Hello!
So things with the Tomato scores didn't really take off this round so we'll probably just put that whole project on hold for now. Truth is it takes up a bit of time and I don't really have an abundance of it at the moment. Plus I'm really kinda blog lazy right now.
Anyway, today I took Emily for the first stage of her latest scan. As some of you may know it was originally scheduled for last Friday, but due to a difference in opinions between two of the Doctors at Loyola the scan got delayed until today. There's really not all that much to report. We went to Loyola, Emily drank the radioactive iodine solution that she drank in March, and they did a photo scan of her whole body. In between all that there was the typical waiting in the hospital waiting room for hours stuff that bores the mind into submission.
Tomorrow we'll go back and they'll do another photo scan to measure how much of the solution her thyroid cells (cancer) absorbed. Then we'll do the same thing on Thursday to measure how much she expelled from her body. If the Doctor likes what he sees, we may start the treatments on Thursday.
I had a meeting with the head of Nuclear Medicine at the hospital and he told me that he has been doing research over the course of the last three months to find the best way to treat Emily. He said that he as been thinking of her every day since then. I'm sure it's something he tells a lot of his patients, but I will say that he answers his phone every time I call him. And he's the only Doctor I know that does that. I rather like the man and think he's very good at what he does.
Other than that things are normal. Or at least as normal as life is when your 9 year old has cancer. We went camping this past weekend. I hate camping. End of story.
I love you all very much and consider some of you to be my closest and dearest friends. I leave it up to you to figure which of you is which.
KTHNXBYE
P.S. Who ever is anonymous in the last post is the winner of the Tomato Championship this week. Too bad no one will ever know who it was.
P.S.S. Later I'll post a song in the Songs to Love if I have time and Crystal will let me. (We're suppose to watch Munich)
Monday, June 26, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
What's So Inconvenient About It?
Well, Roger Ebert had his go at Al Gore's upcoming bit of propaganda known as An Inconvenient Truth. It's no surprise that Ebert would like such a film as he once referred to the "documentary" (I only refer to it as such because that's what people tell me it is) Fahrenheit 9/11 as "compelling."
Maybe most interesting is this quote from Ebert's review:
The sky is falling! Save us Big Brother!
Scare tactics are certainly nothing new to big government fans. Who can forget the technique that Bush used to drag us into the war in Iraq? I'm sure Gore would have opposed the use of such tactics then, when it was some one on the other side of the aisle but he seems to be rather fond of them now that they support his mission.
Of course he would tell you that it's for the greater good (just as Bush did) and it's something that we all need to worry and panic about, but not everyone is quite as convinced as Mr. Gore would have us all believe.
I'm sure much of the science behind his claims is correct, even if grossly exaggerated. I'm sure humans have contributed to altering the environment. But Al Gore is dead wrong about how he would deal with such a problem. The truth is technological advances brought about by "evil" corporations in their "greedy" quest for profits will result in cleaner, sustainable cars, homes, agriculture, etc. The governments of the world will only continue to impede that progress through excess taxation.
Anyway, I'll go back and update the points from all your last comments when I'm feeling less lazy. The only reason I posted this is I was compelled by an e-mail my aunt sent me and this is pretty much copied right from my reply to her.
Maybe most interesting is this quote from Ebert's review:
Global warming is real.
It is caused by human activity.
Mankind and its governments must begin immediate action to halt and reverse it.
The sky is falling! Save us Big Brother!
Scare tactics are certainly nothing new to big government fans. Who can forget the technique that Bush used to drag us into the war in Iraq? I'm sure Gore would have opposed the use of such tactics then, when it was some one on the other side of the aisle but he seems to be rather fond of them now that they support his mission.
Of course he would tell you that it's for the greater good (just as Bush did) and it's something that we all need to worry and panic about, but not everyone is quite as convinced as Mr. Gore would have us all believe.
I'm sure much of the science behind his claims is correct, even if grossly exaggerated. I'm sure humans have contributed to altering the environment. But Al Gore is dead wrong about how he would deal with such a problem. The truth is technological advances brought about by "evil" corporations in their "greedy" quest for profits will result in cleaner, sustainable cars, homes, agriculture, etc. The governments of the world will only continue to impede that progress through excess taxation.
Anyway, I'll go back and update the points from all your last comments when I'm feeling less lazy. The only reason I posted this is I was compelled by an e-mail my aunt sent me and this is pretty much copied right from my reply to her.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
The First Ever Tomato Champion
Well the scores for the first round of Tomato points are in and the champion has been named. I know I kind of skipped out over the past few days, but things have been busy for me lately. Here are the final standings:
Sarah: 190 Points
Eric: 164 Points
Sammy: 157 Points
Scott: 138 Points
Sadie: 129 Points
Crystal: 114 Points
Kristen: 110 Points
Steph: 12 Points
Everybody give Sarah a big round of eApplaudes as she is our first ever champion. As promised, each new champion will receive a very special and very valuable prize. This weeks prize for Sarah is recompense for years of suffering and torment from an older sibling. A sibling who is big, tall, and has an oddly shapen head. One who did perform a malicious act many years ago that has left scars to this day.
Sarah, I give you:
Starbrite's Revenge
So the scoring is reset, make sure to stop back next Tuesday for test day and between for quizzes and other opportunities for points.
The new song is actually two songs (lucky for you) by Chicago's own The Detholz! The exclamation point is for emphasis, btw, actually. This is ripped from a live set on WLUW in Chicago in October of 2003. It features an original song by the band and an excellent cover of an old classic.
Enjoy!
Sarah: 190 Points
Eric: 164 Points
Sammy: 157 Points
Scott: 138 Points
Sadie: 129 Points
Crystal: 114 Points
Kristen: 110 Points
Steph: 12 Points
Everybody give Sarah a big round of eApplaudes as she is our first ever champion. As promised, each new champion will receive a very special and very valuable prize. This weeks prize for Sarah is recompense for years of suffering and torment from an older sibling. A sibling who is big, tall, and has an oddly shapen head. One who did perform a malicious act many years ago that has left scars to this day.
Sarah, I give you:
Starbrite's Revenge
So the scoring is reset, make sure to stop back next Tuesday for test day and between for quizzes and other opportunities for points.
The new song is actually two songs (lucky for you) by Chicago's own The Detholz! The exclamation point is for emphasis, btw, actually. This is ripped from a live set on WLUW in Chicago in October of 2003. It features an original song by the band and an excellent cover of an old classic.
Enjoy!
Friday, June 09, 2006
The most important question of all
Luke 10:25-28
Question of the day:
What does it look like to love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and all of your strength, and all of your mind?
25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27 And he
answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy
neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou
hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Question of the day:
What does it look like to love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and all of your strength, and all of your mind?
Thursday, June 08, 2006
nite
Blogger spent the better part of today being lazy, so there isn't much happening around here. The testing went rather well, I'd say. I'd like to thank Saddiey for her final comment. Everyone likes good feedback I suppose, so thanks for the kind words. And for the nice reference on her blog.
I intended to make this a long post, but I'm tired. Do me a favor and go read this post. I'll probably link to this guy soon if he keeps this up.
I intended to make this a long post, but I'm tired. Do me a favor and go read this post. I'll probably link to this guy soon if he keeps this up.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Tomato Points®
Less than a week left until the first Tomato champion is named. From here on out every other Tuesday will be test day. The other Tuesday in between will the new Tomato champ will be named.
Is it just a quiz? No, it's a test.
Your chance to make up ground on the competition by racking up lots of points by answering questions ranging from easy to difficult and other activities to help you earn more points. So without further ado, it's test day:
1) 10 points for every person who completes and posts the results of The World's Smallest Political Quiz.
2) 5 points for every person who lists their top 3 favorite bands that have made at least one album in the last 3 years.
3) Movie quotes, name the movie (7 points each):
A)
"So, did you enjoy your first visit to the nut house?"
"Hey, hey, shh, shh, shh. Come on. Be sensitive to the fact that other people are not comfortable talking about emotional disturbances. Um, you know, I am, I'm fine with that, but... other people. Come on."
B)
"I'm the most dangerous man in this prison. You know why? 'Cause I control the underwear."
C)
"Baseball is what gets inside you. It's what lights you up, you can't deny that."
"It just got too hard."
"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard...is what makes it great."
D)
"Shhhhhhhh! I'm trying to use the phone!"
"Did anybody tell you that this is the private club of the Satan's Helpers?"
"Nobody hipped me to that, dude."
E)
"There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't."
4) 1 point for each word that you can list using the suffix 'ship.' You may not use any of the examples given by those who commented before you.
5) This one requires the honor system: With out using Google or Internet or any other reference how many of the first 10 amendments to the constitution (A.K.A the bill of rights) can you name? Paraphrasing is fine of course. The first commenter obviously gets the first stab at it but the next person can fill in any they didn't remember or if you think they got one wrong. I'll award 10 points per correct answer. (Possible 100 points!)
You'll find scan-trons and number two pencils under your desk. Good luck!
Is it just a quiz? No, it's a test.
Your chance to make up ground on the competition by racking up lots of points by answering questions ranging from easy to difficult and other activities to help you earn more points. So without further ado, it's test day:
1) 10 points for every person who completes and posts the results of The World's Smallest Political Quiz.
2) 5 points for every person who lists their top 3 favorite bands that have made at least one album in the last 3 years.
3) Movie quotes, name the movie (7 points each):
A)
"So, did you enjoy your first visit to the nut house?"
"Hey, hey, shh, shh, shh. Come on. Be sensitive to the fact that other people are not comfortable talking about emotional disturbances. Um, you know, I am, I'm fine with that, but... other people. Come on."
B)
"I'm the most dangerous man in this prison. You know why? 'Cause I control the underwear."
C)
"Baseball is what gets inside you. It's what lights you up, you can't deny that."
"It just got too hard."
"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard...is what makes it great."
D)
"Shhhhhhhh! I'm trying to use the phone!"
"Did anybody tell you that this is the private club of the Satan's Helpers?"
"Nobody hipped me to that, dude."
E)
"There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't."
4) 1 point for each word that you can list using the suffix 'ship.' You may not use any of the examples given by those who commented before you.
5) This one requires the honor system: With out using Google or Internet or any other reference how many of the first 10 amendments to the constitution (A.K.A the bill of rights) can you name? Paraphrasing is fine of course. The first commenter obviously gets the first stab at it but the next person can fill in any they didn't remember or if you think they got one wrong. I'll award 10 points per correct answer. (Possible 100 points!)
Special Bonus Question: (click to enlarge)
Social Welfare Assembly Lesson of the Day
What did you learn from today's lesson?
You will be graded and given points based on your answer
Social Welfare Assembly Lesson of the Day
What did you learn from today's lesson?
You will be graded and given points based on your answer
You'll find scan-trons and number two pencils under your desk. Good luck!
Monday, June 05, 2006
Fables of the Deconstruction
Well I found something to do.
Part of finishing the bathroom involves running a drain pipe from one side of the bathroom floor to the pipe chase in the corner on the other side of the bathroom. Since we only have 2x8's for floor joists, instead of the modern 2x10's we've decided to run a soffit in the room below (the home school room) to hide the pipes under the floor. So since we were going to rip a small portion out of the ceiling anyway, I decided to rip down the whole ceiling because it was old and bad. Plus, I really, really, really(!) hate popcorn ceilings.
Unfortunately I have a bit of a garbage phobia because when we first moved into this house the people who we bought it from left a dumpster full of trash and when I put it out to the curb on garbage day the garbage man rejected it. We had to rent a $400 dumpster to get rid of it all and ever since then I've been scared to put too much garbage to the curb. So I'm only going to fill two garbage cans with the plaster remnants each week. Which equals about this much of our ceiling:
Luckily my Sister lives in the same town as me and has volunteered to let me borrow one of her garbage cans so I can drive another can over there for her to put out each week. That outta speed things up. Double luckily, we have free garbage service. Of course there is no such thing as free anything service because I pay for it in our inflated village taxes, but at least it's not by quantity of garbage used.
Okay, so I guess you all want points, you point grubbing greedy leeches! I'll give 30 points to the first person who can correctly guess what movie I'm thinking of every time I think about taking a little bit of plaster (and dirt) to the curb each week to get rid of it. I'll give 15 points to the first person who can tell me what Frank Black's (of Pixies fame) real name is. And 10 points to the first person who can tell what his stage name was before it was changed to Frank Black. And of course there will be bonus points and hand outs along the way for those brave enough to leave comments.
Have at it then!
Part of finishing the bathroom involves running a drain pipe from one side of the bathroom floor to the pipe chase in the corner on the other side of the bathroom. Since we only have 2x8's for floor joists, instead of the modern 2x10's we've decided to run a soffit in the room below (the home school room) to hide the pipes under the floor. So since we were going to rip a small portion out of the ceiling anyway, I decided to rip down the whole ceiling because it was old and bad. Plus, I really, really, really(!) hate popcorn ceilings.
Die popcorn ceiling! Die!
Unfortunately I have a bit of a garbage phobia because when we first moved into this house the people who we bought it from left a dumpster full of trash and when I put it out to the curb on garbage day the garbage man rejected it. We had to rent a $400 dumpster to get rid of it all and ever since then I've been scared to put too much garbage to the curb. So I'm only going to fill two garbage cans with the plaster remnants each week. Which equals about this much of our ceiling:
Eghads! This is going to take a month!
Luckily my Sister lives in the same town as me and has volunteered to let me borrow one of her garbage cans so I can drive another can over there for her to put out each week. That outta speed things up. Double luckily, we have free garbage service. Of course there is no such thing as free anything service because I pay for it in our inflated village taxes, but at least it's not by quantity of garbage used.
Check out those sweet 150 year old 2" thick joists. Whew, that plaster is looking rough though.
Okay, so I guess you all want points, you point grubbing greedy leeches! I'll give 30 points to the first person who can correctly guess what movie I'm thinking of every time I think about taking a little bit of plaster (and dirt) to the curb each week to get rid of it. I'll give 15 points to the first person who can tell me what Frank Black's (of Pixies fame) real name is. And 10 points to the first person who can tell what his stage name was before it was changed to Frank Black. And of course there will be bonus points and hand outs along the way for those brave enough to leave comments.
Have at it then!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Boredom
Well I see political cartoons don't bode well for comments around here.
Maybe it's because you think I'll deduct points from you if you post a comment with a dissenting opinion. Not so! In case you haven't noticed the points system is all just a joke and I wouldn't actually give people negative points for really disagreeing with me or my political beliefs.
Maybe it’s because you’ve known me long and well enough to recognize my penchant for vigorous debate. Well the fact is that I’ve learned quite a bit about myself over the past 6 months and one of the things I’ve found is that I never really had much respect for people with differing opinions then my own. And I decided quite quickly that this wasn’t the kind of person I wanted to be. In fact, after finding this flaw I’ve made some what of a personal goal to bring differing sides of opinions together and help them learn from each other. Especially Christians. I’m not exactly sure how to do that yet but I’m thinking. But to start I’ll at pledge to do my part to hold all dissenting opinions on this blog with the utmost respect.
Maybe it’s because you only comment on my blog when the proverbial carrot on a stick is waved in front of your nose in the form of Tomato points. Very well then, I’ll award those precious points to anyone seriously commenting on the cartoon, the Libertarian party, or politicians in general on the previous post. Have at it.
Maybe it’s because you really couldn’t care less about the Libertarian party or politics so you won’t comment on such things anyway.
Moving on, the reason I’m even fishing for comments is that I’m incredibly bored. I usually have all sorts of home projects to work on to fill my evenings and weekends, but as it is I’m plum out of materials. And more importantly, out of money to buy new ones. There’s all sorts of stuff I need to do of course; such is life when you live in a 150 year old house. My current projects list is as follows:
1) Install closet doors in all three up stair bedrooms.
Why I can’t: Don’t have the doors yet. The ones I want will total $800!
2) Tear down and rebuild main staircase.
Why I can’t: I still have to design the new staircase and order some parts from work.
3) Buy carpeting for the up stairs.
Why I can’t: I don’t want this done until the closet doors are installed and the staircase is redone.
4) Rebuild our front porch steps.
Why I can’t: Need to design steps and buy wood.
5) I’d like to get started on building a central air conditioning system.
Why I can’t: Our house doesn’t have duct work and I don’t know how to do it yet, but I’ll learn soon enough. Can’t be too hard.
That’s kinda the list I’m staring at right now. And that doesn’t even count the gardening work that needs to be done. Ugh!
So the being broke, coupled with the desire to work has put me in a state of anxious melancholy. And every minute sitting here with nothing to work on makes me more anxious to work on something.
So entertain me with your comments!
I’m putting up a somewhat somber toned song to couple with my somewhat somber mood. Pardon the f-bomb in the middle of the song and don’t listen/download if that’s the sort of thing you’re easily offended by.
"I heard of pious men, and I've heard of dirty fiends,
but you don't often hear of us ones in between."
Maybe it's because you think I'll deduct points from you if you post a comment with a dissenting opinion. Not so! In case you haven't noticed the points system is all just a joke and I wouldn't actually give people negative points for really disagreeing with me or my political beliefs.
Maybe it’s because you’ve known me long and well enough to recognize my penchant for vigorous debate. Well the fact is that I’ve learned quite a bit about myself over the past 6 months and one of the things I’ve found is that I never really had much respect for people with differing opinions then my own. And I decided quite quickly that this wasn’t the kind of person I wanted to be. In fact, after finding this flaw I’ve made some what of a personal goal to bring differing sides of opinions together and help them learn from each other. Especially Christians. I’m not exactly sure how to do that yet but I’m thinking. But to start I’ll at pledge to do my part to hold all dissenting opinions on this blog with the utmost respect.
Maybe it’s because you only comment on my blog when the proverbial carrot on a stick is waved in front of your nose in the form of Tomato points. Very well then, I’ll award those precious points to anyone seriously commenting on the cartoon, the Libertarian party, or politicians in general on the previous post. Have at it.
Maybe it’s because you really couldn’t care less about the Libertarian party or politics so you won’t comment on such things anyway.
Moving on, the reason I’m even fishing for comments is that I’m incredibly bored. I usually have all sorts of home projects to work on to fill my evenings and weekends, but as it is I’m plum out of materials. And more importantly, out of money to buy new ones. There’s all sorts of stuff I need to do of course; such is life when you live in a 150 year old house. My current projects list is as follows:
1) Install closet doors in all three up stair bedrooms.
Why I can’t: Don’t have the doors yet. The ones I want will total $800!
2) Tear down and rebuild main staircase.
Why I can’t: I still have to design the new staircase and order some parts from work.
3) Buy carpeting for the up stairs.
Why I can’t: I don’t want this done until the closet doors are installed and the staircase is redone.
4) Rebuild our front porch steps.
Why I can’t: Need to design steps and buy wood.
5) I’d like to get started on building a central air conditioning system.
Why I can’t: Our house doesn’t have duct work and I don’t know how to do it yet, but I’ll learn soon enough. Can’t be too hard.
That’s kinda the list I’m staring at right now. And that doesn’t even count the gardening work that needs to be done. Ugh!
So the being broke, coupled with the desire to work has put me in a state of anxious melancholy. And every minute sitting here with nothing to work on makes me more anxious to work on something.
So entertain me with your comments!
I’m putting up a somewhat somber toned song to couple with my somewhat somber mood. Pardon the f-bomb in the middle of the song and don’t listen/download if that’s the sort of thing you’re easily offended by.
"I heard of pious men, and I've heard of dirty fiends,
but you don't often hear of us ones in between."
Friday, June 02, 2006
Public Service Announcement
For the ten or so people who come to Tomato every day looking for lyrics to Danielson songs via google search, you can find all of the lyrics to Ships here.
Enjoy.
Oh! And look, I found some more MP3's hosted by Danielson:
Good News for the Pus Pickers
Rallying the Dominoes
To download PC users: Right-click and select "save target as." Mac users: Control-click and "save link as." (It's legal when the artists offer them, btw)
and just to make this easier to find in your Google search:
danielson lyrics
did I step on your trumpet lyrics
lyrics danielson
Danielson Famile lyrics
Danielson Family lyrics
P.S. Bonus points for anyone who can tell me how Google figures out which sites to list first in it's search queries.
Enjoy.
Oh! And look, I found some more MP3's hosted by Danielson:
Good News for the Pus Pickers
Rallying the Dominoes
To download PC users: Right-click and select "save target as." Mac users: Control-click and "save link as." (It's legal when the artists offer them, btw)
and just to make this easier to find in your Google search:
danielson lyrics
did I step on your trumpet lyrics
lyrics danielson
Danielson Famile lyrics
Danielson Family lyrics
P.S. Bonus points for anyone who can tell me how Google figures out which sites to list first in it's search queries.
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