Where I Visit Games in the Playlist Interesting Links
01/07/2007
Well, it certainly has been a while! Lots to say!
Last CT scan was clear... although this last time they used a new scanner with a higher resolution. As such, they couldn't determine if there were any differences between the last scan and this one. Next scan should help determine if anything's changed. That scan's due at the end of January 2007.
I also had a colonoscopy at the start of December 2006. Fascinating procedure once you get past the uncomfortable bit. I was concious during the test, and got to see the inside of my sparkling clean colon! No polyps were removed.
Now onto the big news! As of September 11th, 2007 I am working for Eclipsys. Eclipsys makes software for hospitals. Their core product is essentially an electronic version of the paper charts used in most hospitals. The product is amazing and a heck of a lot of fun to work with.
I had been working at my last job for roughly nine years, and really needed to move on. I put in my notice at the end of August, got a couple weeks off, then started at Eclipsys. The massive pay raise to go along with the move certainly helped. There's a huge difference between working at a small software company (10 people) versus one this big (2200 people).
The team I work with is all really cool. They've been doing a lot of hiring lately, and I'm one of many new employees. I've spent a couple weeks in Atlanta Georgia training, and have met a lot of great folks.
The kids are doing great. Linnae just had her 3rd birthday, and Kaylee's first is coming up. Linnae will be going to pre-school/daycare, and Kaylee will be spending at least a year with Gong-Gong and Po-Po (Alice's Dad and Step-Mom).
Alice is back to work next week, and she's really looking forward to it. She burnt her hand pretty good last week though. Someone needs to come up with a burn proof glue gun!
That's all for now! I'll try and keep a more regular posting schedule, at least once per month!
06/12/2006I take part in the Relic Forums. One of the forums is a gallery, for forum users to share art. There are several excellent artists on the forums, and one of them started this thread. I missed it the first time around, and now, he's gone and posted this awesome caricature of the kids and I.
Riess is one of the Guys I play BF2 with, so I suppose his inspiration came from me being one of the top 200 in the world with the AT Launcher and that picture of Linnae playing with the promo grenade.
I so need to frame that.
Update: Here's a bigger version.
04/24/2006So Alice made an attempt to catch Linnae using the mouse on her PC (we got her a 17" LCD and tiny laptop mouse that fits her hand perfectly the other day). You can see her clicking and moving blocks from one part of the screen to another. I'll try and capture her doing the whole startup and logon thing as well.
Not much of her using the computer, because as soon as she sees the camera she goes into song and dance mode. Gotta love her rendition of ABC and Twinkle Twinkle Little star.
I aim to have her as a Tank gunner in BF2 by this time next year.
03/31/2006So I had cancer, and my Mom died of complications from Colon Cancer (adenocarcinoma?). Well, after my genetic screening for a cancer Gene (P53 gene I think... oh and it's not defective), they recommended I get a Colonoscopy at an age that would be 10 years prior to when my Mom was diagnosed.
Yeah, this is going to be fun.
03/25/2006So Alice and I are both computer geeks. Linnae watches us on the computer a lot, and often, when we step away, she climbs into our chair and grabs our mice and goes to town. This often results in some interesting things being opened on Alice's screen.
We'd setup a computer a while ago for Linnae (AMD 1.2 GHZ, 768MB Ram and a GeForce 2), but she didn't seem interested in using the mouse. Today, Alice spotted Linnae on her computer again, and asked me to get her down. I thought I'd see if Linnae was interested in using the mouse. So we fired up her PC, and at the login screen, she actually clicked her profile to log in!
We fired up the Fish program she so loves, and I let her activate it. She didn't quite get the clicking there. However, going to Disney.com into Rollie Polie Olie and she was actually able to move the mouse to what she wanted, and click on it to activate it! A couple other sections of the Disney site caught her eye, and she was able to click through those as well. She's not perfect with the mouse yet, so I'll be setting her up her own desk soon I think, so she can use her own computer properly, rather than having it on the floor.
Alice has also put up some new pictures of Linnae, Kaylee, and all of us.
02/06/2006
Two Bits of Great News and a Linnae story!
My latest CT Scan was a few days back. Today, the results are in! I'm cancer free for another 6 months!
Another encouraging bit of news was that Glivec (imatinib) is now a treatment option for my type of GIST! Previously, C-kit negative GISTers were not eligible to use Glivec as a treatment option, however, further studies have been done, and it's now approved for use with the handful of us that are C-kit Negative! The press release is dated today (so new in fact, that the press release isn't even uploaded at the time of this posting)!
As for Linnae, she's getting sneaky! So I was playing Battlefield 2 yesterday when Linnae was down for a nap. I play with headphones on, and with friends from around the world. We use Teamspeak to communicate with each other, and we're normally talking up a storm. As things go, the language can get quite heated when we're playing a close game.
So, we're playing away, and I had just been killed in a particularly devious way. "That DICK!" I exclaimed. I was quickly suprised when Linnae yelled "DICK!" immediately after the words had left my mouth. I wasn't aware she had snuck out of bed and was standing quietly beside me watching me play. *sigh* I need to tie a bell on her. Maybe I should just clean up my language instead.
01/19/2006Alice and I had the honour of meeting our second daughter at 5:01am on January 17th. Story and details of the birth to follow (look for her own link on the menu bar!).
11/14/2005
Child's Play Charity.
I've donated my $100 (US!), have you?
What is 2000 times thinner than a sheet of paper, 5 centimeters wide, transparent, flexible, conducts electricity, weight for weight stronger than steel sheets yet a square kilometer only weighs 30 KG?
Carbon Nanotubes in sheet form, that's what.
Undoubtedly the coolest thing I've read in a long time.
I've given my Dad a gallery account here, and he's putting up some shots of his Mini being rebuilt.
Note that I've named the gallery "The Yellow Hornet", because I think it sounds better than Pooh's Honey Pot. But since Dad can change it, it might be named something else shortly.
08/10/2005So, Linnae spends the work day with Alice's parents. Well today, she was playing outside, and she tangled with a honey bee.
She got stung on the face! Below her right eye, to the right of her nose. Who cares she says!
*sigh* at least she's not allergic to bee venom.
08/02/2005Upload of some new Linnae action shots. She's 19+ months now and turning into quite the girly girl. But she's such a geek (this is a good thing)! New shots start here.
07/29/2005Last week I had a CT Scan. This week the results are in. I'm cancer free for another 6 months!
By the way, Alice is pregnant.
I guess I kinda forgot to mention this, my wife is due with our second child in the first week of January of 2006 (Linnae was due in the same time frame). So far her pregnancy is going well. Triple marker screen results came in, and things are right where they should be. We're not going to find out the sex of the baby until it's born. Why you ask? Finding out the sex of your baby is one of the biggest surprises (ohhh a 50/50 surprise!) that you can have.
07/20/2005
New York Pictures
A month and a half later, I've finally uploaded some pictures of our vacation to New York.
On Monday I went in for my most recent CT Scan. Puked as usual, in spite of anti-nausea medicine consumed this time. They're going to try a different contrast dye next time. Scan results next week.
My wife dug out some of the notes from my stay in hospital. Appropriately titled "Amusing Things You Said and Did in the Hospital". Probably should have been "The Ravings of Drug Addled Cancer Patient".
You sang “Home on the Range” while you were in the post op room – 2nd day
You called 7 hours after your surgery – “Hey honey, what’s going on? I feel pretty good. I lost a whole bunch of stuff. Yah, I know. I know I lost my spleen, gallbladder, stomach and pancreas. I’m fine. I feel pretty good!”
The 2nd day after your surgery, you called again at 7am. “Yah, I called a whole bunch of people yesterday. My parents, work, Melissa, Heather. I feel pretty good.”
You called your workplace and said that you would be in the office in a week.
You dreamt that there were people falling down from the ceiling.
You kept handing your mask to people as you thought they needed more oxygen than you did – you also dreamt this too.
In your sarcastic tone – “What do you mean it’s 2004? I’ve already competed in the 2011 Olympics and won gold in skiing, and other events.”
Don’t touch my monkey.
So yeah... Don't touch my monkey!
02/14/2005The 21st Century appears to be here ... or something.
Today, I picked up a Roomba Discovery at Linens 'n' Things on my lunch break.
Here's a picture of it Charging at my office. I wanted to take it home and turn it on right away! The power button pulses as it charges, it's a nice effect!
02/13/2005Start at this shot are 20 or so new pictures of Linnae. Captions by ÜberWife!
02/11/2005On January 31st I went in for a 6 month follow up CT scan. Results came back this last monday. All Clear!
I've also recently joined the GIST Support International Mailing List. Great bunch of GIST survivors there. Check them out here.
In completely unrelated news, I've always thought for years that it was illegal to drive without your shoes on. Apparently, that's a total urban legend. Shoeless driving (in the summer, when I'm not going to work) it is!
12/14/2004We've officially moved into the new place. It's awesome. Pictures here.
Cable's in, Ethernet's Wired, Brink's security being installed, garage door opener in (thanks for helping install it Dad!), and most importantly, the big screen TV.
11/02/2004In August, Alice and I went looking for a new house. We figured it's time to get something bigger. We found a great place in South Surrey/White Rock that's 3 traffic lights from my work!
Since then, we've sold our place, and Alice has started packing up for our move to a proper house with a yard. We're out of our townhouse on December 10th!
08/21/2004
Cancer Update and Flight Pictures
On Friday August 20th, I was told I was cancer free. I go back in six months for another CT Scan. On with life!
On Saturday the 21st, my Dad, brother Jeremy, and I went for a short flight over the fraser valley and surrounding mountains. Check out the pictures!
08/12/2004Yesterday I had a Cat Scan to check for Cancer return. Ended up puking on myself as the Scan was about to start... gotta love the crap they make you drink for Contrast and that dye injection. I get results back next week.
Drove in with my dad, and he drove back out. He thought the new car was pretty nice. We stopped to take pictures at the park. Here's one of them. Yeah, I know, the car makes me sexier than I already am (I know, it's hard to believe that I could be any sexier).
08/08/2004
New Car!
Yesterday, I picked up my "new" RX-8. Got it used, with only 4600KM on the clock.
Check it out!
Critiques needed.
I have flung myself to the mercy of the folks at the Relic Website Design forum. Feel free to post your feedback as well.
Cancer Sucks
As many of you know, I was admitted to the hospital on March 27th... here's why.
Robot Gallery Added
Yes, I'm a grown man and I collect Robots. Check 'em out!
New Linnae Shots Added.
Starting at 60.
First Post
Setting up the blog software...
Stop by the Gallery to Start.
