Adventures of Bo SuperDog

The Young Family Christmas Letter

2009 has concluded, 12 months fading away into memories and photographs. 2010 beckons to us. Come forward and receive your prize. You have survived the 2000s, a turbulent decade finally drawn to a close. And what a decade it was. But now it’s over, and the promise of the 2010s expands before us, pristine and untouched like the layer of snow blanketing our front lawn. Before we move on to the bright future ahead of us, allow me to trace back through 2009, and remember the things for which we are grateful.

Mackenzie is a sophomore at the University of Michigan, studying world domination…er, mechanical engineering. He’s living at the Phi Delt house, like his brother and father before him, and undoubtedly finding it as luxurious and tidy as they did. He enjoys flannel shirts, singing acapella, and long walks with his steady girl, Liz. This fall he has gotten involved in his church band, and rocks out with them (slang for performs) twice a month. His glee club concert this fall was superb, and the 150th anniversary concert of the Michigan Men’s Glee Club in April promises to be even better.

Jon escaped the magnetic pull of Forest Bend in early 2009 and hasn’t looked back. He is enjoying his independence, as well as making proud the family name with his work at Behler-Young. The one thing left for him to shape up would be his wardrobe. But we’ll take what we can get. Right? Right? Anyone? Bueller?

Cameron continues his physical training schedule, and that, combined with a rigid program of steroids and HGH, has him looking lean yet cut as he prepares for 2010’s Mr. Universe competition. (All of that was a joke. All but the PT.) In the latter half of ’09, he interned at an advertising agency in Grand Rapids, dually learning the ropes of the business and fleeing the fated liquid lunches of the MALs (Middle Aged Ladies. Get with the nomenclature). He starts a new job in January, slinging office furniture, and is very excited. (He also runs a highly profitable blog, www.thelifeofcameron.blogspot.com)

As for the parents, they are well. Well, mostly well. Well, ok, all well. Kim continues to be a vital cog in her bible study group, and despite recently resigning her post as CEO of Cameron Inc, she remains an important source of aid and assistance to her number 2 son. Doug has been working overdrive in 2009, keeping the business afloat in rough economic waters, and steering her towards a profitable 2010. He enjoyed watching Michigan play football…no, basketball…no, hockey…no, he enjoyed the tailgating before said event and then got perturbed when the team played like sh@#. He, as well as all the Young’s, look forward to more successful campaigns in 2010. Kim and Doug have been married 32 wonderful years, and remain as enamored today as they were when Doug first wooed her with his spot-on Quasimodo impression.

We, as a family, are grateful for all the blessings 2009 has bestowed upon us, and we look forward to what lies ahead of us in 2010. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

Countdown to 2010: My Movies of the Decade

I'm a fan of great cinema, and this decade (let call it the 00s) did not disappoint. The 00s provided some fantastic movies. The list may be a little chalk (a few Best Picture winners on the list), but hey, who am I to argue with Oscar?

1. Gladiator (2000) – This became my favorite movie immediately after I saw it. Back in Russell Crowe’s glory days, his performance is remarkable, as was current crazy man / wannabe rapper Joaquin Phoenix. Spaniard! Spaniard!


2. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – The most recent Best Picture, I loved the flashbacks, the music, the way the Indian Regis Philbin pronounced Millionaire (millon-AIR!), everything.

3. Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) – This trilogy was about as epic as movies can get. A little long for my taste, but as far as book adaptations go, these were superb.

I remain a Giant and you Jeremy Shockey

Here's a video from today's session. We braved the 8 fresh inches of Michigan's finest lake effect snow and hauled our butts northward to Rockford and the gym. My plan for the weekend is to commence four months of hibernation. Ready...go!

Another

Here's another one. The distance spanned in these videos is about 30 feet each, constrained by the length of the room. Monday and today, we went up and walked on the track at the gym and went for a total of about 350 feet each day. Like I said, every day feels stronger and smoother. God Bless, have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Video...Finally!

The long awaited and much ballyhooed video has finally arrived. We started doing walking like this in early October, once I was able to keep my trunk up without assistance. We try to do it at least once, and when we're lucky twice, per week, and each time it feels much easier than the last.
As you can see, they're helping me pull my leg forward; I can help a little bit with that but it's more of a reflexive action by my muscles, which usually starts off strong and peters out towards the middle of the walk. The main thing I am working on doing myself are trunk control, meaning keep my trunk centered and upright (not face-planting/ass-planting!), weight shifting from side to side to aid my steps, and also locking my leg into extension, when the knee is straight and the muscles are engaged and I can put weight on them.
This is 100% weight bearing, which is very important for bone density, muscle tone etc. I'm exhausted when I'm done, but it's a great feeling!

Therapy Update

I took a small vacation to do some soul searching, I just needed some time off, but now I'm back, ready to update you guys. Well, that's not totally truthful. I ended up punching a hole in my computer screen after the debacle of a football game Saturday, and I've only now gotten it fixed. Okay, that's not true either. I was just busy and lazy, OK? Geez, get off me.
The move I'm doing above is one of my trademarks, the 'Crouching Tiger, Seated Cameron'. It's taken me months to master, but now I'm performing it at ease. We've been working a lot lately on my core strength and balance, and it's really starting to pay off. My posture is much improved and my back strength, particularly my lower back, where I don't have full sensation but increasing muscle control, has been a revelation. It's helping me in multiple aspects of my therapy, particularly in walking, of which I'll hopefully get video soon, and truly is the key to my success. Like Confucious, with his sage wisdom ('Baseball wrong. Man with four ball, cannot walk.' - Confucious), I'll try to provide you a maxim to live by: 'Man who not do daily situps get flabby man gut'. You hear that Mackenzie?

Big Game Tomorrow

We are headed en masse to Ann Arbor City tomorrow for the annual rumpus between the Wolverines and the Nittanies. Based on the Big Ten Network commercial that is on the air constantly and features JoePa imploring recruits less than 1/4 of his age to 'Come to PENN STATE!', he's completely lost his mind. On that information alone, I like our chances tomorrow.
Let's revisit my predictions from earlier this fall.
Game Prediction Actual
Western W, 31-17 W, 31-7
Notre Dame W, 31-24 W, 38-34
Eastern W, 35-10 W, 45-17
Indiana W, 37-14 W, 36-33
MSU L, 24-27 L, 20-26
Iowa L, 21-31 L, 28-30
Delaware St.W, 35-13 W, 63-6

As you can see, 100% so far, with the only glaring error being my miscalculation of the level of Delaware State's suckitude. I want to take this opportunity to revise my next prediction. Back in September, I thought Penn State would win this game, 27-14. Now, however, after not being blown away by their level of play, and pleasantly surprised by ours, I envision a closer duel on Saturday. An updated prediction - Michigan wins a wet one on the strength of their running attack, 24-20.

Can't wait to see a bunch of friends (Rodney, Kellyn da don, Evanakahustla, Nabeel, Dom, JonTBuck, Paul, the list goes on), and relish another fall day in Ann Arbor with them.


Alan Branch crushing fools in Happy Valley circa 2006. We were sitting top row, next to the gods, watching two college football heavyweights throw down for a couple hours on a crisp October night. The atmosphere at Beaver Stadium is unparalleled as well. The stands literally quake as the whited-out crowd bounces up and down. Luckily, we were able to hijack their 'We are Penn State' cheer and improve it to 'We OWN Penn State'.


Two things he and the Penn State football coach have in common?
Outfit.
Diapers.

FPotD and Tom Friedman

This was a stunt performed by Green Peace. Both clever and dangerous, I don't condone potentially life-threatening acts of (slight) civil disobedience, I wholeheartedly support this particular message. Those faces are not carved in stone because of their crafty politicking, skilled partisan manipulating, or smooth speechmaking, they are etched to honor their courage in leadership. Each of those presidents took monumental risks in pursuit of truth and justice for all Americans, and for that they will be recognized, at least until an earthquake swallows up South Dakota or something.

On a similar bent, we attended a speech at Devos Place by Thomas Friedman, the respected author and New York Times columnist. He spoke at the 60th anniversary meeting of the West Michigan World Affairs Council, with a topic of 'Hot, Flat, and Crowded:Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America'. Ostensibly to sell books (we bought one and had it signed), the talk was informative, entertaining, and very educational. Some notes are after the jump...

Walking on the treadmill again

Many thanks to the (slightly annoying) narrator Mackenzie.

This week

My schedule the past week or so has been a bit unorthodox, so I thought I'd clue everyone in to what I've been up to, or, as I like to call it, 'the happs'. I've been taking a break from therapy in order for my neck stitches to heal and the scar not look all gnarly, so I've been finding other ways to occupy my time. Monday evening, my grandparents and I attended a debate downtown between Jonathan Alter, a Newsweek columnist and Amity Schales, a conservative author and pundit. The topic was the effectiveness of the New Deal on the US' recovery from the Great Depression. This obviously is relevant these days as well, as we try to recover from the 'Great Recession'. Check out my notes from the speech after the jump.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the past month and a half or so I've been interning at Hanon McKendry, a brand consulting and advertising firm downtown GR. It's been a great opportunity not only to get some experience in the marketing and advertising world but also just be in an office and around a business. You can't knock til you try it, so I wanted to try it out and see firsthand what it is like. I enjoy both sides of the business, both the statistics based strategy aspect as well as the creative side. So I'll be there a while longer and see how it goes.

I returned to therapy today after a couple days off, and had several revelations. First, a couple days off can wreak havoc on your conditioning; it was obvious why swimmers and runners train on Christmas when I was huffing and puffing after just a few minutes. Second, we identified some tightness in my hip that's been causing me some issues in my gait, a literal 'hitch' in my step, and promptly stretched it out into oblivion. It's amazing how much your pelvis rotates and moves as you walk just straight ahead; I can't even imagine side to side. Loosening that up made a huge difference.

We're headed to AA for the football again tomorrow; for those keep score, my predictions are 6-0. And with a Div 1-AA team coming in, I'm confident in a win.
And...a bear on ladder to take you into the weekend.

I survive!

Yay! Surgery was a grand success, and despite some lingering drowsiness yesterday afternoon, I was totally fine. The doc wanted me to stay over night as a precaution, to make sure air from my trachea wasn't leaking out under the flap of skin/muscle that was pulled over the dent in my throat. The stretching of one of the vertical muscles in my neck horizontally to make a flap over the hole the surgeon cut out has resulted in some soreness. Right now, my throat's a little stiff, but once the muscles loosen up, things should be back to normal. I was looking forward to popping some Vicodins, you know, for 'pain management', but the nurse warned me they tend to 'bind you up' (read: severe constipation) so I passed on the pills. The stitches come out next week Thursday, so I'll be taking it easy until then. Gotta make sure this scar stays nice and pretty, I guess, so no therapy for a little while either. But at least now I'll have the time to make some progress on my Tivo queue; it was getting backed up.

Ugh, surgery tomorrow.

Don't worry, it's nothing serious, although not as flippant as 2008's calf implant debacle. (For the record, my calves are all natural.) I'm getting the site at the base of my throat where my trach was worked on a little bit. Mostly for functional reasons, it still leaks air occasionally and has the potential to leak water in the shower or lake (not that I want to go in the lake anyway), making the possibility of infection a real and ever present threat. There might be a cosmetic reasoning behind it too, it looks like something you'd find on a zombie or Spartan, not yours truly, and it prevents me from rocking my favorite v-neck shirts. Which is unacceptable. So wish me luck, and pray for a swift recovery. I have to spend the night (lame!) so hopefully during my 24+ hours there, I'll find some way to amuse myself. Here's a photo of the horror -


Kind of a blurry picture - luckily, I guess, or you'd be scrambling to get away from your screen, and blocking the view of your loved ones and small children. It's basically an indentation like I got shot by a quarter and my throat was made of silly putty. Or something like that.

Another video

SCI Research Update

Here's a link to an exciting new research breakthrough that was featured on the Today Show this morning. (No, I'm not a regular watcher of the Today Show. I'm a View guy, everyone knows that.) It involves rats, as most trials do at their earliest stages, who undergo a controlled spinal cord injury, and with the help of electrical stimulation and daily ambulation on a treadmill similar, albeit smaller, to the one I use, the rats have been experiencing exciting results.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32950285#32950285

Walking

Here is some long awaited video. I walk like this, using the harness and treadmill or over ground, at least two times per week. As my leg strength has returned, it has become easier and some of the forward swing of the leg is being supplied by yours truly. Not much, but some. Stay tuned for more video to come.

Pics from Tigers game

Unfortunately, the video we took of me walking and doing other exercises at therapy last week got dropped in the lake over the weekend. Great job Dad. But here are some pics from the Tigers game last week to satiate you all.





The Tigers game was a blast. Hopefully they'll make the playoffs and we can continue rooting deep into the fall.


This picture was from the 4th of July weekend, on one of our many float boat booze cruises. And yes, this lake is the culprit for the malfunctioning videocamera. Damn wetness.


Our neighbor's grandbaby, almost 1 year old. What a cutie! I think Mackenzie wore that same outfit when he was her age.

The Inaugural Post

Geez, I hope I don't bumble my lines John Roberts-style. I've been meaning to start this blog for a while, and I thought, what better time to kick off than the hottest, most stiflingly humid days of summer, when everyone's indoors enjoying their AC, and prior to the both the return of the school year and the return of my much-beloved college football season. And like my fumbling Michigan Wolverines, I hope that this blog, like their season, will prove to entertain, amuse, and ultimately be a success. (And beating State sure wouldn't hurt.)
There are many things I would like to do, and hopefully this format can help to accomodate those goals. So check back often as I get used to this whole blogging thing, and we can beat this heat together.