Pericarditis: Surprisingly, not as fun as you would expect.

A few weeks ago, back at the beginning of November, I awoke in the middle of the night with a strange chest pain, difficulty breathing, and a sensation of nausea, fainting, dizziness, and tingling in the hands and feet. That and the inability to stand up. Now, I know what you're thinking: "where can I sign up?" But trust me, it wasn't nearly as pleasant as it sounds. After about a half-hour of feeling like I was going to die, the sensation gradually eased and I was able to sleep again. When the same sensation began to recur the next evening, I wasted no time in getting myself to the nearest hospital, which was fortunately next door.

After a couple of tests, I was informed that I would be staying in the hospital for observation and that, "it looks like you had a heart attack."

"Um, no, I'm pretty sure I didn't."

"No, really, you did!"

"Look, I know I'm not a doctor, but no, I definitely didn't have a heart attack."

"Well, these tests show that you did."

"Is there anything else that could cause the same results in those tests?"

As it turns out, there was, and further examination showed that I had instead had a bout of pericarditis. Not something fun, by any means, but about a thousand times better than having a heart attack. (I planned to post something on this earlier, but I wanted to get a confirmed diagnosis first.)

Google Earth Rules Our World

If any Kansas City dwellers missed the latest Google Earth update, check it out right away! Turn on the 3-D Buildings layer. It's slow to load, but patience pays off, because they have done just about everything in photo-realistic 3-D. No, not the entire city out to its furthest limits, but as far as I can tell everything between the Plaza and Downtown is in there, down to individual single-family houses. It is unbelievable. They even have cranes on the construction sites. It's quite possible that Google Earth is now more real than the real Earth. Or something like that.

Anyway, enjoy that and I'll explain about my adventures in the hospital in the next post.

Christmas Again?

Yes, as noted on this blog last year, it's October 25th and all of the Christmas decoration are going up around the city! So, the problem is not just pre-Thanksgiving Christmas, but now pre-Halloween Christmas! Anyway, I don't have much to say, but I would like to share with you the following video from last month of a really cute little boy. Enjoy!

Four Going on Fifteen...?

Jasmin, a few days ago: "Dad, for my next birthday I want a cell phone!"

Me, in response: "Don't you already have that Cinderella cell phone that Nana and Papa gave you?"

Jasmin: "No, Dad! I mean a real cell phone."

The next few years are going to be very, very interesting.

Happy 4th Brithday, Jasmin!

Feliz aniversário!
!تولدت مبارک

Are two MST3Ks better than one?

It looks like television's greatest show may not be as dead as once feared. Mystery Science Theater 3000 may be gone from the airwaves, but its cast is back doing what they do best. After discovering last year, through the help of another blog, that Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy were continuing the fun with their web-based RiffTrax, I now discover that MST3K's original cast of Joel Hodgson (Joel Robinson), Trace Beaulieu (Crow T. Robot and Dr. Clayton Forrester), J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo), Frank Conniff (TV's Frank), and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester) are back with a new show: Cinematic Titanic. Yep, same premise: making fun of really bad movies.

MST3K is dead. Long live MST3K!

Zambezi Zinger Resurrected

This week marked a milestone in Jasmin's life. Not her birthday, not her first tooth, not even her first day of school. This Monday marked her first visit to an amusement park and first ride on a roller coaster (of sorts). Now, I don't remember much from being her age, but I do remember my reaction during my first kidde-coaster ride as approximately halfway between abject terror and utter panic. It would be years before the trauma subsided enough that I could brave another coaster ride. But enough about me. Of course, after arriving at Mirabilandia (the only true theme park in the entire northeast of Brazil), the first ride that Jasmin wanted to go on is the coaster. With some trepidation about whether she would react similarly to the way I did, I led her up the steps and onto the "Dragon." Now, don't let the name spook you, this "animal" had a vertical drop of at most 6 feet. But it actually did get moving faster than I expected and was able to pull some really good g-forces going through the turns.



Jasmin began screaming the moment the ride began and didn't stop until all four "laps" through the track were completed. And then, at the exact moment that the train stopped, she finally took a breath and shouted: "Again! Again!!!" She must have ridden that thing and its caterpillar-like cousin at least 50 times. It was by far her favorite ride of the park. By the end she was throwing both hands up over her head as the coaster went over the drop. I was and still am flabbergasted. Even the attendant who was running the ride could only shake his head in amusement at each inevitable repetition of, "again, again!" every time the ride came to a halt.

When we finally left for the night, Jasmin looked over at the big roller coaster - the one with the upside-down loop - and asked me, "when I get big enough, can I ride that one?" What can a father say but, "of course, sweetie."

Oh, and about the title - my final re-introduction to the world of roller coasters after that initial childhood trauma was with a ride on the famous old standby at Worlds of Fun, the Zambezi Zinger. What a fine, fine ride it was. Although many roller coasters have come and gone at Worlds of Fun, the Zinger was the original - the only coaster to survive from the first day the park opened in 1973. When it was torn down after 25 years of service, it was a sad day in Kansas City. Well, any one who may have special memories of that great beast might find these photos of the Broca roller coaster in Montenegro, Colombia quite intriguing. When I first ran across them, I thought, holy crap, someone made an exact copy of the Zambezi Zinger. Well, it turns out I was wrong! It isn't a copy. It's the actual Zambezi Zinger, rebuilt to full glory in South America. It kind of makes me happy to know that it's still out there for kids of all ages to enjoy.

Oh yeah, and one more thing to mention -- there are new photos uploaded to Flickr!

日系ブラジル人 100 Years

Today marks the 100th Anniversary of the first Japanese immigration to Brazil, beginning the formation of what is today the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, with an estimated population of around 1.5 million. The first groups to arrive in 1908 ended up as laborers on the vast Brazilian coffee plantations of São Paulo and Paraná, the two states with the largest concentration of nipo-brasileiros today. Most Japanese Brazilians today are third- or fourth-generation, and around 40% have at least some non-Japanese ancestry due to intermarriages with other racial groups, a phenomenon practically unheard of in Japan. Not only is Brazil home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, but Japan as well is home to the largest Portuguese-speaking community in Asia - the dekasegi. In the 1980s and '90s, the economic boom in Japan as well as favorable immigration laws allowed for the creation of a new community - the 300,000-strong group of Brazilians of Japanese ancestry living in Japan. Although Japanese in appearance, they are culturally Brazilian - many speak only Portuguese and know only the Brazilian culture with which they were raised.

Today the Japanese Brazilian community is known for its famous artists, doctors, politicians, scientists, and athletes. Although making up only 0.5% of the total Brazilian population, Japanese descendants represent over 15% of Brazilians who pass the university entrance exams, and have contributed to the enrichment and development of Brazilian culture and society. For more information on the Japanese legacy in Brazil, please check out the linked article (in Portuguese only, sorry, but with a lot of pictures!).

Sport Club do Recife - 2008 Copa do Brasil CHAMPIONS

Just a quick note to celebrate Recife's first ever championship in the Copa do Brasil (Brazil Cup). Not only was it the first Cup win for a team from Recife, but the first ever for any team from the northeast of Brazil. Sport won every home game in the tournament by 2 goals or more and defeated the huge media favorite, Corinthians from São Paulo. Parabéns, Sport!

Happenings

Finding myself in the middle of a two-week stretch of solitude, I decided to add a bit more to the slowly languishing blog. Emilia has decided to spend some time in Aracaju with her parents to try to relax a bit, and Jasmin and Eduardo went along for the ride (not sure that it will be that relaxing with both kids, but what are you gonna do?) Since I've already used my vacation time, here I am working away, alone in the great roaring city of Recife. Come to think of it, I think I will probably relax more than she will.

But there's something to be said for a full house, full of noise, full of activity, full of messiness and disorder... it's alive. An empty house, sealed up, dark, quiet... it's unsettling in a way. For all the stress of dealing with work, children, chores, etc., there's still a comfort there that can't be found by relaxing in silence and darkness. I'll rest while I can, but I don't think I'll really find relief until our house is once again full of shouts, messes, laughter, cries, joy, pain, and life.

Photos have been updated and added to Flickr. Please enjoy them at your leisure!

The Blog Lives!

Well, kinda sorta, anyway. It's been two months since my last post here, and what a two months! Little Eduardo continues to grow and change, and Nana and Papa Kohlman finally got to see him - and so did Uncle Jeremy! Please enjoy the set of photos from their recent trip at the Flickr link. I don't have much more to say - I gotta go change a dirty diaper. Hopefully, there will be more time to write later....

...And Arrives!

Just a quick note to say that the big day has arrived! Eduardo Furutan Kohlman Rabbani was born on 2 February 2008 at 14:40 (Brasília time). He weighs 4.0 kilos (8 lbs., 13 ozs.) and is 51 cm (20 in.) long. A few pictures have been added to the Flickr link with more on the way in the next few days!

The Big Day Approaches...

Well, the big day is almost upon us. Officially, little Eduardo is expected on the 9th of February. But between now and then, it could happen any time. In the meantime, a few more photos have finally been added to the Flickr link. And, of course, once the big day comes, there will be new pictures as quickly as we can get them up!

Car Talk Redux - Goodbye Cursed Fiat

Well, after many months of continued problems, the haunted car is no more. It has been replaced! And, to my great surprise, not only was it accepted as a trade-in for a newer vehicle, but I was actually offered money in exchange for it! Haha - suckers. At this point, I would have gladly paid them to take it away. The last two weeks spent waiting for the new car to be ready were nail-biting. Would the possessed pile of metal that passed for an engine continue to run? Would it collapse in a heap just before I could get rid of it? Could I drive it around town with the gas tank just a whisker above empty so that I wouldn't have to accidentally give away something of value when I traded it in? (Easier said than done since the gas gauge was broken, too.) But somehow, it held together long enough to send it away. RIP, Fiat Siena. May the auto dealer wise up and give you a decent burial and not try to pass you off on some other unsuspecting owner.

Cause and Effect?

First, I want to wish all of you who keep time by the Gregorian calendar a Happy New Year! Those of you using other calendars can play along if you wish, however. No need to feel left out.

OK, I just wanted to mention a curious fact I noticed recently regarding a 3-year-old's sense of cause and effect. It's not at all similar to an adult's. Whenever something gets spilled or knocked over or broken, Jasmin has learned a new excuse, "it happened by itself." Well, at first, I thought this was just a child attempting to get out of blame by the ol' stand-by: lying about it. But, as it turns out, from her "view of the universe" I think she's actually calling it exactly as it appears to her. She just sees causes and effects differently than we do in our "grown-up world." The two recent examples that have convinced me there is more to this than simple mendacity:

"I didn't break it. I was carrying it across the room and it fell out of my hand and when it hit the floor it broke all by itself."

"I didn't break it. I was just pounding it on the table like this - bam, bam, bam, bam - and then it broke all by itself."

You be the judge.