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170 days ago
Round 1 More than ten years ago, 'the fighter' survived a gunshot wound from a glock pistol to the gut at point-blank range. He dragged himself 50 yards into his house to call 911 himself . But for the last two years, his fight has been with a different opponent: an 'unclassified' form of Leukemia -- referred to generally as CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ). CML is a slowly progressing type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow. The bone marrow is the inner part of your bones where blood cells are made. When you have CML, your body makes too many abnormal white blood cells. In recent months, his illness had taken a turn for the worse. The fighter had to have blood transfusions twice a week. He endured many trips to many doctors. Over the course of the illness he had five bone marrow tests, countless needles and many medications to control his disease and ease his symptoms. Round 2 Just a few months ago while he was in Las Vegas the fighter felt "a little ...
241 days ago
Fresh of the heels of my dog's death, I'm happy to report some good news -- mainly: (Contract) Job offer from Nintendo; potential start date is 4/6 We'll be getting a substantial tax return this year -- much larger than I expected Our Disneyland trip got slightly changed to a different package, which will save us $800 I got promoted from 1-stripe to 2-stripe blue belt at my BJJ school, http://www.nwjja.com I'm meeting with some folks next week to discuss some more freelance writing for some casual video games (which I can thank my long time buddy Paul Peterson for helping to hook me up with) It will be good to get working again, but at the same time I've got mixed feelings. I've enjoyed being a 'house dad' for the last 9 months or so. (I've only been unemployed about 3.5 months, but prior to that I was working almost exclusively from home.) Hence I'm not completely looking forward to returning to a 9-5 type gig, commuting, and no doubt a severe ...
247 days ago
On March 20th, 2009 -- the first day of spring -- we had to euthanize Baku, our beloved dog for the last nine years. He had developed an aggressive bone tumor about 2 months ago. We kept him comfortable for as long as we could. He lived like a king in his final months. I cried briefly right after I made the appointment. He was the kindest, gentlest dog (a Lab/Great Dane mix) I've ever known. He was amazingly smart. He easily learned all the standard dog tricks and commands, and I suspect if I'd ever wanted to take the time, I could have taught him to open the fridge and grab me a drink. When we adopted him, I was told that many of his litter mates had gone on to be service dogs. He loved chasing frisbees and tennis balls. He was afraid of children, except for our own -- whom he was amazingly patient and tolerant of. I will always miss his guttural, howling "talk" when he was excited to see us. He used to sit with me downstairs on Friday nights while I watched Battlestar ...286 days ago
So, I'm over due. Busy holiday season and stuff makes blog updates pretty low on the priority list. I find it ironic that I blog more when I'm actively employed. My last Microsoft contract ended in mid-December, so I'm on my "100 day break" until I'm eligible for employment at MS again. In the meantime, I've kept busy being a 'house dad', working on some freelance projects, writing for Examiner.com, and looking for work. I'm arguably more productive when I'm unemployed than when I'm employed! Kazu's medical problems are largely better, but his eyes are still problematic. He has glasses now, but he has inflammation in his optic nerves, which we are now treating with Methotrexate and a bunch of different eye drops and such. The holidays, overall, were good. Katsuya just turned 3 on 2/1/2009, and got an enormous number of presents. I shouldn't be allowed to buy presents, because his taste in toys is the same as mine was -- so I go to town buying action figures, ...
334 days ago
So, we got dumped on again last night, putting our snow total somewhere around 10-16" for the last week or so. It's a beautiful white Xmas -- albeit inconvenient and treacherous as well. I managed to get out last night in my little hyundai elantra and make a grocery run and get some badly needed cat food and other 'emergency' supplies. Some roads (major thoroughfares) were reasonably clear, but parking lots and side streets ranged from bad to impassible. Even jeeps and 4X4 vehicles were sliding sideways -- and then of course, there were still the 4x4 driving douchebags that seem to think merely driving a 4x4 gives them some sort of snow-invincibility. Regardless, I got out of the house, got some groceries, and got home safely. Not sure we'll make it out of the house again tonight or tomorrow. Supposedly we'll see some rain AND snow in the next 2 days... but so far, it's only snow.
