Yesterday my daughter went to the doctor because she was running a rather high fever and was feeling generally unwell. Wrapped in a blanket most the day, she even got so far as to just lay down and cry from the pain in her throat so she had to be seen, in my opinion.
My wife set the appointment for the afternoon and took her in. A little while after the appointment I got the message that my daughter had been diagnosed with H1N1.
I was a little taken aback by this news at first. The thought that “swine flu” had made it into my family was a little unnerving to say the least. But as I thought about it a little more I realized that H1N1, as nasty as it has been portrayed in the media, is indeed just a flu. Yes, I said that. Just a flu.
Every year people get the flu. Lots and lots of people die every year from it. Yet for some reason our nation, in fact the world, has been duped into thinking that the swine flu is some megakiller virus that will consume you, your animals and everything you love in mere seconds if you don’t crawl under a rug and hide from it. I refuse to believe that.
And I refuse to believe that my daughter has that flu. In reading through the symptoms of swine flu, she does exhibit some of them. But for a doctor to look at my daughter for a few minutes and say she has H1N1 without so much as a throat culture or blood test is just silly.
Still, I will make sure my daughter takes her medication. But I am not buying into the hysteria surrounding swine flu. It is, after all, just a flu. It’s not like some cloaked pig adorned in a black grim reaper outfit will be knocking on our door anytime soon. And if he does, he better be prepared. This family loves bacon, blackened or otherwise.
The other day, while doing some routine cleanup on my machine at work, I ran into a bit of a snag when trying to uninstall Windows Live Messenger. Unlike most common software packages that include an uninstall utility, Windows Live Messenger, in a move typical of the Redmond Beast known commonly as Microsoft, does not.
After searching for a tutorial on how to remove this piece of crap software from my machine I decided to just try something.
Quick sidebar: If you are ever at the point of not trying something yourself in favor of asking someone how to do what you need to do, slap yourself three times, repeat “I am not a n00b” to yourself three times, send me $10 then try something. Seriously, just try something.
What I did was launch my Add/Remove Programs utility from the control panel (Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs) then, after much searching, cursing and an increased disposition to hate Microsoft, finding, I decided to click on the Windows Live Essentials package and click the Change/Remove button.
From there I was presented a dialog box that gave me two options: Uninstall and Repair. I selected Uninstall and was then taken to a menu of currently installed Windows Live software. That list, for me, included one application: Messenger. I checked the box next to messenger and started the uninstall process (which I cannot show you because I was so excited to actually get this off my computer that I forgot to take screenshots… and no, I am not reinstalling it just so I can uninstall it again to get screenshots).
Anyway, after a few minutes of working and thinking and more working, Windows reported to me that the application had been successfully uninstalled. Which is way better than I can say for the instructions I found at these two links:
So if you are tired of having Messenger on your system this is the fastest and most efficient way of getting it off of there. Enjoy!
Yesterday was opening day for the Golden State Warriors basketball team. The NBA season officially opened Tuesday, October 27, 2009 and for the first time ever, it became clear to me that there is a relatively short period of time in which all four major sports are in season.
Football starts the first weekend in September. Basketball, as I just stated, starts at the end of October. The Baseball regular season ended the first week of October and the Hockey season started at the very beginning of October. That means that for the month of October and November you have the ability to catch a game in each of the four major sports within days of each other. When did this happen?
I swear I remember a time when sports had their own part of the year that they played in. I always remember Football being a fall sport, basketball (and hockey) being a winter sport and baseball being a spring/summer sport. Four seasons, four sports, one in each season.
But now it seems that all four sports seasons have to coincide right here, right now, during the month of October. Dude, I think this is a conspiracy.
Last night, while the family and I settled in to watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, I decided to try to redeem some much needed work time and code while we watched it. So I took my position on the couch, opened my laptop and began to work. A few seconds later I heard “If you’re going to work, can you sit in the chair instead of on the couch?”.
The chair is not at all in front of the TV. In fact, it is to the side of the TV, so watching TV from the chair is not ever going to happen without serious neck pain afterward. So I asked “Is that my punishment for working during the movie?”. To which I was responded to with “No, I just don’t want you to take up space on the couch that the kids who are actually watching the movie could use.”. That made senses to me, since our couches are kinda small and in order for all seven us to sit on them we almost invariably have to have a child or two on either my lap or my wife’s lap. So I switched seats.
As I worked from my chair of solitude I was able to see my family sitting on our couches, all comfy and not squished, laughing at the movie and generally enjoying themselves. It was a scene to behold, momma with all her kids at her side, the glow of the TV reflecting off their faces, the small smiles every now and again creeping from their faces. There was one scene in particular, which I cannot recall since I could not see the TV, that really touched me in which all five of the kids and my wife chuckled and let out a corporate “Awwwww”. It was at that moment that I realized how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family to work as hard as I do for.
Yes, I would have loved to have been able to sit with them and enjoy the movie. Times being what they are, I had to work last night. For them. Because they are worth it, they deserve it and I love them enough to work for them. So my time on my little punishment of a chair was well spent, in my opinion, if even for a short time. And I’d do it again if necessary, though I hope the necessity of that will not show itself. Still, I work because I love them and want the best for them.
Perhaps next time I will be able to spend that time on the couches with my family.
All I can say is thank God Geocities is shutting down today. I wouldn’t have known that save for a link sent to me by my coworker. The link was to xkcd.com, one our favorite sites, which today featured a tribute to Geocities websites of old.
In case you missed it, here is the XKCD homepage today:
Anyone else as glad as me that most of those websites (*cough* MySpace *cough*) are now off the internet?
Our family got back to church today for the first time in a long time. Part of me missed the community of the church. Another part of me was just plain pissed off.
What I believe about Christianity
I believe the bible. I believe it is the divinely inspired word of God. I believe the God of the Bible is my God, my heavenly Father, and that His son Jesus is the Christ, that He was sent to Earth to redeem us from sin and to allow us to fellowship with the Father in heaven after our death.
I believe that as Christians we have been given an enormous responsibility to love and serve our Lord, love and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ and to profess the gospel of our Lord Jesus to the entire world.
I believe there are rules that we have to live by and there are commands that we must obey. And I believe, at this moment, that most Christians are screwing this up.
The commandments
Pretty much everyone in any advanced nation has heard the ten commandments. Some people may have had to memorize them at one point. Some people may even know them off the top of their head.
Every Christian should know these commandments, or at the very least, know where to find them. These instructions form the basis for any Christian’s religious beliefs. But regardless of your religious background, there is a pretty good chance you have run across this list before:
- Have no other gods before God the Father.
- Do not make for yourself any idol in any form.
- Do not take the name of your Lord God in vain.
- Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
- Honor your mother and your father.
- Do not kill.
- Do not commit adultery.
- Do not steal.
- Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- Do not covet that which belongs to your neighbor.
For Christians what is required of us does not stop at these ten commandments. Jesus Himself gave us two more (Matt 22):
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
So in addition to what we were told by God the Father, we also have two more, very important, instructions given to us by our Savior Jesus. And while this post is not at all the post where I discuss love and the type of love God has called us to, it is important to understand that after loving God with everything you have, your next great instruction is to love your neighbor even as you love yourself.
The great commission
After Christ was resurrected He revealed himself to several people. At the end of the book of Mark, He again gave us a command that is often referred to as the Great Commission (Mark 16:15):
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Now the stage is set for how Christians are really supposed to live. First of all, we are to love our God with all we have. Then we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Then we are to go into all the world and tell everyone about the good new of the Lord Jesus. Yes, the entire world.
Christians, where you at?
One of the things that has bothered me the last few years within the Christian church is how complacent the church seems to be. I have not ever received a call from my pastor just to check on me. Now in his defense, our church is very large, so it is not necessarily practical for him to call everyone in his church. Still, there are a lot of staff members that could reach out to the congregation, yet it seems like they all wait for the member to contact them.
I have also noticed what seems like a complete lack of outreach in our church. It appears that no one wants to go out and reach out to “the lost”. Seriously, it looks like throughout the Christian church that the prevalent attitude is “if you are hurting, if you’re in need, come to the house of the Lord and be taken care of”. That is so not how Christ did things.
It also seems like we are very quick to help people in other areas, other countries, other situations while at the same time neglecting those people that are closest to us. This can be your immediate family, your extended family or even your next door neighbor. Regardless, why is it that some Christians are totally fine with traveling to Africa or India or South America to minister while passing by their neighbor’s house without ever asking how they are doing? Why does it seem like Christians just don’t care about anyone?
If we are supposed to be Christ-like it would make sense to me that there would be some localized motion in the church. Christ took the good news to the masses, but he didn’t pass by His own folks. He talked to everyone, not with judgment or anger or condemnation, but with conviction and love. He didn’t wait for people to come to Him – though they did come to Him – but rather went out and sought out those that He could love into the kingdom. And he didn’t pass people by.
I am hungry to see this type of ministry presented in the Christian church. And I am more than a little hesitant to step out to do this on my own, seeing as I am pretty sour at the church right now and I am afraid I would only minister anger and discontentment if I were to reach out to anyone right now.
Still, in this midst of what I see as total confusion surrounding the call on Christians, my prayer is that someday the true commission of Christ to His church will be fulfilled, that Christians will start to care about everyone, not just the sick children in Africa or the persecuted church in China or the polytheists in India. I pray that someday a Christian in my church, or even in my neighborhood, would listen to what was commanded him and actually step out, in love, and pursue his neighbor, ask me how I’m doing or if he can pray for me and actually love me, for who I am, how I am and where I am.
You ever have a moment where something you did weeks, months or perhaps even years ago rears itself up and manifests itself in your life again? I had that experience this morning.
This morning I discovered that some of the things that I have written in this blog have offended some very specific, very special people in my life. I won’t go into detail on those people or the subject matter in question; however, I will say that I am truly sorry for the grief, anguish and betrayal I have caused you by writing about those specific experiences in my life.
While I don’t think it is ever the intent of anyone to purposefully cause pain to someone (unless that anyone is mean and truly wants to hurt the someone), nevertheless, people do get hurt. And while I will not take responsibility for anyone’s feelings, I will certainly take responsibility for my actions.
To that end, I apologize for the latitude I have taken in some of the writings I have posted here. And though I cannot promise to not post from my heart again, I can promise that I will be more cognizant of the potential harm it could cause to those that read this blog.
All three of you. 
I was looking back over my blog activity the other day and realized that I have not produced nearly as much content as I have in the past. For a while I was shooting for a post a day and I was pretty successful at it. But things happen, wake-up calls are answered, life beckons, yadda yadda… and the next thing you know it has been months since I have posted anything.
Generally this wouldn’t mean too much. But for me it is starting to get to me. I have used my blog as my soap box, my psychiatrist, my drinking buddy, my locker room. It has been a way for me to get things off my chest, shout to the world and broadcast my experience, my personality, my rants, my wisdom and sometimes my ignorance 
. It has also been a way that some of my friends and family have used to keep up with me and my life. Which means that if I don’t talk to them on a regular basis then they might have no idea what is going on with me.
Given the nature of things in the Gonzalez atmosphere as of late, and specifically my world (because we all know how self-centered, egotistical and wrapped up in myself I am) I’ve decided to put more time and effort into my blog. I think I need the therapeutic value of it more than anything, but I also would love for my friends and family to be able to know what is happening with yours truly when they want to know.
So if I haven’t lost you as a reader because of my lack of involvement in this thing I am glad you stuck around. I hope with some upcoming changes I am making that keeping up with me will be even easier for you and will prompt even more output from me.
A few weeks ago I went to the doctor for a check up. This was brought on by a sudden and disconcerting series of very severe headaches that ultimately ended up with me being diagnosed with a migraine.
Shortly after suffering these headaches, as I was removing one of my socks, I realized that the outer portion of my left foot was numb. The numbness radiated from my heel to my toes along the entire outer part of my left foot. This was a real concern for me since I am all to familiar with the effects of diabetes and the history of diabetes in my family. So I made an appointment to be seen for this condition. As part of that appointment, which ended up being a pinched nerve in my ankle, I was asked to take a blood test. And the results were astonishing.
As has been my history all of the results of the blood test were normal. With the exception of one, that is. That one exception was my blood sugar. My blood sugar (glucose, fasting) level this time was 142. It is supposed to be under 100. And that concerned me. So I decided that I needed to make a change.
I’m not one for making long, gradual changes that take forever and end up not making any difference. So I pretty much removed all raw sugars and sweets from my diet. I also began to become very cognizant of the amount of sugar in many of the foods I eat and have tried to stay away from those or eat them only in moderation and in small amounts. To that end, some of the things I have done are:
- Stopped putting sugar in my coffee
- Stopped drinking coke and pepsi (I still drink diet coke)
- Stopped eating candies (unless they are sugar free)
- Stopped eating pastries and other baked goodies
- Started eating a lot more unsweetened whole grain cereals
- Minimized consumption of pastas, breads and white rice
- Increased my water intake dramatically
There are some other things that I am working on right now, too, as I try to learn the best ways to minimize my sugars. I am also limiting my caffeine and sodium intake as well because, as I found out in my most recent exam, my blood pressure is a little high, too. My doctor is not totally worried about it. He says that most of what I am going through could easily be controlled with proper eating and exercise (which is something else I have started doing a little more).
So for now the sweet life, for me, is on hold in favor of the unsweet life. I have seen the effects of diabetes on several of my family members in the past and I have to say, since I have control over it, I am going to exercise that control. I refuse to end up like some of my family members. And I refuse to give my kids the horrible experience of seeing me waste away to a disease that I not only can, but will, control.
Yesterday on my way to work I was unavoidably made tardy by the wonderful folks at BART. Apparently they had a hard time keeping their own schedule yesterday. This resulted in the train I take to Oakland not meeting up with the train I take from Oakland to get to Concord. The best part of it is though that we actually did meet our train. But were not able to keep up with it through the three transfer stations.
This is how it transpired… as we approached 12th street the operator began his message about transfers and the what not. Then he said “Pittsburg/Bay Point riders please stay on this train and transfer at MacArthur”. Seemed reasonable enough at the time, but as we began to leave the station the transfer train showed up. So our train stopped and the operator broadcast “Um, I don’t know what they are telling me.” Then the transfer train, which usually waits a little while, closed its doors and left. So we did the same thing.
At 19th street, the second of the transfer stations on my trip, as we arrived, the transfer train was taking off. Still not the end of the world I thought, since there is always MacArthur. But…
When we got to MacArthur there was no transfer train. It had just left. And now I had to wait 15 minutes for the next train.
So BART, is there just the tiniest chance that somewhere in your grand grid of schedules and the what not that something went mildly wrong today? Just asking, seeing as you cost me a lot more than just 15 minutes.
