Jun 14 2013

Skyping With Hungary

Today my mom and I had an interesting Skype chat with some of our relatives in Hungary. My cousin had his father visiting his family and he thought that my mom (his father’s wife’s sister) would enjoy a brief video chat to say hi and find out how things are going in both countries.

While the chat itself got a bit frustrating, and at times hilarious, because neither my mom nor her brother-in-law could hear or understand each other very clearly, stuff like this still amazes me. My mom and I were video chatting with members of our family in a city 12,390 miles (19,940 km) away. On the other side of our planet. For free.

Sometimes technology can be a real hair-puller-outer, but today it was just marvelous.

Uncle Miki and cousin Gábor
Uncle Miki, cousin Gábor and his daughter Ági
Uncle Miki, cousin Gábor and his wife Kati

Jun 05 2013

Women In Science – Family Style

I attended the final in a series of six lectures on ethics in science at the Center for Ethics inside the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. This one was a bit more special than the others as my older brother’s ex-wife was one of the three speakers presenting, and I got to sit with my niece in the audience.

The three award-winning guest speakers were Lynne Friedmann, a science journalist and editor of ScienceWriters, Dr. Dorothy Sears, Associate Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the UCSD School of Medicine, and my sister-in-law, Christina Deckard, Senior Scientist at SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific. Each one spoke for a few minutes about the difficulties they faced in both educational as well as work-related environments, simply because they were female, giving humorous (yet serious) anecdotes and examples. Then they joined each other onstage for about half an hour, answering some exceptionally good questions from the audience.

The evening ended with two kinds of cake celebrating the 50th anniversary of marine biologist Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, which, published in 1962, is credited with kickstarting the environmental movement, and for being the inspiration of the six-part lecture at the Science Center. My niece and I made darn sure we each got a piece from both cakes.

About Silent Spring from Wikipedia: “Late in the 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of the American people. Although Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides, and it inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter.”

Entering Balboa Park
The backside of the Science Center
Entrance to the lecture room
Sign for the lecture room
Pre-presentation
Offices inside the Science Center
Lynne Friedmann
Christina Deckard
Dr. Dorothy Sears
Q&A portion of the evening
Answering great questions
UCSD TV recording the lecture
My niece, excited for cake
Not much left
Post-lecture view from the stage
Mandatory post-lecture mingling

May 31 2013

New Gmail Layout With Tabs

Gmail finally started rolling out an update that includes long-awaited tabs.

I’m sure a lot of the subscribers will be unhappy with the new design (which can be turned on or off at any time) but personally, I think it’s fantastic and will keep my gmail inbox a heck of a lot more organized.

The new layout, if available, can be turned on in “Configure Inbox” under the Settings gear. There you can check individual pre-assigned tabs to switch them on or off. Turning them all off takes you back to the original single inbox layout.

Assigning emails to tabs is as easy as dragging the message onto the tab header. And each header gets its own update notification number whenever new messages arrive. I just wish the Tabs that gmail already has would be editable, but I realize that they are connected to already assigned default categories.

There’s a “+” symbol at the far right of the tabs which allows you to add your own custom tabs, but that link is not yet working for me. I look forward to the day that it goes live.

I can see how some folks will get confused with all the Labels, Filters, Categories and now Tabs that Google uses in gmail, but for me, the more organizational tools I have, the happier I am.

This has completely changed my mood when viewing my gmail. It used to be a bit of a slog going through the long list of messages. Now, it’s a snap to peruse all my organized emails.

Old Gmail

Old Gmail’s long list

New Gmail with Tabs

New Gmail with Tabs

May 28 2013

Mami’s Medical Trifecta

Took my mom to three different medical appointments this morning, one on each floor of a three floor building up at Thornton Hospital.

The first was to see her primary care doctor for a regularly scheduled follow-up. That was on the second floor. Next was to get some blood drawn on the ground floor so they could check her potassium and vitamin D levels. Lastly, on the basement level, she picked up her repaired hearing aid.

Her world is much louder again now, but overall she’s doing fine.

Senior Medicine
Pre-appointment vitals
Waiting patient-ly
Discussing with doctor
Going for a blood draw
Picking up her hearing aid

May 24 2013

New Google Maps

I finally got welcomed into the new Google Maps a couple of days ago, but I didn’t get a chance to check it out until this evening.

First impression: pretty darn cool.

The maps are more detailed (even in the simple map view), getting info about stuff just by clicking on a street is amazing, there’s a carousel of images from interesting places within the map viewing area, the map updates as you click on certain locations, there are street view previews when you click on a street location, you can favorite locations, it will update traffic info in real time…it’s become a ton more useful and interactive.

The cool new 3D is not available yet, but once that rolls out it will be even more awesome.

This Apple fanboy is pretty excited by all the stuff Google is putting out or working on. It’s all Linux anyway.

Google Maps Welcome

May 22 2013

Tree Trimming: Phase One

Spent about an hour and a half with phase one of trimming a tree of ugly, dead branches in the front yard.

The reason for it being only phase one was because I filled up the yard waste bin. And I’ve got the cuts and scrapes to prove it. If only someone could invent some sort of hand-shaped covering that can be used for protection? Something that is form-fitting and can easily fit in a glove box.

Before and after

Before and after

May 16 2013

Planting Of The Poppies

Finally got around to planting the California Poppy seeds that I got from the San Diego Zoo when I visited during their annual Garden Fest…uh…festivities.

I had to wet a cotton ball and drop it into a clear plastic bag. Then the zoo horticulturist scooped up a few seeds and dropped them into the bag. She told me to wait until they started to germinate before planting them.

After a few days some of the seeds sprouted tiny stalks. I hope I didn’t wait too long to plant them because if they survive and grow, these should attract even more butterflies to the garden.

Bag o’ seeds
Germinating seedlings
Preparing the dirt
Planted seedlings

May 16 2013

Fourth And Final Session

Took my mom for what was probably her final physical therapy session with Celeste at Thornton Hospital. Her shoulder is almost back to normal and she’s off her pain meds so it only makes sense, especially since she can keep doing the stretching exercising at home.

We celebrated afterwards by going to The Cove (the cafeteria) and having coffees and splitting a glazed walnut roll.

The fact that Celeste wasn’t some big, ugly guy may make me miss these bi-weekly visits just a little.

Thornton lobby
PT waiting area
Relaxing first
Assessing motion range
Resistance exercise
The Cove
It’s a cafeteria
Snacking in the patio
Coffee and pastry

May 14 2013

Mami’s Third PT

Took my mom to her third physical therapy appointment with Celeste. The range of motion in my mom’s injured let arm is amazingly better since the first time she came in for an assessment.

Today’s session was simple and straightforward: relaxing, stretching, exercising and relaxing.

My mom was doing so well that Celeste told us that her next appointment may be her final one unless she re-injures her shoulder or the pain returns.

Just relax
Rubber band stretch
Range of motion
Sky-poking exercise

May 13 2013

Debbie And My Mom’s Ear

Delivered my mom to her appointment with Debbie, a hearing specialist. From the way Debbie listens and speaks you would never know that she herself has to wear two hearing aids.

She took my mom into a tiny, sound-proofed listening room where she sat on a kid’s chair in front of a kid’s table. (I asked Debbie about this afterwards and she told me they used to test small children and she just liked the furniture so she decided to keep them. I told her they made the room appear bigger.)

The tests showed that one of my mom’s hearing aids had a lose speaker inside which not only decreased the quality but also rattled around making anything auditory almost useless. That damaged hearing aid was left behind to be sent for repairs and the other one Debbie just made some minor adjustments to.

My mom can hear a bit better now. With one ear. Now I just have to say everything twice only about half the time instead of most of the time.

Perlman’s at Thornton
On the bottom floor
Head and Neck Surgery
Waiting room
Super shiny hardwood floors
Debbie at her station
Hearing testing machine
The listening room
Hearing aid adjusting

May 09 2013

My Mom’s Second PT Session

Took my mom for her second physical therapy session with Celeste. Her range of motion has definitely improved since her last appointment.

My mom’s not doing badly either.

The exercises seem to be doing their job really well and increasing her flexibility.

Again, my mom’s not doing badly either.

Back at Thornton
Thornton entrance
Checking in
Lying in wait
Casual stretching
My view

May 07 2013

Mami’s First Official PT Session

Took my mom to her first official physical therapy session with Celeste this morning. She had my mom do some mild stretching to measure her maximum arm rotations and then she had her do some shoulder exercises, a couple using a cane as a prop. She seems already to have improved since the first assessment session last week.

Next appointment: Thursday. For me there will be a much needed Disneyland trip in between.

Thornton lobby
Checking in
Mood curtain
Celeste at work

May 05 2013

Having Seen Iron Man 3

After hurrying back the night before on very late a train from Los Angeles (arriving back in San Diego around 1:00 am), I awoke early in the morning to drive down to Chula Vista to watch a matinee of the number one movie in the world, the recently released “Iron Man 3” with my best buds, Sylvia y Rodrigo.

And after having to sit through a full twenty+ minutes of truly bothersome advertisements and commercials, along with a batch of hyper-violent previews of upcoming movies (which normally I don’t mind, even enjoy, but today seem to just annoy me), we finally got to sit back in some really comfortable, partially reclining chairs and enjoy 130 minutes of another exciting installment of one of our favorite movie franchises of all time. Unfortunately I had to pee for most of the movie (since right when Tony’s house gets blasted into the ocean…which is made up of a lot of water), thanks in part to the movie starting almost half an hour after the posted start time. Stupid ads.

There were so many cool moments in this film, and quite a bit of humor. And I appreciated that they placed so much focus on the vulnerable, damaged side of Tony Stark. One does not defeat aliens in New York and save the planet along side mutants and gods without having some emotional and psychological side effects.

And without giving anything away, I absolutely LOVED how they handled the Mandarin character. Brilliant, unexpected stuff! Ben Kingsley’s performance stole the movie for me.

All this gushing aside, I still like the very first movie the best, mainly because it was a simple, believable storyline with some great character acting. This installment, while really cool and as visually amazing as expected, became somewhat convoluted with so many plot points and side characters that it got to be a bit exhausting. The humor helped a lot with that, though. Don Cheadle was as good and stalwart as ever. Gwyneth Paltrow was more than just eye-candy, and she handled her much-extended role very well, including all the action scenes.

And I missed Agent Coulson.

Would I watch it again? Absolutely! I honestly enjoyed it. Will I buy the DVD when it’s released? Just try and stop me.

We celebrated afterwards with some…shock…Mexican food. While Rodrigo and I enjoyed our beef tacos, Sylvia was not very happy with her over-vegetablized beef burrito.

Yet another good day with great friends.

AMC at Plaza Bonita
AMC inside Plaza Bonita
Inside the AMC theater
Beef tacos to celebrate

May 03 2013

PT With Nicole

Took my mom for her first ever physical therapy appointment today. She had recently strained her left shoulder and her primary care doctor thought it might be a good idea.

Spent a productive and reassuring half an hour with RPT Nicole, first answering many questions and then assessing the problem. After having my mom try to move her arm in many different ways Nicole diagnosed her as having some damage to her rotator cuff. Nothing too serious.

Nicole had her do some simple stretches and exercises which she will have to continue to do at home combined with twice-a-week visits back at the therapist’s office for the next month.

Next week she goes back to see one of the cute therapists. I may take her…just to make sure she’s ok, of course.

UCSD’s Thornton Hospital
Physical Therapy Department
Inside the play room
Shoulder blade squeeze

May 02 2013

My #Wooden @Anniversary

Today marks the 5th anniversary of me signing up on Twitter.  After 1,585 tweets, having 93 followers (almost all of them legit) and me following 130 others, I readily admit that I have never truly used Twitter to its full potential. I’ve had some impressive (to me) people reply/favorite some of my tweets, or even follow me, but generally I don’t get much interaction from it. Between Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Flickr, 500px, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Foodspotting, and this blog, something inevitably will get ignored and pushed to the back of the queue, and once in a while that is Twitter. Usually it’s what gives me the least amount of engagement for the time invested.

What was my first tweet you ask?

“Wondering why I didn’t cave into twittering before now.”

(Back then I felt silly saying “tweets” and “tweeting”. I’ve since become more comfortable with it.)

So here’s to many upcoming years of fun and productive “twittering”!

TwBirthday 05-03-13 lo-res

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