Pray for Jeremy
November 27, 2007 by Ryan
It’s hard to describe the emotional rollercoaster my family has been through this last 2 weeks. For those of you who have not heard, we have some concerns for our little boy, Jeremy Michael. He’s due in early March. I’ve waited to write about this until my wife had and she did a good job of explaining what we’re up against.
We’re Pregnant!
When we found out we were pregnant it was a pleasant surprise: we weren’t trying, but we weren’t not trying. It actually was about perfect because the baby would be about two years apart from our daughter Kimberly. I really did not care whether it was a boy or a girl. If it was a girl, Kimberly would have a sister right close to her age. If it was a boy, hey! it’s our first boy!
Saying Hi to Jeremy
About two weeks ago, we went in for our doctor’s ultrasound. I just Twittered…
Just saying hi to Baby Jeremy @ my wife’s ultrasound!
After the ultrasound, I went to take care of Kimberly as Beth went to go talk to the doctor. The doctor called me in. She said us down and told us they saw some things that concerned her and that we’d need to go see a specialist. Needless to say we were in quite a bit of shock. I think I had always assumed everything would be okay. I think most parents in general think that way.
We went to see the specialist the next day, which was nice to not have this unknown hanging over our heads for too long. He did another ultrasound and then sat us down to talk about it. Again, I’m not going to rehash all the details, Beth did a good job in her post. From that discussion we were faced with that reality that our little boy had Spina Bifida and the possibility of worse. The doctor explained that there might be a chromosome defect and we then spoke with a genetic specialist. She told us that the most likely of the rare problems we could have would be Trisomy 13, which would most likely mean we wouldn’t have him for very long.
Perspective
I was going to write that it “hit us like a ton of bricks” but, honestly, we were fairly calm about all of it. There have been things that have come up in the last while that, I believe, happened to prepare us. We’re very blessed to have the perspective that we do. We know that whatever happens, in the grand scheme of things, we’ll be okay. We know that if he was only with us a short time, we wouldn’t be losing him forever. If we do get to have him, whatever challenges he’s going to have we can do it. Not on our own, but with the Lord’s help. We have wonderful families that will be there. We know that we’ve been seal as a family, and that we will be together after this life.
The Results
As it turns out, I have been writing this post here and there since that time and we found out that there are no chromosome problems! And we are so grateful and happy that there aren’t. I want to thank all those that prayed for us. One of the first thoughts that I had was to call my family and ask them to pray for Jeremy. And we still need those prayers and that faith. Now we know that Jeremy will be with us for a long time and now we are praying that he will be able to walk and not require a shunt.
I am so excited to have him. I love him already. Knowing how much I love Kimberly, I can’t wait to have my little boy!
More Soldiers & the Internet
November 24, 2007 by Ryan
The Eagle Scout Project that I posted about a few days ago reminded me of a program my wife and I caught randomly on The History Channel. It was called Band of Bloggers and it introduced a network of soldiers that blogged about their experience in Iraq.
The soldiers on the program talked about how being in Iraq was mostly prolonged boredom interspersed with moment of total chaos. Soldiers now have access to computers and high speed internet to help them pass the time. Predictably, they talked about how some soldiers would use that for less productive purposes. Some, however, found a outlet to share their experiences with the world. They use blogs as a way to tell the true stories that mainstream media ignores, glosses over or waters down. They have digital cameras which allows them to add a visual perspective to accompany their writing.
Be warned: If you decide to explore these sites, they don’t filter. And to be honest, I don’t think they should. War is terrible. I think it’s important to be reminded. We can’t truly understand what it’s like if we haven’t experienced. But as I read a few of the experiences, I thought about how I would feel, how I would react, and whether I could do what they did. My respect and gratitude for our soldiers has grown for what they do for us. I have two cousins, one Navy Seal & one Marine, that went to the Middle East. I am glad there are those that do it.
IE7 Good, Firefox Better, Flock Best!?
November 20, 2007 by Ryan
Today, reading through my RSS feeds, I ran across this post about Firefox and a new browser called Flock. It caught my attention because I have been a big fan of Firefox. I seriously get annoyed with Internet Explorer. I hate how it screws with my websites and how it messes up transparency on png files!
I have been a longtime user of Firefox. I love the tabbed browsing. I love all the customization and extensions. But I have noticed with how many tabs I typically have, Firefox can get pretty heavy on the memory usage on my computers. At home on my laptop it’s less of a concern, but at work with my measly little memory it can lock things up pretty easily. That’s what caught my eye in the TechCrunch post.
I’d read about Flock before…well, more just skimmed over a post about it. It’s big thing is that it’s a “social browser.” It tries to integrate more of the social networks people use (blogs, flickr, del.icio.us, Twitter, etc., etc.) and do so more seamlessly into the browser. I decided to give it a shot, downloaded it and have been pulling in some of my accounts. In fact, I am writing this post from Flock!
Blogged with Flock
Scouts, Soldiers & the Internet
November 19, 2007 by Ryan
The internet has opened up so many channels to explore the world and I am definitely one that is very integrated into all of it. So when I got a mass email about a Boy Scout doing his Eagle Project online I didn’t erase it within 3 seconds. Funny enough, the scout’s name is Ryan! He’s put together a site to get people to write letters to soldiers in Afghanistan. Here is the site:
To quote a line from his home page, “Regardless of personal feelings on the war or politics in general, we believe showing our support to our military is just the right thing to do.” I think it’s a great cause and a great idea. My Eagle Scout project was a great experience…different, but still a great learning experience. The cool thing I see is that he got GoDaddy to host the website for free! It reminded me of going to HomeBase to get wood donated for a food drive stand. I remember how nervous I was about asking, so bravo Ryan for getting GoDaddy on board!
Yes, I am an Eagle Scout, so here is my contribution to a fellow scout! Check out the site and send a soldier a note!
The Bonds Indictment
November 16, 2007 by Ryan
There is a great deal of vindictiveness surrounding the Bonds indictment. Some feel that he deserves to be “thrown into the bay.” Some feel that he should be castigated for all time. I tend to agree with Curveball City, “This is not something to be happy about.”
I think I view the whole Steroids Era a little different than the general public (Here is a quote from my “Mark McGuire Deserves the Hall of Fame” post:
You say, “But the balls & the players were juiced.”
I say, “I don’t care!”
That’s what we wanted needed to see! Steroids got out of hand, I agree. When it gets into the high schools, that’s bad. But at the time there wasn’t that stigma. You can’t punish one without punishing all during that period and I don’t think we should. Ask yourself this, would you be a baseball fan if it weren’t for Mark McGwire?
Would baseball be around if it weren’t for the Steroids Era? And don’t try and separate the two, Bonds & the whole era. Bonds stands out for several reasons: Read more
I Think I Crossed A Line
November 12, 2007 by Ryan
Have you ever done something that you know is going to stir up a hornets nest? There are things that you can do and things that you can’t do to sports fans…and I think I crossed the line with one of the most stubborn dedicated A’s fans. It’s my cousin Sean. He was lamenting on his site, Curveball City, about how badly Bay Areas sports have performed as of late.
I’m normally not this cruel, but you have to understand that their loyalty to the A’s is amazing! It doesn’t matter how many times the Angels beat them, the A’s “are better.” And I don’t hate the A’s to be honest. I think it’s amazing what they do for the money! I’m reading Moneyball! I think that walk-off bunt was a thing a beauty a few years back! But they’re root for the Yankees or the Red Sox before they’ll root for the Angels (a least as far as I know). So yeah, I took the opportunity to pour some salt. I commented on their latest post:
Sean,
I have an offer to make you:
Right now you are in LA for law school. I am offering you the ability to become a SoCal sports fan. No questions asked. We’ll overlook any conflicting past allegiances and you can be welcomed in with no “fair-weather” stigmas attached.
Think about it. And let us know!
Ryan
PS
Joe Torre’s coming to town…why not become a Dodgers fan!?
That last jab should be particularly offensive courtesy of Kirk Gibson.
I am just bracing for the backlash.
Is that the Smashing Pumpkins? No, this is…
November 1, 2007 by Ryan
My Paramore post got me thinking about the music I’ve been listening to recently. And while this is a little old, I still want to bring it up.
I was listening to a local station X96 on my way home from work when the DJ introduced this new song and my first thought was, “Is this the Smashing Pumpkins?” Because I had heard they were coming back. As it turns out, it was Silversun Pickups. I ended up buying their album and love it!
Then I finally hear the new Smashing Pumpkins song, and my first thought was, “This is the Smashing Pumpkins!?”
Seriously, it didn’t sound anything like I would expect. I was thinking that the Silversun Pickups’ album sounds more like the Smashing Pumpkins than the Smashing Pumpkins do! Tarantula eventually grew on me, but it still cracks me up how Well Thought Out Twinkles is so early-Pumpkins sounding.
It’s Only a Matter of Time Now
November 1, 2007 by Ryan
A while back I wrote about making the move from PCs to Macs. Well, I was close then, but I’m decided now! There have been many contributing factors:
- Macs have always been beautiful as far as graphics go
- Everyone in design uses them
- Parallels (read my previous post)
- The iPhone
- Everyone says that once you go Mac you’ll never look back…even Mark Cuban!
The last straw is the new Mac OS Leopard. So many cool features, so well thought out. If you haven’t, watch Apple’s video about Leopard. It’s kinda long but worth it if you’re considering jumping the MS Titanic Vista.
