Wednesday, December 27, 2006

i forgot to blog yesterday.....weird.

This is an old picture of me as a young child. I think it really shows the upper body strength i was blessed with so early on in life. A lot of children my age didn't even have the chance to experience large ground to air missle launchers.

To be perfectly truthful, this is not a picture of me, and I have never even had a chance to hold a missle launcher. Actually the only reason i put a picture in the blog, is because my friend Jacob Kim, told me he only reads my blog when i have pictures. LOL. Jacob lives in korea, and is going to join the army. I can tell he doesn't really want to do it, but i really respect him for making that decision.

I am meeting with Bill G., tomorrow. I think it will go really well, i am not sure what we are going to talk about exactly, but i think it will go well. I have to admit, i am even a little bit excited. Who knows what will come of it.


I LEAVE FOR VEGAS ON SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas



coolness. i am writing this blog from my bed. yup this is the first blog post via phon. pretty cool. well, i had an awesome Christmas. I enjoyed my family and they enjoye me.....at least i thik they did. ;+)

there was good food,los of candy, good presents, and all the makings of a good time. Christmas was a blessing this year. i am super tired, so i will leave it @ that.

Here is a kodak moment of ma & pa a couple hours after present opening.




Sunday, December 24, 2006

If You Don't Care, Go Away!!!

Okay, right now I need to spill my guts. I need to express exactly what is on my mind and heart, because I cannot resolve anything with anyone. My mom is staying super upset; my sister is at her house taking a shower, away from us for the immediate future. My dad is working on a Christmas present. Ok, I will fill you in on what happened this morning, listen very closely or else you will be tragically confused. This morning started off so well, Everyone was in high spirits, and the mood was good. I went to church with my parent's and we enjoyed the Christmas Eve service. IT WAS GOOD Then not to horribly long after I got home from church, merideth called me, and told me everything was going good, and she would be at our house at 3:00, ready to head out to Aunt Jackie's. It dropped down such a friggin steep hill after that phone call. It got super close to 3, and my sister was asking my mom if she could drive separately. IT STARTS!!!!!! Okay, at this point, me, my mom, and my dad feel like merideth is pulling one of her regular "stunts." In reality, she was helping out a good friend, and neighbor get to her family in Michigan. BUT, merideth's past tells us that she is bull shitting, and making excuses for not wanting to be with us. That is how me, my mom, and dad saw it anyways. This made me most of all very angry. Very, Very,Very angry. I took it personally, the way I saw it, was like I try so hard to get mer to be a closer part of the family, and she is being selfish. That was my first huge mistake. So, mer gets to our house at 4:06 and we leave. Ohhhhh man do I have a huge chip on my shoulder. Ya see, I couldn't have seen the truth in the situation if it bit me in the ass. All I saw was "man, merideth is screwing over MY family again!!!!" So what do i do? I plan how I am going to attack her. What should I have done? shown her unconditional love.

So, this is what I did. As soon as the van left the house, I immediately started in on her. The first thing I said was, wow mer, I was hoping you were not going to show up, so we could leave without you. Right away both my mom and dad tell me to drop it, and let it go. Actually, they were begging me to let it go. BUT NO WAY!!! I WILL TEACH HER A LESSON!!!!!!!!! I start making one personal slam after another. Hurtful things, then I get LOUD!! I am screaming at merideth as if I had authority over her. Finally it gets so bad, my dad slams on the breaks, and we screech to a stop. My dad jumps out of the van, and attempts to open my sliding door. By this time, I was out of control. I felt like my dad was gonna lay some woop azz on me, IN REALITY he wanted to talk to me in the back of the van, talk some sense into me. So, we have a little emotional spill session, speaking very loudly, and expressing close personal feelings so mer could definitely hear us. Finally he talked enough sense into me to walk to the back of the van. He put his hands on my shoulders and prayed that I could take a pride hit. He looked me in the eyes, and told me I needed to drop it, and that I needed to suck up my pride and DROP IT. I was sobbing at this point, very emotional. Very hurt by Merideth. So, the rest of the car ride went like this. He made merideth sit in front, and me and my mom sat in the back. The more we drove, the more I saw the situation for the truth. The truth was I felt hurt because I couldn't make merideth change. The truth was I was not trusting God, I was relying on myself to make the situation all better. By the time we got to My Aunt Jackie’s house, I told merideth that I was wrong, and that I wanted us both to be able to enjoy Christmas at Aunt Jackies house. This was the first and smallest step I took. So, slowly we enjoyed the evening. Mar and I Kept our distance, but slowly we came around.


Ok, that was the ride to Christmas Eve. Now we are on the ride home. So, I made small stupid talk about the Verizon bill........that was nothing big, just me being a little bit of an ass. Then my mom asked a very interesting question. She asked me, mer, and my dad. "What is your favorite memory of Christmas Past?" Nice question mom. Seriously, I liked it. So, I was the first one to give my answer. I said, I remember when we lived in our old, old, old house when you would make me and merideth wait on the steps until everything was perfect. All the candles had to be lit, the fireplace had to be glowing, and the candles had to smell good. The Christmas cookies had to be out for the taking. Everything had to look, smell, and feel like Christmas. I said, I always loved that feeling. And when it was time to go, it was like being at the dog races. Bam, the gates were lifted, and me and mer ran to our hord of goodies. That was my favorite memory. Then I turned the mood from happy, to sad. I said, well, my worst memory was when we had to get rid of our family pet, Jackson. A beautiful Pure Bred Golden Retriever. Ohh how we all loved that animal. Especially me, and after 6 years, we got rid of him, because the owner of the rental house didn't want us to make her carpet nasty. Then I told my dad, that I was so angry with him, because I felt like if I was daddy, I would have made it so we could have kept Jackson, and that I felt like he really let me down.


Ok, understanding the atmosphere in the van now? Everyone is being analyzed. Then my mom says, Yea, I have a lot of regrets. Then the subject of High School got brought up. I said, "well I made the best of it, and had great friends, but hated Leo." Then my sister pours a little bit of her hurting heart, and says, well I really felt betrayed by my supposed Church Friends. She told how at Church, which was one of the main reasons we moved. She said that the friends she felt she belonged with at church, really spat in her face at school. She felt like they were hypocrites, and it really hurt her and I really believe it did. Then it gets a little messy. One of the first things my mom said was, well, don't you think a part of that could have been your fault merideth?


Ok, Ok, Ok. See any problem with that????? I DO<>
I really do. It is sad, but it didn’t really get better after that. My mom and sister both played the blame game. Feeling sorry for them selves, and it was just pride, and stupidness. Very frustrating, and ughhhhh, it gets old. LoL. But, ya know what? God says love them. And each time something like this happens, if I can walk away from it still loving each one. And love myself. I think I am doing alright. And ya know what? I love my mom, Sister merideth, and dad a whole lot. It would take something so huge to take that away. Like, my mom would have to drill screws through my eyes, and castrate me. My dad would probably have to shave my head and brand me with a cattle iron. And my sister would probably have to run me over with her car repeatedly. I mean like over, and over, and over again.
I love them, and I always will. They are my family, and Ain’t no one going to take that away, and besides, It’s all good. An important man in my life once said, Love God, Love People, Don’t mess with the rest. I like that.



The good news is, i got to spend some time with some very important woman in my life tonight. The cutie to the left is Tiana, the cutie to the right is Emily. Tonight, both of these little ladies were singing Christmas Carrols, and acting for the video camera on my phone. It is so so so so so friggin cute, i wish i could put the videos on here, but i am having some techinal difficulties to say the least. Good night, and merry Christmas.

It really doesn't look a lot like Christmas

There is no snow on the ground. It is like upper 50's dang near every day. I really don't like this weather for many different reasons. I almost totally forgot to make my blog today. I think it is because usually when something interesting happens, i always think about how i am going to write it down in words. It keeps me thinking anyways. I like writing in a "blog" because it is a really good "out" Like sometimes i feel like i can better communicate through written words, than spoken word. Because you have time to gather your thoughts on everything. It is pretty cool. I am very excited for Vegas, and I know i am just going to have an amazing time.

Nothing even remotely fun happened today. It was your typical sit around watch movies with friends kind of Saturday. Which is alright, but really boring.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Happy Feet

Okay, good news, and bad news. Which one shall i dish out first? I believe i will give the good news first. I just got back from watching the movie Happy Feet. I watched it with my sister merideth, and her friend Britni Costello. Here are some clips.
I can explain this whole movie in a nutshell. Ok, there are a bunch of penguins. They eat fish....then the fish start to dissappear. It is humans fishing like crazy. Then a penguin who doesn't like to sing, and prefers to dance instead. Not even dance, more like tap dancing. He follows a fishing boat all the way from antartica. They catch him, put him in a zoo. This is where it gets crazy. a little girl see's him tap dance, and shows the world. Then they put a tracking thing on him, and follow him back to all the other penguins. Well, then he teaches all of the other penguins how to dance. HORRAY!!!!!!!! Then they stop fishing around antartica. amazing huh?

It was alright, i mean it had a good metaphoric meaning to it. Which is don't make fun of someone, just cuz they are a little different. It's true, i would have rather watched big explosions, and guns though.




Ok, i did tell you there was BAD NEWS.



I got a letter from my insuranced today. It was really long and informative. But when it all comes down to what they were saying, I have been denied for the 2nd time. And they really don't want to cover the stem cell transplant But. We are going to appeal it again. God is just testing my trust, and i still trust him 100%. I am it it to win it. So, i will just have to wait a little bit longer than what i wanted. That is O.K.
I took this with my phone, then i sent it to my
computer via, Infered beam thingy. NO WIRES!!
Isn't that neat?

Thursday, December 21, 2006

wa wa wa wa wa whats up man?

If i ever become a secret spy, i would have to ask my BMW. This thing looks amazing. I am sper tired right now, i am definately going to sleep really good tonight. I gots to go get me some zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

M/S UPDATE

As far as i know, the insurance company is still "pending" on wheather or not they are going to pay for the stem call treatment. I'm not worried, just getting inpatient. But it could just be a really good lesson on patience. Life doesn't revolve around my time schedule.



NEWSWEEK ARTICLE

Stem Cells Are Where It's At
Despite setbacks and controversy, promising research is underway...

By Mary Carmichael
Newsweek
Dec. 11, 2006 issue
Seventeen years ago, Richard Burt, an immunologist at Northwestern University, had a crazy idea. What if he could press the "restart" button on his patients, destroying their faulty immune systems and building them new ones? The regeneration process would be hard, but he'd heard about something called stem-cell research that might help. It took eight years to get FDA approval. "When we did that first patient," he says, "you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife."
Today Dr. Burt has treated 170 patients with stem cells, and increasingly, others are following his lead. There are now more than 1,000 stem-cell therapies in early human trials around the world. The vast majority use cells from patients' own bone marrow, but doctors are also using cells from healthy adults, and last month saw the first patient treated with embryonic cells, which have triggered much debate in the United States. After years of being thought of as science fiction—the domain of animal labs and the distant future—stem-cell therapies are becoming a scientific fact.
Dr. Burt alone has now treated patients with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and a host of other immune disorders. He's just written up the results of a stem-cell trial for type 1 diabetes. Three years after treatment, some patients now have normal blood sugar and don't take insulin. Burt also plans trials for two diseases in which "nothing else really seems to work": Lou Gehrig's disease and a rare type of autism involving the immune system. He will treat his first autism patient in January.
Next year may also bring hope for patients with cancer and heart disease. The FDA has fast-tracked a stem-cell therapy for leukemia patients; it could reach the market in late 2007. And an approach that has helped many congestive heart failure patients abroad is also making inroads in America. Amit Patel, at the University of Pittsburgh, has injected 10 patients' own stem cells into their hearts in the United States and consulted on 2,000 similar operations worldwide. The stem cells ease the burden on the heart, largely by forming new blood vessels. They don't, however, create new heart muscle. To make that happen, scientists may need to use embryonic stem cells.
Some already have. Doctors with private funding have quietly been experimenting with cells grown from fetal material. Geron, a California biotech company, has used the technique to prevent heart failure in mice; it will petition the FDA for a human trial next year. Before that, the company hopes to start the first major American trial of embryo-derived stem cells as a treatment for spinal-cord injuries. By the time that trial starts, docs will also have results from the only use of embryonic stem cells in humans thus far. In November, doctors in Oregon injected them into a child with a rare, fatal neurodegenerative disorder called Batten disease. That's only one patient—but if those stem cells cure the disease and multiply, their uses are sure to as well.
Wow, what a great article to read. I sat in an examining room with Dr. Burt. He looked me right in my eyes and told me I was a prime candidate for this treatment. Ever sence that day God has been opening doors in my life leading me to this operation/treatment. I just think that the idea of me being a part of something that could help millions of people with life threatening Autoimmune Diseases is pretty cool. I get excited when I think about it.

-Mikey