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The Events that are: My Life

Things that go on in my life that cannot be catagorized somewhere else, sort of a catch-all

CSO Goes to the Movies – Trek: The Concert

One of the great things about going to the Colorado School of Mines is that we get $5 tickets to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Which, if I can manage to get a good seat, is a 93% discount. CSO posted their 08/09 schedule over the summer and I took a gander at. One concert immediately caught my attention: Trek: The Concert. I put it on my schedule at least four months ago and this last weekend the moment finally came!

I headed down to the Denver Performing Arts Complex and met Smiley and his girlfriend there. We got front row seats and proceeded to enjoy the music of Alexander Courage, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Leonard Rosenman, Cliff Eidelman, and Dennis McCarthy.

Between each piece, John de Lancie (Q) and Marina Sirtis Robert Picardo (The Doctor) delivered comedic anecdotes about Star Trek and lore thereof.

I hung around for a while afterward, hoping to catch a glimpse and maybe even a photograph or autograph of de Lancie or Picardo. However, surmise they took the back exit.

I did manage to get my picture taken with some Klingons though!
IMG_0297

Starting Physical Therapy

I started physical therapy for my hand yesterday. I’ll be going twice a week for four weeks. I’m working with Jamie who is a wonderful physical therapist at Select Physical Therapy. She’s not entirely sure what the problem is, but she’s going to treat it as a radial nerve problem and that seems to be working. My hand felt better after Monday’s PT, so I look forward to tomorrow’s session. She also gave me a couple of exercises to complete at home, so I’m doing those as well.

Henry Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body:

Caption: Back of right upper extremity, showing surface markings for bones and nerves.


Caption: Front of right upper extremity, showing surface markings for bones, arteries, and nerves.

Lost, Angry, Confused, Helpless, Hopeless

From www.caringbridge.org:

Thursday, October 30

Scans yesterday revealed that the cancer in Ben has aggressively progressed since the end of July. There are four new tumors – three on his brain and one on his liver.

We will be starting full brain radiation tomorrow at UW Hospital. They will do this for two weeks – in the hopes of reducing the swelling in Ben’s brain and slowing the cancer from metastasizing to his other organs. In two weeks they will scan him again and from there we will make some very difficult decisions.

We are lost and in complete despair. At this time we ask that you please respect our privacy. We will not be taking visitors. Thank you.

Jeff and Carin

Lost, angry, confused, helpless, hopeless. Just some of what I’m feeling. I really don’t know where to begin.

1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
2O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.

-Psalm 22:1-2

For a long time, I’ve dreaded the though of seeing a post:

“Ben passed away last night…”

This isn’t that post. In some ways, though, I think it’s worse. I don’t think people are afraid of death, people are afraid of dying…the process of death. The process is what haunts us. If we just went to bed one night and the next morning we woke up in heaven, I think everyone would be pretty happy with that. So to see a post like this, that is what makes me sad. Ben is dying.

How can I keep putting off the what is surely the inevitable? I’m having to reject every ounce of logic in my being just to hold out hope for Ben.

What do I pray for now? A miraculous healing? A merciful and peaceful passing?

What do I do?

Post script: The world seems very small now. Politics. War. Homework. School. Halloween. They don’t seem relevant now. For God’s sake, a child is dying! How can anything else matter?

Numb Hand

This post is for those of you who in the medical field, know someone in the medical field, or enjoy the medical field (even if you aren’t in it).

Starting last Friday (about 6 days now), the back of my left hand has been numb. The feeling is markedly different than if I had hit my funny bone. I would not describe the feeling as a tingling or pin pricking. It is similar in feeling to when the dermis is numbed with Emla Cream. There is little or no pain associated with it and there was no history to indicate why this might happen. The only other symptom is an on-again/off-again pain in my elbow.

I had a similar experience with the same hand over the summer, so this is the second time this has happened. In my previous experience, it resolved it self in a few days.

Taking ibuprofen has not had any discernable effect.

The area highlighted within the red region are where I notice the numbness. The area highlighted within the yellow region is where it feels the most numb.

Source: Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918. The mucous sheaths of the tendons on the back of the wrist.
Click image to embiggen.

I’ve been to the health center to see a doctor. She has no idea what it could be and recommend that I go see a neurologist. I was somehow able to setup an appointment to see a neurologist tomorrow, so that’s what I’ll be doing in the morning.

My Kind of Town, Chicago Is

Chicago1 was awesome. I drove out with my Uncle Kit on Thursday and we got in Friday night. The was pretty much uneventful, lots and lots of flat land. We did stop by the Mississippi and take a picture!

We spent most of Saturday working on building a bookshelf, with a side trip to buy a $102 extension cord. The extension cord was actually only $7, the pet rabbit and cage was $95.

We went into Chicago proper on Sunday. I saw The Bean (aka Cloud Gate) and we stopped at Wired’s NextFest. Giordano’s World Famous Stuffed Pizza for lunch. We made a quick stop at the Museum of Contemporary Art before heading back.

On Monday, I rode the L the airport (took about two hours :-/). Not entirely sure where I’m going, I walked over to a United Departure screen and looked to see what gate my flight was departing from: Gate B17.

I go to the ticket kiosk and get my ticket, which says gate C25. So, thinking that the gate was updated, I went to gate C25. I get there and the gates been changed, predictably. So I check the monitor again: Gate B17. So I walk over towards gate B17. I get to about Gate B10 when I realize that I’m an idiot! I’m not flying to Seattle, which is what Gate B17 was for, I’m flying to Denver! So I go back to the monitor and the flight to Denver is at Gate B22; disaster averted.

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Nikkor @ 18mm || 1/4000 || f/3.5 || ISO200

See more photos: My Kind of Town (Chicago)

1 When I say Chicago, I actually mean Chicago and Evanston

BURL Source Code

In a former life, I wrote a small program that created shorter URLs, it was called BURL: A Better URL. It was very much like TinyURL or any other URL shortening service, except that I wrote it. It was a proof-of-concept URL shortening SaaS that attempted to provide more context to the link by embedding the registered domain name in the shortened URL. It lived a short life before spammers found it and I had to shut it down.

The source code was released under a GNU GPL license, however I never reposted it after I took the site down. I received an email today wondering if I would share the BURL code (the answer being, “Of course!”).

Long story short, here is the long lost BURL source code:

There’s an included readme file, but setup is really simple. There are two files (index.html and rpc.php). Put them both in a folder. Create the mySQL database (details are in the readme file) and setup your .htaccess file (again, details are in the readme file).

I would like to strong point out that this is code that I wrote 3 years ago. I would have been 19 at the time. I would like to think that my programming ability has matured since then.

Otherwise, enjoy!

The Windy City

Fall break is in a few days I’m taking off to visit Chicago. Well, actually Evanston, “an affluent suburban Chicago municipality on Lake Michigan on the North Shore in Cook County, Illinois directly north of the City of Chicago.”

My good friend, and fellow Miner, Ben and his girlfriend, Kim, have taken up residence there as Ben earns his Ph.D at Northwestern University.

What does this mean for you? Absolutely nothing.

For me, though, it will be a welcome reprieve from the life of a college student in a town where the stops lights change to flashing yellow at 9pm (no joke).

Any suggestions on what to see or do while I’m in the Windy City?

Please Vote


I hate politics. I honestly don’t care that much for either of the candidates and really wish that we didn’t have a two party system. However, that’s what we have and so I’ll make the best of it.

Making the best of it, though, doesn’t mean “not voting.” Just because I don’t favor either main candidate doesn’t mean I won’t be voting. No. I will be voting. I always vote (via absentee) in every election.

I consider it my duty and I’m honored that I have the opportunity to vote. And I hope that everyone who reads my site feels similarly. If you don’t, I’m pleading with you to please vote this election. I honestly don’t care who you vote for as long as you just vote!

If you’re not registered to vote, I’m begging you to please register to vote1. There are a number places you can being the registration process, including Rock The Vote. However, you must start now. Many voter registration deadlines are this Saturday! That’s only a few days away!

Otherwise, get your #2 pencilsBic pens ready for November 4th.

1 With the assumption that you’re over 18, a citizen of the United States, and have not had your voting rights revoked.