The Swamp

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:31 am**

I had shared in the old new swamp about my girlfriend's son's Chron's disease and treatment. We are back at Vanderbilt today for his now normal treatment (every 8 weeks), the first of which prompted the original post and which refreshed my memory. He is doing marvelously. He has responded to the new treatment as well as we could have hoped for, and has grown 7" in the last 7 months. He's actually surpassed what the doctor had said would be his likely adult height following his original diagnosis. Almost no food restrictions now, which is the balls. Only issue now is osteo-necrosis in his knee, likely due to cortisone treatment from the rheumatoid arthritic pain he was having due to the original Chron's flare-up. He will likely have to have a minor knee surgery to try and spur bone re-growth in the effected area before the dead bone sloughs off and takes his cartilage with it. He made the basketball team at his new high school (a real accomplishment as its a big school) for this year, but was unable to play or practice all year because of the knee which really got bad over the summer. That was a real disappointment for him. We're trying to have the surgery ASAP so that hopefully he can be able to be a part of the team next year. Fingers crossed.

This place and these people are still absolutely fucking incredible. These nurses and doctors are amazing. I am far short of having the strength required to put on a happy face day after day for these kids.

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:37 am**

Good story, Bob. Good luck with all that!

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:41 am**

Vandy is still one of the great medical centers. Great to hear how well he is doing. If you haven't already, be sure to consider the possible role gluten in the diet can play in inflammatory bowel disease. Not all cases, but a surprising number of patients have tremendous improvement by eliminating gluten.

Best wishes for the lad.

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:42 am**

Great to hear, Bob. Hope all continues to go well for him.

On a personal note, I watched my son play trumpet at an all county band competition yesterday with his middle school's honors band. He is one of 3 sixth graders asked to join the band that is made up of 7th and 8th graders from his school. I never had the chance to play an instrument in school and regret that to this day. His teacher says he is really a good player and she wants him to continue with lessons over the summer. He enjoys playing, but hates practicing, so that will be a fight. We are looking into a "school of rock" type camp for the summer, so it will be a it more enjoyable for him.

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:50 am**

SlimChristian wrote:On a personal note, I watched my son play trumpet at an all county band competition yesterday with his middle school's honors band. He is one of 3 sixth graders asked to join the band that is made up of 7th and 8th graders from his school. I never had the chance to play an instrument in school and regret that to this day. His teacher says he is really a good player and she wants him to continue with lessons over the summer. He enjoys playing, but hates practicing, so that will be a fight. We are looking into a "school of rock" type camp for the summer, so it will be a it more enjoyable for him.

Good stuff, bfj. I'm sad right now on this subject. My 7th grade daughter and i fought over whether she would stop playing the viola in the next school year. She's been playing for three years (played the piano for several years before that) and she's really good. Probably would've been a soloist next year, but she said she's done. I think it may just be because some of her close friends are quitting orchestra and she doesn't want to do it without them. So, I tried to put my foot down on her staying with it. But, she put up such a fuss about wanting to take an art class instead (which also makes sense because it's taught by a teacher she adores), that I finally, grudgingly gave in. Too bad.

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:30 pm**

Great news, Neal and Bob.

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:32 pm**

hahahahahaha

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:47 pm**

ZMan thinks that you guys are supposed to do this for your kids. Now you want to crow?

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:00 pm**

Grasspenis wrote:ZMan thinks that you guys are supposed to do this for your kids. Now you want to crow?

I don't Swamp much these days. Wha am I supposed to do for my kids?

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:23 pm**

Great to hear it, guys.

My kid finally had a debate tournament to compete in - all the other ones this year have been for high school, but he is in middle school so they haven't had any tourneys until now. He and his partner finished sixth. Out of six teams.

Poor guy.

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:27 pm**

Steve of phpBB wrote:Great to hear it, guys.

My kid finally had a debate tournament to compete in - all the other ones this year have been for high school, but he is in middle school so they haven't had any tourneys until now. He and his partner finished sixth. Out of six teams.

Poor guy.

Waiting for one of the other lawyers to chime in with the appropriate joke.

Posted: **Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:32 pm**

SlimChristian wrote:
Grasspenis wrote:ZMan thinks that you guys are supposed to do this for your kids. Now you want to crow?

I don't Swamp much these days. Wha am I supposed to do for my kids?

It's from another thread. nm

EDIT: Nothing to do with Zman's actual philosophies on child-rearing.

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 9:15 pm**

My 6 year old before going to bed saw the opening of Modern Family tonight and started asking everyone about the tooth fairy. So we managed to change the subject rather abruptly but still never gave her an answer she was satisfied with. So Audrey just came downstairs and asked me to put this under her pillow before I go to bed. Awww...guys.

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 9:19 pm**

Straight As. Boom.

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 9:24 pm**

rass wrote:Straight As. Boom.

Dayum. Without the apostrophe, that's fantastic.

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 9:28 pm**

Scottie wrote:
rass wrote:Straight As. Boom.
Dayum. Without the apostrophe, that's fantastic.

Would you believe she hijacked my account to brag about herself? So grounded.

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 9:28 pm**

Alright...just tell me.

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 9:36 pm**

rass wrote:Would you believe she hijacked my account to brag about herself? So grounded.

I'm so stealing that three word combination. And dropping the period. It'll replace archaic praise such as "solid" or "this" on the vocabulary bench. As in:

"Fuck you up for free, man. Straight as boom."

Or this real-time example:

rass wrote: (INSERT HERE: a profound observation heretofore unknown to the Swamp and constructed in a stylish fashion)

Straight as boom.

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 10:01 pm**

TELL ME GOD DAMMIT!!!

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 10:19 pm**

And a new Swamp meme is born.

Straight as boom would fucking anyone.

Crackerjack.

TWILTS.

Posted: **Wed May 01, 2013 11:49 pm**

My younger daughter has learned to tie her shoes. She's 12 1/2 years old, so this is the result of many years of effort. She's earned many a restaurant outing with her hard work. Next up -- nailing down her lefts and rights. She currently gets these right at about a 60% rate. But I anticipate an increased restaurant attendance rate this summer as she masters this concept.

My older daughter brought home her pre-ACT test results on Monday. Apparently this is a shorter version of the actual ACT used in college admissions. She had a perfect score. A few months ago she took the PSAT and scored in the high 70s on each section. The scores are nice. They raise the odds that elite colleges will grasp that she has great intellectual potential, so she'll have more college choices. Even nicer is that she doesn't seem to care much about her test scores. Unlike most of her peers, she did no test prep work (books, classes) in advance of the tests, and doesn't want to talk about the results beyond a few terse responses to my questions.

Posted: **Sat May 11, 2013 10:58 pm**

The "straight as." kid scored a goal in soccer today, which was great, but she gave the cutest little fist pump when she realized the ball went in.

There was a small turnout today, I assume because of the storms last night and over cast conditions this morning, so the teams played with one less person on the field. By far the most exciting and well played game of the season. A lot of space, and there were passes!

Posted: **Sun May 12, 2013 9:51 am**

Scored, fist-pump. Boom!

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2013 10:01 am**

My twelve year-old son wrote this today, summing up some of the stuff he's been learning in his Astronomy class recently (he's home-schooled and watches this course on DVD):

Section #1: The Birth of Black Holes

The first thing that happens to a black hole is naturally its birth; this is called a GRB, a gamma ray burst. The GRBs are astronomically far away, but they are still very bright in their apparent luminosity. The GRBs are therefore very powerful with a lot of energy. There are at least three types of GRBs that create black holes and at least one type of GRB that does not.

Highly-Rotating and Deeply-Collapsing GRBs Create Black Holes

GRBs occur when the iron core of a star collapses in a supernova and emits two rays of material along its axis of rotation. The material rays pummel through the star's gasses and through the surface of the remaining star (that surrounded its collapsed iron core). The material rays are so energetic that they emit gamma rays. Material waves traveling at different speeds and angles crash together and emit more gamma rays.

Later, the material (having already used up a lot of the energy it acquired when the iron core of the star exploded) hits gas clouds that exist in space often as remnants of supernova, for example. The collision between the energized material and the gas clouds emits an aftershock of X-ray light and then visible light – which is what you “see” immediately after a GRB. This means that we actually “see” the aftershock of a GRB, not the GRB itself.

GRBs typically occur only with highly rotating stars and stars that really collapse far. These stars can collapse so far that they become black holes. As a result, black holes are “born” with these highly rotating stars and stars that collapse far and can create gamma ray bursts as describe here.

Neutron-Star GRBs Create Black Holes

In the interest of completeness, sometimes neutron stars, like highlyrotating and deeply-collapsing stars, create GRBs too. Neutron stars do this differently. Neutron star bursts are brighter than ordinary ones, but they don't last as long. Neutron star bursts (or short-duration bursts) also create black holes when they burst, but these bursts are rare. This only happens when a neutron star can no longer hold it's own mass, or when two neutron stars crash together. Both things can create black holes.

Magnatar GRBs do NOT Create Black Holes

Also GRBs can be created when a neutron star rearranges surface material. This forces a ray of highly charged particles outward. But this does not form a black hole because there is nothing collapsing in on itself, and this is not as bright as the other varieties of GRBs.

Section #2: The Fourth Dimension Existence of Black Holes

In our universe, there is a fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is an invisible dimension in space and time that can be warped by objects with a lot of mass. When objects warp this fourth dimension, it creates a “pit”. This “pit” pulls objects inwards towards the massive object that is warping space and time. Compressed objects warp of space and time even stronger and more significantly than ordinary objects. This could be thought of as the “pit” getting deeper and steeper. Once something gets so compressed that it creates such a powerful warp “pit,” even light cannot escape if it grows close enough. This is called an event horizon. That – when no light can escape -- is what classifies something as a black hole. That is also why it is black.

The relationship between objects with mass, the fourth dimension, and black holes is understood because of Einstein’s General Theory Of Relativity. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity proved the existence of the fourth dimension and allowed other scientists to study it and to find black holes even though they are black. Einstein’s explanation of the quality of space and time is why we can detect black holes. If light is being emitted by something behind the black hole, the light is warped by the 'pit' in the fourth dimension. Therefore if a black hole passes in front of something, we know because the something that the black hole is passing in front of becomes warped because the light emitted from it is changed by the warping of space and time caused by the black hole.

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2013 10:29 am**

That's fantastic. I didn't know your kids were home-schooled. How come?

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2013 10:43 am**

Jerloma wrote:That's fantastic. I didn't know your kids were home-schooled. How come?

He is home-schooled because he has Asperger's and public middle school is a tough place for Aspies. He went to regular public school up until this year. We put together a curriculum that's a combination of online stuff (Khan Academy for math), DVD courses (including that Astronomy class), a Greek Myths class through Duke TIP and a few in-person classes at a program for home-schoolers at UNC. We pay a teacher to come in and work with him during the day (since my wife and I work). My younger son is in public fourth grade.

By the way, that paper above was written directly this morning, without looking anything up. That's off the top of his head.

(BTW, if any of you are interested - here is the course - http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/cour ... x?cid=1810" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. It's fantastic. They run deals all the time that mark the price way down. I think we paid under $200 for it.)

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2013 11:02 am**

He is home-schooled because he has Asperger's and public middle school is a tough place for Aspies.

Of course. I had no idea.

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2013 11:44 am**

That is awesome that you are home schooling your son. Nice result here, too.

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2013 11:57 am**

Great work by your son, there, Dave.

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2013 3:53 pm**

Icepenis wrote:ZMan thinks that you guys are supposed to do this for your kids. Now you want to crow?

Actually, I'm just hoping Bob's kid loses that last food restriction, and can freely consume balls.

Posted: **Thu Jun 20, 2013 5:03 pm**

It's all downhill after pre-school graduation, right?

Posted: **Fri Jun 21, 2013 5:50 am**

rass wrote:It's all downhill after pre-school graduation, right?

My son is 16 and my daughter is 14. Between them, we have had to purchase seven sets of grad photos.

I say let's smash the Photo Studio Industrial Complex.

Posted: **Mon Oct 14, 2013 3:04 pm**

My boys both have their final soccer games of the fall season this weekend. Their season is 8 games long. Right now, both of their teams are in first place - one at 7-0 and the other at 5-2 (four game winning streak!).

In both cases, this final game will determine the league title.

My younger son's team moved to 5-2 this weekend and surprisingly moved into first when the previous leaders had a tie. We already played that team once this year, losing 3-1 in the first game of the year. That team dominated last season, going undefeated and pretty much unchallenged. This year, clearly they aren't as good, but regardless, we play them again to end the season. Winner take all (although a tie works for us as well).

My other son's team is one game away from their third-straight undefeated season, a run I've never experienced as a player or coach. Winning is a lot of fun! This game is huge though. We are 7-0 and via a coincidence in the schedule, playing another 7-0 team. We've scored 28 goals and given up 5 this season. They've scored 29 and given up 6. We finished 8-0 last spring, while they went 7-0-1, because we didn't play each other. So this squad has gone 14-0-1 in their last 15 games, but yet has always had to look up at us. It's a BIG game! Is it weird to be nervous for my 12-year-old son's game six days in advance? The kids will be CRUSHED if they lose. The ones who've been with us all three seasons have never lost a regular season game (we got smoked in a post-season tournament game last spring).

Posted: **Mon Oct 21, 2013 2:21 pm**

Had the games this weekend.

First up, my younger son's team played on Saturday. Again, these were the top two teams in the league - winner wins the league (and a tie would mean my son's team won). This team had beaten my son's team 3-1 in the first game of the year.

Saturday was different. The Fury (the good guys) dominated from start to finish, winning 4-1. There were three other potential goals that their goalie stopped just barely on the line (or over, if you ask parents who had better angles), but the one ref wasn't in a position to call them in. My son assisted on the first goal as part of a beautiful give-and-go with the striker. It was my son's first championship. Most of his teams have been mediocre at best. It's funny how much team success affects his opinion of his own play. Now he wants to play indoor to tide him over until the spring season.

Game #2 was Sunday for my older son's team. Both teams were 7-0 and equal in all tie-breakers. Both were undefeated last spring as well. This was a big game. The Bad Guys came out very aggressively, outhustling and outpushing our boys who weren't used to the physical play. A very uncharacteristic whiff by our sweeper (our best player) led to the first goal. 1-0 bad guys. Our first deficit of the year (and probably first a looong time). Ten minutes later, our diminutive Mormon striker who wasn't going to play (it was a Sunday), but his dad decided Jesus would have wanted him out there, dribbled through three or four defenders and tied things up. Like 30 seconds later, the Bad Guys scored again, this time in an easy shot that our goalie would save 9 out of 10 times.

2-1 at the half. In the second half, we moved guys around a bit - goalie to sweeper, sweeper to forward. Ten minutes in, we got a through ball to our little Mormon and he banged it in off the far post (as I sprinted down the sideline with him). 2-2. Ten minutes later, our sweeper-turned-forward got free amongst a gaggle of defenders and buried the go-ahead goal. We held on for the res of the very tense half to get the win 3-2. My boy played the whole game at stopper and did a good job mucking up their strong central attack.

It was a great weekend of soccer for the Irwin boys (and nervous dad/coach).

Posted: **Mon Oct 21, 2013 2:35 pm**

Congrats, Dave. Way to bury the hopes and dreams of the Bad Guys team!

Posted: **Mon Oct 21, 2013 2:44 pm**

Sabo wrote:Congrats, Dave. Way to bury the hopes and dreams of the Bad Guys team!

I did feel badly for the kids (even the one who cheapshotted one of our guys after he passed the ball so the ref wouldn't see it. Their sideline was really worked up (as was ours) when they scored. I know their kids were crushed to lose.

On the other hand, their coach turned around in the handshake line before he got to the end. I was set to congratulate him on a great season and I see that he's already walking the other way. Dick. I don't know if he shook our other coaches' hands or not (I was the third one). I've never had that happen before.

Posted: **Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:01 pm**

Well, it is a kids soccer league. I guess the Bad Guys coach wanted to show he's a kid, too.

Posted: **Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:17 pm**

Help me out, fellas. At what age is it OK to begin living vicariously through your son?

redacted

Posted: **Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:57 pm**

Comment removed since the image was redacted.

Posted: **Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:17 am**

kranepool wrote:Help me out, fellas. At what age is it OK to begin living vicariously through your son?

Your age, his or theirs?

The Swamp

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