Surgery went well today, so far as we can tell.

In summary, I highly recommended:

* New England Surgicare.
* Dr. Andrew Chapman

I do not recommend needing surgery … but if you gotta … this is the way to fly.

I was “NPO” (nothing by mouth) starting at midnight last night. The only cause for concern there was my raging coffee addiction … which usually smacks me with a savage headache around 11am. However, redmed enforced a “nothing means nothing” policy with the wily gambit of “you should call your doctor and ask.” Pride won out over fear, and I went without.

We got to New England Surgicare around 8:30, and I was processed with speed, efficiency, and respect. It was stunningly good. Seriously, I would recommend that facility to anyone, for any-thing. For all that we all hate the medical establishment and all its incompetent glory … I figure it’s important to give a shout out to a place that got it right.

* Everyone was friendly, yet professional … down to the nice lady who shaved my knee.
* The staff knew what was going on with me. Every point in the chain was a personal handoff – “this is Dr. such-and-so. He’ll be your anesthesiologist today. See you in there!”

* Crap ran on time. My surgery was scheduled for 10am, and I think I lay down on the bed at about 10:03.

* Word had been passed to the recovery room about my coffee fixation – and coffee was available when I regained consciousness. Seriously. I had made some quip about the coffee thing at some point during intake … and they remembered.

* The nurse in charge of such things asked if I had kids. When I said ‘no,’ she said ‘okay, no need for a sympathy crutch then.’ Like, how nice is that? The idea that yeah, of course the kids will want a crutch if dad’s using them.

Brief digression to note that redmed apparently knows every anesthesiologist in Boston. ‘Don’t I know you?’ he said while they were shaking hands. Yeah. They’re all one big happy family.

So yeah, I stripped down and donned the gown. They gave me a nice recliner to sit in while they shaved my knee. The surgeon came in and reviewed the consent form and then wrote on my surgical knee to verify that we were all talking about the same limb. The anesthesia doc went over anesthesia. They walked me back into the room, and we’re all chatting and laughing. They helped me out of the “front” gown, leaving only the “back” one. I lay down on the bed, and the anesthesiologist started the medication. I remember putting on the oxygen mask.

Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a curtained off corner of a recovery room, leaned back in a recliner. I had the “front” gown back on. My leg is wrapped and bundled. All is well. They brought first water and crackers, and then Jen and coffee …

… and a rose …

Apparently all patients at this place receive a rose when they wake up. Gotta tell you – it’s a nice touch.

Anyway: Gory details – I got the “trim” rather than the “repair.” There were flaps hanging out into the joint, and rough edges all around. I have pictures of the “before” and “after.” This means that I have less meniscus cushioning in my knee … but also that I get the “short” recovery. Basically, I’m on crutches through the weekend “as needed for pain.” They want me moving as soon as possible to encourage the joint to stay loose.

Pain is totally manageable. While I have access to The Good Stuff, I actually have no inclination to use it. Frankly, it hurts less than when I injured it. I tweak my back worse than this on a regular basis. Given that – I see no reason to screw with (a) addiction (b) tolerance (c) constipation.

And with that, I plan to return to my comfy seat in front of the TV.

I copied this off the wall of the dojo the other night. As I’ve re-read it a few times and shared it with a few people, I find it more and more valuable and accurate – in contexts not necessarily limited to the martial arts.

I particularly like the bit about “when training – if you are strong, resist the urge to rely upon your strength.” I think that some of the hurdles I’ve hit in the past few years are because I’ve hit the limits of where I can get by with “strength” alone (whatever that means in a professional or personal context) … and now I need technique.

While a key element in the success of grapplers in real fights is their exposure to the pressure of constantly subduing and defeating a live opponent in training, this does not mean that training should consist of all-out grudge matches in which the sole aim is to make your opponent submit. The spirit in which you approach training is crucial to your progress. Rather than focusing only upon defeating the person in front of you, try hard to apply technique in a skillful, relaxed manner. If raw power and strength is the only means by which you prevail, something is wrong.

If you are strong, try hard to resist the temptation to rely upon your strength. Aim to utilize the technique in the most precise manner possible. Do not stick with the same moves. Rather, try to use new ones. Even if it means failing in the beginning. Training is for experimentation and learning, not win-at-all-costs. Let yourself be put in disadvantageous position so that you can familiarize yourself with them and work on your ability to escape. Operate with a feeling of finesse rather than brute power.

No one enjoys being forced to submit while sparring. However, you must accept this as part of training. The truth is, you will learn far more during the sessions where you are forced to tap out than those where you force others to tap out. Failure forces us into self analysis. From this self-analysis we learn what we did wrong. We question ourselves and think about how we might improve. By forcing us to think hard about our game and its weaknesses, the failure of today will lead to the success of tomorrow. Victory, on the other hand, teaches us little.

Accept the idea that you will regularly be forced to submit in training, especially when trying new techniques. Do not let it concern you. Focus instead upon progress, of which setbacks and failure are an essential part.

My colleague cariaso is in Thailand for a few months, teaching computer skills to refugee and impoverished children. He shared his final exam with me – and I was struck by the first question:

1. What is a harpsichord?

Keep in mind, we’re on the Thai / Burmese border. These kids have some English … but certainly not ‘harpsichord’ level English … and this is a final exam. So what is the point? The point is that it would be stone cold impossible to study for this exam in any traditional sense … but if he’s done his job, then this and other basic definition level questions are beyond trivial. What he’s testing, after several months of exploring the internet with these kids, is whether the core idea of the information age has stuck in their heads.

As The Matrix put it:

“Can you fly that thing?”

“Not yet.”

He proceeded to a couple of others. One of my favorites was “What city is this? (link to a google maps location)”.

Finally, at the end, there were the basic office skills questions I was sort of expecting to see up front. “Make a google document with this information, and share it with me.”

I think that we may finally be living in the future, when refugee kids halfway around the world no longer have to say “I don’t know,” but instead, “let me google that.”

Saw Watchmen this evening. I thought it was a really good flick, with caveats:

If you have not read the book, you probably shouldn’t see the movie. It’s a baffling story at the best of times … and it requires time to percolate. One of the great things about the book is how it forces the reader to back up, re-investigate things in earlier chapters, and generally sit with it for a bit. Since that’s impossible in a movie’s inexorable forward march – you really need to do that work ahead of time.

Further, if you did not like the book, you will probably hate the movie. It’s a very faithful screen adaptation, in which they only did away with pieces that would have taken another whole movie to fit in. The end product – a long-ass (remember the row about Dances With Wolves and how it was three hours long?) and beautiful tribute to the book.

I had a good time. It was loud and long and sexy and violent. BOOM.

Productive day today. Started off by heading to Judo. It’s a special week for Phoenix Judo because we have visitors. A group of players from Lebanon are in town all week, and we’re hosting. Of particular note is Rudy Hachache, who represented Lebanon in Beijing last year.

So yeah, I rolled with an olympic judo player, and yet I live. 100+ kilos is large, and he’s light on his feet and very quick. Fortunately, he’s also able to scale it back so as not to kill n00bs like me.

Came home and brewed a clone of Bass Ale. Hopefully it’ll be ready for art weekend.

And now – off to an evening of revelry! Huzzah!

Half of the 2008 vintage is now complete. Fermented, bottled, corked, labelled, and shelved. Presented here are the 6 “vintners reserve” bottles from the “Yes We Can” New Zealand Gewurztraminer. I produced a total of 29 bottles, which are now happily in the storage closet. Here’s hoping that they don’t blow out their corks and make everything all sticky:

These reserve series (distinguished with my sharpie markings) will be consumed one per year, starting about a year from now. With any luck I’ll have an inauguration party centered around #4.

Here’s a picture of the previous efforts, including the 2006 “Ivory Tower” and “Gemito Liberale”, and the 2007
“Explosive Decompression” and “You’ll just screw it up”.

I intend to start the 2008 red this evening, or perhaps tomorrow. So far the only inspiration for a name is “Commies!” though I expect to do better than that in the next few weeks.

Here’s a Press release from one of the projects that I support.

The NASA Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), using its active lidar system, traced vertically through the layers of the atmosphere to find that the Australian bushfire smoke was lofting, or rising, to an astonishing 12 miles, an unusually high altitude that penetrates the lower part of the stratosphere.

It’s stuff like this that makes the travel and hours spent in grey and noisy computer rooms worthwhile. We can see smoke – FROM SPACE.

Focus on the Family recently aired an episode on “the new atheism“. After catching it on the radio while driving across Virginia, I decided to write a letter to them, and wound up thinking about it perhaps a bit more than I should have.

Here it is, in PDF format

I notice that I haven’t been posting all that much lately. What can I say? February tends to emphasize to me that life is short … a short month full of short days … so I spent more time doing rather than documenting.

Caught up at home this weekend, and it’s been really nice. I was in Texas two weeks ago, and Virginia last week. Got down to see my dad at the farm for a day, and then played with my petabyte scale storage. When I got off the plane in Boston around 9pm on Friday, I was greeting by a grinning car filled with redmed, technolope, and capital_l. The stated plan, unless I had a problem with it, was to go back to our apartment, drink wine, and play video games. We wound up sitting up until stupid:30 watching the fight scenes from several Jason Statham movies.

In the morning, it was off to breakfast for them, and off to Judo for me. I managed to work in with the Texas A&M judo team when I was there, and went back to Hybrid last week. Both places are great … but nothing beats the home dojo.

I also bottled 29 bottles of the 2008 white wine. This one came from a kit, and I think that I managed to get all the CO2 out of solution, by dint of a special adaptor on a power drill. Name suggestions for this vintage are solicited … though redmed requests that they be “positive,” since we’re trying to mitigate our tendency to rip on ourselves over here. The specific example is the 2007 “You’ll Just Screw it Up”. I’m considering “Yes We Can” and “Upper Middle Class, White”. Early reports indicate that it’s quite good, and needs some time to sit in the bottle.

The day proceeded, and wound up at the bar with simianpower, Len, and the wondertwins from Friday.

Today was consumed with laundry, bills, listening to old-school Kid Rock and Emminem, and bottling 50 bottles of American Ale. Yes, indeedy, we’re preparing for art weekend. You ready, ect?

Now: Back to finishing my letter to Dr. Dobson, of Focus on the Family. I listened to one of his shows and God Damn if I don’t have the urge to write the man a letter!

I’m having a good day.

For one thing, the weather is (within reasonable error bars) PERFECT. Mid 60’s, bright sun.

For another, I led a 3 hour technical meeting today that stayed on task and produced good insight without losing the humorous, fun edge that makes such things bearable. We took a single coffee break when a series of insanely geeky puns went on for a bit too long.

Now I’m logged into a system with 32 cores and 512GB of RAM.

Tonight, I plan to go to yoga and see if my knee can handle it. If not, I can always cut right to an extended savasana.