FROGLEGS

A brief roundup of the podcasts that I’ve been listening to lately:

Stephen Fry’s Podgrams:  I first saw Stephen Fry when my Mom rented the movie Peter’s Friends about 15 years ago.  I have sense realised that he is not, in fact, a dramatic actor, but rather a comedic genius.  And he’s freaking brilliant.

This American Life:  If you don’t know what this is, you need it.  Desperately.  By far the best podcast/radio show of my generation.  No discussion.

Radiolab: Science meets narrative meets sound engineering overload.  Love it.

If I had the equipment and the time, I’d want to dedicate myself part-time to a podcast about expat living, culture clash/shock and language acquisition.  It’d be great.

Wordpress just released an app for the iPhone.

Posting to the ol’ blog just got that much easier!

So far, posting photos directly from iPhone does not work.  Probably part of a more generalised problem with my installation of Wordpress at the moment.

So months go by and I don’t write anything.  I rarely feel motivation, if any, to write anything on here.  I think part of that is because part of our family income is support-based, I feel the need to be sensitive to those who give donations so that we can free up part of our time for more altruistic work.  I want to give an account of what we do, how we are getting on with TribUrbana and generally show that I’m being responsible with my time so that they see their money is well spent.  Totally justified.  But I’m starting to think that is exclusively what our newsletter is for.  So if that is what you are looking for, subscribe.

I think I need blogging to be more about me being me.  Spending time talking about what I’m learning, things that I enjoy and lifes experiences are things that motivate me.  I might still sprinkle in news here and there, but I will probably do so from an extremely subjective (and hopefully interesting to more people than just myself!) slant as I did with Robert’s birth.  Blogging, for me, is more about self-expression than it is about giving news updates.

And if my friend Juanan doesn’t get off my back, I might also start posting in Spanish occasionally.  So watch out.

Hopefully, I’ll start posting here a bit more and on a regular basis.  No promises though.

I remember when staying up all night used to be the coolest thing I could do. It was a challenge to prove myself. Only the coolest people had the quasi-cosmic ability to maintain consciousness for 24 hours straight. If I could make it until the morning light, I was one of the cool crowd. YMCA lockin’s are structured around this assumption. Teeny bopper movies without end center around this ideal. Even when we were in Ibiza a few years ago, clubbing all night seemed such a worthy challenge.

Little did I know that when Heather went into labor at 8 o’clock in the evening on May 29th, reality would get its sweet revenge for all the time I had spent idolatrizing nocturnal rebellion.

(more…)

We aren’t sure exactly when, but it should be soon. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a week. Soon, but not soon enough for Heather!

Baby David got out of the hospital over a week ago. Although this is good news, it is also very difficult. He was not discharged because there was necessarily an improvement in his condition. The doctor treating him thought that his situation was not necesarrily going to improve in the hospital because what he needs more than anything else for his brain to begin to repair itself is stimulation. And that is definitely something that he won’t get in an infant ICU.

At the moment, Jesús & Rachel have undertaken the endeavour to care for him at home. It is very difficult and often discouraging. Probably the most difficult part of David’s current condition is that his body is generating an excess of mucus which, at times, obstructs his air path. Because he currently does not have the reflex to either cough or swallow, Jesús & Rachel have to aspirate his throat and (as far as they dare) his bronchial passages. As a parent, I can tell you that this sounds terrifying. David has a couple of different monitors that alert his parents to the fact that he is lacking oxygen. When the alarms go off, they have to aspirate David right away. This happens at least once a day (or at night).

Please pray for them today.