Of Miles Rausch

It is cold out.

The cheerless chill that has descended upon us is one I connect to the maroon-shaded gaze of Lord Voldermort. It's a cold that I've associated with the oft-written "chilled me to the bones". For what has been a relatively mild winter, recent weeks have yielded a fresh bought of low temperatures and high snowfall.

Our travels last Christmas from Big Stone City, SD, to Sioux Falls, SD, had been a harrowing misadventure, during which we witnessed a handful of stranded vehicles, many of which my father took the time to rescue. Mostly, though, it was 10 mph "white knuckle" driving though terrible roads, low visibility, and general fatigue.

This year, we thought we were free of such a torment. Instead, once we were outside of Milbank, the blowing snow hit. I had, hitherto, never considered "blowing snow" to be anything close to dangerous. 'What harm is there,' I thought, 'when you can drive right through it?' Then we hit enough blowing snow to create white-out-like conditions, and I knew the harm. It was like driving through cloud. Tiny, island patches of road would open up (and close) before us, offering hope and despair. Our only real guidance came in the form of the reflective road posts and occassional road signs. We did eventually make our way safely but not before a couple of tense moments.

This Christmas has been a little sad. It's been our first time seeing a lot of these people since our news, and that reminds us of our news, which makes us sad. Plus, it's a generally happy time, which makes one think of puppy dogs, candycanes, and babies, which makes us sad. And, by terrible coincidence, the movie we saw for Christmas day, Marley and Me, features a scene in which the couple discovers that they've been experiencing an Anembryonic pregnancy, which made us sad. But that's how it is. It all just makes me all the more eager to be able to try again, which will hopefully be soon. I'll be sure to video-blog our progress.

BUT, this holiday season is not meant to be sad. It's meant to be a joyous time. So, to share the happiness, a happiness that Holli and I have been enjoying these past weeks, I present to you the pilot episode of the anime Bleach.

More by Mark Osborne.

I had discovered this short film ages ago, then lost track of it. Suddenly, serendipitously (thanks in part to my cousin, Brittany) I found it again. What I think is best about this film is how the greatness of the story transcends the medium. Storytelling FTW.

Trying out a new Visual Code Editor plugin for Wordpress. Below is a Javascript function that I wrote (leveraging jQuery) for popping a modal window. So far, it's made its way into two websites.

function newWindow(mainHTML, headHTML, footHTML){
if (!mainHTML) { var mainHTML = ""; }
if (!headHTML) { var headHTML = ""; }
if (!footHTML) { var footHTML = ""; }

if (!$("#popupcontent").length){
$popout = $("<div id=\"popup\"></div>").addClass("popup");
} else {
$popout = $("#popup").empty();
if (!$popout.hasClass("popup")) { $popout.addClass("popup"); }
}

$popup = $("<div id=\"popupcontent\"></div>");
$("body").append($popout.append($popup));

$close = $("<a>Close</a>").addClass("close").click(function(){ $("#popup").remove();});
$popupHead = $("<div id=\"popuphead\"></div>").html(headHTML).prepend($close);
$popupFoot = $("<div id=\"popupfoot\"></div>").html(footHTML);
$popup.html(mainHTML);
$popout.prepend($popupHead).append($popupFoot);

$popout.css({
position:"absolute",
top:($(window).height()-$popout.outerHeight())/2,
left:($(window).width()-$popout.outerWidth())/2
});
}

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting us. It's been eye-opening to read so many stories and experiences that mirror or reflect our own. It's also been very touching to get your condolences.

Thank you, all, again for your love and support.

I haven't been very "online" since the last post about the baby. I think a part of me felt that to do anything "normal" like that would be disrespectful. So, I retreated from blogging, reading blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. I disappeared for a short time, but I will soon return. I don't think our baby would want us to stop being us just because we're sad, and I, for one, don't want to disappoint our baby.

So, here's an LOLbunny.