Housekeeping.

I've added a bunch of links to the sidebar including my Posterous Page and a link to a gallery of all the pictures I've ever posted to this blog. After taking a few weeks off, its time to get back to regular posting and linking. I'm now motivated by a sudden and unexpected jump in the number of followers to this site's RSS feed. Wherever you all came from, welcome. I hope you find things here mildly entertaining and feel free to let me know what you think by leaving comments.

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I've enabled Google Buzz through my gmail and am not sure what to do with it. I guess now I'm a bit more connected to the 5 people in my address book who also use gmail. Strange. I don't have a Facebook. I had a Myspace for a few weeks that never got looked at and I haven't logged onto twitter in a month and a half. I guess I just needed more social networking gear to ignore. I did get Buzzed an awesome photo essay about butchering a pig from my brother the other day though. (photos not safe for vegetarians or weak stomached meat eaters like my wife. ) I love the Internet sometimes. I don't really get the whole Buzz thing yet and I might not ever, but for now its another distraction from more productive uses of my computer, and I'm always on the lookout for that.

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9 Awesome posters by Ross Berens. One for each of the planets. (Hat tip to Kottke.org for the link yet again.) I linked Jupiter but make sure you check out Pluto. I wish I had a room where I could hang all nine.
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An amazing collection of black and white nature photography by a fella named Nick Brandt. I was going to post one of the lion shots since the lion has become a symbol of sorts for Liam, but this shot (and all the elephant shots.) just blew me away.

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While I'm in my paragraph then pics rhythm, I might as well show you today's daddy picture. Karin sends a picture of Liam from her phone to my computer at work every day to say hi. It helps get me through every day of being away from them and is anticipated by a few of my co-workers each day as well. "Where's today's picture?" they ask each afternoon. It is growing to be a fantastic collection and since they are from her blackberry they are a nice manageable size for sending around quickly. I have been slacking on the photo thing lately as I would rather hold Liam in my hands than a camera but I have the next 4 days off of work and will have more time with him to indulge in some picture taking. Anyway, here is today's picture. Liam is ready for his close-up and his mom is doing very well at giving me a creative new angle in every shot.
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We here at Pressure Support have voiced our own support for one miss Regina Spektor(third to last paragraph) in this space before. Her newest album has meant so much to both Karin and myself as we made our way through a difficult summer. It will always be connected in my mind to Liam and his trach simply because it was what we listened to during the weeks and months before and after his surgeries. I have posted video of Regina performing a song that is clearly about a hospital stay with a chorus that brings such hope to issues that Liam was going through at the time.

Hold on, one more time with feeling,
Try it again, Breathing's just a rhythm
Say it in your mind until you know that the words are right
This is why we fight.

And so connected are we to another of her songs performed this week on the Jimmy Fallon show. We all watched the performance tonight off of the DVR and the moment and meaning were not lost as we all sang along with the chorus. . .

Hooked into a machine, hooked into a machine,
Hooked into a machine,
I'm hooked into, hooked into...

All the while with Liam being . . . hooked ... into ... a machine.




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The essence of this blog project was always a lesson in self-discipline. To get me writing every day (or two, or three). It's been a while since I wrote any true blog posts. I have notes jotted down on some things I really want to talk about but those things take time and energy to write. And I'm tired. Waa, waa waa, I worked all day, I have a baby at home, I didn't get much sleep last night (last week, last month, last year) blah, blah, blah.

Excuses.

Anyway, I may not have the energy to write the longer pieces I want to write so I'll throw together a bunch of smaller bits and see what sticks.

I may not have written much lately but I have been reading a lot. I finished the graphic novel Signals to Noise by Neil Gaiman. It was interesting. Dave Mckeon's artwork in this is stunningly beautiful and darkly adds layers to Gaiman's writing. It won't top my lists of favorite graphic novels or anything but it was a good read and I'm glad The Wife added it to my library this christmas. I've been plugging through Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. Its the latest in the discworld series and I think I may put it down until I read more of the earlier books in the series. Characters from earlier books have popped up without much of introduction and I want more of the back story before I get here. I'm sure I could read this without starting at the beginning of the series but I think I'd enjoy it more if I knew these characters better. I was very interested to see if Pratchett's writing had changed much since his diagnosis of Alzheimer's. None that I could see in the 150 pages I've gotten to in this. I also started reading Gaiman's Fragile Things which is a nice little collection of short stories and poems. I think I'm going to start reading more and more short story collections for awhile.


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Liam has been doing very, very well. He made it through the Holidays and his birthday without incident or illness and we are starting to get back into the routine of home nursing. Over the Christmas and New Years holidays we had very limited nursing help due to the calendar and some unfortunate family emergencies for our nurses. It was wonderful to spend so much time alone with Karin and Liam. The holidays are of course, a time for families, and having so much of it privately (especially since it was our first) was very special to us. Nursing care started getting back to normal last week and we are now able to get back into our routine of sorts. Routine can mean comfort.

Liam is of course growing like a weed and pushing through more and more teeth. His seizures have been controlled very well but he is getting a shot tomorrow that may give us a few more attacks in the coming days. We're ready. He'll be fine. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, and his vision specialist will all be starting to come to the house more often so Liam's schedule, which has been relaxed the past three weeks, will come back to a full sprint soon.


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This is one of my favorite songs of all time. Trying to find some footage of the Talking Heads performing it I found this. Not bad. Veder's range can't pull it off the way Byrne did though.


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A fantastic collection of photos of the urban decay of Detroit. Some of these seem pulled right from some post-apocalyptic movie. Sad.




Well, that's all I've got right now. Liam needs a new diaper and needs to be suctioned. Then, bed.

Breathing's just a rhythm.

As we speed towards the end of the year and the decade I've been looking back on the past year and what, if anything, has penetrated the focus on Liam to make its mark on my year. Each year I do enjoy looking back on what my favorite books, music, movies of the past year would be, but this year there was little in my consciousness other than Liam. I didn't see many new movies over the year and although I did read a bunch, much of that was simply turning pages next to Liam's bed. Regina made it into the memories. She made it big time and for the rest of my life I will always associate her newest album Far with driving back and forth to the hospital. The album never left the cd player of the car and since we would often drive back and forth 3 and 4 times a day we would normally hear the whole album every day for over 3 months.

This song is especially meaningful as a close listen to the lyrics may show. It will always be for us Liam's Picu song, and easily my favorite song of 2009. Enjoy.