Omnium-gatherum
Matt Hanson’s Brain Archive
May 29, 2005
May 27, 2005
Home for the weekend
Maizy did have to stay another night in the hospital and came home today. She’s still congested and we have to continue giving her albuterol with the nebulizer and hopefully it will clear up and we won’t have to deal with it again. We’re seeing a pulmonary specialist in the next couple weeks regardless.
The old food pyramid is very unhealthy.
As I was sitting in the hosptial yesterday looking at the food service menu I turned it over and much to my surprise I saw the outdated and incorrect food pyramid. I actually wasn’t all that surprised since every hospital I’ve been in has this same pyramid on the food menu, so does bread packaging since the old pyramid favored eating lots of bread, even the deadly white bread. Even the USDA has updated the food pyramid and you can see a nice illustration here. From making no distinction between potatos and other vegetables, or white bread and whole grains, or even recognizing the value of some oils the old food pyramid is plain wrong and wasn’t even based on scientific evidence originally! The new pyramid has it’s problems to but at least they tossed out the old one recognizing it was mostly an ad for various segments of the food industry. Oh wait, not everyone has abandoned it, our hospitals, where people go to get better, still cling to it as a fundamental basis for nutrition.
May 25, 2005
Maizy in the Hospital
Maizy was admitted to the hospital today. It’s been one cold after another this winter and a case of RSV a few months ago. She just hasn’t been able to get rid of the congestion and is breathing pretty fast. Hopefully she’ll just be in overnight as they watch her and give her medicine through a nebulizer. She’s also on a 5 day cycle of antibiotics which should reduce inflammation in the lungs.
Kim’s staying with her tonight while I’m home with Kaley. It reminds me of when Kaley was born and in the hospital for 7 weeks. That was awful, going back and forth and watching our baby hooked up to sensors. But we made it through nearly 2 months and I’m not quite sure how we managed.
May 23, 2005
Dogville
Dogville is perhaps the most unique film I have ever seen. It has no traditional set or scenery taking place basically on a large stage with tape on the floor indicating buildings and a minimal number of props (furniture, the meeting house bell tower, cars). The plot, while starting off ordinary and even a little slow starts to get more compelling and strange as the film progresses.
It is a film about human depravity, forgiveness, and misguided good intentions. It is about the misconception that good can be achieved through violence.
Rain
It is a wet, depressing day. Hoping for sun this week. The yard needs work and I’d like to ride to work the rest of the week. Maizy is sick with a cold and two ear infections. Despite this she remains a happy baby and for that we are lucky. She’s starting to roll over and I think she’ll be getting her first tooth soon.
The new design for the site is coming along well. It has not yet gone live (nor has this blog) but I’m adding entries regardless and trying to get the old content moved over. Once that is done I have a huge backlog of digital pictures to put up, probably at least 1000, on top of the stacks of film and slides to be scanned in. This summer I hope to scan in my dad’s old slides, and the black & white wedding pictures from the Tibbetts-Jones and Crouse-Bower weddings.
May 21, 2005
House of Flying Daggers
House of Flying Daggers is a good epic Martial Arts Film by Yimou Zhang, the man who directed Hero.
Zhang is fond of complicated story lines, Hero was full of alternate story lines that jumped around in time. Flying Daggers also has a complex plotline with twists and turns. House of Flying Daggers is a story of love and betrayal, with the amazing cinematography and fight choreography that was characteristic of Hero. I liked the Hero storyline a lot more, as Flying Daggers started off well but was too convoluted and a bit silly at the end. However if you liked Hero for the action and scenery you will enjoy Flying Daggers equally well.
May 18, 2005
Get on yer Bikes !
I rolled out of bed to see an overcast sky and rain likely. Despite my hesitance I packed up my bag and biked into work. May is National Bike Month with Friday, May 20th being Bike to Work Day. Here on the NH seacoast we have commuter breakfasts in several of the towns and many communities across the country have similar events. Do you live less then 5 miles from where you work? Reduce pollution, get some exercise, and ride to work!
May 17, 2005
Mr. Ugly
“Mr. Ugly” lives on the streets of Chicago
Whilst in Chicago last week visiting friends we took a walk down to the famous fountain. As we were climbing the steps to enter the park we were approached by a man who, being very cordial and with a proper british accent, introduced himself as Mr. Ugly and could we just buy him a hotdog, all the while referring to us as Lords and Ladies. We passed on this and he wished us a very good day, bowed and smiled and went on his way.
I watched Mr. Ugly as we hung around the fountain while he talked with a half dozen other groups of people with no such luck. He was such an interesting character I just had to go talk with him and really wanted to buy this man a hot dog. After several minutes and a good discussion we parted ways, me down $5, but up a picture of the fine man in front of the famous Chicago fountain. Hailing original from Tanzania all he wanted was $1 for each of his children, because surely a father cared more for his own children then a hot dog for himself. How could I resist his charm?
May 16, 2005
Omnium-gatherum
Blogs have become quite popular in the last few years and when I decided to redesign my site I looked into CMS software as an alternative to writing everything myself in html and php. I came across Wordpress and it had many desirable features and quite customizable.
So I come now into the blogging world, boring or entertaining anyone who cares to read. Sometimes I feel like I need to express myself somehow, explain thoughts on some recent news or political event, comment on a movie I recently saw, or jot down events in my kids lives. The image galleries will of course remain central to the website with new additions being described and linked in blog entries and overall will be a more flexible website that is easier to maintain. I look forward to utilizing my new site and I hope you will all visit from time to time.
My old site is currently still active though I’m not sure how long it will be before the links get broken somehow. Over the next few months I will be converting and updating all the old content to the new site.
