Precious Mia

Precious Mia!

Mia is in first grade and has acute myloid leukemia.

While wandering around Flickr, I came upon brave, little Mia.

Tears fall each time I look at the photos of this amazingly brave
little girl. I don't know much, but I think she was diagnosed
in 2005 and spent six months in the hospital unable to come
home for Christmas.

Since then, it's been a roller coaster.
In and out of the hospital, all too brief periods of "wellness"
and then relapse. Through it all, Mia keeps battling this
hideous, deadly disease with bravery and grace. Transfusions of
bone marrow, chemo, seemingly endless battles in her
life and death war.

Mia smiles a lot. Her smiles are contagious to those around her.
Her glorious spirit is contagious, too, even to those
around the world fighting for her in anonymity.

Oh, dear, precious Mia!

Proof there is no god.

Jeff/Casual Clicks

800...3,000...60,000

Nice, Even Numbers...So What? So Irrelevant!

Listening to: Hem, Eva Cassidy, UCLA Marching Band, Canadian Brass and Page France

The screen capture above shows a couple of things. In red, it says my photos have been viewed 60,000+ times in the last 11 months that I've been putting my photos on Flickr. Of course, that could mean 60,000 folks stopped by for a look and left right away. I prefer to think a few visited and stayed to take a bit more of a look around my gallery.

The first photo of the airplane coming out from behind a building has been of interest to me if no one else. This week in Los Angeles, the new world's largest civilian aircraft flew into LAX. The Airbus A380 has two decks and is pretty damn big.

The photo has been the most viewed of the photos I posted of it landing and departing the next day. As of today, four days after its landing, that photo has been viewed almost 800 times. It was viewed 600 times in the first 48 hours. The photos in the series have been viewed a combined 3,000 times starting Monday about 2 pm.

Nice numbers, I guess, and it's nice to have folks looking at my photos even if these aren't all that artistic though a few are creative enough.

Makes me wonder if I should post the only photo I've really been holding back and have never really published. It's called Suicide Tide. It did appear only once along with two of my other photos at an exhibition (no big deal, all could submit photos for inclusion) at an art museum in Switzerland a few weeks ago.

But all these nice even numbers don't mean a thing when compared to little Mia and her daily war against death...the subject of the next entry.

Jeff/Casual Clicks