The Hunt for Gollum

O.k. I'll break my silence with this. As an unabashed Tolkien fan and a fan of the Peter Jackson adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, finding this movie has me very happy.

Not affiliated with the Tolkien estate or Peter Jackson or New Line Cinema "The Hunt for Gollum" is a not for profit short film made by fans of the author's work. It's set for release on May 3rd.

I only just came across its existence but from the trailers it looks way cool. The story comes from the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The appendices have so much background material that many more shorts or even features could be made from them. And that's not even getting into the epic Silmarillion (which is rumoured to be in the early stages of a film adaptation).

Here's the original Trailer:

Hunt For Gollum - Trailer One
by HuntForGollum

Make mine a Guiness...

Well, I missed St. Patrick's Day here. Hope yours was good.

One noteable news item with an Ireland tie-in.

Steelers owner is Ireland nominee

6-time Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney has been selected to be U.S. ambassador to Ireland by President Barack Obama.







My dad went school with the Rooney boys, North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh and St. Vincent's College in Latrobe. I believe Art Jr. was in dad's class and Dan was a couple years
ahead.

UPDATE:

Well wouldn't you know it. First post after a long layoff and kinda I blow it. The Rooney's went to North Catholic, but only Art Jr. went on to St. Vincent's. Dan went to Duquesne.

Countdown

Countdown to relaunch initiated.

Hiatus (hayh-ey-tuhs)

Defined as a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

I fear in my case it's just been plain lazy. A lot has happened recently but I haven't felt compelled to write. I hope to do better in the new year.

Best wishes to all for 2009.

Bone marrow treatment used to combat inhibitors

According to a Children's Hospital of Wisconsin press release researchers there have shown success using patients' bone marrow to treat inhibitors.

The findings were published in the 1 October 2008 issue of Blood Journal.

From the press release:

"...investigators describe how a gene-modified bone marrow transplant can be used to initiate clotting in hemophilia. This type of approach may work in the 30 to 35 percent of hemophilia patients that have developed inhibitory antibodies against the missing clotting protein.

The bone marrow is removed from the patient and stem cells are treated with Factor VIII, a clotting factor, which is placed in the platelets. The marrow is given back to the patient, who then retains the essential clotting mechanisms to stop bleeding that otherwise would lead to complications."

Seven score and 5 years ago...

Today is the 145th anniversary of the Gettysburg address. Two hundred and seventy eight words, only 2 1/2 minutes to deliver yet in such brevity Lincoln relates the breadth and depth of the basic underpinnings of this great nation, this great experiment of representative democracy and federal governance.

In 2 1/2 minutes Lincoln conveyed just how unique, precious and fragile the United States of America was, is and will be. But inherent in its foundation is the principle of Liberty and the notion that "all men are created equal" that make it a concept embodied in a nation that is worth preserving, defending and dying for.

The words ring as true today are they did then.



Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Happy Birthday USMC

More Israel

The remainder of the PEP Train The Trainers program went beautifully. I expect wonderful things out of this remarkably talented, highly motivated, deeply insightful group of people. It was an honor and a privilege to have been a part of the team to bring PEP to Israel.

Since I was there I took extra time (a week) to travel a bit and saw some amazing sites. I am so glad to have made the trip but truth be told I don't ever want to be away from Allison and the boys for that long again.

Here's some more pics from Israel:


Jaffa Gate - Jerusalem Old City




Church of the Holy Sepulchre - site of the Crucifixion




Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Edicule - Christ's tomb




The Western Wall

Greetings from Israel

I'm here with the PEP Training team doing a Train the Trainers for Israel. I'm so excited and grateful to be here. We had some doubts and apprehensions, but 1 1/2 days into the training we are so impressed with the participants. They have been remarkable.

Here's some Israel pics.


Tel Aviv



Site of the Nativity in the Church of the Nativity



Dig site in Jericho

I'm announcing a name change

for the next 3 weeks I want to be known as 'Joe the Plumber'

Injured student’s suit against Tecumseh schools dismissed

That's the headline from a Michigan newspaper website. The story's lead:

A lawsuit against the Tecumseh school district and an elementary teacher over bullying injuries a first-grade student with hemophilia suffered in 2005 was tossed out of Lenawee County Circuit Court on Monday.

Man! First of all bullying injuries in first grade! Hemophilia or not what the ...?
From the report:

Michael suffered severe injuries when his arm was twisted behind his back...

Now we can't know all the details from just a news article but what's going on. I'm not sure these incidents called for a lawsuit but certainly they raise some questions about the supervision or discipline at the school, child with hemophilia or not.

As parents of a child with hemophilia we strive to emphasize that Jack is not to be treated differently or excluded from school activities. He doesn't need special attention save in the event
that an injury does happen and then he needs specific medical treatment.

So with that in mind these comments (for the purpose of a lawsuit!) stung:

“They knew he had severe hemophilia. They knew they had to protect him,” argued Hanson’s attorney, James Cmejrek. Although the teacher was not in the lunch room where the second injury occurred, Cmejrek said she failed to instruct lunch room monitors to give Michael special protection because of his condition... (italics mine)

Kogenate FS approved for Daily prophylaxis

The FDA has approved a "new use" for Kogenate FS.

FDA quote:

"Administering Kogenate FS to children with hemophilia A on a daily basis before a bleeding event occurs will reduce bleeding into joints and help prevent joint damage, a major cause of disability in hemophiliacs," said Dr. Jesse Goodman, director of the agency's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. (italics mine)

Nice bit of marketing juice for Bayer's Kogenate FS. But perhaps an underlying benefit is to signal an acknowledgement for insurers that a robust prophylactic regime should be fully embraced and properly covered.

New Orleans PEP Train the Trainers

We had a great weekend! New Orleans lives! At least the parts I saw (French Quarter, Downtown/Financial District and the Garden District by Tulane and Loyola). We didn't get to the hardest hit areas that I know are still decimated and showing slow progress.

As far as the TTT - what a fantastic group we had! To a person they were talented, passionate and motivated. I expect this group will create many PEPs back in their own communities.

PEP Train the Trainers

We're headed to New Orleans today for a PEP Train the Trainers (I know, it's rough but someone has to do it) and a Steering Committee meeting this weekend.

Oh yeah, my article is still up at the PEP website.

Check it out.

We're Back!

Power restored and we're back home. It's good to be here. We were well taken care of staying with Allison's parents, but it's good to back.

Redbleed blackout

Still suffering the effects of Hurricane Ike. No, no damage, just the inconvenience of no power and consequently no Internet.

Family is safe and house is fine, so really no complaints.

Hope to be back up soon.

108 years later - Galveston

Once again Galveston Island finds itself the target of one of Mother Nature's furies. Here are some excerpts from Builders by the Sea, History of the Ursuline Community of Galveston Texas by Sister M. Francis Johnson, O.S.U. The Ursulines are an order of Catholic nuns that date back some 470 years to Brescia, Italy. In 1847 the sisters established a convent on Galveston Island. Their history is Galveston's history. Here is what was written about that fateful September 108 years ago.

There were many children enrolled that September of 1900 in the old convent by the sea. Galveston then ranked as one of the richest cities of its size in the United States. Palatial homes lined the city's streets, and girls from those homes flocked out to the academy...

As Reverend Mother Mary Joseph stood on the tiled gallery of the academy that morning and looked out toward the black clouds scudding low over the leaden restless waters of the Gulf, she frowned. Out on the campus the tall palmettos danced to the castanets of their clashing leaves. Beyond the campus stood the many beautiful homes of the city. Reverend Mother Mary Joseph cast a glance upward at the new academy and let her large, blue-gray eyes dwell on its turreted towers, oriels, cathedral-like windows , and the imposing facade. Among the many fine buildings on the island, not one could equal this, she knew. A warm glow kindled within her eyes. Her glance again sought the clouds and she wiped a trace of spray from her cheeks. Heavy storms in Galveston were nothing new...

Mother Augustine waved a hand toward the campus. "Of course! Have we not a solid brick wall, eight feet high? High waters can never push through that! They never have!"...

By five o'clock that evening an unnatural darkness had settled on the city. All knew that they rested beneath the black wings of tragedy, but the nuns, following the example of Little Mother, went calmly to each duty..

With each passing moment the fury of the storm grew worse. Outside the great brick wall that in times past had sheltered the convent had gone down before the battering ram of waves ...

The nuns taking ropes , stood at doors and windows and sought to drag in terrified victims as they drifted by, clinging to beds, to limbs of trees , to anything that might sustain them...

A trunk floated by. The nuns fished it to safety. Inside was a battered and bruised woman...

In the heart of the night, when death had all but laid his finger on every one of the fifteen hundred refugees and nuns within the convent walls, a terrifying shriek arose above the tempest din...

Meanwhile, from within one of the cells, a new voice was added to the bedlam-the wailing of a newly born baby. It was the child of the woman who had been drifting in a trunk, she whom the nuns had dragged to safety. Nor was this the only one to come into the world during this wild night in Saint Ursula's-no longer by the sea, but literally in the sea.

By this time the raging waters had come within four feet of the second floor of the monastery. The refugees could go no higher, for the third floor story had been already demolished by the winds...

It took the clear light of the next day to reveal the entirety of the awful truth of the disaster. Reverend Mother Mary Joseph stared out through the gaping hole in the convent wall...none had ever before beheld such a scene as Little Mother contemplated that blustery Sunday morning of September 9, 1900...




May God spare this stretch of Texas from the destruction once wrought upon it. And may God grant those caught in the storm's path the faith, strength and grace to survive.

Waiting for Ike.

4:30 p.m. -- On a mission to find s'mores. Groceries all closed. Local Chevron has graham crackers, chocolate... but alas no marshmallows. (I prefer just the crackers and marshmallows)

6:15 p.m. -- starting to get windy...



6:20 p.m. -- t.v aerial has to come down (yes antennae, no cable, no satellite -- such as neanderthal)



6:30 p.m. -- making pizza, enjoying a cold adult beverage.

I Like Ike

Um. Yea. This Ike.



Not this Ike.



We're ready. The hatches are battened.



The provisions are stocked. Now we wait. Prayers and good wishes are accepted. If not for us then for all the lives, homes and property in Ike's direct path.

It may get bumpy.

9-11-2001

Seven years.

In some respects it's an eternity.

And yet it's just the blink of an eye.

Life carries on.

It must.

But let us never forget.