It’s going to be a party. It’s going to be a Tweetup. It’s all about you and us and some food and some networking. It’s the first ever Castle Tojosan Tweetup.

You and you and you are invited. Oh wait, you’re not late though. The date is Friday, February 19th. The time? 6PM Central and beyond.

Warning – it’s mostly BYOB though I have a couple of bottles of wine in the house. I will take your keys if you’re toast.

This is intended to be a family and friend deals. Bring your kids, bring your wanna be tweeps, bring the garbage man if you like him.

I’ve got wifi, sodas, and video games and movies for the kids. As for food, the plan is to order some pizza, put out some chips, and make some finger sammies.  Whatever else turns up, I won’t mind.

We mostly stock Pepsi products but if ask ahead I can grab a few other sodas.  We’ll also have iced tea on hand.

Oh wait, you want to know where right? St. Peters, Mo. Um. Need more?

5 Westwood Estates Drive.

Google map?

Recap: Tweetup at Castle Jordan – it’s on Foursqure!

Bring yourself and your kids if you’d like. BYOB. Wireless. Big TV w/DVD player, Wii, XBox 360. Jigsaw puzzles. Cards. Yahtzee. Origami. Bring your camera/camcorder.

Food as it works out. If you have special food rules please contact me ahead of time.

Please RSVP here, vai Twitter, email, etc, and remember to tweet it up-  http://wp.me/pfLxC-uv

Note: we have a very friendly dog. He’s about 23 lbs. We don’t give him people food.

self portrait of Todd R Jordan - click to see on Flickr

It’s that time again; time to bring in a new year. I’m ringing in 2010 by taking the 365 challenge again.  Nanna J will be taking self portraits as well.

Help me celebrate the new year and the photography challenge. I’d like to give away a Flickr Pro account to one of my readers.

It’ll be simple. Leave a comment with a link to your Flickr profile and add me as a contact on Flickr.  I’ll randomly pick a commenter to receive the Pro account.

All comments must be in by Midnight Central Time on Sunday January 3rd. Random.org will be used to pick.

Super Tojosan!, originally uploaded by Nanna J.

Yep, that’s me when I’m out saving the world.

An MRA is Magnetic Resonance Angiography; it’s a vein scan. So from radiologyinfo.org:

Angiography is performed using:

• x-rays with catheters
• computed tomography (CT)
• magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

In magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), a powerful magnetic field, radio waves and a computer produce the detailed images. MR angiography does not use ionizing radiation (x-rays).

MR angiography may be performed with or without contrast material. If needed, the contrast material is usually injected using a vein in the arm.

It doesn’t sound all that disruptive until you consider how they conduct it.  Basically you lay on a tray with your head in a little rectangle area.  They then place a cage over the top, so you’re completely encompassed.

An IV is inserted before the procedure begins, so contrast may be injected for certain portions of the scan.

After getting comfortable and IV insertion, the technician raises up the tray and the whole mechanism slides into the functional part of the MRI machine, ergo in the middle of the big electromagnets and ray guns.

Oh, I forgot to mention the ear plugs. Yeah, ear plugs.  You’d not think you’d need them reading the description from the site but you do.  The earplugs is to keep you from going deaf from the machine.  It wouldn’t be so loud perhaps, but your head is right in the center of it.

Why so noisy?  The imaging gear in the machine moves around your head 360 degrees.  Each movement of the mechanism is quite loud, and for certain portions, lengthy.  A particular scan can last from a couple of minutes to many.

So you’re inside and the noise starts and there you are. No moving. NO MOVING.

Most of think we could keep still for a few minutes. Um. It’s as easy as it sounds for some of us.  Me? I get the urge to twitch after a few minutes. Or perhaps that arm becomes uncomfortable.  Either way, somewhere about 15 mins in it got annoying today. Luckily it passed.

The machine and process is painless and unobservable other than the noise.  You don’t see anything move, only hear it. The IV is only a needle stick, and perhaps a cool feeling when the fluid is actually injected.

A wee bit of advice I’ll insert here – visit the bathroom before you start a MRI/MRA/CT etc.  If you cause a scan to get interrupted, it must be restarted.  This potentially causes a whole set to have to be redone. No potty breaks in the middle. Got that?

Another tip – wear comfortable clothing.  I don’t just mean blue jeans or whatever, but consider wearing something you’d feel comfortable laying down for an hour in.  Something you don’t mind getting wrinkled.  Besides the looks factor, it’s honestly about comfort.

Don’t bring crap – don’t bring your media player, your bling, your metal mouth piece, your nose piercing, whatever. Don’t bring it. Big magnet + stray metal things/electronics = bad news.

Today’s MRA was conducted at Barnes St. Peters in St. Peters, MO.  The technicians were friendly, prompt and proficient. The right staff makes this experience much more pleasant.

As an added bonus I found out Barnes uses my company’s contrast media and injectors. Woot!

Results are due back in about 2 working days. (read Monday for me since it’s Thursday)

I’ll let everyone know the good news as soon as I know.

Thank you each and everyone for your support, prayers, and kind wishes. I’m confidant everything will be fine regardless of what they find. I’m personally hoping for diamonds or gold.

Yours, 

Todd, @tojosan, tojosan//gmail.com

I’ve started a new series over on Dadomatic.com. It’s about getting healthy.

I’ll be sharing insights, tips and tricks that might wife and I have learned in our ongoing effort to be healthier.

The articles won’t be written by experts unless there’s a guest writer. Nor will the articles be written for those that are already health nuts. The target audience is ordinary moms and dads. Folks like me that have always struggled, and still have to work hard to make an impact.

I hope you’ll join me there. My first article is already up. It’s titled Work in Progress. The plan is to put together an article each week with advice I’ve lived myself. Expect to read about recipes gone wrong, bad efforts at exercise and why sometimes it just doesn’t matter.

Your interest peaked yet? Well, I’d like to challenge you to visit and laugh along, share your stories, and keep your eyes peeled for a contest or two. Nanna J and I have found some good resources we’d like to share. (A little secret though; none of them are secrets, magic cures, or special pills. Just saying.)

Drop me a line here if you’re interested in sharing a story, pictures, or prize.

Yours,
Todd

Please check out all Tojosan polls.

Member Profile – Five Minutes With Todd Jordan « St. Louis Bloggers Guild: “If you want to know something about social media and networking, Todd Jordan is THE answer man. Todd blogs about an array of subjects – from parenting and photography to social networking.  When not blogging at his home site The Broad Brush he guest blogs at Remarkable Parents.com and is also a contributor at Dad-O-Matic.com”

The above is the lead in for a profile article on yours truly. It’s an interesting read and might show you a thing or two about me.

Lisa Bertrand did a great job with this. She was very encouraging to open up and share. It’s great to be profiled by someone like her.

You can read the whole series of member profiles.

The St. Louis Bloggers Guild is reaching out to St. Louis bloggers, businesses and community. Please considering joining if you’re an active St. Louis area blogger.

Or how to lose your sanity in 50,000 words or less.

That’s right, I’m going to try this again.  What’s this? It’s National Novel Writing Month, and yours truly is setting himself the lofty goal of writing a 50,000 word or more novel by midnight on November 30th.

Other’s have attempted this feat in years past and have succeeded but I’ve yet to complete one.  Coming alongside to do this I have a few friends attempting it, but will that be enough.  The drama begins today.

As of this writing, I’ve already put down over 1800 words. I’m writing and storing the novel to be in Google Docs.  This will make the story accessible from anywhere I need to work on it, and with any computer.

What does this mean to you?  It means I’m going to be crazier than usual and you can expect to see excerpts here.  You’ll probably be seeing mention of folks you’ve never heard of and things you might not want to think about.

What can you do to help? Read the excerpts. Leave comments. Suggest things to happen in the novel. Want more danger? More sex? More candy? Let me know.  Just be encouraging.

For now, it’s off to the races, and fingers to keyboards. Let novel writing begin.