Our Trip To See Fiona The Christmas Tree

We visited our Christmas Tree, Fiona over Memorial Day weekend. Fiona will return to us in December courtesy of Patrick and Laura of Forever Green Christmas Tree. They worked hard to help make this, our very first camping trip, a lot of fun!

 

 

 

Family!

Megan, Abigail and I at King Park on a beautiful day!

Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Done!

On Friday I finished 960 hours of fieldwork for my master’s degree in occupational therapy! The last step is to pass the board exam. If all goes well, I’ll have more letters after my name in August!

MP3 is Dead. Long Live MP3?

The patent just expired on the MP3 file format (did you know that MP3 wasn’t an open format??). The people that built it, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits is letting it go.

This article says “the German research body that owns the rights to MP3, has decided to no longer renew its patents on the technology–effectively killing the format for good.” I don’t think the format is “dead” but the long tail has certainly already begun. How often do you listen to MP3’s vs streamed audio content these days?

Can I borrow/rent your large tent?

The family is going camping at the end of May for the first time. We’re looking for something like a 10 man tent for the 3 of us. Not exactly glamping, but comfortable with our queen air mattress, crib, and clothes laid out.

Do you have one we could borrow or rent? Costco has one for $200 but we just don’t go camping that often, it’ll be sitting in our closet for years.

Hard Science Fiction

My very long time friend Travis has written his science fiction book series. Dive back into hard SF!

Tagline: Science fiction about antigravity, lunar colonization, open source software, genetically modified dogs, AI…and really really big guns.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tjic/powers-of-the-earth-sf-with-spaceships-dogs-and-bi

Survey about Sensory Processing and Sleep Quality Among Older Adults

Some friends of mine at San Jose State University are running a research project related to sensory processing and sleep quality. If you or someone you know are at least 60 years old and living in the United States, please consider participating by completing the survey below:

Sensory Processing and Sleep Quality Among Older Adults
The survey is anonymous and takes about 25-30 minutes to complete.

My First BOT2 and ETCH

Last week I administered some of my first assessments to a student as an OT intern. It went well!

It’s not about bathrooms

Seen in a school I am serving at:

It’s not about bathrooms… as it was never about the water fountains.

It’s All About The Journey

My friend Vickie just died. She’d often say with feeling in her voice, “It’s all about the journey!” Sometimes that was an excuse for why bad things happened, sometimes it was a joyous call to celebrate the universe we live in. She was right on both accounts.

Pancreatic cancer took her at age 51. Death is coming with increasing frequency. The first contemporary of mine to die was JTF when we were both in our 30’s. My dad has been telling me about my parents’ friends dying more often: the parents of my childhood friends, their bridge partners, neighbors. I am trying to describe the feeling I have regarding this and it is difficult. Right now it feels like a sad, dark void.