Apparently the guys liked my story of how I had one too many the other weekend. I know it was an allergic reaction, but you never know. I am glad I quit drinking again. I have had my share of drunken stories in my twenties. I remember one time waking up in Austin at a chinese girls house on her couch. As I looked around me everyone was on the floor eating soup, speaking Chinese and my shoes were off in a corner with everyone else's. I woke up and wondered - what in the world happened? Where am I? Finally one of my friends came into the living room and I remembered we went to Austin that night and saw a friends band play.

Another time was when I first came to Dallas and hung out with all of my AT&T coworkers alot. So one of them had this big party at their apartment complex and that was when I discovered Jello shots. Who knew that something so innocent as Jello, something Bill Cosby tells kids to eat, could contain poisonous alcohol. So by the end of the party I was loopy with my head spinning and I decided to spend the night at the hostesses apartment with the rest of the drunken clan. That was when I experienced the dark underside of drinking. As I stayed up all night on the couch with my head spinning people asleep on the floor had trash bags near them and were shisking. I, of course, always refuse to. But at around 5 AM I couldn't help it anymore and gave the sink and dishes in the sink...ok..can't talk about it...still too traumatic.

I have other stories, but there is a big moral to the story. Don't drink or you'll be sorry. Sure you can drink, just remember you will be sorry you did. At some point you will drink too much and suffer the consequences. I quit drinking years ago cause I did not want to enable alcoholics who can't control themselves. I never wanted to condone drinking because of all of the bad effects that it has on the person drinking and the people around them. Now I have another reason - allergies. I suppose that's as good as any. I don't want to relive the past anymore. Or am I doomed to repeat it?

So I know some secrets about Plano schools. I have a friend who sends his kids to the public schools. The school he sends them to is ok, but apparently it is not enough. I found out around my area there are Chinese schools that are open on Sunday to supplement the kids public eduction. He said his kids are learning logic, math, chess, Chinese and critical thinking and they are only in kindergarten. That explains why the local middle school, Rice Middle School is a top ranked school, and they are 75% asian. Apparently they setup these schools to keep their kids on track with higher expectations. My friend was like, his daughter comes home from kindergarten with smiley faces and "good job" written on their papers without any grades. A note came home that said "your kid will be graded next year so it may be traumatic for them." In the meantime his kid is learning math and critical thinking at another school on the side.

It got me thinking, why don't they teach critical thinking in school? I remember my favorite class was 7th and 8th grade number sense. It was an elective class, but it was fun to learn math tricks. You only get higher learning if you take higher level classes like honors classes. Obviously school is important in my family given that my mom was a teacher and her mom was a teacher. My wife is a teacher and her mom is a teacher. They will all tell you that because of the publicness of schools the lowest denominator is pandered to the most. I thought private schools were the best because when we got out of the episcopal school in 6th grade I was a year ahead of everyone. I used that time to take advantage of not having to learn in 6th grade and then it caught up with me. Now my sister kept on learning and obvoiusly being valedictorian was her goal and it was attainable. Having a good education is a combination of parents that care and being in an environment that is condusive to learning, like honors classes, private schools, or a supplemental school. I think home schooling could work if the local district is totally incompetant and the parents care enough about education to know they need outside resources to keep them learning.

Although on the flipside I feel sorry for the kids whose parents don't care about their education. We all know that education is fundamental to success and as parents we want our kids to be successful. The truth is, being successful is an easy life. It is not hard to be successful you just have to have a good education. Living the American dream and having a good income gives us security and alot of time to ponder life's other questions. Most people miss the boat though. They despise education, hate homework, hate to learn and then end up working at McDonald's wondering why they can't get ahead. I was almost one of them, but I found out that I loved to learn about computers at the age of 9. That was what drove me to learn. So is the point of this diatribe? Well, Brennon is going to have parents that stress education, and with that he should be successful. We can only hope. Maybe those secret schools in Plano will be getting another attendee...

So the weather is looking good. It is about time to heat the pool up a little bit and go swimming. The problem is, by the time it is usually hot enough it rains. I had to get the ole home warranty people to look at the pool on Monday. Everytime I turned it on the water level would go below the skimmers and then it would start sucking in air. The waterfall and fountain stopped working because it was sucking in air. I am learning about how to operate this pool. There are like nine valves on the pump. Some of them are automatic and whenever I press a button like "hot tub" the valves move to what should be the correct position.

We have had pool problems for a while now. I think even our pool people didn't know what was happening. The pool is a saltwater pool or a chemical pool and has a hot tub, a waterfall, a fountain, fiber optic lights, yard lights, a polaris cleaner, a pool heater and a spa overflow. A control panel is in the house. It is pretty complicated and if it is in the wrong position damage could result. For some reason algae started to grow in it. Then when I talk to the weekly pool people they are like - we don't do pumps we just clean it and make sure the chemicals are balanced. So they don't know what is going on. Finally after Monday the home warranty service fixed it all for $60. I am glad I have a home warranty. This time I took pictures of all the valve positions. Now I know what it should look like. Once I master the buttons and valves I will be king of the pool.

Let's see. I am doing well. I had a catscan done last Thursday and all signs of the sphenoid sinus infection are gone. That means no surgery. I can breathe out of both nostrils. The combination of Nasonex and Zyrtec D has knocked out the allergies. Then they took my blood and all of my numbers are normal, even after I took myself off of those cholesterol and blood sugar pills. I knew my powers of deduction worked. Those pills were causing my fatigue. Even my blood pressure is 120/80. My feet are feeling better and are not stabbing pain anymore. So now I guess the only thing left to do is to...exercise.... ack.

I am walking Princess Leia after I come home from work. I need to get her to stop barking at every car that passes and every person that passes. It is like she forgot all of her training. I think she has bad influences on the other side of Dallas, meaning Bridget and Oliver, the cousin dogs, who run wild. Princess does get jealous of the baby. Whenever I am holding and playing with Brennon princess will try to get involved. You'd think princess would have the upper hand, but Brennon is already training princess. Princess will lick Brennon in the face and then Brennon will grab a big ole chunk of Princesses hair and pull. I heard a yelp one time and I realized, Princess isn't going to bug Brennon that much, it may just be the reverse.

Brennon is soo close to crawling. I think it will be any day now. He gets on all fours and wobbles back and forth. Sometimes he will try to go forward but doesn't put his feet in the ground and he will actually go backwards. He is still mobile. Right now he likes to roll around and can get pretty far. He also loves his little walker and does laps around our kitchen. Next month I will definitely baby proof more of the house. Brennon can get far already. He loves to kick. I hear loud banging coming from his room that sounds like a hammer. That's just his legs kicking the floor. Once he walks I have a feeling he is going to start running. Time to get in shape so I can catch him.

Due to Blogger changing their FTP rules I had to update this site a
little bit. This weekend I went to Wichita and met Melinda and Greg
who had been there all week. They did so much work it was
unbelievable, like 12 hour days. They threw so much away. This week is
the estate sale. Then we put the house on the market. Hopefully it
will sell.

Instead of me driving to Wichita Greg flew his Cessna 182 down to
McKinney and flew me back. There I rented a UHaul and loaded the boxes
to keep and came back to Dallas and put them in storage. Mom had a big
list Of stuff she wanted. Anyways, it was all done and was alot of
hard work with Greg and Melinda doing all if it. I am glad that stuff
is almost finished. Eventually we will enter into stasis with mom and
all her business. That will be nice.

Gotta go. Because of my work project I am now in meetings all week and
will share my knowledge with the teams. I told them what I know is
scary, but nevertheless we will turn it into a multi-year 10 million
dollar project. Let's see if it becomes a success.

Well I am on another list. This time it is for the new Nissan Leaf. What I did was reserve my spot in line for when they go on limited sale in December. That is the perfect time to buy one because of the rebates still being around. There is a $7500 tax credit for electric vehicles. In my county there is a $3000 rebate for electric vehicles. Then there is another $1000 rebate for installing a home charging system. Top it off with saving $2000 a year in gas money and you have a really really good deal, around $13,500 in savings the first year. It turns the $33,000 vehicle into a $20,000 vehicle in one swoop. Then for every year after that I would continue to save $2,000 a year in gas. So if I owned the vehicle for 10 years it would have been like I got it for free. However, I am not excited about taking on a new car payment. It has been nice not having to make my altima payment anymore, but it has not been nice driving around a clunky caravan. So there are pros and cons to everything. I can still back out before December so we shall see.

I am excited about what the Leaf has to offer. It is not just an noiseless four seater normal looking electric car. It has tons of technology in it, like a nav system that directs you to local charging stations, rear cameras, a home link system that is like lowjack, bluetooth speaker phone and an emergency charger that can plug into a regular outlet. It goes 100 miles on a full battery at 70mph. My distance every day is 33 miles so I would have to charge it every three days instead of my once a week fillup. However, given current electric rates a full charge would cost roughly $2.75. Compare that to $45 a week for gas. Oh yes, I will secure that car very well. I have even thought about making my own little security system and embedding it into the car. You never think about securing your car till one gets stolen.

Some people are like, why get the first version? What if is not that good or what if it breaks? Of course, if you know me you know I like to take risks. I use logic to mitigate most of the risk. For instance only those who get the first versions will probably get all of these incentives. Then if it does have some kind of failure whatever part would probably be recalled across the board. There are consumer groups that watch out for newbies. If does break down then I probably would have to take it to the dealer to get fixed. I see a warranty in the future for the car so that should be like any other car. What if I just don't like the car? Well, it's already better than a van. I have learned in life to have low expectations and high hopes. I have also learned that risk taking can lead to high rewards. Without the risk there is no reward. We shall see.

Quick update today. My sister and husband have arrived in the glorious town of Wichita Falls. They have started clearing out and storing mom's stuff. This is going to be a chore. I am going to go on Thursday night and start helping. So guys night will probably have to be Wednesday. I will probably bring a sleeping bag and a Bible. The house is very creepy. Mom has written down everything she wants me to take back. I am sure it is going to be alot of things. If anyone wants any books from the library let me know. We might donate them somewhere.

Also on Thursday before we leave town I go in for another catscan. Hopefully this sphenoid sinus thing is gone, otherwise I'll have to have an operation. I think it is gone cause I can breathe fine, don't have a sneezing fits and finally I have some energy. Of course I decided to quit taking my triglyeride medicine and actos medicine. That has made a world of difference as I no longer have fatigue. I think I was becoming hypoglycemic. Matter of fact I have a little too much energy now as I was up till 2 last night. Although I really feel like my old self. I think the start of it all was that trillipix. I am glad I decided to quit it. I never heard of anyone dying from too high triglycerides.

So right now only the home page of this blog is updating. I will fix it soon. Blogger has decided to stop ftp support on May 1st. That sucks. I use them to publish to this site and now they want to break everything. I might even try to make things better looking around here. We shall see.

Wow, did I have a hangover this weekend. Now onto how it all happened. Sometimes in life I think we all get tested and test ourselves to "relive" the glory days. Other times we stumble into this test by accident, as was the case in this instance, and things get revealed that would otherwise not have been known. So we had received a gift card from Holly's mom for the Cheesecake factory on Easter. Saturday night we decided to use it so Holly's mom watched Brennon, who is no longer sick, and we got a gussied up and went out.

We thought we could get there early to avoid the rush. At the Cheesecake factory at the mall it is always busy and in Dallas if you go out to eat after 6:00 you are gauranteed to wait an hour for a seat. We ended up getting there at 6 anyways so we knew it would take a while. As we walked around a while all of the waiting seats were taken except the ones at the bar. Naturally when you take a seat at a bar they expect you to order something. I figured why not, I'll just tell him to put no alcohol in it. See I haven't had a drink since our wedding night and that was just a glass of champagne. I hadn't had a drink till then since Robbie died. So it really has been around 5 years since I had any kind of alcohol. So I say to the bartender,"give me a strawberry daquari........no alchohol." Now I admit I think I waited too long to say no alcohol, cause when he gave it to me it did have alcohol in it.

Of course it did taste rather well. It was like an adult snow cone. After we finished that one we asked for a peach passion daquari. Then we got our table. We proceeded to eat our dinner and talked about our alcohol experiences. Of course in my twenties I used to be able to put away around 10 drinks and not be drunk. This time it was different. We had one last taste of an old friend called margaritta and then had chocalate cake for dessert. So all in all I probably had 1 1/2 drinks. So we go walking around the mall. As we started walking the full feeling hits me. It was no more than 20 minutes after I finished that I felt something was wrong. I started sweating profusely. So I had to sit down. Then the sweating would go away and I would feel cool. This happened over and over again. So we went to one bathroom and I thought I was fine. As we walked the same thing happened. So I sat down again and was drenched. Of course I started burping and feeling nauseus. In the end we sat down near a family restroom. It had been a little over an hour since we ate and drank. As I sat down I felt "it" happen. I ran into the family restroom and let go all over the thing. Those little kids toilets could not hold it all. It was bad and of course I closed my eyes the whole time. I never ever watch that. I suppose I should have cause my shoes and pants got some of it. I feel sorry for the person who has to clean that restroom. I need to go today and buy some new shoes.

So in the span of one hour I went from a non-drinker to a drinker to a drunk to a hangover back to a non-drinker. It was not pleasant and it made me swear off alcohol for life. Why is it I learn the lessons the hard way? Can't it all be easy? Later on I was reading about intolerance and someone on the net mentioned an allergy to alcohol and medicines interacting badly with it. I then knew that I had become allergic to all grasses during the year. I bet there was some grass or grain in it. I did not sleep well Saturday night and still went from hot to cold every hour on into Sunday afternoon. Finally Sunday evening I felt like myself. Holly mentioned how she has been around for every one of my sickness bouts. I was like, yeah I spewed and you still stayed, that means you're mine. She is such a trooper ;-)

So I got in on time today. Woohoo. Apparently going to bed an hour earlier helped. I do have a musical score playing when I am working. In the morning I start with some Christian songs, I like all new artists like Mercy Me, Chris Tomlin and Switchfoot and some old ones as well like Carman. I also listen to my churchs choir CDs. I think that music calms me down in the morning. In the afternoon I switch gears towards more classic rock stuff. I listen to the Beatles, Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Fresh Prince, Yngwie Malmsteen, Rage Against the Machine and a whole bunch of 80s and 90s music. I have varied tastes.

It all takes me back to college when I spent 36 hours straight writing a compiler. I had a tape player that took two tapes. So one tape was the Beatles Live at the BBC and the other one was The Jimi Hendrix experience. It played each tape and automatically flipped sides. While I was intensly programming I was guzzling Dr. Peppers and smoking 4 packs of cigarettes. It kept me awake for that long. I think I then slept for 24 hours straight after I turned it in. Ah the good old days of college. I got a 100 on that assignment. It was then when I realized I could do anything on a computer if I put my mind to it.

I think the ease of writing logic is what intrigued me most about programming. It is an easy job if you know how to do it and you can think like a compiler. However, there is stress in every job. This is all mental stress. Even my current one has it. I have written this 250,000 line program and now that I am testing I am going through every line over and over again and making sure the logic is correct. I am determined now, just like I was 15 years ago, to get it 100% correct. From the outside it does not look like I am a perfectionist, but on the inside oh yes, I will complete it.

Ack, so I woke up at 9AM this morning. That was when I was supposed to be at work. Of course I really question why it happened. One of my alarms did not go off. I took a count and I have 4 alarms trying to wake me up. I have yet to get my house speaking in my bedroom and that may help. This time though I got like 9 hours sleep and I still felt tired. I think I have fatigue. I think all this medicine I am taking is responsible. It may be the Actos for prediabetes, or this antiobiotic for my sinus infection or stress from work or a combination of it all. Maybe my cpap needs adjusting. I take a record 12 pills every morning. The funny thing is, I am not that sick.

So now I am thinking, what if I stopped taking most of them? I mean really, can high cholesterol kill you? What about prediabetes and rosacea? Can heartburn, depression, allergies or a sinus infection do you in? I know high blood pressure is dangerous so I shall stay on that medicine, and the heartburn medicine and zyrtec really does work. But the rest, I don't see any effects physically, except maybe in the ole wallet. Maybe I should get a new doctor as my wife thinks my doc is in bed with prescription companies. I probably should stop taking the latest meds so I can figure out which one is causing this fatigue.

So what happened when I woke up at 9AM? Well, I was going to write an email saying I was sick but I couldn't. I just had to be honest. So I wrote one saying I slept in and it probably was from fatigue brought on by my medicines. Yes there are always consequences. For instance I didn't get a raise this year and probably won't next year even though I do the work of 3 people and could save the government $15 million. I question though what in my psyche makes me think it is not that important to get there on time. Is it an interal power struggle? Maybe I hate being under control of anything and that stems from my mother controlling me growing up. Or maybe I don't like my place of work and would rather sleep than be there? Eh, my work happiness is a 6 out of 10, and I can live with that. It think it may be I hate 9AM. I once had a job where I could come in at 10AM. I was on time every day. It was the perfect schedule - 10-6:30. Maybe I should petition for a later start time. Nah, I am just going to go to bed earlier and earlier until I wake up on my own at 7:30. Maybe. I'll figure it out. More tests...

Last night I watched a couple of horror movies. The first was a movie called Skeptic about a guy named Brian who inherits a haunted house and is skeptical. It actually had a good plot and there were some scenes that made you think. It was kind of slow in parts though. He went back into his childhood alot and it revolved around that. It was more of a thriller than a horror movie. The second one was "Orphan", another thriller. It reminded me of the movie "The Bad Seed" about a psychopathic girl who acts all nice and then does bad things. Don't mess with the orphan.

So why do I watch horror movies? Well, at some point there is a scary moment and that is thrilling. At other points there are macabre moments which are somehow intriguing, like watching a train wreck. I suppose it is in our human psyche to be interested in some kind of death somehow but I may be wrong. It might be that our lives are boring and are not really filled with the macabre and thrills so we watch it on TV to get a sense of it, knowing full well that if it happened it real life we would be really terrified. There is a presumption in it all - this is not real, so lets see if I can be entertained by it.

Of course like all movies you never know what to expect until you actually watch it. While I do shy away from cussing and R-rated movies I can very easily handle it and always try to look past the bad to the good. Growing up I saw more than my fair share of horror movies. Hopefully there is a good plot, good acting, or a good side story. I think though my senses were probably warped growing up as I became desensitized to most audio visual horrors. I wonder what will happen when I shelter Brennon from such things? I know he will experience them when he is 18, but by then movies will be in 3D and be even more disturbing. I am willing to bet at that point in history there will be recorded cases of post traumatic stress disorder from watching a 3D bloodbath. It will be then when we all realize that violence in movies needs to be limited and the stories need to be told in a way that is enjoyable. I wonder what the future of movies entails. Or should that be entrails?

Today I would like to talk about what is going on in the developer world. It is a big time for software engineers. New devices are being released like the iPad that give us another platform to work on. Then new development tools are being released. Adobe has released a new version of Flash that can compile to the iPhone, although Apple is not allowing them to. Microsoft is releasing its latest version of Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010. That contains a compiler for the new languange C# 4.0 and will help with the new Windows Phone 7. I am currently working on C# 2.0 and have been trained in C# 3.5. It never ends. HTML5 is going to be a big thing and hopefully getting rid of flash but I doubt it. This onslaught of devices and languages is really big this year. I have been learning ever since I was 10 years old and apparently the hardware makers want me to keep on learning.

I can see why it could take a toll on a persons brain. Right now I know: Applesoft Basic, LOGO, Pascal, COBOL, VSAM, CICS, HTML, Javascript, VBA, VBScript. ASP 3.0, ASP.Net, VB5, VB6, VB.Net. C# 1.1, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 3.5, ActionScript, Flash, Silverlight, WPF, Winforms, C, C++, Java, JSP, AJAX, Google Maps API, Spring, Spring.Net, Hibernate, NHibernate, SQL, SQL PLus, MYSQL, Oracle DB Management, SQL Server Integration Services, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g, RadControls, Batch Scripting and probably some more I am forgetting.

So in an effort to stop the madness I'd like to say that C# 2.0 is the most elegant and efficient language out there and everyone should go to that. For Adobe, Apple and Microsoft every time they come out with something new they say they have made things faster, simpler and better. To those companies I say, if you want things faster, simpler, and better QUIT CREATING SO MANY DAMN LANGUAGES! I am tired of having to learn something new just so the user can experience something better when they click a button. And that's all I've got to say about that.

This weekend we hung around the house taking care of Brennon. He still had some junk in his lungs. So we did the albuterol treatment in the nebulizer every 4 hours. By Sunday he had a little cough and was no longer wheezing so much. Today he is back at the babysitter. I also got the sound system in the living room mostly hooked up. It was such a mess the audio visual guy took a before picture. We are talking about 50 separate wires and 5 components just lying around. I still have to hook up the external speakers like the ones in the pool area. I also turned on the heater in the hot tub and had a soak a couple of times. I turned on the waterfall, turned on the fiber optic lights and the path lights and enjoyed my new home. It is very relaxing. It gave me time to reflect on the many blessings God has given me.

As I contemplated things I thought, what if I had done something different? What if instead of getting a new house I saved and paid debts off? Then I remembered the parable of the man who stored up all he had and then died the next day. Basically it was a parable of how you shouldn't wait to make important decisions and to live your life like you could die tomorrow. Of course staying responsible is part of it all. I have been put in a position in life to utilize leverage to make a better life for me and my family. Sure, I have played the fool many times and it is wise to owe no one, but I accepted it a long time ago that quality of life is more important than that. Recognizing that it is no longer that the quality of just my life, but my wife and child's quality. Brennon is now in a good school district. He will have opportunities I never had when I was a child. I am excited at him growing up, but I don't want it to happen too fast.

I also think about the people who move to tropical islands and live a life of luxury. There are people all over the world that live a very relaxing lifestyle. One without worries. It reminds me of when I went to Cozumel and people are like - put away your watches, we are on island time, hang loose and relax. Then I thought, well you don't have to go to an island to be relaxed. You can come to my house. So I am now the owner of a vacation home I am going to act like it. I am now on vacation from my worries. My friends and family are welcome to our home to come and visit and join me on my vacation. Of course, that pesky thing called work still happens, but I am taking it easy. Hang loose ya'll.

Brennon is doing better. We gave him some stuff in a nebulizer to clear his lungs. Right now Holly's mom is watching him. It is nice to have someone be close who can help out. I am back at work. I think I did pretty good handling Brennon all day yesterday. I think once you get a rythym going things get easier. At first I was like - got to have a schedule - eat at 9, sleep at noon, eat at 2, sleep at 3 with playing in between. It didn't quite work out that way because he didn't nap for as long as he usually does. I put him in his walker and he moved around the house. I also moved his play area in front of the TV so he could watch Star Wars and play. He loves to look at lights. I think that intrigues him the most. He also likes my goatee. However, it is time to shave it. I wonder if he will recognize me?

Apparently he has lost a little weight. He is now down to 20 pounds from 21 pounds. I think it is the ear infection that has gotten to him. He will be growing in no time though. Even though he is almost 7 months old he is fitting into 1 year old clothes. Wow, 7 months. It boggles my mind to think that he is growing that fast and time is going that fast. In 5 months he will be one year old and probably walking and talking. Sometimes I think I will miss this stage of his life and others I will enjoy the next one. I think most people say up until they become a teenager it is fun.

So what is next on the Bass agenda? Well, on Sunday we will try out a new Sunday School class. Then the third week in April Melinda and Greg are coming down to pack mom's house and get it appraised. This is going to be a chore for all of us, but it needs to be done. Once done the next steps will be to get it sold. I will be glad when it is gone. To think the last of my trips to Wichita Falls will be over with. It has been nice not having to go up there to visit mom. That town is something else, and that's all I've got to say about that.

Today I am Mr Mom. Brennon is still home sick. The doctor gave him a nebulizer machine to clean up his lungs. So I am taking care of him. We are bonding. I put on Star Wars earlier and now Willy Wonka is playing. Of course he is not really watching them, but maybe his first words will be - may the force be with you or something like that. He is fun.

Gotta go, baby's crying...

Well it looks like Brennon is still sick. He has been coughing alot and Holly took the day off again and is at the doctors office right now. He says Brennon has an ear infection and they have a breathing thing on him to clear his lungs. Poor guy. It could be the RSV virus. It is always hard to figure out if we should let him sleep in his carseat so the congestion doesn't go to his head or sleep on his mattress propped up. Either way he gets uncomfortable.

As for me I am having better health days. I can actually breathe through both nostrils, however this sinus headache is killing me, so there are pros and cons. I think my apnea has improved as well. The best thing is I am not coughing and sneezing at work. I am sure my coworkers are glad of that. My complexion has cleared up. I forgot what I looked like without a red puffy face. I wonder if my "rosacea" was really allergies all along. Even my scalp has quit itching. My plantar fasciitis no longer hurts as well. Maybe my body was just teeming with allergies and infection and I needed a good dose of steroids and antibiotics. However, after all of it is used up I will probably go back to normal. I wonder if my muscles have gotten bigger? For now I am Super Brian.

At work I have accomplished the porting of code. In 4 months I have done over 235,000 lines of old code. That has always been thought of something that is impossible for a team of people. It is so big I think no one will believe it. Once it is all working they will have to believe it. However, it is no big deal if people don't recognize it because that means that my methodology is successful. I think I am tired of seeking recognition for things anyways. I now do things just because I want to prove to myself that I can accomplish it. I love coding challenges. I have never done one for this long. Usually my coding challenges last a week instead of months. For now I am Super Brian.

So Brennon is home sick today. Holly is watching him since she has more sick days. Time off is always a problem for me. I get 6 hours vacation a month. I think right now I might have 3 days saved up. I get 5 sick days a year and I think I have already used like 3 of them. I miss the part about running my own company where I could call in sick. Anyways, Brennon has a chest cough. We put him in his carseat to keep him upright while he is asleep. But his sleep is not much. He was up alot last night. I ended my shift at 1:30AM. I can't imagine doing it all alone, that would suck. I am tired right now.

So I have been narrowing down my choices for what Windows Mobile App I want to develop. Right now I have 3 apps I want to build.
1. A Rubix Cube Clone - this will be fun to build and people will automatically know how to play it.
2. The Adventures of Biggles - This is a story I created on the old Apple IIe 21 years ago. I think it would be fun to create a new story and have the user control his moves. It would be a kind of super mario style game. It will take the longest to build.
3. The One Button Diet - This is the diet I made that lost me 10 pounds. The hardest part about it is keeping track of when you can eat whatever you want. With this app it will remind you and you just push a button when you have that bad meal. This might be the easiest and fastest to build.

So now the question is, which one should I do first? I am thinking the one button diet since it will be easy to build. But I bet the Rubix Cube clone would probably get the most interest and make more money. Time to jump back into the development world after work. It is the right time to do it, especially since I am ramping down my coding at work. Always got to keep my skills fresh. That is how I know I will always have a job.

So on Friday night we hung around the house and watched movies on our big screen. We got the Rifftrax Christmas Special. It had a skit that Weird Al was in. That guy is always funny. I didn't get much sleep this weekend. Brennon is sick with a cough and so am I with this sphenoid sinus infection so it is hard coughing and sleeping at the same time, plus I think the steroid the doc gave me made me wired and has given me a headache. I hope my sinus drains and doesn't affect my brain and make me insane in the membrane. If it doesn't get better by the end of this week I might have to go to the hospital and get antibiotics through an IV. That would suck. They have to treat it seriously cause it could cause blindness, paralysis, coma and death. Sometimes I think I shouldn't look up my conditions on the internet. It could turn me into a hypochondriac.

Saturday we cleaned up a little. One of these days the last of the boxes will be unpacked. Sunday was Easter. Holly's mom came over and bought a good rib roast and ham. Holly and I picked up mom and took her to church and back to our house to hang out. It was the first time she had seen it. I turned on our waterfall and fountain for her. She liked the house. She played with Brennon too. He is quite the cutie.

I have been playing with my new HD2 phone. I have to say it is better than the iPhone, but only because I understand how to get the most out of it. The HD2 is more complicated that an iPhone as it does multi-tasking, can be a wifi hotspot and has many customization options. The screen is bigger and is in HD. Compared to the iPhone I can actually sit through an entire movie on it and not get eyestrain. However, there is a major drought of Apps. The iPhone is the king of apps. The good news is that because I have an iTouch I can hook up the wifi from my HD2 and get online access to my apps and not have to pay AT&T $90 a month.

And now I am presented with a gold rush. The HD2 had 40,000 orders placed last week and is a top phone. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.5, which is older than the new Windows Mobile 7. When the iPhone came out the apps that were presented with it grew and grew as developers found a source of income making ordinary people alot of money. However, now the App Store has over 1 Million Apps in it and it is all diluted. Guess how many the Windows Marketplace App store has? About 1,000. If I can develop and app for the phone it will be seen by all of buyers. I could charge say, $1 for it I could be looking at $40,000 coming in. So now the question is, what kind of app would be good? I already have the tools to make apps for it cause I am a Windows Developer. I would do the RideSearch thing, but I have found that people who can afford smart phones really don't have to carpool. I am thinking maybe a unique game or a utility. This will be fun. The rush is on.

So as today is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter allow me to wish one and all a happy Easter! Of course we all know that Jesus is the reason for the season and the Easter Bunny is the sign of the times. It was Jesus's death that was a very big deal for the future of all mankind. It hearkens back to the old testament. Abraham was told by God to go and sacrifice his only son. Naturally Abraham was a man of faith and obediance and did what he was told. However, I think, in the back of his mind he must have thought God wouldn't let him go through with it. Because God promised him that he will be father of many nations. It logically didn't make sense. I suppose that is why God stopped him right before he was about to do it. However, I think God may have seen a father's love for Him be greater than his love for his son at that point in time. That was a big deal.
 
Now that I am an actual father to a son I get an even deeper respect for what was accomplished. Why? Because I love my son with a bond that cannot be broken. We have already bonded and as he grows up we will bond even more. I wonder if I will be here when he is 33 and I have been able to watch him and help him become a man. Because we have such a bond I can see why the death of Jesus was a big deal to God emotionally. God not only loved the world, but he loved his Son too. Now the world is filled with people who hate God, don't believe in Jesus and hate all things Christian. Why would God love those who hate him? I think maybe it is because we all have the free will to change. The free will to love God and worship him. We all can change. Often times we like to personify God as someone who is just like us and has our judgements of good and bad. The reality is, Gods ways are not our ways. God even says that no one is a good person, even Christians, which is why we all need salvation. He is not mortal and therefore has a different perspective than we can possibly imagine. But the one thing we know he has, and the one thing that is littered throughout the Bible is love.
 
So if God the father loves Jesus the Son and he sacrificed his only son for our sins, how much must he love us? It boggles the mind that God does love us. It is so unbelievable that most people turn away. It is when you turn back to God, and ask for forgiveness that you realize God does always forgive. He has to. Otherwise the death of His Son for nothing. So I always wondered, was it the death of Jesus or the resurrection that saves us? Was it the sacrifice or the belief in His divinity that saves us. It is both. You have to believe God gave his only Son as a sacrifice for our sins. You have to beleive Jesus is God because of John 8:
 23 But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins."
 
So to the non-believers out there. Believe and be saved. When you repent God forgives. When you believe you have eternal life. When you have eternal life you have joy. When you have joy you have a reason to live. Make that change. Why not?

So as today is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter allow me to wish one and all a happy Easter! Of course we all know that Jesus is the reason for the season and the Easter Bunny is the sign of the times. It was Jesus's death that was a very big deal for the future of all mankind. It hearkens back to the old testament. Abraham was told by God to go and sacrifice his only son. Naturally Abraham was a man of faith and obediance and did what he was told. However, I think, in the back of his mind he must have thought God wouldn't let him go through with it. Because God promised him that he will be father of many nations. It logically didn't make sense. I suppose that is why God stopped him right before he was about to do it. However, I think God may have seen a father's love for Him be greater than his love for his son at that point in time. That was a big deal.
 
Now that I am an actual father to a son I get an even deeper respect for what was accomplished. Why? Because I love my son with a bond that cannot be broken. We have already bonded and as he grows up we will bond even more. I wonder if I will be here when he is 33 and I have been able to watch him and help him become a man. Because we have such a bond I can see why the death of Jesus was a big deal to God emotionally. God not only loved the world, but he loved his Son too. Now the world is filled with people who hate God, don't believe in Jesus and hate all things Christian. Why would God love those who hate him? I think maybe it is because we all have the free will to change. The free will to love God and worship him. We all can change. Often times we like to personify God as someone who is just like us and has our judgements of good and bad. The reality is, Gods ways are not our ways. God even says that no one is a good person, even Christians, which is why we all need salvation. He is not mortal and therefore has a different perspective than we can possibly imagine. But the one thing we know he has, and the one thing that is littered throughout the Bible is love.
 
So if God the father loves Jesus the Son and he sacrificed his only son for our sins, how much must he love us? It boggles the mind that God does love us. It is so unbelievable that most people turn away. It is when you turn back to God, and ask for forgiveness that you realize God does always forgive. He has to. Otherwise the death of His Son for nothing. So I always wondered, was it the death of Jesus or the resurrection that saves us? Was it the sacrifice or the belief in His divinity that saves us. It is both. You have to believe God gave his only Son as a sacrifice for our sins. You have to beleive Jesus is God because of John 8:
 23 But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins."
 
So to the non-believers out there. Believe and be saved. When you repent God forgives. When you believe you have eternal life. When you have eternal life you have joy. When you have joy you have a reason to live. Make that change. Why not?

Well, I just got back from the allergist. I figured it was time to go to one when all my coworkers kept on saying "you must be allergic to work". Every day for the past 4-5 months I break out into a sneezing, runny nose, stopped up head fit in the afternoon. It has gotten worse over these past two months. Finally I decided to see an allergist. It was an interesting appointment. First I have to fill out those lovely forms where you right down your current illnesses and medications. That is kind of depressing for me cause it is an extensive list. Then you go into the office and they ask questions about your nose and any breathing difficulties and the like. Then the nurse says we are going to do a skin test to determine what I am allergic to. So I was to lie on a bed and they put 64 patches of allergens on my back. The ones that turned red and raised were the ones I was allergic to. My whole back was itching and I was supposed to wait for 20 minutes and not scratch it. They did a test for 64 things.

Apparently I am severly allergic to the following:
In the tree category - Birch Tree, Oak Tree, Mountain Cedar Tree, Pecan Tree. Then I am allergic to most all grass - Timothy grass, Meadow Fescue, Kentucky Blue, Orchard, Sweet Vernal, Johnson, Bermuda, and Brome. In the weed category I am allergic to Cocklebur, Rough Pigweed and Ragweed. The good news is I am not allergic to any molds or food. I am also highly allergic to Cat and Dustmites. Also, unfortunately I am allergic to dogs as well, but not as much as cats.

Then the doctor decided based on my symptoms to do a cat scan of my head. I told him that I can usually breathe out of only one nostril. Also, having a broken nose in the past by being hit in the face with a soccer ball caused a deviated septum. As we perused the cat scan he said, aha that's the problem. One of my sinuses was completely blocked up. It was my left sphenoid sinus. That is a hard one to reach as it is behind the eyeball. It is rare to get infected but my guess is because of my CPAP that is what did it. So I am now going to take Nasonex and Zyrtec D and for the sinusitis he has to combat it with the hard stuff - pregnazone steroid and some kind of heavy antibiotic. If it doesn't work I would have to have surgery to open it up. That would suck. The funny thing is growing up I wasn't allergic to anything. I still don't know what it is in the office that I am allergic to. Maybe there is a cat in the airduct. More tests...