Here is just something I have been thinking about.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
2014 Personal Goals - Month 2 Update
2 months in and making progress on some things at least.
1. Finish 1st Draft of my Novel
Start - Again on the list.
2. Drop weight to 167
Start - This has also been on the list since the beginning. Starting at 183.8
Month 1 - 182.0
Month 2 - 185.2
3. Read 1 of the Top Ten Books on Zane's List
Start - In the middle of The Stories of Anton Chekhov.
4. Read 7 books on the Sybervision Book List (including 1 in the Science or Philosophy sections)
Start - Current count is at 78.
Month 1 - Finished The Prince and the Pauper. 6 to go.
Month 2 - Reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
5. Read 2 books on the BBC Book List
Start - Current count is at 48.
Month 2 - Finished Vicky Angel. 1 to go.
6. Finish 1 more Geological Movie Review
Start - Earthquake still looks like the best bet.
7. Watch 10 of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
Start - Current count is at 75.
8. Finish 56 things on the Blog/Website Things to do List (~1 a week)
Start - The list currently has ~150 things on it.
Month 1 - Started working on some stuff but have nothing finished.
Month 2 - Finished 3/56. 53 to go.
9. Finish 10 things on the House Things to do List
Start - The list currently has 29 things on it.
Month 1 - Finished fixing all the "sweating" toilets. 9 to go.
10. Finish skinning the top of the hovercraft
Start - I started working on it 2 years ago but with wood purchased lat year I hope to finish that part.
11. Get my Sprint Triathlon time under 1:25:00
Start - My current official best is 1:41:45.2
12. Get my 5K time under 23 minutes
Start - My current unofficial best is ~28:30
13. Catalogue and Photograph the Comics portion of my Star Wars Collections
Start - Currently I have some of the comics photographed so if I get the time this should
14. Finish Dissertation
Start - Currently I have to finish up analyses, finish writing, and format it. Not much work at all.
Month 1 - Working steadily on this. Finished 1 chapter out of the remaining 3, with another one almost done.
Month 2 - Continuing to work on this almost every day. Down to one set of analyses left.
15. Submit 3 Scientific Manuscripts to Journals
Start - I have 3 manuscripts in the almost there phase. I hope to get these submitted soon.
Month 1 - These will get submitted once the dissertation is completed.
16. Defeat 5 console Star Wars Games
Start - With collecting so many games that I have not had time to play I want to set aside some game time.
-------------------------------------------Other items of Note-----------------------------------------------
February was much more sane than January. Gummy Bear is doing fantastic after her surgery and the therapies have been broken up between Veronica and I so it is a bit easier on both of us to go. I am still working 32 hours a week but now that things have calmed down I am working mostly just 4, 8 hour days giving me one day off to do therapy and research. Other than that I have just been chugging along, doing my analyses for my dissertation. Once those are done I should be able to wrap up the remainder of it fairly easily.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Finish 1st Draft of my Novel
Start - Again on the list.
2. Drop weight to 167
Start - This has also been on the list since the beginning. Starting at 183.8
Month 1 - 182.0
Month 2 - 185.2
3. Read 1 of the Top Ten Books on Zane's List
Start - In the middle of The Stories of Anton Chekhov.
4. Read 7 books on the Sybervision Book List (including 1 in the Science or Philosophy sections)
Start - Current count is at 78.
Month 1 - Finished The Prince and the Pauper. 6 to go.
Month 2 - Reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
5. Read 2 books on the BBC Book List
Start - Current count is at 48.
Month 2 - Finished Vicky Angel. 1 to go.
6. Finish 1 more Geological Movie Review
Start - Earthquake still looks like the best bet.
7. Watch 10 of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
Start - Current count is at 75.
8. Finish 56 things on the Blog/Website Things to do List (~1 a week)
Start - The list currently has ~150 things on it.
Month 1 - Started working on some stuff but have nothing finished.
Month 2 - Finished 3/56. 53 to go.
9. Finish 10 things on the House Things to do List
Start - The list currently has 29 things on it.
Month 1 - Finished fixing all the "sweating" toilets. 9 to go.
10. Finish skinning the top of the hovercraft
Start - I started working on it 2 years ago but with wood purchased lat year I hope to finish that part.
11. Get my Sprint Triathlon time under 1:25:00
Start - My current official best is 1:41:45.2
12. Get my 5K time under 23 minutes
Start - My current unofficial best is ~28:30
13. Catalogue and Photograph the Comics portion of my Star Wars Collections
Start - Currently I have some of the comics photographed so if I get the time this should
14. Finish Dissertation
Start - Currently I have to finish up analyses, finish writing, and format it. Not much work at all.
Month 1 - Working steadily on this. Finished 1 chapter out of the remaining 3, with another one almost done.
Month 2 - Continuing to work on this almost every day. Down to one set of analyses left.
15. Submit 3 Scientific Manuscripts to Journals
Start - I have 3 manuscripts in the almost there phase. I hope to get these submitted soon.
Month 1 - These will get submitted once the dissertation is completed.
16. Defeat 5 console Star Wars Games
Start - With collecting so many games that I have not had time to play I want to set aside some game time.
-------------------------------------------Other items of Note-----------------------------------------------
February was much more sane than January. Gummy Bear is doing fantastic after her surgery and the therapies have been broken up between Veronica and I so it is a bit easier on both of us to go. I am still working 32 hours a week but now that things have calmed down I am working mostly just 4, 8 hour days giving me one day off to do therapy and research. Other than that I have just been chugging along, doing my analyses for my dissertation. Once those are done I should be able to wrap up the remainder of it fairly easily.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
The 306 Greatest Books #121 - Vicky Angel
The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson. This book can be found on the BBC Book List.
This was the final of the Wilson books that are on the list (including The Story of Tracy Beaker, Double Act, and Girls in Love) and I must say this one was the worst one to read. The story focuses on a young teenage girl, Jade, who's best friend, Vicky, dies by being hit by a car during the first part of the book. She is then visited by her friend throughout the book as a "ghost" (however it may just be in her mind). The Vicky ghost gets progressively meaner throughout the story not allowing Jade to make any friends and causing her to be increasingly mean to everyone. On top of that Jade's mother is having an affair, which she discusses with Jade, and her father is perhaps a pedophile, obsessing over pictures of Vicky after she had died. It was like the author thought, how could I make things even more uncomfortable throughout the story. It is not like this is supposed to be higher literature either, this is a children's book. The writing itself is OK, fairly easy to read, but nothing exceptional. Perhaps the purpose of this book was to help children/teenagers come to grips with loosing a friend, however the way the story is written I think it would just end up making things worse. The story works out in the end but it is a very long, tortuous road to get there and there isn't much of an explanation as to why Vicky was being so mean by the end of the book. It blows my mind why any of these Wilson books made it onto this 100 Greatest Books list. They are just a transitory thing and I'm sure that if the list was redone today, they more than likely, would not make it on there. Thankfully I am done with them.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Humor - Medical School
This was sent to me a while ago and was a newspaper article written by my ungrad advisor's brother.
Would doctors today be so observant? C Josh Young 2004
My dad went to Harvard Medical School when its faculty was a Who's Who of the most famous doctors and medical scientists in America. Although from a poor family, by dint of hard work and a keen mind, my father graduated in the top half of a class dominated by graduates of fancy prep schools and the country's most prestigious universities. One story he liked to tell was about his last lab class at Harvard. Spring was in the air, and the students were excited to be moving on. Most had already received their next assignments as interns at hospitals around the country.
The students filed into the laboratory, but were disappointed to see the hard nosed professor had still more work for them. Other professors had yielded to the inevitable, and either dismissed classes early that day, or allowed the students to spend their final hour reminiscing. It should have come as little wonder, however, that their toughest professor still wouldn't let up.
There were warm and fragrant breezes outside, but in the chilly, tiled lab, a tepid yellow specimen sat waiting at each lab station. What possible tests could they run on urine, that they hadn't performed a hundred times before, they wondered.
"Gentlemen," the crusty old prof. began with his usual formality, "as you know, this will be your final laboratory class at Harvard. Today is my last chance to improve your feeble minds and give some hope to the poor patients you will one day serve." The students eyed each other, as if daring one another to make some smart remark, but in those days faculty members tolerated no dissent, and a wisecrack might be grounds enough to fail the course. You could have heard a pin drop.
"If I have taught you anything this semester," the ancient professor droned on, "I hope it is the paramount importance of observation. It is central to your future work as physicians, and without it, the best medicines will be useless in your hands.
"Observation has been a part of medicine since the time of Hippocrates, and it will be a part of medicine when you are all long gone," the professor predicted.
"Today, as proof of the lasting validity of one's powers of observation, we will discuss the classic test for diabetes," he continued ominously.
At this, some of the better informed students became noticeably alarmed.
"For generations, indeed, for centuries, before science devised the modern tests for diabetes, which you have learned and practiced all year, the only way healers could assess imbalances of blood sugars was by tasting the patient's urine."
At the risk of drawing the professor's wrath, a few involuntary murmurs could be heard.
"Yes, Gentlemen, back then, a healer would have to taste a patient's urine, and determine by taste and smell what treatment was indicated." Outright groans went up as the professor deliberately dipped his finger in the beaker before him, swirling it around a bit for effect. He then raised his hand to his lips, gave a tentative lick, smiled, and licked again.
As if tasting a wine to judge its age and origin, the professor gave a quizzical look, and then spewed out voluminous facts about the relative tastes of urine. The students frantically scribbled notes. If the urine was sweet, it meant this; a bitter flavor indicated that; a strong salty taste, in the absence of sweetness, meant a quite different diagnosis was in order.
Then, finally, came the moment of truth.
Raising his beaker of urine, as if in a toast to the future graduates, the professor instructed his students to proceed.
"Tut, tut, now. Overcome your petty aversions, Gentlemen, and do as I just demonstrated, so you can test your powers of observation. Fresh urine is sterile, after all, and none of you will consume enough toxins to make you sick."
One by one the students proceeded with the experiment, some grimacing, others making an effort to show no emotion at all. A few strangely smiled.
"Now, Gentlemen," the professor finally continued, when he was satisfied each of them had dipped and licked, "those of you who are truly observant, will have noticed that, while I dipped my index finger into the urine in the beaker before me, it was actually a different finger which I licked.
"Thank you, Gentlemen. Class dismissed!"
Would doctors today be so observant? C Josh Young 2004
My dad went to Harvard Medical School when its faculty was a Who's Who of the most famous doctors and medical scientists in America. Although from a poor family, by dint of hard work and a keen mind, my father graduated in the top half of a class dominated by graduates of fancy prep schools and the country's most prestigious universities. One story he liked to tell was about his last lab class at Harvard. Spring was in the air, and the students were excited to be moving on. Most had already received their next assignments as interns at hospitals around the country.
The students filed into the laboratory, but were disappointed to see the hard nosed professor had still more work for them. Other professors had yielded to the inevitable, and either dismissed classes early that day, or allowed the students to spend their final hour reminiscing. It should have come as little wonder, however, that their toughest professor still wouldn't let up.
There were warm and fragrant breezes outside, but in the chilly, tiled lab, a tepid yellow specimen sat waiting at each lab station. What possible tests could they run on urine, that they hadn't performed a hundred times before, they wondered.
"Gentlemen," the crusty old prof. began with his usual formality, "as you know, this will be your final laboratory class at Harvard. Today is my last chance to improve your feeble minds and give some hope to the poor patients you will one day serve." The students eyed each other, as if daring one another to make some smart remark, but in those days faculty members tolerated no dissent, and a wisecrack might be grounds enough to fail the course. You could have heard a pin drop.
"If I have taught you anything this semester," the ancient professor droned on, "I hope it is the paramount importance of observation. It is central to your future work as physicians, and without it, the best medicines will be useless in your hands.
"Observation has been a part of medicine since the time of Hippocrates, and it will be a part of medicine when you are all long gone," the professor predicted.
"Today, as proof of the lasting validity of one's powers of observation, we will discuss the classic test for diabetes," he continued ominously.
At this, some of the better informed students became noticeably alarmed.
"For generations, indeed, for centuries, before science devised the modern tests for diabetes, which you have learned and practiced all year, the only way healers could assess imbalances of blood sugars was by tasting the patient's urine."
At the risk of drawing the professor's wrath, a few involuntary murmurs could be heard.
"Yes, Gentlemen, back then, a healer would have to taste a patient's urine, and determine by taste and smell what treatment was indicated." Outright groans went up as the professor deliberately dipped his finger in the beaker before him, swirling it around a bit for effect. He then raised his hand to his lips, gave a tentative lick, smiled, and licked again.
As if tasting a wine to judge its age and origin, the professor gave a quizzical look, and then spewed out voluminous facts about the relative tastes of urine. The students frantically scribbled notes. If the urine was sweet, it meant this; a bitter flavor indicated that; a strong salty taste, in the absence of sweetness, meant a quite different diagnosis was in order.
Then, finally, came the moment of truth.
Raising his beaker of urine, as if in a toast to the future graduates, the professor instructed his students to proceed.
"Tut, tut, now. Overcome your petty aversions, Gentlemen, and do as I just demonstrated, so you can test your powers of observation. Fresh urine is sterile, after all, and none of you will consume enough toxins to make you sick."
One by one the students proceeded with the experiment, some grimacing, others making an effort to show no emotion at all. A few strangely smiled.
"Now, Gentlemen," the professor finally continued, when he was satisfied each of them had dipped and licked, "those of you who are truly observant, will have noticed that, while I dipped my index finger into the urine in the beaker before me, it was actually a different finger which I licked.
"Thank you, Gentlemen. Class dismissed!"
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Humor - Gerbil Joke
This was sent to me a while ago but it is even funnier now that I live in Salt Lake City.
Flaming Projectile Gerbil -- An actual article from the LA Times
"In retrospect, lighting the match was my big mistake. But I was only trying to retrieve the Gerbil," Eric Tomaszewski told bemused doctors in the Severe Burns Unit of Salt Lake City Hospital. Tomaszewski and his homosexual partner Andrew (Kiki) Farnom, had been admitted for emergency treatment after a felching session had gone seriously wrong. "I pushed a cardboard tube up his rectum and slipped Raggot, our gerbil, in." he explained. "As usual, Kiki shouted out 'Armageddon,' my cue that he'd had enough. I tried to retrieve Raggot but he wouldn't come out again, so I peered into the tube and struck a match, thinking that the light might attract him." At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what happened next. "The match ignited a pocket of intestinal gas and a flame shot out of the tubing, igniting Mr. Tomaszewski's hair and severely burning his face. It also set fire to the gerbil's fur and whiskers which in turn ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the intestine, propelling the rodent out like a cannonball." Tomaszewski suffered second degree burns and a broken nose from the impact of the gerbil, while Farnom suffered first and second degree burns to his anus and lower intestinal tract.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Although, further research indicates that this is likely made up, it doesn't mean that it still isn't funny:
http://www.snopes.com/risque/homosex/gerbil.asp
Flaming Projectile Gerbil -- An actual article from the LA Times
"In retrospect, lighting the match was my big mistake. But I was only trying to retrieve the Gerbil," Eric Tomaszewski told bemused doctors in the Severe Burns Unit of Salt Lake City Hospital. Tomaszewski and his homosexual partner Andrew (Kiki) Farnom, had been admitted for emergency treatment after a felching session had gone seriously wrong. "I pushed a cardboard tube up his rectum and slipped Raggot, our gerbil, in." he explained. "As usual, Kiki shouted out 'Armageddon,' my cue that he'd had enough. I tried to retrieve Raggot but he wouldn't come out again, so I peered into the tube and struck a match, thinking that the light might attract him." At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what happened next. "The match ignited a pocket of intestinal gas and a flame shot out of the tubing, igniting Mr. Tomaszewski's hair and severely burning his face. It also set fire to the gerbil's fur and whiskers which in turn ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the intestine, propelling the rodent out like a cannonball." Tomaszewski suffered second degree burns and a broken nose from the impact of the gerbil, while Farnom suffered first and second degree burns to his anus and lower intestinal tract.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Although, further research indicates that this is likely made up, it doesn't mean that it still isn't funny:
http://www.snopes.com/risque/homosex/gerbil.asp
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