Today is my last day of classes this quarter. However, my first class was canceled and the second happens to coincide with my Dad’s retirement party. As this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, I don’t mind missing it just once.
In other news, Joel and I just spent the last hour or so on a crazy run up to about 4 million acres in Warbook. It was a lot of work, and very intense. I can see how people get addicted to this game. As if I didn’t already know…
Silverfir.net is experiencing data integrity issues; I think some hard drives are dying.
UPDATE: Things are looking pretty bad. I expect there will be some major downtime in the near future — perhaps a week from now.
UPDATE 2: Thanks to some timely work by Dan, the system appears to be stable again. It is possible this was all just a soft error of some sort — not sure on that though. Its still always a good idea to look into ways of backing up your stuff. We [Dan and I] may get something in place soon, but don’t count on us to protect any valuable data you might have.
For a long while I have passively wondered how to use access keys in Firefox. Today, I finally used Google to learn, via Juicy Studio, that to use an access key, you must press Shift-Alt-Key.
Something to add to the useful information file.
Today was a very good day for my knee overall, so I thought I would write about it to help keep my spirits up and stay dedicated to the still long road of recovery ahead.
Despite it being a good day, it did not start well. My knee was achy despite icing last night, and I thought it would be a bad day for the knee. Nevertheless, after my first class, I made my way to the IMA wher eI started my physical therapy exercise routine. After biking 15 minutes, my knee has loosened up considerably; next came the leg curls. My right hamstrings have regained considerable strength — I was able to curl sets of ten starting at 40 lbs and moving up by five pound increments to 65 lbs, which is where I stalled. I can still do more with my left leg, but the disparity is nowhere near where it used to be. Furthermore, I am not pain-limited in the leg curl exercise, so I feel I can build up strength as quickly as I can continue to push my limits there.
My quadriceps development, on the other hand, is pain-limited, and is therefore a much slower prospect. Although I was sure it wasn’t going to go well when I went to do my leg presses, I decided I would try anyway. I concentrated on my technique and although it wasn’t comfortable, I was able to control the pain and get through two sets. Afterwards, surprisingly, my knee felt better than before, not worse as it usually does. It was my first glimmer of hope in a while that I may be finally turning the corner on this knee swelling issue — nevertheless, I will continue to medicate and ice until I am sure it is behind me. After all, I only have two month and six days until I need to be back playing frisbee!
This just out in the Microvision Employee Newsletter, “Birthdays and Anniversaries” Section.
| March Anniversary | |
| Ryan McElroy – 4 years | |
It has been an interesting, challenging, and fun four years. I have learned a ton, had lots of great opportunities, and worked with a lot of great people.
If I recall correctly (and looking though my archives, it appears that I do recall correctly), my fifth year begins on the Ides of March.
Well, as it turns out, four people all managed to show up at the wrong precinct at the caucuses, so we all were disqualified — both myself and the alternate are not delegates to the legislative district caucus, although we can still have our names on the ballot to the state caucus (as can anyone); we just can’t vote on those ballots.
It wouldn’t really have mattered anyway, because the precinct we should have been at already had a Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) who is the automatic delegate the the legislative caucus.
When I first received the letter, I was a little pissed about it, but it appears that their reasons for disqualifying me as a delegate were legitimate. I guess this is how politics works — too much of it is about following the little rules and double checking to make sure you’re not missing something.
Oh well. We’ll do better next time.
Dan has posted some great blogs about the TRC’s efforts at the FIRST Robotics Competition’s Portland Regional. Sounds like some more shoddy work by FIRST (a borken field and reversing a ruling 15 minutes after the fact) leading to more heartbreak (similar things happened to the TRC in ’02 and ’03), but hopefully the team will take it in stride and use it as additional motivation to do well at the upcoming Microsoft Seattle Regional.
Links:
Dan also uploaded lots of pictures and videos. Its a nice way to live the TRC life vicariously.