I love new techs & gadgets. The iPhone craze died-out immediately after its initial release last June 29, 2007. There was
Image via CrunchBase
ample supply (hey, it’s only a cell phone) of this new gadget from Apple that prevented ‘scalpers’ (eBay or CL) from wreaking further havoc out of the pocketbooks of ‘techno-lusters‘.
But, no – no matter how compelling this gadget might be – I wasn’t among the folks who lined-up at an Apple Store to be the first one to have the iPhone…which I did with the original iPod release.
I’m waiting for the next release of the iPhone, and I’ll get one, if and only if the ff. requirements are present:
1. Faster data access (the current EDGE/GPRS service sucks).
2. VoIP apps will be available (Skype, would be really nice).
3. An ‘open’ version will be available. No more 3rd-party hacks.
That’s it. Until then, I still view the iPhone as a mishmash of the Blackberry, Palm T|X & Sony’s PSP.
Another year had come and gone and another one had come along. Whoever invented the concept of time (a Phoenician??) must really be a very calculating person since everything in the universe – according to Einstein – is relative.
Okay, what’s new for 2006 as far as this very small portion of the Internet called Kupitero’s Keep is concerned?
Work had so much preoccupied much of my time and that had prevented me from updating the site as frequently as before when I had been doing it as a hobby even during the pre-browser years – (when this was still an electronic bulletin board service – EBBS) – in carefree Manila back in 1988.
The New Year weekend break enabled this author to update the integrated (thanks to Six Apart for their Movable Type software!) blog site, to the latest version, MT 3.2. The changes may not be so obvious to the web viewers but the new features of MT 3.2 made updating the blog site much easier and faster.
Some streamlining were also done on the site’s graphics to make them load faster. Also, an exclusive listener’s nook (streaming music in MP3 format) is currently in the works. It is my way of sharing (no, downloads, please) some of my personal favorites.
I wish 2006 will give me more than enough time to improve the site as well as add more features as new technology evolves.
It had been a perennial mystery for me who dictates the duration of one’s life.
Why do some people die young (by natural or other causes), and some people almost live theirs to the fullest, to the point where their bodies can no longer endure the ravages of extreme old age?
English: Old man resting on a chair, near Saint-Nazaire-le-Désert, France. Français : Vieil homme se reposant, région de Saint-Nazaire-le-Désert, France, abt 1975 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Are these all by chance? Or, for religious-centric people, are these just part of a phase we all undergo in the ‘grand scheme’ of things that nobody will ever comprehend?
Some people will never even see the light of day – babies who will die while still in their mothers’ wombs. In contrast, some people will even beg to end their lives – to escape the misery life brought upon them.
Is life simply an illusion? Do we create all the events of daily living in our brains and interpret them to be the manifestations of our so-called ‘existence’?
Just thinking about all these things leaves me feeling very tired. I guess sleep is the closest answer…I can get out of these musings.
I apologize for not being able to update the site as frequently as possible over the past few weeks. I have an excuse: I was busy rehabilitating my right knee, which underwent arthroscopic surgery on July 7.
A diagram of an arthroscopic knee surgery procedure (Photo credit: Kuo Orthopaedic Clinic)
The rehab was not grueling, but it was enough to remove my usual daily activities. The first two weeks were difficult to bear. The muscles and underlying tissues around the operated area were still painful, and moving them laterally sent pain signals up my nervous system.
The exercise set was simple and designed to regain mobility in the affected area as quickly as possible. But the frequency – five times daily – was too time-consuming for me to offer me any other recourse except to deal with them in most of my waking hours.
There were knee-joint presses while lying on my back. Then there were the simple leg raises. Again, while lying on your back, the hip raises require both knees to be flexed.
Another routine involved bending the aching knee as far back as possible while my legs dangled over the bed’s edge.
While seated, I must bend my hips towards my affected knee with the affected leg straight up and the unaffected leg flexed.
A challenging routine involved bending both knees, my back against the wall, and then moving the hip joints up and down. It was painful.
Some exercises required using a rubber tube (for resistance) attached to the ankle of the good leg. The excellent leg propped me up and involved moving the affected leg in all four (4) directions as far as possible. One exercise involved trying to walk as straight as possible on a 3″ wide by 8″ long piece of wood.
And finally, there was the one that required me to move up and down a flight of three-step stairs — backward.
They all stressed movements on the muscles around the affected knee to drain any accumulated fluids in the knee joint areas. When used up after a rigorous exercise, the myofibrils (tiny fibers that comprise the muscle) tend to ‘drink up’ any fluids around them.
Much like the way we crave water when we’re exhausted.
The symptom was innocuous: a sudden fever after I ate a bad piece of “bao‘ – “siopao” as we call it back in Manila. My body reacted by trying to eliminate it from my system when I took a brief shower. I was sure that I didn’t get rid of all of it. The fever fluctuated between highs and lows even as I attempted to manage it by taking only Tylenol every four hours.
On the 4th day, I felt significantly better and tried to return to my routine by doing some yard work and light household chores. They weren’t back-breaking work, but it was all the bacteria needed to strike back at me at the end of the day.
The following morning, not only did I have the fever back, but I also had severe pain in the top portion of my right knee. There was no swelling, but merely touching the area elicited very sharp pain, and walking was extremely painful.
After the sixth day, I gave up all hopes of self-medication as the fever shot up to record highs, and walking was now excruciatingly painful. We called the hospital and were immediately scheduled for an appointment for the following day.
At the hospital, blood, urine, and synovial fluid samples were taken, as well as X-rays of my chest and the right knee. The fluid drained from my right knee didn’t look too good (yellow-orange in color), and I was wheeled directly to the ER. There, further blood and synovial fluid samples were taken, and I was put on IV.
An orthopaedic surgeon was brought in and talked to me briefly about my kidney operation of 1981, when my right kidney was removed due to hydronephrosis and pyelonephritis. He suspected that I had a urinary tract infection and that it had caused the fever and the severe pain in my right knee. He tapped my remaining left kidney to elicit pain as well as the area above my bladder. I told him that there was no pain in either place.
The surgeon returned to explain to me that he had to perform an ’emergency’ arthroscopic surgery on my right knee to get rid of all the “bugs” and infection in there. Worse, he will have to open up the knee (arthrotomy) in case the disease is much severe than he thought, to eliminate the possibility of the infection, doing more damage to my still-intact knee.
The knee X-rays revealed no ligament or meniscus damage; however, allowing the infection to remain in the knee for an extended period can cause severe damage to healthy tissues in a relatively short amount of time.
So, that same day, very late at night, I was wheeled into the operating room (OR) for either a quick arthroscopic surgery or a much longer, open-knee surgery. Inside the OR, I was probably awake for only five minutes and quietly prayed for the best.
A photo of the ‘basic’ process in knee arthroscopic surgery and post-op scars. (Photo credit: Advanced Surgery Center, Omaha, NE)
It was way past midnight when I woke up to find myself in the recovery room, with my right foot heavily wrapped in an elastic bandage and a much thicker foam wrap secured by Velcro straps to immobilize the area from the top of my knee down to my ankle. There was also a MediVac (drain) coming out of my right knee via a rubber tube.
After the second day at the hospital, the drain was removed. The following day, all the straps and bandages were removed. I was glad to find only three (3) slits on my knee (two at the bottom and one on top): ONLY arthroscopic surgery was done, and my knee was not opened up. Still, without the pain-killing medication (Vicodin), moving the knee -mainly sideways – elicited severe pain that rang up my entire CNS (central nervous system).
Throughout this ordeal, a wide array of antibiotics was administered on an 8-hour cycle via IV. At the same time, the doctors awaited the results of the blood culture and sensitivity (C/S) test to determine the best antibiotic for the specific bacteria causing the infection. My right knee was still swollen like an overripe papaya.
On the fourth day, the most effective antibiotic had been identified, and the doctors informed me that a PICC line would need to be inserted so that I could administer the antibiotic at home.
On day five, the PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line was inserted following a 45-minute outpatient department (OPD) procedure. It was a very slender piece of plastic tubing inserted through a vein in my right arm (the nurse informed me that this route was shorter) that was initially guided by a thin wire.
Photo of a PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line procedure (Photo credit: Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York)
The tube snaked all the way up to a large vein (subclavian vein) situated very near the heart. The main idea was to deliver the antibiotic rapidly to my bloodstream while diluting it at the same time in the area where plenty of blood rushes by, for a more extended period than a drip IV (which is usually effective for only four (4) days).
As a standard procedure, an X-ray was taken to ensure the PICC line was in place; otherwise, the entire procedure would have to be redone. I was also informed that the PICC line will remain in my body for two weeks.
That done, I was out of the hospital after a few more hours of briefing — all related to the arthroscopic surgery on my knee and the PICC line they had embedded in my body, as well as how to administer the drugs at home.
For now, I’m simply looking for better days ahead — to return to my daily routine. But this time around, I will be more thankful for each day that passes.
Simply being healthy is, indeed, a feeling of already being wealthy.
After the successful surgical procedure, all necessary medications and supplies (required for administering antibiotics at home), as well as durable medical equipment (DME), were delivered by a third-party provider.
Blogs are becoming an easy way of having a presence on the web. Most of personal sites these days are blogs. TypePad and Blogger are getting into the mainstream. They had normally been called the ICQ of web sites .The former is fee-based while the latter is freebie. What sets them apart from the old days of free (or, paid) website? The richness of content and ease of use. Most of the content on blogs are syndicated (RSS) and links are, most of the time, ads. With blogs, you simply type away, add your images or photos, click a button, and, ergo, instant but professional-looking website – uh, er – blog!
Blogs are great if you simply love to write and put your ideas on the web. Unlike regular web sites, blogs lack the snazzy extra features that enables one to have total control of what to put on the site. But what it lacked in features, its ease of use is what casual web users loved the most and lured them to sign up for their services.
Since I host this site on my own web server, I decided give the most popular one – Movable Type from SixApart – a peek.
From what I had read before, I needed the latest versions of Movable Type, MySQL and the database hooks – they were quickly downloaded and installed (Perl also required but this is already included in OS X) on the server. After doing a lot of web searches, it took me some time to set it up and get it running, using instructions from maczealots.com. My plan was to incorporate the ‘blogger’ into this website but I backed out on the last-minute. It was a hardware hog – well, at least for my current setup and use. Rebuilding was quite slow. Since the Mac G4 is also my FTP server and web cam host, I didn’t like the extra strain Movable Type put on the server. Maybe, I can incorporate it on this site later on…when I get my hands on a G5!
—notes:
After acquiring an Apple iMac G5 a few months later and testing other blogging software, I integrated the same blogger – Movable Type- to my web site in Oct. 01, 2004.
The graphics and overall design were obviously aging. The more I looked at it, the more I remember my carefree days in Manila in the 80s and 90s.
The original Kupitero’s Keep website, I created in 1998 but launched in 1999 when I finally got a decent web hosting site – Surfshop.net. Prior to them, I had tried a lot of freebie site-hosting like GeoCities, Angelfire, etc., as well as, other local ISPs like Epic.net and Tri-Isys.
The tools of the trade were basically the same ones I used back then: an HTML editor, Photoshop, an image animator, an image mapper, and a file transfer program (FTP).
I ported the site to Netscape’s free hosting – simply called, WebSites– after we terminated our contract with Surfshop.net in 2001. The nice thing was: it was only in 2003 that they put down the site. Unfortunately, Netscape’s freebie hosting didn’t last long as well — they stopped most of their free services after they merged with AOL (America Online).
I decided to put up my own web server only after I got broadband access — with download speeds of about 7 Mbps. I learned from the past that hosting your own site via dial-up is like torturing your viewers.
Plus, it didn’t make a lot of sense if you only have a single phone line in the house – all your relatives will give you the ‘look’ for hogging the phone line just to make your webserver/website available.
Also, imagine using dial-up to dial-up link while streaming a large video file. Dial-up was king during the glory days of electronic bulletin board service (EBBS). Those were the pre-browser Internet days. In short, forget web serving and hosting if all you’ve got is dial-up.
The makeover I had in mind will make the overall site smaller in size but will retain most of the features of the original site. Faster page loading – for those accessing the site via dial-up – will be my priority and I had decided that bulky graphic files will have to go.
So, the components are set: the server, the gateway, and the site. Looks like it’s 1984 again for me. Just trying to keep in step with the times.
notes:
After drinking countless pots of coffee, I launched the 4th revision of this site on May 10, 2004.
Click here if you like to view the old home page of this site (some links there are gone while some will lead you to the new pages within this revamped site).
