Can't sleep so I thought I would write. Looking over my Facebook feed my "Right Wing" friends are all making comments about a quote attributed to the President. Apparently he made the comment that he wasn't the same young Muslim Socialist he used to be. The left is basically saying "He was joking..Duh". The right for some reason seems to think that "no..he has finally admitted it and we were right all this time". My thought is - is it even relevant?
Let's take it one assertion at a time - Obama is Muslim. He said he isn't, no "records" show he is but the right believes it. But so what! One of the founding rights of the United States is Freedom of Religion. I am not a scholar on this particular topic but I do not remember reading anything that said you could not be a Muslim and the President. And hey, I get it - 12 years ago Muslim terrorists attacked the United States. But I think the key word in that statement isn't Muslim...it's terrorists! To lump all of the billions of Muslims into one group because of the actions of a minority would be the same as saying all Catholics are child molesters and all Christians are the same as the wackos from that church in Kansas that stage protests at the funerals of soldiers. One group inside your religion should not define your religion.
Second assertion, Obama is a Socialist. Once again, there is no proof to this except that the right continues to harp on it. And again I say, so what. I would argue that most Democrats believe at least a little bit in the tenets of Socialism. Obama seems to get the claim applied mostly, as far as I can tell, because of his health care initiative. Similar systems are in place around the world, and yet none of those governments are called Socialist. In fact, the most "Socialist" thing I have seen in the past 10 years was the government subsidies and bailout of the banking and auto industry that was started under Bush. That had all the earmarks of "state controlled business".
Monday, April 29, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Volunteering for Tennessee
So my lab and I had a meeting to discuss future plans a while back. Some will be staying at UAB for a while, some will be spinning off their own company, I was stuck. The lab as we currently know it is changing in the fall, but I am still a year away from my PhD. That severely limits my mobility and while I would love to stick with UAB through the end of my degree, it was beginning to look like that would not be an option. Our lab is fully funded through the end of September, but after that, no one is quite sure what will happen, but it does not look promising.
At the meeting a lifeline was offered to any who wanted it, and to everyone's surprise, I was the only one that bit. I volunteered to move to Tennessee. Seems we are starting a new lab at Tennessee Tech and while my role is not spelled out, I will pretty much be the head honcho there. It is really a great opportunity and we always knew we would probably be moving after my graduation anyway so this just moves it up a couple of years. I will be able to continue taking classes at Tennessee Tech, transfer the credit down to UAB and then finish up my dissertation research remotely and finish off the PhD.
The family will move up with me, though we are not sure if we want to live in Nashville or Knoxville. We have scheduled a weekend getaway to both cities to see which one we like more. Early money is on Nashville but that could change depending on how we like both cities.
At the meeting a lifeline was offered to any who wanted it, and to everyone's surprise, I was the only one that bit. I volunteered to move to Tennessee. Seems we are starting a new lab at Tennessee Tech and while my role is not spelled out, I will pretty much be the head honcho there. It is really a great opportunity and we always knew we would probably be moving after my graduation anyway so this just moves it up a couple of years. I will be able to continue taking classes at Tennessee Tech, transfer the credit down to UAB and then finish up my dissertation research remotely and finish off the PhD.
The family will move up with me, though we are not sure if we want to live in Nashville or Knoxville. We have scheduled a weekend getaway to both cities to see which one we like more. Early money is on Nashville but that could change depending on how we like both cities.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Up From the Ashes..
We are working on a military training project at work dealing with the training of Army Combat Medics. It is really interesting stuff, and more importantly for me, it was beginning to appear that this could actually be my research project for my PhD. Corey had even started to push me more into the administrative role in the project...things like pushing IRB approval through, monitoring the test results, that sort of thing.
The more I started looking into the project however, the more I began to realize it was not the best option. First, there is not a "control" group for the research, so we can not prove our training was particularly effective. Second, we have no way of communicating with the medics after they leave the lab to see if the training was helpful in any way. And finally, we had planned for 100 participants, and will end up with only 15-18, so we will not have any way of producing statistically relevant output. That means the wonderful papers we were supposed to write are instead going to be glorified white papers. So we will be able to explain what we did, and what we saw, but not enough to get me a PhD.
Anyway I discussed all of this with Corey this morning and over the course of the morning and afternoon we settled on a plan of action. Originally we were going to do a rather simple research project showing the effectiveness of Mixed Reality training simulations. Take 200-300 people, break them into a control group and a "Augmented training" group. The augmented group would have access to a VR training simulator that also stressed the participant. The goal of the experiment would be to have them come in a few days after training and seeing how they did and proving the Augmented training works.
I had a problem with this scenario though. Our main thrust of the research was that the stressors help improve learning aptitude and that would be lost in the VR training discussion. So, after trading ideas we changed our plan. We really have no doubt that training with VR improves your ability to learn. We are all about immersive training so we better feel that way. So in our newly revised plan, group A will get a "Field of Daises" VR simulation, group B will get a "total chaos" VR simulation. After a few days, we will test and see if our thought is correct - does learning under outside stress improve your ability to learn.
Should provide me with plenty of research material, it is meaningful for what we are doing, and actually is "doable". So here we go - Up From the Ashes, .Grow the Roses of Success
The more I started looking into the project however, the more I began to realize it was not the best option. First, there is not a "control" group for the research, so we can not prove our training was particularly effective. Second, we have no way of communicating with the medics after they leave the lab to see if the training was helpful in any way. And finally, we had planned for 100 participants, and will end up with only 15-18, so we will not have any way of producing statistically relevant output. That means the wonderful papers we were supposed to write are instead going to be glorified white papers. So we will be able to explain what we did, and what we saw, but not enough to get me a PhD.
Anyway I discussed all of this with Corey this morning and over the course of the morning and afternoon we settled on a plan of action. Originally we were going to do a rather simple research project showing the effectiveness of Mixed Reality training simulations. Take 200-300 people, break them into a control group and a "Augmented training" group. The augmented group would have access to a VR training simulator that also stressed the participant. The goal of the experiment would be to have them come in a few days after training and seeing how they did and proving the Augmented training works.
I had a problem with this scenario though. Our main thrust of the research was that the stressors help improve learning aptitude and that would be lost in the VR training discussion. So, after trading ideas we changed our plan. We really have no doubt that training with VR improves your ability to learn. We are all about immersive training so we better feel that way. So in our newly revised plan, group A will get a "Field of Daises" VR simulation, group B will get a "total chaos" VR simulation. After a few days, we will test and see if our thought is correct - does learning under outside stress improve your ability to learn.
Should provide me with plenty of research material, it is meaningful for what we are doing, and actually is "doable". So here we go - Up From the Ashes, .Grow the Roses of Success
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
That is just crazy talk
I really enjoy the show 'Castle'. I have always enjoyed Nathan Fillion as an actor dating back to his run as Caleb on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. That show deserves its own post but that will have to come later. For now we are talking about Castle.
The premise of Castle is pretty far fetched but it is lighthearted and a good diversion on a Monday night so it is tolerated. For those of you who do not watch the show Rick Castle (Fillion) is a mystery writer who, in the pilot, is suspected of murder because the crimes are very similar to his books. He helps the lead detective (Kate Beckett) solve the crime and then, in a twist everyone saw coming, strikes a deal with his buddy the mayor to get unlimited "ride along" privileges with the detectives. By applying his own logic to the crimes he is able to go from civilian nuisance to valued team member - all by solving the crimes the way he would write them given a chance.
So, I am up tonight watching a repeat of Castle when a conversation I had with Paula comes to mind. She seemed to think that I should write a book. I had a 10-15 laugh about that one. Lets be honest, any book I write would be a jumbled mess of nonsense. I have a head for trivia, and I am working on my degree..but that still has never stopped my brain from being a confused mess of random ideas.
But like every insidious idea that has ever been planted in my skull, this one, shuttled off to one side, has found some ground and threatens to grow into a crazy tree. I guess this means in addition to all of the other fun things I plan on doing with my time, I need to start figuring out what kind of book I want to write and mapping that out. While I trust my ability to write and I have a decent imagination, I would be lying if I said the thought of trying to write something did not scare me.
Here are the possible genres and my initial thoughts
Mystery
Pro: Lots of true crime to use as inspiration, make a good repeat character and you can do a series
Con: Have to come up with something no one has seen before or else you are derivative
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Pro: My personal favorite, I work in an area that could easily be considered Sci-Fi already
Con: Most fantasy is extremely derivative, have to come up with new Science AND a compelling story
Horror
Pro: Another favorite of mine
Con: I just don't think in the macabre mindset. Horror has really moved to the gory for gory sake in the last 10 years
Non-Fiction
Pro: Plenty of true life to talk about, both now and in history
Con: Lots of research and for most things all you can hope for is a rehash of someone elses story
The premise of Castle is pretty far fetched but it is lighthearted and a good diversion on a Monday night so it is tolerated. For those of you who do not watch the show Rick Castle (Fillion) is a mystery writer who, in the pilot, is suspected of murder because the crimes are very similar to his books. He helps the lead detective (Kate Beckett) solve the crime and then, in a twist everyone saw coming, strikes a deal with his buddy the mayor to get unlimited "ride along" privileges with the detectives. By applying his own logic to the crimes he is able to go from civilian nuisance to valued team member - all by solving the crimes the way he would write them given a chance.
So, I am up tonight watching a repeat of Castle when a conversation I had with Paula comes to mind. She seemed to think that I should write a book. I had a 10-15 laugh about that one. Lets be honest, any book I write would be a jumbled mess of nonsense. I have a head for trivia, and I am working on my degree..but that still has never stopped my brain from being a confused mess of random ideas.
But like every insidious idea that has ever been planted in my skull, this one, shuttled off to one side, has found some ground and threatens to grow into a crazy tree. I guess this means in addition to all of the other fun things I plan on doing with my time, I need to start figuring out what kind of book I want to write and mapping that out. While I trust my ability to write and I have a decent imagination, I would be lying if I said the thought of trying to write something did not scare me.
Here are the possible genres and my initial thoughts
Mystery
Pro: Lots of true crime to use as inspiration, make a good repeat character and you can do a series
Con: Have to come up with something no one has seen before or else you are derivative
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Pro: My personal favorite, I work in an area that could easily be considered Sci-Fi already
Con: Most fantasy is extremely derivative, have to come up with new Science AND a compelling story
Horror
Pro: Another favorite of mine
Con: I just don't think in the macabre mindset. Horror has really moved to the gory for gory sake in the last 10 years
Non-Fiction
Pro: Plenty of true life to talk about, both now and in history
Con: Lots of research and for most things all you can hope for is a rehash of someone elses story
Monday, April 1, 2013
Under the Knife
A few weeks ago (around March 14th or so) I woke up with a sore left shoulder. Not a big deal, figured I slept on it wrong and put some Icy Hot on it and off I went. Cut forward a few days and the shoulder still hurts. No biggie, just more of a pull then I thought. Finally cut to Tuesday the 19th. Went to drop Xander off at my parents house for Spring Break and my mom gets a little worried because the pain has dropped down from my shoulder into my upper arm and elbow. She seemed to think it could be something wrong with my heart and recommended seeing my doctor. Once again I shrugged it off. Paula wanted to take me to the ER but I told her all they would do is give me some pain medication and send me to my regular doctor. Yes I am good at ignoring all the warning signs, but I was also convinced it was just a really bad muscle pull.
Anyway I made a deal with Paula that if the shoulder was not better on Wednesday evening we could go to the doc-in-the-box at the bottom of our street and let them take a look at me. For the most part they ARE my regular doctor and I would rather pay them then an ER. I woke up Wednesday and yep, still sore so told Paula we would go after work. During work more symptoms popped up - numbness in the arm, pain in the elbow and wrist - so that now I was getting a little worried. We stopped at the doc and they had this little sign "Please tell us if you are experiencing chest pains, numbness in the arm or shoulder etc..." basically if you might die let us know so we can see you first. Paula made sure we told them. They brought me back and after running a few cursory tests...they sent me to the ER.
Since I work at UAB we can go to their emergency room much cheaper than at any other hospital in the area so off we went. We skipped dinner (big mistake as you will see), neither of us was hungry because of worry. Anyway we get to UAB's ER and check in about 7. We go through all the check in procedures, and are back in an exam room about 9:30. They run a few more tests, tell me they want chest X-Rays, an EKG and an MRI before moving forward. I turned to Paula and said "we should have eaten".
X-Rays
The X-Rays were basic enough, lots of film of my chest, arm, shoulder, neck, you name it. The only downside of the X-Rays were they guaranteed we would be there until at least midnight because there was a nice sign in the exam room clearly stating if you had to have X-Rays taken there was a 2 hour process involved in reading them.
EKG
I guess my biggest surprise of the tests was the EKG. I assumed they would wire you up and leave you that way for a while to check you out over a period of time. I mean how can they figure out an irregular heart beat unless they test for a while. But no. The test lasts 10 seconds - it took longer to wire me up. The nurse came in, hooked up the 5-10 wires necessary and counted to 10 then started disconnecting everything. Strangest thing I had ever been involved with.
MRI
This is the one I had been dreading. I am not a small person and unless it was an "Open MRI" I just was not sure how I would fit in the darn thing. Well apparently they had just expanded the width of the machine to fit in us larger individuals so I made out o.k. Of course the second problem with these tests is you are not allowed to move...which means as soon as they say that you start getting itches everywhere. The MRI tended to focus on my neck more than my chest so I was at least hopeful that this meant my heart tests went O.K. but it also meant another 2 hour wait for radiology to read them.
Side Note: Yes I do intend to try and get a copy of my MRI's so I can import them into our 3-D system. I am weird that way...plus I think that will be fun.
Final Verdict
Finally after all the tests and as 3-4 AM was fast approaching the doctor came in. The problem I was having was a bulging disk between my C6 and C7 vertebra pressing on my spinal column and particularly a nerve going down my arm to my elbow and wrist. The rest of the bad news was that since I had strength loss in the hand and was having some other issues with the arm both he, and the head of the department, were recommending surgery rather than just outpatient physical therapy. When two doctors tell you that you need surgery you go ahead and do it, so they went ahead and admitted me and scheduled the surgery for Thursday afternoon. This meant no food for me until after surgery so no chance to even get a snack or some breakfast. In addition, the hospital was full so I could not even get to a real room until after surgery. So Paula and I shared a gurney in the ER until about 8 when they moved us to another area of the ER. My family arrived some time around 11 or so and about 1 they moved me up to Pre-Op to check over everything.
The Surgery
The surgery was supposed to last about 3 hours - of which an hour was supposed to be prep and cleanup. The procedure is pretty straight forward, they remove the disk that is inflamed, cleaning out all the little bits and pieces, then they add some bone (sometimes from a graft, mine was actually from a cadaver) and a plate to help fuse the two vertebra together. I would lose some movement in my neck but the pros outweighed the cons. Interesting thing is that they go through the front of your neck rather than the back to avoid infections, but this leads to other issues. Namely the esophagus and having to ..well go through your whole neck to get to the problem. Apparently my surgery took 4 hours - by this time I had lost all sense of time so you could have told me it took 24 hours and I would not have been able to contradict you. The reason for the longer than expected surgery ties back to my size. The doctor apparently came out after 3 hours to reassure the family that everything was ok and it was not being delayed because of complications. His explanation was that my neck bones were bigger than most peoples backbones so the problem was just pure surface area.
Surgery finished and I spent most of the rest of Thursday and Friday morning in pain. I could not move without hurting and I definitely could not swallow. In fact it wasn't until Saturday or Sunday that I could eat more than broth. I am sure I lost a few pounds but not a diet plan I would recommend.
Recovery
The typical recovery time for the surgery is apparently 2 weeks home in bed and then after 4 weeks you start physical therapy. I doubt I will make it all two weeks - I am going stir crazy just sitting around the house. I am not as strong as I usually am and I still have some problems - swallowing is still a bit sore and for some reason my sciatica has been acting up almost like it is mad I took care of the other end of the spinal column rather than clearing HIS issues up. Add to that the fact that I am missing class in addition to work and you can say I am a little pecking to get back to work. I will probably take Monday and Tuesday off this week to make sure everything is good to go, then start back Wednesday. It is only 3 days early from the 2 week mandate and I don't think the doctor will have TOO big of a problem with it.
Anyway I made a deal with Paula that if the shoulder was not better on Wednesday evening we could go to the doc-in-the-box at the bottom of our street and let them take a look at me. For the most part they ARE my regular doctor and I would rather pay them then an ER. I woke up Wednesday and yep, still sore so told Paula we would go after work. During work more symptoms popped up - numbness in the arm, pain in the elbow and wrist - so that now I was getting a little worried. We stopped at the doc and they had this little sign "Please tell us if you are experiencing chest pains, numbness in the arm or shoulder etc..." basically if you might die let us know so we can see you first. Paula made sure we told them. They brought me back and after running a few cursory tests...they sent me to the ER.
Since I work at UAB we can go to their emergency room much cheaper than at any other hospital in the area so off we went. We skipped dinner (big mistake as you will see), neither of us was hungry because of worry. Anyway we get to UAB's ER and check in about 7. We go through all the check in procedures, and are back in an exam room about 9:30. They run a few more tests, tell me they want chest X-Rays, an EKG and an MRI before moving forward. I turned to Paula and said "we should have eaten".
X-Rays
The X-Rays were basic enough, lots of film of my chest, arm, shoulder, neck, you name it. The only downside of the X-Rays were they guaranteed we would be there until at least midnight because there was a nice sign in the exam room clearly stating if you had to have X-Rays taken there was a 2 hour process involved in reading them.
EKG
I guess my biggest surprise of the tests was the EKG. I assumed they would wire you up and leave you that way for a while to check you out over a period of time. I mean how can they figure out an irregular heart beat unless they test for a while. But no. The test lasts 10 seconds - it took longer to wire me up. The nurse came in, hooked up the 5-10 wires necessary and counted to 10 then started disconnecting everything. Strangest thing I had ever been involved with.
MRI
This is the one I had been dreading. I am not a small person and unless it was an "Open MRI" I just was not sure how I would fit in the darn thing. Well apparently they had just expanded the width of the machine to fit in us larger individuals so I made out o.k. Of course the second problem with these tests is you are not allowed to move...which means as soon as they say that you start getting itches everywhere. The MRI tended to focus on my neck more than my chest so I was at least hopeful that this meant my heart tests went O.K. but it also meant another 2 hour wait for radiology to read them.
Side Note: Yes I do intend to try and get a copy of my MRI's so I can import them into our 3-D system. I am weird that way...plus I think that will be fun.
Final Verdict
Finally after all the tests and as 3-4 AM was fast approaching the doctor came in. The problem I was having was a bulging disk between my C6 and C7 vertebra pressing on my spinal column and particularly a nerve going down my arm to my elbow and wrist. The rest of the bad news was that since I had strength loss in the hand and was having some other issues with the arm both he, and the head of the department, were recommending surgery rather than just outpatient physical therapy. When two doctors tell you that you need surgery you go ahead and do it, so they went ahead and admitted me and scheduled the surgery for Thursday afternoon. This meant no food for me until after surgery so no chance to even get a snack or some breakfast. In addition, the hospital was full so I could not even get to a real room until after surgery. So Paula and I shared a gurney in the ER until about 8 when they moved us to another area of the ER. My family arrived some time around 11 or so and about 1 they moved me up to Pre-Op to check over everything.
The Surgery
The surgery was supposed to last about 3 hours - of which an hour was supposed to be prep and cleanup. The procedure is pretty straight forward, they remove the disk that is inflamed, cleaning out all the little bits and pieces, then they add some bone (sometimes from a graft, mine was actually from a cadaver) and a plate to help fuse the two vertebra together. I would lose some movement in my neck but the pros outweighed the cons. Interesting thing is that they go through the front of your neck rather than the back to avoid infections, but this leads to other issues. Namely the esophagus and having to ..well go through your whole neck to get to the problem. Apparently my surgery took 4 hours - by this time I had lost all sense of time so you could have told me it took 24 hours and I would not have been able to contradict you. The reason for the longer than expected surgery ties back to my size. The doctor apparently came out after 3 hours to reassure the family that everything was ok and it was not being delayed because of complications. His explanation was that my neck bones were bigger than most peoples backbones so the problem was just pure surface area.
Surgery finished and I spent most of the rest of Thursday and Friday morning in pain. I could not move without hurting and I definitely could not swallow. In fact it wasn't until Saturday or Sunday that I could eat more than broth. I am sure I lost a few pounds but not a diet plan I would recommend.
Recovery
The typical recovery time for the surgery is apparently 2 weeks home in bed and then after 4 weeks you start physical therapy. I doubt I will make it all two weeks - I am going stir crazy just sitting around the house. I am not as strong as I usually am and I still have some problems - swallowing is still a bit sore and for some reason my sciatica has been acting up almost like it is mad I took care of the other end of the spinal column rather than clearing HIS issues up. Add to that the fact that I am missing class in addition to work and you can say I am a little pecking to get back to work. I will probably take Monday and Tuesday off this week to make sure everything is good to go, then start back Wednesday. It is only 3 days early from the 2 week mandate and I don't think the doctor will have TOO big of a problem with it.
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