Ethan

We probably would have been bringing Ethan home today.

I miss you, son.

Blue October

You can get the new Blue October song Hate Me on iTunes now. It's a great song.

Buffy

The 360 is better than the PS3!

Go read this post about the PS3 dev kits and how the 360 is better.

Mac

Man, I want a Mac now...

Engadget

'Tard Pack

1up.com Top Ten WTF Moments of the Year.

Cool Sites

Here's two cool sites to keep you busy.

MyGamerCard.net

PriceGrabber.com

Spartan-458 in DOA

Major Nelson posted some sweet pics of Spartan-458 in the new Dead or Alive 4. Sweet!

DS!

As taken from Gameinformer.com...

As 2005 came to a close Nintendo's Satoru Iwata stated that over 5 million Nintendo DS units have been sold in Japan. These sales numbers are attributed to such games as Train Your Brain, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing: Wild World, and Mario Kart DS.

This marks the Nintendo DS as the fastest selling console in Japan, reaching the 5 million mark in under a one year period. Currently the Nintendo DS is outselling Sony's PSP in Japan 2.5 to 1 overall.

PSP sucks!

So sick...

I am so sick. Bacterial sinus infection and my ears are infected. Stuff is running out of them. It's very gross.
At least I've been able to stay at home and play Perfect Dark Zero, which I rented. It's alright. It's not Halo, that's for sure. It does have a cool game you can play on Live called Infection. Seems kind of appropriate today, so I tried it.
Anyway, Buffy is obviously bored with me. I need to play Animal Crossing.

Wild World

I got Animal Crossing for my Nintendo DS for christmas. It's sweet! I also got two more controllers for my 360 and a coffee press from my sister. I'm drinking the coffee right now. Delish.

Bungie.net : Game Stats

First place, beyotch!

360 Achievements

Check out http://xbox360achievements.com/. It's a good site to find out what all the achievements are on most Xbox 360 games.

2 Months

Ethan would have been two months old today. We miss him.

I played one of my best games ever last night in Halo 2.

March of Dimes

You can donate to my son's band and to the March of Dimes by going here. This money doesn't go to me, but to help the cause of premature babies.

My wife wrote this and posted it on the March of Dimes website and I wanted to share it here because it is a good account of what happened and because she was very brave to be able to write it.

In Memory of Ethan

We found out about Ethan about a week before my husband and I were married. (I was about 5 weeks along.) We were so excited! We had got engaged in February, getting married in June and had a baby due in late January! I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy. I threw up maybe three times the entire time. We went to an ultrasound in August and found out he was a boy. Then September 26th, I went to the perinatal doctor (I had chronic hypertension.) Perfect ultrasound. 15 ounces. He had the hiccups and was quite the little showoff. Then September 30th (22 weeks), I was getting ready for work and at 7:30am, while I was using the rest room, my water broke. We rushed to the maternal obs at the hospital. Ethan was fine, surprising to the doctors. I was put on bed rest at home until I reached 24 weeks, then I was checked into the hospital. I was there until Ethan was born on October 22nd. That was the happiest day of my life and the scariest! The doctors had said that if he was born before 28 weeks, the outcome would not be good. Little Ethan, weighing only 1 pound 11.5 ounces, was a beautiful baby boy. He had chest tubes because his little lungs had collapsed during resuscitation, an IV in his arm and in his belly button, a central line, and he was on an oscillator vent. He was being kept alive artificially, but he was here. Then at 4 days old, he had to have surgery for NEC. They only had to take out a half inch of the intestine and he had to have a colostomy bag. Then on Halloween, we found out he had a yeast infection in his blood from the intestinal surgery. He finally started feeds and was doing well with his weight gain. He still couldn't breathe on his own but the doctor wasn't too concerned yet. He kept saying that he expected things to be worse and just wait for him to gain weight. On November 14th I got to hold him. It was a very special thing. He was still so tiny. Then December 2nd, Ethan joined the 3 pound club! He got moved to a different room in the unit and wearing clothes! Its funny to be so excited about your baby wearing clothes. Then, on Sunday the 4th, I called to check on Ethan. The doctor said he had 20 ml of residual in his tummy but that they would wait and see what happened. About an hour later the doctor called back and said that he had done an x-ray and that there was an obstruction near the stoma. He said this happened sometimes and that they had called the surgeon at the children's hospital next door. My husband and I got to the hospital around 2pm and waited around to talk the doctors. Ethan did not look good. His belly was very distended, he was pale and lethargic, and his little hands were cold. Around six the doctor came by and tried to dislodge the obstruction with a catheter. That didn't work. Then around 8pm, things started going crazy. Ethan's blood sugar shot up to 341 and had to be given insulin 3 times in about an hour. His oxygen saturation wasn't being read correctly because his blood profusion wasn't good. The nurses finally got him settled. The surgeon finally showed up at 10pm. He said the same thing, that they would do a contrast dye and that they might do surgery this week or they would just let the bowels rest. He called for an x-ray. We went to the family lounge to get a cup of coffee while they did the x-ray. A nurse came and got us saying that they needed us. The surgeon said we were going to surgery. He had read the x-ray and there was air in his abdomen. He had a perforation like before. It took another 2 hours to get him stable enough to transfer to the children's hospital. We figured the surgery was like before. Actually, we were hopeful that they would just go ahead and put the intestines back together. We called our families and they met us at the other hospital. About 12:30, Ethan's doctor came out and told us to sit down. He said that they opened him up and all the intestines were dead. That it had actually killed part of the stomach and that it was just a matter of time. All they could do was sew him up. It felt like someone had hit me in the stomach. I couldn't breathe. The walk back over was a blur. We went to his bedside and everyone got to hold him. Most for the first time and the last. Then we had everyone leave. His breathing was getting more labored and some green liquid had started coming out of his mouth. He had opened his eyes but you could tell it wasn't him. Ethan just had a blank, fixed stare. It wasn't him. I held him as they pulled out the breathing tube. I couldn't let my little man suffer anymore. He passed away Monday, December 5, 2005 at 4:10 am. My little angel has gone to be our Guardian Angel now. This is the hardest thing I have ever done. But there are no needles, no nurses, no blood gas sticks in Heaven. I know he is better there, I just wish he were here.

Our Precious Baby Boy

God saw you getting tired,

and a cure was not to be.

So He put His arms around you

and whispered, “Come with Me.”

With tearful eyes

we watched you slowly fade away.

Although we loved you dearly,

we would not make you stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,

your hard-working hands put to rest,

God broke our hearts to prove to us

He only takes the best.

The Long Road

And I wished for so long...cannot stay.
All the precious moments...cannot stay.
It's not like wings have fallen...cannot stay.
But still something's missing...cannot say.

Holding hands of daughters and sons,
And their faiths are falling down.
I have wished for so long...
How I wish for you today.

Will I walk the long road? Cannot stay...
There's no need to say goodbye...

All the friends and family.
All the memories going round.
I have wished for so long.
How I wish for you today.

And the wind keeps rollin',
And the sky keeps turning gray.
And the sun is set...
The sun will rise another day.

I have wished for so long...
How I wish for you today.
I have wished for so long...
How I wish for you today.

Will I walk the long road?
We all walk the long road...

- Pearl Jam