My weekend was reasonably productive, if unexciting. Long post; little substance.

Saturday I had to skip my BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) class because of my injured hand. We spent a good portion of the day at my mom's visiting with family and having dinner. My older brother and I got to talk about our plans for building some new gaming computers in the not too distant future. It also looks like things are finally moving forward on getting their new house built (they've been going through bureaucracy hell for 2 years now while living--no, enduring living in --  a veritable shack on their property. Their home, when it is finally built will, be around 3000 square feet. On the down side, I won't be able to make meth-lab jokes about their house any more.

Sunday I spent virtually the whole day cleaning up the house (except for an hour I spent working out) and (again) weeding through all the toys in the boys' room so I could identify toys (mainly baby toys) to be given away.

Neither of my kids ever really had significant interest in "baby toys" -- and both of them area already playing with toys generally well-above their age.

Kazu (age 4) loves gears, fans, and taking stuff apart in general. Lately he's shown interest in music especially -- he likes doing things with his hands in general. Oh, and he can play Portal all by himself and use a mouse/computer competently. I think there's an erector set in his future.

Katsuya (age 2)  loves Transformers, sharks, dinosaurs, monsters, dragons, and action figures in general. He's already showing such an amazing imagination that I suspect he'll be the nerdy one (i.e. like me).

I came home after doing some errands to find Katsuya dressed in his Buzz Lightyear Halloween costume. For the last several days, he's been wearing the thing off and on, and asking me to help him fly. I oblige him, of course -- he puts his little hands into fists, and stretches out his arms while I carry him around the house making flying noises.

Even more entertaining is watching him strike Buzz poses, shoot his "lasers" and do little pseudo-karate moves. He'll even say "to infinity and beyond" although it comes out more like "To Infineon!"

Kids rock... despite the constant sleep deprivation and stress they induce... :)

For some strange reason my 2-year old woke up at 3AM and spent the next 2 hours keeping me up; fussing and generally being a pain in the rear.

Usually he just crawls in bed with us. Often, he doesn't even wake us when he does it. But for some reason last night he was just fussy and wouldn't go back to sleep.

He didn't finally pass out until about 5am -- when I usually get up. Suffice to say I was a bit late and slow to get up, and coffee is my best friend this morning. 

More bad news: I jammed my thumb while rolling in my BJJ class -- and jammed it reeeeal goood. I heard a very distinct crack-crack-crack when it happened, and it hurt like hell.

[SIGH] I just finally get my health back from the flu and started attending classes regularly again --  and now I'm probably out another week or so for a stupid injury.

Still, there's a little good news for today and this week:

• We got our tax refund.
• My oldest son 'graduated' to the next higher swimming class.

I read this story today about a man that has spent the last 17 years living around Loch Ness and searching for the Loch Ness Monster.

He's never seen the monster. Personally, I don't believe that one exists, and that he's chasing fairy tales.

But the story isn't about the existence of the Loch Ness Monster.

It's really about chasing your dreams and being fulfilled and happy in what you're doing.

Read it -- it's  inspirational.

Kirin died today, at roughly 4:50pm.

Her body was worn out. She couldn't hardly walk any more. Age -- and possibly some form of cancer -- had taken its toll.

I personally had hoped she would die peacefully at home in her own bed, but she held on while we took care of her. In the last few days, however, she could barely stand and couldn't walk more than a few steps before collapsing. She was essentially bed ridden, and she had lost about a 1/4 or 1/3 of her body weight.

We gave her a hearty meal of boneless cooked chicken. I carried her to the car, and carried her into the room where a simple, comfortable mat lay on the floor. Two vet assistances prepared her with a line for the final injection. 

Amy and I were by her side when the vet injected the solution to put her to sleep. Within a couple minutes, she quietly laid her head down, and went to sleep for the last time. Amy and I both cried.

She lived a good, long life with us. I  find her empty bed and the extra dog dish downstairs discomforting.

[ Kirin, around Easter 2006 or earlier. The bunny ears lasted just long enough for a photo before she took them off. ]

Kirin, our Great Dane, has been scheduled to be euthanized tomorrow at 4:20pm.

She is very old (between 8 and 9) and has been on a steady decline for the last 6 months.

I took her to the vet a couple months ago, and the best they could determine -- after $400 worth of tests -- is that she *might* have lung cancer, and that she had a slightly enlarged heart.

At that time, I figured it just wouldn't be worth it to dump hundreds (or even thousands) of more dollars into diagnosing and treating her  -- she is already venerable for her breed -- so I took her home and figured the best we could do would be to make her as comfortable as possible.

She's lost nearly 30% of her body weight. She tried to go outside yesterday to go potty, and collapsed. I'm not sure she can really walk anymore at all.

I've been trying to keep food and water near her as much as possible. Tonight and tomorrow we'll probably give her a lot of boiled chicken and maybe some eggs. Her last meals may as well be good ones.

She's sweet, outgoing, patient, and social. She's always been good with the kids, cats, and other dogs. She is as sweet a dog as anyone could wish for. But now she is very old; her candle is fading, and it's time for her to move on.

I just noticed that I grabbed the wrong morning snack bar. Instead of the manly Zone Perfect bar I was aiming for, I accidentally grabbed one of my wife's Luna bars ("Nutrition for Women") -- an easy mistake to make in an early morning haze because they are very similar in size and both sport yellow wrappers.

I ate the bar anyway because I was damn hungry, but now I feel like I should go watch Oprah and gossip about Grey's Anatomy.

The short story is called The Nine Billion Names of God.

It's completely free, and you can probably read it in about 15 minutes or so. I really enjoyed it. It is entertaining and will likely leave you very... pensive. :)

Happy Friday!

The largest black hole *ever discovered* weighs in at the same mass as 18 billion suns -- about the size of an entire galaxy. 

Full story.

Amazing stuff.

The Internet makes it easy for anyone to write, publish their material, and even assume the mantle of a "journalist", "columnist", "reviewer" or what have you.

Many Web sites that I love to frequent -- such as Gamespot and Annandtech -- thrive despite the fact that all their writers are, at best, bush-league journalism students or 20-somethings with a 'knack' for writing -- but no real, polished skill.

I'm not god's gift to writing, but I've developed fairly effective, concise, and polished writing (and to a lesser degree, editing) skills over 12+ years of professional freelancing (journalism and tech journalism) and 4+ years of professional full-time writing (tech writing, 'marcom' (marketing communications) crap, etc.)

My biggest complaints:

• Long, long, long introductory paragraphs and useless pontificating about the ramifications of blah blah blah. Shut up and get to the point.
• Woefully long sentence structures designed to "sound smarter" by using more words. Hint: Fewer words = stronger, clearer writing.
• Wishy-washy, wimpy writing. For example: Instead of "the interface in the game seems like it could have been less cluttered", how about you just say that "the interface is cluttered?"

Ok, rant off for now.

So, my friends and I have agreed to try a "Dungeons and Dragons" night at my house in about 6 months (after the 4th Edition has shipped).

Because we're playing mainly for fun and nostalgia (we've all known and played D&D with each other since high school...i.e. more than 20 years ago), I did some Googling in an effort to find old 1st/2nd Edition D&D archives, so we can convert some of the "classic" D&D modules into 4th Edition.

I found a few modules and supplements (about 20-30) at the Wizards of the Coast Web site.

But then I found a treasure trove (roughly 15-20GB)of Bittorrent files available on (ahem) the Pirate Bay. As a matter of fact, I pretty much found every D&D publication ever printed--up to and including 3e and 3.5e material.

I'm sure that 98% of all the files are illegal.

However, much of the material I'm after has been out of print for decades, and ultimately, it's kind of cool knowing that all this material is out there being "preserved."

Personally, I think Wizards should just release D&D material the public domain after 5-10 years anyway (old material will be obsolete with new editions, and really old material isn't being printed/sold anymore anyway.)

This is too awesome.

In India, a "Tantrik" -- a shaman of some sort -- was challenged by a skeptic on live TV.

The Skeptic challenged the Tantrik to demonstrate his magical powers, even inviting the Tantrik to harm/kill him with his magic powers.

Read the full story here.

In other news:

• My health is ever so slowly coming back. I think I'll be 100% by next monday. (yay!)

Happy Friday!

My health improves, but at a frustratingly slow pace. Still, any progress away from sniffling-coughing-sneezing-headachy is progress nonetheless. With luck, I think I may be at least able to do some kind of light workout tomorrow, and *possibly* go to my BJJ class on Saturday.

I suspect tomorrow night's sparring class would be too much -- being able to breath clearly is kind of important when you're getting crushed, grappled, and choked.

Maybe it's because of Gary Gygax's recent death, but a certain nostalgia for D&D has taken hold in me for the last few days. I'm campaigning with my friends to have a "D&D night" in about 6 months (after the 4th Edition has shipped).

I envision it as a "poker night" -- except we'll be playing D&D, of course -- ordering some pizza, and playing through a one-shot dungeon-crawl or something -- likely a converted "classic" AD&D module so that nostalgia will be working in its favor.

I know we could never commit to a proper campaign, but a D&D night every 3-4 months where we mash through a module in an evening seems possible -- particularly because the upcoming 4th Edition looks like it will finally deliver a brisker, easier to play D&D than its predecessors.

I feel like I'm slowly....ever so slowly... clawing my way out of this Influenza-riddled pit and back to health.

Believe me, it can't happen soon enough. I've been down and out for the better part of 3 weeks.

I still have all the symptoms of a nasty cold/bug. My head hurts, particularly when I cough -- and I've generally been expelling nasty crap from my nose/lungs/etc.

On the plus side, I've regained some energy and general functionality, although I'm trying not to push too much, lest I slide back down into the murky hole I'm trying to crawl out of. I can get out of bed (yay), go to work (sort of yay) and make dinner for the kids (yay) -- but I still need to rest frequently. Working out and going to BJJ are both probably a few days away at best.

In other news:

• Our HELOC is finally paid off
• We'll be getting a sizable tax return this year.

Combined with the government-issued tax rebate, our refund+rebate should be close to $3000 -- much needed to help us get our savings rebuilt for this year.

I finally appear to be on the upside of this damnable flu. Although I'm still tired and weak, at least the nonstop pounding in my head has ceased, and I'm starting to regain a little energy.

I haven't been this sick for this long in many, many years. My illness went something like this:

• Day 1 (I think the evening of February 24th): Hit with Flu big time (as was my son Kazu). Major vomiting, etc.
• Day 2: Recovering from the previous night's barfapalooza. Regaining fluids/strength.
• Days 3-5: Stomach cramps and diarrhea in the morning, but otherwise I felt fine during the day.
• Days 6-8: Continued to feel fine and bounced back -- worked out, went to BJJ -- and I *thought* I was over the damn thing, until...
• Days 9-11: ZERO energy. Could barely drag my ass out of bed each morning.
• Days 12-13: Energy comes back, but now with cold symptoms (cough, runny, nose, etc.). Still, I felt like a crappy cold, but was otherwise failry functional...until...
• Days 14-17: Uncontrollable chills, raging headache, complete lack of energy, totally bed-ridden. All I could do was sleep, rising occasionally for a drink or some soup-- and getting up made me dizzy and light-headed. Every five minutes I was up meant I had to rest for another 15 minutes.
• Day 18: Modest improvement--finally. Still weak and light-headed, but starting to notice small improvements.
• Day 19 (today): Continued improvement. Still tired, but headache is gone, and I'm regaining my energy. Reasonably functional now. Looking forward -- hopefully not prematurely -- to regaining my full health.

The weirdest part was the "bounce" after my initial bout where I thought I was fine (and I did indeed feel fine) for several days... only to get pummeled for another week. According to the consulting nurse I called, she said it was probably all the same bug, not a second infection or a different illness. Strange -- but I think I've heard or read somewhere that it isn't unusual to have a "bounce" in the middle of an influenza attack.

I am *so* getting a flu shot next season...

I was perusing some of my old bookmarks in an effort to keep my otherwise sick, tired, lethargic self awake, and came across a site called Martial Development.

I must have bookmarked that site for laughs or something, because it seems to be mired in all the fruity aikido/tai-chi ideology behind martial arts training.

I've nothing against so-called 'traditional' martial arts -- but I do have a disdain for 'martial snobbery' that I sometimes encounter in traditional arts -- i.e. that somehow a particular traditional art --usually an Asian fighting art, such as Japanese Karate or Chinese Kung-Fu-- is better than a fighting discipline less mired in culture-worship and more concerned with combat-effectiveness. 

Here's a particularly telling article on what they deem are the four stages of martial arts training -- which basically amount to minimal drilling, maximal solo-work, and generally leads to ineffective combat skills derived from a martial art practiced in a skirt--sorry, Hakama.

The site has a recent article criticizing the James Randi million dollar challenge. The language of the article alone made me think it was written by a 14-year old anime fan.

Yes, I'm just writing to stay awake today. Damn you, you damn, dirty cold.

Really.Hate.This.Cold. Still feel cruddy. A little more energy, but now congested and coughing.

And now for a random list of minor Friday rants:

• To the animation industry: Stop animating gender-confused cows--i.e cows with horns, or bulls with udders.
• To the jury for the Hans Reiser trial: Really, even if he didn't kill his wife, Reiser is clearly a complete social retard. Maybe he should be locked away for that alone. (OK, I do feel bad for his young children--but part of me wonders if his kids wouldn't be better off without him in the long run.)
• To anyone following the election: I really want Obama to win. I was hoping he'd finally knock Clinton out of the running after the latest elections...

Good tune/song for the day: Still Alive -- by Johnathon Coulton. This song is played at the end of the Valve game Portal -- give it a listen. It's funny, catchy, and a good way to start your Friday.

I finally managed to crash last night and get some sleep -- not enough, really, but some.

Still feel fairly dead-on-my-feet today, and my whole body is achy and creaky--probably from working out and from this damnable bug. May leave work early again if things don't improve.

Very tired of this crap now. Sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Gary Gygax has apparently failed his Saving Throw versus Death (i.e. he died).

As the creator of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (a game I played often and loved), he was truly the Godfather of Gaming.

But his contributions to humanity go far beyond merely creating a game. Here are a few more to think about:

• Contribution to Humanity: Dungeon and Dragons was responsible for entire generations of nerds not getting laid and potentially contributing to the broader gene pool.
• Contribution to Entertainment: Dungeons and Dragons spawned LARPing (live-action role-playing). Thanks for the entertainment. Also: "Roll the dice to see if I'm getting Drunk?" and "Are there any girls there?"
• Contribution to Industry: D&D is responsible for increased success in the backpack, fanny-pack, and dice-bag industries--and the chiropractic industry because of the spinal injuries caused by carrying all that crap from your mom's house to the bus stop to your friend's house (and back).

Everyone, please take a moment of silence--and roll a D20.

Anyone know a high-level Cleric?