JustAGuy

Microsoft released a preview video for Windows 8.  The article states that,

Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface.

To me, it doesn’t feel like a from-scratch re-write at all… it feels like they slapped Windows Phone 7, Windows Media Center, and Windows 7 altogether and called it a new OS… very much like a couple of years ago when every cell phone vendor was coding their own “skin” for the same back-ends… and like those cell phones, I would think that most serious users would end up zooming past the fancy piece to get to the meat and potatoes… maybe I’m just being cynical, but I don’t think that’s going to fly… they need to figure out if we are going full-bore into Star Trek mode, or sticking with the tried-and-true for a few more years…

Personally, I’m fine with either, just not a hybrid.

Today when I was catching up on the blog for my hosting company, I came across a post that the owner made several days ago.  Josh writes about the horrible tragedy that he and his wife experienced last year.  They lost their 11-hour-old son due to risks taken by having a home-birth.  As a father, it cripples me to think of losing my son.  Just this morning, he was down stairs jabbering away, “talking” to my wife as she made the morning coffee.  Instead of going through the living room to get to the kitchen, as I normally do, I decided to go through the dining room to surprise my little boy.  When I turned the corner, and he saw me, the look on his face melted my heart – it is unspeakably wonderful to know that this little boy loves me so much… and to think that I wouldn’t have that; that I wouldn’t see his smile and hear his voice, it makes me want to scream out loud.

I have an old friend who is very upset about the way her birth went.  She gave birth in a hospital and feels that the doctors were too willing to do an episiotomy and that the epidural has given her back problems.  She is very vocal about her feelings and is constantly posting links to information for “natural” at home births via midwifery.  I have always been a bit skeptical of this (no surprise there, I am usually skeptical until I have done my research).  The sites that I have read in favor of home births always smack of a mix between homeopathy and conspiracy theorists.  Their main focus always seems to be that home births are more natural, but why is this good?  Yes, women have given birth in their cave/hut/house/field for millions of years, but they also had infant mortality rates in the neighborhood of 50% as opposed to 0.46% (UK) 0.68% (US) in modern times via modern medicine. I am all for using the goods that nature has provided us, but only when they are actually good for us.  When we have engineered and developed better ways to perform the functions of life, let’s use them!  It is a byproduct of evolution that women give birth through their vagina, right next to excretory orifices.  There are risks associated with birth, but we can mitigate them and that mitigation begins with giving birth under the care of a properly trained, qualified, and tested medical professional in a clean, well-equipped hospital.

Josh mentions in his article that,

“It may seem harmless, but the problem with the whole culture of home birth though is its intense focus on the process of childbirth rather than the result.  I wish I could somehow get everybody laser focused on the most important, nay, the only important thing in childbirth. Getting a healthy baby out of a healthy mommy. I wish I could impart this to people without them having to go through what we’ve been through.”

Read more about people that were hurt by home birth. Read Josh’s final words on the matter at the site that he dedicated to his son.  I can only empathize with him and hold my son a little tighter.

I listen to a very wide variety of music. I have a lot of songs on my phone and while I am at work, I will usually just shuffle my whole collection. Today, a song came on that I haven’t heard in a long time: 100 Years by Five for Fighting. This song almost always creates an emotional response for me. The manifestation of that response varies slightly, but it usually falls somewhere in the neighborhood of either depression, nostalgia, or resolve.  I have a general appreciation for my life thus far; I love living.  This is the only life I have and one day it will be over.  Now, I hope that day will be far, far in the future, but there are, of course, no guarantees that will be the case.  Even so, if I reach a ripe old age, say I make it to 100, will I be any more content with having lived so long?  In some ways, I think it will all depend on whether or not I make the most of my remaining time.  I once read a wonderful article by Mike Celizic relaying his last days living.  I want to enjoy life so thoroughly that I too am able to say, “I’ve lived very well; had a grand and glorious life. I’ve done everything I’ve ever wanted to do… I’m not afraid to die. But I don’t want to die, and there’s the problem. I love life, love this glorious planet, love simple pleasures, love living.”  I think that’s just about as much as you can ask from life.

Several of my friends at work occasionally talk about their Bucket Lists (a list of things to do before you “kick the bucket”).  My first reaction to hearing about this idea was negative; I think my sentiment stems from the fact that most people got this idea from the movie, and I have a tendency to be hostile toward fads.  This isn’t always fair, but it is the truth nonetheless.  I must admit, in this instance, the hype may be well-placed.  There is something reassuring about having a set list of goals to accomplish in our relatively short time alive.  I would like to know that I accomplished as much as I possibly could, but I don’t see that I am actively participating in that idea.  Perhaps I, too, should create some type of list.  I do not know what I would put on that list, but I may try to spend some time thinking about it.  It seems worth some amount of time to invest in planning the rest of my future.

Lastly, a quote attributed to Mark Twain seems appropriate, “I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit.”

Here I sit, fixing a problem with one of my database systems at work on a Sunday afternoon.  I had high hopes for this weekend.  I was going to get my yard fertilization finally done (I’m already a few weeks late), baby proof the house (my 9.5 month-old son is getting very mobile), finish our taxes, do a little organization around the house, and spend some time relaxing and chatting with my lovely wife.  But, one of the databases had a different Sunday in mind.

So, as I am waiting for a backup to restore, I have been thinking; and one of the things that I have been meaning to do for a while now, is start back up blogging.  I don’t have a set niche or anything I want to blog about yet – family, technology, philosophy, politics, random thoughts – that’s what I’m mostly about.  So, I’m going to try this out and see where we go from here.

Introductions seem necessary.  I’m JustAGuy.  It’s been my handle for a while now.  I think it sums me up well.  I would like to think that I am exceptional, but we probably all would.  In reality, I’m just me.  I’m Just-A working, early 30s, married to a wonderful woman, father of a 9.5 month-old awesome kid, happily employed, well-adjusted (for the most part), rational, free-thinking, Guy.