Fractional Milestones

Cycled to the university for medical appointments. A medical student from Japan observed while I met with my oncologist. Received the third of four radioactive infusions. Remarkably, the tumor marker halved after each of the first two infusions, and I feel no side effects.

Categorized as Cancer

Japan Loose-Ends List

Posted Japan Loose-Ends List. Soon, our nephew and his dad will be backpacking with us in Japan. In this post I share a list of planning details that needed attention as we got closer to our travel date.

Family Drama

Tonight we’re about to watch Tokyo Story (1953), a classic of Japanese cinema.

Categorized as Arts

Japan Loose-Ends List

Here’s a list of planning details that needed attention as we got closer to traveling to Japan with our nephew and his dad.

A Cyclist’s Oasis

Even my phone overheated while cycling through Nordeast Minneapolis. Finding relief, I took a quick break in Surdyk’s walk-in beer cooler. A six-pack of Bauhaus Lounge Wizard in my backpack kept my back cool on the journey home.

Saving Lives, Saving Money

On my cycle ride, waved to and thanked needle exchange workers. The service costs about $20 per user per year. One syringe-infected AIDS patient requires over $120,000 per year in public health services. Six states ignore this reality and do not permit needle exchange programs.

Hydroponics 101

This week I’ve been prototyping systems for maintaining water levels while rooting plant cuttings. This morning I built a “production” system that includes a float valve connected to a water supply to top up the tank automatically.

Cognitive Itch*

Spotted an octopus’s garden on my cycle ride. My earworm for the rest of the ride was inevitable: I’d like to be\…\In an octopus’s garden\In the shade. (*Cognitive itch: the cause of an earworm.)

Categorized as Cycle

That’s Closed! No Ice Cream!

Today I had to teach about sentences starting with “That.” In preparation for the class I plugged a convoluted sentence into ChatGPT: although correct, it suggested not starting sentences with “That.” After all that I needed ice cream as a reward, but the store was closed.

Science Experiment: Siphonic Action

The problem: maintaining water levels for rooting cuttings while we’re away, traveling. The solution: siphonic action. The blue container represents a reservoir that will be topped up via a float valve. Prototype 1, here, has too many points of failure. Next up: straight runs from the reservoir.