The doctor told Jane it appears to be a viral infection, and that he's not doing as badly as we feared. We just need to keep hitting him with ibuprofen as needed and make sure he drinks plenty of fluid. David is eating in his good moments - he scarfed down a ton of Annie's Mac & Cheese at lunchtime. Right now, after resting most of the afternoon, he's hanging out with Jane downstairs - watching Dora and playing with his toy phone. We'll keep you all posted.
I installed the A/C unit in our bedroom today, and I took off the cover from our big hallway one. We're running them for a little while tonight to clear out some of the hot air upstairs and to clean 'em out. I need to find one we can fit in David's room. The challenge there is that his window is 42" wide but all the air conditioners out there are built to fit skinnier windows. So I'll have to rig up a board to seal it up after putting a smaller one in.
I also have to install our new blinds for the living room which arrived last night. I'll tackle that either tonight after David's bedtime or tomorrow.
Friday, April 30, 2004
Current events
Today, Gerald Amirault was released from prison, after 18 years. He, along with his mother and sister, were convicted of molesting and raping children under their care in the infamous Fells Acres scandal. Why am I writing about this today?
Well, I am of the firm belief that child abuse does, of course, happen in the world. It's a tragic, evil act when it happens, and as the parent of a young son, it's something I will always be worried about whenever he's out of the hands of his parents. But there was a junk science trend in the mid-1980s that still pops up sometimes today. It's called the "recovered memories" movement.
This was something that therapists and some psychologists back in those days believed was valid. But unfortunately, the techniques used to elicit these "memories" was so crude as to often have the effect of implanting the very memories they believed they were recovering. The other big trend back then was the "satanic ritual abuse" myth. A lot of folks believed that this sort of abuse was actually common. And working from the assumption that it was common, their therapy and questioning was designed to elicit the desired response. Thankfully, today this has been almost entirely discredited in the mainstream and only is practiced on the fringes. But back in the '80s, people really believed in this pap.
The Amiraults got caught up in this convergence of quackery, and in two separate trials were shipped off to jail. Gerald's mother and sister were freed in the mid-'90s, but Gerald himself was kept locked up until today. And dozens of kids who were little more than toddlers at the time have been given the curse of memories of horrific events that never happened. No evidence backing any of the claims made was ever found other than the testimony of the children.
The saddest thing about this can really be summed up by this quote from the article above:
"I think people look at us as if he's the innocent person and we're the evildoers," said Harriet Dell'Anno, whose daughter, Jaime, testified against Amirault.
No, Mrs. Dell'Anno, you aren't the evildoers. But neither were the Amiraults. In the end, you were all victims, and the real evildoers are still practicing their quackery that they call "therapy".
Well, I am of the firm belief that child abuse does, of course, happen in the world. It's a tragic, evil act when it happens, and as the parent of a young son, it's something I will always be worried about whenever he's out of the hands of his parents. But there was a junk science trend in the mid-1980s that still pops up sometimes today. It's called the "recovered memories" movement.
This was something that therapists and some psychologists back in those days believed was valid. But unfortunately, the techniques used to elicit these "memories" was so crude as to often have the effect of implanting the very memories they believed they were recovering. The other big trend back then was the "satanic ritual abuse" myth. A lot of folks believed that this sort of abuse was actually common. And working from the assumption that it was common, their therapy and questioning was designed to elicit the desired response. Thankfully, today this has been almost entirely discredited in the mainstream and only is practiced on the fringes. But back in the '80s, people really believed in this pap.
The Amiraults got caught up in this convergence of quackery, and in two separate trials were shipped off to jail. Gerald's mother and sister were freed in the mid-'90s, but Gerald himself was kept locked up until today. And dozens of kids who were little more than toddlers at the time have been given the curse of memories of horrific events that never happened. No evidence backing any of the claims made was ever found other than the testimony of the children.
The saddest thing about this can really be summed up by this quote from the article above:
"I think people look at us as if he's the innocent person and we're the evildoers," said Harriet Dell'Anno, whose daughter, Jaime, testified against Amirault.
No, Mrs. Dell'Anno, you aren't the evildoers. But neither were the Amiraults. In the end, you were all victims, and the real evildoers are still practicing their quackery that they call "therapy".
Relapse
Around 7:30 last night, we gave him some ibuprofen. It knocked his temperature almost all the way down, at which point he loaded up a diaper, ate some food, and generally returned to normal for a while. We put him to bed around 9:30.
He woke up upset at around 11, though, and we took him downstairs until he burned off the energy. Then he went back to bed.
Until about 4 or so.
At 4, he woke up screaming and feverish again, so we gave him some more ibuprofen and Jane stayed with him the rest of the night. He slept on and off, cuddled up on the sofa with his giant stuffed bear. This morning, though, he's in a horrible mood even though the temperature is back down. They're at the doctors' now - I have a service call to make in a little while otherwise I'd have gone, too.
He woke up upset at around 11, though, and we took him downstairs until he burned off the energy. Then he went back to bed.
Until about 4 or so.
At 4, he woke up screaming and feverish again, so we gave him some more ibuprofen and Jane stayed with him the rest of the night. He slept on and off, cuddled up on the sofa with his giant stuffed bear. This morning, though, he's in a horrible mood even though the temperature is back down. They're at the doctors' now - I have a service call to make in a little while otherwise I'd have gone, too.
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Smokin'
That's what David's forehead is to the touch right now. He spiked at 104.2 - but he's back down under 102 after some Tylenol (on the advice of the duty nurse at our pediatrician's office). He's otherwise not showing too many signs of sickness.
He'll be going in for a look-see tomorrow, but they're not too worried about him so far. It just has to run its course, with Mom and Dad treating the symptoms as best as possible.
He'll be going in for a look-see tomorrow, but they're not too worried about him so far. It just has to run its course, with Mom and Dad treating the symptoms as best as possible.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Interesting day
I played hooky today, kind of.
The problem I had with my minivan a few weeks ago reared it's ugly head again last night on my way to the BNUG board meeting. So I took it to the dealership first thing this morning (it turned out to be the hub bearing on the opposite side from the original problem), where it spent the day.
So instead of monopolizing Jane's car, we made alternate plans. Our friend Judy came over, and we all went to the mall to buy the iBook she wanted to get. On the way, I took the liberty of stopping at the office and forwarding my office phone to my cell. That way I could theoretically work.
Meanwhile, David's been a little hair-trigger for the last few days, with nasty diaper stuff and mood swings. Yep - it's time for molars. He was really tired all day, and about half an hour ago it finally reached a peak. Turns out he also had a fever of 102 and change going on top of the other teething symptoms. So we gave him a healthy slug of Tylenol and offered him a bath (which he declined vehemently) - after the Tylenol kicked in his mood has improved a lot. The lollipop helped, too.
I'm still setting up Judy's iBook, with a break to go to a chamber of commerce function late this afternoon. It was very productive - I picked up two appointments out of it. And I have some work to do Friday morning. It looks like the month will end on a pretty good note.
The problem I had with my minivan a few weeks ago reared it's ugly head again last night on my way to the BNUG board meeting. So I took it to the dealership first thing this morning (it turned out to be the hub bearing on the opposite side from the original problem), where it spent the day.
So instead of monopolizing Jane's car, we made alternate plans. Our friend Judy came over, and we all went to the mall to buy the iBook she wanted to get. On the way, I took the liberty of stopping at the office and forwarding my office phone to my cell. That way I could theoretically work.
Meanwhile, David's been a little hair-trigger for the last few days, with nasty diaper stuff and mood swings. Yep - it's time for molars. He was really tired all day, and about half an hour ago it finally reached a peak. Turns out he also had a fever of 102 and change going on top of the other teething symptoms. So we gave him a healthy slug of Tylenol and offered him a bath (which he declined vehemently) - after the Tylenol kicked in his mood has improved a lot. The lollipop helped, too.
I'm still setting up Judy's iBook, with a break to go to a chamber of commerce function late this afternoon. It was very productive - I picked up two appointments out of it. And I have some work to do Friday morning. It looks like the month will end on a pretty good note.
Monday, April 26, 2004
Random "Iron Chef America" thoughts
I've watched all but the Tag Team battle so far. I'm saving that one for tonight.
They made a big mistake not having an audience packed into the new Kitchen Stadium. It's kind of lifeless.
This "chairman" seems like a nice guy, but he's hideously wrong for the job. It requires pomposity, not seriousness. The ill-fated "Iron Chef USA" that was shot for UPN (I only saw one episode ever air, even though I know they shot a couple) had the right idea by using Shatner. He's the perfect American (well, actually Canadian) counterpart to Chairman Kaga.
Alton Brown is one of my all-time favorite TV people. I have all his books. I even have one of his salt cellars. But he's the victim of another mistake - they had Alton in the role of the Professor, but he had to do both play-by-play and color. As a color commentator, he's tremendously insightful, but I'd rather have Brent Musburger doing play-by-play. And that says a lot if you're ever been treated to Brent.
The floor reporter was awful. Bad questions, bad delivery. Yecch.
And the judges were kind of lame. Most of them weren't even real foodies.
The biggest consequence of that is that the Japanese chefs got screwed. As much as I like Mario Batali, there's just no way he beats Morimoto. No way at all. I can see how Puck beat Morimoto in the other battle, because Puck stayed closer to the theme (and the judges had no appreciation for Morimoto's creativity). And Flay/Sakai, I wasn't so sure about Flay beating Sakai, but reasonable people differ on things like that all the time. Trout was a little closer to Flay's specialties than Sakai's.
Mind you, "Iron Chef America" didn't suck, but it could have been so much better than it was.
They made a big mistake not having an audience packed into the new Kitchen Stadium. It's kind of lifeless.
This "chairman" seems like a nice guy, but he's hideously wrong for the job. It requires pomposity, not seriousness. The ill-fated "Iron Chef USA" that was shot for UPN (I only saw one episode ever air, even though I know they shot a couple) had the right idea by using Shatner. He's the perfect American (well, actually Canadian) counterpart to Chairman Kaga.
Alton Brown is one of my all-time favorite TV people. I have all his books. I even have one of his salt cellars. But he's the victim of another mistake - they had Alton in the role of the Professor, but he had to do both play-by-play and color. As a color commentator, he's tremendously insightful, but I'd rather have Brent Musburger doing play-by-play. And that says a lot if you're ever been treated to Brent.
The floor reporter was awful. Bad questions, bad delivery. Yecch.
And the judges were kind of lame. Most of them weren't even real foodies.
The biggest consequence of that is that the Japanese chefs got screwed. As much as I like Mario Batali, there's just no way he beats Morimoto. No way at all. I can see how Puck beat Morimoto in the other battle, because Puck stayed closer to the theme (and the judges had no appreciation for Morimoto's creativity). And Flay/Sakai, I wasn't so sure about Flay beating Sakai, but reasonable people differ on things like that all the time. Trout was a little closer to Flay's specialties than Sakai's.
Mind you, "Iron Chef America" didn't suck, but it could have been so much better than it was.
Message to my parents...
I know I have occasionally been known to put fairly cryptic messages in here mainly for your benefit, but this time I'm going to write something, clear, unequivocal, and absolutely sincere, and it's really just intended for you two:
This week's Queer Eye is a rerun.
So if you haven't seen the one about the stand-up comic who lives like a true slob and has a Brat Pack and tiki lounge fixation, then go ahead and tune in, or let me know and I'll go ahead and TiVo it. It first aired about a month and a half ago, I think.
Oh yeah, one other message - we went to our friends' house for dinner last night. No pictures until today as a result.
This week's Queer Eye is a rerun.
So if you haven't seen the one about the stand-up comic who lives like a true slob and has a Brat Pack and tiki lounge fixation, then go ahead and tune in, or let me know and I'll go ahead and TiVo it. It first aired about a month and a half ago, I think.
Oh yeah, one other message - we went to our friends' house for dinner last night. No pictures until today as a result.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Busy week
I was incommunicado most of this week because I was prepping for the Linux class. The class was yesterday, and it went pretty well - well enough that we're going to do it again in about a month. The format works, and we let the students help drive the agenda for us.
What I need to deal with this week is to get Ghost working properly, to make the destruction/construction of my training room computers go quicker. I bought the license a week ago, but haven't had time to get it set up. I used Ghost at my old company, but we were forced to give it up as the Mothership had standardized on the PowerQuest product suite.
Then, of course, Symantec bought PowerQuest, so nyah.
We're enjoying a couple of nice days, weather-wise, so other than a couple of minor errands early today we'll pretty much just head down to the Willows and play. David hasn't been down there yet as a full-fledged toddler; they just opened up for the season a week or so ago.
What I need to deal with this week is to get Ghost working properly, to make the destruction/construction of my training room computers go quicker. I bought the license a week ago, but haven't had time to get it set up. I used Ghost at my old company, but we were forced to give it up as the Mothership had standardized on the PowerQuest product suite.
Then, of course, Symantec bought PowerQuest, so nyah.
We're enjoying a couple of nice days, weather-wise, so other than a couple of minor errands early today we'll pretty much just head down to the Willows and play. David hasn't been down there yet as a full-fledged toddler; they just opened up for the season a week or so ago.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
VMware versus VirtualPC
I am using both on my Dell Inspiron 600m laptop. The copy of VirtualPC was obtained through my Microsoft Partner Pack subscription - and I've used the Mac version of the product for years. VMware is also a product I've used for a long time at Holyoke, but I just obtained a new copy through their user group program. After some experimentation with both Intel products, I have a few conclusions:
First, both VMware and VirtualPC have difficulties with the newest version (10) of Mandrake Linux - which is based on the 2.6 kernel. In my first try, I could not get VirtualPC to properly recognize either the network driver or the sound card - though it did find the emulated S3 video adapter properly. I had somewhat better luck with VMware's hardware support, but have not thus far been able to get X Windows to work. Although XFree86 does have direct VMware support, it has not worked thus far.
One difference between the two immediately - VMware has much faster disk support than VirtualPC. The comparable install of the operating system has taken less than half the time.
There have been successes: I was able to install both SuSE 9.0 and Mandrake 9.2 on both emulators, and though I was able to install the most recent Lindows (now called Linspire) on VMware boot attempts result in a kernel panic. Linspire is still 2.4 kernel-based.
More results later.
First, both VMware and VirtualPC have difficulties with the newest version (10) of Mandrake Linux - which is based on the 2.6 kernel. In my first try, I could not get VirtualPC to properly recognize either the network driver or the sound card - though it did find the emulated S3 video adapter properly. I had somewhat better luck with VMware's hardware support, but have not thus far been able to get X Windows to work. Although XFree86 does have direct VMware support, it has not worked thus far.
One difference between the two immediately - VMware has much faster disk support than VirtualPC. The comparable install of the operating system has taken less than half the time.
There have been successes: I was able to install both SuSE 9.0 and Mandrake 9.2 on both emulators, and though I was able to install the most recent Lindows (now called Linspire) on VMware boot attempts result in a kernel panic. Linspire is still 2.4 kernel-based.
More results later.
Monday, April 19, 2004
Random thoughts
- David suffered a wounded nose today. He toppled down a couple of steps while he was outside this morning, and bloodied his nose (and he got some scrapes, too). Jane said he refused to grab the rail that time, and learned his lesson. This is what happens with toddlers. They push their limits until the limits bite back, then they figure it out. Thankfully toddlers are durable.
- We went with Judy tonight to look at the new Apple stuff. She's leaning towards an iBook, but they don't actually hit the shelves until tomorrow. So she'll probably pick one up this weekend.
- In a major upset, a short Kenyan won the Boston Marathon.
- It was nice that the Sox both (a) won their Patriot's Day game for a change, and (b) took 3 out of 4 from the Yankees. But it's still only April. Don't print the playoff tickets yet.
- I was looking at a poster tonight when we were at the mall. In the battle of the teen queens, I have to say: Lindsay Lohan is way hotter than Hillary Duff. No contest. But I still haven't seen any more of either of them than movie posters and Letterman appearances. Nor do I particularly intend to.
- What's on your iPod? Mine has about 2600 songs on it. It would have more, but it's only a 10 GB model. I've already converted everything to AAC in order to cram that much stuff, anyhow.
- We went with Judy tonight to look at the new Apple stuff. She's leaning towards an iBook, but they don't actually hit the shelves until tomorrow. So she'll probably pick one up this weekend.
- In a major upset, a short Kenyan won the Boston Marathon.
- It was nice that the Sox both (a) won their Patriot's Day game for a change, and (b) took 3 out of 4 from the Yankees. But it's still only April. Don't print the playoff tickets yet.
- I was looking at a poster tonight when we were at the mall. In the battle of the teen queens, I have to say: Lindsay Lohan is way hotter than Hillary Duff. No contest. But I still haven't seen any more of either of them than movie posters and Letterman appearances. Nor do I particularly intend to.
- What's on your iPod? Mine has about 2600 songs on it. It would have more, but it's only a 10 GB model. I've already converted everything to AAC in order to cram that much stuff, anyhow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
