I was on my way down from Michigan Tech to Michigan State, thanks to Aaron V. I was able to get out of taking a final exam in my first circuits class that all engineers had to take. It’s a good thing, as I got an incomplete in the class. I would have received an F, for certain. At Michigan State, Un-ho picked me up and drove me to the U of M Hospital.Â

Why was I going there? I was going there because my dad was receiving a much-needed heart transplant.Earlier in the week, they had found a candidate for him, but it ended up being a bad match. The stakes were getting higher, and with his heart about 14% functional, they had to act fast. What had happened was a young man was killed in a motorcycle accident on the west side of the state. The doctors were on their way to get the heart via jet or copter (I can’t remember what my brother told me early that morning). The scenario was quite interesting, as I was at Dave’s place on Ruby St., a bit “sick” in the middle of the night, when the phone rang there. My brother was on the other end, telling me they had found a heart for dad. I was barely able to process this, but I did, and made the plans over the next few hours to get out of my final, get a ride from MTU > MSU and then one from MSU > U of M.Â

When I finally got to U of M, my brother and sister had just left, and I was able to see my dad waking up for the first time. I had to wear a mask and gloves before I entered his glass-enclosed room. It was quite fascinating, compared to some of the other hospital environments he’d been in over the past 12 years (when he first started having heart problems…heart attack, 2 bypass surgeries, etc.). Being able to see my dad, with an elevated heart rate, with tears in his eyes, was a miracle. I had been telling myself, and my brother and sister, for the last year or so, that dad was going to die, and to be ready for it. I was trying my hardest to come to grips with that reality for the longest time. The fact that he was NOT DYING, and was ALIVE and WELL, was something that changed the way I looked at some circumstances. It allowed me to look at some circumstances that are typically “doomsday” with a new set of glasses, perhaps rose-colored glasses.I am ever grateful to the wonderful doctors and medical staff at the University of Michigan Hospital, the family of the victim who donated not only his heart, but his lungs and I think his liver. If I remember correctly, that young man saved 3 lives that day.Â

I ran across this video today, and I thought I’d share it with everyone.

I was talking to a tech at Apple this evening, explaining to him that my 1st Gen MacBook Pro has some battery issues. The crazy thing is that it’s one of the recalled batteries, maybe 1 year old. I didn’t think that it would have 1:48 at a full charge. Let’s hope this trick helps.

1. Power down
2. Remove the battery
3. Remove the power cable
4. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds
5. Plug the power cable back in
6. Plug the battery back in
7. Condition battery by fully charging and then using it until it is empty

A friend of mine sent this along!

Taking Care of Babies

An example of one of the pictures there:

Christopher got baptized yesterday! We were so proud of him!

Blizzard Entertainment, owners of World of Warcraft, announced this morning that the game now has more than 10 million paying subscribers around the world. Blizzard said today that those 10 million paying subscribers include 5.5 million players in Asia, 2.5 million in the US and 2 million in Europe.

read more | digg story

Granted, it’s hard to put too much stock in just a week or two of data, but if this and the recent media sales numbers (85 percent) becomes a trend, maybe this won’t be such a slow death for HD DVD after all.

read more | digg story

I got this from Jon and Dawn, it’s hilarious!

The World’s Shortest Books:

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY COUNTRY
by Jane Fonda & Cindy Sheehan.
Illustrated by Michael Moore

HOW I HELPED AFTER KATRINA
by Rev Jesse Jackson & Rev Al Sharpton

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT BILL
by Hillary Clinton

Sequel:
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HILLARY
By Bill Clinton

MY LITTLE BOOK OF PERSONAL HYGIENE
by Osama Bin Laden

THINGS I CANNOT AFFORD
by Bill Gates

THINGS I WOULD NOT DO FOR MONEY
by Dennis Rodman

AMELIA EARHART’S GUIDE TO THE PACIFIC

A COLLECTION of
MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES
by Dr. J Kevorkian

ALL THE MEN I HAVE LOVED BEFORE
by Ellen de Generes & Rosie O’Donnell

GUIDE TO DATING ETIQUETTE
by Mike Tyson

THE AMISH PHONE DIRECTORY

MY PLAN TO FIND THE REAL KILLERS
by O.J. Simpson

HOW TO DRINK & DRIVE OVER BRIDGES
by Ted Kennedy

MY BOOK OF MORALS
by Bill Clinton
with introduction by The Rev. Jesse Jackson

AND, JUST ADDED :

Complete Knowledge of Military Strategy!
By Nancy Pelosi

I just installed Yahoo! Shortcuts. Thanks JT$ for the pointer!

I was once a proud owner of not only one Commodore 64, but two of them at one time. I used to run a BBS on one of them, and play games and do other things on the other one! This week, I’ve seen some web clips of the C64 celebrating its 25th birthday!

Here is a photo gallery of its birthday party courtesy of TechRepublic.com.

http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-10877_11-179806.html?tag=nl.e101

I got this from Demo today, from our Greek friends in Hamilton, ON CA.

Twas The Night Before Hristouyenna

T’was the night before Hristouyenna and all through the spiti

I could smell fasolatha & pasticho through my miti.
Pandofles were hung on the fireplace quite low ,
Hoping Ayios Vasilis would bring some poto.

Patera in his krevati was snoring pretty hard,
Tired from stealing the tree from our malaka neighbours’ yard.
Mama was in the basement cooking like a nikokira ,
adding just enough lemon to her fresh made horta.
When the thorivo came from outside the porta,

Baba yelled from his room ’ela mesa re malaka’.
The knocking on the door, such a rude, loud barage ,
I yelled through the window ‘It’s a Greek house re malaka, come in through the garage!’

Then, standing in the garage right next to my car,
was my drunk Thio Mitso coming home from the bar.
‘Ainde kimisou methismene’ I told him with might,
‘you’ll ruin my chances of seeing Ayio Vasilis tonight’.

About two hours later I heard a noise down the stair,
I jumped from my krevati to see who was there.
Standing by the tree eating leftover fakkes,
Was Ayios Vasilis reeking of tsiporo no less.

He was all dressed in red and as big as an ox,
Wearing brown pandofles along with black socks.
Smelling like a katsiki with a touch of ‘Old Spice’,
He’d been drinking for days and smelled not very nice.

He was putting the presents out under the tree,
They were wrapped like skata, it was quite plain to see.
Vrakyia & 6 kaltses from Myer for me,
and 12 for my brother coz he’s only 3.

This Santa was paraxenos, nothing like the fable,
Before leaving he stole my tsigara from the table.
I yelled ‘Eh, Ay’ Vasili, ti kaneis ekie?’
and he turned and he threw his ‘pandofla’ at me.

The look in his eyes was nothing but fright,
He said ‘fiye upo tho , re malaka’ and dashed out of sight.
And he called to his reindeer, and called them by name
I knew they were not the same animals from ‘Jingle Bell’ fame.
’ Ela Mitso, Sotiri, ke Nektario,
Yianni kai Taki, Thanasi kai Yiorgo …’
‘Ainde grigora na pao ya katourima’,

and he yelled as he went ‘KALA XRISTOUYENNA’.

  A nice closeup of our youngest son, Christopher!Â

This evening, we’re getting photos taken of Benjamin and Christopher. It’ll be the first photos of Christopher we’ve had taken, and the 2nd photos of Benjamin we’ll have taken with Kelly Scaccia, who did a very nice job with Ben’s 2 year photos. We’re excited to see how they turn out.Speaking of photos, I need to devote some more time to taking more professional (and retouched) photos of my family. I’ve got the equipment, the software…I just have to make more time for that.

IMG_2930

Originally uploaded by pfilias.

I haven’t posted any photos of Chris on the blog, but here is a closeup!

Michelle and I had our 2nd son, Christopher Thomas, on 10/31/2007, 1245pm. He was 21" long, and weighed 9lbs. 4oz.