tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60241485615564209932024-03-13T14:42:45.706-04:00the j linkthe j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.comBlogger160125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-67193968656428881642017-09-15T15:14:00.000-04:002017-09-15T16:25:07.784-04:00half-idesWell then, shall we? Yes, after 160 check-ins, it's time to check out. Merci/ありがとう/Danke/Obrigado/Gracias/Thanks for playing along over the [yikes, so many] years! Catch you around in various other places and methods.<br />
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Without further, adieu.<br />
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the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-39470405728067662082017-04-15T07:29:00.000-04:002017-04-15T07:29:02.386-04:00totally radWelcome welcome welcome! Just time for a quick recap of the [indeterminate temporal interval].<br />
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On the health front, I've been idling steadily since the last update. The number of dressings per bandage change is gradually reducing, and some days we can skip messing with them altogether, so progress, uh, progresses! Dad's been on the team DL for the past few months, so I haven't been getting up in the chair - not even using the Hoyer lift; there's still too much risk of unintended physical stress for the padre. (Don't worry, he's been surgified and is doing better!) So, it's been plenty of time spent tapping my rather inexhaustible reserve of stuff to do from bedward stance.<br />
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In fact, one of my pie-in-the-sky gaming desires has crept into my almost-daily physical therapy routine! As I have rambled at you previously, I have a wonderful custom-built controller that lets me fumble through games outside of my usual pointy-and-clicky slow-paced strategy ability zone. I'm not all that good with Mr. DualSticks: you certainly won't see me mopping up on Call of Duty multiplayer, as I tend to spend most of my time in such games admiring the floors and ceilings. Let's just say I can't do fast-twitch accuracy, considering I'm basically using my shoulder muscles to move the analog sticks. From the time I received the controller last summer through January, I had almost exclusively played racing games and title after title in the Lego series (no, I'm apparently not an adult). However, on a whim and a reco from Madame S-Flo, I gave Fallout 4 a go. Sure, it's yet another possibly-jlunplayable first-person shooter, but it's more of a shallow RPG than a fast-paced twitchy murderfest (fine, it <i>is</i> still a murderfest, but with slightly more story glue!), so there was a chance I could die my way through it, pretending to be a real gamer.<br />
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You know what? It really does work for me! First of all, it has an extensive and robust cheat console, so I can toggle on unlimited ammo - quite an important option, given my aforementioned proclivity for preposterous pew-pew precision. (For those of you in the "you cheater, git gud or play something easier" camp, stop trying to tell a quad how to enjoy a single-player game already.) The relevant code grants me invincibility as well, but that's more of a side benefit. However, the most useful, quad-friendly game mechanic is a spiff, not-even-cheating function called VATS. VATS is a targeting system (that's the TS, but I'll let you do as I do and make up silly things for what the acronym actually means) that slows time to a crawl and lets you queue up pre-aimed ahots at visible enemies/mines/other blow-uppable stuff. Basically, rather than having to pull off epic fine-tuned sniper headshots on three bad hombres π/<i>e</i> football fields away, you can hit the VATS button, order shots on dudely body parts until you're satisfied, and then hit the "do it!" button and watch the toootally realistic situation play out from fun cinematic camera angles and such. Of course, that gets a bit tedious after a while, so it's admittedly more fun to barge into an area full of rad-baddies and spray 'n' pray with an explodey machine gun every now and then. Or sneak up on a raider and knock her head off with an electric-stun baseball bat, complete with home-run-cheering-crowd sound effects. Yay, encouraged ultraviolence!<br />
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Anyway, beyond providing a much-needed variation in my daily quest for bedtertainment - and an entirely-too-rare feeling of doing something dextrous as well as an able-normie, [ir]regardless[ly] of cheats and VATS abuse - my time as a Fallout boy (ugh, sorry) is serving quite the array of physically-therapeutic benefits. Primarily, it's making me bother to do something with my right arm. As an individual of the sinistral persuasion, I arrange my bed-table goodies for left-handed efficiency, with computer controls and medicine bottles in close reach for my dominant hand. As such, my right arm just sort of exists over on the other side. With dual-stick controller time, though, ole righty has an important job! In FO4, as with most shooty-shooty bang-bangers, the right-side analog is used for looking around and aiming. (There are a few buttons to hit sporadically on that side as well, but those are large whackables; the stick is the fine-motor-skill priority. Thanks to accessibility attachments, I can use sip and puff for "interact" and "shoot" - 90% of arm activity is maneuvering the analog sticks.)<br />
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Hoo boy, was it a shot across the starboard bow at first! To start, gaming in bed with the controller is already a decent workout - the two halves lie on my bed table in a way that forces me to tilt the bed up (sorry, blood pressure) and hold my arms up and away from my body a little. Huurrrgh! While my left arm is quite toned for that exact stance, its nearly vestigial right counterpart wanted none of it in the beginning. For the first week or two, all I could manage was a play a minute/rest a minute pattern, and only for about an hour before switching to something less demanding. It was pretty brutal. However, after keeping at it for a little while on a daily basis - aw shucks, you mean I have to stop pretending to be an adult and play games every day <i>for my health?</i> - I was able to play for longer periods with fewer breaks. As an added bonus, all that brachial-orientation exercise led me to spend a little less time admiring the cloud animations and floor textures, hehe.<br />
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Fast-forward to now, and I can manage at least four hours a day, five days a week (modulo an hour/day or two depending on scheduling and pesky pain patterns). It's still a heavily-medicated adventure, but not significantly more so than non-gaming days... Sure, it's essentially self-mandated playtime, but compared to the utter lack of PT/OT available here to accomplish more or less the same thing, I think it's worth it. I've regained a fair bit of arm strength that I'd lost over the past few years of nothingness, and it's great stress relief! (Turns out post-apocaBoston is happier than the real world some days...) So let's see, price of (admittedly not-cheap) controller plus price of game, versus 20+ hours/week of PT/OT visits plus counselor appointments over four months and counting - hey, if nothing else, I'm getting mediocre treatment at a pretty epic discount, eh?<br />
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So there you go. That would be the long version of what I've been to instead of meeting my self-imposed, fantastically arbitrary March post deadline. Oops! If you're paralyzed, have a gaming setup you can operate, and have somehow made it all the way through this ramblefest (or you just skipped down here for a tl;dr), I highly recommend giving Fallout 4 a shot. There are several Fallout-specific mechanics that are extremely handy for those without the best motor skills, and its a fun adventure to dive into for, um, possibly an embarrassing amount of time. If you're wary of the "not as good as previous Fallouts" reviews on Steam and the like, or your computer/console isn't up to the task of running this fairly new game, or you'd rather play in some other post-nuclear location, it looks like Fallout: New Vegas is a winner with most of the same mechanics. I'll probably play that one next, if I ever run out of side missions and am actually forced to finish 4...<br />
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the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-29533017483119583852016-12-17T18:36:00.000-05:002016-12-17T18:36:04.255-05:00celebratory hmphAhoy, mateys! Let's embark upon yet another fairly vacuous update voyage.<br />
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Medically, things are looking great! After, ugh, five whole years of this surgically-induced bedtime, my wounds are about 95% healed. I've been able to get up in the chair on weekends (thanks for the inspiration, mr. controller), and I'm pondering the risk/reward balance of doing so more than just once or twice a week. It's a bit of an adjustment - I've become rather complacent in tolerating the bummer that is 24-hour bed rest, which means "normal" getting-upness at least <i>feels</i> like a lot more tedious work. But oh, what a dream an actual shower would be... Anyway, I look forward to the readjusting party, because chair time is freedom!<br />
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Also, could it be: did I really make it through all of 2016 without a single trip to the hospital???<br />
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Elsewhere? Yeah, about the rest of life. This year sucks, and I've done essentially nothing with my time. But hey, enough optimism... I got a new computer! On top of that, I used it as an excuse to get a new TV, tee hee hee. My new laptop-in-name-only is proof that if you spend enough dough, you can get a feature that should be an option on all lapsters. That's right: I have a matte screen again! You may recall that I <a href="https://thejlink.blogspot.com/2008/05/lappy-days.html">made a big deal</a> about having my first glossy display way back when, trying feebly to cast it in a positive light (zut alors, I used to write so much better.) Since the days of that dinosaur, I've been through another machine that had an even more egregious offender of a pixel placard. There was no pretense of "antiglare" on that one - with a dark desktop background, I could read the tag on the curtains behind me. Ick. Now, well, I suppose I'm oblivious to my horrible posture, but at least movies and games don't have a haunting aura of my ugly mug lurking in the background (rather, foreground, honestly) of every dark scene.<br />
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Oh, right, it has processy bits too, but that's not as amusing!<br />
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Hmmm... What else? I know - I'm desperately in need of a new music adventure. I can only buy so many albums from my (fortunately prolific) go-to favorites before I reach the saturation point, at which I realize that I already own all of the good ones. So if you've got something/someone to push on me - the weirder the better - now's your chance to take over my speakers. Pretty please, indulge me. I might even offer my own recommendation oddities in return.<br />
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Okay, let's call time and hand in. Happy end-of-this-miserable-stupid-year, pals.<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-12976192016348183922016-10-23T18:05:00.000-04:002016-10-23T23:22:44.847-04:002^6+1joyeux anniversaire<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjENs9YfVR5WC0iU58pda1U7UIpWx5k0Mf8no6je3t9APWj6Mj06b96N1DuDJ5FaC3Xe2lJcqRXTg-aK9ewonT2FwEG-JCgZ1twsCHDFs2A9j2t5e22xDSJInBKThb301TQvUn7LkYmVow/s1600/DSCN2927.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjENs9YfVR5WC0iU58pda1U7UIpWx5k0Mf8no6je3t9APWj6Mj06b96N1DuDJ5FaC3Xe2lJcqRXTg-aK9ewonT2FwEG-JCgZ1twsCHDFs2A9j2t5e22xDSJInBKThb301TQvUn7LkYmVow/s400/DSCN2927.JPG" width="400" height="300" /></a></div><br />
(hers, not mine)<br />
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the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-39319673958150193292016-07-30T15:14:00.000-04:002016-07-30T15:14:00.159-04:00pushing the right buttonWell hello there! Sit down and hold on to something solid - I've actually sort of done something. <i>[Post-edit: also steel yourself for some Jenga-level sentence constructions.]</i><br />
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Secured? Okay. I've been getting up in the chair some. It hasn't been very much, just for a few hours at a time on Saturdays and/or Sundays. But it's a start! Just the first day that I got up was more time spent donating to chairity than I'd accumulated over the past 9/2 years. Of course, it's generally too cold in the rest of the house, and my power chair battery doesn't hold enough charge for me to go anywhere, so all I really do is sit around in my room instead of lying around in my room... Wheee!<br />
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Well, that's a bit of a lie. Using the "carrot" motivational approach, I did lure myself out of bed. I've been known to take occasional pleasure in diversions of the interactive digital variety, but as I've boo-hooed before, I'm mostly stuck playing meticulous talky-talk RPGs or myriad variations of glorified Risk or chess (sorry, Civ and XCOM, I'm throwing you under the bus again.) Not anymore! Thanks to the lovely folks at <a href="http://www.broadenedhorizons.com/">Broadened Horizons</a>, I have traded most of my net worth and an undisclosed portion of my soul for a game controller I can sort of operate. That, mes amis, is a good reason to get up.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-AObb-QWxrpFPbE8KkxsVN2J3xKAi4jsnb5mGr16Ml80IlkY1d5ERMHYOcVoa2uhBjwR88yXiI_IXLrkdlSLLRr9iLjXw5JWOBqDkf6Ym8ubzpqIhEMyifsJKW8K58Hc3br7ha-r_DuE/s1600/ua2-split.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-AObb-QWxrpFPbE8KkxsVN2J3xKAi4jsnb5mGr16Ml80IlkY1d5ERMHYOcVoa2uhBjwR88yXiI_IXLrkdlSLLRr9iLjXw5JWOBqDkf6Ym8ubzpqIhEMyifsJKW8K58Hc3br7ha-r_DuE/s400/ua2-split.png" width="400" /></a><br />
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<i>Uploads are misbehaving, so here's a picture of one of their controllers that's pretty similar to mine. It's a so-so apropos BroHo photo.</i><br />
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At first glance, it looks like the controls ripped out of an (admittedly complicated) arcade cabinet; a "fight stick" with enough buttons and sticks to completely replicate the inputs of an Xbox/PlayStation controller. (They're isomorphic!) It's split into halves, which lets me play some simpler casual games while in bed (one half on each side of the laptop monstrosity), but anything more complicated than run-and-jump needs to be played seated upright for maximum whackability. That's partially why I got it, after all!<br />
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The large, whack-friendly layout alone lets me fumble through some games, but there's more to it than that. On the back panel of one of the halves, there are quite a few ports to connect various external triggers, including some standard 3.5mm (headphone-style) switch jacks, a couple of connections for extra analog joysticks, and a little nozzle to connect tubing for sip/puff functions.<br />
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Quick note: If you're not familiar, sip/puff switches are a pretty standard accessibility control method. It's just some tubing connected to some sort of pressure-sensitive activator. You use the tubing like a straw to change the air pressure and trigger the activator - inhale (sip) or exhale (puff). I had one of these to call the nurse and operate the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/doit/what-are-environmental-control-units">ECU</a> while I was in inpatient rehab post-injury at <a href="http://www.rehabinstitutestl.com/">the RISL</a>. It's a closed system, so you don't have to keep inhaling/exhaling to keep it activated; if you want, you can trigger it and then just put your tongue on the end to maintain the reduced/increased air pressure. Don't worry, you weren't sharing the mouthpiece... I hope...<br />
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I use the controller mostly as-is, only adding one orally-activated control. At first I tried using a simple bite switch - chomp to activate - for whatever a game's most pressing (ha) function may be: think "jump" for a platformer, "shoot" for a, uh, shooter, or "gas pedal" for a racing game. That worked great for a solid, oh, three weeks or so before I started feeling that slight tingling sensation of electricity on my tongue (come on, you've all licked a 9-volt before), and I realized that I had turned the bite switch into a nonfunctional electronic snack. Oops! So I replaced that with a sip/puff apparatus, which has the added bonus of granting me two mouth-operated functions (inhale and exhale) instead of one. It's not quite perfect - I can't seem to sip and puff simultaneously, for some strange reason - but it means I can play a surprisingly large number of games with just the left stick and sip/puff.<br />
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On top of that, all of the buttons can be reassigned on the fly without external software, and with the necessary cables, adapters, and other requisite gizmos, it'll work with PC, PS2/3/4, and Xbox 360/One (plus a few others, but those are the highlights). It's occasionally a little fiddly to get it to work on PC; not all games recognize it as a controller. However, you can map keyboard and mouse functions to the controller with Joy2Key or Xpadder and trick games that way if necessary. That's how I fumble through Payday 2 - with the dual sip/puff actions, I can even fix those stupid drills. Seriously, millions of dollars of heistybucks, but we can only afford equipment with a 100% failure rate?<br />
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So there you go. I'm sooo productive. But hey, it gets me up in the chair.<br />
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Is it worth it? I can work it. (push the prog button, flip keys and reverse sticks)<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-30376183978075874512016-05-08T15:14:00.000-04:002016-05-08T15:14:00.354-04:00vacancyWell. It's Mother's Day today. Does it mean anything anymore? Just another opportunity to rip open the wound?<br />
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The worst part of all this - well, obviously not quite <i>the</i> worst - is that it's essentially routine now. Would there be a funeral? We'll just do like we did with Tim. Let's have a party - that went well the last time. Ugh.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlN1CYT1oiC_h7dvKBjDi-VSCNo_eUVTgt4dRQTSHhdvZVBhEVHk0HKIEMIjCVWF8YlqdJwZzbcHUsF_39yxTZz2an6QHHckadS2L8Zz9dMUYQOkiN4FqTtEtFhpZtUcDCovA35TQ09o/s1600/2011-11-09+13.48.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlN1CYT1oiC_h7dvKBjDi-VSCNo_eUVTgt4dRQTSHhdvZVBhEVHk0HKIEMIjCVWF8YlqdJwZzbcHUsF_39yxTZz2an6QHHckadS2L8Zz9dMUYQOkiN4FqTtEtFhpZtUcDCovA35TQ09o/s1600/2011-11-09+13.48.26.jpg" /></a></div>the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-12487633001340836682016-03-26T21:21:00.000-04:002016-03-27T01:06:07.135-04:00the dearthsleysAhoy! Just here for a quick check-in. Health-wise, there's not a lot new; my surgery wounds are (slowly) cleaning up quite well, and nothing has gone horribly wrong since the last hospital stay. Hooray? I started up with a new PCA a few weeks ago, and the extra set of arms will, ahem, come in handy in the near future - the main thing keeping me out of my chair at the moment is the risk of tearing fragile skin areas open again, but with two muscular volk available, I can transfer bed <-> chair without dragging out the Hoyer lift. It doesn't mean shower time yet, unfortunately, but it's a start! After all, I have 4+ years of accumulated stray junk just begging to be knocked over.<br />
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Elsewhere, does anyone have any good bizarro music recommendations to offer? I've been in a rut of near-silence since I got back from the hospital in December, but major slacking has been going on in the tunes department for longer than that - I can't even remember when I last acquired a CD. If I tried to redo/update my musical experiment from March 2009 (zut alors, seven years ago!), it would be depressingly boring, monotonous, and most of all, empty. I guess my main bands are getting older and not releasing much, but I've been too lazy/uninspired to latch onto anyone new. I have at least been cranking through some audiobooks while (not) falling asleep - that's what happens when your sleep meds are changed after a decade of efficacy - but it's no replacement for a few rock solid albums.<br />
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Hmmm... Yes, must check for any new releases. Step zero: transcend inherent laziness. That's the trick to just about everything though, non? Paz afuera, home fries.<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-64855376448755910612015-12-31T23:56:00.000-05:002016-01-01T00:22:46.627-05:004D trackingAhoy! Just dropping in post-hospital to tick a couple of marks I missed on the December calendar. Don't worry, I'm too drained to produce another reader-repelling abstract algebra thesis.<br />
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The 18th marked four whole years of bed time. Ugh. If I had known at the start that I'd be out of commission this long, I would have gone after a degree or two. Or finished my CCNA cert. Or done anything at all, really. On the bright side, this month's round of surgeries have been the most effective/promising so far, so maybe there won't be another year. Hippity hoppity hope hope hope!<br />
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Next up, the 24th rounded out chapter eleven in The Big Book of Years Post-Injury. I have neither the energy nor the time (nor the desire, honestly) to recount the last 365 with any sense of sufficiency, so let's just say it was about as good as the quality of this numerically-appropriate video:<br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0QZkAn3uwF0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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This year won't be missed on my end, but time moves with the majestic rhythm of the spheres. Bring it on, 2016!<br />
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the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-37671038835026976112015-10-24T22:02:00.000-04:002015-10-26T19:08:36.090-04:00zahlen alors!Bonjour, madames et monsieurs! There's little cargo to be found on the medical update train, but it's making a stop regardless. Lather, rinse, repeat. I get nervous when I haven't had to venture to the hospital for a long time... The threat of what might happen next looms ominously over my weekly plans. So it goes, I suppose.<br />
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Well, I've obviously been hung up on some pretty severe I'm-not-a-writer's block for quite some time. Not much is happening, so most of what goes on in my microcosm is Extreme Nerd Mental Gymnastics(!) mind games. I have a fantastically giant, searingly blue digital clock in direct view 24/7, constantly burning new sextets into my retinas; who would I be if I weren't <s>ignoring responsibilities</s> staring into that azure tickerscape, racing to find patterns with every tick? notjlink, that's who.<br />
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Anyway, the plan was to talk about adding and multiplying clock numbers together - for example, multiplying hours * minutes and figuring out what the answer would look like in seconds - and then ramble about how it's just a restriction on "normal" math, finally drawing back the curtain to reveal the magic that is modular arithmetic. I even went so far as to write out a game and a follow-up explanation/tutorial/condescensionfest.<br />
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With all of that tappy-tapped out and nearly finalized, though, I hopped over to Wikipedia to make sure I had all of my modular ducks in a row (again, not beforehand like a real writer)... and saw that they had said it all better in about as much space as I've wasted whining in this post so far. Hmph! So on that note, I'm just going to point you to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_arithmetic">their page</a> (no need to read more than the intro), and then we can dive into what I've <i>really</i> been pondering.<br />
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If you'd rather not venture away right now, let me quicksplain two things I'm going to use over and over, and then we can dig in:<br />
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<b>1)</b> The three-horizontal-bar symbol I'm going to spew all over (≡) is the congruency symbol. It means "the same as far as we're concerned", which is slightly different from the normal equals-sign. Think of drawing a 30-degree angle and a 390-degree angle: they look the same, but they're technically not equal. That's congruency.<br />
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<b>2)</b> I'm more or less going to restate this right away, but just for the record: when I say "(mod 100)", it means looking at a number and only paying attention to the last two digits. For example, 17 (mod 100) is still 17, while 117 (mod 100) is also the same as 17 as far as we're concerned. So, 117 ≡ 17 (mod 100). They're not equal, but they're interchangeable (mod 100), so we call them congruent. They're not necessarily interchangeable if we pick a different number besides 100, but I won't bother you with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_arithmetic">definitions</a> right this second.<br />
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Beyond that, the actual math across the moat of terminology is not overwhelming. Speaking of vocab and typography, I'll try to be consistent, but I'm not exactly textbook-typesetting a blog rant here. Ready? Let's go!<br />
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Many moons ago, before memorization kicked in, I used to attempt to deal with anxiety by multiplying by two over and over again, but only paying attention to the last two digits of the product. That is, I would count 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 28 (not 128), 56 (28*2, not 128*2), 12 (not 112 or 512), and so on. This is pretty easy to do; it's only multiplying by two, and when a number gets bigger than 100, we can drop the extra digit. What this really is, is calculating the powers of two (mod 100) - but rather than doing it the computer way by solving 2^19 = 524288 ≡ 88 (mod 100), for example, we're doing it the human way by multiplying by two 19 times and reducing (mod 100) at every possible opportunity. Anyway, doing this multiplication is just easy enough, but also just distracting enough to be a [brief] anxiety repellent. When twos grow too easy/ineffective, switching to threes is a bit more difficult, but still the same theoretical and practical process. Multiplying threes (mod 100) also makes what I'm talking about a lot cleaner.<br />
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What's fun (and convenient, and helpful) about this mental ninjutsu is that it eventually repeats. As we chug along multiplying by three, for example, it starts 3, 9, 27, 81, (2)43, (1)29, 87, and so on. But eventually it comes around to [...], 63, (1)89, (2)67, (20)1, 3, 9, 27, and hey, we're back where we started. It's a 20-number sequence, which turns out to be significant, but that just means that the first number is the same as the 21st, the fifth is the same as the 25th, etc. To me, wrapping around to the beginning of the cycle means I've "won" - I did all of my mental math correctly and didn't get stuck on some other loop, which would mean I was sloppy somewhere in the middle.<br />
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Note that multiplying by two also loops in a 20-number cycle, with one caveat: starting with two, it goes 2, 4, 8, 16, ..., 44, 88, 76, 52, 4, 8, and on from there. So, instead of cycling back to two before four, it actually hits 52. Dr. Tiede would remind you that this makes the sequence ultimately periodic, and it's because two and 100 aren't <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprime_integers">relatively prime</a> ("coprime"). <s>ir</s>Regardless<s>ly</s>, it still does the same cyclical process aside from that initial starting point, hitting 52 before 4.<br />
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When we're just looking at the last two digits like this, it turns out that every single number loops after no more than 20 rounds. I'm not going to list them all, but remember that. We'll eventually figure out why.<br />
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It makes sense that this repeated multiplication would eventually cycle. If we're only looking at the last two digits, our only options are 0-99, and at most we could hit each of those numbers once before the cycle starts repeating. Hooray for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonhole_principle">pigeonhole principle</a>!<br />
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That's actually a certified Big Deal in modular arithmetic. It's a contortion of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_little_theorem">Fermat's little theorem</a>, which [insert excessive details here] says that <i>x^n ≡ x (mod n)</i> as long as <i>x</i> and <i>n</i> are relatively prime. In our case of multiplying threes and keeping the last two digits, it translates to finding the number in the cycle that comes 100 positions after three. The theorem says it's three.<br />
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So do we. (Not just because <a href="https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=3%5E101">Wolfram Alpha</a> tells us 3^101 = 1546132562196033993109383389296863818106322566003, which ends with "03". Only counts if you calculated that in your head!) How so? Well, running all the way out from our starting position #1 (three) to position #101 is overkill. (Spoiler alert: it's because 100 isn't prime.) We already figured out that threes (mod 100) cycle after 20 rounds so since position #1 is a three, position #21 is also three. Twenty rounds later, position #41 will be three as well. Then it's the same for #61, #81, and #101. Ta-da! Fermat's a smart cookie, disregarding the fact that my pigeonhole-principle plausibility predication is more proof than he ever proffered. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem#Fermat.27s_conjecture">He tends to do that.</a><br />
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<br />
--------ASIDE----------------<br />
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At the risk of disrupting my tenuous continuity, let's see an easy example of Fermat's little theorem in full force: consider multiplying twos again, but (mod 5) this time. The first few numbers are again 2->4->8->16->32, which when converted (mod 5) is 2->4->3->1->2. So, 2^5 ≡ 2 (mod 5), as declared. In fact, here are the cycles for every possible case (mod 5):<br />
<tt><br />
0 -> 0 -> 0 -> 0 -> 0<br />
1 -> 1 -> 1 -> 1 -> 1<br />
2 -> 4 -> 3 -> 1 -> 2 (2->4->8->16->32)<br />
3 -> 4 -> 2 -> 1 -> 3 (3->9->27->81->243)<br />
4 -> 1 -> 4 -> 1 -> 4* (4->16->64->256->1024)<br />
</tt><br />
<i>*Note that 4 = 2^2, so its sequence is equivalent to taking the second, then fourth, then sixth, etc., items in the cycle of twos. Ergo, it traverses twice as fast and cycles in half as many steps.</i><br />
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That's every possible number (mod 5), so we've brute-forced a proof that the little theorem doesn't short-circuit when the modulus is prime. This is different from (mod 100), where every integer (mod 100) has a cycle of no more than 20. That part is a massively important difference. Now, back to the show!<br />
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-------/ASIDE----------------<br />
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Hey, look, casual mental math led us to derive a textbook-level whopper! We're as smart as Fermat then, right? ;-) Actually, we've unwittingly done him one (or even two) better. Ol' Pierre's little theorem is a strict limit if the modulus is prime. We've been running (mod 100) though, and 100 is quite not-prime. The maximum cycle is 20 rounds too, which is far fewer than Fermat insists. To get [closer] to that smaller cycle length, we have to be slick like Euler.<br />
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Let's go back to threes (mod 100), because it's so neat and tidy. There are 100 numbers that could hypothetically be in the cycle, anything 0-99. However, many of those numbers are unattainable. We can rule out all of the even numbers right away, as every power of three will be odd. That brings us down to 50 options. We can also ignore the odd multiples of five; because we're working (mod 100), we would need to multiply by five at some point to get a number ending in "5", but we're in love with three right now. There are 10 of those, so we've carved our way down to 40 options. Hmmm...<br />
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This is where <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_theorem">Euler's theorem</a> appears. Err, sort of - we got the same result of 40 options as his theorem would tell us, but we did it with a healthy dose of convenience and handwavium. And threes (mod 100) do repeat after 40 rounds; we already established that the first number is the same as the 21st number, and running through the cycle again produces the same number 20 more rounds later, for a total of 40 rounds. Euler takes us to that number by calculating the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_totient_function">totient</a> of 100, which is almost what we did. I'm not going to get into it too robustly, but the totient of a number x (written φ(x)) is the total count of numbers less than x that are relatively prime to x. (Sorry, vocab!) For prime numbers, φ(x) = x-1, because a prime number doesn't have any factors to share. In the offset demo above regarding (mod 5), φ(5) = 4, and the theorem says (in our twisted version) that the number at that point in the cycle should be a 1. Indeed, it goes 2->4->8->16, and 16 ≡ 1 (mod 5).<br />
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The totient of 100 is 40. You can use the rules for totients of composite numbers, but we're clinging onto the last thread of mental mathliness, so we're going to get there our (now familiar) way. The totient of a number is the count of smaller numbers with no shared factors, so we can eliminate the ones that <i>do</i> share factors, and then see what's left. Don't worry: 100 = 2*2*5*5, so we only have two (familiar!) factors. Since two is a factor, all of the evens are out - that takes us down to 50 possible coprimes; out of those, there are 10 odd multiples of five between 1-99, so those are out too. That gets us to 40 numbers less than 100 that don't share factors with 100. If you want to do that calculation constructively, rather than by elimination, consider that 1, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19, ... (the odds without the fives) are all relatively prime to 100. That's four out of every 10, which adds up to 40.<br />
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So there, we've caught up with Lenny-E! Alas, his limit on twos or threes (mod 100) is 40 rounds per cycle, but the biggest loop (mod 100) in just 20. That's right: we're about to one-up the guy awesome enough to have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant)">his own number</a>.<br />
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...Sort of. This last jump is hard to make via simple mental math accident. It turns out we've stumbled across a number, 100, where the biggest cycle of exponentiation is actually half of the totient. (Note that I said "biggest": some numbers have shorter cycles. Fives get stuck on 25 after one iteration, and even crazy coprime seven loops back after just four rounds.) The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmichael_function">Carmichael function</a> (written λ(x), because Greek is awesome - but don't think it's anything <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution">fishy</a>, stats people!), says that sometimes the maximum cycle length will be the totient, and sometimes it'll be half of the totient. Explaining when to expect which value is quite a mess to write out, so either take my word for it or go read <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CarmichaelFunction.html">the gory details</a>!<br />
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Anyway, 100 is one of the half-totient numbers... which we (non-rigorously) figured out with quasi-easy mental math. We even did it the backwards way, starting with the most-refined final answer. Hooray!<br />
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Just to make sure we have it down, let's run through all of this quickly again using the most common purveyor of modular arithmetic on the planet: the clock. That is, let's follow the seconds-hand around, ignoring the effects on minutes and hours. It's (mod 60): the numbers go 0-59, and 60 is the same as zero. If we start multiplying twos together, we go 2->4->8->16->32->(6)4->8->... Since two is a factor of 60, we get the same small aberration as with 100 - on the fifth round we have 32, but on the sixth round it's back to four. Position #6 is the same as #2, position #7 is the same as position #3, etc., so the cycle is four rounds. More tidily, multiplying sevens goes 7->49->43->1->7->... (corresponding to the first few powers of seven: 7, 49, 343, 2401, ...) Again, the cycle is four rounds. That aligns with Fermat's claim that we should be back at the start after 60 rounds; since we're back after four, we'll be back after any multiple of four. Even better: the totient of 60 is merely eight (60 has a lot of factors), and if we do eight rounds of the cycle - two complete cycles - we're back at the start. To put a bow on it, the Carmichael function says 60 is one of those half-totient numbers, so our final cycle length is four. You can mentally verify this much easier than the (mod 100) case since it's such a short cycle, but it's much less satisfying.<br />
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We win! We even outdid two of the most brilliant math dudes in history and matched a third (ok, maybe that's a stretch), and we did it sans pencil/paper/calculator, in a distressed mental state. A+ for everyone.<br />
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So, uh, I guess that's it for now. I desperately need to stop proofreading and click "publish" already. Tune in next time for something you might actually enjoy reading! Q-E-sloppily-D.the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-32170971573418106872015-05-23T20:16:00.000-04:002015-05-23T20:45:56.733-04:00jouingHey there! So, uh, I've been caught up in a writing topic project that transformed from [expectation] a concise post or two into [reality] a giant (non-flying) spaghetti monster of words and paragraphs and headers and line breaks. Trapped in the Sisyphean "I'll finally post it this week!" vortex, I sorta-kinda didn't think to post anything at all. oops.<br />
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Daily life is teaching elementary school from the back of a shampoo bottle - reading, 'riting, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_arithmetic">'rithmetic</a>; lather, rinse, repeat. Apparently not much emphasis on grammar, though: that sentence was a disaster. I wish there were health updates to pass along, but nothing doing. Progress continues to be slow, stilted, and a little gory. Punctuated equilibrium: it's not just for evolution anymore!<br />
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Anyway, what have I been up to lately? That appears to be a good question, as I have been staring at old Blinky McCursorson for an inordinate amount of time, wondering what an honest answer might be. The usual daily stuff is there: sifting through [primarily] tech articles, studying a video lecture or two, enjoying some fake news (<i>tu me manques tellement</i>, faux-Stephen), and chasing my apparent quest to read every article on Wikipedia. We're in the thick of the NHL playoffs, so my TV has been glowing white since mid-April. The rest of the room, glows anything but - <a href="http://www2.meethue.com/en-us/">Hue</a> lights cast <s>psychedelic</s> <s>raveworthy</s> excellent team colors.<br />
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Otherwise, the gamer in me has been sneaking out when he thinks I'm not looking, wasting time not-learning and not-doing. My game collection is hilariously anti-diverse, ranging from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_graphics_in_video_games_and_pixel_art">isometric</a> (sorta top-down, like SimCity) turn-based strategy to isometric pausable strategy to isometric turn-based tactical to isometric semi-turn-based RPG. In order, those categories are essentially Civilization, Age of Empires, X-COM, and Baldur's Gate. There are a few non-isometric RPGs, point-and-click adventures and digitized board games in there, but the vast majority of my collection has me looking down at an angle, moving things around and clicking buttons at my leisure. These archetypes - the ones in the "mouse-friendly and minimal dexterity or timing required" pigeonhole - are all I can really play, given my physical limitations. If only I weren't <i>absolutely terrible</i> at every last one of these games. I'm more mathematical than civil (SimCity); I don't have the brain for chess (X-COM, and yes, I'm calling it glorified chess); I tend to make funny-but-ultimately-awful in-game choices (any "decisions matter" RPG); I'm a logistics-averse pacifist (Age of Empires, Civilization); and I can't even begin to understand Risk (Civ again). That's not to say I don't play these games: my Steam profile mocks me with embarrassing "hours played" statistics every time I scroll through my game list. Alas, what I wouldn't give for an hour to speedrun Megaman X4... *pshing*<br />
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Wait a sec - I'm not a gamer, and this isn't a gaming blog. Whoopsie! Come back next time for some more off-topic randobabble.<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-24593108726365333072014-12-24T01:10:00.000-05:002014-12-24T01:21:23.421-05:00decad3Ahoy! I've been doing my best not to drag out cheap "this happened x years ago" random-anniversary posts, but I guess this one's unavoidable for at least a brief acknowledgement.<br />
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This 24th marks the passage of ten years since the event of my spinal cord injury. Ten - dix; ju; diez; zehn; dez. A whole decade. 3652±1 days. Loose bookends for The Colbert Report, even.<br />
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...an excessively long time. There have been ups - it was a fantastic adventure hurrying back to college (like an idiot) and trying to resume as much of my life as I could post-injury, and I've been fortunate to spend almost four years of those ten improving myself in physical therapy. Of course, though, there have been downs. Plenty of downs. Let's not kid around; across the whole spectrum from "forest" to "trees," it's been mostly downs. Surprise! Surely you weren't expecting me to claim that my life was vastly improved that night in 2004.<br />
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Speaking of not-positives, this time of year is a two-fer for now: three years plus a few days ago, I went in for the initial surgeries that stuck me in bed, then went awry and froze me here. It's a miserable reminder to me that "it'll be about 6-8 weeks" might really mean "it'll be a few years, and your life will be systematically destroyed." Optimism has no seed here, so I shan't dwell on it further.<br />
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Wheee... Aren't memories fun? I'd like to get off the ride now.<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-64438335583124553092014-09-25T19:49:00.000-04:002014-09-25T19:49:00.092-04:00-stasisHey, forks! This should be top-notch anti-smooth. I've rewritten this post at least a dozen times in a dozen different ways over the past month-plus, but it has yet to come out worthily. I can't seem to find the <i>right</i> version, so here's <i>a</i> version.<br />
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First, not much worth telling has been happening in the realm of health. I haven't been up in the chair for a while - as I've mentioned many times before, I have a delicate skin graft donor site area on the side of my right hip/leg, right where the sling for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_lift">Hoyer lift</a> rubs pretty hard. That's what happened the last time I was up: that area was almost completely healed, but the sling ripped everything open and erased a ton of progress. Now the area is 95% healed again... Cue nervousness and frustration.<br />
<br />
Anyway, enough of that. It's time to get meta.<br />
<br />
I'm still here. The blog is still here. I like the blog, and the blog treats me well. Writing is fun! Responses are a pleasure! A+ to all that.<br />
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However, my current level of interestingitude is near-zero. My health situation is generally intensely uneventful; when it is eventful, though, it's almost never in a good way. That stuff is a bit private and more than a bit dreary - and usually not viable for <a href="http://thejlink.blogspot.com/2013/09/nnnnnggg.html">entertainment conversion</a> - so it doesn't really belong here.<br />
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Elsewhere, I'm still pretty epically humdrum. For a while, I've been in a... hmm, let's call it a groove. I churn a ton of RSS butter, "take" nerdy not-for-credit video lecture-based courses, and do various other unspeakably dorky things to keep learning and stay sharp; I keep tabs on Jon & Stephe (and Chris, because I'm <i>that</i> mature!), nap randomly, and play games on the weekends - again, among other not-fun-for-normal-people pastimes - to keep the work/play balance in check. <br />
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That sums up most of what goes on here in my tiny little world. As you can see, there's no PT right now, and neither the "health" nor the "otherwise" provide much material for rapid-fire updates at the moment. There are things brewing in my head! I do have some elaborate missive missiles in the silos, and will be launched once they're capped with literary warheads. For now, though, updates just won't be particularly frequent. So it goes.<br />
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For the record, unless I somehow become incapable of doing so, I will absolutely announce when I will no longer post here. I hate when people just let their blogs fade, leaving me checking for updates months, or even years after they've secretly decided that they're done. That's not happening here; if there's been an extended silence (like the one I'm breaking now), but I have neither died nor posted an adieu, this game is still on. Got it? Good!<br />
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Ok, let's call that done. Catch you around!<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-80780039605577111592014-05-03T23:23:00.000-04:002014-05-04T03:25:28.042-04:00frangelic"Buddy..."<br />
<br />
"Buuuddy..."<br />
<br />
"Buddy Buddy..."<br />
<br />
"Buddy! Buddy! Buddy!"<br />
<br />
"Buddy - Buddy - Buddy - Buddy - Buddy!"<br />
<br />
"Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy..."<br />
<br />
"Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy Buddy!"<br />
<br />
"Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy-Buddy!" *gasp*<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIWxrFkSjK-9qqBaerpmw0HJvYRJblCPHYyUbJL1Hn-xmPgIATl2xrfHlZSWcyQQ5o3ZRKY_TMf8Z-Ig3gN23TeOS0CLO99Af36thsSOsm5g95jebxX7VCfcfn4iP1fDb2hix2mtUc_C8/s1600/DSCN6580.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIWxrFkSjK-9qqBaerpmw0HJvYRJblCPHYyUbJL1Hn-xmPgIATl2xrfHlZSWcyQQ5o3ZRKY_TMf8Z-Ig3gN23TeOS0CLO99Af36thsSOsm5g95jebxX7VCfcfn4iP1fDb2hix2mtUc_C8/s320/DSCN6580.JPG" /></a></div><br />
I'm not so sure he's grasping <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number">the pattern</a> yet... Or maybe he really is fibbing.<br />
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(Fun fact: in colorblindland, he's wearing camouflage!)<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-79424894052998669972014-02-22T11:23:00.000-05:002014-02-22T11:23:00.154-05:00bentHey there! It recently reached about 50, then 60 degrees here - part of nature's plan to turn the lovely winter wonderland into a muddy, slushy, black-icy nightmare - so I suppose I could thaw a little bit as well and tappy-tap some wordy-words. Hopefully it won't turn me into similar muddy pseudo-ice before I'm done. Analogies are fun.<br />
<br />
Thaw, indeed. After two years and two months in bed and only in bed, I sat up in my chair last week! It was pleasantly uneventful; I was up in the power semi-automaton for about an hour, and nothing happened. I didn't even leave the room - just tilted forward and back to test my blood pressure and spun around a few times. Wheee! Fortunately, there was no drama, of the dizziness variety or otherwise. I was surprised not to have any bp troubles at all; after so much flat time with no postural stress whatsoever, I was not expecting to survive long. Then again, I was in the power chair, which is designed for tilty cheating. We'll see how it goes when I try out the manuel...<br />
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Here we go then, it seems - step one of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleph_number">infinity</a> on the road to not being bed-trapped anymore. Wait, "step one [...] on the road"? I might as well be climbing the bridge... Yes, analogies really are fun.<br />
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<br />
In rather more farcical news, I will soon be smothered with incogitably bounteous wealth! Yea, for my response to Final Jeopardy has long been "Who/What/When/Where/Why is Falstaff?" regardless of FJ category, with an appropriately trivial (heh) wager. After all, I usually don't have a less ridiculous response, and while I'm generally anti-Shakespeare, I know from nerd bowl et al that he's a good choice because he is the character with the most lines and appearances in Ole Willy's complete <i>oeuvre</i>. (Really, Scholastic Bowlers, if it's a Shakespeare bonus, he had better be at least one of your answers.) This makes me look like an idiot most of the time, but less so than if I actually tried and failed every every every time, right? Well, my number [character?] has finally come up: a few days ago I randomly took the time to watch, and the category was "Shakespearean Characters"; I placed all I had on the shoulders of Sir John, before the commercial break and clue as usual... And I was right! The "answer" was "this character blah blah most blah blah blah", and my whois query was spot on.<br />
<br />
So, Sony, since I was obviously one of the contestants and playing within the mathematical bounds of the game, I expect my check promptly. I wagered eleventy billion dollars. Pay up.<br />
<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-84575847410484150592013-12-21T04:32:00.000-05:002013-12-21T04:32:00.093-05:00like the railroadAhoy! J'essaie de l'essai.<br />
<br />
Reading for fun is hard. I'm ok reading shampoo bottles (methylchloroisothiazolinone!) at a glance, but a few pages of pleasure prose can leave me unenlightened - or worse, stuck in an infinite reread loop. Ugh. (Commence irony!)<br />
<br />
I'm not going to oppose the value of the particular nature of reading in school. I think that being taught to read with such high intensity and immense pressure is infinitely more valuable than not being exposed to literature at all. However, homework-style reading pretty consistently ruins people for quite some time after graduation! Students are forever driven to read at a breakneck pace while memorizing every detail, and it's hard to kick that habit.<br />
<br />
I'm still in that stage. I never did master the speed aspect; I think speed and ridiculous attention to detail are inversely proportional, and reading quickly doesn't fetch any extra points on the test. (Note: <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com">efficiency</a> does.) Thus, I've always been a slow reader, rereading sentences and paragraphs until I've essentially memorized whatever my eyeballs are scanning. One must hope to have mastered every banality when one's AP English teacher asks something as incredibly important as how many coils of rope lay in Santiago's boat on the <i>The Old Man and the Sea</i> exam...<br />
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I doubled down on the memorize-everything mandate when I opted to study math and computer science. There is so much rereading and stopping to think involved in learning math from a book - unlike Santiago's irrelevant rope organization, every detail is connected to everything else, including stuff from previous chapters and even earlier math education! Nothing like memorizing everything you've ever, ever read, just so you can hope to understand the next book.<br />
<br />
The trick with this detail-oriented, internalize-everything reading methodology is that I like it! That is, I like it when I can do it on my own terms. It feels right to me to read carefully and spend time processing - one book at a time, with a break between books so they don't run together and I can commit thoughts to memory. Obviously my terms do not coincide with those of a "voracious" reader, or really even a "competent" one (regarding for-pleasure, that is). Like other things I do, though, I want to get something out of whatever I read. I want to learn something. I want to feel something. If nothing else, I want to be able to regurgitate a detail or two a week later. If I've read an entire book and gotten nothing out of it but hours taken off my lifespan, I could have conserved the eye strain and rotted in front of the TV instead.<br />
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Another significant trouble I have with the printed page is a bit of a pathological one: my mind wanders rampantly. There's so much stuff going on in direct proximity at any moment that I find it difficult to turn it all off and do something as <i>seemingly</i>-unproductive (note emphasis!) as reading a book for fun. In the K-12/uni days, there was always other homework. It did not help that <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1272463-fahrenheit-451">almost</a> <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wuthering/">everything</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_Across_America">I</a> <a href="http://bannedbooks.world.edu/2011/03/27/banned-books-awareness-giver-lois-lowry/">read</a> <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=grapes+of+wrath&espv=210&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=2tyzUtLpGOSqyAHT8YGIAg&ved=0CEgQsAQ&biw=1061&bih=1044&dpr=0.9">for</a> <a href="http://www.shmoop.com/separate-peace/">school</a> <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1260/1260-h/1260-h.htm">was</a> <a href="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/watership-down">massively</a>, <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html">epically</a> <a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hamlet-facebook-news-feed-edition">uninteresting</a>. In "the real world," thoughts of what I should be doing instead ruin most of what I do for pure pleasure. However, while it's easy to ignore those thoughts (or just multitask) when watching a show or chatting or playing a game, it's nigh impossible to read with any level of absorption when the page seems to say, "Once upon a time, there was a oh I need to reply to that email and it's almost time for my next scheduled medications and -- wait, what?" It's an affliction I surely can and should cure, but that hasn't happened yet.<br />
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I'm an awful traditional-style pleasure reader for various other reasons as well. For one, I'm terrible with internal vocalization - I read everything out loud in my head, which is the first thing you're taught to stop in order to read faster. Also, everyone knows I'm a linguist; I see spelling, grammar, syntax, semantics, and structure long before I extract the intended tales and imagery. There are just so many ways I can "read" something and claim nothing more than, "I have looked at every word on all of these pages!"<br />
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Audiobooks provide workarounds to many of my troubles. The big kicker for me is that an audiobook has a set pace with generally inconvenient backtracking. While many people can read faster than a narrator might speak (ahem, Morton Sellers), I generally can't. There's no need to read and then vocalize with a recording - it's already spoken for you, no eyeballs necessary. I can only imagine what an audiobook would be like if it was spoken how I would read it:<br />
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"Sarah walked the two miles through the fields to get to school every day. What was her last name again? This is the second page of chapter three. She sometimes stopped to play with the dog that lived by the -- remember, it's Sarah. I wonder how long it will take to read the rest of this. She lives on a farm. This author wrote something else about economics in South Africa; I should look that up. Wait, so Sarah walked the two miles..."<br />
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No, an audiobook plods along, and the extraneous pondering and meta-lit necessarily stay out of the way. Often I have to [want to] listen to a chunk again, but backtracking is tedious enough that I don't, for example, go over every sentence five times in a row. This most effectively manifests itself when I plan to go to sleep listening to a book - I play audio from my phone via a Bluetooth speakerphone (nerrrd!), and while I can skip around track by track using voice control, I can't do anything like "rewind thirty seconds" that would enable me to obsess.<br />
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Another anthropomagically appealing audiobook aspect is the allure of the spoken word. Humans inherently focus on and cogitate speech more than other stimuli; on the other end of the spectrum, we generally place reading at the bottom of the focus list. Just think of where your brain tends to go when you're trying to read something - anything - and someone's having even the most inane conversation in the history of humanity in the next room. That gripping chapter doesn't always clench very tightly. I won't attempt to approach the roots of this phenomenon (really, jl, the only topic you dodge here is the lone interesting one?), but the simplicity of attention and focus involved is quite apparently increased over that of the eyes+letters method of consumption. Listening to something read aloud is almost like cheating, slacking off compared to putting in the effort to read the same material as well. Based on no rigorous research or in-depth knowledge whatsoever, I think it actually is easier to listen - the brain's circuitry has been evolutionarily(!) optimized for speech recognition, and there are simply fewer (and again, more efficient) processing steps involved on the path from sound to thoughts/meaning than when starting with visually-perceived printed characters. This is where I skip over computational models of thought and move on to the next paragraph.<br />
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One last bit to mention is that people simply like being read to. Remember childhood? So, summarily, audiobooks are lovely for those like me with, umm, "alternative pleasure-reading styles." They force a steady pace, and they're arguably easier to pay attention to and process. Seashells and butterflies, everyone can be a bookworm! Right? Right?!?!!<br />
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Ah, if only. There are indeed some gripes of varying degree pointed toward the conversion of text to speech. The most common, ostensible complaint I'm aware of is about the thief of imagination: the preset narrator. Especially considering internal vocalizers like me, readers like to assign their own "actors" to characters in a book. Material takes on an extra level of personalization and individuated charm when everyone [mentally] maintains a perfectly imperial inflection for each reader. There's no such luck on individual creative license when listening to someone else's performance; the larynx-provider become the narrator, and that person's possibly-awful impersonations of characters' voices predefine those personas for you. This is the worst with computer-generated TTS - it's like going to see one of your favorite musicals... performed entirely by Siri. (Ok, not exactly, because that would likely be hilarious.)<br />
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Big Audiobook Problem Number Two comes with the territory when you've opted to consume a book without looking at the words: you're not looking at the words. Hear a word or line you don't understand? Wonder about a person mentioned whom you don't recognize? Need to use proper names in a response paper? Tough rocks, <i>c'est dommage</i>, and enjoy that F. There's a learning gap when you're coasting strictly on phonetics. This ambiguity really gets to me, as I'm rather obsessive about familiarizing myself with odd words ("seneschal") and people ("Goebbels") I encounter. With an audiobook, this means either admitting defeat (boo!) or spending quite a bit of time digging up a copy of the book and running over page after page to find a single word. Regarding that last point, audiobooks are sadly just a bad idea in the world of academics. For shame. In general, though, does the lack of visual recognition make audiobooks occasionally tedious? Indeed. Are they still worth it? Quite.<br />
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Before I wrap up, let me remind you (potential employers, admissions counselors and educators!) that this has all been about reading for fun. I chose particular wording all over the place to establish that, but let's crank the point to maximum clarity. Hopefully it's obvious as well that I read critically for content by default. So, please hire/accept me!<br />
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Another note: I do read quite a bit. Novel forms of writing need not be in novel form.<br />
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So, um, there you go! An answer without a question; a response without a call. Nihilism at its finest (go read about it).<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-56855795681630511742013-10-26T18:36:00.000-04:002013-10-26T18:36:00.947-04:0010kg of month-poundsHey there! How about a little updateroo?<br />
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I'm still in bed. Yup. It's been 22 months plus two weeks since I was last in/on a human-holder other than a bed, stretcher, or surgery table... And I'm afraid I have some more time to go. It's starting to get to me; anxiety is more of an issue than bipolarity anymore, but bedtrapment contributes to both. Having to ask for <i>absolutely everything, all the time</i> is awwwesome. Why could I not have seen the future at the start of all this and picked up a random MA by now? Ah, yes, perhaps it was that initial "four to six weeks" promise. rg!<br />
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On the positive side, at least my health has been steady since my last trip to the hospital at the end of August. That's a start, I suppose? Not much else to report from medicaland.<br />
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I read a book! Err, someone famous was paid a ton of money to read a book to an extremely eager and attentive microphone, and I paid taxes in order to listen in on a borrowed reproduction of that storytelling venture. This doesn't happen very often, so I need to brag about it when I can! More on my inability to process long form material some other time; I've been asked many times in the comments about my free time entertainment choices, so I think I'll finally tell you one of these days.<br />
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Let's leave it at that for now. Commence stellar weekend.<br />
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the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-61214998644396212562013-09-28T02:43:00.000-04:002013-09-28T02:43:00.294-04:00nnnnngggConcession: you probably don't want to read this. It's long, poorly-written, and not lighthearted at all. It's... Well, it's a lot of things. If you're not grading me - and you have a bizarre concept of "reading for pleasure" - enjoy?<br />
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Hey there!<br />
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So I've taken some time off from writing this summer-ish. It's been a bit forced. Health has not been my forte for a bit, and while my positive medical/health-related escapades are occasionally mildly amusing - I am indeed many standard deviations beyond normal in that regard - I still get sick like everyone else. It just sends me to the hospital every time. Nobody wants to read vom stories, so I've kept mostly to myself. So it goes. Moving on...<br />
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I suppose I do have a vom tale to spew sloppily all over your reading medium. More accurately, it's a non-vom novella. A couldn't-vom-if-you-wanted-to compilation. An emesis-eluding explication. An... NG!<br />
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Nasogastric intubation, ohsoappropriately abbreviated "NG", is the practice of placing and implementing a connecting tube that runs - surprise! - from the nose to the stomach. Odd pathway, indeed. Point A to point B is not exactly a straight shot: the first trajectory is up. The "flexible" plastic tubing eventually traverses down the back of the throat to the stomach via the esophagus, but the real excitement is the initial curvy jaunt through the head's nasal passages. For me, a lengthy individual, the total internal voyage is almost 90 cm. I promise to you, the length is irrelevant.<br />
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When the insertion party is over, the tube might be connected to suction equipment (if not being used for short-term feeding purposes), and then the waiting game begins! I'm not going to comment with much authority on all the reasons why this medical monstrosity is ever used because I'm not about to relive the joy extraneously by looking it up, but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasogastric_intubation">you can</a>! The general purpose is to empty the stomach and probably keep it that way, whether it's an acute stomach-pumping instance - too much vodka or Drano - or a prolonged implementation, to pause the constant activity of the stomach for whatever reason. No matter the justification, everything in the stomach is coming out.<br />
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Anyway, go read a medical textbook; I'm done playing gastroenterologist. Here's the reality of the NG tube experience: it is one of the worst things I've been through in the hospital without any medication or other assistance to make the brute force cranial attack any less... Brutal. Follow me, dear masochists.<br />
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They're coming to invade your face. You know it's coming, and you've probably tried to talk your way out of it. Maybe being horribly, unstoppably sick is better? You're not convincing anyone! Eventually (in my experiences, por lo menos) one will come with some syringes to say, "ok, I'm going to give you [every medication you have that stands a chance of holding your hand], and we'll be back in ten minutes!"<br />
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Interminably, yet not enough later, a small swarm returns to enhance your digestive system with waaay too much clear plastic tubing and some approximately-useless lubricant.<br />
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I've learned that there are two adult sizes of NG tube: "that doesn't go there" and "you're kidding, right?" The 1-2 mm difference in diameter is significant. However, it's negative infinity versus negative infinity plus one. Which one you get really just demonstrates how gracious your nurses are.<br />
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Not a single inch of the insertion process is smooth sailing. They've already covered you with towels - I never have (yet), but you're expected to throw up all over - then told you to stay as relaxed as possible and to keep swallowing hard. Ha! Once that mile-long, greased-up pencil approaches your nose, all bets are off. It just doesn't fit. Also, all that lubricant is rubbing off in your nostril. Enjoy that gift for the next few days.<br />
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Right away is the first of (at least) three stopping points, and it's the worst. Just a few inches into your nasal cavity is a brick wall. It feels like the tube is trying to crack its way into your brain. There's nothing you can do here; the only way to get through this first line of defense is to keep bashing away until your sinuses open up. If you're unlucky, they'll pull everything out, wait a minute, then attack again. If you're <i>really</i> unlucky, they'll yank it and give it a go violating the other side too.<br />
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Once they destroy the first barricade, a bizarre feeling begins. After all, there's a now-slightly-abrasive snake slithering through your skull, taking the scenic route from nose to throat. It's cold. It obviously doesn't belong there. If you've recovered from breakthrough number one (you haven't), you might have a split second to take in just how otherworldly the sensation is. Don't worry, though; if you miss it at that instant, it'll still be there for every second that tube is moving.<br />
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Checkpoint number two is Epiglottis Station! Unstoppable force, meet immovable object. Now is when trying to swallow becomes frantically pivotal - from this moment on, you're trying to eat that tube. Swallow swallow swallow and hopefully it will hit the right hole, beating the dangerous odds of entering the airways and causing some serious damage. From there, just keep gulping and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peristalsis">peristalsis</a> should logically drag that tube down to your stomach like a scrumptious plastic snack.<br />
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Let's sidetrack for a second (me, sidetrack? never!) to think about peristalsis in this situation. The process moves food/drink down your esophagus in blobs, pushing each nom-unit down like squeezing a hose and sliding your hand along to move water. It's dependent on the "blob" part, though. I don't believe it helps at all in moving the tube (GI folks, feel free to disagree). The tube is not a blob: it doesn't have a "back" end - that part is in the fists of the nurse deemed sadist for the day. Alas, peristalsis needs the trailing side to push against in order to have any effect. Imagine, s'il vous plaît, two same-length hoses, one running inside the other. Using the same grab-and-slide maneuver, you'll make trivial progress moving the inner hose through the outer one. NG peristalsis is just that, a tube inside another, one petting the other.<br />
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Further and more obviously, peristalsis is not what's setting the pace! Lest we forget, there's a medical professional providing plenty of propulsion on the naso-end of that plumbing. And, while your own system can deliver pie to your pie storage unit in short order, the intent (but not the reality; more on that later, perhaps) is to get that tube down there even faster. The natural push from your slippery innards is irrelevant to the muscles of the nurse. Point made yet?<br />
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Circling back around...<br />
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The action is to coax that tube into and down your throat. The equal and opposite reaction is your body's struggle to reject it. Pronto. When the tip of that plastic exits your brain, it immediately strikes gag reflex gold. Foreshadow: it stays there. For the duration of insertion, the friction of that no-longer-lubricated tubing will grate at your vom trigger. To add to the rebellion, your esophagus is fully aware that there's a foul plot afoot. If you're managing to swallow maniacally (you're not), then peristalsis has your esophagus clamped shut at at least one point. If the tube isn't at that closure yet, it's very likely right behind it, trying to bash its way through the lining tissue. Stoppage of play. If the tube already exists at the point of contraction... Well, again with the petting. Know what swallowing <i>really</i> feels like? Now you do!<br />
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Here we have the real reason for all the swallowing, je pense. You're obviously not pushing that tube down. That part is under someone else's control. However, you're keeping your system from pushing up. You've thrown up before - that's a powerful activity. Your stomach isn't empty (yet) either, so you indeed have some cannon fodder. While swallow-swallow-swallowing won't guarantee the halt of rebel forces (again, common vom-knowledge), it's what you can cling to during this ordeal.<br />
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Pro tip: with any luck, sometime during the esophageal traversal your heart will seem to stop. You have to take a break from gulping, yet your innards don't immediately turn upwardly mobile. For a split second, everything stops, relaxes. Slurp! The NG tube slides right down. If you are a Zen master and can somehow control this armistice, you will save yourself quite the trouble.<br />
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Your entire body is burned out. You've likely monogrammed all of those artfully-placed towels in front of you. It's been either thirty seconds or an hour. You're almost there! You know, wherever "there" is.<br />
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The third arrest is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomach">G</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esophagus">E</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esophageal_sphincter">Junction</a>. That is, Mr. Tube is knocking on the door to your stomach. This is really the minor of the pauses - it doesn't exactly hurt, and it doesn't last long. It does, though, give enough pause to cause thought of trouble. This synthetic serpent is in essence a giant catheter, and when catheters try to bully their way into organs, they cause bleeding. Stomach bleeding is a big problem, and can be grounds for tube removal at a minimum. Then you'd be sick<i>er</i>(!), and who knows what could happen next. Panic!<br />
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Of course, that's unlikely to happen, just as it's unlikely your sinuses will be permanently damaged, and unlikely they'll accidentally intubate your lungs. (Sufficiently comforting?) No, everything has probably gone according to plan... The sick, twisted, demented plan. Stage one complete.<br />
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Monsieurs, madames et mademoiselles, that is enough for now. There is more written - <i>much</i> more to the tale, for we haven't even not thrown up yet! But let's not burn it all up at once, shall we?<br />
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Been through something awful? Feel like making fun of my whining, or lack of research/proofing/revision? Got something irrelevant to contribute? Comment away!<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-80884578034926095872013-04-11T20:05:00.000-04:002013-04-12T01:00:48.376-04:00creative metaphor denied!Just dropping by to remind myself that today marks five years since the OMA surgery in Portugal. Happy thoughts; renewed optimism; hooray and more. Ok, reminded.<br />
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I can't keep my arm up long enough to tap out the fantastic, poignant metaphor flooding *intended* my thought process today. Feel free to make one up while enjoying the applicable snapshot of our yard:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1CPqL121wC2ZenBJVkikGL9g71hKAO0wwUyADVYEe5kyDxlu1T72Oq1ptntrDDqRmvldfCDfVKPURHWRiC1JaEA2rmsQGAwhPxLqG5lRhumf3t8rAKdipHYd_trtou_CqwE2-gz4fVWM/s1600/DSCN6849.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1CPqL121wC2ZenBJVkikGL9g71hKAO0wwUyADVYEe5kyDxlu1T72Oq1ptntrDDqRmvldfCDfVKPURHWRiC1JaEA2rmsQGAwhPxLqG5lRhumf3t8rAKdipHYd_trtou_CqwE2-gz4fVWM/s640/DSCN6849.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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I'm still flat under "forced bedtime practice" mandates, so that's it for typey-type energy. Catch you again after another set of surgeries! Until then, vote no to horizontality.the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-3901446269814794522012-12-22T21:27:00.000-05:002012-12-22T21:27:00.139-05:00second termPoof! After clocking 33 days in the hospital, I'm back in bed in the living room. Whee. Everything went well (quite unlike the last attempt) and I'm doing just fine, so it's time to... Well, it's time to keep waiting a little while longer. Later - typing is a bit tricky at this angle.<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-5645124173647571712012-11-09T01:28:00.000-05:002012-11-09T01:29:16.211-05:00oh, pineHey! Quick just-went-to-the-doctor update: it's time for surgery again. Since the current proposed plan is the same surgery and recovery procedure with the same doctor, which *understatement alert* did not go particularly well the first time, I will be thoroughly second-opinioning this endeavor. Rather than speculating schedules, I'll leave it at that. Caution: further details may emerge without warning.<br />
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I don't have time to get into modular arithmetic, so I suppose that's all! Antonio: 98x9 = two fewer nines than 100 nines = 900-9-9 = 882.<br />
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PS: <i>Life of Pi</i> is about a dude and some wild animals in a boat. Don't get your math hopes up.<br />
the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-85557869513050821602012-09-17T19:48:00.000-04:002012-09-17T19:48:00.248-04:00personnefour years gone, and no amount of pretending has attenuated... anything<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5qxm6zNmW_XYtHbYjtTFdI-ga9bb9rNPvK0gO0_4qOTlMp3lAqzLR5EUjMOTO2Apt0ioj8Uq_xf9UWYkdFuHdGXZZ7H7w1dM2z-I2nWPvmTXgtd5SSWk7N4Zu3kuBODNOChb1mMDa3nE/s1600/t+j+plus+jarmstro+airport+to+japan+2003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5qxm6zNmW_XYtHbYjtTFdI-ga9bb9rNPvK0gO0_4qOTlMp3lAqzLR5EUjMOTO2Apt0ioj8Uq_xf9UWYkdFuHdGXZZ7H7w1dM2z-I2nWPvmTXgtd5SSWk7N4Zu3kuBODNOChb1mMDa3nE/s400/t+j+plus+jarmstro+airport+to+japan+2003.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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(yes, that's <a href="http://fukakai.blogspot.com">jarmstro</a> back there)<br />
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the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-77008000613508286692012-09-12T00:34:00.000-04:002012-09-12T00:34:00.693-04:0042to56Hey there! Just wanted to let you know the outcome of my trip to the doctor was toootally* different this time! Spoiler alert: footnote on that one = "not really at all." They acknowledged that my their-fault wound was 99% done; they hacked away at my other semi-new problem area; they told me to come back in 6-8 weeks. So we've gone from "come back in two months" to "come back in almost two months" - yay? It's good to know I'm sorta-kinda-almost healed, but this whole ordeal has been and continues to be extremely frustrating. jlink vs. the world and such. Ugh.<br />
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the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-89141594457146246602012-08-28T19:29:00.000-04:002012-08-28T19:29:00.915-04:00+1-1Hey there, chums! Arbitrary-length summer break is over, I suppose. Back to "work!"<br />
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First up, I've actually been sort of putting off updates in order to keep my Stephvertisement front and center. Show's over now, so we can move on. She did quite well, BTW - no luck on the $250k prize, but hey, 92.857142% [repeating, period 6] naïve likelihood for that. However, she did walk away with a vacation, a fat stack of cash, and plenty of dignity! Early in the competition she won a trip to Las Vegas through one of the contestants' games. Posh, eh? Then, when there were six people left, there was a "challenge" that [details omitted] offered them all various sums of money to walk out and let a previously-evicted contestant rejoin the competition. After quite a few fairly small values were offered, Steph finally opted to take the cash and leave... Pocketing $37,600! Cha-ching. Quite valuably as well, she pocketed all of her dignity - she left by her own volition, rather than being voted out; she never even "went into limbo" (essentially the show's equivalent of "almost voted out.") So, way to go on pretty much sweeping second place, Grand Master Steph.<br />
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Elsewhere, you're likely aware that my health has been the mayor of Bummerville lately. The update on that front is more of the same; my physical status is so slowly improving, there's little inspiration to hop on here and attempt to make the same "still sucks" post entertaining. As of a week or few ago, my main wound (the one they created by screwing up a suture in surgery, grrr) is fragile but healed. Yay for that. Unfortunately, when one thing gets better, another part gets worse. Now I have some mysterious, possibly-infected area near the previous wound. Ugh. I can't win.<br />
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I do have an appointment in a few days with the main doctor dealing with all this stuff, so we'll see how that goes. Expectations are not exactly in the clouds.<br />
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That's all for now. Gotta get back into writing mode - so many introverted thought blobs to be turned into extroverted word blobs! Such is the fun of it. l8r!<br />
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the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-34175294659598022542012-06-10T18:18:00.000-04:002012-06-10T19:04:52.822-04:00stephanoscopyHey there, hooligans! I'm boring, but this is not.<br />
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There's a particularly interesting reality show coming down the tubes in about a week. It's called "<a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-glass-house">The Glass House</a>," and it's a sort of Sims-like premise: a bunch of people live in a literally-transparent house, and you get to watch them live, interact and be rude to each other, reality-style. The Sims-esque trick is that "you," the viewers, get to dictate their every move, down to what they wear and eat, where they sleep, and who knows what else! Don't forget the vote-off-the-island part, with a twist... Sounds frightening to me, but hey, I'm not on it.<br />
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However, my sister-in-law and perpetual awe-inducer <a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-glass-house/bios/stephanie">Stephanie</a> is! She's taking some time off from her amazing life to go be amazing on national TV, in the run to pick up a comfy $250k. I haven't looked at everyone's videos and such yet, but compared to the other <strike>tools</strike> contestants, I'd say Steph is the appropriate balance of real-yet-surreal, and easily worth the recognition (and a heaping pile of cash.)<br />
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So, here's what to do. Right this second, go to <a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-glass-house">ABC's "The Glass House" page</a>, read up on and watch videos of all the participants, and choose your obvious favorite, Steph. Brush up on the show concept, rules, etc., as well. Then unclog your Twitter pipe and reactivate your Facebook account - wait, I'm the only one left who sucks at social networking? - because in a day or two you can start voting to micromanage everyone's lives. If you're ever wondering what you should choose, <a href="http://teamsteph.net">Steph's friends have a plan</a> for her behavior. Then, just watch the show at <b>9pm (central), Mondays on ABC</b> (starting June 18) and vote pro-Steph when prompted! Be sure to watch it live and participate real-time so your votes count. Sorry, DVR pals.<br />
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There you go. ABC, Mondays, 9pm CDT. Enjoy, tell everyone you know, and do everything you can to score the Steph some dollar bills and major fame!<br />
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(Oh no, did I just endorse a reality TV show? Yikes.)<br />the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6024148561556420993.post-37119048528740405412012-04-30T19:49:00.000-04:002012-04-30T21:37:32.592-04:00gaspillant<div><p>Two. More. Months.</p><p>That's the summary of today's doctor's appointment. Two more months trapped in bed before I see the man again. Two more months until getting back into the chair is even up for consideration. Two more months (minimum) with these stupid tubes and holes. Two more months of living in the living room.</p><p>So much for 2012. What a year to steal from me - it's been so abnormally warm, I could have gone out for exercise in March! Instead I'm here rotting away, watching it all go by. No new place, no new job; nothing.</p><p>Nothing.<br />
</p></div>the j linkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327356734556832691noreply@blogger.com1