This is a test post. I am using Windows Live Writer to write this post. It is much better than  the blogger interface.

That is my home.

Today I shall talk about ghosts. Now I have had some experience with ghosts. There is the ghost or gaurdian angel that saved my life when I was 7 and living in Alaska and ran deep into the forest. I had hit a little kid in the head with a rock accidentally and was so worried I ran into the forest crying for quite a while. When I stopped I saw a kid my age who told me that it was ok and God would forgive me so I turned around and walked the whole way back in the opposite direction. When I google mapped that area there are no houses or anything in that forest, it goes on for hundreds of miles. Anyways, that is an old story so today I shall talk about my current ghost.

My current ghost lives in my kitchen. I am not the only one who has experienced his haunts either. Now my house is 3 houses down from the old Riley cemetary. It is a historical marker and is a family cemetary dating back from the late 1800s. The entrance to the Riley street has one of the oldest trees in the neighborhood. I am willing to bet my street was the cemetary street that people took on their horse and wagon to go visit the cemetary. It is my belief that there were other people buried around the cemetary. Considering the ghost haunts only our kitchen I think if we were to dig far down we would discover his body.

So what paranormal events happen? Well when I first moved into the house I noticed that things would fall off the counter top, papers, pens, cups and toys. Also, for the first six months the flourescant kitchen light bulb was only half lit. One night as I was playing a Christian song on guitar the other bulb decided to light up and has stayed lit since then. Just this morning I noticed a bill was taken off of the countertop and placed on the floor near the sink. Now I have a printer stand in there as well and have seen my Christmas Story characters fall down all of the time. There were some times when their talk buttons would get pressed and you would hear them speak. Now things moving might easily be explained by wind but its the noises that really disturb people. At least every month there is some kind of loud bang that comes from the kitchen. Even the dog starts barking at it. The biggest event happened when there was alot of people in the kitchen. All of a sudden it sounded like someone had struck the sink with a loud clang. "What's that?" "Oh that's our ghost just ignore it."

I know it freaks Holly out a little when the noises happens. I am perfectly fine with it. I consider it humorous and ignore it most of the time. I think I started talking to him as well. I'll be like, ok watch the house why we are gone. One night a couple years ago when a loud bang happened I spoke up. "If you are going to be banging on the sink all the time can't you at least do the dishes? Do something constructive!" Unfortunately he did not do the dishes. Happy Halloween Everyone!

So I practiced with my old band last night. It is good that our show got moved to the second thursday in December. That gives us more time to practice. I am now intent on actually learning to right notes to play on my Hendrix and SRV solos instead of improvising. We sound great with two guitar players. The lead singer plays some SRV and sings well. I think if we really tried we could become a real cover band. Cover bands are interesting. Even though there is no chance of "making it big" there is a good chance of becoming a well known cover band that actually makes money. Back in the day Corporate Red would play at the Yucatan Liquid Stand for a monthly gig and we'd get paid $600 for 3 sets. Divide that by 4 and you've got $150 a person. It is great getting paid to play. Now as a cover band Corporate Red was not that good. We mostly did our originals. Really good cover bands can make upwards of $1000-$2000 a show. Our wedding band, the Grooves, actually got paid $3000 for the gig. They were one of the top wedding bands in the state though. Our style is not wedding band friendly. We are more of a blues bar, guitar centric band. I can picture us playing at the local guitar festivals though. That would be cool.

I've got to gives props out to my iPhone again. There is a plethora of guitar software for the iPhone. My favorite is TabToolkit. What it does is it takes these guitar files for songs and shows you how to play them on guitar, complete with the pitches and timing. Guitar Toolkit is another favorite app as it has a built in tuner with different tunings for a guitar. Another app is Chord Play. I select which chord I want to play and it gives me the notes to play to make the chord. Chord Play also has a sample guitar that actually lets you play your iPhone like it is a guitar. It is hard to use though since I usually play all over the neck of a guiar. I wonder though, if someone was enterprising they could create a touch screen guitar which would basically have 4 iphones attached to the neck of a guitar. That would be an interesting experience, never have to buy strings again.

The iPhone is the most useful device I have ever had. My favorite apps include: OrbLive - lets me stream my video,music and documents from my computer to my phone. TV.com - lets me play some TV shows. Facebook - lets me post my status instantly. Voice Alarm - this puppy has probably saved my career. Whenever I first wake up I turn it on. It says "15 minutes before your departure." "10 Minutes", "5 minutes" "2 minutes" "1 minute" "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1" Bing. So when I am in the bathroom or getting dressed in the morning I can always stay on track. I am now getting into work at exactly 9AM every day. LogMeIn - I can actually remote into my laptop, computer at home and webserver. It has also saved me many times. Evernote - It is the place where I write all of my notes. I can edit them on their website, on my computer and on my phone and they never get lost. ooTunes - This app has tons of internet radio stations and can connect to XM(provided you have an account), also there is a pc part if you want to stream your music through there. I actually use Simplify to stream my music as it has a good interface. Photon - that is the Phanfare iPhone app for my pictures on this site. I use it as my camera as well so that the pics I take with my phone are uploaded right away. Ambiance - this makes Brennon and me go to sleep with its waterfall noise. Mint.com - allows me to actually create a budget and track all of my bank accounts and credit cards. Sportacular - I am able to see the scores of all games and even watch live game updates as well. Air Mouse - I control the mouse and keyboard on my computer from my easy chair. That is pretty cool. There are tons more, but what the folks at Apple say is true - there is an app for that. Now I jsut need an app to do my job for me and I've got it made.

So I am thinking about health care and the latest rounds of bills. I probably shouldn't since I can't really do anything about it. I was listening to a conservative talk show host the other day talk about it like it is the end of the world and America is doomed. I guess they are trying to drum up support, but I wonder why it is so grave? This guy was like getting super mad. I suppose it is entertaining but I still wonder why? Now that I have become a man with no party I think it is interesting how the points of view by both sides are always skewed.

Now, as a software engineer I can tell you if a bill does get passed that could be a boon to the healthcare software industry. There are probably billions of dollars of health care systems that would need to be rewritten. Or what could happen if they do things right by making things easier is that some of the healthcare companies will fail. Back in the day I contracted out to a compancy called P2PLink. They did HCFA claim forms for hospitals. I wrote a 60 fillable fields web page and a 300 field stored procedure that looked like and acted like the actual form. I wonder about how claim forms will change. The thing is, when a bill gets passed people in government systems have to act quickly. Government is highly inefficient, but their systems are the most efficient in the world. Like if there a tax change from congress all of a sudden we have to work overtime to implement it. If a new plan gets passed there will be an even bigger demand for software engineers. It will take at least a year or two to get systems into place to support a new infrastructure.

Now what do I think about a new health care system? Do I think it is the end of the world? No. People seem to think that wrongs can't get righted. The fact is, if this thing costs too much money, cannot be implemented or is just plain wrong it is very possible it could be repealed. Just because we fear change does not mean we cannot change back once things get enacted. I say, why not? It could work without taking away our liberties. Look at prohibition. It was a mistake. It was an actual constitutional amendment that got passed in 1920. It sought to limit the freedom of people drinking alcohol. An actual conservative social agenda got put into the constitution. What happened was people disobeyed it and crime was made worse. In 1933 the amendment was repealed. A wrong was righted. It's not the end of the world if congress passes something bad. Our system of government is not being changed. Let just see what happens. Who knows, it just may work.

So this weekend was interesting. On Friday I had band practice. I am actually sounding a little better. I think I just need to keep on playing and I will get my chops up. I find it is actually easier to learn new songs now. Back in the day I would always concentrate on the hardest part of the song and not on the easy parts. Now I try to learn the easy parts as well. Our problem is we have less than two weeks before the show. We need way more practice. So I got in late. We also practiced on Sunday night as well. Right now we are trying to reschedule the show. We just won't be ready.

 

On Saturday Holly and I dressed up Brennon for his first Star Wars Fan Days event as a test for his Halloween costume. He is little Yoda and is soo cute. As soon as I can edit the pictures I will post them. I plan on never releasing the pictures of my costume for fear it would end up on awkwardfamilyphotos.com. Basically I thought I could be Luke Skywalker and dressed up with a green tank top and khaki slacks. Let me just say the tank top was rather form fitting and I gave the geeks at fan days a chance to look at a really hairy fat guy in a tank top. I was laughing at myself. I looked ridiculous. Later as I looked at the pictures it was more saddening to see a little baby on my huge belly. Tight clothes are not good for that. I am thinking about getting the cortisone shot in my heel just so I can resume working out. Anyways, it was fun and we have lots of pictures of all of the real geeks wearing storm trooper and jawa outfits.

 

Brennon got a lot of "cute baby" remarks. We took his stroller so we would have a place for him. Apparently he had a diaper blowout while me and Jason were walking around. He even messed up Holly's pants. I guess that is what happens when you have a baby. On Sunday Brennon and I watched the Cowboy game. I am glad we won. It helps boost our self confidence. Brennon was more interested in me than the football game, but I am sure he will learn, oh yes I will teach him. It is cool thinking of all the stuff we will be able to do together. How was your weekend? as if anyone ever replies....

Hmm, in an effort to be more entertaining I think I will talk about the ole band days, the history of Red Krovvy. I think it was in 2000-2001 when I first got into a band. My friend knew a drummer and he played the bass. So we started jamming. I had written some originals in my high school and college years so I busted them out and we started making it sound good. In the beginning it was me, Cory and Steve. We called ourselves Red Krovvy from the movie A Clockwork Orange. Red Krovvy was supposed to mean "Blood". The work Krovvy was actually derived from the Russian word for blood. People always wondered how we got that name.

 

I actually sung in the beginning. Now my voice is ok, I don't strain or anything but my range and singular notes are very amateurish. But I had fun singing and playing. We started doing shows at the local clubs in Dallas that would take anyone. I remember the Across the Street Bar and Club Dada as being our favorite spots. If you want to see an example of me playing visit the old videos folder in the photo album. Anyways, as time went on we found a really good singer named Nick and he started practicing with us. We did a couple of shows with him. He was very opera like and Club Dada's manager called him Gabrial.

 

What ended the reign of Red Krovvy was actually my fault. I knew this guy at work who ran a local India cultural festival. He got me hooked by saying we were to play in front of thousands of people. I was like, cool. I even got my brother Grant to run the sound for the show. There actually was like thousands of people at that place. It was a talent show and everyone would do some kind Bollywood singing and dancing. So the band gets there around 8, ready to go on. We figured it would be like 9 before we got on stage. As the hours progressed everyone started getting frustrated. First at 10, then 11, then 12, then 1, then at 2 we were told to get on the stage. As we got on the stage the thousands of people had dwindled to like 50 people. Everyone in the band was mad. No one wanted to do a show ever again (except for me) and so ended Red Krovvy.

 

We still jammed at the drummers house here and there. So like any band we had our good and bad moments. After Nick left, or was kicked out, I can't remember, we tried to get a new singer. Let's call him Tommy. This time we created a new band called Vaughndrix. We primarily played Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Anyways, he practiced with us like one time so the day before the show at Club Dada we had to make the decision to play without him. Meaning, I was the singer again. When we played there again without Nick, the manager said,"I guess Gabrial's in the can". I thought it was funny. Most members got tired of gigs. And so ended our playing together. I went off and joined Corporate Red and Cory played more guitar and drums than bass and Steve, well as far as we know he just played at home. Five eyars later we are together again. Let's hope we can have fun. Because man, its all about the music.

It is time to be geeky. Today Windows 7 is released. On Friday a Star Wars concert will be at the new stadium, although I will be jamming with my band. Then on Saturday is a Star Wars expo at Plano Convention center. I've thought about bringing Brennon since he now can fit in with his little Yoda costume. Somewhere I need to find a green tank top and green parachute pants and boots. Then I can be Luke swinging through the swamp with Yoda on his back. Yup I am a geek. I wonder if there is any hope for Brennon. Maybe a new hope.

 

So the question you are thinking to yourself: should I upgrade to Windows 7? My answer is it depends. What do you want it for? If you have a computer that is 5 or more years older, get a new computer with Windows 7 on it. Prices for Windows 7 start at $112 for an upgrade all the way to $300 for the ultimate version. Prices for netbooks start at $199 and go up. I think the latest netbook with Windows 7 on it costs $350. Desktops are about that price too. The thing is most people just want to surf the internet. You don't need to upgrade to do that, unless you think your computer is too slow. The geek in me says go ahead and upgrade. But the dad in me says is it really needed?

 

I will eventually upgrade. I think that Microsoft has probably been a little too optimistic and has created a very large supply of boxed operating systems. After the first of the year I think the price may go down some when there is a very large lack of sales in everything. Also, did you know that you can download it directly from Microsoft instead of going to a store? However, I am a firm believer in having an operating system disk. The reviews are very good though which makes me want to upgrade as well. Since I have Vista Ultimate at home that upgrade would cost around $250. I think I will hold off. Over the years I have learned that operating systems are cool, but they are becoming more and more useless as the internet gains ground. It is better to upgrade the speed of your internet, get more RAM and add more hard drive space. That's where you'll see the most speed improvements.

As I get ready for practice I am noticing that my guitar skills have declined slightly and yet I am more patient. It is weird but I think I am more of a perfectionist and want to slow down and get things right. I often wonder about how the musicians that we listen to are usually big in their teens and twenties. Technically they should get better at playing with age. Maybe the thirties are when we should peak and not the twenties, or maybe we decline in our thirties. I know we get smarter as we age. Maybe that is why the music of today is more tribal and less complex.

I am listening to more Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan now to get back in the groove of a blues rock band. They really were top of their categories. As I was practicing last night I realized I liked to leave alot out of my versions of their songs. I even listened to La Villa Strangiato and started mimicing the guitar. Then I listened to a little Def Lepard - Pour Some Sugar On Me and was able to figure out that song by playing with it. Who knows, maybe I will get good at playing other peoples songs. Then I can be in a cantina band at the age of 50 telling people to tip their bartenders. Right now I am solely doing this for the fun of it.

All in all it is really good to get back into music. Whenever I tell people that I was in a pop punk band and dyed my hair red people can't believe it. How could a clean cut Christian be like that? Oh, I am not to be pegged down. I think I am smart, but also can be cool. I love being well rounded. I think it makes life really interesting. I don't fit the mold of a nerdy guy or a cool guy. That can drive people crazy who judge people on stereotypes. Life can be interesting if we make it. Now add being the father of a cool kid and husband to a hottie and you've got an even better mix of life. Yes, life is good indeed.

So this weekend was a busy one. On Friday I was like, we should go out to eat. It is not like having a baby means you sequester yourself at home. So we packed up Brennon and went to Olive Garden. I could tell things were a bit different. We got a table right away in a section that had other babies. Makes me think some places have designated sections. It was good. Brennon slept much of it, but when he did wake up I grabbed my iPhone and made it sound like a waterfall and it put him to sleep. There is always some kind of app you can use every day.

Now I got a call on Friday night from an old band member. It was the drummer from my first band, Red Krovvy. He was like, our old singer's band had a gig and can't make it, so do you want to play three thursdays from now? Now I have not been playing guitar at all for at least a year, but I thought to myself, why not? So I'd like to announce I am coming out of retirement. Cue the Rocky music. I have been practicing every night since then and am trying to give my fingers some work outs. I think you lose some stamina when you quit playing for a while.

Saturday night we drove down to Red Oak and dropped Brennon off and went to "Screams" in Waxahachie. That is a fair that contains 5 separate haunted houses. It was fun. We got speed passes so we only had to wait 5 minutes in line instead of an hour. Holly jumps at anything. Now me, my reaction time is too slow to be startled, so some guy jumping out at me is not going to make me even nudge. However, seeing Holly jump up was entertaining, especially when we told them her name and the ghost would yell out "Holllyyy". We even saw a live snake show that was there. The guy does birthday parties too. I can see hiring him for Brennons birthday party when he is like 5.

Sunday we went over to Brennon's great grandparents house in Weatherford. There was too much cake there. It was too good. Everyone got a chance to hold the baby. He is still the cutest. He is starting to smile alot more. That is cool. Anyways, I have uploaded the latest pictures to this website. In the meantime I practicing some old songs. It's time to be a rock star again.

Ah, so Halloween is fast approaching. The fat season has officially begun. It is now time for candy to be in abundance and parties that offer such things. Then comes the filling Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas parties with cakes and candy. That is why New Years is always the time for the resolution to lose weight. I have gained a couple of pounds these past two weeks so I am now in diet mode, but I have a feeling fat season will overtake that. I think the key is to really limit treating yourself during this season. Maybe have one day a week where you can eat whatever you want.

That cognitive behavioural therapy really didn't work, it just made me realize how very hard it is to lose a lot of weight when you are a food addict. It also made me realize I don't like to be told what to do by anyone. Every time she suggested something I would shoot it down because I was honest enough to admit that I would not stick with most diet and exercise things. Food is an easily available legal drug of choice. In today's society if you ever fixate on food you will become fat. Cheap foods are unhealthy. Good tasting foods are unhealthy. Healthy cheap good tasting foods are very hard to find. Our portion sizes at restaurants are unhealthy. For instance we went to Chili's last night. They are running their 2 for $20 special which includes appetizer and dessert. I probably consumed 2000 calories in one meal. Time to start running again once my heel is at 100%. I suppose if I really wanted to get back into it I would get the cortizone shot injected straight into my heel. Ouch. I think I'll just rest it for a while.

Am I really overreating though? I mean it is not like I order two hamburgers. I have one value meal. One hamburger order. On pizza it is usually four slices. I eat what companies expect me to eat. Technically on normal days I get less than 2000 calories. So will I forever be unhealthy and die from eating too much? Nope, that is not the case. I can see the future. Right now there are 2 pharmacutical companies out there are testing pills that take the fat off of you. Orexigen Therapeutics makes a drug called Empatic and Vivus makes QNexa. In studies Empatic reduces weight in subjects by 10%. Qnexa also reduces weight by 15%. Now both of them are in mid to late stage trials. That means in the next couple of years, provided there are no long term side effects, these pills should be brought to market. If I had money to invest, those companies would be what I invest in. I think it is extremely likely in the next 10 years that a real pill solution to obesity will be on the market. So for now I will wait and maintain. Or should that be weight and maintain?

Ok, so I am now off my little soap box. Sometimes I like to write an opinionated article, why not? Today I shall update on my cutie. He is really the cutest baby I have seen. It is like he could be in a commercial. We think he is starting to smile, which makes him even cuter. I think God makes babies like that so when they cry you don't get mad. Anyways, he actually slept through the night last night. Holly is doing well with him. I know it is going to get tough when she goes back to work on Nov. 17. The big question of the day is this: What will Brennon be for Halloween? Answer to be revealed later. Back to work.

So there is one thing I know about health care and all sides of the issue. Everyone is wrong. As I was driving back from lunch today I saw a long line of picketers near a building. They were holding up signs that said "stop obamacare" and "I would have died 10 years ago if I was on obamacare". All of these lovely signs. Now I come from a unique perspective on all of this. I used to be a die hard conservative who liked Rush Limbaugh and thought democrats were all evil. It was only when I came to the conclusion that all of politics is evil and corporate interests can be evil as well that I became free. I realized that anyone who believes the news and talk radio is really taking in a filtered view of the truth seen through some kind of mask. Everyone has a slant. I thought to myself as I looked at the picketers, do they really know what they are talking about? There is probably a 1,000 page bill that maybe 5 people have read and 1 of those people looked at page 597 and determined that the plan is wrong. So the talk shows and republican leaders jumped on it because they don't like democrats. Even the democrats don't know what is in the plan, they have people who write cliff notes and tell what is in it. Then they use these talking points. The debate then becomes the talking points and not the actual bill. The fact is, something so complex needs to be split up into many many bills and voted on. But we just cannot comprehend it all, so many things, some good, some bad, are going to slide by all of us. It is a shame. Our government system needs a rewrite for the complexities of the 21st century.

The fact is, there is no simple cure for health care. Take our recent baby. We currently have 2 insurance cards. I have the family plan at Aetna (90/10) $300 deducatable and Holly has the family plan at BCBS(80/20) $1000 deductable. Now that we are receiving bills it is getting really complicated. So far the gross is $27,000 also for the NICU. Then there is a negotiated rate making it $17,000. Then the insurance companies start paying in supposedly making our bill around $4,000. Just for having a baby. Yet we have two insurances. I would think that we should end up paying 20% of 10% of the bill. This system is really broke. Now repubs seem to think the government should stay out of it and corporations have the solution. Unfortunately that is wrong too. The interest of every corporation is this: how can I make more money and how can I save more money. It is not a moral or ethical interest. It is all about money. From insurance companies to the companies that hire us, there is no wise and moral guidance. It is definitly not about the people, which we should be assured that is what government is about. For instance, next year my Aetna insurance is getting turned into some kind of preventative plan at (85/15) $5000 deductable. It is terrible but it saves the company money but could make us all broke if we have any kind of major surgery. So the solution is not corporations. The private sector does not have the health of the people as a primary concern.

So on to the flipside and why it is wrong as well. The democrats seem to think government is the answer for everything. As if things are ever simpler under the government. I don't really have faith in a system that is bankrupt and slow, yet somehow the dems seem to think by forcing everyone to go along with their healthcare suggestions we will all have top quality healthcare. That is false too. The fact is, hospitals and insurance companies are companies that look to make money and a government that regulates them then puts caps on what people can receive will cause people to wait too long for healthcare, not have available cures or the best medicines. Also, taxes will have to be raised and repubs don't want that. There is a reason why other countries pay 40-50% income tax and that is to support the massive healthcare infrastructure. Americans love not paying high taxes because high taxes can prevent us all from becoming wealthy. Now in an ideal world a government for the people should look after everyone's healthcare. But those ideals are not reality. Already corporate interests and lobbyists influence politicians way more than votes do. We just can't trust anyone to look out for our healthcare fairly. That is the big problem. There is no one who is fair and impartial in this world.

So what is the solution? There is no unified solution. The closest I can come to is to create an artificially intelligent expert system. What it does is enable real time billing per situation. Basically an algorithm will be created that bills people fairly based upon their individual income, use of healthcare, amount of medicine, use of hospital supplies, number of doctors and all other factors that go into giving good healthcare with caps on how high it can charge. The one rule is this, people will not be forced into poverty because of their healthcare. I think I will write it all out and pitch it to a local congressman. Who's with me?

Let's see. This three day weekend was fun. I am glad Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. On Saturday mom wanted to see Brennon so we drove to Wichita Falls and visited her. It was actually a pretty easy trip as Brennon likes to sleep in his carseat. He slept on the way there and on the way back. Mom was delighted to see him. I posted pics of the visit in our pictures section. Sunday I watched the Cowboy game and was glad someone decided to step up. I've always likes Miles Austin, he was just never given the chance.

On Monday I slept in and got a haircut and the car cleaned, even though it is always raining. It is almost as if we are living in Seattle. Monday evening was the U2 concert at the new Texas Stadium. That stadium is twice the size as the old stadium. The great thing is the view is pretty good no matter where you sit. The concert was really good. U2 played most of their hits, which is what I like to hear. At the end of the show getting out of the parking lot was a nightmare, especially since my GPS took us in a circle. 20 minutes later we were back where we started. We didn't get home until 1:10AM. Holly's mom was kind enough to watch Brennon for us while we went and had fun. So that was my weekend. How was yours?

So what have I been doing since I quit working on RideSearch? Some might say nothing, however that is not the case. I will always be developing some website here and there with the hopes that I can turn a profit. I did learn a big lesson though. Do not spend too much time and money to complete the website. This site I have spent maybe 40 hours and zero dollars on it so far and am close to having it done. So I'd like to announce my next website. It is one of the 50 domains I own. I bought this one years ago with a vision and then I just let it sit there. I even thought I could get some money for just the domain alone. My next site is called

Google Reviewer

at

http://googlereviewer.com

The vision is this. A place to go for the latest news on Google, the latest reviews of their services by top software architects(mainly me) and guest writers. The market is this: anyone who likes google and is interested in how to use the latest services. I have already got most of the architecture set up. Now I just need to write articles and reviews about Google's products and services. I'd say my writing skills have improved dramatically over the years, having typed over 1000 articles on this site alone. I also will try to get guest authors to write some reviews as well. My plan is to turn this site into a full fledged magazine. The Google Reviewer. There is enough content about Google to take up a huge site. It contains forums for discussion and a tips section so people can send me their latest tips. The front page is already taking updates from RSS feeds so the news is always current.

So the big question is: How do you make money? Well, I have a store setup on the site that goes through Amazon.com's storefront, which gives me a percentage of what people buy. Kind of like the Amazon search box on the home page of this site. I will also serve Google ads. Those only pay much money if I can get more that 3000 visitors a month, but it will add up if I can generate traffic by redirecting them from other sites. Even if I make $20 a month it still is better than nothing and over time as I build content and more sites I will get more hits. Its all part of my web empire. Anyways, I will let everyone know when it is finished. For now, opinions are needed on the design. Have a good weekend!

So Brennon has been doing good. He is a little calmed down from a week ago, however there are times when he is crying for like a half hour and we don't know why. As a result of all of this I came up with a solution, find someone who knows the answer. Now 15 years ago we would have to guess at how to calm our baby down. A couple of weeks ago I got on amazon.com and typed in crying baby. Up pops this dvd called "The Happiest Baby on the Block". It had rave reviews so I decided to get it. We watched it yesterday and already are amazed at the results. It gave us 5 techniques for calming a baby and it showed them working instantly. It's like, here's a crying baby, watch this, no more crying.

The concept is interesting and I think we kind of got ahead of ourselves in our parenting skills. The first concept is swaddling. We knew that at the NICU he would be swaddled like 24/7 but when we brought him home we thought he didn't like swaddling, that he was past that stage. It turns out babies can like swaddling for like 8 months. The key is to lay them on their side on your lap when tightly swaddled. It is a relax response. Tight swaddle with side laying with calm a baby. Another techinique is shushing the baby. Basically it is white noise that reminds them of the womb, so shushing works. The key with that is to be close to their ear and shush as loud as the baby is crying. Last night I opened up my iPhone app, Ambiance, which has white noise and put it up to his ear. He instantly calmed down.

The third technique is shaking the baby. No not that one, but just a little jiggling. Like rocking back and forth. The key with this one is it has to be small jerky movements. When I put Brennon swaddled on his side on my knee and moved my knees back and forth quickly it calmed him. The fourth technique is swinging. Once the baby is calm if you put him in an automatic swing on high speed it should relax him for quite a while. I saw this when I was helping out with the babies at Sunday school. They had swings galore and it really did work. The fifth technique is using a pacifier. The key with that one is to train them to keep it in. Apparently their muscles get a workout when you gently try to pull it out. Most people try to push it in. So this was something new. All in all a good DVD that taught us how to calm our baby quickly. That gives us time to admire how cute he really is ;-)

Today I shall talk about this epidemic called the swine flu, or its new term H1N1. We've had a couple of people out of the office because of it. One of them's daughter has it plus strep throat. Schools are shutting down. Kids are most succeptable to it. I am actually considering getting the vaccine. I actually qualify because I have a child younger than 6 months and they cannot take the vaccine. However, I am usually wary about new medical things. They obviously have not been tested for its long term effects. However, in the short term if I got the swine flu that would be terrible for me and my family. But a big question is: How do I get the swine flu vaccine?

I remember when I lived in a dorm at Texas Tech that was the only time I ever got the flu shot. I did experience a side effect with it. My sweat turned orange. I mean I had orange pitts in my t-shirts and I peed a nice orange glow. I thought, this is very weird. Later on I figured if everyone else got the flu shot then I wouldn't need to get it cause the flu would not exist. That was my logic although now that I think about it, not everyone gets it so that theory doesn't work.

However, I do have a pretty good immune system and get sick maybe once a year or less. I think it is because of all the vegatables I get by drinking a large glass of V8 a day, plus taking an antibiotic for my face and most recently taking anti-inflamitories for my foot. My foot is around 85%. It doesn't throb anymore but gets real sore when I do alot of walking, and is sore in the morning. So I have not got back on the treadmill yet. However, I am still maintaining my 10 pound loss from when I was going the extra mile, so that is good. So relatively if I didn't get the swine flu shot my chances would still be low cause of my age and immune system. Should I get it anyways to be on the safe side?

Holly made a comment the other day how it feels like we are really grown up. It is weird but when you cross that threshold of having a kid suddenly you can relate to all parents everywhere. There is a similiar threshold when you get married, but at that point there are many times when it feels like you are single and dating each other. Now it is like, what's Brennon gonna be for Halloween? Where will he go to school? How can we get him to sleep through the night? And then other parents can chime in with their experience. All of a sudden we can relate to our parents. That's kind of freaky.

In other news our house is falling apart. Unfortunately that is a part of being a grown up. The fence is practically on the ground. There is a big water stain and sheetrock cracking upstairs where we have had a roof leak for a while. And we are getting a new garbage disposal because it was leaking as well. Then top it off with our foundation shifting a little and losing dirt near our air conditioner we have tons of maintenance tasks. Now it is a matter of prioritizing which one to do first. I think the cracked sheet rock and roof leak should be next after we get the new garbage disposal installed. As usual being a grown up means getting the money to fix things, but knowing what is important vs esoteric means you can put things off to save for it.

I am good at waiting to build up the money to get it all fixed. So waiting a year to get the fence fixed is no big deal. In the meantime I'm starting to think what else I could do with our small backyard. I've thought, what about tearing the entire fence down and make a fence out of shrubbery? Or go and find rocks and make a big rock fence. I've also thought about making a large covered patio, kind of like the house in Wichita Falls. That would be cool. We could even put a hot tub in there as well. Or digging a giant hole and make a swimming pond. Or leveling out the backyard and making a step that goes down to it. Or building a wooden deck. Or putting in a croquet course. That would be fun. Right now the only thing I use the backyard for is grilling. I can picture me doing lots of work and then never using it. Eh, I think I'll stick with grilling and maybe a swingset in the future. But one can dream of all the possibilities.

So this weekend we hung out around the house with Brennon. We have decided to move him into his crib and use our cool baby monitor. Really it is like he is in our room because it picks up every sound and if we need it we can watch him on the video screen. Technology is great. The original complaint was that he is uncomfortable sleeping on his back without his mom. So I thought of an invention. I call it the robotic surrogate mother. Basically it is a hot water bottle covered with clothes that mom wears to mimic the presence of the mom. It has a white noise machine with a mother's heartbeat sound in it. Then there is a robotic hand that puts a pacifier back in or bottle if it detects the cry is one of hunger. It also warms the bed and can shake it to soothe the baby. It would have a cardboard cutout of the mother's face and at various times a recording of her reading a story to the baby would play. I would make a mint selling such a contraption as I am sure it would be able to duplicate the needs of the baby by a surrogate. Then the mother can get more sleep. I call it RoboMom. However, after I thought of such a contraption we started to notice that Brennon just seemed to get used to the crib, so the whole thing was unnecessary, but would be an interesting experiment.

We watched a show on childhood obesity as well. Apparently more than half of all kids are obese. It is really an epidemic. We are like, we've got to get Brennon to get the 60 minutes of play in every day. Then I thought of another invention. Basically it is an iPhone app for kids. Maybe it could be created on something a little cheaper than an iPhone. What it does is it is a social network that gives kids missions. They look at their mission and it would have a map of the playground using GPS. There would be some kind of goal where each kid on the playground needs to type a code into all of the other kids phones. The first kid to do it wins. I call it GPS tag. What it does is it incorporates a social network on the phone so they can run around and chat with all of the kids in the playground. I can see it being really fun. It will probably be viable in a couple of years when a gps phone gets under $50. But you never know. My good ideas are always thought of and developed by someone else before I do it.

On Saturday Holly's mom came over and babysat for us while we went out. It is very good having a mother-in-law close by. She can come and babysit and we can get out of the house. We went to studio movie grill and saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was good. There was some funny moments, but it was mostly a kids movie. I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars. Sunday we watched the Cowboy game. I am thinking the Cowboys are not a playoff team this year. There are no superstars on their team. Romo is not a great quarterback. He is good, but not great. But here in Cowboyland it is still fun to root for them, especially since they win the super bowl every year. How was your weekend?

I am worn down from work. Holly is worn down from baby. TGIF. Sleep is essential. I wonder if there is a way to pause life and get some rest. Kind of like tivo except for reality. I think I will call it Livo. The way I see it, you can't go back in time, but do you have to go forwards? First I need an advanced degree in particle physics and astro physics. Then I will create this device and finally get sleep. Yaaaawwwnnn.

I remember back in the day when I was job hunting Microsoft wanted me to go to Iraq and make like $200,000 in 6 months. I really considered it, but the thought of living in a desert and getting shot at wasn't even worth that so I declined. Now that I look back, it was a good decision. Every now and then I run into a vet. No, not the vietnam vets at the VFW but the kind that is younger than me. It is always interesting and I have to give them much respect. It is weird to think that most of them are like four years younger than me. Some of them join the national gaurd for the pay for one weekend out of the month and then they get called into active duty. I remember a guy who years ago told me about how he was on patrol in Bagdad and some kids were shooting at him and they were able to take the guns from them. One of my old bosses told me about him being in the second or third tank that almost rolled into Bagdad during the first kuwait war and how all he needed was the order to enter and was told to stand down.

Today I talked to a new person here who got a bronze star in Iraq in 2005. He was one of the national gaurd that got called into active duty. His story talked about landing in Kuwait and when he got flown into Bagdad the plane had to do some kind of spiral landing to avoid gunfire. Apparently alot of the soldiers got sick on the plane going down. Once they landed it got up to 140 degrees in the desert and they have to carry 80 pounds of body armor. I know I would die if I had to do that. The key is to stay hydrated. I feel for all of the soldiers over there. They deserve our respect.

I always ask them about how are things over there. He said it is bad and they do some good over there. He said never trust the news, something which I do anyways. Like he talked about how some of his friends got hit with some serin gas, a chemical weapon. He also was there training the Iraqi soldiers but they apparently don't learn that well and are alot like kids instead of adults. Whenever they turned their back they would sit down and bust out a tea set and drink it in the middle of the checkpoint. Apparently the people over there are backwords in many ways and don't care if you tell them to stop or I'll shoot, even in arabic. There are no battles over there, just small skirmishes. He told of one skirmish where they unleashed a ton of ammo on a school that had 2 bad guys in it and they escaped anyways but the street was littered with shells. He also was told to grow a beard and wear a man dress to blend in but that is hard to do. He also wanted to bring back a bullet as a souvenier that wizzed past his head into the wall as well as a piece of a morter shell that wizzed past him as well, but they wouldn't let him bring it back. I have yet to hear the bronze star story but I am sure it is interesting.