Promised Dad to take of Care of Mom.

Mom is still here. I have learned so much from being her Caregiver since my Dad's passing several years ago. I still remember him everyday and I was going to tell stories about him here, but in some strange way I almost think they are too good for this small little blog. 

I wish we had talked more about my dad's time growing up in Italy. But I try not to have regret when I realize my Dad was always thinking of what needed to be done next. Add in the family pressure (mostly from my sibling and some from my dad) for me to go out into the world and do great things, I was inadvertently pushed away from the great things right in my own home, and that I probably will always regret.

I did not realize that the demons others had in their own relationship with my parents would secretly strive to alienate me from my own relationship with my parents. However, since my video business was a home based business, I created a world where I was truly busy with all of my video clients yet I saw my parents every day, yet probably never connected in regards to the lives they led when they were younger.

What my dad tried to forget his amazing life growing up in Southern Ital, I truly respect much more than most of what masquerades as being of superior importance in this day and age.

My momma was killed by an ER that would not treat her wheezing, instead calling it emphysema. She died in my arms three days later.  I have set up a tribute page on her behalf on facbook. If you ask to join this very special group you will discover a fascinating woman who was marginalized by the ER system in California right in front of her own son's horrified eyes.  

Exciting News. Turning Dad's fruit tree filled backyard into a nature walk.

When I had my home video editing studio set up, my editing clients would inevitably meet my dad and see his backyard full of dozens of fruit trees, and ask for a tour. Over the years perhaps as many as a hundred different clients got a "tour" of the backyard.

During my dads final couple of years before he passed in 2009, time that could have been spent in the backyard was spent taking both my mom and dad to their doctors appointments. As my dad's prostate cancer worsened I would drive him and my mom wherever they needed to go.

I relished that time and yet it haunted me as well because I wanted to be in two places at one time. I wanted to be with my folks, but I also wanted to be working on both the inside and outside of the house to make it something they could both really enjoy.

Because I could not be at two places at one time, I choose being with my folks. After my dad passed my mother needed over a year to recover from the shock of not having her husband of 53 years around anymore. Too make matters worse, there was the matter of her cute shi tzu passing the following year.

Two days after the passing of Mom's shi tzu, she was in grave condition and had to go to the hospital for a week. I was rather shocked when the hospital medical representative for my mother's health plan asked early on if I wanted to take her home for hospice care! (aka letting her to die). It took 9 months of slow but steady progress but my mother had her best blood test in years.

I take pride in balancing out her daily nutrition with strategic night time snacks that sometimes take the place of dinner because the first two meals of the day sometimes get stretched out well into late afternoon.

As Father's day for 2011 draws near, I have embarked on a plan that will turn the backyard into a fruit tree nature walk as a way to tribute the great and steady work my dad put into the backyard (even while holding down a job as well) starting over 30 years ago until he passed in 2009.

My plan is to offer a 25 dollar nature walk tour of the back yard and the 30 varieties of fruit trees that perimeter most of it. Of that 25 dollars, I plan on donating 10 dollars to the tornado ravaged cities via the red cross.

I have spent the past several weeks roto-tilling and re-roto tilling practically the entire back yard. I'm even doing some landscape design to add a final touch to what my dad left behind.

Trying to make Dad's Hospital Room more comfortable when he was alive by putting up pictures.

What was such a tremendous relief for me about putting up pictures up in his hospital room was whenever anybody walked in they had something to talk about with him, and that seemed to give my dad a lift.

Yes, pictures can contain a thousand words.

Finally, Canon comes out with a Snow Leopard patch so their Power Shot Image Browser software will work again, but it has a huge flaw.

Around March 10, 2010, Canon came out with a "patch" so that Canon Powershot owners who like the Canon Image Browser software could FINALLY use it with Apple's Snow Leopard platform.

I was FINALLY able to upload almost SIX MONTHS worth of previously non loaded pictures. However, four months ago, I informed Canon executives that there was another important issue that needed to be addressed.

When text is superimposed over an image using the Canon Power Shot Image Browser software, the image darkens. This NEVER HAPPENED prior to snow leopard. I personally don't care who is causing the problem, IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED.

As far as I have been able to gather, I was the first person on the planet to notice the glitch. What I find even more disturbing than that is nobody else will call out Canon and Apple and publicly denounce this defect, except for me.

Maybe Canon and Apple are working on fixing the darkening that occurs every time text is added to the image, but does it really take this long to fix this one problem?

Why is the ability to add text to an image without the brightness values of the picture changing a big deal? The second part of the question is obvious, of course one should be able to add text on top of an image without changing the color, brightness, saturation or hue of the picture. But the first part of the question, is just as important. There is no other way to both share a picture on the internet while also taking credit for your own work then by actually superimposing a small text message, also known as a watermark, over the image itself.

Apple put themselves in a serious situation by protecting the copyright ownership of vendors that sell music via I-Tunes while spitting in the face of their massive consumer base that lost the ability to superimpose their own copyright protection information over their own photos.

It is the height of hypocrisy to sell the idea of creativity and computing but then not allow those same customers even the basest of methods for protecting their photographic work online. And I'm saying this as a big Apple Fan.

It just seems to me that Apple has gotten so big that NOBODY will challenge Apple, even when Apple clearly dropped the ball by not assisting Canon in coming up with a solution on a much faster timeline. And, as it stands now, the fix that Canon has come up with is still a work in progress.

APPLE HAS RECORD PROFITS yet screws over canon power shot camera owners who want to use Snow Leopard.

What a horrible company Apple is turning out to be. Among record profits Apple was incapable of assisting Canon camera and their power shot camera so that it would work properly on Apple's Snow Leopard platform. It's been around 5 months, 5 months that owners of canon power shot cameras have been unable to keep using their existing canon power shot cameras with the canon software.

But hey, enjoy those billions in profits even as you ignore hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of canon powershot users who preferred using the canon image browser software on Apple Snow leopard, but are still shut out.

What My Dad Left Behind, the Book.

Look for the Book, What My Dad Left Behind, sometime in early 2010. Click on images to enlarge. I have been delayed by the APPLE and Canon Camera incompatibility issue that does not allow for my canon camera pictures to properly upload onto Snow Leopard.

(Edit update - August 11, 2010) I had to postpone this book because of the six month Apple Macintosh induced photo uploading delay. By the time a fix was made, I did not have the time to put into the book, for now. However, It is something I am planning on doing when I have the time to put into doing it.

(Edit update = April 1st, 2018)  I have started a tribute page on behalf of my Mother and her unexpected death after an E.R. would not treat her wheezing which she normally did not have. If you want to join my mother's facebook tribute page you may discover the stories I tell about both of my parents and my time as my mother's caregiver a unique experience.