I was talking to Annette about what I plan to do this year for Lent. She originally thought my idea was a bit on the crazy side, however she has decided to join me on this effort.
Let me explain…
This year I plan to give up meat. I will not eat any meat between Feb. 17th and Easter. I will however continue to eat eggs and fish (but only on Fridays).
My Wife originally thought this feat would not be possible with me. However she did perform this feat a while back and wanted to do it again. Last year for Lent, I had given up meat for just Fridays. It was an unusual feat and very out of the ordinary for me. I did make it though and I think this time, i’m going to up the ante.
I have started shifting my diet slowly. I am eating more veggies and shifting the portions I eat down to a comfortable minimum. I want to get used to eating very little while eating healthy too. I have also started consuming more water and green tea. I’m not sure what else to expect. My sister does it already. She has been veggie for a long time and I am looking more at her diet to see what she does. I’m looking to mimic what she eats and plan to use it as a template for mine.
I look forward to this endeavor. It will be something positive but an interesting challenge considering I am a well established meat eater.
February 3rd, 2010 in
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My Mom has recovered pretty well.
She has been out of the ICU for almost a week now. She did not spend a lot of time in there. We have had some remarkable nurses that were in the ICU. They worked night and day to ensure my Mom was comfortable and well taken care of. Even though we had family members round the clock with her, the nurses were super awesome in filling in the gaps.
All Nurses that kick ass.. our family salutes you.
She has been on the 7th floor of the hospital for a while. A family member has always stay the night along side her during the day and night. After all the time we have spent with her, we have noticed some changes in her sleeping and senses.
The part of the brain that was damaged is the pons. It’s part of the brain that regulates sleep, paralysis during sleep, taste, eye movements etc.. My Mom has developed irregular sleep patterns while she sleeps. She will sleep but she will not be sleeping normally. She will make motions with her hands and almost sleep walk. She also has a change in taste or lack thereof along with some facial numbness. This is all very normal considering pons controls all of that. We have had family members stay at her side to ensure that she didn’t pull all the wires and leads off in her sleep.
In the past few days, we have seen her become more mobile and active. She has demonstrated that she can stand, talk and interact. She does have difficulty eating though. Things don’t taste as they should, and she can only eat a few bites of any type of food before she is overwhelmed by the taste or nausea. It’s also possible that she has developed dysgeusia from her medication, but we don’t know at this point. Time will tell.
We expect her to be out of the hospital by the morning. It’s up to the doctors though. She’s using a walker now and is eager to get home. So are we.
For everyone who has responded, emailed, txted, pigeon courier’d and otherwise contacted us regarding my Mom, Thank you. You have all been very kind and touching. I have relayed every single message from you guys and she thanks you for your support and thoughts.
I expected this post to be longer but I think I got lazy and tired. More to come i’m sure.
(the actual brain scan)
This weekend was a very stressful weekend that I hope no one ever has to go through. I received a phone call at 1am from my sister. She called and told me to go home immediately. Mom was having a stroke.
I arrived in Morgan Hill twenty minutes later. Upon arriving, the ambulance was already there and I had parked in the street. I ran straight into the house and saw the gurney in the hallway. My daughter (whom was staying the night) was crying. Pretty much everyone at the house didn’t know what to do except stay out of the way of the EMTs. They had my mom lifted in what looked like in a blanket and put onto the gurney. They wheeled her out while the family pretty much figured out who was driving with whom to Kaiser Hospital.
My Dad went with the Ambulance and my sister, daughter and I went in my car. My brother took his car to get a local friend to take care of the dog.
Upon arriving at the hospital, we of course had to wait in the waiting room for the doctor to do their thing. We found out that when they arrived, they immediately took her to get her brain scanned. When we were allowed in the back (after the scans), my Mom was doing a little bit better, however she had been vomiting (or dry heaving at that point) while the doctors were evaluation the situation. We took turns going into the Emergency Room (since only 2 people were allowed at a time).
The neurologist came in and confirmed that she indeed had a bleed-out stroke. Her brain was bleeding in the fourth ventricle of her brain (the part of the brain that makes you feel sick and throw up). It’s also in the part of the brain where they cannot operate. It was likely caused by high blood pressure (which my Mom has medication for..since she does in fact have high blood pressure). My Mom was admitted into ICU that night to monitor everything closely.
Anika was still up and awake during the whole ordeal. She was watching a movie in the same room as my Mom when started convulsing uncontrollably. This scared Anika because she had no idea what was wrong. At about 5am, I opted to take her home so she could sleep. During that time I tried to sleep too but it’s the uncomfortable sleep in which you toss and turn without real sleep.
I got up early to get ready to head back to the hospital. I made the kids some food before I left them in Annette’s care. I left and picked up some In & Out Burger for my brother. He stayed at the hospital all night.
When I arrived, I snuck into the ICU and saw my Tia Carmen already there watching over my Mom. My mom woke up briefly after noticing that I had come in. She was used to waking up periodically because the nurses were obviously watching her closely and taking vitals every hour or so.
As of Saturday though, her strength had improved dramatically. Even though half of her is numb, it’s mostly the tingles. She can for the most part feel, however there are parts of her body that are still numb. Her left eye is weak. She can’t focus on one object without having the eye drift. She had this eye covered so she doesn’t get dizzy when looking.
I stayed at the hospital for most of Sunday. I left around 6pm because Anika was having a hard time without me being at home. After all, she was the one who was there. Before I came home though, I had my mom record a message to Anika on my iPhone. She told her that everythin gwas going to be fine, and people sometimes go through things like that and not to worry. Anika was comforted by the message. I think it was very important to know that her Grandma was alright. Anika then requested that I find her Alien plush toy she had in my car and deliver it to Grandma.
I left the house after I ate a quick dinner that Sunday night. I drove down to Morgan Hill and helped my Dad pack some stuff up to deliver to the hospital. I packed phone chargers, backpacks for the kids and a glass clown fish that my brother made for Anika (she’s taking ot for show and tell on Friday). I drove up back to the hospital on Sunday night and spent my time there until I was kicked out at 8:30pm.
This morning (Monday), I went to the hospital at 8:30 (during normal visiting hours). When I arrived, my brother was sleep sleeping with his head down on the bed. My Dad was already awake and talking to me about the night.
They had performed the follow up brain scan that night. I arrived in time for the doctor to come in to talk about the scan.
As of this morning, they said that the bleed in her brain is still there. They said this was normal for it to bleed a little bit more before it resolves itself. It could take up to 72 hours to determine if the bleeding has stopped. They ordered a dye based scan for this afternoon. That will help them map what is going on with her blood vessels.
So that is the deal. I will follow up (when I can) as it happens.
I have received numerous messages both on Facebook, and txt messages. I can’t really express my gratitude. My mom gets all the messages. I will continue to give them to her as it goes. 
I felt like listening to some old cybertrance music from way back when. Upon poking around trance music from old artists, I once again came up upon Alien Factory.
A Brief History about Alien Factory (per discogs.com).
Bob Henning & Stefan Müller are the guys behind Alien Factory. Their music is based on the grungy electronic sound that was started back in the early 90’s when electronic music was in it’s infancy. With dozens of trance under their belt, they were one of the pioneers of the early forms of hard trance or cybertrance.
I listened to the last track on the Alien Factory / Destiny Album called - Beta Music (Hangover rmx).
This type of trance music isn’t for all trance appreciates. Trance music tends to have a melody and a general light aesthetic to most type of tracks. Even though the album was released in 2008, it definitely has the old school sound of the early to mid 90’s. Those who collect songs with little or no vocals and has a deep mechanical instrumental trance sound to it might find appeal in this song.
This is my opinion though. Always go with what you like and appreciate. I for one appreciate this type of track. It’s my style of no vocal and simple type of trance track that I grew into liking back in the late 90’s.
The link should provide a listen. Give it a go.
Lately I have been drinking tea more often than usual. The tea I have been drinking at work (and some-what at home) is the ‘Argentine Mate Green’. It’s the closest thing they had to a white tea, but it works well. We got our teas from the Lupicia at Valley Fair in San Jose. The selection of teas are very broad. Their China-Green Tea’s are pretty expensive though. Last weekend, I picked up a bag of Earl Grey and Breakfast Earl Grey for both work and home. I’ve been a big fan of Earl Grey for a while (yah, yah, I know — “Tea, Earl Grey. Hot!”).
See Article: The Different Types of Tea in a Nutshell
The Argentine Mate Green is a tea that is very earthy. The taste itself is not horrible, but very natural tasting . I don’t think it has a lot if any caffeine in it, but if steeped too long it will become pretty bitter.
The Earl Grey’s are .. well.. Earl Grey. By themselves they have a distinct taste and smell to them. In the beginning, they tend to be an acquired taste. If steeped for too long, it tends to be very potent in it’s flavor. Earl Grey is high in caffeine which makes it a great coffee substitute.
Anyway, I started drinking tea around 2002ish. I was back in school at the time and I used green tea in massive doses to ensure my caffeine intake. I used to add a lot of sugar to make the taste more pleasurable for my palate. I think it was when I was working at FedExKinkosOffice around 2004 in which I started drinking Earl Grey without anything. Being in a high stress job, you tend to look over additives and just go for the gusto.
I have developed an appreciation for the pure brew and I am pretty glad it’s worked out that way.
Last night there was nothing spectacular that occurred that was separate from our normal routine. Annette and the kids went to a neighbor’s house to help paint a room. A fun activity that resulted in paint speckled kids that returned. We ate some chicken soup that Annette had made. The kids got in the shower and went to bed.
Around 12:30am’ish, Kyra popped straight up, looked around and ejected her dinner onto the blankets on the bed. I think Annette tried to warn my when I was sleeping. I don’t know why I fully woke up, however I did replace the blankets from the bed, cleaned Kyra up and we went back to sleep. Kyra woke up again about 20-30 minutes later and repeated the last process.
Kyra told me that her stomach was still hurting. I pulled her out of bed and made her a warm bath. While in the bath, I once again replaced our secondary sheets. I also gave Kyra some children’s stomach medicine to relieve her pain. I sat with her in the bathroom and we played a quickie SpongeBob episode from my Zune to help the time pass (I needed that stomach medicine to kick in to prevent further ejections). I had also put a load into the washer to start cleaning the blankets that had been soiled.
I got her out of the bathtub and got her dressed. We then moved to the living room to go back to sleep. She wanted to move in there and I thought it was a better idea than refreshing the bed sheets. It’s easier cleaning a hardwood floor than blankets over and over. We laid down and she went to sleep within 5 minutes. I however could not sleep because…
a) I was on the edge of the couch
b) the edge seeps your heat away, alas, I was cold
c) The washing machine for whatever reason kept me awake
When I did go to sleep, it was around 2:30am.
Anika came out of the room woke me up around 4:30am. Annette was partially awake as well and I decided to move Kyra back into the room. I laid down in my own bed and 6:30 decided to come around earlier than I wanted to. There are mornings where I don’t mind if I am groggy and partially awake. This morning really hurt waking up.
I got up and did my normal routine. I did however avoid the Hazelnut coffee that was in our cupboard because.. well.. hazelnut sucks. I did make it to work and the first thing I did was get myself a cup of coffee. It did the trick.. at least until I switched to RedBull in the afternoon.
I feel very exhausted and tired. My body feels it and I know when the RedBull runs out, my consciousness will feel it as well. I look forward to my impending nap, but until then, here is my story of the past 14 hours or so.
January 5th, 2010 in
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I had opted to make resolutions this past year. However I did not keep them as expected. My biggest resolution was to become A Microsoft “Windows Vista Certified” Engineer. Yah it never happened. After some in-depth thinking, I think I opted to wait until Windows 7 was released and become certified in that. I realized that was just an excuse to explain my laziness. So yah.. it didn’t happen cause I was mostly lazy. The same ol’ “i’ll do it later” attitude.
At the time, I thought I would find making a resolution would be something new I would try. I never really did anything of that sort before. Earlier during the year, I did the whole Lent thing. I set an easy goal for me during those 40 days. I opted not to eat any meat except fish on Fridays. Something simple.
Not having a deadline for a New Years Resolution though I think put me in a lazy situation. Deadlines are those dates that are set by a higher authority to motivate you for either business survival, or rarely personal situations. Since there was nothing set, I was free to roam the year with no worries.
Now that the year is up, I really don’t find any motivation to do so otherwise. We did not get a pay raise this year. It’s not like it will be recognized anytime soon anyways. I’m alright with it though.. I have a job. I am thankful I have a job. There are many other there who are suffering.
I guess in a way, I am glad I never followed through my resolution. It saved me time and effort in a futile situation that I find myself. I am not harsh about it, just glad it’s over with.
A decade ago, I could care less about what was going on in my life. I was living for the moment. Now, I am living in the moment with a different future in sight. I have a family and others to worry about other than myself.
Unless someone is a stickler for resolutions, I say don’t set any. Setting expectations usually lead toward failure because of the lack in deadline setting. I say just go through the year building your character and standings. Let it evolve naturally and don’t push for a revolution in your life. It’s your choice though.
This weekend, we packed the family packed into two cars and traveled down to LA. We left the day after Christmas as to avoid any left over straglers working to commute down to southern California. Annette got sick and almost didn’t go. I convinced her to go and to sleep her sickness off on the way down (which she did). We arrived at our Aunt’s house sometime in the early evening. We had our family welcomes and excitements during the first few hours we were there. My aunt cooked dinner and we ate while talking to everyone about our adventures during the past few months that we had not seen each other.
We departed during the late hours of the night. We checked into our hotel and went on a mini-adventure sight seeing part of where we were staying. My Brother and kids opted to use the Hot Tub that night even though we were scheduled to wake up early the next day. We were taking the kids on a surprise trip to Disneyland. They didn’t know about it and used a code word “college” to describe Disneyland. That way, the kids would have no clue what we were planning.
The next morning, we woke up, had our breakfast and took off to “college”. When we arrived, we got into the park and the kids still had no clue that we were at Disneyland. It was after some convincing that we were not at a college at all and to look at Mickey’s image posted everywhere that they finally got it. My brother took a picture of their faces when they realized where they truly were. (Image is not available yet –however I will post it in flickr when I have it).
Shown above are just a few pictures taken during our trip. The kids had a remarkable time there. It was the most surprising trip they ever experienced, especially since they had no idea of what we had planned.
The day after Disneyland, we traveled home. Nothing really to report there other than lots and lots of driving and traffic. It started raining and fog turned thick when we arrived near the bay area. We made it home safely.
There you have it. More pictures will be posted on the flickr feed when I get them.
December 29th, 2009 in
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The pictures of the day come from earlier. The kids and I played 2 hardcore games of UNO. The first game, my oldest won. The game took about 15 minutes to complete. The second game however took about 30-45 minutes. My oldest quit and it was left between my youngest daughter and I. We both played until she beat me with 2 yellow cards.
She beat me using a bit of strategy which is good. She skipped me then layed down her last card. This shows that she is using fore-thought into her next movements. Something she never used to do before. I’m glad she is developing so well just like Anika.
The picture above is during the first game. Kyra was singing a mini tune while Anika was just waiting for Kyra to take her turn.
This next picture is of Anika making mini-snowflakes with paper. I decided to include this because she was teaching me a way to make snowflakes using a manner in which I had totally forgotten about. It’s the method where you cut diamonds into the corners and open it up so a star appears in the middle of the snowflake.
The snowflakes themselves didn’t turn out well but it was worth the effort in either case.
Last week, we pulled in our balcony Christmas tree. The first time we used this tree, it was a little guy. He served us well for our first Christmas. When the season was over, we planted him into a bigger pot and left him on our balcony where it grew over the year. The next season, we pulled him in again, decorated it and enjoyed it for that Christmas season.
This Christmas tree has been with us since our first Christmas. We didn’t like the idea of killing a tree only to be used for a month-ish. Last year, we bought another potted tree planning to plant our Christmas tree we had in our possession. Unfortunately, the new tree did not last the year. The watering on it was neglected and died shortly after the season.
This year, we opted to use our Christmas tree one more time. When we brought it in though, we noticed that had grown quite a bit. It became lengthly and putting ornaments on it has pulled the branches down. (Charlie Brown Christmas Tree picture shown below)…
The tree is a good tree. I considered trimming the branches to allow ornaments to hang correctly, however I don’t think that is a good idea. The tree has had it’s run and this coming new year, we will plant it when the time is right.
This tree that cost us $18 years ago has paid for itself multiple times over and it’s time to let it retire in a forest or hiking trail.
