At long last

I’m very, very proud.

This week I managed to finish a very long personal research project I’ve been involved in for several years now. This is just a huge check off my personal goals list.  I’m not really ready to share it yet, but I’m very satisfied with getting it done.

Hopefully now I can move forward on some more important things in my life now.

Please, check your dictionaries…

Good god, people…The spelling is voilà.

“Viola” is an instrument.

“Walla” is half of the name of a city in Washington.

Please… it’s just painful.

New portfolio shots

Added a few more shots of recent work to my little portfolio gallery.  One of these days I’m going to have to do something a little more professional with this…

More than meets the eye…

So worth it.  Go see the show.  With pre-teen children if possible.

More action figures

I updated my Action Figure gallery with some shots found on Renee’s old camera.  We found it today and it had a few pictures that never got moved over when she switched.

Freedom Celebration

 

I have to say I was quite impressed with my little town’s 4th of July Freedom Celebration.  We had a fireworks show that was as nice as I’ve seen anywhere short of Disneyworld.  We had a great vantage point and a view that looked like it was spread out for us.  A fun time had by all.

Out from under the storm

Glad to say that the bulk of Renee’s chemo sickness appears to be behind her.  She’s still not 100%, but feeling well enough to eat occasionally and go to work.  One down, three to go…

doctor! doctor!

My apologies to those who thought this was a post about our current medical situation…

Back during my time at deviantart I made friends with a few guys going to a small school in Michigan – one of them was a really talented poet and I always kept a close eye on anything he published.  He struggled for a while about where to take his musical directions, but I’m happy to say he and his band are making a go of it.

Doctor! Doctor! is experimental grindcore – a bit gory and rough edged for my tastes these days, but a challenging listen.  And anything beyond the sellouts who dominate the scene is always refreshing to me.  Give them a listen if you have a strong stomach.

Not the best start…

Renee’s first chemo did not go well today.  Unbeknownst to us, her port had gotten flipped inside her sometime over the last couple of days and when they put the IV in, it went in at the wrong angle.  Result: some really toxic stuff went in a big bubble under her skin and they had to put about 12 shots of bicarbonate in to neutralize it, then moved her to the hospital, manually reseated the port, then sent her back to finish the treatment.  Imagine a lot of shots, a lot of waiting on doctors, twisting and pushing around her recent surgery wound without anesthesia and driving her around the hospital complex trying to hold herself together.  A regular chemotherapy session is no picnic.  This was nightmarish.  The two hour procedure took nearly six.   She is now at home doing fine at this point.  We don’t really see chemo side effects for about 24 hours on average.

Add to all this goodness that my Mom, a 15 year lung cancer survivor got a note from her doctor saying there was something abnormal in her recent mammogram and asking her to come in next week for a sonogram to get a better look.

I have had better days.

Reading: Several…

Today was Renee’s surgery to implant her chemo port. She came through fine and is home now, but it means I got a lot of reading done.

Not Now, I’m Having a No Hair Day was the first on the roster. It attempts to be a humorous look at cancer treatment, but it just didn’t go far. The jokes were lame and bittersweet and it just didn’t fit the bill.

I’d Rather Do Chemo Than Clean Out the Garage: Choosing Laughter over Tears was a little better to me.  Whereas “No Hair Day” mostly focused on embarrassing little moments in the treatment process, this one was a little more mean-spirited, making fun of people bringing food, using your treatment as an excuse to dodge work and indulge yourself, etc.  I can imagine it being a lot more fulfilling to someone who’s dealt with the side effects of the treatment.  It was a bit depressing, as the author is dealing with a situation many times worse than ours, but it finished up with some great solid advice on handling the treatment from a veteran.

The Fred Factor was not a planned read – I picked it up between reads because it was in the house and unread, so I felt like I should turn it around.  It’s basically about considering service – either to mankind or to customers – as your life’s work.  I didn’t really get lots from this – it basically read like a magazine article or short speech padded out into a few more pages.   It was a very basic read, so not a lot of fun for me.  Would probably work for your typical corporate training session, but I kind of felt it was wasted time for me.

The 4 Hour Workweek I was looking forward to -  I had read several articles and interviews with Ferriss and had corresponded with him just a bit.  It’s basically his advice on how to change your life so you’re setting up a system to earn money for you that requires little maintenance, then going out and spending your time doing what you want.  This wasn’t a new concept to me – I had the basics down from previous Steve Pavlina experience – but Ferriss did a great job of getting you started with suggested companies and contacts and fully illustrating his personal fulfillment models. I will probably play with some of these suggestions since it’s laid out so well, but my main concern with this kind of lifestyle is how long it can be sustained as the average consumer gets more and more tech savvy.

Beyond that, he spends a lot of time explaining his ideas of the good life – doing exciting things all over the world for a reduced cost.  He again is extremely practical with this, giving you tons of websites and contacts to use, but it’s mostly from the perspective of a single guy with few commitments.  A lot of it just isn’t practical to the family man who wants to be a pillar of the community.  Yes, I’d love to study martial arts with Chinese monks for 5 years and become a world champion as well – but I can’t imagine dragging my wife and children along for the ride, or canceling my local commitments to community, family and friends to indulge my fantasies.

The best idea I came away with was not saving yourself for retirement, but getting out and enjoying your wealth as you go along.  It was a nice prod for me, who tends to take the unexpected cash that comes my way and put it in an IRA.

In any case, it was time well spent and I’m looking forward to dreaming up some companies to “set and forget” and see how it turns out.

All these added up to 19 books this year from a goal of 12.