Links:
Bruno visits:
Archives:
- 2008-5: 7 entries
- 2008-4: 31 entries
- 2008-3: 41 entries
- 2008-2: 31 entries
- 2008-1: 28 entries
- 2007-12: 40 entries
- 2007-11: 34 entries
- 2007-10: 27 entries
- 2007-9: 45 entries
- 2007-8: 39 entries
- 2007-7: 27 entries
- 2007-6: 38 entries
- 2007-5: 37 entries
- 2007-4: 35 entries
- 2007-3: 44 entries
- 2007-2: 39 entries
- 2007-1: 31 entries
- 2006-12: 26 entries
- 2006-11: 32 entries
- 2006-10: 25 entries
- 2006-9: 36 entries
- 2006-8: 31 entries
- 2006-7: 12 entries
- 2006-6: 35 entries
- 2006-5: 28 entries
- 2006-4: 24 entries
Who is Bruno Lowagie?
Bruno Lowagie is the original copyrightholder of
iText, a free Java-PDF library
and the author of the book
iText in Action:
Houston, we have a problem
*SIGH*
On Tuesday, I made coffee for my wife at 6AM, I was present at the hospital at ten minutes before 7AM, I was at work from 9:30 AM, I went back to the hospital at 5:30 PM. I was home a quarter before 9 PM.
Yesterday, I made coffee for my wife at 6AM, I did plenty of work till 9:20 AM. Then I got a phone call about a 9:00 AM appointment I forgot. I went to the appointment and when I got home, I had to let the plumber in, showing him where to find the fuse box, the central heating system, etc. Meanwhile I also had to make dinner for Jago, our youngest son. At 2:00 PM I was supposed to be at the hospital so that my wife could go grocery shopping. That's where it went wrong:
Jago came home with a fever, and Ingeborg had to go to a doctor with him. It's nothing serious: a virus, a fever, some head ache; but... he couldn't go to school today AND he can't be nowhere near Inigo because Inigo's resistance against all these kind of viruses and bacteria is low.
So we had to reschedule today. I went to the hospital from 7 till 9 AM. Then the hospital's teacher took over. Then we 'shipped' Jago off to Westrozebeke (to his grandparents), and Ingeborg took over. I was supposed to go to work this morning, but I'll switch half a day with a day that I'm supposed to be at home. In a few minutes I'll be leaving to do some work.
Is it me, or is this just hell? Where has my life gone?
More hippopotamuses
What a coincidence! Yesterday I was with Inigo at the hospital and we were watching the 'Jeugdjournaal' (news for youths) on the Dutch television, and they had some hippo-news: one of the hippo's at the Zoo in Emmen gave birth to twins!
Meanwhile Erik from the Paincakes send me a link to the Toledo Zoo in Ohio. You can sponsor a hippo for $600 and you get a PAL Packet including a plush animal and a photo (also an invitation to go to the ZOO, but that would be hard to achieve for Inigo).
I also received some interesting pointers from other people about the Antwerp Zoo and Planckendael. I apologize for not replying to all the mails personally, and I want to thank everybody because the response was very positive. I didn't get any reaction from the Zoo yet though.
As for Inigo, I did a first shift at 7AM this morning before going to work; after work, I'll do another shift. It's like having a double job. Fortunately Inigo is feeling relatively well. He's finally gaining weight (he lost about 10 kilo in a week time). If all goes well, he'll be home on Thursday evening and then start his next chemo treatment next Tuesday. That'll be the last chemo treatment before the surgery and we'll then be at 1 third of the complete protocol...
A Hippopotamus for Christmas?
It has been 10 weeks and 3 days since we know Inigo has Cancer. Inigo is at home since Friday and we try making the best out of it. He has to return to the hospital tommorow for yet another chemo treatment. That's the official start of week 9 in the 30-week chemotherapy procedure. There will be another chemo treatment in week 10. If the protocol were to be followed to the letter, he'd have his knee surgery in week 11, but in practice, the surgery will take place on May 29. In other words: when we talk about a 30-week procedure, we're not talking about 30 consecutive weeks. That's why our own goal is to have the worst behind us by Christmas.
On Friday I blogged about the song "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" (the paincakes version). I was so happy with the news that Inigo could come home for the weekend that I sent fan mail to the band:
Hello,Much to my surprise, I received an answer from the band:
I wanted to send you a little mail to thank you for recording "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas." My son (almost 12) has Cancer (Osteosarcoma) and he has a little stuffed hippo that has become very important during the long treatment.
You can read more about it here:
http://www.lowagie.com/maand.php?year=2008&month=4#793
We play your version of "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" every time we celebrate something. For instance: we've just had the news that he can go home from the hospital for the weekend. On such an occasion I play the song on my portable computer and my son lets his stuffed hippo dance to it. He can't use his left leg due to the Cancer, so he lets his hippo do all the things he can't do anymore.
This is just a little mail from a father, a son and his hippo to tell you that we are fans!
Thanks again,
Bruno, Inigo and Brul
Bruno,I immediately translated the mail for Inigo and he liked the idea very much. So now I've send a mail to the Antwerp Zoo to find out if it's feasible. Although Inigo doesn't like too be in the spotlights (since the diagnosis, he's isolating himself as much as possible; he doesn't even want his closest friend to come and visit him), I also contacted Dieren in Nesten, one of the television shows Inigo likes very much.
Thank you so much for your message. Your email and blog entry were very touching. It is very nice to know that something we did for fun has now taken on so much meaning in your lives.
One of the first thoughts that entered my mind after reading the blog entry was that there may be a way to get Inigo a hippopotamus for Christmas. I know many zoo's in the United States have adoption or sponsorship programs to help fund the care of animals. For a donation that goes towards feeding and taking care of an animal, the zoo will send a picture and information about the animals they are adopting or sponsoring. I would imagine that it may be a possibility at a zoo near you as well. If possible, myself and my friends in the "band" would like to find a way to make this happen.
Please let me know what you think of the idea. Many of us in the band are active in the Detroit music scene, and I'm sure we can put together a show this summer to fund this idea. A good start would be to get your blessing for us to pursue this idea and the location of the nearest zoo to where you live.
Again, thank you for your email. My best wishes to you and your family. I hope Inigo has a quick recovery.
Sincerely,
Erik J. Koppin
To be continued...
Home this afternoon
Good news: Inigo will be coming home this afternoon. We've just played "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" at its loudest (the paincakes version of course, not the original version from the fifties) and Brul has been dancing to it. I already talked about Brul a month ago. Brul has been very quiet for a week, but since the day before yesterday, he's more active. He really functions as a barometer to see if Inigo feels good or bad. We now have to wait till 3PM for the administration of his final antibiotics treatment, and once that is done, he can come home. It has been a long stay at the hospital this time. We don't have a date for next week yet, but at least we're sure that he'll be at home with us till Monday.
Good news
Finally! Inigo has started eating solid food and he's recovering remarkably well. In spite of what they said earlier, the doctors think he could be released from the hospital tomorrow. Let's hope they don't change their mind and most of all: let's hope Inigo is healthy enough to spend the weekend at home. Note that he'll have to return to the hospital next week for yet another chemo treatment, but... time at home is a scarce good and very precious to all of us.
Talking about releasing: today I started working on the release of iText 2.1.1. I had scheduled that release for tomorrow, but much to my surprise I was able to finish it today. (Well, it wasn't that surprising if you know I started working at 7AM and due to the fact that most of the medical staff had a day off today, I wasn't disturbed by anyone at the hospital.) iText 2.1.1 is released exactly 5 weeks after iText 2.1.0 and much to my surprise the changelog is quite long. Even I did some serious debugging; I fixed some nasty bugs in an area of iText that probably hasn't been used by many people yet ;-)
Let's have a look at my 'checklist' for each release:
| Run junit tests (JDK 1.5): | DONE | |
| Run jdiff: | DONE | |
| Update acknowledgements: | DONE | |
| Update history: | DONE | |
| Run release: | DONE | |
| Create tutorial + examples: | DONE | |
| Tag SVN: | DONE | |
| SNAPSHOT version: | DONE | |
| Upload to sourceforge: | DONE | |
| Create release on SF: | DONE | |
| Upload to itext.ugent.be: | DONE | |
| - untar api + src + examples: | DONE | |
| Toolbox JNLP: | DONE | |
| RUPS JNLP: | DONE | |
| MAVEN: | DONE | |
| Eclipse plug-in: | SKIPPED | |
| upload to lowagie.com: | DONE | |
| - site; untar tutorial.tar.gz | DONE | |
| check content on sites: | PARTLY DONE | |
| update temporary news on homepage: | NA | |
| inform itext-questions: | DONE | |
| inform itext-releases: | DONE | |
| promote the release: | TODO | |
| - sourceforge: | TODO | |
| - javalobby: | TODO | |
| - freshmeat: | TODO | |
| if necessary: jar in book downloads / examples | TODO |
