Month: November 2018

I just finished having hand surgery and many people are asking me about it. Instead of writing the same thing over and over I’ll just make a blog post with all the details so I can easily share it.

I shattered my pinkie finger and ring finger and the goal was to put some pins in today and then send me on my way. It was worst than they thought and the bones were so crushed and dislocated that they had to cut my hand open and remove some of the bones.

After that they still had to insert three pins and into the middle finger bones for stability.

Before the operation they put a nerve block in my arm so I’m currently feeling no pain but I know it’s coming once it wears off.

I’m in a soft cast for two weeks then will be put into a hard cast. The most unfortunate thing is they are going to cast all the fingers together except my pointer and thumb. That’s pretty grim for typing.

After all this I’ll have to do physical therapy and will still probably get arthritis. Fun!

All in all I’m doing pretty well but I’ll know more tomorrow once the nerve block ends and the pain begins. Thanks to everyone that has checked in on me. I appreciate it.

p.s. This post is written and published with a cellphone and that still amazes me.

I live in a neighborhood that has a home owners association which is fairly common in America. It is responsible for keeping up the shared public space, some of the infrastructure, etc. every year the bylaws require them to send out a financial summary for the next year. Included with these is an estimated operating budget and budgeted numbers which looks a profit and loss statement.

My kids are at the age where they have a grasp on basic math so I figured it’d be a good opportunity to explain how this works to them. At first the sheer amount of numbers in the page overwhelmed them but as we broke it down they could grasp it.

Later in life this might be beneficial to them or it might not, but it was a lot of fun for me spending five minutes showing them how it worked.

I can still remember when my elders would show me things that I’d never thought about before and those moments of teaching has remained in my memory since. Even if you think something is outside a child’s knowledge try to explain it in a way that they can understand. It’ll help you more than them.

Today in America we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday and it’s always a big tradition where you eat lunch and dinner with family and for a lot of people it’s visiting with extended family that you might not have seen since last year.

I always enjoy this holiday as a reflection of the past and to look at some of the decisions that has led to this particular moment in time. If one thing would have been different I might not be exactly where I am.

I want to personally thank you today. No matter how we differ I believe we each make each other stronger.

Thank you!

As I wrote about yesterday, I broke my hand and I created that post typing it out entirely on my iPhone. This morning I did the same thing on Laravel News and now I’m writing this post the same way.

I find typing with one hand to be pretty difficult on a traditional keyboard but with the one on the phone I can fly. All those years of texting really pays off when you find in situations where you might only have one hand to use.

Even though I’m finding typing on the iPhone great there are still things that I’ll need in a normal workday that I’m going to struggle with and all of those are related to php. Just try to type ‘<?php echo ‘test’; ?>’ on a phone keyboard. It’s pretty dreadful.

Outside of my little annoyances I’m most amazed at the creator studio we all carry around in our pockets. I’m able to go from an idea to publishing in minutes and I can do everything from writing, to editing, to photography, and even video and video editing. All in this device that fits in my hand. That is amazing.

I know many people are going iPad as their primary device but I’m willing to bet those same people could even go a step further and go iPhone only. Granted the small screen might be annoying but I’m not sure you could have a more portable device. I guess it does lack the pencil support so I do see the benefit of the iPad.

If you would have told me twenty years ago that today I’d be publishing blog posts and taking pictures that could compete with a professional I’d think you are nuts.

It makes me think of people born in the late 1800’s who could have went from no power and outhouses, to lights, toilets, cars, and even flight. All within a 50 year timespan.

As many people are looking back and trying to relive a past I’m excited to see what the next twenty years will bring.

Many households struggle in today’s hectic world to sit down and have dinner together and, according to a UCLA study, when they do, it’s typically done in the kitchen instead of the dining room. Take a look at the diagram below where the red dots are the position of a family member every 10 minutes.

After seeing this diagram I started thinking about my own family and how we typically move about our home and where we are when we are together. It matched the pattern almost perfectly and what really stuck out to me is the kitchen island. We’ve grown accustomed to eating there, and save the dining room for holidays and other special occasions. The main reason for this is we didn’t want to mess it up and have kids spill stuff everywhere as they are known to do.

It reminds me a lot of my late grandma who bought a new couch in the 80’s and put a blanket over it to “keep it looking good”, instead of enjoying it. After 30 years it still looked good, but it was out of style and worthless.

Since reading this and thinking about it, we’ve made an effort to have every dinner together in the dining room ¹. The side effects have been great, we’ve had better conversation, we don’t feel as rushed, and it prevents others from getting up and cleaning before everyone is ready.

Sources:

• Why Are Antiques So Cheap? Because Everyone Lives in the Kitchen
• Life at Home in the 21st Century

1. When sharing posts like this I feel like I always need to clarify that I am luckier than most with my job. I work from home which makes it easy for us to have time for things like this. I know many don’t have this luxury.  ↩︎

There is an old saying, “you are the sum of your friends” and it’s true. If most of your friends workout, you are probably going to workout. If most do drugs, chances are you’ll be doing drugs.

Although I’ve heard this saying for many years and have always believed it, I have never experienced it first hand like I do with my own kids. All it takes is one new friend for me to notice a change at home.

Since we are all susceptible even as adults it’s something we need to watch out for and always remember what our own goals and drive is so it’s not diverted when we let our guard down.