Dave’s Tech Blog
A Third Eye on Technology

A few of you out there may be familiar with my occasional posts about Bob Church.  He is the father of my girlfriend (and of course, wife to be) Kristin Church.  Bob has been fighting cancer for a long time, having begun chemotherapy a couple of months before his grand birthday party back in September.  Friends and family from all over the country, some who had never flown on an airplane before in their whole life, came all the way out to Moberly, Missouri to see Bob in person and celebrate his 61st birthday with him.  I took some photos and a good chunk of priceless video while I was out there and I’d love it if you’d take some time to download it all and enjoy some of the memories everybody took away from the party.  You’ll find two files for downloading located here.

Bob is a skilled writer of tall tales, short stories and beautiful poems.  I was honored and saddened to have helped him post his very last update to his blog yesterday, announcing that he has no further intentions of adding anything further to his collection of over 320+ writings that have accumulated there since 2006.  Even with the absence of fresh material he continues to gain new fans and inspire fellow poets who hope to one day write with the same kind of colorful essence and flow he’s demonstrated.

The decision to end chemotherapy came yesterday, partially from the doctors who have been working with Bob, and partially from Bob himself.  The cold truth of the matter is that these treatments are wretched in their induction of unbearable sickness, and the doctors feel at this point that continuing treatment of this kind would only do more harm than good.  They both feel that these final days should be spent with him in as best condition he can possibly be instead of sickened to the core and unable to visit with family and friends.  Regular secondary medications have kept the physical pain and anxiety he’s endured suppressed to a more tolerable level.  Unfortunately the medication he takes does little to suppress the same symptoms endured by all of us around him, and things are quite depressing right now.

So the plan is to make the best of things and try hard to not let our emotions rob what little time is left.  We’re planing on watching Wall-E today, a film I love so much that I watched it 4 times in the theaters when it was first released.  Being bed bound in the living room, one of the best things we can do with him is watch movies as a family, and a few other unique titles are down the line.  I’ll write more some other time about a movie Bob and I first had a very excited discussion about when we met for the very first time in person at an Olive Garden in Columbia, Missouri.  And I’m going to host it on my server for others to download without hassle as a dedication to him.  Speaking of Columbia, Kristin and I will be going there tomorrow night to see Nine Inch Nails in concert in an arena that is across the street from the VA hospital Bob’s chemotherapy treatments started at earlier this year…

I recently decided to reconnect my Yamaha DJX keyboard to my computer and make some fresh attempts at writing music… for the first time in about 6 years.  At least, with this particular keyboard. I have a couple of other piano songs I recorded with a terrible 10 dollar microphone a few years back, but never had much luck at getting anything recorded with sophisticated computer software.  I decided it was time to work at an old hobby I dropped so long ago and see what can be done with more dedication and experimentation.

I give you the product of about 45 minutes worth of work.  Very little time was needed to lay down the tracks, and a lot more time was spent playing around with knobs and browsing through the large bank of instruments I have at my disposal to find just the right sound.  I’m excited to write more.

So, please enjoy this free download of a very short piece of music I wrote.

So my girlfriend and I decided to get a puppy dog!  Meet my new dog, Coda.  Her name has a few different dimensions to it that I think fit perfectly for the times that be.  In the Italian sense, it means “tail”, which is funny because she happens to have a pretty long tail on her.  In another sense it refers to the often ending riff of a song (or what writers might equate with the last stunning conclusion chapter in a great book; being treated as a spoiler of sorts by the readers).  It’s also similar to the word Eschaton, which is Greek for “The Last Thing,” so there ya go you 2012 apocalypse junkies.  ; )

For being a puppy of 9 weeks of age, she is pretty well behaved.  It takes patience, but it’s not too hard.  We spent a little time with the rest of the litter and picked her because she was the most healthy looking and because her temper was very mellow by comparison to every other dog around.  It’s events like adopting a dog with such potential that makes you do things a little different through your day.  It’s probably not too dissimilar to raising a kid… except it’s quite a bit cheaper.  It’s still just as fun an exercice of sorts. It’s like a form mediation by working your patience to the point where you build greater and greater tolerance for silly behavior. Speaking of silly behavior, the Vice-Presidential debates will be next Thursday, October the 2nd, so be sure to set your Tivo’s and home-made DVR’s to record that highly anticipated SNL spoof.

Bob Church is the father of my girlfriend Kristin.  He will be celebrating his 61st birthday today and with quite a circus of friends and family around him (including my own parents and sisters).  We are all up here in Moberly, Missouri and it will be quite a day to remember (I brought the camera for the parts of the day I’m unable to remember due to alcohol consumption).  Bob has been diagnosed with multiple forms of cancer and has been on chemotherapy for the last 2 months. It has been a very difficult time for all of us who know him. The above picture was taken by me back in July while he, his daughters and I played a game of Spades.

His true passion, second to his family of course, is writing.  As mentioned before (and linked permanently to the left in my “blogroll”), he has quite a blog full of brilliant short stories, humorous tall tales and exquisite poetry that you can find here:

http://not-quite-right-bubba.blogspot.com/

If you didn’t visit it before, I encourage you to do so right now and leave him your best comments and birthday wishes.  And while you’re there, you might want to purchase a copy of this magazine that Bob has been published in:

Trust me, it’s worth the money.

Yesterday I opened up the new Prymal Rhythm website at www.prymalrhythm.com.  It’s not completely finished, but we had to get something out the door fast.  There will be additional content, such as a photo gallery added in the future.  But otherwise the site is pretty much done.  Check it out, sign up for their news letter, pre-order an autographed CD.  And if you live in Denver or Ft. Colins, grab some tickets to one of their shows.

My girlfriend is the organizer of an upcoming community garage sale to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  It is going to be held this Saturday at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church located at 2021 SW 29th St.  All of the proceeds generated at the garage sale will be donated to St. Jude and anything left over will be given to the Salvation Army (probably).  So come out and check out all the great deals on clothing, video games, TVs, furniture, a bunch of other stuff I can’t think of right now, and you could even bring some things you’d like to sell for charity.  It’s this Saturday from 7 a.m. till 4 p.m. so don’t miss out!

A little anecdote about this church

While I was there, I found their bulletin board where they have notices posted for upcoming events in the parish.  And of course there was one there for the garage sale:

You’ll notice above it is a seperate invitation to join Topeka Habitat for Humanity and donate time or money to their cause.  I then glanced over to the left of the bulletin board and saw this:

I was rather flattered to see this graphic because it happens to be the one I made for their website a while ago.

The sad thing is that I don’t maintain that website anymore, but it’s good to know that it’s being used and appreciated.  It doesn’t look like any modifications have been made to it since handing the reigns over to another local web developer, but I doubt that’s his fault (it wouldn’t be polite to elaborate).  Anyway, the graphic was made in Gimp using the Supernova effect… it was really quite easy.  I think I’ll redo it just for fun (because I have a half hour to kill).

Click above for a 1024×768 wallpaper I just made.

Last night I passed through a lot of places that I’ve not been to for quite some time.  First on the list was seeing Bob Dylan at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City with my girlfriend.  It started with a quarter mile walk on a full bladder from the parking lot of Walgreens because it was the closest place we could find to park (who KNOWS where the “Salvation Army” is actually located).  Did everybody drive themselves or bring an extra freaking vehicle with them?  Anybody carpool?   I thought gas was expensive.

The concert went well, but it seemed like they went out of their way to give you the impression that the vocal audio was always bad, but in truth, Bob Dylan is not a great singer these days.  Sure, he’s got the energy and the notes, but it’s like his mouth is full of cotton balls.  I’m sorry if that offends you, but my girlfriend is the most die hard Bob Dylan fan on the damned planet and even she told me in advanced that I wouldn’t understand a thing he’s saying up there on stage.  It was like Eddie Murphy’s impersonation of James Brown.  Still, he had a damn sweet hat on.  And these 35 dollar T-shirts are pretty fucking cool.

Anyway, I just wanted to check in with you all and let you know that I’m going to be OUT for the rest of the weekend.  I’m heading up to the ABATE biker rally at Lake Perry.  Maybe I’ll see you out there.  I’ll be campin’ somewhere.  Hope nobody’s computer crashes or I’ll have to cut into all the fun I’m having. 

Coming Soon…

I’m going to be a sponsor of a local golf tournament to help raise money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.  The tournament is going to be at Western Hills Golf Club just off of Auburn Road on the west edge of Topeka.  All of the proceeds will go to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It will take place this Thursday, August the 7th.

The fun begins at about 11 a.m., but you should try to arrive a little early.  Advanced registration is preferred.  The entry fee is $65 per person and covers for your green fees, golf cart, food (Chili’s restaurant will be providing fajitas!) and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic).  Teams of four will compete for prizes!  Some of the prizes up for grabs include golf bags, coolers, camping chairs, and much more.  I will personally be giving away one hour of free on-site tech support to each member of the team who ranks first place at the end of the tournament.  So don’t miss out!!!