Had a meeting with my heart failure team yesterday. Put a few more of the pieces in order.
1. From the day we decide to list me for transplant to the day that all of my pre-transplant testing is done will take about a month.
2. I'm likely going to be on the list for more than six months, likely not more than a year because of recent changes to the United Network for Organ Sharing system. In theory. In theory I could also get one the day they list me, in theory I could die waiting for an organ. The longer the wait, the more organs I am likely going to need transplanted because as the heart fails, so do the kidneys, liver, etc. These days it is not uncommon for heart transplants to be done concurrently with kidney transplants because they are typically needed almost immediately.
3. There is universal agreement that I should stay with my original equipment as long as possible. The current estimate I have been given is five years or less. From the clinical management perspective, all the fatigue, dizziness, chest pain in the world isn't a reason to transplant someone. As long as my organs are still mostly functional by blood chemistry they are essentially unconcerned. (And people wonder why I give so few shits about 'feeling.')
Doing my best.
We talked about that yesterday. About how I'm going to become a 'Up at 5:30, running before the sun is up' type for sure.
I really do wonder what it will be like. One way or another, the set of problems I have is going to experience a dramatic shift.
Friends,
I am here, just tired all the time and not doing much interesting enough to post about. That being said, I'm quite happy with how most things are in my life these days. I'm working full time at a preschool, which is both great and exhausting. Learning a lot, and the school is paying for me to get an Associate's in teaching.
Also planning a wedding.
Also learning the harp.
Also writing scores for some extra money. Please find attached the score for a friends movie which is nearly done being edited.
long time gone... and I'm missing this place.
a week ago I got to see thenewgreen and mk in person and it was a glorious couple of hours.
I've re-written this post four times now. So much to say... but none of it seeming important enough to share at the moment.
I'd like a few more hours in the day. Can any of you help me understand where they're hiding?
Keep on rockin' in the free world.
It was great seeing you too pal. We should make it a tradition that you come to my daughters birthday party each year :)
If you find the place where those spare hours are hiding, please share the location with me.
I’m looking forward to reading the post you almost posted. I’m guessing it is more important than you give it credit for.
every kids' birthday party should involve hot cider (with or without rum) and the kind of interesting and engaging crowd as yours did. Meeting Oma was a rare treat. But my favorite part was when I showed up, after introducing myself to your kids, your older daughter, she said "you're early.... my mom doesn't really like early".
I almost wet my pants laughing. The direct nature of 10 year old communication is so refreshing.
Lol. Normally, Joanna doesn’t like “early,” but when the early guests entertain our kids so we can continue setting up, she’ll gladly make an exception.
I added a tree.
It's lacking in value. Still work to be done there. Pretty happy with the progress I've made in this one.
I don't have travel scheduled atm and it seems odd but good. It won't last, but not having a travel date is nice.
I am at the Forever Labs office after a happy hour that we had. I don't miss writing grants.
Whelp I rolled an ATV onto my knee/calf about 30 minutes ago. I can't say it feels good right now but I'm lucky as hell that I don't have any broken bones. It's quite a bit swollen already. We'll see how this plays out
Thanks, I appreciate the well wishes from you and steve.
Flying today was a bit rough. I had a long walk to my connecting flight and hobbling over wasn't exactly fun. That being said I was able to walk on my own accord the entirety of today so I'll take the win.
It doesn't exactly look pretty
Necro, keep an eye on that.
My uncle dropped his motorcyle at a very low speed once. Exhaust fell on his leg. Nothing broken, but unbelievably painful. Looked a lot like that.
He ended up going to the doc a few weeks later for a cold, and as he was walking out, he mentioned his leg in passing. Turns out the under the skin it had become infected. They rushed him to the ER and scooped a bunch of foul shit out to the point where he had a golf-ball sized hole in his leg that had to be filled and packed every day for a good while. Had he not mentioned it in passing, there's a good chance he could have lost it, per the doc.
Thanks ecib, I appreciate the advice. I’m sorry your uncle had to go through that, and very happy that he caught it in time. I’m definitely keeping an eye on it, so many different things can go wrong with crush injuries. Thankfully I’m a healthcare provider and have a large amount of access to medical resources. Hopefully it won’t get to the point where I’ll need them but I certainly won’t take any unnecessary risks.
I’m on a plane. Was supposed to have dinner with mk‘s family Friday night but I’ll be traveling. Supposed to meet my wife for date night Saturday but due to time zone mismanagement I’ll probably be late :(
Kids are well. I’m beginning to feel my age. mk needs to get busy with his R&D so I can start putting my younger stem cells back. I fell off my bmx bike a few weeks back and hurt my foot. Haven’t been the same since.
Kids, care for your feet, your back and your teeth. Care for it all. Sleep. Eat healthily and don’t drink too much. Lol. All advice I need to begin heeding.
On my way to LA. Then Houston. kleinbl00 you in LA? insomniasexx are you? Meet up Thursday night?
We are around! We leave for Devcon (Prague) Saturday and I haven't started my 30 minute talk yet but let's grab dinner or something!
Wanna get dinner with my wife and our Australian friends on the weekend of Jan 5/6? We are gonna fly down to get an Airbnb with them in Santa Barbara, and they said they'd love to meet you. (I forwarded your "what to do in LA" email on to them. They love you now.)
I think I could benefit from your “what to do in LA,” email.
You’ve mentioned this before and I forgot. I’ll forget again and ping you next time too. Enjoyed George Washington’s booger fwiw.
Here is how the presentation went (without excuses), and here are my key takeaways.
Here's how I intend to do on the next one now that I have experience from the presentation.
Here's how I plan to achieve my intention.
Fast-forward to each step in the plan. Here's how I executed my plan.
Fast-forward to the next presentation. Here's how I kicked ass in the next presentation.
Command the conversation away from what just happened by discussing it in terms of implications for the future. Set yourself up for success by taking control of the future outcome.
"I don't like the way that went down because X. Next time I'm going to focus on Y because Z." Everyone fucks up. The trick is to visibly and demonstrably learn from your fuckups.
- An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.
Niels Bohr
Hey, you're a consultant now, aren't you? Technically speaking? You need my consultant joke, which I told every time I met with a contractor or owner because I was young and they were resentful.
I believe that you don't have to learn from your own mistakes and it's perfectly fine to learn from someone else's. What matters though, is understanding that something went wrong. Accepting being wrong. Understanding what is wrong. That is w g at matters.
- Everyone fucks up.
It's funny that rationally, I know it's obviously true, but since it doesn't jive with my perfectionism it doesn't feel true for me. (Which is also naive, I know.) Cognitive dissonance's a bitch.
Loll'ed at the consultant joke. Still relevant.
Went to another beach - this one didn't have much in the way of sand but where the rocks are just to the right of the bridge, is where the beach emerges once the tide is out. Poor timing for that, but got this phone shot from the top of the hill that cuts off directly into the Pacific. There's a short tunnel through the earth that gives you access to the beach in low tide, went down there and promptly ran back up after getting sprayed.
I think a big part of why NZ is so popular is that all the beautiful areas are so close together. I've seen some magnificent things the landscapes around the world can produce, but NZ I can literally surf in the morning, have brunch, and be snowboarding in the afternoon by driving a couple of hours inland.
Seriously, from here
to here
and everything in between, in a few hours. The hard part for people visiting is trying to cram everything in at once. It's so easy to get to places that they often try and do everything and don't get to really.. take it all in.
Ahh I'm headed to NZ in December and your post continues to raise my expectations. I've always thought of it as a place I could possibly retire to. Do you live there? Any recommendations? I'll be going from Nelson down to Milford.
I do! I live in Dunedin - the heart of the deep south. What does your travel between Nelson and Milford Sound look like? I must say Milford Sound is utterly incredible. You are in for a treat! If you are stopping off at certain areas I can recommend some places, restaurants, touristy things that not everyone gets to see.
Ahh, very cool-I'm more then a little jealous. So I spoke somewhat inaccurately-I'm arriving in Queenstown and then going up to Milford sound and then off to Nelson. This is the general route I'm planning on.
Do you have any hiking suggestions in the Milford Sound? I'm looking to do a 1-2 hike in the park. I've been thinking about doing the Milford Track in a day but logistically it seems a bit rough.
Also how're you doing on those weigh-lifting goals from a couple months back? Any progress? I've bumped up my numbers a bit but a short stint at Ranger school destroyed my body.. Feel like I'm starting back at square one.
That's a good route! The Milford Track would be great fun, it'd take a chunk of your time though and we've just start the "Season" where hut bookings are required - if you haven't booked already they my be all taken anyway!
I'm trying to think of some that are 1-2 day but not coming up with much. There's some great 6-7 hour returns, but can't think of any that would require a night and would fit your plans.
The cool thing about your route is that aside from Te Anau, Queenstown and Wanaka, is you're avoiding all the main centres in the south island so you'll get to experience it all on your own :)
Flying into Queenstown is great, I hope you've allocated a day or so to explore the town. It's small, but there's a lot to do and you'll want to take a photo ever 10 metres. Te Anau is like a sleepier version of Queenstown, not as much to do but damn if it isn't peaceful. Wanaka is a bit unique, has a bogan culture mixed in with very rich locals. A stunning place though, somewhere in my post history on here I put up a photo in wanaka when I was at a wedding.
The West Coast that you're travelling up towards Nelson is just awesome. Few people, all lush forest. There's a cute wee area in Westport that (if you have a day) will help you craft a sweet knife from scratch. My flatmate did hers this year and apparently its a very rewarding experience - I'll try find the name when I'm back at my computer!
I think that trip looks very solid and enjoyable. One thing I'd recommend is planning for longer driving stints, our roads are not that great, and our average driver is quite aggressive. You may find yourself plodding along at a leisurely rate as people hoon past you! Don't let them bully you and just turn off when you can if you want to take in the scenery (which you should!).
The weight lifting is going well thanks, the numbers are increasing! Just a bit slower as I become more advanced and the progression less linear. All in good time though, makes every goal taste the sweeter as I hit it.
Four tribes or none?
- My current CNC assignment involves using a Very Bad Program to do very sloppy dimensioning for no good reason. I asked a classmate how to force the program to do it better and was told "this is the right way." I told him no, it's not, this is the sort of thing that gets drawings rejected and was challenged, aggressively, "how do you know?" I explained that the exemplar drawings framed on the wall in the CAD lab upstairs were done, in part, by me and that by the time he had been born I'd been drafting for about ten years. This was met with a sullen "well, this is the way we do it" which has been largely my experience among the machinists; there is folklore, engineers are evil wizards that are not to be questioned and the assignments I get are generally not drawn for clarity, they're drawn for confusion on the basis that the evil wizards are out to get you. This has tried my patience to the point of threatening to drop out. There's nothing worse than being forced to use bad tools because I said so.
- My jewelry assignment came out looking like shit because cheap enamel on copper looks like ass but when you spend several hours on something you call it a "happy accident." I had to do a presentation on a jeweler that inspires me and settled on Ludwig Oechslin but there was resistance when I explained that watch parts need precision to the ten thousandth in some cases and generally run in fluid bearings with half a thousandth tolerance. In order for the enamel to not look like ass, I have to do a lot of things that are not possible in the current environment because "happy accidents" are pretty much where an instruction lab lives.
- I got into a pissing match with a fellow watchmaker who was, without all the inside baseball, insisting that a common brand name part is officially called by the opposing brand name. That's clearly the way he learned it, and as with all things horological his knowledge is tribal, learned by rote and unchallenged. But it's the equivalent of walking into a Ford dealership and commenting about all the Chryslers they have sitting around. The fact that there are only a handful of places you can learn this stuff but lots of people practicing who haven't only serves to drive up the tribal closed-mindedness.
- We visited a heat treating lab Friday. They had lots of cool tests that brought me back to my glory days in engineering; yet when I asked technical details it revealed that theirs was a pragmatic knowledge divorced from the theory and that my questions about theory were resented.
IT'S SO DUMB. Everybody knows their one thing, and they know it well, and they know it exactly this way and if you step out, you're an infidel. And it doesn't fucking matter that you've taken ten credits on steel and five credits on heat treating. And it doesn't fucking matter that you're studying how to heat treat steel in two different fucking programs, when you ask questions that reveal you might understand what's being said and are curious about something not said you're the fucking auslander.
I'm home sick today. I'm not sick; the kid is sick. I'm in a program that marks me down for attendance and takes a third of my points away for being late because they're training people to punch a clock. I'm in another program that doesn't even make it clear what you're being graded on because the pragmatic knowledge dispensed is along the lines of "how to make your stuff stand out on Etsy." I asked a vendor for his price on an esoteric piece of software that makes it easier to hand-code G-code, the 60-year-old plaintext language that runs CNC. I was told, by the vendor, that in a well-run lab you never need to hand-code G-code therefore I shouldn't buy their software. Then we had to make a part on the new lathe in the shop and when we asked the vendor how to make the Very Bad Program perform a sub-spindle handover we were told "you hand code it."
Someone asked me how people "traditionally" become watch designers. I told them that "traditionally" your parents were watchmakers and so were you and you started making parts or that "traditionally" you're a rich person with ideas and you find some people to make your shit so you can sell it to your rich friends. I recognize that I'm pretty non-traditional but a lot of that is likely because I sit at the crossroads of four disciplines that are tribal in the extreme, that protect their folklore jealously, and that hold all other disciplines to be antagonistic.
I wonder how many industries could be revolutionized just by forcing people out of their comfort zones.
Part of getting that degree is proving you can deal with this exact bullshit. Everyone knows you don't learn shit in school about the subject matter. The only purpose is to prove you have the stamina to withstand the bullshit.
And hey, if you have some talent remaining after being bludgeoned by dudgeon, then you may make a living at it. Eventually.
- "...everybody knows their one thing, and they know it well, and they know it exactly this way and if you step out, you're an infidel..."
Wow. This really hit home for me.
I'm from a hardware/software development background, and currently working in a sales/marketing role.
I see what the market needs, and the products/features the salespeople need from development, to be able to win in the market and make their BMW payments.
And I see what development is actually building, and how it has absolutely no relation to what sales needs to fill the customer's requirements and get them to sign the bottom line.
And I understand why both sides are doing what they are doing, and I see how they think they are saying the same things, but are actually talking about completely different things.
I visualize everyone sitting around the table on a stack of books. The books are that person's history, frame of reference, and where they are going. So when words come out of their mouth, I see all the back-story to their thinking.
Only, I'm the only person in the room that can see the stack of books everyone is sitting on. They can't see the other person's stack of books, because the conference room table is in the way.
And, 3 months later, a new product/feature is released, and sales/marketing is completely baffled about how they are supposed to sell this to their customers.
Of course, I am involved in many conversations over the 3 months, because both sides value my history and experience. So I try to massage what Sales is expecting, and the direction Product Development is going, so the delta between the two is less when the product is released... but it doesn't make a lot of difference.
---
In other news that is directly related, I don't really do much at work any more.
I got my raise and promotion and a new manager and the only other person I worked with a lot was just fired for sexual harassment, when he put his arm over a coworkers' shoulders at a going-away party for another coworker, and then let his hand rest on her massive breast. In front of everyone. While drunk.
Not "him" at all. Totally out of character. But ... an undeniable case of harassment, seen by everyone, and so he's gone.
Now I'm back to being a largely unmanaged Independent Contributor, with a hands-off manager, and no real work on my plate. Making lots of travel plans for next year. Selling my motorcycle. Buying another one. Working on getting a new, epic, mascot costume made for my favorite rugby team. Finishing up the wills for my wife and I, that we were supposed to finish 2 years ago. Keeping a close eye on my dog as she ages, and making sure she is comfortable, loved, and happy in her waning years. My wife and I have "leveled-up" again, in our love. Dunno why, or how it happened, but we both felt it the other day... we now loved each other "more" than the previous day. We got weepy and smooched and then went about our day. It's kinda a lotta wonderful.
Life, man. It's a helluva thing.
- My wife and I have "leveled-up" again, in our love. Dunno why, or how it happened, but we both felt it the other day... we now loved each other "more" than the previous day. We got weepy and smooched and then went about our day. It's kinda a lotta wonderful.
Reading this warmed my heart. Thanks for sharing that little window inside.
- I asked a vendor for his price on an esoteric piece of software that makes it easier to hand-code G-code, the 60-year-old plaintext language that runs CNC. I was told, by the vendor, that in a well-run lab you never need to hand-code G-code therefore I shouldn't buy their software.
Now I'm curious what this software does. There's an emacs mode for g-code, but all it does is syntax highlighting. It probably wouldn't be too hard to teach it to hand your script off to camotics to simulate it. That looks to be the extent of what everything in the first page of google results for "g-code editor" does.
More relevant. I'm in a food safety conference and the concept of utilizing blockchain technologies (Ethereum) for food supply chain traceability. insomniasexx or mk. Thoughts?
Apparently a group was able to use QR Codes on bottled wine which traced back to temperature and environmental conditions at the specific vineyard.
Edit: somehow we've talked about crypto kitties and IBM Food Trust in the same paragraph.
The heavyweights are welcome to elaborate/contradict but the fundamental innovation of blockchain technology is its trustlessness. Know how much of your world is dependent on ISO 900x as governed by TuV or the equivalent? Inject "blockchain" into it and properly implemented, TuV is removed from the equation.
A real-world case example would be, say, insulin shipments. Maybe you can go down to CVS and buy your insulin for $250 a vial. Maybe you can call 1-800-DIABEETUS and get it for $200 a vial. Or you can get on the Internet and find an outfit called "Ashraf's Insulin & Kidney Korner" that has it for $100 a vial. But when you look into it, Ashraf is in Peshawar and insulin is sensitive to maltreatment in shipping.
The cost of buying Ashraf's Insulin will go up if you need to verify that it made it from Peshawar without hitting degrading heat along the way. But you could take one of these, get a little IoT on it and equip it with a smart contract that will only release the buyer's escrowed payment to the shipper and the seller if it makes it to the buyer's GPS without the shock and temperature values being exceeded. You could also escrow the buyer's deposit on the tracker until it gets scanned at a return depository intact. And all of a sudden you're buying Pakistani insulan at half off without having to trust (or pay extra to) Fedex, Paypal, American Express or anybody else. Realistically this means that anybody with a bike or a piper cub can contribute to getting you your insulin; it also means that anybody along the way can view the data you're collecting (assuming it's a public rather than private blockchain). Put a barcode on the box, use that magic HTC blockchain phone and anybody who wants a piece of the shipping fee undertakes the liability of the shipment for as long as its in his care and pays him a portion of the overall fee depending on how quickly and safely he gets it x much closer to its destination.
You can use a QR code to trace wine bottles without invoking the blockchain. It's kind of the fundamental backbone of the logistics industry and how they know that these other 10,000 heads of lettuce need to be pulled because these other two heads of lettuce sent someone to the hospital. Juicero was leveraging that trick; that was their justification for $8 bagfruit. If it's expired (based on the QR code) the juicer won't squeeze it. If it's been pulled for food safety (based on the QR code) the juicer won't squeeze it. Typically those codes are per-box instead of per-bottle but they could for sure be on every single bottle. Put an RFID code on it while you're at it and you can siphon off the logistics every time it's within range of a connected reader from the vintner's cellar to the supermarket's door scanners.
I don't disagree with your example (while ISO 900x is prevalent there are at least two other, generally equivalent and widely used, food safety and quality certifications out there). And yes, RFIDs are great and I personally wish were used a bit more extensively. What was talked about today is the potential to greatly reduce recall event time lines, FDA investigations, etc. The issue was described as:
1. The only FDA traceability requirement being 1 up and 1 down in the supply chain from the manufacturer. Which leads to 2.
2. The lack of interoperable data from farm to retail store. If there is a lot of lettuce with E Coli from one farm, which went to five ready to eat manufacturers and eight produce packers, all of whom have different lot code designations, and all of whom ship to numerous distributors who in turn ship to even more numerous retail outlets, you end up with a very complex and time consuming traceability process.
I've never done food safety. I've done FDA and general manufacturing and TuV rules that world so it was an easy example.
So if I'm understanding the discussion, your point (1) issue is that the granularity of tracking as it currently stands ain't great and your point (2) issue is that what tracking is available it's proprietary, not interoperable and cannot be parsed by an external observer, correct?
So the first way to deal with this is through monopoly. Amazon decides to sell insulin. Amazon's Choice Insulin is made wherever Amazon feels like making it, and it's tracked from dead pig to doorstep using Amazon's logistics. Amazon owns the farms, owns the labs, owns the storage facilities and owns the trucks.
The next solution is through a large logistics company. This has been UPS' approach for decades: "we got great logistics and we'll let you buy into it." They may not make the insulin or sell it but the more deeply involved they are in your supply chain the better your insight into your supply chain.
Let's make an example of Chipotle. Chipotle ends up with more food safety scares than most fast or fast casual chains because of their commitment to local. This means they have a diverse and non-standard logistics chain which gives them crappy insight into what came from where. Compare and contrast with McDonald's - more than half of their french fries worldwide come direct from Simplot. Nothing wrong with Simplot? Nothing wrong with McD's french fries.
The useful aspect of blockchain is it gives you Simplot-grade trust, UPS-grade tracking and Chipotle-grade diversity because you're replacing UPS with a trustless organization that anybody can interact with. Any vendor under smart contract is subject to Simplot-grade homogeneity without Simplot-grade oversight. And Joes Tacos can get massive agribusiness-grade supply from anyone who is willing to interact with the smart contracts you wish to govern your logistics chain with.
The ultimate goal of blockchains is disintermediation. Right now you need an organization like UPS to provide you with traceable logistics. You need a Simplot-sized vendor to give you supply chain homogeneity. And you need Amazon-sized leverage to demand adherence to your standards as a manufacturer. But with blockchain, the contracts are up where they can be read by anyone and the standards to adhere to are available to all. Because the blockchain is trustless (self-reinforcing), nobody gets paid unless they stick to your standards and you can't stiff anyone if they adhere to the contract. Bob's Blockchain Business might wrap all this up and hire a bunch of guys to be logistics to compete for these contracts while taking 5% off the top; if he's on a public blockchain, Charlie's Crypto Commuters can take that same organization and do it for 4% without getting out of bed. The end result is that anyone nimble enough to meet the requirements can provide the same level of trust as a Fortune 500 logistics company, and anybody on the blockchain can experience the same level of service as a Fortune 500 vendor.
Make sense?
I don't know if I've recommended this book to you before, but if so, I'll do it again. It's "what the fuck is a blockchain" for normies that understand how to balance a checkbook but not compile C.
There is a new competitor (called Samsara) in my company's field (GPS tracking for fleet vehicles), and they are taking the IoT approach to the problem.
Big picture: they don't really care about the vehicle itself. What they want to do is put a sensor on that object when it is made, and track all of that object's key metrics throughout its life. From the factory, to shipping, to inside the truck, to installation at the end customer's location, to disposal.
All that data goes up into the cloud, and they do deep and broad analytics on all of it.
It scares me a little bit when a key competitor doesn't even notice me. We track vehicle location and performance. That's just one small part of the whole chain-of-custody that Samsara is tracking. We aren't even a speedbump to them. (And they have $80m of VC money, and no need to make money... only acquire customers, so the VCs can sell the biz and make their 10x on their initial investment.)
Blockchain could be used for this... if everyone in the line of custody has it implemented and integrated systems to handle contract hand-off.
But it is a tough sell. Samsara already gives their hardware away for free, basically as a marketing expense. What they want is that sweet sweet monthly SaaS revenue. $x.xx/month/sensor adds up quick.
For them to convert from the easy-to-sell IoT pitch to Blockchain, they need to sell a lot of really traditional businesses on revamping and modernizing their internal systems. (Trucking, manufacturing, warehousing, etc.)
With IoT, the intermediaries don't give a shit if your box is sending out radio signals into the ether. They just pick up the box, move it to a new location, and put it down again. Simple, easy, and cheap on manpower.
I WANT blockchain to take over. But it's a big lift in many entrenched industries working on small margins, and who are generally adverse to technology-based solutions.
I never had a hard time going back to work after vacations. It was always nice to get back in a routine after flights and whatever I was doing.
My last two vacations have stayed in the area. I hiked, ran, swam, cycled, and read. It's fantastic. One day I slept like crap, went swimming, and went home and slept for three hours. During the work week it would take days to feel human again.
I'd like to retire.
Virgin marguerita please.
-taking online courses
-in a different state for the week
-getting close to completing my first wheel
-busybusybusy as a bee
-a lot of my sketchbook is filled with eyes and burning cigarettes now
Lol the hubwheel kleinbl00 thenewgreen
However, I will admit, I messaged someone about it and still have no idea how it works.
With the lack of responses, I feel like the hubwheel is like Fight Club.