Jiggyboo

Yup! After three and a half years with my trusty yet broken K750i I finally made the plunge. I bought the new Palm Pre.

I’m posting this from my new phone. Nifty.

So I was inspired to make these pictures in order to use them on a particularly chaotic forum thread. I like the results. Two flavors to choose from.

(ps. the pictures are kinda squished due to my theme making them fit, click on image to see original size)

This is of course Brick, from Anchorman. LOUD NOISES!

I’m now officially out of the hospital. I was admitted Sunday night (technically Monday morning 5/25/2009) and left Friday evening on 5/29/2009; a total of 5 days.

Here is an explanation I wrote while in the hospital on day 3. It explains things pretty well.

The gallery of pictures can be seen HERE.
I’ll be posting a video sometime in the future.

2009.05.27 @ 9:05pm

Well, it’s the close of day 3 at the hospital. I’m here due to my infected knee. I guess I need to record the events somewhere. Might as well do that now.

I took a week off of work to fly home to Utah for Andrews homecoming. I flew up to Utah on May 18th; with a ticket to fly home on May 24th.

So I get there and its really pleasant. And on Tuesday I accompanied my Mom and Dad on a bike ride. We Pedaled up the old BYU road leading up to Mick’s house, then returned when my Mom had had her fill. We turned back and got to 8800 S. At which point my Dad and I headed West on 8800 S.

Being that this was exercise, and I’m lacking exercise in my life right now, I decided to make up for the deficiency. I kept a steady pace going. I then turned up the Zeffer ranch road. My Dad had dropped back and turned around at some point, not sure when. I never saw him behind me on the Zeffer ranch road. Anyway so I push myself a bit more and decide that it would be good to stop and rest and also wait for my Dad to catch up.

Soon after stopping… actually before stopping I realized that I’d pushed myself a wee bit too far; I felt pretty darned sick. So I got off my bike and looked for a place to sit down. Unfortunately the side of the road was littered with stickers. And my attempt to sit was somewhat painful. So I opted for squatting instead.

While in this awesome position, and trying not to fall over and die of exhaustion, a nice older lady stopped in her van and asked me if I was okay. I assured her that I was a man and that this is just what men do. She asked me if I wanted some water, and I decided this is also something men do. And I got up to grab the bottle of water from her. She was on the other side of the two lane road.

It was about when I had the bottle of water in my hand that I realized I was seeing all sorts of colorful spots and stars. Knowing this to be a prelude to blacking out, I quickly engaged a plan of getting my rear on the ground asap. The plan worked pretty well. I was about half way through it when I lost consciousness. I woke up sprawled out in the stickers/grass on the side of the road. I was only out long enough not to control my landing. My knee was delegated as the main shock absorber.

I remember coming back to consciousness, and the pain. My first thought was “that hurts”. Then I rolled over on my back and looked down at my knee and thought “I scratched my knee”. I had scratched my knee.

The lady was concerned a this point, and she asked if I wanted her to load my bike in her van so she could take me home. I don’t really remember all the details. I think some of which included the bike not really fitting in her van. At some point a guy on a motorcycle stopped by. The lady was late for something so with me in his care, she left.

The guy sat with me for a few minutes, then took off to run an errand asking me to wait until he returned. He took longer than expected and I was feeling okay. So I got on my bike and started peddling home. We met a little bit further down the road. I continued home and he circled back and followed me for a bit. And then I got home.

The whole concept of blacking out after a little jaunt on the bike was somewhat embarrassing to my manhood. So I neglected mentioning it to anyone. I went and took a shower.

Exact details get a little hazy for me. But I basically continued on my merry way. But each day got progressively worse. Of course, I didn’t really notice that until about Wednesday or Thursday. By Saturday I was using my Dad’s crutches to get around. The swelling had gotten to the point where it restricted my leg movement. And the bruising made things a bit painful to do.

Sunday rolls around, my day to go home. My Mom bandaged up my leg and I went to church where Andrew gave his homecoming talk. After which I took off to the airport with my Dad.

The plane ride home was fine at first, but progressively got worse and worse. The bandage on my knee was soggy from step one (getting in the car for the airport). And the seat I had on the plane did not allow me to stretch all that well.

Bryan picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at home. At this point I was considering going to the doctor on Monday. But why put it off, after all it was hurting, so I called Bryan and he took me to Urgent Care. They were Closed (apparently they are not all that urgent), so we headed back to my place to find another Urgent Care place. Bryan suggested maybe just going to the Hospital. But I was not interested as the co-pay on that was $100 (instead of $25) – so we found another Urgent Care that was still open.

The lady at Urgent Care seemed dismissive of me. She basically said they didn’t have the necessary equipment to properly evaluate the situation. But said that it was really my choice as to waiting a few days to see a family doctor, or going to ER. But also noting the risk of he infection entering the joint/spreading/more-badness. So off we went to the Emergency Room. I also noted at this point the irony behind trying to save money and ending up actually spending more money.

I arrived at the Emergency Room. It was a lot like a zoo. A lot of strange looking animals hangin around. So I took my seat after checking in. We arrive a bit after 9:30pm, and I was seen at 12:20am. At the time I was a bit annoyed by this because it seemed everyone else was getting fast tracked in there; but I digress, I don’t know by which rules they govern the favorism system.

The doctor who saw me took a look and informed me that they’d need to keep me for a few days. I was shocked as I was really expecting a 30 minute visit (hour tops) to get some stuff to make me all better. But apparently my situation was much more grave than I thought.

So I called Bryan to let him know he had fulfilled his brotherly duties to this point and could go home as I was going to chill at the hospital.

I then started the process of registration and getting a room etc. Things become a little blurry for me 1) because I was tired 2) because I was hungry and 3) because they gave me Percocet which was somewhat powerful on an empty stomach (I find later that it does almost nothing on a full stomach).

I’ve been on an IV for a good amount of time while here. The antibiotics apparently are of the strongest kind. My leg started showing improvements almost immediately. The first day it stopped seeping/weeping. And day after day it lost its swelling etc.

As of today the wound still looks pretty ugly. But I can stretch out my leg all the way. I can also walk around without the crutches for short stuff. And the itching has been reduced to a more bearable level.

But the IV in my arm is starting to hurt.

On a side note, everyone I’ve talked to/worked with has been really cool and friendly (with maybe 1.5 exceptions). So that has made everything much more pleasant.

Later that night (on day 3) I ate dinner which had the unfortunate side effect of making me very ill to my stomach. I spent the night in painful sleep. Woke up the next morning, and vomited. The vomit was in 3 hurls, and consisted of 1) liquid 2) liquid and 3) solid. It took 3 hurls to get at the food which was causing my discomfort.

The hospitals response was to cut food and drink from me. I assume this is punishment handed down by the cook who was disappointed I didn’t like dinner. Perhaps the chef has much more power at a hospital than I ever imagined.

I thought it was ironic that when I’m sick their response is to cut off my nourishment. Regardless, I was okay with it; I figured something in their 8-12 years of schooling swayed them into starving me.

On Friday Bryan picked me up from the hospital and took me home. I then went over to Rick and Dene’s house for dinner. It was amazing. It blew my mind. Going from 5 days of nit-picking at my food (due to quality and taste). To a meal prepared in such a way that its taste and awesomeness were just…awesome.

Then last night (Friday night) I slept in my own bed. Which previous to the stay at the hospital I thought was uncomfortable. But after the hospital my bed felt like a slice of heaven covered with blankets. Seriously, the bed in the hospital killed my back.

The end.

I know its a little late in the game to be discussing new years resolutions. Mainly because the new year is now kind of a matured year. Compared to human years its already about 32 years old. Funny how I’m using units of itself to measure itself.

You may recall my 2008 New Years Resolution. That goal (eventually) being to pay off all my credit card debt. Just a little over half way through the year, mission accomplished.

Late into 2008 I decided that for 2009 I should implement the same 1-new-year-resolution rule as I had done in 2007. And as things moved along, I thought of the various things I could resolve to do. And things just moved along. No resolution being reached. For one reason or another many of the obvious choices were deemed unworthy of being “the one” resolution for 2009.

I now have a 2009 resolution. But it is not one that I concluded to do in one event. Its just the things I’ve been doing have led me to want to make it a pointed goal in this year of my life. So the official goal of 2009 for me is to save my money. That means budgeting myself, and tucking away the excess funds for a rainy day.

The more I think about it (actually just the process of writing this) the more it makes sense. The 2009 resolution is a perfect compliment to the 2008 resolution. In the one (2008) I was reducing my debts, and in the other (2009) I am increasing my … there is a financing word for this that I don’t know … net worth.

I am pleased to report that my financial savings efforts are in good health. Look for further reports down the road.

I had some fun this year taking series of pictures and stitching them together. Here are the results of my efforts.

Animation 1 – Levitating Stephen.


Animation 2 – Super excited gift opening.


Animation 3 – I don’t want to listen, I don’t want to listen, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!


Animation 4 – Loading the clay pigeon thrower.

I’ve been working for the last … who knows, 5 hours (weird how these projects suck life out of you) … on getting images ready for upload. I have them split into two basic groups, Family and Friends.

I hope my host provider doesn’t shut me down. I may have frozen the server twice while experimenting with generating thumbnails for 375 images.

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You can see the two galleries here…
Christmas 2008 (friends)
Christmas 2008 (family)

Today I was in the break room at work. And I saw some propaganda for recycling cell phones. The advertisement promoted the benefits of recycling phones. Apparently it saves water and stuff. And I like water, which means, I like recycling phones.

There was a particular statistic given on this poster that struck me as odd. It stated that the average American buys a new phone every 9-18 months. I have no idea how accurate this is (given that most statistics are simply a reflection of what the giver wants you to see and not what the whole picture would provide). But I suppose its a believable number.

I have had my Sony Ericsson K750i for 3 years now (almost to the day). That is 36 months. Many more than the estimated 9-18 month cycle of normal cell users.

Then I thought about my 2000 Mitsubishi Galant. I’ve had that car for two months shy of 5 years (purchased around 2/26/2004) now. I bought it used, so in theory did not attribute to the “waste” generated when making a new car (assuming the entirety of that blame can be placed on the original purchaser). And I’ve kept my car for a decent amount of time considering most people my age buy new cars every 2-4 years (my complete and unfounded guess).

I guess i’m saying all this so that I can pat myself on the back and proclaim how awesome I am (while noting that if the right phone had come along in the last 1-2 years and had I had the funds I would have definately purchased a new one thus eliminating my awesomeness – so in short, thank the cell phone makers for saving the planet by producing completely worthless phones for extended periods of time)

Yeah, new gallery is now up.

See it here… http://www.jiggyboo.net/california-trip-la-edition-december-2008/

…just noticed the gallery viewer is broken, it only lets you see the first page. So enjoy the first page! (hopefully i’ll fix that problem soon).

Haha, hows that for an awesome title!
Alright, so you may know that I recently took a trip to California (weekend of December 7th 2008). And in the labeling of the events, I’ve casually called it “California trip 2008″. But then i’m sitting here tonight looking at this blog here. And I saw my gallary that is titled “California Trip Presidents Day Weekend 2008“. And it was in that moment that I realized I’VE BEEN TO CALIFORNIA TWICE IN 2008!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA! *scream* (as if the “AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” wasn’t clear enough).
No biggie, i’ll just rename it somehow.

Alright, so just a few nights ago I returned from the California Roadtrip 2008. That would be December 8th 2008 at 6:00am (ish).  It was quite the adventure I must say. Obviously returning from a road trip at 6am on the a morning that you have work at 11:00am is not the most advisable thing in the world. And there is a reason it happened. Which i’ll detail at some point. Either here on the blog, or in the video that is going to be made of our journey.

Speaking of video, we captured 4 hours 11 minutes and 59 seconds. Thats enough footage for 2 overly full length films. Granted, a good portion of it will be boring or unusable, but the point is we have an awesome video (as far as ingredients are concerned) we just need to mix it up (bake it, so to speak).