During these 3 days we didn’t see any progress, looked like it wasn’t getting any better. So Yvonne went back to the vet. Someone else was on duty that day. That vet didn’t want to turn him inside out just yet so she gave him another painkiller and we should give him food semi liquid food with a syringe because he didn’t eat.�

When Yvonne returned home with him I saw Joey wobbling on his legs of this shot. Having been stuck at home for the past days I got very worried about him cause I could see there was something really wrong with Joey.

The next day there wasn’t any improvement, even after having fed him with the syringe a couple of times, it actually looked worse. I really pushed the vet to see Joey again and examine him thoroughly with X-rays. Still took a long time until we were scheduled in. This worried me more and more. When Yvonne returned home she was alone! They kept Joey for a second exam and X-rays because they found something. But this second wouldn’t be until late in the afternoon.�

That message got me really pissed of so I called the vet to tell them I wanted Joey at our house and not in a tight vet cage over there while being sick until it was time for his exam. I also asked what she found that triggered a second exam. Turned out the secretary didn’t let me pick him up because that wasn’t convenient for the vet and that she didn’t know what the vet found!�

I thought my blood vessels were about to burst, I was so angry with that answer. I got my sick ass dressed, took a load of pills and drove immediately to the vet to take care of things. Enter human adrenaline rush…

Luckily Yvonne already consulted with another vet at the animal hospital in town what to do. They told us that if he had a tumor they could operate on him right away, that same evening. But at that time we didn’t know what was wrong with him.�

Eventually we got to speak to the vet sooner then later. She told us, looking at the stays Joey had a bacterial infection in his left chest. The left chest side was filled with large amounts of puss. She tried to get it out but wasn’t successful because it was to thick!

She told us the puss sample would have to be examined to determine which specific antibiotics would be necessary to cure the infection. But, that would take 3/4 days to get the test results. At that moment I decided we needed to get out of there and go somewhere else to get the shit out of Joey.

In the car we immediately phoned the hospital what to do, luckily they recognized the seriousness of the situation and told us to come straight away and look at Joey.�

When we got there the doctor listened to what we had to say and examined Joey again. She told how serious his condition was and that we needed to make decision if we wanted to cure this infection immediately. If we didn’t act now the puss would have pushed his lungs, which it already did, further away and he would suffocate.�

We had 2 options to go to where they would have the equipment and knowledge to take care of him. One was Utrecht and one was Gent (Belgium). Utrecht turned out to be full and not willing to take hime (because they are more difficult here in holland with any admission), so our only hope was Gent.

Still had 2 hurdles to take, if they would admit him and if his blood pressure would be ok to take him for an 1,5 hour drive. Fortunately Gent would take him and his pressure was just good enough to drive him. The doctor gave Joey an IV with fluids to get him through trip which Yvonne had to monitor in the back of the car while I drove.

So off we went to Gent with a sick cat and a sick driver at the wheel.

The drive to Gent was quick with no traffic, we had a little trouble keeping the IV attached to the clothing hook in the car due to all the bumps in the road but we managed. The IV didn’t clog up either. Getting to the Gent University faculty for small pets, they were waiting for us to immediately take over the care of Joey and start his treatment. At that same moment another doctor talked to us and wrote everything down what had passed the last couple of days which let up to this moment. I was very impressed at the thoroughness of this care, made us feel comfortable that it would turn out ok.

The doctor made clear to us the seriousness of the situation and that the coming hours and days would be critical if he would make it or not. While the doctors took care of Joey (by setting a drain to get the puss out) we couldn’t do anything for him at that moment so we checked in at the nearest hotel (HI Express) to get some rest and sleep. The doctor told us she would call us immediately if Joey’s situationed changed. Fortunately we didn’t get a call until the next morning, so he made it through the night.

The doctor told us that the puss could not be removed with the drain because of the thickness. They needed to oporate on him to get the whole infection out. They also told us he would need a probe to artificially feed him for the coming days to keep him strong, because he didn’t want to eat himself.

We waited the whole day in Gent to hear from the doctor how the surgery went. Late in the afternoon we got the call that everything went according too plan. They removed the puss and the infections but his left lung was encapsulated (the body does that to protect it self against intruders) and they couldn’t risk removing that too due to excessive bleeding if they would remove it.

Joey was strong enough to survive the operation and had to be kept in an incubator to recuperate, his blood pressure was to low, his temperature to low and his breathing and heart rate were not what it should be. He was now on a feeding probe, a drain to remove the chest fluids, and antibiotics.

This year we relocate to a much larger venue in Leiden. A place I have fond memories of; having ballroom danced in the Stadsgehoorzaal for 15 years, I know the venue inside out. Waiting in between rounds I explored every little every nook and cranny of this large venue.

I wonder what the place looks like after having not been there for some 15 - 20 years. Not sure how many people are attending this year, at least 50 according to the registration page on the EECI site, but I wonder if this venue isn’t too big to recreate last year’s intimate and cosy atmosphere. But I’ll take it!

Like last year there is going to be an incredible mix of people all of whom are ExpressionEngine freaks. It’s fun to speak English for 3 days and talk to this mix of internationally flavored attendees. I know after listening to all the English and Dutch session I’ll be totally fatigued. But I can use some fresh takes, approaches and knowledge about ExpressionEngine. Being a Designer more then a coder I am really looking forward to the talks of Greg Wood, Travis Schmeisser and of course the team of FortySeven Media.

I quietly hope Nate Croft is still on medication, although very selfish, that last video episode of ‘The Kick Awesome Show’ was hilarious.

See you all in Leiden!

Spyker Formula 1 Magazine 2007

This is all flash but ‘imagine’ this being triggered on the iPad with your finger. There’re supposed to be video in there too but they don’t seem to be enabled due to the magazine being offline.

How did you go about and recreate the new EE 2.0 feel if there isn’t even a public beta available?

Although members of the developer preview program were given access to a working version of EE named Kaylee, there have indeed not been any public releases other then developer screenshots or video’s of the control panel. Looking at what is available I started to dissect every pixel I could find of EE 2.0.

There were 3 places I used to render all the information from I needed in order to make a realistic theme. First there was the SXSW 2008 EE 2.0 sneak preview video by Derek Jones. This gives the most realistic view of what the backend is going to look like visually. The colors in this video are a bit over saturated due to video compression but at least I could tell where everything would be placed.

Second there was a nice blog post by Derek Allard presenting ExpressionEngine 2.0 �official� screenshots. Because the screenshots were made on a mac, these screenshots would provide me with precisely the colors I needed for most design elements.

Third, Leslie introduced us to Kaylee through a blog post on the EE official blog. This blog mostly was about SXSW 2009 but right down at the end was a little screenshot of the EE 2.0 CP in a totally different color scheme.

Using xScope, Photoshop, and Coda I started to work on stylesheet files and background images needed to simulate the 2.0 look. Requirements I set for myself were; the theme should come as close as possible to the real EE 2.0 CP theme, providing it can be used in the following browsers: Firefox 2 and 3 for mac and pc, Safari 3 and 4 for mac and pc, Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Chrome and Opera. Unfortunately there is no way to exactly copy the whole EE 2.0 CP look and feel for classic EE and be compatible in most browsers. For instance the nice round corners in green you see in this screenshot can be done in Firefox, but Safari and Internet Explorer cannot handle such a look the way classic EE is setup. Rounded corners (like in EE2) are now available for browsers supporting CSS3, which does not include Internet Explorer unfortunately. I found it quite challenging at times to manipulate the tables, table backgrounds and tr or td backgrounds used in EE 1.6.7.

Despite the fact that EE is fully customizable at the backend through switching styles in the control panel, there are still a lot of inline styles and generic elements present in today’s EE install which prevent a total make-over. Other problems were selected control tabs (no round corners possible) and general placement of elements (tabs align left in EE 2.0). Working around the limitations and issues I think I simulated the look and feel of the new ExpressionEngine control panel nicely, I hope you agree.

Control Panel theme: FRUIT (green, orange)
Version: 1.1
Compatibility: ExpressionEngine 1.6.7+
License: FREE - (donation possible)

Control Panel theme: KAYLEE (grey, red)
Version: 1.1
Compatibility: ExpressionEngine 1.6.7+
License: FREE - (donation possible)

Should you experience any trouble, anomalies or irregularities using the themes please don’t hesitate to so I can improve the themes, thanks.

What you see above is chicken soup with extra curry chicken, a honey-mustard meat loaf, potato-orange-olive salad, tomato tuna tapas on sesame bread and several slices of white and brown Zuurdesem brood. It was all quite tasty and I think everyone liked the dishes.

The Plopsaland theme is of course well known to children in the Netherlands due to the many characters appearing on tv and in theaters and Berit and Livia are no exception. Favorites are Kabouter Plop, Piet Piraat, K3 and Mega Mindy.

The park is especially suitable for children between 2 and 6 as almost all of the rides are accessible for kids in that age group. Added bonus while visiting the park are the many appearances of the ‘real’ characters you see on tv etc. You can see 2 of them in a video I took of Berit and Livia, plus 5 others from our park visit.

The online version of the article can be read here.

KISS will be playing a full concert after the Australian Formula One Grand Prix race on Sunday March 16th 2008 to start their Alive 35 world tour. Which I am going to report on, on the KISS Podcast.

Cool Michael Buffer announcing, don’t use a card dude.
That Umaga neckless is really a hazard with all those loose beads.
Shelton Benjamin; more like disposable standard!
Superfly & Piper? WTF man, that’s dumb. Thank you Kane
I love Hornswoggle…
Here comes the GAME!
Damn, Cena, didn’t see that one coming…
Kane gone, man how many times must Kane participate in a Rumble to win?
Show down ... cool but it looks like this Rumble will be a comeback match to get Cena on top again, the Game and the Animal are going to sacrifice themselves to help Cena back on top, since he has never won a Rumble.
Wow, Batista is out !! Cena (30) and the Game (29), is this where Triple H turns heel again??? No, guess not.
Lame, Cena back from injury and wins the Rumble, and will win his title back from Randy at Wrestlemania…
The finish was lame too, I have seen better endings then this one.

Overall a pleasant start to a year in PPV’s. I give this Rumble a 7.