I Am Koti Hu

Three Years Today

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

It happened in a car accident on July 28th, 2007, in a suburb of Seattle. I was at a standstill when a full-sized pickup truck hit me going about 60 miles an hour. My neck was broken by severe whiplash in the force of the collision, and my spinal cord badly damaged. I am now paralyzed, a C5/6 tetraplegic with severe, chronic neuropathic pain. It is very difficult.

I used to be a recording, performing musician, a singer, and guitar player (among other things). Now, I live my life in a wheelchair, I can’t use my fingers, and I can’t walk.

I am 30, I live in constant pain, and I have hope.

Photo shoot from my debut record.

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:40:00 -0700

Photo shoot from my debut record.

I found an alternate version of my song, “Magnify” from my debut...

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:26:00 -0700

I found an alternate version of my song, “Magnify” from my debut record, “CodyWho” (2001) which I recorded in seven months with my close friend and producer Caleb. During the process of writing and recording music, we would often burn a copy of each day’s work and any progress we had made that day. This version was recorded on 8/26/01, and represents one of many, many different versions of the songs I’ve written and recorded. If you compare it to the final, album version you’ll notice the lead vocal track is mixed further “out front”. Also, the backup/harmony vocal is mixed in tight, and closely follows melody line. Listening to songs like this one is almost always a painful experience for me given this strange detour my life has taken in the last three years. However, tonight as I am listening and sobbing my heart is thankful, grief stricken, and sad, but not bitter.

Cross of Love from Saviour: An Oratorio

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:16:22 -0700

Cross of Love from Saviour: An Oratorio

Any Day Now...

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:13:00 -0700

I know I’ve been away for way too long. I started this blog as an effort to document my life as I grapple, struggle, succeed and fail in my life and journey with C5 Tetraplegia. I’m about a month and a half away from the three-year anniversary of my injury, but to be honest, it feels like I’ve been trapped, imprisoned by paralysis and pain for 10 years.

A couple of important things have been happening recently:

1) I returned to school at Bellevue college, and I’m taking an online class as a way of testing the waters to see if I can handle the work of going to school again. I want to pursue a Masters degree in counseling as my ultimate goal. So far I’m enjoying the process, but am unsurprised to find that homework…still…stinks.

2) I’m in the home stretch of the lawsuit I’m involved in. The jury trial starts in mid-September, and I’ll let you know how things went when it’s all over.

3) Even though I’m pretty sure I’ve not been the best leader, my role as College Director at my church has become very important to me. I’m learning a lot about my strengths and weaknesses, and doing my best to strengthen my weaknesses.

Right now my days are starting early, and ending late so I probably won’t be blogging as regularly as I would like until my legal issues have been settled, but I’m going to try. It helps to have an iPhone and iPad to document things, though.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview I did for an upcoming...

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:47:00 -0700

Here’s an excerpt from an interview I did for an upcoming documentary, ” The Land of Milk and Honey”.

The Land of Milk and Honey

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Land of Milk and Honey:

You can follow two very talented filmmakers, Jess and Reuben as they travel across the world, filming people, places, in the stories that go with them. Jess is from Australia, and Reuben is a very talented musician from California; both of them are creative and adventurous people who have decided to risk stability, and the security of their full-time jobs in order to make a documentary of their dreams.

Mexikoti

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:18:34 -0700

Mexikoti

Sapporo, Japan 2006

Mon, 24 May 2010 13:05:31 -0700

Sapporo, Japan 2006

Hulu Just Got a Lot Awesomer [Hulu]

Thu, 13 May 2010 21:33:31 -0700

Hulu Just Got a Lot Awesomer [Hulu]:

Oh ho…

Am I Koti Hu? Here’s one of those handwritten entries I...

Mon, 10 May 2010 20:10:00 -0700

Am I Koti Hu?

Here’s one of those handwritten entries I promised you, albeit very, very late. Really I just wanted to show off what 1 year of strapping a fountain pen to my hand for a couple/few hours every day has gotten me. I know reading my handwriting on a nice computer monitor isn’t really the same, but I think it feels slightly more personal than Times New Roman, eh?

For any pen and paper addicts/nerds out there this was written with my Mont Blanc 100 Years Historical (an old school Simplo replica of sorts with retractable nib) filled with Noodler’s Aircorp Black/blue on Rhodia paper. Yay.

Britain

Fri, 07 May 2010 21:12:31 -0700

Britain

This Is Apple's Next iPhone [Apple Iphone 4]

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 03:02:04 -0700

wow. Sent to you by CodyWho via Google Reader: This Is Apple’s Next iPhone [Apple Iphone 4] via Gizmodo by Jason Chen, design notes by Jesus Diaz on 4/19/10 You are looking at Apple’s next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS. We got it. We disassembled it. It’s the real thing, and here are all the details. More » Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Gizmodo using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

It happened in a car accident on July 28th, 2007 in a suburb of Seattle. I was at a standstill when...

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 13:02:24 -0700

It happened in a car accident on July 28th, 2007 in a suburb of Seattle. I was at a standstill when a full-sized pickup truck hit me going 60 miles an hour. I was paralyzed, and suffer from severe, chronic neuropathic pain because my neck was broken in the force of the collision. Now I am a C5-6 Quadriplegic. It is very difficult.

I used to be a recording musician, a singer, songwriter, violin and guitar player (among other things). I am still a musician, but now I am paralyzed from the chest down, I only have limited use of my arms, and I can’t use my fingers.

I am 29, I live in constant pain, and I have hope.

kotihu-at-gmail-dot-com

(425) 405-KOTI/5684

Fantastic...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:36:35 -0800

Fantastic...

Life is hard. I’m tired, and I’m lonely…

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:16:31 -0800

Life is hard. I’m tired, and I’m lonely…

Is it weird that I cried at the end of "District 9"?

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:39:46 -0800

Preaching

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:55:00 -0800

Preaching:

I preached a sermon at my church yesterday which you can watch by clicking “11:30 Full Service Video”. The message begins at about 24:30. Or listen to the “Third Service Audio”.

iWant

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:55:40 -0800

Apple iPad

Photo

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:56:31 -0800