From the desk of Mr. Walters

I didn't expect him to be purple when they took him out, a metallic purple-grey color.  He, of course began to turn a nice fleshy color as they cleaned him up.  I cut the cord!  I never thought I'd be able to.  I am definitely the squeamish type.  I was fine though, and blood and goo from the cord shot all over my scrubs.  I'm sitting here in our maternity room waiting for Lanette to come back from recovery.   I can't believe how big my son is!  Hudson came out at 8 pounds, 15.9 ounces.  In the real, non-doctor, world we like to call that 9 pounds.  My life is going to be very different from here on out.  As I watched them clean and care for my son in the nursery, I winced when he cried and worried throughout the whole process.  It's amazing how much love and care you can have for this little person you haven't even gotten to know yet.  What a blessed day. Clint (a new Dad!) Walters

EndorsementsTypically, I don't endorse anything, but the following applications are great GNU applications that are 100% free!   These alternatives to more expensive apps, Operating systems, and suites such as MS Office, Adobe Photoshop, and Windows have been developed by a comunity of users and are constantly improving.Feel free to suggest additions... Graphics / Animation: Inkscape (Adobe Illustrator is $599) GIMP (Adobe Photoshop is $649) Blender (Maya is $6,999) Synfig (Flash is $699) Operating System Ubuntu (MS Windows is $358) Ubuntu Studio (comes with apps listed on this page and more) Note: Ubuntu is built on Debian Linux and is therefore impervious to viruses and spyware. Office and Printing Scribus (Adobe InDesign is $699) Open Office (MS Office is $205) Web Development Nvu (Adobe Dreamweaver is $399) Quanta (MS Frontpage / Expression Web $270)