A Day for Hearts

Posted on January 31, 2008 by Mike

For those of you who dislike Valentine’s Day, here’s something else to focus on Feb 14th of every year.

A Day for Hearts: Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day is on February 14th of every year.

Valentines Day is so much more than corny love cards, roses and chocolates 😉 Please take 2 minutes to educate yourself about something very few know about.

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Weekâ„¢ (February 7-14, 2008)

Congenital Heart Defects (CHD)

  • #1 Birth Defect
  • #1 Cause of death under the age of 1
  • 1 out of every 100 babies are born with a CHD
  • Over 35 different types
  • 12 Canadians are born each day with a congenital heart defect
  • 180,000 The estimated number of Canadian adults and children with CHD
  • Receives the least amount of funding and awareness than many many diseases combined.
  • Sometimes during early pregnancy, a baby’s heart fails to form properly, resulting in structural abnormalities known as Congenital Heart Defects. Although some defects are genetic, in many cases the cause is unknown.

    Although some babies will be diagnosed at birth, sometimes the diagnosis is not made until days, weeks, months, or even years after. In some cases, CHDs are not detected until adolescence or adulthood.

    Some CHDs may not require treatment other than periodic visits to a Pediatric Cardiologist. Others can be treated with medications or repaired with surgery and/or procedures. Complex defects may require several surgeries.

    Many cases of sudden cardiac death in young athletes are caused by undiagnosed CHDs and Childhood Onset Heart Disease.

    It is estimated that more adults than children are living with congenital heart disease, and this population is expected to grow by 5% each year. Yet, many adults with CHD are not receiving adequate ongoing care from trained specialists.

    Most CHD’s are never really “cured” (this message needs to be emphasized) and are very different from typical heart disease.

    Now you know…and I thank you for taking the time.

    Please consider inviting others to the group to help raise awareness or by making a donation directly to

    SickKids CARDIOLOGY
    SickKids Foundation
    525 University Avenue, 14th Floor
    Toronto, Ontario M5G 2L3
    1-800-661-1083

    For those of you on FaceBook, here’s the group link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8715043707&ref=mf

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    Geeking Part 2

    Posted on January 30, 2008 by Mike

    Actually, more like part 1 😉

    Here’s the first part of the Iron Man adventure:
    Link: (http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1386356735/bctid1386375828)

    Here’s the second part:
    Link: (http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370863048/bctid1373327706)

    Enjoy! 🙂

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    Geeking

    Posted on January 29, 2008 by Mike

    Wow. *This* is pretty cool and very well done! Heck, it’s better than some of the movies! Hulk, Iron Man, and Spider-Man:

    If you can’t see the image, here’s the link:
    http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1352538192/bctid1381640644

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    Weighty Matters.

    Posted on January 25, 2008 by Mike

    I’ve been wanting to write about something for over a week now. A… confession of sorts. I’ve been holding off on doing it simply because I’ve been wanting to concentrate on the positive and let the negatives, or the fears, just fade into the background. However, not posting it brings up other things. My children’s understanding as an example. So, for the sake of coming clean, here is the story.

    As with anyone who’s lived through trauma in their life will tell you, there are a lot of groups available with a similar trauma. Joining them allows us to speak/ share our stories with those of like-experiences. This “truer” understanding of what one is going through does many things, not the least of which is help the healing process along.

    Of course, sometimes things happen within these groups or communities that has a deep impact.

    You all know that we went through hell during Charlize’s surgery and recovery. It took a while but we did manage to find a helpful group within a Canadian Heart Disease communities. Many are those who’ve had children undergo open heart surgery and many are those who are preparing to do so. One little girl, Amelia (strangely enough also the name of a very important character in the novel I started writing last November), had gone through the surgery and required a follow-up. She passed away on the 17th, never recovering from the 2nd operation. Even now, writing these words, stirs tears. A site in her memory had been put together with tons of pictures and encouragement during the surgery which became devastating after the news.

    As I sat there looking through those photographs of this six-month baby girl and her family and big sister enjoying their first and only Christmas together, I could not help imagining my six-month baby girl being taken from me. Of course it’s not what we should be thinking of but how can you help it? The pictures, smiles, surgeries, were so similar it couldn’t be helped.

    Unable to contain my tears, through the deep sadness, I realized something. The fear of Charlize needing another surgery and of losing her ran much, much deeper than I had ever expected. Yes, the thoughts have gone through our heads for months already, but I believed I was handling it well (don’t give it “weight”, it’s not going to happen).

    So there it is. My shock at the intensity of my fear came as a frightening surprise. It took me two days before I was able to rock her to sleep without blubbering. This episode has done something else to me. As much as I changed, intrinsically, how I dealt with the world around me after her surgery, my appreciation of every moment came back to me full forced after the weekend. I stopped taking things for granted a long time ago. But now, I’m so much more keenly aware and appreciative of everything around me – especially those who are the most important to me.

    *phew* This was a much harder post to write than I thought it was going to be…

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    Shit.

    Posted on January 22, 2008 by Mike

    I can’t believe Heath Ledger passed away… damn!

    10 Things I Hate About You has been one of my favorite films since it came out in 1999 and I watched with interest as Heath moved onto other roles. I’ve been especially curious to see how he does as The Joker in the upcoming Batman movie… and now this?

    Possibly ODed on Sleeping Pills? Shit. How many times does that have to happen? Scary quote taken from the Sydney Morning Herald: “He told The New York Times in a November interview that he “stressed out a little too much” during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy”.

    “Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” Ledger told the Times.

    “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.”

    It’s almost like The Joker, fictional cartoon character, actually claimed a real human life…

    28 years old… this is just so damn sad…

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    Friday Thoughts

    Posted on January 18, 2008 by Mike

    Just some thoughts going through my head on a friday morning…

    – how interesting is it that Ike Turner gets a tiny paragraph mention in yesterday’s paper for living his life to the end like a “true” music legend… and overdosing on cocaine? sheesh.

    – how could bobby fisher be dead at 64? in my mind he’s still that little kid from the movie…

    – how is it possible that I’m entering into 18 years since i’ve worked on The Mysterious Minute-Men on-and-off… I seriously have to track down the date I truly first began that series. I believe the photographs are dated so it’ll give me a much better idea. … and as I told Tara Tallan, it’s no wonder I’m so anxious to publish the Omnibus later this year!

    – how funny is it that last week i was sitting with a co-worker who had just finished my novel (The Anti-Bodies: Heaven Can Wait) and her impression of it was more of shock at all the swearing. Her comment of “knowing you as I do Professionally, it was hard to reconcile with you writing all that swearing!” made me laugh and counter with, “Well, it’s Gangsters after all. They’re not the most polite when they’re angry” 🙂

    – how funny is it that i’ve been up past midnight every night this week (since sunday!) painting the bedroom… and we might end up changing the color on two walls in a couple of weeks!

    – how shocking is it to realize the incredible amount/ number of books i’ve specifically purchased as encouragement to the efforts of my friends?

    – how wonderful is it to be speaking with someone a couple of weeks ago who told me that her husband had read my novel and immediately asked when the next one was coming out… and then who last week told me she herself can’t find anything good to read and asked how soon the new book was coming out!

    – how tiring is it to be fighting migraines all week?

    – how amazingly wonderful it is to be with the woman i adore and who after almost 10 years and 2 children together we still can’t keep our hands off each other?! 😉

    – how much i’m looking forward to getting up with the whole family in the house tomorrow morning and enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee and breakfast… the constant morning rush has been excessively draining this week.

    to be honest, there are plenty of more thoughts rummaging around my brain, but I figured that if I didn’t post at least SOME of them… I wouldn’t get around to posting ANY!!

    Hope you’re all having yourselves a good Friday 🙂

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    Fuzzies.

    Posted on January 14, 2008 by Mike

    The snow… she wobbles my brain…

    I’m sitting here looking at the snow falling and realize that I’m not so much looking at it as I am looking in it… as in, the white spaces between the snow flakes. So, basically, I’m a little zoned out. But, what a realization to catch myself in such a state!

    Yes, I’m *that* tired.

    Can’t say I had much sleep this weekend and with desperately wanting to get as far as possible with the painting of the bedroom yesterday… well, we didn’t get to bed until after midnight. And then Kyle got up at 1230am followed by a screaming nightmare at 3am and then 5am. Basically, he yelled really loudly. When I rushed over to see him… he was still asleep. Woo. Got up at 6am and out the door by 645am to walk to the train station. Got there at 730am, train was on time at 740am. Got in, got a seat, blinked, and an hour had passed. Crazy, that. Realizing that you’d just spent an hour in a train, possibly with someone sitting right next to you, and not being aware of it.

    In other news, I managed to flesh out preliminary ideas for two web comic ideas yesterday. Both made me giggle at their lunacy. Always a good sign 🙂 We’ll see where this goes 🙂

    And now, back to the haze.

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    Protected: Bills

    Posted on January 14, 2008 by Mike

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    Back to the Paint.

    Posted on January 10, 2008 by Mike

    So, in our New Year of changes and going forward, my wife and I have made the decision to finally paint our bedroom and finally get furniture. Yeah, furniture 🙂 We haven’t really had any in our bedroom outside of our bed for years. My last set was given to my eldest daughter so we’ve been living out of our closet in a way 🙂

    Last weekend, we moved the computer desk down to the basement (again in my daughter’s room) where it was always slated to be, and moved the television out as well. The television/ stereo stand is still there for now but will be moving soon. So, our room definitely looks quite bare (not counting the various paintings/ posters on the walls).

    Yesterday, choices were made and furniture bought (should arrive in 2 weeks). Plus, new 4-drawer filing cabinet purchased for filing out various utility bills and invoices. Something to help me keep the clutter at bay 😉 Of course, after all this, we realized that with so little in the room, it would be the ideal time to paint it! The room has never been repainted since we bought the house 4+ years ago and with the shifting over time, there are a few patch-ups required from the nails/ screws that have moved.

    Soooo, with the filing cabinet coming in tomorrow, we’ll get the grandparents to watch Kyle and Charlize on Saturday, and get seriously cracking on setting up the room, plastering, sanding, and repairing before slapping on that Primer. We’ll head out to buy the color while the Primer dries. Properly executed, we could potentially be waking up to a “new” room on Sunday morning 🙂

    After all this, I’ll finally be able to continue with the basement work over the next few weeks…

    Home Renos. They’re fun and satisfying 🙂

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    Meme – Baaaah

    Posted on January 8, 2008 by Mike

    Oh, why not? 🙂

    You Act Like You Are 28 Years Old

    You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel like an adult, and you’re optimistic about life.
    You feel excited about what’s to come… love, work, and new experiences.

    You’re still figuring out your place in the world and how you want your life to shape up.
    The world is full of possibilities, and you can’t wait to explore many of them.
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