Lee.org

Ben Cowden, who is an excellent kinetic artist and teacher friend of mine is looking for an apartment with his wife within biking distance of Mission Bay. Possible bonus points for sharing a private machine shop. Any leads, send to me or Ben.

BART is getting new trains. The prototype is travelling around the Bay Area. It isn’t perfect. If you’d like to help make it better, visit it in the next few weeks!

https://www.bart.gov/about/projects/cars

You can submit the online survey here.

I spoke with the guy running the event, (Adam? Aaron?) and his response to my first comment was, “That’s why I go to these things, sometimes I hear about important changes.”

Here are my comments:

The LED “destination” sign on the side of the train is currently behind tinted glass. If it was behind clear glass it would be much more visible. Glass makers can certainly make a glass window that is tinted up to a certain place.

————————————————–

Inside the train, one of the vertical handrails near the middle of the train has a collar with a sharp edge that should be curved smoothed over. Maybe this was just a problem with the demo car.

To find the sharp collar, find a single chair, look for the handrail that goes from the chair to the ceiling, look for the connector that goes between the chair and tube, look just above the connector for the collar.

————————————————–

On current trains, the audio “panic” warning (a recorded voice saying “Please stand clear of the doors. The doors are closing”) regularly comes on at the wrong time. The message often sounds while a large number of people are boarding a train. It is very unnerving to hear that message while a crowd is in the middle of boarding at a normal pace. I become worried that the conductor doesn’t see the boarding passengers and will close the door on us. Of course, that doesn’t happen but the purpose of the message isn’t being fulfilled and EVERYONE ignores the message.

Michael Moran at BART Customer Service explained to me that the message is triggered when the normal door dwell period has lapsed. Instead of this, the message should happen when the train operator commands it to.

————————————————–
I’m sure you’ve gotten this complaint thousands of times before I’m sure. From inside the train, 16th and 24th street station look the same. Passengers need to look very closely to be sure they are getting off at the right stop Here are some easy ways to fix it:

– The signs at track level that read “16th Street” and “24th Street” are literally hidden in shadow. If the sign was moved 3 feet closer to the center of the platform, they would be illuminated by the existing station lighting
– The track level signs could be replaced with illuminated signs like at Powell Station.
– The tunnels could be retiled with unique colors like at 12th and 19th Street stations (that’s expensive though)
– A long, narrow strip of unique art could be installed on the tunnel walls

Thanks!

I’ve been teaching weekend-long Arduino intensive classes with some friends for the last year or so. It’s gone amazingly well. We’ve got another class coming up April 26-27 at Tech Liminal in Oakland.

If you want a huge jump start, join us. Tell your nearly-dorky friend about the class too. As a teacher, I’ve got a $50 discount code to give you: arduteach888

Check it out at WorkshopWeekend.net

Cover your eyes, this is kinetic porn!

Squee!

http://507movements.com/

Megan and I saw the new Captain America movie with Michael K last night. Action Action ACTION! My two favorite moments:

• a super-baddie jumping on top of a speeding car and ripping the steering wheel off, much to the dismay of our heros driving the car
• A flying aircraft carrier slowly careening into a skyscraper… CCCccrRRUUUSSHHHRRAAAAAAAaaaAAACK!

My review: 2 1/2 hours of roller coaster ACTION!

I was a bit miffed that two promo codes Megan and I had gotten from buying stuff over Christmas on Fandango.com had expired. After looking at the original coupon again I now see the expiration date buried down at the bottom, but it feels pretty buried. Grrr. And I don’t know, I’ve got this feeling that the nature of a movie ticket, a fun non-necessity, shouldn’t have such harsh terms of use.

I wrote to them and their response was “tough noogies.” Screw them, I discovered another ticket-buying website: MovieTickets.com. They’ve got all the local theaters and their fees are a bit lower. I’m switching.

I’ve been using Aio Wireless for a few months now and I like it very much. Cell service is every bit as good as AT&T for 1/2 the cost.

Send me an email and I’ll refer you to Aio Wireless. We will both get $25 from AioWireless. Write to me at Lee at Lee dat org.

That bit of musical cheese poetry comes from facebook and Charlotte!

This fall I’ll be starting grad school, pursuing a Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy. This road began a few years ago when my dad, after seeing a newspaper article about the field of Radiation Therapy, suggested I consider it as a new career. The article said that the work was steady and the money good. As part of my road toward becoming a Radiation Therapy Tech, I volunteered in a hospital and figured out very quickly that Radiation Therapy is not for me! Maybe it’s for you. Read on and decide for yourself.

Let me tell you a story.

RTT (Radiation Therapy Technology) isn’t for me, but probably not for the reason you think. Most people think that the danger of the X-rays, or dealing with sick people is difficult. First, the X-rays aren’t an issue: the beam is so incredibly lethal that there are many interlocks to make sure you never get near it. And it’s not dealing with sick people, heck all the people you see are healthy enough to make it into an 8 week course of treatment shooting death rays at their head and stuff. Read on.

I spent a day volunteering in the Radiation Therapy department of a local hospital. I was in the middle of a 6 month volunteership in the Radiology department of the hospital (but that is a different story). In Radiation Therapy, I got to watch the tech and the nurse do their thing for about 5 hours. I saw them work with patients, operate giant death ray, and chat between one another.

The control room in the hospital’s basement is quiet except for the incessant “bip.. bip.. bip.. bip.. bip.. bip..” of the machine telling you the beam is on. You see, although everything is pretty straightforward, the solemnity and responsibility of firing a huge death ray straight into people’s vital organs (and hopefully missing the healthy bits) requires quite a bit of focus. One mistake could spell a gruesome death for a patient. The room looks like  one of those 1950’s science fiction movies where people in white coats operate Big Science machines, which is fascinating and all except that all those movie scenes lasted waaaay too long. This is no exception.

I’ll be frank, I found the job mind numbingly boring, non-interactive, and sad. What they did was quite simple:

1. bring the patient into the treatment room
2. strap them down
3. leave the room
4. watch the patient on a TV monitor while administering the treatment, finger hovering over the “stop death ray!” button
5. turn the dial every couple minutes to start a different treatment (a treatment which has been chosen by the prescribing doctor down the hall)
6. unstrap them
7. walk them out
8. repeat every 15 minutes for 30 years

The worst is what happened when I asked two folks that worked there about their work.

I chatted with the nurse and got her in a good mood. Then I asked if she liked working in Radiation Therapy and she said… well, here’s how the conversation went:
Lee: Do you love your job?
Nurse: [hesitation and then ] Well……
Lee: Do you like your job?
Nurse: [her shoulders fell a little]
Lee: Do you not hate your job? (I’m thinking “Oh my god, what if she doesn’t answer this third question, where the hell do we go from there?!”)
Nurse: Well… [she paused and then spoke slowly and with a bit of sadness] it’s sad when you see patients continue to come in and keep getting worse. And it’s especially bad when a patient stops coming in mid-way through treatment because… well, you know.

And that’s all she had to say about her job . . . . to a new volunteer! Yipe. :-(

I chatted up one of the Technologists and asked..
Lee: Do you like your job?
Tech: [pausing to give a thoughtful answer. Then he spoke clearly and slowly, looking me straight in the eye] It’s monotonous. It’s not enjoyable. It pays ok but… [and his voice trailed off. It was time to change the subject]

And that’s pretty much how the tech left it. Yow! This is not job satisfaction.

Your mileage may vary but this does not look like the career for me!

First, I love the idea that every OT has told me that they love their job. Following that, I love that OT salaries are high and unemployment is virtually nonexistent.

Here’s an article talking about OT salaries in 2012. Here’s the summary:

* Average salary for therapists in the first 5 years is $64k
* Average salary in the US is $71k
* Average salary in California is $88k (just about the highest, Alaska is $113k but hey, that’s Alaska)
* Men make on average $8k more (it’s unfair but hey)
* unemployment is extremely low
* Most common employment
25% primary and secondary schools $63k/year
17% Skilled Nursing Facilities $78k/year
8% clients’ homes, $80k/year

I just completed the last prerequisite class before entering my Occupational Therapy Master’s Program at San Jose State. I’m just a tiny bit proud that I got an “A” in this graduate-level class. The class had two sections; the other section was full of med school students.

Classes at San Jose State start August 25th and the program runs for about 24 months straight.