and many more on channel 4 and Frankenstein on channel 9 and the rest on CBS.
Love
Dad, Mom, Sis, baby, and Tucker
p.s.
Sure hope you liked your birthday present.
Tonight is a sad night for us San Francisco Giants fans. Tonight ends another era for the Giants franchise. Barry Bonds #25 is playing his last game at AT&T Park in San Francisco. I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about Barry over this last couple of years. For a die hard Giants fan I find myself being emotional over Barry leaving the Giants.
I have watched the ups and downs that Barry has had as a Giants player. I hope others do not dispute the fact that he is the Home Run King with 762 career home runs. I will never give up on my Giants but I know I will have a hard time adjusting without him next year. As I did with Shaq O’Neil of the LA Lakers. I will keep an eye on Barry where ever he decides to go. I consider AT&T Park the house that Bonds built. I only hope maybe after a couple/few years when he decides to retire the Giants will bring him back to let him retire as a San Francisco Giants where he deserves to be.
Good luck #25, Barry Bonds you will be missed and remember your Giants fans love you.
Hola, Como esta usted? Which means ‘Hello, How are you?’
Came across a website called Mango Language it’s a site you can learn a new language for free. They offer a variety of languages such as Spanish, Russian, French, German, Japanese and many others. I took a look at the Spanish for two lessons and it teaches through repetitiveness. I found that you can highlight a word and it will repeat what it sounds like so you can practice a word as well as click on the speaker to hear the whole sentence again. Here is a screen shot of a lesson from Mango.
If you interested in trying out a new language the price is right (zero dollars). If you found this site useful please post a comment so other readers know what you think.
Thanks
JB
We sit and we type and we stare at our screens,
We can’t help but wonder what all of this means.
With mouse in hand …we roam through this maze,
On an infinite search…lost in a daze.
We chat with each other, we type all our woes
At times we’ll band together to gang up on our foes.
We wait for somebody, to type out our name
We want recognition, but it is always the same.
Soon friendships are formed - but - why we don’t know,
But some of these friendships, will flourish and grow.
We give kisses and hugs, and sometimes we’ll flirt,
In IMs we chat deeply, and reveal why we hurt.
Why is it on screen, we are so easily bold,
Telling our secrets, that have never been told.
The answer is simple, it is as clear as a bell,
We all have our problems
We can’t tell real people, but tell someone we must
So we turn to our computers …and to those we can trust.
Even though it sounds crazy…the truth still remains,
Most of my “friends” have no faces…and odd little names.
Adapted from “Friends Without Faces” by Tom Teague
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the electronic ’smiley face’ : - ). September 19, 1982 at 11:44 am Carnegie Mellon University Professor Scott Fahlman put three characters together to make the now famous :-). During a discussion Mr. Fahlman was having on a bulletin board (do you remember bulletin boards?) he was commenting about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly. He then went on to say “I propose the following character sequence for joke makers, : - )’, wrote Mr. Fahlman. Click here to read the Unversity’s official press release about this monumental event.
Computer science and linguistics professors contacted by The Associated Press said they were unaware of who first used the symbol.
“I’ve never seen any hard evidence that the : - ) sequence was in use before my original post, and I’ve never run into anyone who actually claims to have invented it before I did,” Fahlman wrote on the university’s Web page dedicated to the smiley face.
“But it’s always possible that someone else had the same idea _ it’s a simple and obvious idea, after all.”
Computer science and linguistics professors contacted by The Associated Press said they were unaware of who first used the symbol.
“I’ve never seen any hard evidence that the : - ) sequence was in use before my original post, and I’ve never run into anyone who actually claims to have invented it before I did,” Fahlman wrote on the university’s Web page dedicated to the smiley face.
“But it’s always possible that someone else had the same idea _ it’s a simple and obvious idea, after all.”
Digital ‘smiley face’ turns 25: Web’s ubiquitous ‘colon-hyphen-parenthesis’ celebrates a milestone.
This is where the emotional icons (a.k.a. emoticons) originated. In case you are not aware the Internet began as bulletin boards from Universities to Universities and then for those that had computers with modems. I remember dialing into David Harter a friend/mentor’s bulletin board in the late 80’s early 90’s from Misawa Japan when I was in the Navy. I struggle with the name of the BBS but I am sure he will make a comment and if he would remind me and the readers the name of the BBS that would be great.
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear 
Happy Birthday to you,
and many more…….
Thank you Professor Scott Fahlman.
JB
Wednesday - 9-12-07
1830 while conducting business on my cell phone my heart started to race a little and I developed some tightening of the chest. Thought it was a little odd and continued on with my evening. Within an hour or so I was sweating and the tightness was still there. Finally I told my Tammy (wife) to take me up to Mercy Hospital emergency room to get looked at.
Mercy immediately got me in and hooked me up to heart monitoring equipment. Stuck an IV in me and gave me a bag of Sodium Chloride and drew labs to check my heart enzymes. An x-ray tech came in and to do a chest x-ray to be looked at by the doctor. Hooked me up for a EKGand told me to lay there silent and not to move for 45 seconds. The whole time I had them speaking to Dr. Hauesslien my cardiologist.
They decided they wanted to admit me for observation and perform a stress test tomorrow. Well that leads to after midnight and waiting for a room. I decided what the heck I would start writing a post for the blog. Now the big question is what in the world was I experiencing? Because I have had no issues up to this point they want to make sure something is not creeping back up. I find it very odd at the time of the tightness I was on my cell phone crunched over which means it was pretty darn close to my defibrillator. Could be pure coincidence but strikes me as very odd. I am extremely disappointed at this happening. I DO NOT want to see my heart issue to resurface after all I have been through. I was just informed there are no monitoring rooms to house me. That means I stay right here in the emergency room for the night. Uugggg
Thursday - 9-13-07
0400 Slept for a couple of hours. The lady next door was having a catheter put in and she was not happy about it. That noise woke me up not to mention I needed to use the restroom. Still in the ER waiting for morning to do a stress test.
In hindsight I wish I would have just went home to lay down to see if this would have subsided. In my mind something was not right and for a little over two years have had nothing like this happen. That is what brought me in to be looked at I did not bargain for staying overnight. If it were not for the sweating that came over me after the chest tightness I probably would have skipped coming into the ER.
0600 Damn just like clockwork someone came in to withdraw blood. Talk about being thrown back two years. It’s like I never left the hospital in San Francisco. Amazing how things like this can sure make you remember. For example breakfast is here and to my painful delight there are those famous powdered eggs I so do not miss. Needless to say I skipped those this morning. I ate the hash brown and two links of bacon skipped the eggs, oatmeal, OJ, and milk. I normally don’t eat those things anyways.
1100 asked the nurse when I was going in for the stress test. Wanda (nurse) informed me that I was not going in for a stress test. My labs came back with higher than normal heart enzymes (troponin’s were 2.7) which indicate something happened to my heart and now I was going to be admitted into the Cardiac Tele ward to wait for Dr Russ to come talk to me about my ‘options’. Of course Wanda did not know what that meant.
1200 taken up to my room and hooked up to heart monitors and an IV. Was informed I am to have no food until speaking to the doctor. When in the world is that is the question no one can seem to answer.
1315 A nurse came in to withdraw a vail of blood to check my heart enzymesone more time. Here it is 1425 and Paul (nurse) came in with my meds. Had to inform him I do not take the lisinoprilthis early. So I took Coreg, protonix and a baby aspirin. Still no word on when the doctor will be in to speak to me. Had a little lunch at 1518 and waiting for doctor.
1830 Doctor Russ came in and we discussed what he and Doctor Hauesslien decided. They want to do a cardiac catheterization to see if there is any blockage in my arteries. I agreed and they had me scheduled for 0800 tomorrow and I will be staying in the hospital to do some preoperative procedures.
2015 told I will need to shower and shave the southern regions. This is in preparation of my procedure in the morning. They handed me this wet/dry shaver that did not help matters. I did what I thought was enough and my nurse did not agree she had to help finish it up and boy that was smarts. Back in bed talking to my Dad and finishing up some paperwork for the procedure tomorrow.
2315 I was awoken by a nurse yelling out ‘call a code Blue’, call a code blue and then within seconds people are running to the room across the hall. I heard people talking about someone falling out of the bathroom and had no pulse and was not breathing. A whole host of people ascended on to the room to revive this person. Sounded like they were able to revive him. Talk about dramatic, wow what an ordeal that was. My nurse came in shortly after and checked my vital’s and gave me my Coreg med and time to try and get some sleep.
Friday - 9-14-07
Cardiac Catheterization day
0345 BEEP, BEEP, BEEP I was awaken by, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP my IV monitor was informing us it was about to run out. Nurse came in and turned it off and unplugged me from it.
0430 I was awaken by the morning vampire. They took two vials of blood, one for another heart enzymes test and the other for a CBC panel. Then my regular nurse came in and got my vitals.
0630 the nurse informed me that I had to take a benadryl and valium at 0700 in preparation for my procedure. Then they will be hauling me off to surgery about 0730. This will be my last entry until I get out of my procedure and get coherent.
0730 I was loaded into a wheel chair and wheeled down to the Cardiac cath lab. They opened the door to the room and I thought for sure it was going to start snowing in there it was freezing. They had me lie down on the table so they could start prepping me. Luckily they put 150 degree blanks on me which made it much nicer in there. People were preparing the area getting the monitors in place and preparing the tray of goodies they were going to be using. The anesthesiologist walked up and said she was going to give me a local to start the process and then all I remember was waking up and someone pushing on my groin. At that moment I thought I was being worked on and being a wake. I said wait I am starting to feel what you’re doing and the lady said well honey were all done. I was amazed at the fact that I slept right through the procedure. Don’t get me wrong that is a good thing. They said that some people watch what they’re doing but not feel anything. They put some sort of compression press on that sealed off my artery so that I would not bleed everywhere. They got me back up to my room and I was to lie there for the next 6 hours.
The doctor told Tammy that the procedure went well and that I had one area with plaque but was so minor that they would treat it with plavix. Other than that one area all looked good. Which all this means is they do not know what caused my episode? I know finding nothing is better than find a problem but darn it. Not know anything all the time sucks.
1200 I woke up from sleeping on and off once I got back to my room. I had to go pee so bad I called the nurse and he gave me my bottle and said that if I could not go myself he would have to put a catheter in to help me. Well I sat there for 10-15 minutes trying like heck to go cause I did not want to have a catheter put in. Well It got so unbearable I had to call him to discuss the options. Well there was only one option and that was a catheter. He got all the supplies needed for that and commenced to insert that thing in places I so DID NOT want him to go. It burned and hurt like crazy I was not a happy camper.
1315 Lunch arrived and I ate what I could of course I was not completely up to eating after getting that damn catheter put in.
1315 to 1700 did not move from that position and I was uncomfortable with that compression device on. Nurse came in a few times to take vitals and check on me. Other than that I just laid there talking to Tammy wanting to get out of there.
1600 My coworker Joe showed up and stayed to give me a hard time and give me a few good laughs. Him and Tammy were picking on me and give me a hard time. You know it was all good and I enjoyed the laughing.
1800 Mike my nurse came in and took the compression device off of me and said time to get up if I wanted to get out of there. As you can imagine I jumped up, well ok got up slowly and stood there and that felt wonderful. I was a little wobbly but sure felt good on my back. I told him I wanted the catheter out and finally he said my wound looked good and that he did not mind taking it out. I laid back down on the bed and he pulled that catheter out and boy oh boy did that sting. I got back up and grabbed the pee bottle and I stood there and tried to go I tell you what I went a little bit and it hurt more than taking the catheter out burn baby burn.
1845 Mike (RN) came in and took my IV line out and then took all the patches off that monitor my vitals. Taking those darn patches out caused patches of hair to be pulled out as well. OUCH!
1900 I was given my discharge papers and I got the heck out of there. Mike wheeled me down to the car and helped me get in while Joe and Tammy carried my things down.
Saturday 9-15-07
I was instructed to take it easy and not to get up much other than to use the bathroom. So all day I sat in my chair with my computer near by and did some reading. Also was instructed to remove the badge from my wound and take a shower and put a regular bandaids on the small insistion it was not as bad as I was envisioning. As the day went on the throbbing in my wound area got less and less. I got extremely tired and took about a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. That night I just could not sleep so I stayed up until after midnight and finally dragged my butt to bed.
Sunday 9-16-07
I was awaken at 0520 by the pain in my lower back. I recall having back pain for about a week after my last surgery. So I got up and closed all the doors and walked outside to get my Sunday paper to read. Was a very nice cool crisp morning felt good. Today I am to get up a little more often but not to walk long or taken any stairs. I not to lift over 10 pounds for 3 days. Which means I will be off until at least Tuesday. At least I have been able to catch up on my RSS feeds through Google Reader. Now trying to finish up this post to get up on the blog.
So the question after all this is, Did my Cell phone cause interference with my defibrillator the pacemaker side or did I have a heart attack? That still is yet to be determined. The fact that my heart enzymes were elevated indicated that either I did have or will have something happen to my heart. Let’s hope that neither happened and it was all a fluke.
This episode did remind me that even though I have lost over 180 pounds and Life before WLS shows a lot of my health issues have diminished I still have a heart condition and will need to be under constant care for a while. Weight loss surgery has extended my life even if I continue to have heart conditions. I still feel without WLS I would have been in and out of the hospital a lot more than this once in 2 years.
Needless to say I have had no fun the last few days. Yet and blessed to be able to post this article and not still be in the hospital or worse did not make it out. Treat everyday as if it could be your last day on earth. Tell the one’s you love that you love them and hug them daily.
I will be sure to keep you posted.
JB
My 2 year old climbed up on the couch grabbed me by the cheeks looking me straight in the eyes with intense sincerity said “Hello I’m Johnny Cash” then got down off the couch and started shaking her rump like she was Elvis. I just about busted a gut from laughing so hard. After I calmed down I wondered where in the world she heard that.
Then I remembered we watched ‘Walk the line‘ with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon the other night. Walk the Line is based Johnny Cashes life. It starts with Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) standing in front of a table saw in Folsom Prison remember how he got to that point. It went through his life as a child then an airmen in the Air Force a traveling door to door salesman and then getting a record deal with Sun Records in Memphis, TN.
I enjoy watching this movie with my daughter. She loves to dance around and sing to the great soundtrack. She always wants me to forward to the music parts.
I give this movie 4 stars and thought Joaquin did a great job. I would recommend it to anyone that likes a good performance with a good sound track.
Enjoy.
JB
