Every Passing Day

New Year's Resolution

2009-01-25T22:35:00.000-05:00

To update this blog. Sometime soon.

Another good one

2007-03-17T12:56:00.000-04:00

I've been hooked on this song since it was released last September. One of the better songs they've made in a while.

Great song, funny video

2007-03-13T23:55:00.000-04:00

The video has nothing to do with the lyrical content, it's just funny. I'm often surprised at some of the BNL's songs because they deal with relationship conflict, yet they appear to be happily married people (from what I hear). Maybe they've had some sour grapes in the past.

Country roads take me...

2007-03-04T19:53:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been two months since my last blog, so I better update (at least I'm consistent). Where to begin...

I was on internship interviews last time I blogged, which went well. I got a better feel from some places than others. Most of it was due to the interviews lasting a very short time, e.g. U of Arizona spent a total of 1.5 hours with me. What's that about? I fly all the way out there and I get 90 minutes? Maybe they had bigger fish to fry, anyways, don't care. The West Virginia trip, though, was a much better experience. I had a very good feeling about the place, and came away with a very good impression. Consequently I ranked it #1 in my rankings. Which surprisingly came fairly easy, other people have some difficulty in deciding I hear. This was my final ranking as of 2/7/07:

1. West Virginia University College of Medicine
2. University of Arizona College of Medicince
3. University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
4. Utah State Hospital

The place I was least excited about gave me the roughest time in the interview (Utah State Hospital). I was asked to interpret WAIS and MMPI protocols on the spot, as well as remember tiny details of research I did years ago. Sheesh, quite the drill. Anyways, as I said before, don't care it's all in the past. Once rankings were submitted, we had a wait of about 3 weeks, talk about sweating it out.

During the waiting period I attended the INS (International Neuropsychological Society) conference again, it was in Portland, OR this year. I had a really good time, I saw some folks from the BYU and visited with Dr. Bigler again. Tammy and Rich were there as well, it was fun hanging out with them. Mom and Dad came down from Quincy and we spent some time together. We went out to the Clacamus (sp?) Mall for the first time in like 14 years. We used to go there all the time when we vacationed in OR as kids. It has really changed, and it's pretty weird. We had a good time though eating ice cream and walking around. I bought a train whistle for Kelly and some local dude's pottery for Rachel. It was pretty cool stuff. While driving I realized I forgot how beautiful OR is, it's such a pretty place. I wouldn't mind moving back here when it's all said and done; that is, if the Mrs. doesn't mind. Well, the rest of the conference went well, I attended an ADHD seminar that was very well done by Dr. Shelley Heaton. I also went to a neuroimaging one moderated by Dr. Bigler on the importance of white matter. Us BYU kids went out to eat at this Thai restaurant "Typhoon" that was tasty, it's always nice that the BYU faculty pick up the bill on this one. On the last day I went to see my old mission companion, Brian Coleman. It had been several years, so it was fun catching up and seeing his wife and kids. Here are some pics of us looking good.

Speaking of looking good, we watched his wedding video during summer of '98. Walker and I went to it, so there was some footage of us. Holy crap I looked different, at least 25 pounds different. Talk about a motivation to loose some weight and get back into shape. Things sure are different now, anyways. Well, the trip was fun.

Now we are at the present, and it was a week ago that I was biting my fingernails to find out where we'd end up. I woke up really early on Monday morning to get the email (rumor was they arrived as early as 6:00am), and prepared myself for worse-case scenario. So here we are, all of us, in bed with my laptop ready to open the email, and....
it's West Virginia!!!

Needless to say we're excited, it's only for a year and it'll be fun. We'll, off to bed for me. I'll more on the site later.

Merry Sickmas & Happy Puke Year

2007-01-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

Well, the holidays are over, which is kind of nice. We went to Idaho to be with Rachel's family for Christmas. It was fun to be with everyone from the family; the first time in 4 years. We went bowling, played Xbox, ate out, went to the movies, played Guitar Hero (fun!), and played more Xbox. Kelly got a barn handmade by her Papa Warren, it is very cool. I'll post pics of it later. All in all it was very nice....except for the flight home. We were on Southwest about an hour and a half from St. Louis when we hit this turbulance. Kelly was asleep on my lap when she started puking, like a lot of puke, three times a lot of puke. It went all over the place, she completely soaked her jumpsuit, shirt, and shoes. It was quite a mess. Despite the seat belt sign I took her to the bathroom to clean it out of her hair and get her out of her wet clothes. The flight attendant was really nice, he gave us an old shirt of his for Kelly to wear (it was like a big dress). The rest of the way I held her on my lap, then she threw up again all over me. So, when we arrived at St. Louis, we were covered with dried vomit. What a flight... I guess a parent has to experience that at least once in their lifetime. On the flipside Abby did very well on the flight. To top it all off, Rachel and I got food poisoning on New Year's Eve night, so we were fighting for the bathroom all night long with no sleep. When the kids woke up in the morning it was a jungle. Fortunately Kelly went to a friend's house, so we got some peace. Well, it was an exciting time, but like I said, I'm glad it's over. Right now I'm sitting in the Albuquerque airport waiting to fly to Tucson for another internship interview. The New Mexico site was really cool, I liked it a lot. We'll see how the others shape up and then I'll post my impressions of them. Well, gotta jump on this plane.

She's here! and other adventures...

2006-12-02T23:50:00.000-05:00

Stats: Abigail Jayne Cobia, 7 lbs 14 ozs, 20.5" @ 10:04am on Monday 11/27/06 , apgar score 9/9

Everything went really well, Rachel did good during the C-section, she is recovering smoothly. Abigail (Abby) is a cute kid, she'll get cuter as the newborn/old man look fades. We are really happy and so excited to have her. For those that know, she looks exactly like Kelly. "Kelly Part II", or "The Return of the Kelly" we should call her. Speaking of Kelly, she is really enjoying being a big sister, and totally wants to be involved in everything to do with Abby; she is going to fit nicely into the role. It is really fun (for the moment) to have 2 kids, such a great time.

So, we had Abby, and because of the C-section we can stay at the hospital for 4 days. But, this killer storm was coming on the third day, so we're like "Let's bust out of here before it hits." On the afternoon of the third day we leave in our crappiest car, the Pimpster Mercury Topaz (Peggy had the Altima with Kelly), with baby in tow during a snow storm. It took 1 hour to drive home, but it was worth it. We got home, got all settled in to brave the freezing rain storm (it rains, then freezes instantly to whatever it touches, like being coated with a nice thick ice-glaze). Six hours later the power in our place goes completely out, same with the whole street, and eventually ~500,000 people in the St. Louis metro area. What the crap!? I guess some trees and power lines couldn't take the weight of the rain. So, we hunker down for the night in our bed, and I really mean "we" as in all of us. Rachel, Kelly, Abby, and I all snuggle under our down comforter as the temperature dropped to 15 degrees that night. So freakin' cold! No newborn should be dealing with that. So, the next morning we pack up and head for the only hotel that had vacancy and power: the Watertower Inn at SLU! This place used to be a hospital, so it's kind of weird, but it's not bad (free wireless!). We've been here for 2 days, and rumor has it we'll be here at least 2-3 more. Just great... To top it off, Rachel had to go to the ER for swelling, but we bailed after a half-hour because we would have been there all day. She's ok, some nurse just freaked on us ("You're swelling? Better go the ER!"). Bull crap, the L&D nurse said swelling was totally normal for up to 3 weeks. So, this whole ordeal has been quite the adventure. Abby has spent most of her life at a hotel, now that's something to be proud of. Well, here's some pictures of us. Enjoy. I'll keep you posted.

She looks crazy in this last pic, what a kid.

Dissertation & Internship lazy crap for crap

2006-10-27T00:24:00.000-04:00

So. I'm am knee deep in the deepest crap ever now. I am busy applying for internship while trying to develop a dissertation topic at the same time. Why are you doing this at the same time you ask? Didn't you plan ahead and do one earlier? Well, I thought I did, but then the great cheeks in the sky opened up and dumped on me.

All summer I was researching and planning on doing my dissertation project on a longitudinal autism neuroimaging study. Well, the data came from UW, and they hadn't finished providing us with all of the scans, etc, etc. Well, late September I find out that only 4 kids from the control group showed up for the follow-up scan. If you know stats, you know that's not so good (our original n was close to 25). So I was like "crap...ok, no worries, I have some back-up research I'm doing at the hospital I could use instead (examining visual memory deficits in traumatic brain injury). Well, as I finished collecting that database together I soon discovered that there were some significant gaps in the data set. "Double crap!" This I discovered Oct 11th, and here I am trying to get a proposal together so I can put it on my applications (the first one is due Nov 1st). Not good. So, basically I'm back to square one, where I was in June.

All is not lost, the Conte Center is letting me use the data set from their first grant to develop an idea. It is going to be in a schizophrenia population, and will likely involve determining the relationship between working memory, executive functioning, and cortical gray matter volume. So now I'm running around trying to meet with people who don't have time to meet with me to get approval. I don't know what I'm doing....

Where am I applying to internship you ask? (from West to East)

University of CA San Diego
U of Arizona
Primary Children's Hospital in SLC
Utah State Hospital
U of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (HSC)
Baylor College of Medicine
Texas Children's Hospital in Houston
U of Chicago
U of Illinois-Chicago
Henry Ford HSC in Detroit
West Virginia HSC
Dartmouth College of Medicine (New Hampshire)
Harvard Medical School/Mass General Hospital
Kennedy Krieger Institute @ Johns Hopkins (Maryland)
U of Florida Gainsville

Any favorites out there?

Time for some updates

2006-09-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

Here we go! There are a lot, so scroll on down.

First Days

2006-09-23T19:01:00.000-04:00

Kelly had her first day of dance class and preschool a couple of weeks ago. Here are pictures. She is really excited about being involved in both. In dance she is doing ballet and tap (if it's possible for a 3 year old to do those things). She attends school at the Zion Methodist Preschool. We thought it was important for her to be exposed to some gentiles here and there. She has great teachers and it has a strong curriculum (Coloring 102, Painting 305, and a 500 level Jungle Gym course, pretty advanced if you ask me). We think this was a good career move for Kelly and we're happy about it. St. Louis Community College here we come!

It's a Girl!

2006-09-23T18:49:00.000-04:00

We had the ultrasound done in the middle of August and found out we're having a girl. We are both pretty excited about it. Like I mentioned earlier, we wouldn't have been disappointed with a boy, but having another girl is going to be really fun. The name will be either Abigail Jane (Abby, my favorite) or Lillian Grace (Lilly, I like this one too). Sorry Jon, I know you like Lilly, but we got it first. :) Any votes on which one?

Fun in Boise

2006-09-23T18:05:00.000-04:00

Rachel and Kelly spent several weeks in Boise over the summer. Here are some pics of their excursions. I came out for almost a week, dang school is out of control, so I couldn't be gone long. Enjoy.

Water fun

Mowing the lawn with Nana Peggy

Kelly thinks these armbands are leggings, they're from an old costume of Rachel's when she was a kid.

Kelly feeding Val with Papa Warren

Nothing like fishin' in Idaho!

Biggest catch of the day

We had fish for dinner needless to say

Whoopin' it up at the Snake River Stampede!

Kelly in her cowgirl hat riding "Daisy"

Canlas visit

2006-09-23T18:00:00.000-04:00

The Canlas' came into town for the 4th of July. It was a lot of fun having them here, Kelly really enjoyed being around all of the kids. They stayed at the Union Station hotel which has a mall inside the building as well. In one part of the mall they have these trampoline devices that kids can be strapped into to jump like 20 feet in the air. Kelly saw other kids doing it and said, "It's Kelly's turn now." We were like "Ok...." Well, needless to say she got strapped in and had a blast, we couldn't believe how high she was going, it was funny. Here are some pictures.

What's really sad it that this is our last 4th of July in St. Louis. That is very weird to think about. We stopped off Highway 55 and watched the fireworks under the Arch. Really cool.

Being a Father

2006-07-25T18:07:00.000-04:00

So, I got this book for Father's Day that I have been reading. It called "Wisdom of Our Fathers" by Tim Russert. It contains various stories he has collected about people's memories of their fathers and the good things they have done or been. I really enjoy it...for two, no, three reasons. One, because it's heartwarming, funny, and full of stories about good people. Second, because it has caused me to think about the relationship I have with my father. My dad has always been a hard worker, sometimes too hard. Despite that, I always remember him being at sporting events, band performances, and other activities. He has been a great example of a priesthood holder for me, and faithfully fulfills his callings. I am proud and grateful for that. Yet, my father and I haven't had what you would call an extremely close relationship. I confide in him about some things and stuff, but I don't cry on his shoulder. Maybe that's just the way relationships are between fathers and sons. I think we silently understand and appreciate each other, but aren't opening emotional. Last of all, the book has helped remind me how to be a good father myself (not that I'm not already :), but some pointers couldn't hurt). I really want to be this great super dad - supportive, kind, loving, diligent, and all that. There are so many qualities I'd like to espouse, but I don't know if I can do it all. I guess that is part of the difficulty of parenthood, attempting to do it all. Hopefully learning from others helps to ease the burden (maybe it's because we're sharing it?). Anyway, this whole topic is especially salient due to the fact that we're having another child in November. Crazy life... We are pretty excited. We don't know what it'll be yet, but I'm hoping for a girl. If it's a boy I won't mind either (sorry future son if you read this, you really will be cool). The only problem is we're having trouble coming up with good boy names. Any suggestions?

Dr. C, Paging Dr. C...

2006-07-19T17:28:00.001-04:00

Dude, where's my car?

car = dc

Well, here it is

2006-06-18T21:39:00.000-04:00

It's official. I have my Masters degree. Look I even have a picture to prove it.

They sent this to me in the mail the other day. Kind of cool, but a little anticlimatic seeing as that I have two more years left in the program to finish the Ph.D. portion. Still fun nonetheless. The summer has been going well, not too stressful, but I have a lot coming up. Need to select a dissertation topic, and finish off some other research. I start my new job at the WashU neuroimaging lab tomorrow, that'll be fun.

We took Kelly out on her new bike yesterday. She picked it up like a champ. This was downhill of course, but she is actually doing quite well. Here is a picture of her in all her glory, she's so funny.

Father's Day was also today, and it's been great. Rachel made me huevos rancheros for breakfast, and some ribs for dinner (yum!). Couldn't have asked for more. I also got a book I've been wanting for awhile, "Wisdoms of Our Fathers" by Tim Russert. It's a collection of stories from lots of people about their experiences with their dads. It's very good and a "highly recommend" item. I also got "Batman Begins" and a sweet memory foam pillow. I totally cannot wait to try that out tonight (I sound like such an old man...). Well, that's all for now.

Time to catch up before I get more people pissed

2006-06-03T21:10:00.000-04:00

So...yeah. Thought I'd start out with a funny pic of Kelly. She does this totally funny/random thing. In the middle of dinner she'll just look up and say "Hey dad, look at my crazy eyes!" and then do this eye-crossing bit. It is so funny, I need to post our video of it. Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote, so, here we go.

The last time you read about this hero, I was in the middle of taking prelims. The next day I took my final part, which was interventions (i.e.- therapy) and ethics/professional issues. I cannot tell you what a good feeling it was to finally have those over with. I studied my butt off for 6 weeks straight, 4-7 hours a day. For finishing them Rachel threw me a "Man Party" where I had lots of friends over to play Xbox and eat buffalo wings, meatballs, chips, and other junk food. It was great, but I woke up kinda sick the next day. I'm getting too old for this kind of stuff. Well, two weeks later we got prelim results back, and I passed (of course!). It was a relief though to know for certain.

So, the semester ended and I finished my only class and, get this, I got a B+ in it. What the crap? I do not know what was up with the teacher. I went in and talked with her, and she still cannot give me an adequate reason for giving me a B+. I do not understand that crap. It was very lame because the class was very lame. I'm serious, it was like an undergrad class. I shouldn't complain because it's only my second B+ in grad school, and it may sound like whining to others. But still...I did quality work in there.

Another kind of disappointing, yet blessing in disguise, experience was in regards to obtaining new practica (clinical training positions) for the coming year. For the past three years I had planned to get a spot at St. Louis Children's Hospital (associated with WashU) in the pediatric neuropsychology department as an assistant; totally great experience with epilepsy, tumor, tbi, and other pediatric medical populations. Well, I interviewed there along with one other first year, so I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting the spot (seeing as that I'm a third year and have had more experience). Well, I got a phone call from one of the doctors I interviewed with, and she told me they decided not to extend me the offer....what the...!? Needless to say I was pretty disappointed and let down. They gave me a few reasons why I wasn't a good fit, but they never came out and completely explained it. So, here I am with no prospects of getting clinical work for the coming year, in addition to being out the money I get for working (which means more lame loans). Well, to cut out the boring details, I really think the Lord helped me out on this one; the whole "where a door closes, a window opens" bit. So, I did some digging of my own and ended up securing two spots for the coming year. One is at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital (the other kid hospital) working with the pediatric neuropsychologist there doing basically the same stuff I would have done at Children's Hospital, but with some more opportunities. In addition, I'm working at a neuroimaging lab at WashU, which I am very excited about. Neuroimaging research is getting really big in my field, and is typically hard to get at the graduate level. So, in addition to doing the research, I'm doing it at a well-respected institution, with a doctor who is well-known in the field. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I've learned some good lessons from this experience, though it wasn't a very easy road. I guess that's the kind of thing the Lord has in store for me.

Mother's Day was nice, got Rachel "Walk the Line" on DVD and and clay imprints of Kelly's hand that go in a frame with her picture. It was sweet. May ended on a good note. I'm still going to be a little bit busy this summer. I'm writing a book review with an old advisor, and going to help write an article on how tbi affects certain memory systems. Two publications isn't shabby, I need them too. Well, I can't sign off without making a formal announcement about the fact that we are going to have another baby. Holy crap is right. We're very excited because it is about time. The official date is December 8th, but Rachel is doing this one C-style, so they'll probably take it 2 weeks early. So we're talking end of November. She's 12 weeks along and still feeling pukey, I hope this ends soon, it's not fun seeing her sick. Well, this is enough writing for now. These pictures I've posted are some recent ones from April, enjoy!

I beg of you...

2006-05-24T11:20:00.000-04:00

Just post something, pictures, pictures of kelly, pictures of rachael, pictures of your hairy butt. I don't care what, just post something!

Dude, Jesus is pissed at you...

2006-05-12T13:02:00.001-04:00

For letting your blog/journal slack and not posting for over a whole month. Now get crackin...we want to know what Dr. C's next move is...

Half Way There

2006-04-10T23:26:00.000-04:00

Well, I completed the Psychopathology and Clinical Assessment portions of my preliminary examinations today (aka - prelims). Only two more sections to go - Interventions (psychotherapy) and Ethics/Professional Issues, they will be on Thursday. I felt very good about the sections today. Pathology went better than I thought, Assessment was ok. I really nailed one question on Assessment, the other was so-so. I'm going to study my butt off the next two days so I will be ready for Thursday. Bring it on! Jon-Callie and Company will be here for the 4th of July. I am very excited. Time for some Bandana's BBQ! You hear that Jon? Be prepared to immerse yourself in sauces.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

2006-03-29T18:09:00.000-05:00

Here's a recent pic of Kelly and I from last Sunday. She is getting so big, I cannot believe it. Before I know it, I'm going to have to start chasing off boys (Issac) with a shotgun. Oh, and where the crap is spring? It has been getting so freakin' cold here, I think it will warm up this week. Can't wait till baseball season, this new Busch Stadium is the bomb. Just Google "busch stadium" and you'll see what I mean. Go Cards!

Call me Master

2006-03-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

I've official earned my Masters degree. Thesis defense went fine, I still find it weird that I've accomplished this. I really don't deserve it.

Weird

2006-03-22T17:31:00.000-05:00

I defend my thesis tomorrow, and I'm weirded out. First, I'm fried because of all the prep I'm doing along with class, work, and prelims. It is a rather surreal experience. I never thought I would see this day. I have this eerie feeling that I'm going to "flunk" my defense and get kicked out of the program. More than likely not, but I'm probably actively delusional right now. Just feeling wore down. Can't wait for the semester to end.

Springtime...Love is in the air

2006-03-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

Well, it appears official. Adam L. is finally getting married. He seems pretty serious about it too. There were many times where he contemplated over a girl or two, but this seems different. I'm happy for him, he appears very excited. He is the last of my friends to get married, and he's doing it at 30. Not a bad age. The girl he's marrying seems to be the spitten image of him (but in girl form of course, and prettier too...I'm meaning personality wise they are the same). The date is late in May and I may just fly out for the ceremony (SLC Temple). Take some time to hang with Jon, the artsy-fartsty camera guy. Congrats to Adam.

March comes in like a Lion

2006-02-28T21:28:00.000-05:00

Not the best day in my life, but I am grateful for one thing. I have a really great father-in-law whom I trust very much. He's a good man and I appreciate him.

These painful, blistering, winter months.

Mr. Independent

2006-02-26T20:18:00.000-05:00

Yes Jon, you were man for the day yesterday, but don't let it get to your head.

So...my music world has received new vigor recently. I'm all about indie music! Well, at least for the next month. Maybe next month it'll be Euro-Techno-House music. But for now I have tons of listening to do. My current favorite is Kings of Convenience and Yo La Tengo. There are still many more to check out. Does this mean I am going to abandon my heritage of Instrumental Rock, Smooth Jazz, 80's hair, and Bluegrass? Of course not, I am just broadening my horizons.

It has been very interesting to see my musical tastes change over the years. Before I turned 12 I knew practically nothing about music except for hymns, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, and other AM Gold hits. The minute I got my first radio, I was hooked. I was taping everything, and I think I still have some of those tapes. That was back in the good ol' days of MC Hammer, New Kids on the Block, Vanilla Ice, and Bon Jovi (ahhhh...). As I entered high school I became a musical elitist. Nothing that was of the purest form of sonic, rhythmic, and melodic complexity ever touched my discman. I listened to a lot of instrumental rock (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, etc), classical was definitely there, and some jazz too. This was in the hey-day of grunge, and I was living in WA too. I even poo-pooed this music as well as "whiner-power-chord-hud". First semester of college, same thing, pretty elitist, even though I was exposed to a lot of stuff. During the mission....uhhh...there was no music. Even for a few years after my mission, I still was pretty selective, but I continued to delve further in my favorite genres. I guess you could consider my breadth of music narrow, but having good depth at the same time. I would have to say that in the past 5 years my musical interests have really changed. I'm much more open to good songwriting and harmonies. I'm not so stringent about technical acuity with performance and writing. I'm really into bluegrass, trip-hop, and now this indie stuff (whatever that is, just a catch all for "none-big-label" stuff I guess). I believe that my taste for this stuff has always been there, if only I was more accepting and not so hard-lined, maybe I would have jumped into it sooner. We'll see, I'll keep you posted.

Boston Tea Party, without the tea

2006-02-18T12:25:00.000-05:00

Finally I have some time to post about my adventures in Boston. The conference ran from Feb 1st to the 4th. It was great. The minute I stepped off the plane in Boston, I knew I would love it. I took the T (subway) to the hotel, and it was a fun experience. I think that's my first time on a "real" subway, none of that Metrolink stuff we have here in St. Louis. iPods were freakin' everywhere; I swear, about 60% of people had them. So I wasn't too worried about mine getting swiped. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I got what I got. They aren't all pretty like Jon's, but they're something at least.

There is some from the view of my hotel room. The Boston Public Library is beautiful, took a pic of that. I spent a lot of time with Adam L. My first night there he took me on a whirlwind tour of downtown Boston on his glorified scooter (he claims it's a motorbike). It was crazy. Here we are, two grown men, one hugging the other on this scooter at 9:00 at night in Boston zipping in and out of traffic. Adam is crazy on that thing, I thought I was going to lose a knee or elbow a couple of times. He came so close to the cars. The tour was awesome, he showed me some beautiful churchs, old meeting halls, and other sites from the Revolutionary period. We went down back alleys, on sidewalks, and drove along the wharf. It was great, I got the whole thing on videotape. Too bad I don't have a way to upload it on the site. Here are some pics of Adam and the bike.

On Thursday night we went to see The Samples, who just happened to be in town.

We went with this lady friend of Adam's, Kathrine. She's kinda young, but that has never stopped Adam. They aren't really dating, just friends now. Adam's eyes are on another at this point from what I gather. The concert was great, Sean sounded good, but I wish they would have miked his guitar louder. It was at a smaller venue, but I liked it like that.

Adam also took me to Harvard's campus (he taking classes at the divinity school there). It's a beautiful place. I swear if family wasn't so far away I would live in Boston. It is such a cool place, a lot of culture and great people, too bad it is real spendy. Overall I had a good time and would love to go back a visit. Maybe we should vacation there this year, or hopefully we'll get there on internship or post-doc.

every passing day...

2006-02-18T12:12:00.000-05:00

you don't seem to post.

Dude, c'mon over for a BBQ

2006-02-12T13:26:00.000-05:00

check my blog and you'll see...

attachment...

2006-02-06T18:05:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in my Lifespan-Development class right now getting bored about attachment theories. I think you should just love your kids, and don't be a freakin' nut. There's my theory. I will post the goods on Boston soon, after I get out of class....

boston cream pie

2006-02-03T15:02:00.001-05:00

so are you back yet from stuffing your face with lobsters and boston creme pies? did you take picts? how did it go? ....

"paging doctor C. doctor C"

oh, looks like you are busy. you better get to it so you can make the first payment on your lear jet.

anyway, tell me how it went and post some picts!!!

calm before the storm

2006-01-31T00:11:00.000-05:00

I leave for Boston in 2 days for INS (International Neuropsychological Society's annual conference). It should be fun. I'm still missing my PowerBook and it sucks. Talked with Adam L. on the phone. He's living there now and is going to show me a good time with his hippie friends. These are Mormon hippies, so I'm sure it amounts to dancing in a circle and reading poetry by candlelight. It'll be fun. Feeling better about my thesis, I got more done on it tonight. I'm ready to get my degree and be called Master.

More funny pics of Kelly

2006-01-29T13:29:00.000-05:00

She's a wild woman. Your son must meet certain requirements to date out daughter.

all right...all right....

2006-01-29T12:55:00.000-05:00

Life has been too busy for me to post on this thing. But I'll spare a couple of minute. When I let you join westonf64 I didn't know you had post privileges...(son of a...). I don't have any good pictures to share because I don't have a good camera! Anyone with a good camera they want to donate?

Well, school has been keeping me very busy. I'm stressing out about getting my thesis done more than I should. These are self-imposed deadlines I have, but I'm still getting ulcers. To top it off, the hard drive on my PowerBook went ka-put on Friday. It was acting funny a week ago, so I backed up all my data (praise the Lord), and kept doing my thing. Next thing you know, it locks up and fails to boot. Took it in to the Apple Store, and they were like "Yep, hard drive is toast, it should be fixed", so I'm like "Get 'er done." I'm sure glad I have AppleCare on that thing, free fixin'! So this leaves me relegated to typing my thesis on PCs until my PB comes back on Friday. The bummer there is I will be out of town at a conference...in Boston! (Hear that Jon? Boston!!). It'll be fun. I'll post about it when I get back.

So...my goal is to get a rough draft of my thesis to my advisor before I leave on Wednesday morning. Will I make it? We'll see... Ok, here are some of the more recent pictures I could find. Kelly sure keeps us laughing.

show me something!

2006-01-29T02:56:00.000-05:00

So, this is a blog, you need some pictures up. Otherwise it could be seen as some fictional memoir and then people will call you a million little lies. So, lets see some picts my friend.

Site-seeing

2006-01-14T01:19:00.000-05:00

There are some places that I visit on the web regularly. And here they are in no particular order. Be warned, some of these sites cater to certain types of individuals. They may not be appealing to all.

www.macrumors.com : where I get most of my news and updates regarding the newest stuff from Apple. Yeah, I'm a Mac-geek. I especially like their forums, they're well organized and a very useful tool for all things Mac.

www.redvsblue.com : for the Halo fan in you. These guys are great, they write funny scripts then act them out using the Halo game on Xbox. Some of these episode are so stinking hilarious. There are currently 71 episodes, but you should really watch them from the beginning. They rotate episodes through the archives, so Google for the rest of them. Warning! There is some language in these that is akin to typical locker-room vernacular (i.e.- swearing). So they are not for the faint of heart or orthodox Mormon

www.pbs.org : what can I say...I'm a PBS junkie. And while I'm confessing...

www.npr.org : NPR junkie too

www.jerrydouglas.com : one of the best musicians out there, not to mention best dobro player

MEDLINE : don't have a address for this because I access it through the university portal. It's where I look up many a research article

www.techbargains.com : best place to find the latest deals on equipment and such.

www.homestarrunner.com : OK, I did save the best for last. What is homestar runner you say? Well, you just have to check it out. It is sort of has a cult following. Basically it's this world of cartoon characters that exist on the Internet. Click on first time here, see the little movie short, then click on characters and learn about them. StrongBad is one of my favorites. StrongBad emails are hilarious, so are some of the toons. Give it a try. That's all for now.

Now that's a TBI...

2006-01-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

There is definitely something to say about working at a Level 1 trauma center, typically never a dull moment. For those who don't know, I work in a neuropsychology department at a local hospital. I conduct evaluations on individuals with traumatic brain injury (aka TBI) to determine the extent of cognitive dysfunction as a result of brain trauma. TBIs typically occur in several ways: motor vehicle accidents (aka MVAs or "The guy came out of nowhere officer, and I only had one glass of wine"), falling from high places (chairs, ladders, patios, horses...you know, the usual), strokes, getting blown-up, beaten, or bonked.

What is most fascinating to me is the clinical or behavioral presentation of some of these folks. Some have severe memory deficits while others experience personality changes. It all varies depending on where and how hard they got dinged. For example, I saw one nice lady a couple of days ago with a stroke who was pretty paranoid; I had to turn up the charm (not hard for a pro like me to do) in order to complete testing before she got wary and decided her lawyer needed to be there. Another gentleman I saw that same day got beaten by a baseball bat because he delivered pizza in the wrong neighborhood ("I said I ordered anchovies!"). He was experiencing what we call "protracted response latencies", or "slower than grandma, and she's dead." He had a hard time coming up with the right words to say and his ability to think quickly was gone.

I am continually amazed by the complexity and beauty of this gelatinous organ (if you will) of ours; even subtle injury can cause major difficulties. In some serious cases I've seen amazing recovery, it's almost like a miracle. So, what are some of the most interesting cases I've seen you say? Well, there was this one guy who blew himself up making a bad batch of meth in his lab, that was interesting. Then there was the drunk teenager hanging out of a car's sunroof, you can probably guess what happened next. Oh, and the guy getting zapped by 10,000 volts, and the lady playing Lone Ranger and falling off her horse. I can't forget the dude who overinflated a tractor tire that tore open his face when it exploded (that's one way to get worker's comp). And the list goes on and on... Not that head injury is anything to laugh at, but I find it fascinating at the myriad of ways we can conk our noggin.

For the rest of my life I think I'll drive a Volvo and force a helmet regiment on my children...even swimming and probably on dates.

I Heart My PowerBook

2006-01-04T17:55:00.000-05:00

Just as a sidenote, I have just downloaded this widget that allows me to blog from Dashboard in OS 10.4. So sweet...let's see if it works. Nothing runs better than an Apple.

Thesis Woes

2006-01-04T17:24:00.000-05:00

So I've been running around with my head cut off today trying to prep for the start of school. Which is actually the 17th, not the 9th like I had originally thought. Hallelujah ("Praise God" in Hebrew) for that! So now I have more time to sit down and work on this thing. I'm having the hardest time sitting down and cranking it out. I love the material and am learning tons, but I feel the need to move on and do other things. That's been a real struggle for me my whole life, it is very hard for me to focus on something for very long. I get easily distracted by other tempting projects or subjects to investigate. I wish this thing could write itself. I should be writing it right now instead of this blog. Oh well, for posterity's sake.

My lap is hot...from my laptop

2006-01-04T00:28:00.000-05:00

Well, it was only a matter of time before I did this. Funny, I kept a journal every day of my life for 6 years (16-22), then just stopped for some reason (I blame women). Maybe now I can find some justification in blogging...a new journal. I've always been much better at writing than speaking (my speech is a mess), so now I can finally sound sophisticated and witty without anyone being the wiser.

It's late and I am not keeping my New Year's resolution for improving sleeping habits (Rachel chastised me for as much). I am not sure what this next year will hold, only weariness for sure. School is not letting up, that's for certain. Gotta set up a doctor's appointment soon, I'm not getting any younger (but staying handsome for sure), and I definitely want to be part of that aging gracefully group. Ok...the truth is I'm getting fat and my joints are creaking. I want to make sure I have a few good days left in me.

I don't know how often I'm going to do this, so no one better get their hopes up (who am I talking to anyways?).