When doing the slides for my optional parameter video, it never even occurred to me that PowerPoint may be able to accommodate aspect ratios other than 4:3.  While watching my video after it posted to YouTube, I started wondering if PowerPoint would support 16:9.  Sure enough, from the Design tab, click “Page Setup,” and the first configurable property, “Slides sized for,” lets you pick from several aspect ratios, including 16:9.

Wish I’d thought to look for that sooner.

So I downloaded the bits from MSDN, and dropped it on my Eee.  The process just couldn’t be easier.

1. Start with a 4 GB USB memory stick.  Partition it with a single primary partition, formatted to FAT32.  Then copy the contents of the Windows 7 disk onto that stick.
2. Reboot your Eee.  Press F2 to go into the BIOS setup, and disable fast boot.  Reboot again.  Press ESC to boot to the USB stick.
3. Perform the Windows 7 setup. 
4. Boot into Windows 7.  It will recognize every piece of hardware except for the ACPI device.
5. Install the latest Intel graphics driver (Windows 7 RC version found here).  This is required for the ACPI driver to function properly.
6. Install the ACPI driver from Asus, found here under “ATK.”
7. Enjoy Windows 7 goodness!

My wife, Michelle, and I have three sons, Connor (4), Cade (2), and Collin (1 month).  While Collin isn’t quite old enough to get into computers, Connor and Cade both love it.  Their favorite educational programs are the Reader Rabbit series, followed closely by several Blue’s Clues games. 

To make life easy on mom and dad, as well as to protect the CDs, we ripped all their games as ISO images using ISO Recorder and keep them stored on my wife’s laptop.  Even using the ISOs, the procedure for playing the games at the kids’ request was still a pain in the neck:

1. Log on to the laptop using either mine or my wife’s account.
2. Navigate to Control Panel and turn down the mouse sensitivity to something more appropriate for a preschooler.
3. Mount the ISO for the game they’ve requested using Virtual Clonedrive.
4. Launch the game.
5. Watch the kids close the laptop lid when they were done, forcing the laptop into standby mode with these full-screen kids’ apps still running and the mouse sensitivity turned way down.  Meaning the first thing we’d have to do when we woke up the laptop was bring up task manager to kill the kids’ app (which would inevitably be pegging the CPU at 100%) and then dig into control panel to readjust the mouse sensitivity.

At some point in there, I realized there had to be a better way.

So the first thing I did was give the kids their own account on that PC.  I created a limited-access account with no password (my wife and I both keep our accounts password protected).  I logged on with that account, set the icon size to large, the mouse pointer scheme to extra large, the folder options to “single-click”,  and set the mouse sensitivity to low.

Then to ensure that the kids didn’t do anything on that system that I didn’t want them to, I ran a tool called Windows SteadyState.  This thing rocks.  It lets you lockdown a PC (and individual accounts on that PC) to a very high degree.  It’s not unlike some of the more draconian GPOs I’ve seen, like in schools and libraries, but it works on a standalone PC. 

It took me some trial and error to get the lockdown to what I thought was an appropriate level.  For example, I left the new-style start menu enabled so that there were no icons placed on the desktop that I didn’t place there myself.  I also re-enabled Fast User Switching, which SteadyState disabled, by setting HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\DisableFastUserSwitching to 0.

So now I had a solution to a lot of my problems, just by hitting Windows-L to drop to the Welcome Screen, and then clicking on the kids’ new profile.  The last step was making it easy for the kids to launch their programs.

Putting big, single click icons on the desktop was a no-brainer, but I obviously couldn’t expect the kids to mount the ISO images before launching their programs.  Luckily, Virtual CloneDrive has a command line mount utility.  Good old-fashioned batch files to the rescue!  Here’s an example of the files I wrote, this one to launch Reader Rabbit Toddler:

@echo off
start /wait "c:\program files\elaborate bytes\virtualclonedrive\vcdmount.exe" "c:\disk images\Reader_Rabbit_Toddler.iso"
timeout 7
cd "\Program Files\The Learning Company\Reader Rabbit Toddler"
rrtw32.exe

The “start /wait” was, I had hoped, so that the CD would be available to the system immediately after that line was done executing.  It wasn’t, so I added the “timeout 7” for 7 more seconds of waiting before trying to launch the program.  The Blue’s Clues games, interestingly, will show a screen asking the user to insert the disk, so the wait isn’t an issue with them.

Finally, I created shortcuts to these batch files on the kids’ desktop, using the icons from the actual executables. 

Now my boys can easily launch the programs they want without any intervention from mom and dad, and mom and dad don’t have to worry about the boys getting into things they shouldn’t.

On Monday, the 5-week anniversary of my surgery, I get my first “fill,” where they will inject saline into my band to provide more restriction.  It’s probably about time, as I still get full pretty easily but it doesn’t last very long.  That said, I’ve lost about 15 pounds since surgery, so I guess it must be working.

We’ve been doing some remodeling around the house.  The room we were using as my office has been made into a bedroom for my boys, as their old bedroom has been remade into a nursery in preparation for our newest addition, who should appear in March.

Since we’d completely finished our basement, we moved my office into the end of the basement hallway, which was really a bit of a dead space before (we just used it to store a few things, including some guinea pigs and turtles).

Here’s the view as  you walk down the hallway to my office.  To the left is the door to my den, and to the right is the door to the garage.

Here’s the view from the door to the garage.

Let’s talk about what we see.  First, a Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000 and a Microsoft Natural Laser Mouse 6000.  I’m big on ergonomics.  That’s part of the reason I still use this desk, even though a different style of desk would allow me to set up multiple monitors.  This desk is a corner design with a desktop that “wraps” around you to a degree, and it provides good support for my arms.  The monitor is a 19” DVI LCD.  All three are connected to a nice DVI KVM which allows me to share them between my personal desktop PC (lower left) and my work laptop (in the docking station on the left).

Here’s a close-up of the left side.

In this view, you can see my Linksys WRT54GL (running Tomato firmware), Vonage gateway, and cable modem on top.  You can also see my two phones, one that has an intercom to the rest of the house,  and one that has a headset.  All of this is running on a UPS so I never have any downtime.  The little black button on the desk next to the silver phone is the switch button for the KVM. 

On the right you can see some books and stuff.  Not a whole lot here.  Just storage and a nifty lighted document stand.

To the right of my desk is my printer stand and a bed for my office assistants.  One of my dogs and one of my cats take turns.  Usually it’s the dog.

Here’s the local office manager, Spartan 117.  He’s a bit of a slave driver.

And that’s pretty much where I spend 9 hours a day.  Generally it’s pretty quiet, and I manage a good amount of productivity.

What’s your home office like?  Would you be comfortable working from it full time?

Well, tomorrow is the first official day of my "mechanical soft" diet, which technically means anything that can be mashed with a fork.  I've been cheating a little on my pureed diet, increasing mashable foods over the past week, because, well, let's face it: Baby food is not meant for adults.  I've been taking it slow, and I've been really very careful to thoroughly chew my food so my stomach doesn't get too much of a workout though.  And I've been sticking with soft foods, nothing too fibrous or tough like beef or celery.

I'm able to take my pills down now without crushing them, the exception being my metformin, which I still split.  My blood sugar is doing really good.  In fact, it's going too low (hypoglycemic) every day now, which leads me to think I need to cut back on my glyburide (a drug that stimulates insulin production).  I'll meet with my  family doctor sometime in the next few weeks to put together a game plan on my meds.

As far as eating goes, I really am feeling full on a relatively small portion of food (less than my wife eats, but more than my kids), and I haven't found any foods yet that give me trouble so long as I chew it thoroughly and take my time.  When I get my first fill and get some more restriction from my band, I should be able to take even smaller portions.

Assuming nothing noteworthy happens, I don't expect to blog about this anymore for a couple weeks when I transition back to a "normal" diet.

I'm not in any pain anymore, nor do I feel bloated.  The swelling in my stomach must be going down, because I'm getting hungry now, and I'm not "filling up" on liquids like I was.  Well, maybe a bit, but it doesn't last nearly as long.

Speaking of liquids, I'm sick of them.  I'm sick of clear liquids, I'm sick of full liquids.  I'm sick of cream soups, popsicles, Cream of Wheat, Malt-o-meal, fruit juice, decaf iced tea, water, and everything else liquid.  I want real, solid food.

To that end, I cheated a little.  I'm not supposed to start pureed foods until after my follow-up appt. Monday.  Well, tonight I ran some of my wife's chili through the blender and ate it with a small piece of cornbread, which I chewed really well.  Michelle's chili never tasted so good, even if it was more like refried beans than chili.

I actually feel a bit better this morning.  The port incision still hurts a little, but bloating is down and my fever has broken.  It's easier for me to get up from a sitting position. 

I'm feeling kinda drained, probably because there isn't a whole lot of nutrition in a clear liquid diet.  Tomorrow I move to full liquids, so I'm looking forward to some nice creamy soup or cream of wheat.

Speaking of liquids, the swelling around the band has made it hard for me to take liquids down.  I have to go really slow, just a sip at a time, or the band punishes me.  I guess this is a good preview of what normal meals will be like.  It's not horrible, just uncomfortable.  I can learn to work with that, I guess.

Here's a handy tip I discovered: My daily meds are way to big to fit through the swelling around my band, so I'm having to crush them.  The easiest way I've found to get down a handful of nasty crushed pills is to mix the powder with children's Tylenol.  That seems to pretty much mask the taste.

Not a whole lot new to report today.  My port incision is still pretty sore, but I'm a lot less bloated today, at least in my chest.  My belly is still kinda bloated.  And I've got a mild fever of 99.3°F.  Yay.

We (my dear wife Michelle and I) reported to the surgery center dutifully at 6:30, and were then informed that we'd have to wait a little bit because my surgeon moonlights as a trauma surgeon and got called in to patch somebody up.  At about 7:30 they called me from the waiting room to get ready.

They took me to my room, where I was instructed to don the backless robe, surgical cap, etc., and let them know when i was ready for my IV.  After gettting me all hooked up, Michelle was allowed to see me. 

These were some of the longest minutes of my life.  As you may know from my previous posts, I've really felt conflicted about this decision.  I'm overweight, yes,  but not enough to contribute to any serious health conditions other than my type 2 diabetes.  I'm relatively pretty good about my diet (with some exceptions), but I have had the hardest time losing weight since I got my blood sugar under control, thanks to side effects from my medications.  So on the one hand, I had a voice in my head imploring me to back out, that I'm not that fat, and it wasn't too late to call it off.  Then I had another voice reminding me that the only way to reverse diabetes is to lose huge amounts of weight and this is the best possible thing I could do for it.

Finally the anesthesia nurse gave me a shot of something that made both voices just shut the hell up.  My RN called it the "I don't care" drug.  It was definitely that.

A bit later, they wheeled me into the OR, where I can remember cracking a couple jokes with the staff, and that's pretty much the last thing I remember.

My next memory was coming to in the recovery room.  What a crappy feeling.  I could tell that I had some sore incisions, and I was trying to have coherent thoughts, but I could only manage two-word sentences to the RN.  My throat being sore from the breathing tube didn't help, either.  I couldn't focus my eyes on  anything, nor could I keep them open for any length of time.  And my upper back hurt, which it always does when I'm in a hospital bed.  I know I said something to the RN, but I can't remember what.  Eventually I was moved back to my room.

The next few hours consisted of lots of walking, and before I knew it, they released me.  It was about 3 PM, and I could have left earlier if I had peed sooner.  Michelle drove us to Hy-Vee to pick up my pain prescription while I dozed a little in the car.  Next stop was home.

So here I sit, perfectly conscious.  Most of my incisions don't really hurt at all, with the exception of the incision where they installed my port.  That's really tender, and it's the one that really hurts whenever I put too much strain on  my abs.  I'm on a clear liquid diet for the next few days, but I don't think that'll be too hard, as I'm passing liquids through my new pouch really, really slowly due to swelling.  I actually got a full stomach on a popsicle earlier today.  I'm also feeling really kind of bloated thanks to the gas they used to inflate my abdominal cavity.

All in all, it's a pretty easy procedure and I don't feel too bad.   We'll see if I feel like this tomorrow.

Part of the preparation my surgeon requires pre-operation is a clear liquid diet the day before surgery.

My brother-in-law Brian is here this weekend because I hired him to put in laminate flooring.  The timing could be better, but the factory where he works is going to be closed the next two weeks, so Michelle and I decided to take advantage of her brother’s unwanted availability and at the same time help him out at a time when money is kind of tight.  He’s an absolute artist when it comes to handywork, so the floor is going to look fantastic.

Brian is a Mountain Dew fanatic, so while I was making a hardware store run this morning, I decided to stop by the grocery store and pick up some Mountain Dew for him.  If Dante had added another circle to hell, I’m pretty sure it would have consisted of being in a grocery store while on a clear liquid diet.    Being there in the grocery store was absolutely torturous.  I was mildly hungry when I went in.  Within a few minutes, I was famished.  I stocked up on South Beach Diet “Tide Me Over” drink mix, basically Crystal Light with extra protein to help you feel full.  And I bought a lot of sugar free Jello.  Also some pudding and protein shakes for Thursday, when I transition off my clear liquid diet to my “full” liquid diet.

I hope that Mountain Dew is the best Mountain Dew Brian has ever had.

As I've discussed this decision with my friends and family, I've gotten a lot of questions about it and encountered a few misperceptions. My mom, for example, thought it was a much more extreme procedure, like gastric bypass. The official Lap-Band website has a short animation about the procedure. It's totally G-rated and is actually very informative. If you have any questions about it, please take five minutes to watch this and I guarantee you'll have a much better understanding of what it is and what it does.

As the date draws closer, I'm a little nervous. Make no mistake: I'm not particularly crazy about this whole idea. But as I consider my age and the long-term complications of type 2 diabetes, and the horrible health problems my dad suffered before he finally died at the relatively young age of 58, I see this as my best chance at maintaining a relatively normal life. I actually compare my feelings on the subject to those who have to consider pre-emptive surgery because they are at high risk of cancer. I'm not comparing diabetes to cancer; I'm just saying I feel like this is a pre-emptive action that will require short-term cost to provide the best long-term outcome.

Besides, as I told my friend Todd, it'll be nice to fit in my favorite suit again. :)