These are some of my all time favorite videos on YouTube.com. I’m going to try to have more of these out there, but for now, I recommend you watch all of these. (And there’s no particular order to my favorites right now).

Robert Murraine’s Audition on So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4:

Dramatic Ground Hog:

Rob Paravonian’s Pachelbel Rant:

Amateur - Lasse Gjertson:

31.9 Pounds.

Just yesterday at my weigh-in I hit my 10% weight-loss milestone of 20 pounds. I’ve actually lost a total of 22.4 pounds over the course of the last 10 weeks. That’s pretty good if you ask me.

Just thought I’d post that as I’m feeling pretty good about it.

So, for the last 7 weeks or so I’ve been working with the Weight Watchers program to try and lose some pounds. I’ve been doing the flex plan in order to really help me get a firmer grasp on portion sizes. As most portions served here in the states, are just huge.

I’m happy to say that after 7 weeks in the program, I’ve lost over 15 pounds. I’m really excited about this. Very soon I’ll be under the weight that I started college at.

Just thought I’d share, as I’m pretty darned excited about that.

Other than that, there’s very little going on with me right now….

So I got new Ink over the weekend. My back is still recovering, but I’m very happy with the work.

If you like the art, you should check out Charm City Tattoo in Baltimore, MD. It rocks. Jacki Randall, the artist, is awesome. It was a great experience getting the tattoo, and getting to know Jacki. I’ll be sure to get plenty more tattoo’s from her.

Hope you like the ink, I know I do.

So, I had surgery yesterday to remove my gallbladder.

Everything went very smoothly, now I’m just recovering for a while. It will be nice, when I’m recovered from these wounds, to see how much better I’m doing without my gallbladder. I think it will be a lot better. Anyways. Back to resting. Hope everyone is doing alright out there!

~Davin

Well, I’ve gone and filled out the forms, and put forth the money for Darcy and I to form GnomesInc.com, LLC. Now we’ve got to get a business checking account, get a server, and get the website and server setup and configured, and we should be good to go. I’m pretty excited. I’m glad to finally be making a little bit of momentum with this. That makes me pretty happy.

Well, I’m going to have that gallbladder removed. I saw my general surgeon yesterday and we’re going to try and take it out next week if at all possible. I’m a little nervous, general anesthetics make me somewhat uncomfortable. But I had something like it done for the Upper Endoscopy that I had where they looked at my esophagus, stomach, and duodenum. But I still need to put together an advance directive in case I don’t come out of the drugs. And that’s just an intimidating thing for me. I don’t really like the idea of a coma.

But that’s really, really, really unlikely and so I’m going to go ahead and just be excited to be living without pain. That will be really nice!

So I finally have some news about what’s been causing the intense abdominal pain I’ve been experiencing for the last several months and wanted to update you all on that.

I had a HIDA scan, the Friday before last, which is a nuclear imaging test to see how my gall bladder actually functions. I have a very low ejection fraction (how much bile is ejected from the gall bladder) - Average is 30-35% and mine is 6%. It also reproduced the pain I’ve been dealing with exactly and with great severity. From what I’ve been reading, these results are common with folks with Biliary Dyskinesia, but I have NOT been given an actual diagnosis by anyone, I’m just doing some research on the gall bladder to try and understand what it does a bit better.

That said. I’m getting an appointment with my general surgeon again, and my primary care doctor says it’s likely that they’ll want to remove the faulty organ. Having not undergone any serious surgery like this so far I’m feeling pretty stressed out about the prospect of it.

But on the other hand, I’m just very grateful that they’ve been able to determine that something is actually not working correctly, that it is probably the cause of the pain I’ve been experiencing, and that if it is the cause, there is something that they can do to make the pain go away. All-in-all I’m just very grateful that this has happened and that it’s not too serious. And that there may be a future where I can go without this pain.

Also, as a bonus from what I’ve been reading, this might also be the cause of my worsened acid reflux and severely worsened asthma issues that all started around the same time as this pain.

Anyways. That’s the news in Davin Land. I hope you all are doing well.

So, it’s 2008. Day 3 of 2008 in fact. So far, things are going pretty well.

I just finished my 3rd month at Ciena Corporation. Things are well here. Like any job I figure it’s got its ups and its downs. There are days I come home hating my job, and days I come home loving it. The benefits are very good, and the people I work with are smart, fun, interesting people. As the new Corporate Unix Admin, I seem to be getting integrated pretty well, a good number of people seek out my opinions and my advice and thoughts, which is quite affirming. I’m pretty happy with that.

Desiring to own my own company though, I have conspired with friends Darcy, Kyle, Erich, and Jared to start a holdings company. I can’t give a lot of details now, but we are looking for investment and capital, and if you’re interested in learning more, or how you might be able to help us get off the ground, while earning profit yourself, send me an e-mail.

In other news, I’ve also joined the Columbia Association here in MD. This gives me access to some really incredible gym equipment at truly low costs, as well as Raquetball, Tennis, and Basketball courts, and swimming pools, a golf course, and discounted prices to other events and venues. All at a very reasonable cost.

I also should say that 6 months out of college, things are going very well. I’m loving living with Rachel, Darcy, and Steve in our own place. Having my dog at home has been wonderful, she’s crazy, but I missed her when I was at school. I also should say that I’m very happy to be able to really spend time immersing myself in the current events of the world. I’ve been able to keep up to date on a good deal of the worlds news. That hasn’t translated so much into me writing about it. But I’m going to be working on that. Hopefully Rachel and I will be able to start posting about important news stories soon enough.

As resolutions go, I’m looking to this year to help me spend less money and bring in more. I would like to become more politically active and vocal, and wish to get in touch somewhat more with my spirituality. I have not communed with Eris in far too long, and I’m in some need of some good meditatin’. I’m also hoping to loose a little weight and get in better shape. My goal is to get to the gym 3 times a week and do a good Cardio workout as well as do a circuit of the many weight machines available to me at my new gym. I’m averaging about 2 times a week right now, but as we move out of the holiday season, it’ll make it easier for Rachel and I to get there I think.

I have high hopes for this year for myself, my friends and the country. So be positive, be frugal, and don’t let Republicans or Conservative Democrats (I’m talking about you Lieberman!) Into the white house, or into congress. It’s time for some serious progressive liberal rule in this country. Seriously.