Friday Night Lights

Hi everyone-

Well we have finally done it -- watched a movie that we found entertaining then relized the next morning that it was about our generation...yikes! Yeah we thought that the movie was done well -- we thought that the interviews on the DVD were great when they started to talk to the real people. Yeah then this morning my wife and I figured out that the football season was Sept-Dec 1989 -- our senior year of high school. We thougth last night that the people on the screen where in the late 30's or early 40's. Wrong they are our age. Wonderful. Anyway a good movie to watch non-the-less.

Friday Night Lights

Bose Headphones -- WOW!

Hi everyone

For my birthday I got:

I must say they are simply the best. When I am at work it keeps all of the background noise to a minimum and I can have my iPod playing on a low volume. I don't usually do product recommendations but this is a really great product.

Bose QuietComfort 2 Noise Cancelling Headphones - Headphones and Headsets

Taxation inequity

Hi everyone-

I am just getting through my son's stillborn death in May and tax season has brought up all of these emotions telling me how unfair the tax code is. If my son had taken a breath and lived for just a little bit we would have been able to claim my son for just this year as well as deducting the funeral expenses. But because my son was 39.5 weeks into our pregnancy and stillborn we can't claim anything -- not even the funeral expenses. Hell I can claim a car as a deduction....something is really wrong with this. Grrrrrrr...... well time to write my representatives and get this changed.

Kevin

StopBadware.org

Hi everyone-

I know that many of us have to fight ouf adware, spyware, or other things that we really don't want on our computer. The website StopBadware.org is a place for people to come together and collectively fight all of thise bad software hence badware. Check it out.

Mythbusters

Hi everyone-

My wife and I are huge Mythbusters fans. It is a great show on the Discovery Channel. The basic premise of the show is prove whether an urban myth is true or not. It is a great show and certainly works well with the scientist in both of us.

The just put out some "Lost" material from some of their episodes. Enjoy the material.

Kevin

History of Computer Security

HI everyone

I have always like to dabble in computer security ... nothing illegal just facinated how you make these computing thingys protected from unwanted visitors. These are the early papers stem from work done by the DoD and others to protect those computers. Many of the "new" computer security things have come out of these papers.

History of Computer Security

Also for those of you who might want to find the "Rainbow series" look here.

have fun,

Kevin

Happier New Year

Hi everyone-

Happy New Year -- and with a new year it means a new outlook on life - or at least putting away last years problems. So with that lets just say that 2005 was a very tough year for myself. The birth and death of my son. The seizure. Lets just say that it is enough to rip some people apart. I would like to look at it as an opertunity for growth both emotionally and spiritually.

So far the year is starting off GREAT!

Looks like we will be getting some more snow today. So far this winter we have gotten an 18" storm, a 12" storm and a 2 inch storm. Today's storm should bring with it anywhere from 3-6 inches. Some are saying a foot -- we shall see.

Today is just cleaning up the office and getting ready for tax season. You know I actually enjoy doing them with the help of some tax software. Getting everything in order puts last year in perspective and starts you thinking about what you need for next year.

I personally would like to see myself get better at investing our money.

So go have fun,

Kevin

Tis the season ... sorta

Hi everyone-

Well it has been a very interesting year. Christmas is upon us and while I know that Christ is with us all of the time - this time of year you are reminded about the birth. Well this year I am very mindful about Jesus' birth and what that means but this year the birth of my son and death of my son way heavy on my heart...

So for this I pray that with a new year (the church year starts at the beginning of Advent) the weight on my heart is lessoned.

Peace.

Winter is here

Hi everyone-

Well after the "white" Thanksgiving that we had - today was another snowy day. Maybe this week we will have our first nor'easter...and then maybe not.

Just watching the Mummy Returns -- one of the favorite movies and hanging out.

I have stopped taking the anti-seizure meds -- in conjunction with my doctor's approval. So far so good. My SVT's appear to be more frequent - so now trying to work with the cardiologist some more. We shall see what happens.

Other than that we had a wonderful time this weekend just laying low. This week I need to get working on my Christmas shopping.

Have fun

Being Thankful

Hi everyone --

Well my family has a bunch of things to be thankful for -- my health, my marriage, my family health, my relationship with my God.

Today's grace:

"We are thankful for our family and friends near and far...we are thankful for things which we are provided and things that will be provided for us in the future."

With 2005 coming to an end we hope that 2006 will be much better.

Halloween

Hi everyone-

Three years ago my wife and I moved into a wonderful neighborhood - the first Halloween we had 92 children come buy saying "Trick-or-Treat". This year we are happy to report that while not at 92 the number is 79. But that is up from last years dismal 38. The difference between this year and last year was the weather. It was a lovely evening in New England - not a cloud in the night sky but temperatures hover around 65 degrees. Last year conversly it was misting and 40ish...not so good.

As far as costumes - someone came as a book - but the problem with the book costume while unique the boy's arms where not outside the book. Therefore limiting the ability to choose and gather ones candy. A corpse bride - our neighbor's child very nice costume. And a few medival costumes which where very nice.

All in all a very nice Halloween around our house.

Now if you want a scary event check this out.

The Holter Monitor Test

Hi everyone-



The Holter Monitor test came and went. The last two days I have not been able to take a shower and had to carry around a device the size of a pager to record my heart beats. It was very interesting. I am including a link about the Holter Monitor. But the very interesting this was that they said that there is no pain - sure no pain with the test but when you go to remove the pads for the leads - very painful for a human man with a hairy chest.....can you say ouch.

Should know the results of this test in a couple of days.

Then I have an MRI coming up next week. But Halloween is next bit of fun...can't wait to see how people dressed up this year.

First Frost

Hi everyone-

Well today we had our first frost -- winter 2005/2006 is coming. Soon the mornings will be filled with people plowing their driveways and wondering when all of this "white stuff will ever go away".

Also this year we will be wondering if our bank accounts will be emptied due to the cost of heating our homes.

Comment Spam

Ugh-

I was hit or have been hit for a few weeks now with Comment SPAM. What a pain. So sorry for people placing comments on the blog - they are still anonymous but now you have to play with word verification. So if you need help on how to turn on word verification I have included this with this post.

Blogger Help : What is the word verification option?

Interesting iPod website

Came this along looking for iTunes 6:

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/itunes/index.php

Interesting site.

Update

Hi everyone-

Well we have certainly been doing just fine lately. It is almost like nothing ever happened to me just a month and a day ago. Just in case you haven't been reading the blog for a while I had two grand mal seizures...not the best day I have ever had but certainly not the worst.

Since then I have become the medical mystery of the neurologist that I am seeing - but fun things more tests to come. Heart related tests - nothing big.

Anyway I started to gather all of the hospital information -- MRI and CAT scans have arrived. It was really interesting to look at all of the scans to see what is inside my head - no I can honestly report that it is not a black hole.

But more to the topic at hand. This week has been rather depressing from a weather perspective. Rain. Can I say Rain....wait more Rain.

But last weekend was fun! Saturday is when all of this rain actually started to fall - so Aline and I had a slow day - watching movies and baking a Carrot cake. The carrot cake is for Karla (sister-in-law) which has her birthday party on Sunday in CT. When we go down to CT we took down a bench we got from Wallpole woodworkers for Aline's Mom. The Jeep was filled with people and stuff....it was fun.

Garden Update and Doctors Visits

Hi everyone-

Haven't blogged in a while and some things have happened.

Ryan's Garden is slowly coming to a halt for the winter months. We planted the Kousa dogwood and Con-Colored Fir this weekend. More plants will be coming in from a nursery probably until the end of October but once we get the first ground freezing happening - then we are done. This should happen around the middle of November.

Two more doctors visits have come and gone by without any indication that there is something that could have caused the seizures (my guess is still stress).

Still on the docet is a visit with the vascular neurosurgeon, a holter monitor, a tilt table test, and and an EEG.

So stay tuned.

Kevin

Seizure Disorder - Non Specified

Well that is what they call the diagnosis....people have been asking what they consider my seizures - I consider them a pain in the but. Anyway I seemed to find a website that is very helpful:

http://www.epilepsy.com/

While I have not been diagnosed with epilepsy it has a bunch of helpful information to talk to my doctor about.

Wikipedia Information on Seizure Disorders

Here is the Wikipedia information reguarding seizure disorders....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seizure_disorder

and yes I am not driving for 6 months.....yeah......

Back Home

Hi everyone-

What a rough week. I would like to make sure everyone knows that I am okay. I know that it was a tough week for me and Aline - it was very scary but we made it through it. So after 2 MRI's and 2 CAT scans and a bunch of blood tests nothing was found. Now I can't drive for 6 months ugh!

Well onto the next challenge in life -- actually lets not - lets just lay low.