The warm temps tomorrow will mix with the snow for textbook cross weather.
Shake down race at 12:30 tomorrow, age groupers, 45 to 99…. 114 of them lining up.
Friday is the masters 45 to 49 title race, I’ll be shocked if anyone can give Don Myrah a run for his money. The former Olympian and freshly minted Masters World Champion on top of his game.
Sunday January 12th will be the most fun, getting line up with the best guys in Country.
Kate is in a great zone, she has been free of retching and nausea for almost a week. She is happy and engaged, enjoyed her day at school, this is what she deserves.
Since I wrote the previous sentence on January 8th, Kate has been down and up and back down again. She is in a vague cycle that seems to trend on roughly a two week pattern where we see two weeks of good appetite, great disposition, active, energized play and good sleep at night. This is followed by a gradual decline of her general wellbeing, it starts trends like this:
When these symptoms subside we see a rapid return to her positive baseline in a two to three days:
Today we are enjoying the latter sequence, counting the good days since her last down turn in an effort to better understand her needs, prepare ourselves for the next shift in the pattern and to remember to enjoy the good days today. Kate deserves better, her sisters deserve better.
Foam, hot wire knife, spray adhesive, sewing machine and coffee… Robot costume in the making.
The following storyboards represent a workflow automation that combines business analysis with a display framework I designed and produced to be used by Vubiquity for internal software development. The deliverable is a set of html, css and javascript files that combine to create a consistent user experience across a disparate landscape of tasks associated with VIDEO / AUDIO encoding, decoding and distribution. The end product enable our employees to efficiently provide VIDEO / AUDIO distribution across a fiber and satellite network globally.
My job is to design the user experience for our employees and clients. The engineering team I work with is responsible for building to tools to be used to accomplish our business model. There are currently few if any off the shelf products that can help Vubiquity fulfill it’s business model. So we “roll our own”.
The “ATAT” application is a software program designed to automate the creation of artwork (movie posters) for international distribution. ATAT allows users to set rules about size and resolution for specific movie / tv show titles, to be sent out in multiple languages across international markets.
2014 Branding update in color and font for the “Boot Division” of Great Northern Cycles.
To be made into a sticker for ski boot application, also patches for clothing brand extension, shop employees
Green is the new blue.
+ Client feedback: shape decision and color update (hello Seattle Sounders)
Progress.
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/17/science_for_stoners_heres_how_pot_works/
Controlling the “learned” mental response or behavior is a foundational aspect of the seizure management mindset in western medicine. The scientific points made in the article line up with the accepted strategy to use pharmaceuticals as inhibitors to stave off what could become a “conditioned response” that develops a propensity to have seizures.
The thinking behind using inhibitors (*anticonvulsants like Keppra, Phenobarbital…) was described to Barb and I in simple terms, that the more a person has seizures, the more likely they are to have additional seizures, it becomes a learned behavior over time.
*Levetiracetam is an anticonvulsant medication used to treat epilepsy. It is the S-enantiomer of etiracetam, structurally similar to the prototypical nootropic drug piracetam. Levetiracetam is marketed under the trade name Keppra. Keppra is manufactured by UCB Pharmaceuticals Inc. Since November 2008 the drug has been available as a generic brand in the United States.
*Phenobarbital is a barbiturate, nonselective central nervous system depressant which is primarily used as a sedative hypnotic and also as an anticonvulsant in subhypnotic doses.
using epoxy as a design medium,…. who knew?
A lifetime of creating and experimenting with all sorts of mediums, paint, sculpture, furniture making, software design and development, I found out there is a term for short attention span + irrational “I can do that” confidence type people. They call themselves ‘Makers’, they have conferences and blogs and they get inspired by the oddest, most simple and wonderful things in life.
I like the way they think, I like what they do and I like what they bring out in each other.
In my typical, late to the party fashion, I am now a ‘published’ maker, with three projects, albite simple… recently posted to a maker forum. I have arrived home after all the years of doing and making stuff…I found my people.
http://sugru.com/gallery/customise-a-laptop-back.
http://sugru.com/gallery/improve-the-fit-of-loose-glasses
http://sugru.com/us/gallery/add-a-cable-extension
I love the concept and the people behind the Sugru product, it inspires and empowers, buy some and you’ll find a use for it.
The privilege to “borrow” a new mountain bike each summer for the last six years has been bittersweet. It’s time to turn over the best bike I have ridden in memory, to a new home.
Each bike has informed my opinion and appreciation of the others. The most recent summer fling with a 2013 Specialized Epic Expert Carbon 29 was best measured by the behavior of its predecessors. The suspension, brakes, and aftermarket carbon wheels combined to make it my favorite bike to date. This includes the early 90’s Ibis Mojo team bikes that have the benefit of a nostalgic perspective of younger days.
The 2013 Epic is a culmination of ten plus years of focused refinement. The well thought out, well tested frame is paired this year with the best group choices Specialized has made in the last four years. Shifting, braking and ‘Brain’ shock refinements made this my favorite bicycle ever, we were fast friends last fall after only a few miles of local single track.
I look forward to the 2014 Epic frame makeover, Specialized is taking some risks with changing a proven winner, risk is good. The rewards for their continued pursuit of increase performance benefit us all.
I applaud the engineers and accountants at Specialized for embracing the risk of change and look forward to making friends with a 2014 Epic, no matter how brief the ride.
The
Tennessee designer Ryan Myers has released Helveticards
http://helveticards.ryanmyers.me/
Barb and Kate returned from Seattle mid day on thursday July 4th. They had been at Children’s Hospital for a 24 hour EEG study that includes video.
Kate had been progressing down a path since her first vomiting episode on June 29th, the retching, sleeplessness and agitation increasing in frequency and severity to the point of her spending the entirety of Monday on the sofa crying or yelling at her big sisters.
Once they returned home, Kate was almost four pounds lighter and exhausted. She slept a lot over the next three days and her apatite gradually increased. Her general positive demeanor returned as she gained weight and slept. We are fortunate to have her back to her positive baseline well being, happy, energetic, loving.
We have enjoyed the relative stable two weeks since then with only intermittent retching and three to four anxiety points during the day. When she is not doing well, she feels nauseous and panics and needs her “bucket” feeling sure she is going to throw up. When she has these waves of nausea she stops whatever she is doing, playing, watching a movie, wakes up from sleeping and desperately needs her bucket. Occasionally she has an episode that includes shaking or shivering, and lip smacking, and she will communicate that she feels cold.
She typically retreats to the sofa or into our arms if we are close as the feelings subside. It’s heart breaking when she feels this way. She deserves a better quality of life.
We are taking a renewed approach to Neuro-development appointments at Seattle Children’s with a focus on her base line well being. We are targeting fewer conversations with surgeons and a greater familiarity with a “home base” pediatrician to understand the whole picture.
Kate is a wonderful little person, witty, thoughtful and loving, our goal is to empower the supporting medical community to help her make the most of who she is.
