GizmoLA.com - Family

Scrappy

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 18:18:25 -0700

I woke up the morning of tuesday August 15th, 2006 at 6:45am, and after looking around for a minute, realized that Scrappy wasn't on his dog bed. As I had an 9am meeting that day, I went upstairs to find him, and discovered him on his side, having passed away probably in the early morning hours. He lived to be twelve years old, and his death was a great surprise and shock to us. Although he hadn't been eating well, and was on some medication, we never suspected that anything was seriously wrong with him. He had been acting fairly normally and was as animated as ever especially when any "people" food was involved. He'd been up to all his usual tricks, jumping on the couch, and trying to steal things off Niamh's plate whenever she might put it down for a minute.

We decided to have a laboratory do a post mortem exam, and later that day, they called to inform us that Scrappy had a number of cancerous growths on his liver and pancreas. One of them had ruptured, and according to the lab, although it was a sudden upredictable event, it nevertheless was inevitable. They assured us that there was nothing we or they could have done, and that he wouldn't have suffered much.

We bought Scrappy from a Pomeranian breeder located in Riverside county, which is east of Los Angeles. We'd recently moved to an apartment in West Hollywood, and wanted a companion to keep Gizmo company during the days while we were at work. Tracy had spoken to a breeder over the phone and negotiated a deal for a Pomeranian puppy who they hadn't been able to sell and was now too big. My recollection is that he was already five or six months old, but perhaps a bit younger. It was a friday after work, and we jumped into Tracy's old VW rabbit, and headed out on what would turn out to be a two hour soujourn which included our getting lost, driving up and down lightless suburban streets, and giving serious consideration to turning around and heading home. At the end of a dead end street, I finally pullled the car over and got out. The address seemed to be in the vacinity of the one we were searching for, but we were expecting a ranch or warehouse rather than the rows of tract houses. We couldn't find a street number. Then I picked up the faint sound of dogs yapping. I followed it to the garage of a house and rang the doorbell. An elderly woman answered the door holding a tiny white pom in her hands.
Continue reading "Scrappy"

Conor

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:56:00 -0700

Conor Michael Rolston was born on October 21st, 2005 at 3:00pm in the Cedar Sinai Medical center, Los Angeles California. The little guy weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs 6oz, and stands 22 inches from head to toe. My mother Doris was here with us to witness the birth of her grand son, which made the event extra special for us. He now has his own place in the photo gallery. After much cajolling, I finally got Tracy to experiment with turning the auto flash off her camera, and she took this beautiful photo of Conor sleeping.

Good night Mister Giz

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 21:13:47 -0800

December of 2004 is a month that I expect I will remember for a long time. Although there were a few bright spots, it was for me a miserable end to a year I am happy to see recede in the distance. Recent events have reminded me that the world becomes smaller and smaller as I get older, the more I travel, and the more I ponder the way of things.

With the catastrophic tragedy in Asia still unfolding day by day, it might seem trivial to some people, that I would be writing about this subject. All I can offer in response is that this is something I have wanted to accomplish in the year 2004, and I sit here in the last few hours of this year, making my own form of peace with recent events.

I suppose there are two kinds of people in the world: those who see Pets as family members, and those that don't. I'm not embarassed to admit that I'm a member of the former category, and not unlike many of my neighbors here in Laurel Canyon where I live, part of my daily routine has included caring for, and spending time with my dogs. There are numerous studies documenting the therapeutic value a pet often provides to its owners, like the one in Australia where people facing chronic life threatening conditions were followed for a year. In one group, 25% of the participants died, while in the other group only 6% died. The difference between the groups is that the 6% group owned dogs, while the 25% group did not. I suspect I am no different in having been the beneficiary of that phenomenon throughout the years.
Continue reading "Good night Mister Giz"

Niamh's first music Video.

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Sat, 22 Mar 2003 22:53:00 -0800

Here at Gizmola.com, we go boldly into the 21st century with Niamh's first music video. What ensues is an uneditted session of Niamh working out in her Graco Bumper Jumper which I setup in the doorway to my office. I spent a lot of time researching jumpers, reading online reviews, and weighing the pros and cons of each type. Quite simply I spent way too much time, but then I feel that in the end I got the best damn baby jumper available, dammit. Although I'm not as hardcore as the one guy who recommended it on some website and also admitted he had modified it to go beyond the specs and turned it into a backyard baby bungie, I did find that we needed to add extra cushions inside the chair to keep Niamh in the middle, and provide the head and neck support I felt she needed. As it happens we ended up using parts from a crib mat that was designed to keep infants from rolling from their back to their sides while sleeping. You can see these foam rolls stuffed in the sides of the chair if you look closely. Some people have asked if the music was playing when the video was made... well that's a trade secret. No, actually there was no music playing at all, and I just found it funny that it seemed to sync up to her bouncing in places, when I added the song ("Jump Around" by the short lived white Irish American rap group "House of Pain")

These are large files (9 or 12 megabytes in size depending on which format you choose) so if you have a modem, be prepared for a substantial wait: Highlight the link and then right click and choose save as to start a download.

NiamhJumps in .rm (realplayer) format or NiamhJumps in .wmv (Windows mediaplayer) format.

Meet Grandma Doris!

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Thu, 13 Mar 2003 22:42:00 -0800

This is a bit of a catch up entry. In January Niamh was visited by Grandma Doris and Auntie Marion. Niamh enjoyed her new friends, and some photos were taken to remember the occasion with. There's a photo with Grandma Doris, and a couple from Marion's visit, including Niamh fresh out of the bath in her pooh-bear robe.

Christmas 2002

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 01:11:00 -0800

Christmas 2002 was low key and relaxing as we unwound from our whirlwind first month with Niamh. We got our tree put up, after much battling with the tree stand, which included a partial dissassemble so I could reseat the tree properly on the base pedestal about 8 or 9 times. This is the type of exercise that really puts one into the holiday mood, as I imagine replacing a carburetor in an 82 Oldsmobile might.

Tracy did the tree decorating, and when Christmas day rolled around, Niamh donned a Christmas dress, and posed with Mommy in front of the tree. Click on the Frame above. After a batch of pictures taken using natural light had to be discarded, we got the right prescription and got a great series. A few more pictures are included Here and Here.

Visitors from afar

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Tue, 24 Dec 2002 16:06:00 -0800

Niamh has had a number of visitors from abroad, including Grandma Betty visiting from Ireland, and Uncle Leonard (and honorary Aunt Carolyn) from Australia. She's now one month old, and has grown to twenty two inches, and nearly ten and one half pounds. The pediatrician says if her eyes remain their current blue color for three months, they will probably stay that way, which would make daddy very happy. Of course, the real news, is I finally got a selection of photos from Grandma Betty's visit. Click Niamh for the gallery.

New residents and digital sunsets

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Sat, 30 Nov 2002 02:37:00 -0800

Betty is visiting and getting some quality time with her new Grandchild Niamh. For interested parties, I have a small Niamh update photo. The latest photo features the amazing two arms raised sleep position. I know this is another sleeping baby photo, but heck, newborns are supposed to sleep a lot. This picture was taken in the Rolston family bassinet, which was purported to have provided a resting place for my father, myself, and now Niamh. Unfortunately I'm not sure it will make it to a 4th generation of Rolstons as the base is crumbling, but one never knows.

All the recent photos have been taken with a Nikon Coolpix 995 a 3.34 megapixel digital camera. Tracy gave me the camera last Christmas and it took me nearly a year to get it out of the box and start using it, but I must admit it's an amazing techno-gadget. Between learning how to take care of a baby (and documenting this process to a degree with images for the website), I have managed to snap a few landscape photo's, and put a page together with a mixture of the more interesting shots. There's views south and north, all taken the last few days, which in typical LA winter fashion have come after days of sweltering heat, followed by high winds, and now rain. I've found that rain and wind often combines to produce some of the most beautiful atmospheric conditions and sunsets, and I've attempted to capture a few here.

The Fairy princess

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Wed, 27 Nov 2002 02:12:00 -0800

Niamh Elizabeth Rolston was born on November 24th, 2002 at 5:24am, in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Peter Weiss delivered her at the Cedar Sinai medical center after roughly twenty hours of labor by Tracy.

Niamh weighed in at 8lbs, 7oz, and was 20 and 3/4 inches long. As for her name Niamh (pronounced as Neeve) it's Gaelic meaning "luster, shine, radiance, brilliance". Niamh is also the name of a faerie princess from celtic mythology:

One day while out hunting with Finn and the Fena, Oisin (the son of Finn) saw a beautiful maiden on a white steed ride swiftly towards them. As she came slowly to the presence of Finn, he addressed her courteously in these words, "Who art thou, O lovely youthful princess? Tell us thy name and the name of thy country, and relate to us the cause of thy coming". She answered in a sweet and gentle voice, "Noble king of the Fena, I am the daughter of the king of Tir na nog and my name is Niamh of the Golden Hair. I love thy noble son Oisin; and this is what has brought me to Erin." She took Oisin on her white steed to Tir na nog, the land of never ending youth. The steed galloped swiftly and smoothly towards the west, till he reached the strand; and then moved over the face of the sea with the speed of a cloud-shadow on a March day....

In a similar familial vein, I recently scanned a few old (and somewhat damaged) pictures from Tracy's youth, and did some retouching. Those photo's are available here

Baby Gizmo

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 01:46:00 -0700

It's been a while since I did a mainpage update. Came across a couple of classic old photos taken by my old college roommate Peter Fong, and decided to do a rescan. These were taken when we had an apartment in Redondo Beach across from the ocean, and Giz was still just a puppy. These were pretty badly damaged, but thanks to Adobe Photoshop they're looking pretty good again, at least in the online form. This scan was a lot better than the original one which has been on the site for a long time. Click on either photo for the fullsize version in the gallery.

Blackbaud

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Sat, 29 Sep 2001 03:29:00 -0700

Time for Fall cleaning. Dogs don't like baths in the sink though.

Tracy has taken a new job as a staff consultant with Blackbaud Inc, a Charleston South Carolina based software company that sells fundraising and accounting systems designed for non-profits and schools.

Phillips-Crawford Wedding

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Sat, 09 Jun 2001 03:03:00 -0700

My lifelong pal, Tim Phillips married Alicia Crawford on Saturday June 9th, 2001 in Malvern Pennsylvania.

On Friday night we attended the rehearsal dinner courtesy of Tim's parents David and Gretchen. Tim's mom also happens to be my godmother, and a special lady with a great sense of humor, spirit of adventure and appetite for literature. It was great to see her up and about after her recent illness. The dinner afforded us an opportunity to meet some of Alicia's friends and family and see old friends like Brian and Susan Dye.

On Saturday we attended the marriage ceremony, and I managed to snap a few photos with Tracy's Fujifilm Finepix 1300 digital camera. The finepix is a relatively inexpensive 1.3 megapixel camera (1280x960 max resolution) with an lcd screen on the back.

Both photos on this page were taken at the reception held at the People's Light Theater in the town of Paoli, where I grew up, and where my parents still reside.

I was relieved not to have to make any speeches at the event, although I did don a tux for the festivities. There were some excellent toasts made by Alicia's brother-in-law Tad, Tim's brother in law (the best man) Vince Connelly, and a sermon from Tim's older brother Andy, who is a practicing minister in Virginia.

Alicia's parents threw a lively reception featuring a buffet dinner, a better than average band that specialized in classic soul and motown hits, and several hundred enthusiastic guests.

Giz at the Gym

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Fri, 18 May 2001 01:23:00 -0700

I bought and assembled a Smith machine, which is a sorta home gym weight rack a while back, and set it up in our basement room. Gizmo likes to sit out on the porch entrance and monitor the stairway while I'm working out.

It's been a long time since I updated, primarily thanks to the demise of my DSL Internet connection when Northpoint went bankrupt. Apparently, my house is just a bit too far to from the local pacbell central office for me to get reliable DSL service (even though I had it for over a year from Northpoint!). I tried two seperate ISP's and in both cases waited weeks only to find out at the last minute that they couldn't provide me service.

I've found a new one and am keeping my fingers crossed. Fortunately, I was able to colocate the gizmola server with Kent Bulza, who has been nice enough to help get it and my mail going again. Thanks Kent!

Friends

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Sun, 11 Mar 2001 01:17:00 -0800

In post Z news, The Synj has landed down in San Diego at Presto Studios, makers of the Journeyman game series and now doing a Myst title. Congrats Dan.

Looks like I'm gonna be playing some hockey down at Culver City with my old pal Ted Henning. He apparently has a new company Scream Therapy doing some interesting web entertainment stuff, including animated horror episodes. It's a heavy flash site, FYI. If any x-z.comers want an intro let me know. Check out some of their sample work Here.

Peter Filardi's film Ricky6 has emerged from it's legal squabbles and has been playing the festival circuit and has been getting some nice reviews. Our old pal Hobbs and a buddy of his have done an official site, which includes the trailer for the film.

Well, I have finally decided what to do with my life. Military service! I've enlisted and am now private first class in the:

Mister Scrapples

nospam@example.com (David Rolston) — Wed, 14 Feb 2001 23:26:00 -0800

Ah unemployment. Lately I find myself with plenty of time to read, work on little projects, and scan negatives. I've done another RedHat Linux upgrade on Gizmola, and added some notes on using rpm. Tracy recently snapped some 35mm photos of the Scrapples, and we liked one in particular. I scanned the negative, and with a little help from photoshop, we have the thumbnail on the left. Click on it to see the photo gallery.