brykmantra.com

Okay, I need to post about my visit to this year’s Irish Festival, but first I need to post a watershed moment that happened back in January:

Remember back in December when I had the pneumatic retinopexy in my eyeball? Long story short, it didn’t take, and surgery was required. Here are pictures of the enviroment surrounding that event here.

Oh, and it was exactly five years ago last Thursday that I had my tumor surgery in which I lost half my right lung (I’m better now). I don’t have time to look up my blog posts from that era, so here are those pictures.

Remember what you were doing exactly four years ago tonight? I was lying in a hospital bed recovering from having a tumor (and HALF OF A LUNG) removjed.

And my wife was in the emergency room, because she collapsed of exhaustion while coming to visit me in ICU and somehow managed to BREAK HER ANKLE.

Because we don’t do anything the easy way.

The recovery was pure misery, mainly because the surgery wreaked havoc on my ribs and back, but never before in my life have I gone four years without severe bronchitis, so it definitely paid off in the long run.

I have also been able to spend the last four years with an enlarged perspective on life: No matter what happens, I can shrug it off, because I had cancer, and I LOST HALF A LUNG.

Makes everything else seem petty.

Yes, it was seven years ago tonight, back in that medieval year of 2002, that I first started a blog, back when 80% of the country had no idea what a blog was.

Oh, those were heady times for us brave pioneers! Networking with other foolhardy cyberdiarists, catching a glimpse of our blog names in a screen shot of a blogroll on local TV news, trying to explain to clueless coworkers and family just exactly what a blog is, posting every stupid little thought that popped into our heads (but without the competition of half the country like on Twitter these days).

Yes, it was almost exactly a year after I started my blog that ABC News named Bloggers their Person of the Year; coincidence? Oh, sure, keep telling yourself that.

My blog was originally on Blogspot, which apparently got hungry and ate the thing, but you can still download my archives in their entirety from a link in my sidebar on the right.

But of course, blogging is passe now, replaced by “tweeting” and “status updates” and “life”. Even I have my Twitter & Facebook & Blip.fm posts funneled into my sidebar here, but I still keep this blog as a central hub for my domain name and blogroll, and of course my “content network”: Original music, photography, video, t-shirts, etc etc etc, plus my own Twitter posts (“tweets” will someday be looked upon as one of the most idiotic words of the early 21st century) and Facebook updates.

Still, it was extremely worthwhile for me to have a blog. It finally gave me daily practice in writing and web page creation skills (HTML and graphics, for instance), opened up several new friendships and networking opporunities, and provides me with a written history of my life for most of that time.

Bonus points: It also gave me a nagging sense of superiority for the first time in my life, as well as bragging rights and a notch on my resume.

One of the most interesting things about blogging was that most of the people reading my personal little blips and rants were all over the country, and even the world. My own family and coworkers were never that interested in my blog, and most of them only read it after they deliberately did something stupid that they knew would tick me off.

THEN they would read it, to see if I was griping about them, but only temporarily.

But seven years is a long time, and the MantraSphere (i.e., my life) is a vastly different place that it was back then.

Probably the biggest event in those intervening years was the discovery, in early 2006, that the bronchitis and pneumonia that I’ve suffered from all my life was caused by a neuroendocrine tumor in my right lung — a tumor which began before I was even born and had grown to 5 centimeters in diameter.

So, long story short, after teetering on the brink of death from pneumonia and losing half a lung to surgery to remove the tumor, and after a long recovery process (mostly because of the havoc that the surgery wreaked on my back and ribcage), I’m now in better health than ever, and haven’t even had bronchitis or a serious sinus infection (much less pneumonia) ever since.

The second biggest change from back then is that I have finally made good on my long-time threat to compose and record music, even being one of the winners of a local music contest this past October! (Did I fail to mention that? Hey, I announced it on Facebook and it showed up in my sidebar. Keep up.)

But you can listen to my music on AloneTone (for free! And get free downloads and ringtones! For free!)

So do that, won’t you?

And there are more changes, but for now, I have to cut this short so I can go DJ in Second Life (another change! Huzzah!).

More later.

Okay, so it’s not March any more, but, rebel that I am, I’m trotting out the shamrock icon one more time for this miscellaneous stuff:

I wanted to post this while the posting’s still good: As of last Sunday, I’m below 190 pounds (189.8, to be exact) for the first time since the months following my surgery two years ago. At any rate, my size 36 khakis are fitting nicely, and maybe even a bit loose. That means I’ve now got about 12 pairs of khakis that fit, and three really loose ones.

The amazing thing is I’m losing weight while unemployed — that is, while having too much time on my hands, time that could be used sit around and stuff my face. I’m also surprised since the past four months were not only the coldest of the year (when it’s toughest to get outside) but also the most fattening.

But I’m managing to keep to my walks almost every day, since we’ve had lots of warm days lately, and I’ve been keeping my daytime meals small, so that seems to have done the trick.

The only problem is that my wife reminded me that she doesn’t like skinny men, so I’d better not overdo it.

So I had some ice cream and she feels better about it now.

Yesterday morning we discovered that the TV in the computer room was totally dead (probably a dead power supply).

And what’s a computer room with a TV? NOTHING, that’s what! A BIG FAT GOOSE-EGG-LIKE ZILCH!

So anyway, I went out to check prices on TV. But since there were storm clouds rolling in, we checked the local news stations for the weather. The local CBS weather guy said, “We’ve got a few little clouds up in Denton county”, that’s where we live, “but what we’re really concerned with is down here in Burleson” (60 miles to the southwest) “where this situation could easily spawn tornadoes”.

So I went on to WalMart, and as soon as I was back in the TV department, my wife called on my cell phone and told me that the tornado sirens were sounding. “You don’t hear them?” she asked. “I hear about 40 TVs, and piped-in music. I’m toward the back of the store!” Nobody else in the store was panicking, so I wasn’t going to perform solo. I just figured stick close to the sturdy looking shelving, and the second anything hit the building, I’d have an edge on ducking under it.

As soon as she heard the sirens, she grabbed her purse and the phone and a flashlight, and herded Bristol and Molly into the bathroom, then called me to see if I had pulled a Dorothy yet.

Anyway, nothing happened, but I learned I can’t trust the local weather wizards to know what’s going on.

Anyway, enough about life and death matters, back to what’s really important: Replacing the TV in our computer room. I found a passable small Samsung at WalMart, but we wanted to check at our local resale store before spending the big bucks.

Long story short: I found a fairly recent model 20″ Panasonic for $9.99.

It’s a combo TV/VCR and the VCR part doesn’t work, and they didn’t have the remote …. but hey, NINE NINETY-NINE!

It actually took some work to get working — and in this case the tech support guru was my wife, who sacrificed a fingernail to freeing the VHS tape (Star Trek, The Original Series) that was stuck in it, and then stopping the tape ejector mechanism from making a constant clattering sound — and more work to get it programmed — again, it was my wife that found the solution on the internet, and without losing a fingernail this time — so there was indeed some “sweat equity” involved …

But hey: NINE NINETY-NINE!

We got an $8 remote at Dollar General — again, my wife’s doing (this could give a geek a complex) — and now we’re back up and running, entertainment-in-the-computer-room-wise, so we’re happy.

Yes, we’re partying like it’s $9.99.

I was supposed to bring this up on Monday, but better late than never: Go to Renny’s site to see how they celebrate April Fool’s Day in Norway.

… or rather TRYING to be musicking, and failing miserably.

But still I need to post, so here’s a picture I took yesterday of my exercise buddy, Gracie:

Gracie is a sweet little doggie on my walking route, a couple of blocks south of my street. I met her just less than two years ago when I had to start my walks to rebuild my lung power, and now she usually runs to the fence when she sees me coming, so I can pet her through the links (she’s too short for me to reach her over the fence).

I got to see her again today, since it was extra-warm again (record heat for this date! 84F!) and it might be the last warm day for a walk for a while. This time when I stood up after I petted her, she stood up too, and whined for more petting, and leaned against the fence so I could scratch behind her ears.

Yeah, I’m a sucker for puppies. But look at those beautiful brown eyes! Isn’t she sweet?

(BTW, I’ve talked to her owner a couple of times, that’s how I know Gracie’s name. I’m not going pet psychic or Dr. Doolittle or anything.)

Anyway, that oughta hold ya; now I’m going back to not being any good at doing music.

UPDATE: Welcome, new visitors from Pam’s Carnival of the Canines! Please bookmark the main page here and keep coming back!

Three news items from friends, ranked from gladdest to saddest:

1. This isn’t actually news, but I had mentioned that Yay Kim was participating in National Solo Album month, and, for a limited time, you can download and listen to her finished work!

I listened to it last night, and it’s great — you wouldn’t know (if you didn’t already) that she knocked the whole thing out in just a month.

2. I don’t know if I’ve told you about my friend Nick back home. He and I had been friends since we were babies together in the church nursery, then I moved away, and for the last 20 years or so I’ve only seen him when I go home to see my mom.

Ten years ago last April, he was diagnosed with Multiple Myaloma and given six months to live. He eventually beat the cancer through a combination of chemo, radiation, and bone marrow transplant.

Then the cancer returned, so he beat it again. Six months has turned into almost 11 years now.

Still, not everything is totally peachy; something unexpected has happened:

Early this morning, his house burned to the ground, and he and his family escaped with only the underwear they had on.

Bet that’s not what you thought I was going to say, is it?

But anyway, my mom says they’re all okay. His parents have a big house, and lots of people in town are pitching in to help.

First order of business: Getting everybody some pants.

Then, shirts.

Seriously, though: He’s taking it all in stride, and compared to two bouts with cancer, this is probably nothing to him.

Dodging death is his specialty, it seems.

3. Our good blogging pal Pamibe‘s sweet chubby little dachshund Zoe passed away late last month, and she wasn’t even ten years old.

And you know us: Somebody losing a pet, even if we’ve never met the person or canine in question, is often sadder than when a close friend loses a family member, especially for my wife.

Because let’s face it, dogs are better than people. It’s a proven fact.

Anyway, go check out little Zoe’s pictures, read her memorial, and grieve with the rest of us.

… for all of you who didn’t realize I was gone …

Yes, I was visiting my mom for the week, which I have usually managed to make fairly non-unpleasant, but I totally failed in that regard this time, having falling victim late in the week to either a stomach virus or a mild (possibly sour cream chili dip related) case of food poisoning, meaning that I’ve spent almost the past 48 hours either almost throwing up, or, in two important instances, actually throwing up.

The almost part was particularly dicey on the plane ride back home afternoon, but I managed to keep the possibility unrealized.

Still, as miserable as the last couple of days have been, it was better than any two days at work lately.

Anyway, I’m back to all the things I’ve missed so terribly, like my wife, my two dogs, my computer & broadband connection, my usually not throwing up, and our large TV with expanded digital cable.

And one of the main things I’ve missed about the cable was G4TV, especially Attack of the Show, where for the past week I’ve been missing priceless gems of weirdness such as this:

It could have used some women in there somewhere, that’s all I’m saying …

Anyway, I’m back, and currently non-ralphing, and maybe tomorrow, when hopefully I will be more securely in a non-ralphing state, I’ll post more, including pictures and notes … and not just about ralphing this time …

So many things to catch up on, but so few that I remember … oh well, let’s start anyway:

We finally started getting our miserable Texas summer heat about six weeks ago, but today we got a cool front, so that was nice. We didn’t get rain at our house though … Just as it started getting hot, I finally had time (no more working late) to get back to my daily lung-walks (that as you’ll recall I had to start last year after losing 25% of my lung power), and I was really enjoying it, until I started to remember when I quit last spring: My tendonitis is back, as bad as ever. I had tendonitis really bad in my 30s, but I went to a podiatrist and he fixed the problem with some $250 orthotics (that is, fancy custom arch supports). I wore those until they started hurting my feet 5 years later, but the problem never came back — at least until I started major walks last year. So, a couple of weeks ago I went back to the doctor — the very same doctor I had 18 years ago! — and got more orthotics, and now I’m just waiting to break those in so I can go back to working out, and possible lose a few pounds like I did last year … I promised to give a “shout” to Glen, one of our major Home Office executives that visited today. I normally don’t get to hobnob with the Corporate Upper Crust, but I got to talk to Glen quite a bit back when I worked directly with our boss that retired last year, so I went up today to say hi, and gave him one of my Moo cards with the photo of Molly’s smiling face, and my domain address on the back. I just hope word doesn’t get out that I have skills other than Office documents … I’ve been getting lots of great music through the CD-swapping service LaLa.com, and the latest one is Cyndi Lauper’s “She’s So Unusual”. I had almost forgotten how wonderful that album was — or how cheap and cheesy the synthesizers sounded back then. It’s amazing how much better sounds I can get out of my low-end Cakewalk sequencer than they could get out of millions of dollars of studio equipment just 24 years ago. … Did I mention I replaced my no-name DSL modem/router and brand name wireless transmitter with an AT&T all in one unit a couple of weeks ago? Just wanted to mention it for my future reference … Speaking of which, my motherboard-based USB has been fritzing up over the past few months (the mobo is going on 5 years old, so it’s to be expected), so I ordered a brand-name five-port USB PCI card. It’ll be nice to be able to access my flash drives and MP3 player again …

Okay that’s all for now, maybe I’ll remember more later …

I did it! Eleven daily posts in a row!

Sheesh, I used to post several times a day, for over three solid years. But times change, returns diminish, the sexy veneer of blogging itself is no longer shiny and enticing; the motivation for such labors ebbs considerably.

Anyway: To finish off this post, here’s a pretty picture and some assorted rambling: This picture to the left is from the online game I mentioned on Friday, Bang! Howdy; it’s a pretty good bunch of mini-games, more than just the Tetris retreads of Puzzle Pirates by the same company. The avatars are much cooler and more detailed, as you can see here, but the male avatars seem very lame to me. Or maybe I just like looking at girls better. . . . In other news, I got my 2nd set of surgery followup scans a couple of weeks ago, and last week the doctor said the tumors are still gone and the surgery itself is still healing like it should after a year. I also had to see the doctor because I was having this really weird infection in my nasal membrane that was making the end of my nose red and swollen. I looked like a cross between Karl Malden and Rudolph, but after a weekend of anitbiotics and ointment, I’m back to my old pointy-faced self. . . . Also: Heroes was unbelievably great tonight, better than I could have hoped for. It took place five years in the future, after Sylar had killed and absorbed many of the supers, including Mika, D.L., Candace, Nathan, and, finally, (OH NO!) Claire, and he and Peter, the other megamultipower, began their Inevitable Gigantic Ultimate Final Awesome Battle O’ Doom (IGUFABOD) … we don’t get to see how it ends, but on the plus side, it’s just been postponed to the past — got that? That is, after Future Hiro got shot in the future (his present) by former good-guy Parkman, who is now a high-ranking goon in the Even More Evil Department of Homeland “Security”, Present Hiro teleported back to the past (his present) to try to kill Sylar and stop Peter from Blowin’ Up Real Good. But you just know that it won’t happen before another IGUFABOD between the Two Titans of Smouldering Moodiness (TTSM’s).

Anyway, I think I’ve done my duty for another day. Will I keep posting every day up until my birthday? I doubt it; my music sequencer isn’t gonna string grooves together by itself — I’ve gotten practically ZILCH done since my stupid little blogging jag.

Anyway, keep checking back just in case …

Another reason that I haven’t posted as much lately is that, as far as commenting on national events, there’s not a lot I can say. The Virginia Tech shooting? What can I add to what’s already being said? Anna Nicole Smith and her son and her son’s death and her baby and her death and the custody battle over her baby? Too much is being said already; she needs to go away and take all her “news” with her.

The Don Imus mess? The cranky old goat probably got what he deserved, but that still doesn’t mean that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton don’t need to be put down before their stupidity causes some real damage.

That’s all that can be said.

As for personal stuff, I would just be repeating things I’ve been saying for years.

I’ll demonstrate:

We’ve had some rain today, mostly drizzle, and last week we had some flooding. We’ll take what we can get, with summer coming up; it usually gets pretty parched around here in August.

I took off from work today, because I had to do my semi-annual follow-up scan, checking up on my surgery from a year ago. I had to fast before it, which I always hate, and to make matters worse, they couldn’t start a high-contrast scan (since it involves an iodine injection), since the doctor wasn’t on the premises yet, but they assured me that he was on his way.

Thirty minutes later, they called again and found that not only was he not on his way, he didn’t even know he was supposed to be on his way.

After my Cancer Odyssey of the past year, I can only say: That’s typical.

Anyway, my lab tech was very apologetic and nice, and she gave me a movie pass for my trouble, plus a bottle of water when it was all over, since I couldn’t have any since last night. Her name was Jackie, and she’s from Wisconsin (there was time to chat, thanks to Ol’ Doc Clueless). I had to brag about my doggies, of course, and I gave her the address of my Flickr page so she could check them out.

And in case she makes it over to the blog … Hi, Jackie the Lab Tech! Welcome!

Hope you’re not too bored.

The rest of the day I did some random errands (late breakfast, pet food store, cleaners, library, Walmart), that, in simpler times, I could have easily written 800 words about, but you’ve seen it all before, so instead I’m going to spend that time doing music and working on my resume …

Oh, yes, the resume: A friend of ours works for a well-known company (I’ll call them Business Information Systems for our purposes here) that is hiring trainers, and that they give special attention to applicants with demonstrated computer knowledge (like my A+ certification), so I’m gonna check it out. Sure, I might be miserable there too, but I’ll be miserable at 50% more pay. And even if their managers are jerks, at least they’re jerks who don’t hate me yet.

I could use the head-start.

___________________________________________________

Okay: See why I don’t do this so much these days? Because I have a steady life, and three years is plenty to describe it. But don’t worry, if I get the new job, I’ll have new things to talk about.

And a new outlook on life.