After the Wednesday incident (read previous blog) my son has been acting fairly normal. He had retained his fever for the next day and a half or so, but we soothed that with prescribed Motrin and Tylenol. We were recommended to see our family doctor by the nurse at the emergency room when he was discharges, so we set up an appointment for today.

I never realized how blessed we are to have such a good doctor to see our children. She explained everything that happened in medical (and laymen's) terms and made sure we understood what happened with our son. When she checked his ears, she saw virtually nothing wrong with them. Her theory was that the extremely strong antibiotics given to him in the emergency room (as well as the ones prescribed) did a fantastic job of getting him well.

As of right now, he hasn't had a fever since he woke up this morning and has beem playing, laughing, eating (and whining and crying) just like normal. The seizures he had were harmless and he has about 1/3 chances of it ever happening again.

Thanks to everyone who offered a kind word to me, it means more than you probably know.

Peace everyone.

Last night was supposed to be a good night. My long-time friend was over and we were knocking a few cold ones back (as well as some car bombs, god those are delicious). Unfortunately at around midnight, my son woke up with a fever. It was really strange because he hasn't been sick, no signs of a cold or flu, and he was just fine when he went to bed at 8.

After about a half an hour of reading him books and singing songs to get him to go back to bed, he decided he wanted to go in the living room with the grown-ups (sometimes he does this just to feel like part of the group). My lady was holding him at her computer and he was acting fine. Then he let out this god-awful scream/wail and starting convulsing violently.

He was having a seizure.

Instinctively, I told my girlfriend to stick her fingers in his mouth so he doesn't bite off or choke on his tongue and grabbed the phone to call 911. She was so frightened and screaming at the top of her lungs. When the seizure was over, I guess he passed out or something and his lips turned blue. That made us all freak out even more. He started breathing immediately, however, and the ambulance and police officers arrived in a very impressive short time span.

She left with him in the ambulance and I called her mom to tell her to go to the hospital. I had to stay here and keep watch over my daughters (who were thankfully asleep and didn't witness anything). He was so out of it, it was like he was asleep but with his eyes half open. His was murmuring and groaning (this was after he started breathing again and before the ambulance arrived).

They finally got out of the hospital this morning at 7. It turns out he had a double inner-ear infection. It was so strange because he hasn't been complaining about his ears hurting or anything. They ran a ct scan and pumped him full of fluids and antibiotics and he seems to be doing fine now (he's playing trucks with his sisters right now).

I don't really know why I'm posting this, I guess I just need to get it off my chest. It's all still extremely fresh in my mind. Even though he's seemingly fine and acting normal, it's hard for both of us to be in a normal state of mind. Heck, it probably scarred us both. As a parent, I've seen my fair share of injuries. Hell, my youngest daughter has had stitches once already, but this was the most terrifying thing I've ever gone through.

It seems as soon as I open the "new blog" page, my mind completely goes blank and I forget what I was going to post about. Oh well, I'll just ramble incoherently until something comes out!

Not much has been going on as of late. I'm still looking for a job but it really seems that there isn't a damn thing in my town. I've applied at all the shitty retail, fast food and temp agency jobs I could find and still nothing. The only ads in the newspaper are for jobs that require a degree in some sort of engineering. I'd love to go back and finish up my degree but I owe the damn school about 800 bucks. I can't pay that off unless I get a damn job. It's endless and I'm at my wits end. We're pretty much living off of my in-laws right now and it makes me feel like shit. Lindsay sometimes complains that I don't have a job, and I can understand that. It just hurts the ego, ya know? I don't like having to ask someone else to pay my bills.  It makes me feel like so much less of a man and a father. Something really needs to give soon, I can't take much more of this.
 
I've been listening to a lot of different music lately. I'm a metal fan, first and foremost. However, lately I've been listening to more mellow stuff. Bands like ISIS and Baroness. Good music to just chill out to. Also, Mastodon has a new album coming out in March. Their new track, Divinations, is on their myspace page. Go have a listen, it's an awesome song.

Speaking of Mastodon, that's where I've been mostly. The forums on Mastodon's website. I generally don't like forums but the group of people there are awesome.

I haven't been playing many games due to not having a TV in the living room anymore. I hooked my PS3 up in my bedroom today and played a few PS2 games. I played Black for a few hours. It's a pretty fun FPS but there are a few flaws. The enemies in the game seem like they're made of the same model, no variety whatsoever. It looks really damn good for a last-gen game though. I doubt I'll play through to the end, but it's a good distraction right now.

Hopefully the next time I blog, there will be some news concerning employment. Wish me luck.

Peace

One of my cats, Peyton, had to be put to sleep today. She's been really sick for the last few months, we brought her to the vet and they determined it was something terminal and it probably would kill her within a year. Lately she had stopped coming out of the closet (we have a closet closed off for their litter box, water and food) she would only come out every so often. When she did, she sulked and wheezed when she walked. I couldn't bare to watch a creature suffer like that so today we took her to the vet and had her put out of her misery.

She was a sweet cat. When Lindsay or I were sitting in the rocking chair she would climb down from the top and sit on our chest and purr. It was kind of uncomfertable because she was so damn heavy but we let her anyway.

I'm pretty sad about it but I know that she isn't in pain anymore and that's a bit of solace.

Rest in peace Peyton. We love you and miss you.

As I welcomed 2009 in a drunken stooper, I thought about what I was most looking forward to. What is it exactly that will make 2009 great for me? Both 2007 and 2008 were great for film, music and games so could 2009 possibly break even? Maybe even exceed? Only time will tell.

For now, all I can do is speculate and hope.

Here's a list of what I'm most excited for in 2009

Games

• InFamous
• Uncharted: Among Thieves
• Killzone 2
• God of War 3
• Prototype
• Resident Evil 5
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Mad World
• Fallout 3 DLC
• Batman: Arkum Asylum
• Diablo 3

Movies

• Up
• Wolverine
• Star Trek
• Fanboys
• Terminator: Salvation
• Any indie surprises I may find.

Albums

• Porcupine Tree
• Isis
• Deftones - Eros
• Mastodon - Crack the Skye
• Agalloch
• Katatonia
• Between The Buried And Me
• Atheist
•  Devin Townsend - Ki

After about 10 or 12 bottles of killians irish red I wanted to say happy new year to all of my friends here on giantbomb.

happy 2009!!!!

edit: Wow, I really was hammered last night...

2008 has been a great year for metal so I decided I'd share my top 10 albums of the year.

I finished Fallout 3 yesterday. I was extremely disappointed with the ending (not that the main story was that great to begin with). Overall, it was a good game. The most memorable part being the storm on the purifier with the Brotherhood of Steel and the giant communist-hating robot. I don't know, I guess I wanted the story to be a bit more epic (for lack of a better term) It kind of felt minuscule. Being a Fallout virgin,I would have loved more in-depth explanation of The Enclave and their conflict with The Brotherhood of Steel. There are hints of a conflict there but it falls flat, in my opinion.

I enjoyed the game play enough that I'll probably make a new character to knock out some achievements and see what else the Capital Wasteland has to offer. I'm sure there is a lot that I've missed that contributes to the experience as a whole. If I were to review it right now, I'd probably give it an 8 and that's being pretty generous.

I started Crackdown last week. The game's pretty fun in short bursts. I think the most fun I've gotten out of it is searching for the agility orbs scattered throughout the city. I'm definitely glad I didn't pay a premium price for this game. 17 dollars (or whatever it was I payed for it) is more like it.

My Christmas was pretty good. Got to see family members that I haven't seen in ages. I didn't get anything but my kids made out like bandits, haha. All in all, it was better than most years. It's the first time I actually felt that "holiday cheer" in a long time.

Now that I'm finished with Fallout, I think I'll re-start on Mass Effect. I really got into it for a while but after Gears and Fable I kind of forgot about it. I loved how it was like playing a character in a sci-fi movie. The scene where you controll what Shepard says after becoming captain of the Normandy gave me chills. That's what modern-day gaming is all about.

Well, until next time

Peace

Every time someone bitches about someone saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" I want to stab them in the face with a branding iron. I think it's really funny that people think that because their holiday is the one that's mostly celebrated, that completely negates the fact that there are millions of Jews across the country that have a different holiday in the same week. Not to mention native Africans celebrate Kwanzaa the week after Christmas. I guess I just don't get why people want this time that usually represents "peace on earth and good will toward man" to be so exclusive to them. I mean, it's not like there's a law keeping you from celebrating what you do, so why make it a point to make other people's beliefs or traditions seem less significant than your own?

I guess I'm a little bias. I'm not a Christian, I've been an atheist for a long, long time now. I don't celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, I observe it as a day that we put aside our differences and focus on giving instead of receiving, of loving instead of judging, of inclusion rather than exclusion. I celebrate the myriad of people that make up my family tree as well as my extended family. Sometimes it's the only time of the year when I remember how much I love them and how much they really mean to me. It's kind of sad that it takes a holiday to reveal those feelings but at least it happens.

So everyone can bash me for being politically correct (anyone who really knows me, knows that's miles from being true) and rant and rave about how I can't celebrate Christmas and all that, I really don't care. I just wanted my opinions written out for my own piece of mind, honestly.

So from me to you and yours: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kickin' Kwanzaa and a happy fucking new year!

Peace (on Earth)

It's been a while since I've updated my friends on GB so I figured I'd do a blog.

A few weeks ago went and traded in a bunch of games that I was finished playing. I traded Resistance 2, Gears 2, Mario Galaxy and Little Big Planet. I was going to do the whole "never trade anything again" route but I was really getting tired of all of those games. I figured I'd actually try and get something out of them while they were still worth some decent trade-in credit. So I gathered up the goods and took my 6 year old, Celes, with me.She wanted to trade in some of her DS games as well.

After all the stuff we traded in we had just over $150 credit. I grabbed Fallout 3 and Crackdown for the 360, while she picked up Animal Crossing: City Folk and some Littlest Pet Shop game for the DS. I also put like 15 bucks towards Killzone 2. I've been watching videos of that game online for a while now and I'm convinced it will be a realy cool FPS expirience.

I haven't really gotten much of a chance to play the games I got. I've been going to bed around 9:30 and I really don't want to play M-rated games in front of my kids. I just don't think they need to see a slo-mo shot of a persons head exploding due to a point blank shotgun blast. But I have spent a few hours in Fallout. Don't let anyone fool you, aside from the user interface differences and the V.A.T.S. system, it's totally Oblivion with guns. Which is awesome to me because I spent over 150 hours with Oblivion. I really like it so far. Although, it does seem a bit more difficult than Oblivion was. I'm finding it hard to get enough caps (the games currency) to support my stimpack habbit. Hopefully now that my girlfriends parents are keeping the kids until Christmas, I'll have plenty of time to spend in the Capital Wasteland.

Now I know that AC was for my little girl, but damn are those games compelling. Since you're able to start up to 4 characters in the game Lindsay, Celes and I each have our own. It's totally Animal Crossing which is completely fine by me. The game does leave something to be diesired but it's still really fun to play with the kids. I have a feeling it will be on heavy rotation in the household for teh better part of a year at least.

I haven't gotten around to popping Crackdown in yet and in all honesty I probably won't untill I'm finished with Fallout. All I know is that I got it for cheap and it looked pretty fun. Can't go wrong with that, right?

Earlier this week, we got some early Christmas gifts from family and I got a bunch of cloths. That's not a bad thing, it's just that I rarely ever wear anything other than jeans and band T-shirts. Fortunately they left the gift receipts and told me if I didn't like them or if they didn't fit I could exchange them. I did but I told em it was because they didn't fit (I know, lying is bad.). I had enough money to grab The Dark Knight on blu-ray which was awesome. I also grabbed some new spatula's for my kitchen (I'm a cooking nut) I really needed new spatula's. Come to think of it, I need to pots and pans too... Oh well.

Anyway, I have to get ready to go to Lindsay's parents to hang out for a little while. Tonight I plan on putting major time into Fallout. Take it easy Giant Bomb!

Peace