CR! Rock on! (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

No longer a high school go-gaggu-wa

Ray Romano has this bit where his mother tells him to complete college. When he asks why, she says, "So you can say you're a college graduate." You mean I can't say that now? "I am a college gajjeet! A ko-kakka go-gaggu-wa! Dammit! Three credits and I could have had it!"

So CR, after 18 years of moderate childhood angst, has made it my education level. I mean, yeah, I also got scattered college credits, but they don't count. He is a full graduate of Chantilly High School, even though he had to finish it in the summer.

His graduation ceremony was modest and he was among about 20 graduates from 5 nearby schools in his summer program, and maybe 1 of 3 born in this country. Some kids were graduating early, there's a 15 year old in his group; she's going to be a college student before she learns how to drive (her biggest complaint). Another had to leave the country to be by his dying mother, but came back, and was graduating at age 20. He actually gave the student-based inspirational speech, and even though his English was pretty bad, his story was heart-wrenching and very, very well composed and written. The whole thing was maybe an hour long, indoors, and I was happy to see so many graduates had HUGE families that came to see them. In front of us was a very sweet Hispanic family, and one of the Islamic students had maybe 20-30 people cheering for her. Even the neglected kids seemed to have friends who showed up and cheered for them. "GO BRITTANY!!! WOOOOOO!" "TYLER! YEAH!!! HOO HOO HOO HOO!" CR was one of 6 or 7 graduating from his school, and he graduated with an old childhood friend from Bailey's, the magnet elementary school he went to from grades 1-5.

Contrast that to the McLean ceremony I had in 1987, which was slated to be six hours long, had two famous guest speakers (I think Senator Chuck Robb, and Desmond Tutu's daughter), several local guest speakers, a few student speeches, and over 340 students to go through. It was held outdoors, in a hot and muggy summer day, during the *height* of the 17-year cicada season. So in addition to being hot, bored, and covered with thumb-sized insects, the combined apathy of the graduating class and the growing unrest in the bleachers of parents forced the students to END the graduation early. Anya said when she graduated in 1995, it was about the same, except it was down to four hours, and no cicadas. While takayla didn't mention hers, she agreed this was MUCH better than what CR's class had a few months earlier: 3500 parents and students at the Patriot Center, where tickets were like $70/person, I think. Yikes!

We did have to pay, however. The $188 we paid for this one included me, takayla, and Anya, if you combine the "senior dues" he had to pay last year (they never collected for this year... oh they ASKED for it, but never collected), and $128 extortion fees on "owed equipment," counting a $108 "advanced graphic" calculator CR never owned (he never took advanced math courses), but someone said he did, and they wouldn't let him graduate unless he paid (and we couldn't complain because "the woman" who handles these affairs was "on a cruise for the next two weeks"). On the check I sent them, in the comments section it says, "Bribe money" and on the back where you sign the check, I wrote, "By cashing this check, Fairfax County agrees that this was paid under duress, and completely illegal." I know they never look, I did this with other "mysterious fees" the schools have charged us in the last 13 years, including his junior year "senior dues" and various other untraceable "equipment charges." I learned this trick back in the days of bill collectors who had a juicy habit of "forgetting" you paid them.

But it's over. He has his diploma in a purple leather binder, and on Saturday, takes entrance exams for college. The current plan is 2 years of NOVA (which is no shabby college, let me tell you, one of the best Community Colleges in the nation), and then onto a graduate college (one of several in Northern Virginia are being considered, I'd love to get him into VA Tech if we can afford it). His current idea is to become a TEACHER for small children which is AWESOME and I think he'd be a great teacher.

Congratulations CR! I am so proud of you, and I love you very, very, very much!

In other news, aksident, whom wanted to be with us, and we wanted her as well, could not attend because she was doing volleyball tryouts at her school. Good thing, because she not only MADE THE TEAM but was ONE OF ONLY TWO FRESHMEN picked for the JV team! Usually they only pick Juniors and Sophomores if they are lucky. But she's always been skilled and competetive, and I wouldn't be surprised to see her at the 2012 Olympics. Posted in: aksident , childhood , cr , graduation , mclean

Pool Party Today (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

So, some friends of mine are having a pool party today, and graciously wanted to host CR's "public" 18th birthday party. Every year I can go, I go down to the Dollar Store or Five Below, and spend $20-30 on some assorted pool toys. Usually cheap squirt guns, some float-able toys like sharks, boats, and whatnot. I share them with everyone who comes, which is a crowd of about 20-25 people. And I did that again this year.

But I also wanted to bring my two bubble machines. I wanted to make sure they still worked, so I tested them this morning. Well, my multi-bubble machine (like Lawrence Welk was famous for) is busted. The pump isn't strong enough to get the bubbles up in the rings and fan, and I don't know why. I think the motor has problems because it's also a lot louder than I remember. I guess I could take it apart and try and fix it, but I don't have time.

The "large bubble maker" does work, which is good. If I had to choose between the two, that was the one I wanted to work. Instead of hundreds of small bubbles, it releases a few BIG ones each pass, and that's pretty cool to watch.

And really, how often do I get to use bubble machines in my life? Not enough, I tell you.
Posted in: bubbles , cr , pool

CR's last few days as a teenager (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I guess you could call 18 and 19 "teens," if those "barely legal" sites are to be believed, but in my mind, being a teenager is 13 - 17, and then you are legally an adult. apeyanne tells me that the brain stops growing at 25 or so, which explains the behavior of me an my friends in Prune Bran. Haw.

But this post isn't about how I am throwing away his sailor suit and huge striped lollipop, but some good news in the fact he got a job again! He used to work at Five Below for a week, but they he got real sick last year. They said he could come back whenever, but then the entire chain started to go down the tubes. So now my son will work for a giant multi-national corporation as a barista!

And you can probably guess where. Rhymes with war bucks.

So if you are in Greenbriar some weekday evenings, come stop by and see CR in his first adult job.

I am very proud of him. Posted in: childhood , cr

Stayed home today (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I worked from home today because I felt so bad when I woke up, I could barely walk to pee. My ankle was swollen, and my joints hurt, and I just went back to bed hoping I was hallucinating. I thought, "Yeah, I'd better see a doctor about this, this isn't normal."

But apparently, I just needed to spend time in bed. I feel lots better.

Things are still on track with CR's graduation in August. Assuming he finishes his one missing school credit this summer, he'll still be a 2008 graduate. His health is a lot better overall, and we think he'll be working at Starbucks down the road as his second job (his first was at "5 Below," when he got really sick). He becomes legally an adult in a little over a month. It seems only recently we celebrated his 10th birthday. And not long before, he was by my side in the woods of Reston, picking up leaves, and handing them to me. Most of my friends are childless, or have kids that are pretty young still. It is my hope that those who do have little kids that you spend time with them as I tried to, telling them what you do, what your ancestors did, and how to tell right from wrong. You'll wish you had more of those when your kids get older, which will happen so much faster than you realize. For those of you who do not have kids, or do not wish to, find a friend who does, and sneak them cookies.

djkangal posted in his journal about people who haven't grown up in 20 years. When I was a teenager, my life was so messed up, I felt the only way to get a handle on anything was to be true to myself first, and work my way outwards. Thus, I don't have many regrets of my own behavior in the last 20 years. I didn't do everything right, of course. In fact, I screwed a few things up pretty badly, but I plead ignorance on most of them and hope I learned something. But I agree with Mr. Kangal on some people still living a conscience-free existence, where nothing is ever their fault, and they are not responsible for their own direction in life.

With CR, I hope I have accomplished teaching him self-responsibility somewhat. Like most parents, I am not 100% confident I did everything right, and have now seen where I got some things wrong, ignorance or not. I am not sure what the future holds for this new adult about to be released into the world, but I hope that he'll make lots of friends like I have, and they are as tolerant of him as my friend have been of me. I have really been blessed to have the friends I do. As I face 40 this year, I kind of hope that when I reach 62, I won't look at my son at 40 and go, "Dammit! What the hell are you doing??" I hope whatever he does for a living, which will probably be technical because the Larson side of the family can't seem to get away from technology (and before that, carpentry), I hope he enjoys like I currently enjoy the technical field. But I also hope he gets married, has children, and passes on some of what I learned from my previous 20 years, plus any more years, so when I am gone, my immortality passes on as my grandparents and their grandparents before me. It it for this reason I always try to be honorable and true to myself.

"Grandpa? Why is there a plaque on your wall that says, 'Be polite and friendly?'"

"My dad used to say that. He learned it from a friend of his who ran these science fiction conventions. It was this guy's first rule for any list of rules, and it still rings true today."

"Why does the plaque also say, 'There is NO rule 6!'"

"I don't know either. There was some snake named Monty, I think, who once said there was no rule 6, but I never have trusted any list of rules beyond 5 because of that." Posted in: cr , health

The last 24 hours have been full of win (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

My old pessimistic side used to feel that just before something really horrible happened, a bunch of good things happened to me. Like the ultimate letdown. Then I thought, "It's to prepare me for something bad that was going to happen," so like the White Queen in "Alice Beyond the Looking Glass," I freaked out about things before they happened, and didn't enjoy the good times.

I still don't know if the "let down" is coming.

But, the last 24 hours have been a wild ride, and I'll enjoy it while it's here. Like I said in a previous enty, step 4 of 5 came by on Friday. Then today, I got a Virginia Learner's Permit. Yes, as in driving learners permit. Look out, Virginia, clear the sidewalks! This will mark the fourth time I have owned one, which is pathetic, truly at 39, but never say die. My night vision is much improved, so I don't have that fear I'll get lost somewhere after dark. CR and I took the test together, but sadly, they gave him all the dumbass questions ("How long to do have to submit a change of address form?" and bureaucratic stuff like that) and he didn't pass by one lousy point. Well, he goes back after 15 days.

Then we saw Ironman, which was awesome.

Then I went out with Scarlet and saw our friend Denise work as a volunteer and DC roller girl in training. "Triple-D Licious" will be her name, and she finds out next season (Sept/Aug) what team she will be on. Go Denise! WOO! I also got to see the final championship between the DC Demoncats and Scare Force One. Scare Force One got the title with a score of 42 to 53. Scarlet was my cheerful companion, despite the fact she did everything on crutches. Apparently she tore up all the soft tissue in her ankle, and is in a brace until the middle of June. :( Posted in: cr , dcrollergirls , driving , ironman , license , scarlet , test

A late weekend review, some whining (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I don't remember much of the weekend. Saturday I really dug into the finances, and was pleased to see my Federal Return had already come in, so I paid a lot of bills that had backed up. I also straightened out my desk because I am *still* moving from my old den to my new, and it's caused some backup where stuff I can't categorize just ends up laying around.

Citibank bought my home loan. Dammit. I liked American Express PPH. I knw I have said this before, but when we first got the house, there was a problem where the bank accidentally split the house into two loans: a main one and a micropayment balloon loan. Those loans got bought and sold like four times in two years and it was hard to keep track of who to send the bills to for the current month. When we first refinanced, we consolidated it into PPH, and they had been our home loan ever since. When we had to get a second mortgage to fix the desk and parts of the roof, we went with... I forgot who we started with, but that was bought out by WAMU, and THAT was bought out by Wachovia. And when did I get that loan, 2006? Now I have to pay Citibank for my primary mortgage. I am not... all that happy with Citibank. I have had a bad past with them, although I haven't had much trouble with my current Citibank Credit card, which was once a different bank, I forget who. Even my local back, First Virgina, was bought out by BB&T;, and they replaced the decent staff they had with the typical minimum wage drones like every other bank.

There's like no concept of customer loyalty. These mego-conglomo-corporations treat us like a commodity, like how we'd treat cash that comes and goes from our wallet. You ever form an attachment to a $5 bill? No, and the banks don't know you from anything, either. And all your personal information gets sold to another company. No wonder identity theft is so rampant.

On Sunday, I went out with the Heare kids and aksident to the DC national Zoo. I had a lot of fun, and I think they did, too, despite it never getting warm or the sun coming out. Poor aksident was freezing her legs something awful in these shorts she had. There were many reasons I took them out to the zoo: exercise (for me), the company, talking with them.

Scarlet is still 9, and already she's got a Bohemian streak in her I wouldn't have suspected just a few years ago. Her clothing choices are very unique, for instance, and her outlook of "pink and pretty princess" has faded away. I found she likes comics, and while I don't really get into them, boy has she found a good contact to someone who can hook her up. :) I wonder if I can get her some Tintin? Hey, my fellow comic book nerds, is there like a Tintin-like comic or graphic novel that has a female protagonist you'd recommend that's not like, "The Bratz Dolls Break a Nail" or "Hello Kitty Bakes a Cake" or something?

CR was supposed to come with us, but he had an emergency operation on his toe, and has been bedridden until yesterday. He has now been sick too many days, and it's official: he is not graduating this year. I haven't really spoken about it in the LJ because there was still hope for a while, but because of the way they do English, he's not going to pass. The options are he goes to summer school to finish English, or repeats his senior year and graduates in 2009. Both have advantages and drawbacks, but in order for CR to stay on our health insurance, he has to be in school. There is NO way we can afford his medical bills if he doesn't have insurance. He either has to get a job and get his own insurance, or stay in school full time. We're pushing for him to repeat his senior year to buy some time, but the school is resisting this because it's only one class. We have a meeting Thursday because I want everyone on the same page before we make a decision.

We can't afford to pay for his college, short and simple. I never had illusions otherwise, but our family's finances are stretched very thin, and we don't have any liquid assets. Haven't I played this record before? takayla is working 2 jobs, I have my job, and the bills keep piling up. Most of them are medical, because even with the insurance, we're spending several hundred a month on prescriptions and co-payments. Then there's gas prices because we both work very far away from home. The irony is our family is making more a year than we ever had, and I am still paying bills like I did in 1995, before I got my first tech job and I was making only $19k/year. A lot of stuff is leaning on our credit cards, so we're paying buttloads of interest, and the balances keeps climbing because, on average, we spend $200-300 a month over what we take in. And then there's the incidentals, like house repairs, unexpected costs like anyarm changing her wedding from here to Vegas, plus whatever else is "oh, we have to pay $300 for this thing..." This is ludicrous. So if we can stretch another year, CR will be legally an adult in July, and he'll be available for better financial assistance. The current plan is an electrician trade school of some kind, so we're looking into that. The pressure is on me to try and get the money under control, or I estimate we'll have to sell the house and move out by the end of this year. Right now when the housing market is collapsing. My emergency plans are to cash in my 401k in October so we can afford to live for maybe another year, but I really, really, really don't want to do that for obvious reasons.

But it's not all hopeless. Don't give up on me yet, guys, and don't give me free loaves of bread and jars of discount Mormon peanut butter out of pity. There are some rays of sun through these storm clouds, many which I can't mention yet, so I hope some favors I have in the world of karma come back to me. Posted in: banks , cr , heares , house , kids , loans , school , zoo

My den move... continues (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Even though I have been working from my new den (CR's old bedroom) for a while now, it's been slow going to get it squared away. I still don't have all my stuff from my old den up here. Just most of it. A majority of the work has been going through my possessions and sorting them. This seems to be the sorting method:

1. If I don't want it, and it's trash, toss it
   
2. If I don't want it, and it's paperwork, shred it
   
3. If I don't want it, but think it's still useful to somebody, it's been put in a box labeled as such. So far the Heare kids are going to get many toys, and I have to sneak this past their parents, because with 4 kids, they have far too many toys as it is. They have even expressly asked not to give their kids any more toys. Of course I have to disobey this, it's my job as the "fun Uncle."
   
4. If I do want it, but can't let go of it for emotional bullshit reasons, it gets boxed and labeled.
   
5. If I do want it, but I won't use it for a while, it gets boxed and labeled.
   
6. If I do want it, and it's paperwork, it gets filed
   
7. If I do want it, and it's not paperwork, but small, it's going in a universal "junk box" to be sorted later
   
8. If I do want it, and it's not small... fuck, where am I going to put this? Try again from step 3.
   

Oddly enough, this isn't all that bad. I have generated a LOT of trash. Right now, I have more empty boxes than full ones. I have even had the "luxury" of throwing away cheap, torn, or stained boxes because I am keeping the more sturdy ones. A pile of empty boxes sits in one corner, waiting to be used, or given to anyarm and Brian, when the move out in just a few months from now (sad face). Posted in: cr , den , move

The move continues (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CR is now sleeping in my old den, and my den is now getting set up in his old bedroom. There's still a lot of moving that still needs done, but most of my furniture is out except a filing cabinet and a shelf. The majority of moving now means carrying boxes and assorted loose stuff from his new room to my new den. And then doing the reverse for his stuff. Sadly, since his room is smaller, I have to take all my stuff out first before I can put his stuff in.

Last night, after stacking some containers and consolidating crates of stuff I just tossed together, I repaired my "new" (really, stodgycat's old) dual-recliner love seat. We had taken parts out to fit it through my door, and I put them all back and reclined in my new den... gazed at my new ceiling fan making a nice breeze... and felt relaxed.

God, though, the walls are so ugly. The previous owner's two older boys had this room, and the decor was a strip of border paper on the top of the walls that show killer whales mating or something. The rest of the white walls are dotted with teal green sponge prints, as you can see on the left. I think I will get some base coat and white it all out, and then eventually paint the walls a very calming pale blue and pale green. Posted in: cr , move , room , ugly walls

This weekend's plans (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I was going to the beach this weekend (yes, in late fall), but oddly enough, the group I was going with had too many members get sick. One had pneumonia, and one was out of work for weeks with whatever she had. Considering how susceptible I am to bacterial infections in the ENT and lungs department, I am glad I dodged that bullet. We're rescheduling for next year (yes, probably with winter). ninjacooter? Get better, please. :)

I hope to get more of CR's stuff and my stuff swapped this weekend. Posted in: cr , move , room , weekend

punkwalrus @ 2007-11-27T15:56:00 (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CR finally got his hair cut. It had been very long, and I think it was starting to bother him. He got it cut short like mine, and he looks very nice. While I didn't like him having long hair, he always kept it clean. The way I saw it is that this was the time he could have long hair and not worry about the stigma you get as a male adult.

He's still sick, however. Well, I am not sure it qualifies as "sick" anymore, because now it's more of long-lasting thing with his asthma. He sees the pulmonary specialist again on Thursday.

The progression to move my den to his room and vice versa still goes on. It's slow going because I am the only one who can move anything, and I am down to furniture and boxes. Actually, part of the problem is I am out of boxes. But the last 4 day weekend gave me enough time to move myself to his old room, so I am hoping that the rest of the move will go quicker. Posted in: asthma , cr , den , medical , move , room

More weekend madness: moving rooms (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

So far, I have managed not to get sick despite being exposed to many sick people over the last week. This is a great streak for me, usually I am down and out for the count after just one sneezy exposed person.

I worked my hardest to get CR out of his room and into mine (and vice versa). I was supposed to do a lot of packing and moving by this weekend, but due to being on call and other issues, I barely scraped more than a few boxes of crap. At least I got my table cleared. I also managed to buy a new door, get the network rewired (my den used to be the central network source), and a new ceiling fan put in. That would have been IMPOSSIBLE had it not been for the invaluable help from tth and Chris, known as "gypsy_sylvin's Chris."

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you guys! [grovel]

They did a majority of the cat6 wiring work, as well as hauling me back and forth from Lowes. I found out my beloved Sears Craftsman drill is dead. I am not sure if both rechargeable batteries are dead or the drill itself. :( And I found replacement drills are VERY expensive; I paid $65 for mine in 2000, and a replacement is like $199. Fuck me.

I did all the ceiling fan work. CR ruined his by smashing out the light portion some years ago, and more recently, breaking a fan blade. Now there is a lovely 3-blade 50" fan light with a slim profile and I must say, I am proud of myself for getting it all wired right, working, and working SMOOTHLY; ceiling fans are very prone to wobble if not installed to a millimeter of precision, and I am proud to say there's nary a wobble, and when you're under it, it makes a cool swooshing noise. It's the ONLY ceiling fan we have that does not wobble (the previous owners bought cheap fans and installed them badly).

The door still needs drilled and hung. Due to the previous owner's "bargain buys," they had a really non-standard door for CR's room which broke in part due to being cheap and CR's lack of care in taking care of a cheap door hastened its eventual decline. There was also an incident when it got stuck, and I had to beat it down. The old one was held together with duct tape, had no doorknob anymore, and was garishly colored (the previous owner also had this theory to save paint you put on one primer and then dab dots all over the room with a sponge to give it a stippled effect).

More moving needs to be done. I have to totally clean out his room to make room for my stuff. There are simply not enough boxes. I think out of 100% of stuff, we have boxes for 20-30% of it. I have thrown away a LOT, and still... more stuff. I just never ends. This weekend I finally got my work table cleared. Posted in: cr , house , move , room

CR so far (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CR is doing worse slightly, so they have upped the steroids and the doctor approved him for 6 months homebound schooling. They have some theories as to what it is, and think it might be a medicine they need to put him on (and forgot), or it might be a severe mold issue. They took a lot of blood out of him for testing allergen counts as well as deep allergy testing purposes (they can't do a skin reaction on him because of the steroids). He is going to have a CT scan for his lungs instead of just his head. Now we just have to convince the school to agree to home schooling, and we're set as far as that goes. I suspect CR will lose his job which he only had for a few weeks, but oh well. :(

He is going to move into my den. The cleaning of my den is going very badly. I had so much packed in here, that it's unfolding in mess like unwadding a tight ball of paper in the fact it covers more space with the same amount of stuff. I have generated 5 bags of trash, packed several storage bins, and it still looks like I have done very little. It's really depressing.

Lastly, an apology might be in order. Sorry, patches023, but I was late getting home and I abruptly left you while rushing for the train. It sounded like you ran into someone saying goodbye to me, and a nasty exchange ensued between him and you. I hope that wasn't your voice, and it was some other woman's, but if I caused you to run into that guy, I deeply apologize. I also apologize for sort of ending our conversation in mid sentence when I realized that I needed to be on that train. I am scatterbrained on the Metro, ask mysticpaws. It was nice seeing you, though! Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical , mess , metro , room

CR is home (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

First thing CR did was take a shower. He had been showering in the hospital, but they didn't have anything but baby shampoo and a mild soap. He's on many meds, has a huge list of instructions, and we visit the pulmonologist again later this week.

His breathing was much improved, then took a downturn when we came outside, but it recovered. He still gets dizzy and out of breath rapidly. He demanded we go to the Olive Garden, where he snarfed a lot of food because the hospital left him starving. The diabetes thing has been reduced to Metformin while he's on steroids, but apparently they had some nutritionist come in and discuss things with him.

While he showered and settled in back home, I followed takayla around and helped her find some of the elements to her "Lady Luck" costume. She's going to a costume party after we hand out candy on Wednesday. I can't go, I am on call starting Monday until the Monday before my birthday (standard 2 weeks). I shopped for the rest of what I am putting in the goodie bags: full sized Milky Ways, Reeces Cups (2 pair packaged), and Charms Blow pops. I wanted Tootsie Pops, but they were out. Sadly, they also reduced the number of bars per box from 48 to 36. We usually get about 50 kids, and I try and have two things per bag, so I am doing a mix, getting rid of the chocolate first before I eat them all. If I plan this right, I should end up with just Blow Pops left.

I also got some stuff to fix a lot of my... necklaces. I have collected a lot of them over the years, and one large one had been a lump of various objects that I need to separate. I got some satin string and a few pretty beads to space things. Now 4 necklaces can become 7! Wait...

Two friends volunteered to help move CR from his room to my den, which will put him in a smaller room (which he asked for) and put me in a bigger one with carpeting (yay). But they are coming next weekend at 3, so I have to rush like mad to sort through my shit in my den, and clean up his room more so I can put it in.

Oh, last night we celebrated Samhain a little early with some friends. It was great; we spoke of many people who had passed, celebrated our pal Kenny's birthday with some cake, and generally raised a lot of good energy. I really hope the New Year will be good to me because this year sucked something horrible. Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical , room , samhain

CR Update (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

He's well enough to be released on Sunday, they think. He's now been reduced to "diabetic tendencies," and will be on Metformin. No idea what happened or why he got sick. No assurance they cured anything that won't just come back next week. Another lecture on weight and we should get rid of cats and move to another house "just to be sure." While the conversation started out pleasant, the doctor because rather sarcastic and alarmist rather quickly after I asked her more detailed questions about what went wrong with his breathing in the first place. I was having issues with an answer like, "These things sometimes happen." It was apparent she was taking my questions personally, and not as queries, and I had to repeat in a calm voice I was just asking because nobody seemed to have a plan except "keep taking medications." What should we look for, are there breathing exercises, should he wear a mask, what long term strategies do you have besides "watch his diet" and "get exercise" do you have?

The whole thing seemed rather "take two pills and call me in the morning" to me.

She then switched tactics and made some assumptions about how we raise him, and kept telling me, "He has to keep taking his medication!" I know! I never said he didn't; I watch him do it every day. He knows too! And yes, my wife IS aware, *she's* the one who handles the prescriptions in this house. Stop saying that, you are answering a question I didn't ask. I asked only once, "How do we reduce his dependencies on medication and replace it with diet, exercise, and so on?" and she just assumed after that I wanted him off his meds like I was some herbal loonie or Christian Scientist or something.

"JAY-suz shall HAIL mah sun... and no med-dee-CAY-shuns shall the devil bring..."

Very frustrating. Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical

CR Update (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Well, they are waffling on the diabetes thing. First they said he had it with a blood sugar in like 400 or so. Then the next test he was 90. Then they said it was the steroids. Then he was at 330. Then they said steroids would only increase the count to maybe 50, not 300. So they have cut all salt, sugar, and carbs from his diet. So when I got home from work to visit him, he was on steroids, starving, getting insulin shots, and got the whole, "So you're fat..." set of videos (but no VCR to play them). He was all sorts of pissed off; both chemically and emotionally.

They still don't know why he has trouble breathing, but he's breathing more normally now. He's on a steady set of nebulizer treatment, steroids, antibiotics, insulin, and getting his blood drawn every 12 hours. The current consensus is that they will adjust his medicine a little, but not much. Our biggest fear is that he'll be let go without any plan beyond the hospital stay and be right back to where he started. We fear he's been defined as "fat" and they may just stop diagnosing anything else.

I managed to cheer him up a little, explaining why he was fat, how the world sees fat people, and what we should do about it. I have a huge speech that goes with this, but it's almost 2am as I write this, so I am not going into it. But he was in better spirits when our friend Gay dropped by to chat. We stayed until about 10, and then Gay gave me a lift home. Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical

CR is doing better (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

The steroids have kicked in, and he's breathing better, almost normally now. They still don't know what's affecting him, but they are totally going to re-arrange his medicines.

There was a diabetic scare there for a bit, but they think the elevated steroids have made him test a false positive in blood sugar levels.

He's not coming home soon, though. The earliest he'll come home is Sunday with no guarantees.

My biggest worry through all this is that he's almost 18. When he becomes an adult, we can extend him on our medical insurance for a few years while he's in school, but after that? What the hell is he going to do? All of what he has is "pre-existing" at this point, and I fear he won't get covered for anything the way the industry is clamping down.

Maybe he should move to Canada or Europe. :( Posted in: cr , health , hospital , medical

Sad news (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CR is in the hospital. We took him to the pulmonary specialist, and he was doing much worse, so she wanted to hospitalize him for the next 48-72 hours. She put him on some super-steroids and other meds, and he's under 24x7 watch. His oxygen is good, but he is still having a lot of trouble drawing breath.

I really don't have much else to say besides that. We won't know anything until tomorrow. Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical

Carpet cleaners are here (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

And yiiiccch! Are my carpets filthy. I wish I was a better housecleaner. I keep meaning to keep the house and yard clean, but I can never seem to catch up. I am kind of trapped in my den while they clean the carpets. I haven't eaten yet today because we're low on food and I can't have anything delivered while these huge hoses go in and out of my house.

Thanks for the kind comments about CR, guys. He's about the same today, which is better than previous days. Some things I have found while doing research that might be of interest to others involved catching colds:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_104.html

I have always told people that just being cold or whatnot does NOT make you more likely to be sick. They have done tons of studies since the 1970s, and still I hear people go on about this. Posted in: carpets , cleaning , cr , health , housework , medical

Staying home gets work done (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Yesterday, I was at home again, because CR was very sick. I mean, he LOOKS fine, until he has to move. He can barely walk a flight of stairs. CT scan is today.

I worked from home, but I confess, I took this opportunity to houseclean. I got a few projects done that I'd been putting off, and I feel a little good about them, as mundane as they are:

- I wrapped the recliner mechanisms in twine to prevent them from reclining. Those cheap-ass recliners broke within 8 months, and refuse to close, and then tilt you back into a recline that tips you to the side. The guarantee for them was only 90 days, and that was almost 2 years ago anyway. The entire back on one of them has now broken, and an inspection of the underside shows the cheapest crate pine wood you can imagine; it's the kind used in shipping pallets. The mechanism was metal almost as thin as an erector set. This represents the 3rd couch set we have had downstairs in 7 years, which represents a total cost of downstairs living room sets as $5200 so far. Next one is $200 from Craig's List I swear.
- I put rubber feet on the couches downstairs, so they don't slide around as much.
- 4 loads of laundry
- Cleaned up the rec room. Found a lot of forks, glasses, plates, and about a 13 gallon bag's worth of trash.
- Upgraded my Linux laptop to the new Kubuntu 7.10
- Did a few bags of trash. Then this morning forgot to put the can by the curb (ugh).
- Cleaned up the kitchen, did 2 loads of dishes.
- Cooked dinner (Italian honey-bread chicken thighs with carrots, mmmmm)
- Threw out more crap from my den. All my spare keyboards are gone, baby...

On Saturday the carpet cleaners come by. Upstairs is a total mess, so tonight I have to clean it all up and get it ready so they can shampoo the rug and sofas. They want us to remove ALL objects on top of other objects, because they will move furniture, but not lamps off of tables, for instance. Don't worry, the shampooing is fume-free, and CR will be downstairs the whole time (which does not have carpeting). Posted in: couch , cr , housework , linux , rec room , recliner , sofa

CR health update (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CT scan shows nothing abnormal. But he is responding to the new antibiotics and the second dose of Predisone. Not to be a pessimist, but this is much of the same, and I fear we are going to have to try other things. He's taken to sleeping downstairs because it's cooler down there, and there's no carpeting. That's part of why I cleaned last night.

If he hasn't vastly improved by Monday, we start all over again. Posted in: cr , health , medical

CR is sick again (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

After 4 days in school, he’s back out due to what might be a massive sinus infection. There’s a good chance now he will flunk this quarter, at the very least some of his courses. That doesn’t mean he’ll flunk the year, mind you, but now it’s like chaos with the school. takayla and I have also lost work over this.

Yesterday, he went back to the doctor, and they prescribed him more pills and put him back on steroids (which he hates). They think it’s possibly a massive sinus infection, so they put him on antibiotics, and he has a CT scan scheduled tomorrow. If there are chronic sinus issues, they may have to do an invasive procedure to clean it out.

I hope the poor guy feels better soon. :( Posted in: cr , medical , sick

What's wrong with CR (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

The current theory by the pulmonologist , based on symptoms and scans, is that he is violently allergic to formaldehyde. I told him not to drink the stuff, but kids these days... and pressure treated lumber is very resistant to bugs, too. Okay, seriously, he was exposed to it at school in his new anatomy and physiology class. It was necessary for his vet tech certification, and now we're at a loss because, well, you can't be in any medical profession without formaldehyde.

CR has decided through all this he wants to be a chef. I think there was always this narrowing down of what he would be capable of in the veterinary field with his asthma. I mean, at our vet's office, two people have asthma, and one of them has like 10 cats and 5 dogs in her house (one of the "calamities" one usually faces working in a vet's office is ending up with a lot of spare animals, ask anyarm). While CR excelled at his chosen profession, it looked like he would never get higher than a vet tech, which depressed him a little. This was sort of the final blow.

On top of all this, they think he got a raging sinus infection during his downtime, which may have led to sleep apnea, and possible acid reflux (which is a genetic issue on his mother's side). So he's on more meds, and will get a cat scan or MRI (I forget which) to check his sinuses because if he has the kind that they think he has, it requires a 45-90 day treatment of various stages of antibiotics. Makes me wonder if he needs a neti pot.

Anyway, that's the story so far. He went back to school again today, after being absent about 17 days out of 20. His school is trying to get him accommodated, and I want to thank Chantilly High for not being bastards about this whole thing. There are some people working there who have really been helpful, and while there are still some bureaucratic snags, we hope to have them resolved by the end of the second quarter so he can graduate in 2008. Posted in: asthma , cr , medicine , school , sick

Massive cleanup (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Teenager's rooms are like toxic waste dumps. Dear sweet god. I found an entire loveseat and two end tables in there! A new hole in the drywall... and sadly some mold and mildew due to an air conditioner that was leaking. That couldn't have been helping his asthma, which I why I was cleaning it the first place. I have cleaned about 80% of it now, and hope to have the rest cleaned by tonight. What a mess! I tried everything short of child abuse to get that kid to clean his room, but it was like pushing rope.

Sadly, me complaining about it HIGHLY hypocritical. My room, at that age, was in a terrible state of affairs. As a kid, I was asked to clean my room frequently, which I did with the usual "make it visually clean," with lots of junk pushed under furniture or stacked in the closet. Thinking of my mental state at the time, and why I did this, I think could be broken down into the following thought process:

1. I did not understand WHY my room should be cleaned.
2. I did not want to spend time doing this when I could be doing other things.
3. I had to clean the rest of the house all the time, and my room was my vacation from that.
4. I always knew where everything was, anyway. The system sort of worked like "what I can reach I need, everything else under a pile or tossed aside."
5. Putting things away was often inconvenient. When I washed my clothes, for instance, they could stay in hampers. Folding them and putting them away was time consuming.
6. I had low self confidence and didn't care how I appeared to others.
7. My parents nagging me led me to subconsciously resist because I didn't like them very much, and had no desire to please them.

These things ended when I moved into my own room at the FanTek house. While my room was never "clean and neat," it never got as bad as it got back home. Then, people saw my room, and I gave a damn. Pride in my appearance and things just came on its own, when I was ready.

So, to my readers, please help me round out my perception of rooms.

1. Was your room usually messy or clean as a little kid?
2. Was your room usually messy or clean as a teen?
3. Did your parents make you clean you room at those ages? If so, what was the motivation/threat/bribe?
4. How do you/will you approach this with your kids? Obviously, if you never plan to have kids, you don't need to answer. Posted in: cr , mess , room

Weekend Wrapup: Thisby, Katsu, power, CR (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Well, I was on call this weekend, so I didn’t do much exciting. Oh, wait, I got cat food!

My cats are sooooooooooooooo friendly to me when they are out of food. Oh, even Thisby becomes friendly. She lets me pick her up and everything without goring me in the process. Thisby also attacked a cat for the first time: she jumped on Cosmo! It’s funny, that poor cat has spent so much of her life under the bed, that now she’s more out and about, she’s learning how to be a cat for the first time at age 8. She’s more and more curious about things than she used to be, although she’s still easily spooked. For instance, cat “fights” have been her new curiosity. Some of my cats fight, but not really. Most of it is wrestling, swatting, and dominance games; no yowling or fur flying. Cosmo and Taboo were hashing it out over a small clump of yarn, and Thisby, for reasons we can only speculate, jumped on Cosmo. But not like a swat, more like a leap of a flying squirrel that landed on Cosmo as awkwardly as a sack of rice. It scared the SHIT out of Cosmo, who was a surprised as the rest of us that Thisby had done anything. Thisby, who also surprised at the action, immediately ran off. It sure ended that fight. We think Thisby is sweet on Taboo, and was defending him.

Saturday, we went to the Katsu meeting in Baltimore (they have network access, so I was allowed to go). Some very important discussions and announcements were made, but I don’t know what can be public, so I won’t say anything. I was glad I went. There was some discussion about the Opening Ceremonies Movie: it can’t be done in the form we wanted due to time and personnel constraints. I had discussion with Alex who wanted a small five minute film “What We Do” sort of thing, and he’s going to see if he can budget some software for me to edit it. At the con, I am going to do Opening Ceremonies and AMV again (if asked), but to fill out some time to earn my way, I am also going to be working the staff suite.

After that, takayla and I had sushi. The Sakura (which, I have to point this out, is pronounced SAH-koo-ra, not “Sah-KYER-ah” or “Sah-kyur-a”, it’s Japanese for “Cherry blossom”) is a favorite place of ours ever since the Hama Sushi shipped all their good chefs to their newer DC restaurant. There is a waitress there named Eunice who sometimes has a Hello Kitty-themed obi. She’s almost always there. Like, she’s the hardest working girl I have ever seen. In the years that we ate there, she made her first mistake she has made with us, ever. I wanted to order “Blue Crab” Nigiri, but I got the “Giant Clam” (mirugai) instead. Ew. I mean, I’ll try anything at least once, but giant clams are safe from me for a very long time. It was rubbery and tasteless, just like tako (octopus) which I have tried in several different forms and it still tastes like I’m eating a pencil eraser. Eunice corrected the mistake without question, although I feel guilty having wasted mirugai (which is expensive) but... blecch.

I got Lego gummies at BJ’s. They did not stack. I am very disappointed.

Sunday I had some plans to clean and do laundry, but then we lost power. So we made plans to go to Starbucks, because CR’s nebulizer requires power. Then we got our power back. Crisis averted, although we still went to Starbucks.

But, CR is not doing too well. Last week, he went to the doctor, and while they can see his asthma problems in X-rays (like windpipe restrictions) they can’t find the cause (no pneumonia so far). He’s been on steroids, and then more powerful steroids, but he hasn’t been able to stay off his nebulizer (a machine that pumps medicine vapors via face mask) of more than a few hours. And the specialist is always busy. We had to fight like mad to get him to get an “emergency” appointment on Tuesday (from Thursday); usually they have a one-month waiting list. The general prediction is that it’s a bad cold on top of a severe ragweed alert for the area. The worst has been he’s been out of school for two weeks now, and I fear shortly they may have him repeat his senior year. And then there’s the concern, “How will he deal in real life?” Posted in: asthma , cats , cr , katsucon , legos , sushi , thisby

New Orleans - Days 3 & 4 (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I did have time to summarize day #3 as we had a bit of an incident. Sadly, not the fun kind where your old Uncle Punkie ended up drunk and face down in the gutter in front of "Larry Flint's Barely Legal" (I swear, that really is the name of a strip joint here), but while checking up back home, we found out CR was not doing better.

See, he's been sick for about a week. He was getting better when we left, but sometime Saturday his health took a downturn and, well, long story short, he ended up in the emergency room. It's really hard to manage your child's health and well being from over 1100 miles away, but I would like to deeply thank our friend Gay, anyarm, and Brian for making sure he was taken care of and got his medication. He's better now, but the long of the short is that his asthma kicked his ass with a huge burst of ragweed pollen in the area coupled with a severe drop in temperature. Because this drama played out Saturday night, we did not go to Bourbon Street, which was just as well, because I ended up with some sinus headache from hell.

Both of us are better now. And, due to a side effect of the steroids, CR is no longer a vegetarian. He had a nearly 4 year run doing this, but the stress on his body due to lack of protein and options anywhere he wanted to eat outside of the house being limited, he has officially ended his vegetarian lifestyle, beating most college students, and only falling short of long term reigns behind people who grew up vegetarian and those who have no choice based on their living conditions. I am really proud of him for keeping it up this long, and to my friends who are still vegetarian, I have deep respect for your chosen struggle.

Sunday takayla and I went around the French Quarter, and then went to a spa and got massages. My massage was okay, but it wasn't spectacular. We spent some time down in that area, which seemed to be a college town area, where shops were closed on Sunday. We ended up going to CC's, which is their coffee chain here, a little like Starbucks, only not. It's like a Taco Bell Express of coffee houses, manned by the kind of people one expects from minimum wage.

We got back to the hotel, got some rest, and then spent the evening on Bourbon Street. For those not in the know, Bourbon Street is their main party central. During Mardi Gras, it's a shitty packed mess of drunken college kids, alcohol in plastic cups, puddles of vomit, and lots ands lots of young and perky titties. Off season, it's only slightly less subdued. The night we went, you could actually walk the street, and the vomit smell mixed with the smell of fryer grease to make an unpleasant melange that masked the "stripper smell" that wafted from the various establishments. Bourbon street is like 90% strip joints and booze. The other 10% is actually quite pleasant, and we spent the night listening to a group named "Steamboat Willie" play in a courtyard called "Cafe Beigniet." Admittedly, I am curious as to what I might experience at a place called "Big Daddies Bottomless/Topless," but the thought of obnoxious cover charges and skanks with skinny butts wanting me to slide some Jacksons down their crack was a bit too daunting.

After that, we took our tired asses to bed.

Monday morning, we had some business to take care of before we headed back out. We spent the last remaining hours before we had to return our car rental in the French Quarter. As I type this paragraph, we're back in the terminal at Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans, waiting for our plane. There's a HUGE HD TV with a giant windows ntoskernel GPF on the screen where flight info should be. Hahahahahaa.... I discretely took a picture with my cell phone, and sent it to my Flickr account.

The mission to New Orleans was successful, especially on such a short notice, thanks mostly to takayla who handled where we needed to be with tact and precision. This trip would not have been possible without her. Posted in: asthma , cr , new orleans , vegetarianism

Naruto and computers (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I spent ALL of Sunday with CR. It was about time. Soon I won't be able to spend any time with him. He'll be working or at school, or in college, grown up, and then married with kids where I'll live in his basement as "crazy old grandpa."

I was right about his workplace; they are unstable. In fact, they keep calling him to come in and work. Various people flake or don't show up for the kind of crisis reasons a majority of retail workers have: low-income, poorly insured, and people who raised themselves as kids who may not have picked up the best worker ethic from their upbringing. I do include myself as one of those during my retail days. When you're an an office where people make $50k on up, rarely to you lose workers to something like people passing out due to lack of eating (done that), constant child care woes (been there), and their ex-boyfriend calling the office collect from jail (had employees do that). We were supposed to spend Sunday together, and he got a call to come in because someone was hospitalized. CR at first accepted, then declined because he had worked almost 6 days straight (including one day where he promised to sub for another worker, who wasn't on the schedule that week, but he had already clocked in before he was made aware of that). So we sat around and watched Naruto, which was our original plan, while I continued to shred, file, and search documents for my e-Trade info.

I also bit the bullet and tossed away some old computer friends after salvaging a few parts I wanted. A moment of respectful silence for:

- Alice: A 486/dx100 with 32mb RAM. A Dell LE that a friend fixed for a customer of his, and the guy vanished.
- Gryphon: A K5 586/133mhz with 64mb RAM. First box I ever built from scratch from assorted used parts.
- Keiichi: A P2/400mhz with 128mb RAM. First box I ever built from scratch out of brand new parts I bought myself.

Soon, also, to be retired to a scrap heap:
- Tweedledum: A dual P2/450 with 512mb RAM. Dell 3200 server. Actually, this was used as parts to fix its twin, Tweedledee, which later was renamed Malice, and that ran punklinux.net until last year when it was replaced by Lilo (Tweedledee is in someone's office right now, as a pet project)
- AtariST 1040. It's time to let go.
- Akira: 8088 XT with 3mb RAM, I think. A Compaq Personal III "luggable" I got at an Evecon computer room freebie table many years ago. The keyboard contacts grow a corrosive skin which prevents a lot of keys from working until you open it up and wipe it clean again.
- Belldandy: a P3/700mhz box with 128mb RAM. Posted in: computers , cr , five below , naruto , retail , work

Retail (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I will always attest that retail is not something that one chooses in life, but rather, something that happens to you. I mean, retail is fine for a first job, or maybe some extra Chritmas money, but in essence, retail can suck when you have no other options. I did almost 9 years of retail. I started out at a book store. After 2 months of getting laid off at my office job, I applied on Dec 7th, 1987 to Crown Book #803 in Mclean, Virginia. "I'll hire you if you can start right now," said an overworked manager. Busiest store in the chain at the busiest time of the year. But the time it was January, I did so well, I became manager of 854, Rose Hill, Alexandria and stayed there for over a year. After a terrible bank teller job that lasted all of 3 months, I worked as assistant manager at Chesapeake Knife and Tool in Springfield Mall for over two years before I got laid off again. In the next two years, I worked at Walden Books, B. Dalton, and the Gamekeeper part time for Christmas help. It wasn't until two years went by I had another steady job as an assistant manager at Cargo Furniture. I lasted 3 years there. Got promoted to manager in just 5 months. Ran Springfield Mall until they closed it, and ran Tysons II until I left to pursue a tech career.

I have to be honest, I fucking excelled in those jobs. I was overqualified in most cases, but I think it was my do-right attitude that helped me survive those years as a victor, and not a victim. And I learned a lot of life lessons in selling myself, dealing with random people, and generally getting rewarded for being a nice guy. It changed me from a gothic pessimist to a perky goth, actually. Even when I had bad bosses, I won in the end. I had some good teachers, too.

The whole time I worked retail, I passed this knowledge onto my son. I told him about all the customers, good and bad, and how I dealt with them. Most of my readers could tell the same stories from their retail lives. But somehow, it all stuck with him. he even repeated it back to me, cutting a long series of talks to short reviews of the subject matter.

For most of the summer, he's been applying to a chain called Five Below. It's like the Dollar store, but stuff is $5 and lower instead of $1 and lower. They sell a lot of overstock toys, candy, remainders, fashion accessories, and the like. He applied in person once, but didn't show up in interview clothes. I made him get some. He applied again a few months later. I had to push him pretty hard to get him to take the job thing seriously. I don't just want him to get a job because he needs spending money, he needs college money. I mean, we're trying for scholarships and funding and all, but every bit counts. After high school, he'll have a real trade skill: vet tech. He could get a job at any vet office that needs a tech when he's done, and not a lot of kids could claim that at 17 or 18. That's not a walk-in job, that's one of those things you have to have a certificate for, like security clearance. And if he decides to be a veterinarian, that's a great start. Most of the kids that start vet school are still in the "puppies are cewt!" frame of mind and leave after a year because "puppies die sometimes of very disturbing ailments with blood, pus, and oozing worms."

Finally, he got called back. Last week, he was told they hadn't hired him yet, they had to check his references, but to report to work Tuesday. When he called Monday to find out what time, the new manager ("I haven't met him yet") said, "Come now. I am all alone in the store until close." From what CR has told me, I am already picturing a retail store run amok with lack of staff, constant shuffling, a new manager... in short, very common for this area. When I worked at Cargo Furniture, I was a manager for nearly three years, and by the time I left, I was one of the top 10 employees who had managed to stay the longest. The average was a year and a half.

But today he told me of his recent days. How suddenly money becomes less valuable and becomes more like accounting vouchers. How people change their mind AFTER you ring them up. Strange store stock redesign from higher management ("Forget what we said last week, the candy section should now go HERE!"). So far, he loves his job. It's only been three days, but he's pretty enthusiastic. Posted in: cr , crown books , retail , work

Hammer Heads. Great. I don't know who's letting them in here! (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

My son wanted you to know I was very funny tonight. We watched the Mythbusters Jaws episode, and we discussed where hammerhead sharks lived. He insisted they lived in the US, I said they were in the South Pacific. I was wrong, it seems, so I claimed what I meant was that they didn't live here because I had never seen one.

"They are in Florida, dad, see?"

"But not in Northern Virginia. So I was still right." This is how you argue with technicalities. It probably violated a Gricean Maxim or two.

"No, dad, I think they are here!" he says, thwarting my weak attempt at literal redefinition with object silliness.

"Well, that's terrible. I don't want them in my house. What with the lack of warm waters and all. They'd probably slither around on the floor, and I'd have to hit them with a broom. Out, OUT! Get out, hammerhead! I don't know who keeps letting them in here... great! Okay, count the children! I can't imagine how they got in the house. Probably those hammer-shaped holes in the walls. Orkin doesn't cover sharks, I bet you. Something about not being an insect or rodent, they'd say. It's because you keep leaving those bloody human limbs all over the floor. That's what attracts them here! I'll have to leave out traps... where can we find human babies at this hour?"

He insists this should be a skit. Posted in: cr , shark , skit

Senior Pictures (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

So, today I took CR to get his senior pictures. We got a notice his sitting was scheduled for July 11th... on July 13th. But they sent a reseating invitation for today, which we got last week, so bully for us. We had to get up early in the morning, and while there weren't many people waiting, it took a very long time.

In my school, we had one seating. You showed up to school about the same time as we did today, and I was one of a few kids there. They made me take off my shirt, put on a half-suit, they snapped my picture, and that was that. Looking at my senior picture, I was glad they airbrushed out the acne. And I took it with my glasses on because I was proud to have glasses (and I still am).

But with this setup, it was all fancy. It took up two classrooms which had a folding wall put away to make one big area. They had THREE setups. One was casual. One was formal with a tuxedo dickie. And the final one was in purple cap and gown. The people working these sets were very ... I wish I had a word for this. Maybe only I can detect it. I have to give it a word.

Patroscent: adj. The act of treating younger people like brainless children with a generalized form of distance, smarminess, and shallow sympathy. Patroscent adults often use broad keywords, exaggerated movements, and stereotypes and apply them in conversation with teenagers and children as if to suggest mere words, candy, and shiny baubles distract them like monkeys. If this were applied to a fellow adult, it would be seen as patronizing and insulting, if not slightly mentally retarded.

It's a subtle thing. Like some wide-eyed sorority bimbo saying to a 12 year old, "You like football? All right! Grr! Football, right? Yeah! Uh huh! We like football! That's right. Okay!" It's the same approach used in the 1970s to describe how drug dealers would sell you "some marijuana, man... it makes you FLY real HIGH in the SKY! Outta sight! Records! Disco! Roller skates and Farrah Fawcett!"

That came off as a little mean, but I did think words like "arrogant" and "patronizing" were a little too strong. The patroscence was strong in this room. It wasn't just delivered to the guys, but to the girls, too. There were two girls who got their photos taken while we were there, and I actually heard one of the photographers say, "You look so pretty! Like a princess! Do you parents call you princess? Or 'hip hop' princess? Am I right? Yeah, that's cool!" I'd like to note the "hip hop princess" was as suburban modest as they come. She kept looking around like, "mommy says hip hop is not Christian!"

CR's came out okay, but the gown and tux had padded shoulders. Why on EARTH would you have a large sized suit WITH padded shoulders? He looked like a 1980s David Byrne. "Same as it ever was!" The senior picture for the yearbook we decided on with the tux makes him look sort of like a classical musician with the long hair. I'll post it later.

I have not been a fan of CR's long hair, and he knows it, but I choose my battles. I have to admit, I see a lot of kids with that same hair. I had long hair for two years to give it a try, and hated it by the end. Got everywhere. I don't know how girls stand it.

Anyway, it was a good experience. Those who know Eugene would smirk when I tell you that he was there, and ONLY because CR told him last night. "When did you think it was, Eugene?" he asked. "Huh. I dunno," Eugene replied with that sheepish grin that makes him popular with the ladies. Thank God we're there for him, sometimes. CR and I laughed a little at the procedure.

"Why do they take more than one picture? Why a casual, gown, AND tux?" he asked.

"In case you get in a car wreck and die," I suggested. "So they'll have something for the yearbook where you're not formal, because that's going to remind people of what you were buried in. It can't be cap and gown, you haven't graduated if you are dead, you probably flunked every class you didn't show up in after death. 'He doesn't deserve to graduate,' they'll say, 'he didn't show up on senior skip day, and death is no excuse. Senior skip day is NOT SCHOOL SANCTIONED!' Now, if you went on a killing spree, they put your photo up with the tux, because casual would see too personal, and the school does want its colors associated with the madman who slaughtered 20 campers, two cows, and took a shot at the president. It's like Jack's picture at the end of 'The Shining.' Everyone likes to think of their killer as formal. Now, the cap and gown is after you graduate, and do something heroic. 'Local boy does good: saves baby in stroller from runaway hot dog cart and circus rhino! See! The SOL's DO work!'"

There was a lot of giggling. Posted in: cr , eugene , photos , pictures , school

CR turns 17! (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

My son, who they thought wouldn't make it past the first week of his life, is now in bonus overtime at 884 weeks. He didn't want a big party, and so we had a bunch of kids over at Shadowland (Laser-tag like place). We ate cake and pizza. In attendance besides CR and us parents were cyaneyed, the Heares, three of CR's friends (who did NOT go to Otakon; we lost more of his friends due to Otakon), mysticpaws, anyarm, and Brian.

It ended at 9, where takayla went out with mysticpaws and Brad (who arrived late) to go out drinking. It was a success, everyone got drunk. I stayed home and worked on upgrading the house's networking from 100mb to 1gb. I also arranged my SETI array fairly nicely. I thought that was the end of my evening.

But no! No, I got invited at the VERY last moment to go out with anyarm and Brian to pick up his midnight copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." I had never been to a Harry Potter event; they always scared me because creepy people dressed as Hagrid among children make me queasy. My book arrives later today via FedEx and Amazon.com, and I can wait. But it wasn't so bad. I say not "so" bad because there were severe crowding issues, even though the Borders in Fairfax is pretty big. And MAN, maybe it's just the foster parenting classes talking through my dark humor, but what an opportunity for pedophiles. Underaged kids and teens alike, wandering around in scant summer clothing, costumes, and even pajamas... unattended. But no creepy people seemed to be about, so it's all good. The majority of the attendees were teens, I'd say 13-17. Not many of them dressed in costume, it was mostly adults and little kids that did. And God(dess) bless them for it.

I wanted tot ake pictures. But I was stopped in the door by a Border's employee who said NO photos allowed, and either put away my camera, or be asked to leave. Luckily, anyarm, who could charm an Eskimo to buy an ice chest, took the camera and took some for me. THANK YOU ANYA! :)

I got an "exclusive" (meaning a pallet of 500 on a table) Harry Potter poster, which is really just the front cover, but I am not complaining.

The way they did the ordering was people stood in line for a number. Later, numbers were called out like boarding announcements at an airplane gate. "Now serving 800-850! Get in LINE!" But they never ran out of books, and after 1300, they just said anyone can line up because the store finally thinned out. It was 2:00am before we were able to get out.

I was so happy to see so many young readers. I said this to anyarm, but some... person of the vocal persuasion overheard me say, "It's so surreal to see this. I am so happy to see young kids caring this much about a fantasy book. Back in my day, you'd get beaten up if you so much as admitted you read for fun." That is true. But this kid, who was probably about 13 and gangly-awkward, started decrying how this was a sham, and that it's only because it's pop culture, and you still get beat up if some jock catches you reading Machiavelli or Voltaire. Man... stuck like glue, he did. I tried to brush him off, but anyarm did a better job and breaking him following us, even though I said it was too late at night to argue philosophy for me.

My hindsight wit says I should have mentioned he got beat up for different reasons other than his reading choice, but I am glad I didn't think of this, or worse, say it to an easily-bruised teenager's ego. I am 38, I shouldn't be trying to one up a kid. That's just pathetic.

I was thirsty and dizzy, so I got a latte iced tea from their inside coffee house... which was "Seattle's Best." I have a long history with that stupid company, and while I can honestly say that I didn't get a shirt tail in my coffee, nor spoiled whipped cream, my iced Latte wasn't very pleasant.

After that, we went home, put takayla to bed, and I ended up unable to sleep. Which is why this entry is at 6am. Posted in: birthday , cr , drinking , harry potter