Well, I think I have WordPress and Ecto figured out so my blog is officially moved and renamed. I will be keeping this site up so feel free to link to it or use it as the "deep archives." Thanks for all your support and see you in Syzdekistan! 

Wow. It has been a long time since I have posted to my blog. And it definitely hasn't been for lack of interest. I have been busy. Yes, I know everyone is busy and that really doesn't cut it as an excuse right now.

So here goes.

I have had to work out of town for the last six weeks. I have applied for and interviewed for a new job (I should have heard something last week too). I went and saw the Sesame Street show (I'll give away the plot — Grover got his groove back). I got in trouble at work for my letter to the newspaper regarding the devil's hole pupfish. We are in the middle of a somewhat tedious and painfully expensive laundry room and bathroom remodeling project. The highlight was when I turned Nancy loose with the air chisel. I have been doing some freelance computer consulting. I have been vaccinated against rabies. I have made two memorial DVD for people who have died. I have been writing talks for Marriage Encounter. I have been working on the Syzdek Family Newsletter for my Dad. I have read several great books.

Any and all of these items could have been and should have been blogged in my usually witty and poignant manner. I should have shared with you the tales that make me one of the most fascinating bloggers on the interweb.

However, I have failed you faithful readers. And I apologize. And I make excuses. My biggest excuse is my blogging software. I have outgrown the free .Mac provided iBlog software. I have purchased a domain name (it's a suprise for now) and will be moving my blog to a new site rather soon. I will be using the powerful and mysterious software, WordPress for my new blog. It's very powerful, but also a bit tough for me to figure it out. I guess I will have to finally learn some HTML. I want to do some customization before I switch over. I've been playing with it for about a month and really like it but I may have to invest in some sort of blogging client front end to use with WordPress. In any case, I hope to have my blog moved soon (which I thought would be a month ago).

In any case, I also have started a Syzdek Family Newsletter website in conjunction with the paper newsletters I have been helping with for the last 10 years. It's a WordPress project as well, but I wanted to get it going soon because we have two family reunions coming up this summer.

In any case, for those of you who actually go to my site, you don't have to look at those nasty cockroaches with baubles glued on their exoskeletons. Of course, if you want to, you can scroll down. I for one, will be glad have those not "above the fold" anymore. What was I thinking with that post. Thanks for sticking with me faithful readers! 

March in Vegas is usually wonderful and this month was no exception. In fact, we had some pretty cool days including one or two with highs in the 40s and 50s. We also enjoyed some snow flurries and some frosty mornings. Spring is usually stressful to me as warm sunny days mean that the brutally hot and long summer is around the corner. This March was an exception to that. It also helps that it didn't reach 80 degrees this March. From the Weather Service:

Public information statement...

The temperature in Las Vegas failed to reach 80 degrees in March.
This marked the first time this has happened since March 1992 (14
years). The highest temperature of the month occurred on the 26th
when the temperature reached 76 degrees. The latest in the year
before reaching 80 degrees occurred April 23 1941. A series of low
pressure systems are forecast to move through the area early next
week and temperatures are not expected to reach 80 degrees before
the end of next week.  

The conservatives are at it again, blaming the "liberal media" for unduly influencing the public into thinking that the economy isn't as good as the President says. Stagnant wages, the jobs being touted as being created are low paying, very high consumer debt, decreased personal savings, rapidly increasing national debt, and the trade defict. I agree that the economy is on pretty shaky ground and it wouldn't take much to send it into a tailspin. While I don't think the President has much control of the economy, he could stand to use his veto power once in a while. Also, his war in Iraq is costing $200,000,000 per day. Here are six reasons why the economy is looking to be in serious trouble. Link.  

Wouldn't it be nice if the President admitted invading Iraq was a huge mistake? Wouldn't it help us move forward instead of collectively banging our heads against the wall? An insightful article asking for an apology from the conservative right:
 

But it was then - right then in the fresh, raw, losing-our-minds stage after 9/11 - that the few outspoken critics should have been most honored, that critical speech should have been most strenuously preserved: saying whoa whoa whoa whoa now here, let's slow down. Let's look at the facts. Let's see if a military solution is going to prevent this kind of thing again - or whether it's going to further enrage an already clearly enraged group. That was when it was most vital to hear "slow down the juggernaut and let's examine our options" counsel. 

Link.  

Lately, I've been reading this very witty and funny blog/tech site called Mac Geekery. One of the writers is a recovering Mac Genius. He recently wrote an article about some of the crazy customers that he had to deal with. In my short tenure as a Mac tech, I didn't have to deal with too many crazy customers. This poor guy got them all including the crazy teacher who can fix retarded kids (in three weeks!) and Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Link.  

Sometimes I miss my colony of Madagascar hissing cockroaches. If I knew I make them into jewelery, I never would have fed them to fluffy. $80 bucks a pop. Link.  

Another link from my favorite birding blog. NASA reports that Greenland is melting and ties it to global warming. However, it doesn't go as far to say that the cause could be man-made. I think if they went that far someone would get fired. Cool picture of the glacial stream, though. 

I do not have the knot technology to pull any of these feats of amazing human ingenuity off! Link.  

This great article basically says that the reason why there are fewer women in science is that women get better paying jobs elsewhere. I sometimes wish I had read and understood this when I was 17. Although I cannot complain about my current position. I am doing quite well for a scientist. His thesis is: Adjusted for IQ, quantitative skills, and working hours, jobs in science are the lowest paid in the United States.


Most people go to work primarily in order to earn a paycheck. Workers prefer a higher salary to a lower salary. Jobs in science pay far less than jobs in the professions and business held by women of similar ability. A lot of men are irrational, romantic, stubborn, and unwilling to admit that they've made a big mistake. With Occam's Razor, we should not need to bring in the FBI to solve the mystery of why there are more men than women who have chosen to stick with the choice that they made at age 18 to be a professor of science or mathematics.

Link.
 

I remember being so disappointed when George Lucas decided not to make Star Wars 7-9. This article has some good insights what could have been some great films. (Link):

Here's something unpleasant: all art comes from demons. Not real demons, in most cases, but demons of angst and horrible memories and sexual frustration. It works like this: you get beat up in school because, while the cool kids are putting bruises on each other on the football field, you were sitting on the steps writing your science fiction stories. That fear and tension that winds itself around your soul like steel wire as you try nervously to sneak out of the locker room before the big kids give you a Wedgie and a Tittie-Twister and a Dirty Sanchez, all that builds up into adulthood. Art is how you let it out.

It was an angsty bastard who introduced Han Solo to the world by showing him ruthlessly blowing the face off a mafia bill collector, shooting him from under the table and then cooly walking away and paying his tab. Lucas revealed Obi-Wan Kenobi to us by showing him ending a bar fight by slicing a guy's arm off. Lucas didn't flinch at the thought of blowing up the peaceful planet of Alderaan and killing billions. None of this was gratuitous; it told us the story, told us what the stakes were.

But angst drives it. Now, if the artist is lucky, that angst goes away. If the audience is lucky, it doesn't. The art dies with the angst, you see. By middle age the artist finds himself watching his old films and trying to make ones that sort of look the same, or trying to make films his children can watch. It gets bland. You can start to see this happening with Eminem. As he gets his life together his songs sound more and more like remixes and covers of the old ones. He'll never do Bonnie & Clyde again.  

Rob's dad as an old-time Kelso resident will be speaking on March 25th as the Park Service opens up an information center in a very cool Mission style train station in Kelso, California. I think I'll try to get down there for the event. Link.  

Despite a few quibbles on how this chart is laid out, it is a really neat depiction of how the government spends our money. Notice how the $137,000 for Devil's Hole Pupfish is not visible (link).  

Back on March 17, our local paper, The Review Journal, ran an article on the plight of the Devil's Hole pupfish: Link .
 

"A month after authorities held a closed meeting in which they discussed recovery efforts and declined to allow media to attend, state and federal conservation officials held a news conference Thursday at Devil's Hole. The cavern, which holds about seven dozen of the fish, is in a detached unit of Death Valley National Park about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

 

Not only is the population of fish in the natural habitat of Devil's Hole dwindling, but the numbers are going down in three tanks, known as refugia, where scientists have maintained "backup" populations of the species. 

 

Williams said one of conservationists' highest priorities is increasing the population of Devil's Hole pupfish in the refugia tanks." 

 

All in all, it was a responsible and newsworthy article. Then the radical right-wing libertarian editorial staff of the paper decided to weigh in on the issue (link): 

 

Years ago, Southern Nevadans would visit the desert oasis of Devil's Hole to swim, camp, and picnic -- possibly mimicking the behaviors of prehistoric man in that forbidding section of the Mojave, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas in today's Death Valley National Monument. Animals visited the springs at night. In the cavern springs lived tiny pupfish, which managed to survive these "assaults" for a very long time. 

 

Then wise government functionaries decided to step in and fence off the area, in order to "protect" the minnow. 

 

You're ahead of us, aren't you? 

 

Disruption inadvertently caused by scientists trying to study the pupfish are among the factors cited for the fact the creatures -- which numbered 533 when the G-men went to work and which still counted in the hundreds only two years ago -- now number only 84 and appear to be nearing extinction. 

 

My response is probably too long for them to publish but it felt good to write: 

To the editor:

Your article titled “Experts Thin Out the Pupfish” in Sunday, March 19’s Review Journal was full of errors and distortions of fact. First of all, it is obvious the RJ hasn’t sent a reporter to cover Desert Tortoise Council’s [link] yearly symposium in which researchers share their findings and research. You would find that over the last two decades, evidence overwhelmingly shows that overgrazing has had significant negative effects on the tortoise. The old argument, “everyone knows tortoises eat cow poop” has been thoroughly refuted. A 1998 study observed counted over 30,000 bites of food items in an area where tortoises and cows coexisted. Only 231 bites were on cow dung. Another similar study in 1994 showed no bites on cow dung. Furthermore, a study in which desert tortoises were offered only cow dung to eat for a month, 71% of the tortoises refused to eat at all. Read the 2002 USGS document “Threats to Desert Tortoise Populations: A Critical Review of the Literature” by William Boarman [link] for information on these and other studies.

As for the Devil’s Hole pupfish, government and other researchers have been studying and protecting the pupfish for over 30 years. In fact, a UNLV biologist, James Deacon, was instrumental in obtaining a court order to maintain the water level of Devil’s Hole. If it weren’t for government agencies obeying the court order protecting the area’s groundwater, the Devil’s Hole pupfish would have probably gone extinct already. The accident with the fish traps was just that, an accident. Accidents happen, which is why we need to keep separate viable populations in different places to ensure that an accident doesn’t wipe out the species.

The evidence of breeding between the Devil’s Hole pupfish and other pupfish does not mean that they are the same species. Hybridization in an artificial environment does not mean they would interbreed in the wild or that the offspring would be as well adapted to the unique conditions of Devil’s Hole. The important issue is that the Devils’ Hole pupfish is genetically distinct from other pupfish and, in the wild; it would have no chance of naturally interbreeding with other pupfish.

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service [link], in 2004 total federal expenditures on the Devil’s Hole pupfish were $131,420 and state expenditures were $6,400 for a total of $137,820. That’s about the cost of one traffic signal. The yearly cost per US citizen is $0.000046. I don’t understand why you are concerned about that level of spending especially when we are spending $200,000,000 per day on the war.

You should be proud that we have such a marvelous and wonderful fish in such an unlikely location in our backyard. Just last week, I took my college-age nephew to Devil’s Hole to show him just how amazing that spot is. As a native Nevadan, I am proud that we have such an incredible diversity of life in our desert and I believe it is critical to save these wonders for future generations.

Sincerely,

David J. Syzdek 

 

We have had a fun last few days. On Thursday night, we had a Marriage Encounter function in Henderson. While driving out there, Nancy complained that her stomach had been hurting since about 5:00 p.m. She didn't feel like eating at the function and as we drove home she said she was feeling a lot worse. I was pretty concerted and offered to take her to the Emergency Room. I was also somewhat annoyed, as I still needed to pack for a work trip to Winnemucca that would take place the next morning.

We got home and put Caroline to bed. Nancy was feeling terrible and the pain was sharp and stabbing and getting worse. Furthermore, Nancy started vomiting so we decided to go to the ER. We called Nancy's mom to babysit our sleeping child. We got to the ER a little before 11 p.m. Nancy was in agony and was writhing in the waiting room. We got triaged fairly quickly and put in a room. By this time, she was really suffering and crying out in pain. She was also swearing. Like a sailor. Like a sailor with Tourette's Syndrome.

Finally, (although it was only a few minutes), I got a nurse and he started an IV and gave her some morphine which immediately cut the pain. She had to drink a liter of iodine contrast solution and then wait two hours for solution to reach the area of the intestines where the appendix is located. unfortunately, she vomited some of the solution so she had to take more. By the time she got finished with the solution, it was 1:00 a.m.

At two I went home, and grabbed two library books (which in my haste to leave left on the kitchen table) and a few other things and returned to the hospital. At the two hour mark (3:00 a.m.) they took her down for a CT scan. After about another half hour, the doctor returned and said the CT scan was negative. There was some sign of inflammation in the area but the appendix couldn't be seen. However, with her tenderness being in the right spot, high white blood count, and other signs it looked like appendicitis and she needed to see a surgeon.

I spent some time with the staff trying to get a hold of the on-call doctor for our GP's medical practice to see which surgeon they like to work with. It was difficult finding the right number for the answering service and then the on-call doc never returned the call. So we had them call the hospital's on call surgeon. He met with us about 6:00 A.M. and explained how a laparoscopic appendectomy would go. We got assigned an OR at 8:00 a.m. and the OR nurse moved her to pre-op at about 07:00. By that time, I had cancelled my plane reservation, changed the car rental in Reno to my coworker's name, and I was nice enough to call my coworker and tell him I wasn't going to be at the airport.

They wheeled Nancy into surgery right at 8:00. I kissed her goodbye and went to the waiting room and started on my second book. I spent a lot of time taking out and looking at her wedding ring that I was carrying in my pocket. After about 75 minutes the surgeon came out and said the operation was successful but it wasn't her appendix that was causing the problem. She had a cyst on her right fallopian tube and clotted mass in the area. Both those were removed without causing any damage to the area. Her completely normal appendix was removed as well.

Nancy spent about 2 hours in recovery and then I met her in her room. They did talk of releasing her that evening by she was very nauseous and week so she spent the night. I left about 5:30 p.m. to put Caroline to bed and get some much needed sleep. I had planned on coming home about 7:30 a.m. to relieve Nancy's mom and take Caroline to daycare but since Nancy was in surgery I didn't want to leave. Nancy's mom didn't take her to daycare. I wished she would have because I think it would have been less disruptive to her schedule and I would have been less reluctant to ask her to watch Caroline today. However, it really didn't really matter. In any case I had been awake from 6:00 a.m. on Thursday until about 8:30 p.m. on Friday. I crashed right after I got Caroline to go to sleep. Nancy's mom and dad visited her in the hospital that night.

The next morning, I fed Caroline and took her to the park. Although, cloudy and cool (51°), she had a great time. We had lunch at McDonalds (first time I had eaten there since I had watched Super Size Me.) I put her to nap, grandma came over and I left for the hospital. By the time I arrive, Nancy had eaten lunch and had been discharged. We moved a TV into the bedroom and I got her some DVDs at the library. She is still quite sore but I am sure she will heal up fast.

Although the last few days were very stressful, I am thankful for many things. I am thankful to have relatives nearby who helped so much with Caroline. I am thankful for health insurance, understanding employers, and the caring staff at the hospital. I am thankful for morphine and anesthesia. I am thankful the surgeon took pictures. And I am thankful that Nancy is OK. Thanks to all of you that helped us and kept us in your prayers.