To those few scurvy dogs who have remain attached to this project while it has been so long dormant, let me say thank you, and wish you a fine Talk Like A Pirate Day.

I'd like to explain why there's been no work for this crew in so long. We have a new member of the crew, by the name of Amanda Diane. She was born in February, though she was not expected until June,
weighing only 1 lb 10 oz (750g). She had two surgeries in close succession, both nerve wracking for us, but in the end successful. She spent a total of 40 days with a ventilator tube down her throat. That and the high level of oxygen she needed caused damage to her lungs, though it was a calculated risk which saved her life.

All told, she spent five and a half months in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), at a hospital an hour and a half away from our home. I put a lot of miles on my car going back and forth almost every day.

Amanda came home in early August. Since then we've been even more busy, but even more happy. The prognosis is that as her lungs grow the damaged tissue will be a smaller and smaller part of the whole, and we have every hope that she'll be able to run around and play like any other kid in just a few years. Until then, we'll be slightly nervous parents around anybody with the sniffles.

So now you know why the work dried up back in February. I've been a little busy with other things.

As things settle down a bit I hope to have more work for the crew. There are still, as always, some interesting things to try with BOINC. Meanwhile, thanks for your patience, and full speed ahead. Arrrr!


____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

All my best wishes for our new Crewmember Amanda Diane and her parents.
____________

Arrrr
welcome on board, Amanda Diane!


____________
Sysadm@Nbg
Member of Team Seti.Germany

Congrats Eric! I've enjoyed following Amanda's progress. She's turned in a beautiful little girl. I can't wait to see what she accomplishes as she grows older. With the fight she's put up over the last 7 months, she should have the strength and courage to do anything she wants.
____________
Kathryn :o)
The BOINC FAQ Service
The Unofficial BOINC Wiki
The Trac System

Congrats Eric & Nancy. Only good news to see that Amanda is finally at home with the two of you brooding over her. She'll turn out fine, I am sure. A worthy Pirate. :-)
____________
Jord.

The BOINC FAQ Service.

Best of luck, and good to hear she's doing OK now...

And if it'll help you in the least, I'll let you in on something. My father spent about 45 years of his life working as a chemist. In any case, due to something work related, he did end up needing to get a significant portion of one of his lungs removed (about 1/4) several decades ago. He was fine, and lived a quite ordinary life without incident following this. For him about the only hassle was when he had to go through air port security, as they used mettle clips to seal up the bottom portion of that lung, and those were enough mettle to set off the mettle detectors. Other then that, he wasn't really effected in any other way, and his breathing capacity remained quite good. Anyhow, good luck for both you and your daughter.
____________

Welcome aboard Amanda Diane...

Wormholio wrote:

So now you know why the work dried up back in February. I've been a little busy with other things.

There couldn't have been a more important reason!

I'm glad she has made it. The worst is behind you, but please, don't let Pirates@home take any priority over the family - they need you far more than we do.

my best wishes for our little one and ... to the parents! ;)
____________

Hail thee, Amanda, princess of pirates, glowgem of humankind, hail thee aboard our fleet of pirate ships. May the winds always blow fair for you!

And now get going, that your father gets you an account over here, confiscate his computer and catch those hellos that are a special greeting to you.

And do never give back your golden bracelet and the sunglasses. Whatever a pirate girl is given; it always stays her treasure!
____________
Dragons can fly because they don't fit into pirate ships

What a beautiful story. You made the wife and I cry.

Good luck to you, Amanda and your wife now and in the future.

Children are such a nice blessing. Mine are grown, but now I have a couple of grandchildren and they still keep bringing happiness.

Thank you for giving us this update.

...full speed ahead. Arrrr!

Best wishes, Eric, and good luck to you all!
Take good care of Amanda Diane.
____________
Peter .-)

Darn i have missed this thread. Sorry for being late now.


Congrats to all of you. I wish you all the best. (Especially silent nights)!!!




____________

It's been far too long since the last update, and we have some good news to report.

In a week or so it will be four months since Amanda came home from the hospital. She was on ten or eleven medications, one of which was oxygen, which she got though a nasal cannula at a flow rate of 100cc/min. As her lungs grew we were able to turn the flow rate down, until we got to the lowest rates possible on the tanks. We could then turn the oxygen off for intervals during the day, and by mid-October she slept through several nights without it.

Then she caught a cold. We all did. We had been lead to expect a trip to the hospital if she caught even a small cold, but it stayed in her head, and while it made her uncomfortable, we didn't have to go to the hospital. She needed a little supplementary oxygen again, but she was over the cold after two weeks. It took a little longer to get back down to not needing oxygen, but we did, and so a little over two weeks ago I took the cannula off, so that now we can see her beautiful face without the tubes.

Several of the medications she was taking were diuretics intended to prevent fluid buildup in her lungs. Now that she has increased lung capacity we are able to wean her off them, one at a time each week. We'll be done with the last one next week.

Being born premature with respiratory problems has other consequences. Lying in a crib for months resulted in lack of muscle strength and muscle tone, but with the help of a physical therapist and a massage therapist she's getting caught up to her "corrected" age of 6 months. She can roll to her side and from her back, and prop her head up on her arms for a minute or so. We've also gotten help from a nutritionist and a feeding specialist. With them and her four doctors she's got quite a specialized team working for her.

I know this crew hails from many ports and thus many local customs. Around here we take some time off at the end of November to give thanks for the blessings in our lives, and as you might expect she's been the principle focus of our Thanksgiving this year.

So I hope the crew will excuse the fact that there has been little work here for such a long while. There are things I'd like to investigate and document for BOINC, and we will get to that eventually, but at least you now have a better idea what's been going on.

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Wow. Thanksgiving for sure!

This brings out so many emotions and all of them good.
____________

Click and enter your name for your BOINC Statistics

Eric,

A hearty Thanksgiving to you and yours! The news is a lot to be thankful for. Do what you must and we can all rot longer (like we aren't already rotting Pirates).

Thank you for this fine update and hope you are able to stop in from time to time to give us more news.

Thanks for the update Eric. I know that Amanda is a miracle. And I'm so proud of the progress she's made.
____________
Kathryn :o)
The BOINC FAQ Service
The Unofficial BOINC Wiki
The Trac System

Well, I thought I'd add my very belated comments to this post. Very sorry they are delayed, but I have a fairly good excuse...at about the time of the original post, both myself and my daughter were quite ill with pneumonia (no small matter for an Asthma sufferer like me). Both of us are fully recovered now, so we had our own very meaningful Thanksgiving.

So,
Welcome aboard to Amanda! And indeed, sounds like a true Thanksgiving!




____________

Indeed wonderful news! :-)

PS. Wishing a blessed Advent season to Capt. Jack's Pirate Crew at home and the whole Crew here... ;-)


____________
Arrrrr! I'm a proud member o' the pirates' ship crew BOINC@Heidelberg

I just wanted to give the crew an update on our newest little crew member, because today is her birthday.

She's doing fine. Because she was premature they measure her by "corrected" age, based on when she was due. By that measure she's eight and a half months old, and she's hit most of the developmental milestones for that corrected age. The other day she called me "da", and she refers to Rusty as "eeeee".

The one place she is behind is in using her arms to prop up and to get into sitting position. She won't do it. She can just about sit on her own on a flat surface, but she won't use her arms to get there. This is not uncommon with babies like her, who spent months in the hospital on their backs. Because of her respiratory difficulties she was accustomed to keeping her arms wide open and up (like she's signaling a touchdown in American football), and that influenced muscle tone and development. She's getting physical therapy via a wonderful program called Early Intervention, and we just recently changed from every other week to every week to address this issue. The therapist has seen this before and is not worried, so we are not either. But we'll be very happy as she starts propping up and moving around and eventually starts to crawl.

We have a spate of doctor's appointments this week but it's all follow-up stuff.

As you can tell from the latest run, I've been able to carve out a little bit of time to work on Pirates@Home. The graphics in cube 6.05 were set up for St. Valentine's day, but it's also appropriate for today. I have some plans and ideas for what comes next here, but we will have to see how that works out. I suspect any progress will be very slow, but I hope we'll have at least occasional gusts of wind in the sails.
____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Happy Birthday Little Miss Amanda!

You're doing such a great job! And the same for Mom and Dad.
____________
Kathryn :o)
The BOINC FAQ Service
The Unofficial BOINC Wiki
The Trac System

While we still be in the doldrums as the captain continues on diaper duty, here's the latest status report. Our newest crew member continues to get physical therapy every week, with the result that she's finally learned to crawl, and she's even starting to climb. We are now working on walking, and she's making good progress. She's just passed 1 year corrected age.

We just passed another round of doctor appointments with almost flying colors. We've dropped a few medications and cut back on the one that remains. We have one follow up eye appointment. It's too early to tell, but there was mention of the possibility of an eye patch. That, and the way she drags one stiff leg while using her walker (peg leg) made me think we really do have a little pirate here.

(We don't expect either of these to be serious problems, I'm just having some pirate fun. ;-)

The upshot is that things are going well, but there have been no spare cycles available for BOINC activities. Hang fast, and be sure to crunch for more worthy projects while you wait.

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Thank your Captain sir for the updates!

From the date on the log I see that it's been over six months since the last update. I've left this crew adrift far too long without any news.

I'm afraid it's bad news for pirating, though it's good news for parenting. I hinted back then of the possibility of a peg leg or an eye patch, but neither has come to pass.

We continued the weekly physical therapy, with the result that just before Thanksgiving she was standing on her own, and then quickly took her first wobbly steps. After that she soon progressed to toddling around, and after only a short while could stoop to pick something up without falling. There was some concern that her feet were "pronated", which could end up as flat feet and require special shoes. But it turns out that went away as soon as she was carrying her full (albeit tiny) weight. Now she's practically running, and likes to do circuits through the mess, galley and wardroom, as Rusty and myself try to keep up or just stand aside and let her go. The physical therapy has been cut to once a month, and will likely be dropped when she turns two in February.

We had noticed that sometimes her eyes were not quite lining up, but we didn't know if this was something called Strabismus (which could require the services of a surgeon) or perhaps Amblyopia, which is also known as "lazy eye" and is sometimes treated with an eye patch (argh!). It turns out it's neither; she is nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other, but both do their job when they can, just not necessarily in unison. The treatment is for her to wear spectacles, which was a challenge at first, but not so bad now that she is accustomed to them. We are hoping that with the eye glasses she'll be able to develop stereoscopic vision, though how much only time will tell. In any case, she look a lot like a little scientist when she wears her glasses, which makes daddy proud.

The doctor's appointments are now much less frequent, though she's getting preventative shots once a month to prevent a virus called RSV, and boy does she howl just to be in the same room with a needle. (I was going to encourage this crew to contribute to a BOINC project in Spain which is studying this virus - Virus Respiratorio Sincitial - but today at least they seem to be off-line. Maybe it's just for the holidays?) Her most serious problem had disappeared completely by our last cardio exam 3 months ago. We'll do a follow-up in New York City next week to confirm, and if the results are good then we are likely out of the woods once this cold and flu season is over.

I'm afraid I'll be on my tour of diaper duty for a bit longer, but I may be able to find something to keep the crew busy, or at least light up the cluster a bit, as we say. No promises, but we shall see.

To all the crew who have remained, I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful holiday with your own families and friends, and I wish you all the best for this next new year. Happy New Year!

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Good news and a better new year. WW2.5 just started here in Washington state.

Roark
PS Nice tree!
____________
May you always have clear skies,
Following seas
And the wind at your back.

Nice and a lot promising reading, Capt'n.
Best wishes for the coming year to your whole family, you all deserve it!
____________
Peter .-)

Ahoy Cap'n and thanks for the news. Very glad to hear that things seem to be progressing well. I hope your new year is indeed a very happy one.

--Scott


____________

Good to hear things are okay, and nice that there's work here (even if it is just for a little while).

Belated new year's greetings, of course!
____________
Pirates of Penn's Forest...arrrr, aight?

Extreme belated congrats with your new daughter! Arrrr.
____________

As of right now, 1/10/2011, it looks like the project is still down. But just in case in comes up anytime soon, here is the link for the RSV project "Virus Respiratorio Sincitial".

http://falua.cesfelipesegundo.com/VRS/

It has again been too long since I last gave a report to the crew about our wee one. Here is the latest scuttlebutt:

We've continued doing physical therapy once a month, not for any serious cause, but just that they want her to be able to go up and down the stairs, and it turns out the stairs are each rather tall compared to her little legs. But she's now getting that mastered, so we'll graduate out of that soon. And meanwhile, she now runs just about everywhere she goes. So no peg leg.

But there is some talk of an eye patch. Last year when her eyes were tested they found that one was nearsighted and the other farsighted, and we were encouraged to get her to wear her glasses as much as possible. A year later the farsighted eye has improved, but the nearsighted eye is slightly worse. She absolutely refused to wear the glasses in the weeks before they were changed to the new prescription. So now there is some danger of Amblyopia. In the fall we will try some drops that fuzz one eye, to get her to rely more on the other (with the glasses). But if that does not work, then she may have to wear an eye patch for a while (arg!).

Until the end of the past flu season we kept her locked away from the public world, for fear of infection. But once spring came she was able to go out, and she likes it. Next month she will even start daycare two days a week, while the Captain teaches a course in astronomy at a nearby college. It's small progress, but it's something. And who knows, if there's a little time free then this project might finally get some work. But we'll see - no promises.

So overall it's good news, but nothing dramatic. The summer doldrums will continue, but there may be something interesting on the horizon, or just beyond.
____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Thank you for this latest scuttlebutt. It brings a warm smile to my face.

Here's a quick update to follow on the report of last month. We just went through a round of doctor's visits, all routine, and everything is ship shape in regards to the health of the little one. She's now going to daycare two full days a week, and we can tell that it's been really good for her to get out into the world and to play with other kids her age. Although she's a bit behind in talking, she seems to be catching up quite well, and I suspect the daycare is part of the reason. It's a very good program connected with a local hospital.

Unfortunately, the Cosmology course I was going to teach was can canceled due to low enrollment. I think that's because the course was added late and wasn't advertised enough, not that freshman have an aversion to physics and astronomy, though that may well have contributed. Oh well, maybe next semester.

And meanwhile, that frees up some time, of which a wee bit might go to getting this rust bucket back in shape. It made it possible to put out a little bit of work for the crew for Talk Like A Pirate day, and I'll soon have another batch ready to go.
____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

One more thing. This Sunday I will be riding in the Bikers for Babies event for the March of Dimes. It's for a very good cause, and if any of this crew would like to contribute to the March of Dimes for this event then just follow that link, click on "Sponsor Rider", enter my name, and follow the directions from there. Thanks.
____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

And meanwhile, that frees up some time, of which a wee bit might go to getting this rust bucket back in shape. It made it possible to put out a little bit of work for the crew for Talk Like A Pirate day, and I'll soon have another batch ready to go.

Again my apologies for a delay. I just wanted to report success with the motorcycle ride for the March of Dimes. I was able to raise over $100 for them, and over half of that came from members of this crew. You know who you are. Thank you!

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

So was my answer a no?

Glad to hear the ride went well.

So was my answer a no?

The plan, when I get a chance, is to upgrade this site to the newest BOINC server code...

I can tell an upgrade happened, I am unsure if it's the newest code but I can state things look very nice.

As for the depleting of the RAC, it is working. I appreciate that.

So how come there's things being added to this thread, but it's never showing with the yellow "new things have been added to this thread" icon ( ) in the index?
____________
Jord.

The BOINC FAQ Service.

I see the yellow thing showing new messages.

Also after more than 24 hours the RCA held, so it looks like a manual run needs to be done to make it depreciate.

I see the yellow thing showing new messages.

I see it both in the index and on the new messages themselves.
I am on FF8 beta.

No new icon showing...


But on your post it is.
____________
Jord.

The BOINC FAQ Service.

I've just read through this thread with IE8, unread messages were yellow-flagged since approx. sept-30 or oct-01 message and the thread was definitely marked with yellow version of . But unaware of the problem in advance, I did not take a screenshot, and unfortunately it was the only unread thread in the forum .-( so hard to confirm now. (I think I'll rapidly trigger some yellow marks by stealing the gold.)

BTW, I'm sorry for posting into a locked thread, my depest pirate apology .-P
____________
Peter .-)

(I think I'll rapidly trigger some yellow marks by stealing the gold.)