I felt a bit lazy today

I decided to take today off and just relax. I had jury duty yesterday which took all day, but in the end I wasn't picked. Work has been somewhat stressful today as it appears money is running out and a new contract is not in place. I hate the days when you sit around felling crappy and having a crappy outlook.

I am downloading the Android SDK today and I thought I'd play around to see what kind of mapping capability is available. On the TV front, I watched the first episode of Resurrection, it look sgood, but they better be able to explain all of this.

The weight of the world

I hate the days that it feels like you're bearing the weight of the world. I have one of those jobs. I felt like it was all on my shoulders today, but magically at 5:30 everything came together rather magically. You have to love when that happens.

I've been making it through various shows on Netflix. I love the Glades and Longmire, but it seems I made it through them too fast. I am now beginning to watch Law and Order Criminal Intent. Ilove a good Mystery, but the subject matter on this one can sometimes be too much.

Joseph got in trouble at camp today for touching a little girl in a naughty place. Not good. He'll be sp[ending the day with me tomorrow and writing sentences as punishment. It seems like as soon as you get one problem straightened out, another one pops up. I am still having trouble getting the child to take a good shower. He'll stand in the water, but seems to be avoiding soap like the plague. Such is the life of a parent.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day. Its always been a strange holiday for me. I didn't know who my biological father was until I was 16, which made things really akward. Once you get to this point in your life bonding becomes impossible. My father and I had little in common and we missed all of the good bonding moments in life. My gramdfather died before I even knew who my father. Both of them were heavy into auto racing. I probably would have loved this, but missed that chance.

I know have a son of my own. He is adopted from the Philippines. We have been honest with Joseph about his adoption and I think that is for the best. He also has a Mother, Father and brother in the Philippines whom someday he will hopefully get to meet, but he too with have that same awkwardness I had with my father.

I guess it really goes back to something I had mentioned in an earlier blog: "In life, we're usually closer to those that are not related to us than those who are." This of course is probably more focused on me than everyone else, but It really applies to everyone. I mean you're not really related to your spouse, and If you are you're probably from Kentucky. ;-)

Red Wedding... (Spoilers)

Like everyone else, I was bit traumatized by the red wedding. I knew it was coming and it still scarred me for life. Thank God that wasn't the end of the season. It was nice to get a glimpse of everyone after the trauma. I especially liked Tyrion's "I'm a monster. Then you should be scared. Kings are dying all the time around here." I will miss Game of Thrones. I love the show, but I did find this season to be a bit slow. I hope they pick up the pace a bit. At work, I am the resident expert. Thanks god I read articles after each show as I even have trouble keeping all the characters straight.

Lazy Weekend

 I have literally done nothing this weekend. I did go into work and copy a VM so that I could work from home. My work laptop has been down for the past three weeks. I got it back yesterday and it was still broken. I am not terribly happy. My job has been going through changes between the company changing and sequester, things are not looking good for future employment. I feel the need to really work many more hours than I should just to keep ahead. I am trying to stay positive and I do think if all goes wrong, I'll find another job, but I don't really want to do this. I think we all strive to stick with things that feel safe to us. I think at some point, I'll have to try something new just to expand my experiences. I've basically been writing the same code over and over for 11 years. I should be brave at some point and venture out into the wild.

The Twighlight Zone

We ditched cable a while back. I was really worried about this, but it hasn't been bad at all. I've been getting caught up on my Netflix queues. I am finally starting to make a dent in the Twilight Zone. That is truly an incredible show. I have also ventured out into old TV shows like the Dick Van Dyke show and my newest favorite the Jack Benny Show. It must come with age the you can really begin to appreciate the past. I mean even my musical tastes have expanded. I wasn't into the Beatles growing up, but Now I couldn't live without their music. On the music front, my newest finding is a group called Pistol Annies. I think of them as a much bitchier Dixie Chicks. I am not huge into country music, but they have good tunes that make me laugh. Try Trailer for Rent and see what you think.

Adoption of a Burned Child

About 5 year ago, We found out the fertility treatments were not working. Which I was surprisingly OK with for many reasons. The treatments required me to give her injections daily. Not a fan of that at all. And at one point I ended up taking her to the hospital due to pain caused by the treatments. So, we decided we would adopt. By this time, we were very anxious for a child. We decided we would adopt. We went to an adoption agency and found out it would take a about 2 years and 25K to adopt. I didn't have 25K laying around, but surprisingly we still went through with it. We ended up taking some loans and managed to scrape together the money.

We did research and found that the adoption agency had a list of special needs kids. We looked through the list, and saw a little boy who had been burned in a fire. We figured we could deal with the burn issues and decided to apply to adopt the child. We continued to research the child looking for any little bits we could find. As best as we could find,  the child's family was living in a shack under a freeway with no electricity. Lighting was provided by oil lamps, little house on the prairie style. Anyways, the father came home on Christmas night drunk and angry at the wife.  They got into a huge argument and in a fit of rage the husband through an oil lamp against the wall. The shack immediately went up in flames. I am not sure what happened next, but someone.... finally managed to get the one year old child out of the house, but not before he suffered major burns.

The parents of the child were in fear, because police and fire were on the way. The police was the biggest problem as the neighborhood of shacks under the freeway was burning to the ground. The next door shack had burned with a lady and her daughter inside. The couple knew they were in trouble. They ran the only place they could, down to a local orphanage that also served as an outreach program to the neighborhood. They left the child and fled before police could arrive.

The caregivers saw the state of the child and immediately rushed him to the hospital. At the hospital, four hour into the wait for care it was clear none was coming for this parentless child. The caregivers took the child back to the orphanage and were forced to deal with the burns the they could. They treated the burns with what they had, but this meant no anesthetic. It was very painful for the child and at one point during the night he stopped breathing. The managed to get the child breathing again and watched him the many days until he recovered.

The parents of the child, the mother, did return to the orphanage. She did not ask to see the child, but was simply there to beg for food and supplies. The grandmother occasionally visited and whispered into the child's ear that he no longer had a mommy and daddy. Finally the lady in charge of the orphanage had enough, and decided to try to get the parents to sign the child away. The reluctantly signed him away. He continues to live in the orphanage until age 3 and a half. We adopted him in April 2008.