a child to do I suppose... But the thing that really perplexed me is how the ring survived two years on a teddy bear then found it's way back to it's rightful owner...

Very cool :)

BTW Mom didin't take the news of the new rat so badly, in fact she is holding him right now as I type... I think we will all get along just fine...

AHHH, RAT!!!

My youngest boy has been asking for a mouse for months on end... He prepared one of the old fish aquariums we had with some bedding and a dish, exercise wheel etc... Well since he was able to set all this up himself and maintain the cage without a tenant, my wife and I figured today would be the day I'd take him to the pet store and get him a mouse. Unfortunately for me they only sell frozen mice... for snake food :) So after being able to handle a rat in the store for a few minutes, my overly excited son decided "nibbles" the rat would come home with him instead... Yup, he had a name picked out a long time ago...

He's one happy camper.... Errr well I guess they both are, Nibbles has already jumped out of the open top on the aquarium so we are scrambling to find a way to contain him and yet still allow him to breath.

Oh, BTW my wife did not approve the last minute decision to get a rat instead of a mouse. So if your reading this blog for work, honey... Ahem, I was only kidding it's actually just a full grown mouse who looks strikingly similar to a rat... they had no baby mice for sale and the ones they had there seemed a little cold...

~ Gone fishing with Tom,
Huck

Quick Note tonight...

Since I'm overly tired from today's events.... That being the kids off school for parent teacher interviews... I will make this one as brief as possible though I feel I need to blog at least part of the day...

First off, I know it's not likely that she will ever read my blog since she probably has no idea that I even have a blog. But I want the lady who asked for my daughter to be removed from the treadmill room to know that I understand completely her reasoning behind the request. Having Cystic Fibrosis can not be a treat, and infections being so easy to obtain in a world of snot wielding children and viruses that have had a million years or more to develop. I do understand your logic, and I would have done exactly the same thing had I been in your shoes today... I am however perplexed about something... My daughter, 10 years old has been living with her grandmother since the day of her birth. Her grandmother was even there to witness the miracle first hand. During my daughter's ten years she has had the chance to be educated on her grandmother's illness and knows that regularly washing her hands and wearing protective gloves can save her grandmother's life. She has seen a few close calls where her grandmother almost lost the battle in the ICU wards and is very concerned about contamination, so much so that my daughter chooses to carry alcohol cleanser at all times and does not hesitate to use it frequently during the day. Now with that being said... Why was it my 10 year old daughter with all her care giving experience that was asked to leave the room. When there was a baby in a small baby stroller with obvious croup cough sneezing and coughing. Why were they allowed to be in the room? Wasn't this a far greater concern to the people who run the program? I found this very odd indeed. The baby was there when I left my mother at the start and was also there when I returned to pick up my mother... Oh well, 'nuff said... I had very little in the way of options today so I was forced to bring my children with but was a bit dissapointed that I could not leave my daughter to take care of her grandmother while I watched my two boys.

Seems this has not turned into a simple blog but none the less I will go on... Got a call from the Sick Kids hospital, the medical records I had requested from the Georgetown hospital never arrived at the Sick Kids for my son's surgeon. Yet another thing I must take care of...

WTF, I mean just... WTF!

ok so at 11:50pm the stupid pager goes off... scared the livin' bejesus out of me because I was already sound asleep, sawing logs like my life depended on it... I awake to the sound of my mother freaking out and wheezing beyond control...

The number on the front was all scrambled and didin't resemble a phone number at all so as per instructions we call the hospital...

TO - "Transplant ward..."

ME - "Hi, my mother's pager just went off but the number on the screen is scrambled. Her name is Dorothy Millette"

TO - "OK hang on, let me check ..."

The phone goes silent for a few moments...

TO - "Hi, yes it says here there is a lung transplant here for tonight but your mother's name isn't the one that was called. If the pager goes off again please call us back..."

ME - Dumbfounded and still in a stooper... "Uhhhh... Ok so " not really sure what to say I proceed... "OK so just call you if it goes off again?"

TO - "yup, that's right..."

ME - "OK thanks then... Good Bye!"

WTF, for the past hour I've been feeling like we missed the call... lost out on a chance because I've made a few changes to our phone system and added a simple menu script. You know, the kind that pisses you off when you phone some company and it says... "To speak to sales press one, To order a gluten free pizza press two... ETC..." This was in response to Rogers automated piss off machine constantly phoning me because they have put my account in collections... So now our phones don't ring until an actual human picks a number related to who in the house they want to speak too!

No Ted Rogers, I don't owe your fucking Estate any money, you plain ripped my ass off and your not getting a dime from me!

'Nuff said,
I feel much better after that rant, hahahaha Have a great night!

Software Review...

OK I have to share with all the geeks out there some fantastic software I have stumbled across.

A year or so ago I was running Vmware to add a windows compatability layer to my Linux distribution. A virtual machine offers severe performance advantages over emulation so it was the way to go for me. I have been running Linux as my primary desktop since the early 1980's. I have never been a big fan of pirated Microsoft software and so I being the cheap bastard that I am looked for an alternative to Windows. My Amiga was a unix like OS and so I was already comfortable with the Command Line Interface or CLI, the move to Linux was just a natural one to me. Above: Original Amiga 1000

Recently I had been listening to a friend rave about VirtualBox, how fast it is and how well it supports hardware as a much improved virtual machine over vmware. VirtualBox is produced and released free by the Gods at Sun Microsystems and so I was willing to give it a chance.

Well I had this Acer piece of crap laptop that I spent 600 bucks on in Calgary and in less than a year the laptop had died on me. The so called support team at Acer refused to help me get the laptop fixed for any reasonable price. They said the best they could do is replace the laptop for around 500 bucks... W00T? I am stuck with this piece of crap that doesn't work? Stupid Acer, I will never recommend or buy another one, they are made with cheap plastic that cracks and fades within months anyhow... Ok enough of the anger... I installed VirtualBox on my linux ubuntu distro and created a drive of 2GB... Then I used the windows license I paid for when I bought that stupid ACER laptop to install WindowsXP Home Edition... not sure why I made such a small drive cause Windows is a pig... But I guess I was thinking that the option to dynamically resize the partition would apply if I needed space in the future... what it actually means is that the actual space on your physical drive is only the size of the data that is contained in the virtual drive and so you have a maximum dynamic state of up to the 2Gb... So I suggest you make a larger drive to begin with in VirtualBox...

Anyhow now for the software I recommend highly... I was looking for a way to clone this virtual drive and I stumbled across yet another awsome Linux ISO disk. It's called G4U - Harddisk Image Cloning for PC's the iso can be burned to a real CD to be booted in the drive or it can be loaded by VirtualBox as if it were a physical CD. Now this is awsome!

On to what it does...

G4U has the ability to copy a disk to disk partition just like Norton Ghost does, or if you don't have a second drive installed... you can use the FTP option to upload the hard drive image to an FTP location and then back down to several or a single system. This is a FANTASTIC feature!

And so I was able to clone my 2 gb virtual partition to the new 25 gb virtual partition which should leave room for all the basic programs and files...

This is FREE and quality software folks... If your a geek, and you need to clone hard drives, this is for you!