Ten years ago today I married my girlfriend of 7 years, Brenda Brattleaf and made her my wife in front of our closest friends and family. This weekend we celebrate our first decade of marriage.

As in any long relationship there have been ups and downs, but we always stayed together and worked it out. Though it all, the love we have for each other has kept us together. Our kids, Andrew Max and Sydney, are blessings on top of blessings and I wouldn’t change a thing.

I love you Brenda. You are my pretty pretty princess.

Shooting and editing by Brenda Tomchak

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Location:W George St,Lombard,United States

Location:Tomchak Estates

Location:E Museum Dr,Chicago,United States

Location:Loyola Hospital, Maywood IL

Wishes Fulfilled: Mastering the Art of Manifesting

More photos on SmugMug. 

Family Video 1990, “Kids” Insert

Andrew spent Friday with me while running errands and we found time to have fun along the way. One of those moments was playing Fruit Ninja at the Microsoft Store which is a great Kinect game (thanks to sales associate Erica who turned him onto the game). He probably played the game for close to a half hour. Here are the highlights.

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After nearly 3 years of wearing his iconic blue/green plastic glasses, Max finally has a more adult looking set of frames. 

Let’s see how long these last. 

Photo by red.dahlia on Flickr

It was just over a year ago that we started seeing a new doctor for Max, Dr. Michael Goldberg in Tarzana CA. In just a short 12-13 months we have seen amazing progress with Max and I think we both agree that it was a great decision to start him on the NIDS treatment.

Max from our 2011 trip to see Dr. Goldberg.

Max from our 2011 trip to see Dr. Goldberg.

The big improvements have been with Max being much happier and happier more often. He smiles and interacts with us and his siblings more and in the last 6 weeks or so has had a language explosion that seems to get better daily. His personality seems to shine though more now than ever before. He has improved greatly in both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. When I look back at what he as like a year ago when we took him to CA what sticks out the most is that he was much more inside of himself. It was as if you really had to “go to him” to pull any real interaction out of him. Even when I look back at the photos from last year, he looks sad or sick in many of them.

Max trying on new frames for his 2012 fall look.

Now, he is much more likely to come to you, ask questions, show you something he did, ask for help or just want to sit with you. Those all sound so basic, but it’s all new ground for Max. Even as I type this he’s playing with his brother Andrew in ways that he wouldn’t have a year ago. He now engages Andrew instead of it only being the other way around. It’s really amazing.

Max and Andrew having a debate on Global Warming.

The down side would be the mood swings he has from time to time. When he gets angry or frustrated it can take a long time to get him out of it. And when he’s in one of those moods it causes the whole house to be tense. In that area he has been a puzzle because we make changes that seem to help, only to see him have a bad day for no obvious reason a few days later.

Some of the changes that we have made in the last year that made a noticeable difference (and are still hard to believe) include having him drink only purified water (non-tap), and eating only organic foods. I wouldn’t have believed it without seeing it, but he has a pretty extreme reaction to drinking tap water or eating some non-organic vegetables. But while making those changes helped, it’s obvious there’s still more that effects him – so we continue to look for more pieces to the puzzle.

One note on our tap water – we actually tested it and found that it’s high in some chemicals that are bad for anybody, even adults. And it started to make sense why I was having some bad reactions to drinking our tap water as well.

Max at Santa Monica Beach, Augist 2011

But overall, Max is doing a lot better than one short year ago – so later this week we continue our journey by returning to CA for a annual visit. And this time, Andrew is coming as well. He’s excited about his first trip on a airplane. I’m excited because it’s my first flight on Virgin America. While we do 4-6 week follow ups with the doctor over the phone or via video, we need to see him in person once a year.

While it is only a 3 day trip (only 2 nights) we’re looking forward to having a good time with the boys. Sydney and her broken arm will be staying with Grandma and Poohpa in Michigan and having fun of her own with her cousins.

Sydney heading to MI for the rest of the week. Mulling over the menu.

Last year when we went we visited Santa Monica Beach and really liked the area. This year we have a hotel located walking distance from the Santa Monica Pier so that should be fun for the boys.

The fun starts at 5am tomorrow!

Location:Oakbrook Ctr,Oak Brook,United States

As is usually the case when I watch 60 Minuets, I was inspired by a story. This story was on a educational website called Khan Academy. It’s a free website that has a knack for teaching some of the more complicated school subjects, like chemistry, calculus and economics. It’s really amazing because it’s a great way to teach both kids and adults and it is totally free.

To be inspired, watch the 60 Minuets story below and then go check out the website yourself. I’m actually interested in taking another stab at more advance math that I was never successful at picking up in high school. It’s very tempting.

But they have literally hundreds of topics, so check it out and see if something interests you.

I really enjoyed the trip to Korea, but I’m always excited to come home. I always have a renewed appreciate the awesomeness of Chicago no matter how much I enjoyed where I was. That is, unless I’m coming home in January and it’s 30 below with 12″ of snow on the ground.

The photos can be found on SmugMug.

As has become my habit on the first full day somewhere new, I woke up and went for a walk to see what I could see. I absolutely love exploring areas I’ve need been to before, taking in the sites and just following the thread of interest as I walk around.

I did however have two objectives to take care of while walking. First, I had to find a place that I could use my ATM card to get some local currency for the exchange of goods and services. Second, and very importantly – I needed some accessories to get my power situation sorted out. While I was smart enough to do the leg work before leaving and get the proper adaptors and voltage converts prior to my trip, I was just stupid enough to leave them unpacked on the kitchen floor at home. So, at most I could plug one device in at a time, but I have a lot more than one thing to plug in.

No big deal, there are tons of stores all over, and after all I’m in Korea where electronics are king! But after  4 hours of walking, I didn’t find what I needed. Nothing even close. I found several Starbucks, Seven 11 stores and a Baskin-Robbins (seriously, I did), but nowhere that sells the simple and common items that I need. I realize now that I’m not going to just stumble on it and need to put more effort into it.

So I walk for another hour but with the focus of walking toward anything that looks like a shopping district, and then give up. Time to get some local help from a cabbie. 

At home this would be a no-brainer. But when traveling in a country where so few people speak English, it becomes a challenge. That is, unless you have some nifty translation software on your phone.

Using my iPhone and a program that I have come to love in the last 24 hours called Translate from iHandy, the language barrier has become a lot easier to deal with.

With my iPhone and this awesome app (there are several others but I really like this one), I was able to communicate directly with the cab drivers. You just type in your message in English, and it converts it to whatever language you like. BUT, it will ask speak your message out loud as well if you prefer that. This is a good way to learn some basic phrases too. Just type in something you want to learn to say natively, like “Thank You”, hit the translate button and then play the audio to learn how to say it properly. Anyway, I started by going to an electronics store, thinking it would be something like a Best Buy.

When I got there, it was nothing like a Best Buy. Yea, it was the local version of a electronics store and it did look promising at first, but as soon as I was inside I could see it was just that – mostly electronics (cell phones and computers). So again, I broke out my phone and started typing.

The man that was helping me (or should I say young boy) called somebody over who spoke just enough English to say…

“Not on shelf, don’t have. You not see, not have here. You need hardware store”. In reality it didn’t come out that concise, but using flapping hand gestures and arm movements helped improve the accuracy of his english.

So, disappointed (it has been over 4 hours since I left the hotel and I’m getting hungry, and realizing this is not as simple as I expected it to be) I headed out, thought about what to do next, and then started typing. I hailed another cab and showed him this.

The cab driver I showed this to (they would always pull up and roll down the window, and before I got in I would hand them my phone with the translation up full screen) read it, seemed to think about it, and then nodded yes. So I got in, and he took me to a location I would have never stumbled on myself. Not only that, even parked in front of the store he had to point out where it was. It didn’t look like anything really, just some miscellaneous store front. But sure enough, I seemed to be at the right place as soon as I walked in – even if it didn’t have a ACE logo out front.

A man walks out of the back room and greets me with a bow, and I return the hello. I say “English?”, and he shakes his had no with some slight disappointment. But that’s OK, at least he didn’t seem to have an attitude about me not knowing Korean. And now the dance of communicating and understanding begins.  What I need is somewhat simple, but is also not a standard request. Because I really have two issues to solve and they are not directly related.

First I need a voltage converter because there is one piece of gear (my wireless router) that will not handle 220 current. So I need a 220-110 converter that has a US plug on it.

Second, I have several other devices that work with 220, but need plug adapters to work with the local outlets.

Third (I guess I had 3 problems), I need a power strip that works with 220 voltage, but needs to accept US plugs. If it does not accept US plugs, then I need to get adaptors from US to Korean to work with the power strip handles 220 voltage.

SO…one simple iPhone screen will not do it.

What follows is a virtual transcript of how my conversation with the hardware store merchant went over the course of about 20 minutes. In between each entry was lots of miming, pointless speaking of english phrases by me, and things flying off the shelf and being demonstrated for me to show his efforts to help me out.

Read it from the bottom up to see it in order.

They man was very very nice, and it meant a lot because as anybody that has traveled to a country where you don’t speak their native language, sometimes you get some attitude, rolling eyes or just disinterest in helping you. But this man was willing to go through all of the charades and help me out, and all of it with a smile. I was very pleased, and my only regret is that I didn’t get a picture of his store or of him. He even waited outside with me to make sure I got into a cab OK, and then waved bye and went back inside.

In the end, everything I bought worked perfectly, and I’m not ready to start editing as soon as I get that first bit of footage. Shooting starts today.

Photo by simonbondphotography.com

After two long flights, waiting in several lines and a a very sore behind (from all the sitting), I have finally checked into the hotel that will be home for the next week and a half. Tomorrow is a adjustment day, so i’m looking forward to viewing the area on foot as soon as I wake up. 

I had fun taking photos of the kids in the back yard last weekend. Because of the Grandparents Day project I did for their school I had taken a break from the camera. I was a little burned out after taking and processing over 1000 photos, but the fun is back.

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Taking the kids to and from school is when I get some of the best gems while talking to Andrew. He’s very focused and is willing to talk your ear off about just about anything.

One thing I’ve been teasing him about, because it makes him SO upset even though it’s nothing, is calling a CVS store Walgreens, and vice versa. This is a short clip of us coming home from School the other day.

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Sometimes something will cross your path several times before it catches your attention. Such was this book. In three different ways over the course of a week this title showed up in a conversation, a podcast (that had nothing to do with the book) and another book I was reading. I’ve only just started reading it, but it already has my interest peaked.

There is another book by a different author with almost exactly the same title, so make sure if you choose to read it, you get the one by Daniel Goleman.

Here are some of the photos, way too many more can be found on SmugMug

A few others.

The ship we are scheduled to take (the Carnival Magic) was nearly 5 hours late docking this morning due to heavy fog, so not only are they still unloading the last of the 4,000 people, buy at the same time they’re trying to load 4,000 more. Needless to say, there is a bit of chaos.

Location:Galveston TX

Well, I give it my best shot. I’m 12 hours away from the trip, and 11 lbs from my goal. But I did lose a full 15 lbs. Maybe I’ll be the first person to ever lose weight on the cruise and come back even closer.

I did however come at just the proper weight to show off my new bathing suit on the cruise. So at least I’ve got that going for me.

One of the best Super Bowl commercials from 2011 was the “Imported from Detroit” commercial with Eminem. The music was cool, the VO was cool and the overall look of the commercial made you want to run out and buy a new car from Detroit. This is the original spot.

Not long after that we took one our our usual trips to Detroit and we decided to make our own modified version of that, but based on the fact that I was “Exported from Dearborn” to Chicago. So, on a whim we shot a bunch of footage with our iPhones while driving, and then a lot more footage with the GoPro camera that we just happened to have on that trip with us. I have all the footage to Brenda and the audio track, and she created our own version. This is what that one looks like (if you have not seen the original, watch that one first).

The Areas of My Expertise

We had a great family day complete with a field trip to see holiday trains and cake and gifts. I wonder what this day will be like for them when they turn 21 in 2028.

A few more photos are on SmugMug.

Angels Flight: A Harry Bosch Novel

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

The Talent Code on Amazon

Who is packing your parachute?

I’m not the most practiced when it comes to religion, but I do have a very deep well of faith. Listening to this podcast on a weekly basis really keeps me centered and focused on the important things in life.

Even if you’re not very religious (or don’t believe in a higher power at all) you will find this interesting. We all have people that helped us get to where we are today, and remembering that is very humbling.

Perspective can be very powerful.

The kids first official trip to see Santa. I’m not sure they really knew what to make of it, but Andrew managed to ask for “a car”. I’m not sure if he was talking about a matchbox car or one that he can drive around the block.