morrowlife

Here’s a plant in our backyard, full of tiny purple flowers. Beautiful. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken five days ago, and part of my famous Garden, Las Vegas, and Statue series.

Note the extremely attractive turtle statue there in the background, given to us by LRN5 for our garden in Lardville. We think it looks even better here in the desert. Thanks, LRN5! When we see our turtle, we think of you.

LRN4’s health is pretty much the same as it was two days ago. That’s a good thing. We visited her doctor today. He reported that her white cell count is back up to 0.7. That’s okay, though. She got a bunch of transfusions yesterday, which might have had an effect, and cell counting is apparently an inexact science anyway. So we’re not worrying about small stuff like that anymore. We have enough big things to worry about.

Got a tiny bit of work done today. Didn’t work on my user’s manual, as I did the last couple of days. Instead, I got two of my websites set up to automatically publish their blog posts on Facebook. Took a little bit of figuring out, but now I know how to do it. It works great! I’m waiting for LRN4 to decide whether she wants her blog set up to do the same thing.

Just finished reading [amazon text=Johnny Carson&asin=0544217624], by Henry Bushkin. Bushkin was Carson’s attorney for several years. Carson was a great talent but kind of a lousy person, if Bushkin is to be believed. It was kind of depressing – I loved Johnny Carson and I was so sad to find out what a troubled person he was. The saddest part was the end – Johnny Carson died alone. After alienating everyone who ever meant anything to him and who ever cared about him, he had nobody left.

Next book up: [amazon text=Snow Crash&asin=0553380958], by Neal Stephenson. LRN2 recommended it as an interesting example of the bleak cyberpunk genre. So far, he’s right. I’m only a couple chapters into it, I’m usually not much of a fiction lover, and I’m definitely not a science fiction lover (cyberpunk appears to be fairly close to science fiction, if you ask me), but I’m enjoying it.

Next one after that: [amazon text=The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy&asin=0345453743], by Douglas Adams. Yes, it’s old, but I’ve never read it.  I did enjoy [amazon text=the movie&asin=B000A283AW], though.

Next one after that: [amazon text=The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1&asin=0520267192], by … umm … Mark Twain. Volume 2 will come after that.

Got all those books as ebooks from the library. I’m also working on a few marketing books right now, but I’ll describe them in detail at a later date. At least I have a plan.

Anyway. Nothing much else new today, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: quiche standoff!

See you tomorrow.

Here are LRN4 and LRN17 admiring LRN17’s handiwork. LRN17 is a well-known cabinet organizer we brought in from California to take care of a few things for us. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in our kitchen a few weeks ago, and part of my famous Food and Las Vegas series.

Had a pretty good day. LRN4 is still feeling well, so I’m still feeling well. No health news today. That’s a really good thing.

I pretty much got done what I set out to do today, work-wise. I guess you could say I’m back in my comfort zone. I’m writing technical documentation. After 27.5 years of writing technical documentation at Lockheed, I think we can all agree I know how to do this.

Anyway. I set up a bit of a document format and started adding content. I have about eleven pages so far. I suspect it will end up at 200-300 pages, so there’s still a long way to go. But I’m making progress! And I’m in my comfort zone. So it was a good day.

LRN4 and I have started watching a show called [amazon text=Longmire&asin=B00BFAIH68]. Our brother-in-law Ken suggested it to us. It’s about a sheriff in Wyoming who solves a murder or two a week. I hadn’t really been excited about watching it – it sounded a bit too much like an updated version of [amazon text=McCloud&asin=B00005JNHU]. But I was definitely wrong. It’s a good show. There’s suspense, intrigue, and mystery. Also wide-open spaces and beautiful, bleak landscapes. Also an old Ford Bronco. Highly recommended.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: urban cattle!
See you tomorrow.

Here’s a fairly dreary landscape, yet I find it somehow beautiful. I especially like the ray of sunlight over there on the right. Should have followed it and found the pot of gold. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in early September … umm … somewhere in the desert around here, and part of my famous Las Vegas series.

No posts yesterday. My sister-in-law came over for dinner and a movie last night, so I didn’t take the time. We enjoyed the evening, though. We saw [amazon text=Despicable Me&asin=B0042U94UQ]. It was the first time either Melanie or I had seen it. Very cute! I didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t like that at all. Recommended.

LRN4’s white cell count was up a bit yesterday to 0.7. The doctor says it’s probably a result of all the blood she received the day before, so we shouldn’t worry about it. Doesn’t matter. We worry a bit anyway. The stakes are too high. But we’re doing our very best to remain calm. Tough times.

Otherwise, she feels pretty good and is very busy with projects and just general life. Things feel pretty normal right now. Good times.

Nothing else new, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: frozen meat beatdown!

See you on Monday.

Here’s LRN2 blowing out his twentieth birthday candles. Them there are a lot of candles, LRN2. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken about two months after LRN2’s twentieth birthday (don’t ask), and part of my famous Event, Food, and Las Vegas series.

Okay, you can ask. LRN2 was still in Utah on his birthday this year. He got here about a month after that, but we didn’t get around to having some birthday cake until a few days ago. But it was worth it. Delicious! And lovingly crafted by LRN4.

Pretty nice day today. I went to LRN4’s doctor appointment with her this morning. Her white blood count is down to 0.5 today. Which is great additional progress! Numbers falling as they should. The other good news is that her red cell and platelet counts were still acceptable today. They have both gone down some, as expected, so she’ll need transfusions of both on Wednesday. We got that scheduled today.

Four more days of chemo!

Worked a little bit on learning how to do marketing today. It occurred to me this morning that it’s time to learn to sell my app. I don’t need to write another one until I’ve given this one a chance to sell. Well, I could always write another one too, but I definitely need to give this one a chance. So I actually have a few ideas. I’m doing a bit of reading on the subject, I’m directly contacting some teachers’ blogs and offering copies of the app for review, and I’m seriously considering getting involved in the Common Core blogging community. I think I could doing something like a junior Instapundit – write some original content but mainly post links to other content. The focus of the website wouldn’t be selling my app, although I would offer a download link in a sidebar. Thinking about the idea.

Any other good marketing thoughts, Loyal Readers?

LRN31 and I didn’t get to talk about her ideas for new apps on Sunday evening. She discussed it with LRN4, but I was watching a football game with my brother-in-law and had no idea they were talking about it. LRN4 gave me a briefing on the subject afterwards, though, and I think there are some possibilities there. Thinking about it.

Nothing much else new today. So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: swimming pig!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the staff at LRN4’s doctor’s office. That’s her doctor there in the front row with the big square thing over his head. The nurse who gave LRN4 her chemo this morning is the one with the pink hair. They’re very good medical people. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken this morning, and part of my famous Las Vegas and Event series.

The doctor took off his beekeeping hat for our visit. The nurse left her hair in place.

Happy Halloween! We had a nice, quiet, peaceful day, followed by an enjoyable evening with the in-laws. Everybody in their cul-de-sac gets together every Halloween and sets up tables with candy for the visiting kids and food for the resident adults (and their guests). It was fun! LRN2 came over with us, of course.

LRN4’s doctor visit went well again today. She doesn’t need any red cells or platelets, which is fantastic. Her white cell count is down slightly to 0.7. Now that the next round of chemo is underway, I expect it will drop again pretty substantially within the next few days. I’m hoping for a number extremely close to 0.0. She’s looking and feeling quite good. Her feet hurt like crazy, which makes it a bit difficult to walk around much, but she’s able to do pretty much everything else she wants to do and she has comparatively a lot of energy. Things are going pretty well right now.

I spent some time working on the Machine Learning class I’m taking remotely at Stanford. It’s free and it’s worth may more than it costs. These are the same people who brought me my cryptography class this past summer and I’m quite impressed with how they do things. Speaking of cryptography, I’m starting the second class in that series sometime in the next few weeks. Busy, busy, busy.

I think there might be some interesting mobile applications of machine learning, so I’m hopeful it will turn out to be a good investment of time. I’m convinced that pretty much all education is worthwhile, of course, and this work-related stuff ought to be doing me some good, even if it’s only to get my creative juices flowing. Or maybe to get my thinking cap on. Or something like that.

Anyway. Speaking of mobile apps, LRN31 told me tonight she has some more ideas for me. I’ll be taking her suggestions extremely seriously. There’s got to be some gold for me in iOS apps. I just need to figure out what part of the money tree to shake.

Time for bed. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: arrest-evading piglets!

See you tomorrow.