Sunday, November 29, 2015

...Can't. Sleep. Urrgh!

I discovered comic books rather late in life. I mean, as a grade school kid I would read comic books from time to time, but I didn't really get interested in them until high school. Brian, who sat behind me in homeroom, introduced me to them. By the time I was a junior, I was reading the larger format pulps like Conan the Barbarian, Kull, Red Sonja and Thor, and tried mightily to emulate the drawing style. After much effort, I became subpar. Oh, well, a graphic artist I'm not. I did learn one exceedingly valuable writing tool from the comics, though: SUPERHERO SPEAK. 

If you're familiar with comic books, you're probably familiar with the speech/thought bubbles that are where speech or thoughts are placed to accompany the illustrations. And of course folks like Thor, Wonder Woman and Conan are superheroes. And they often get into struggles, fights, and feats where extreme concentration is required. In instances like these, every superhero reverts to superhero speak- and this is not to be confused with pithy remarks or simple statements of fact. For example, of the following-

"The blog waits."

"I should finish the blog"

"Must. Finish. Blog. AUUURRGGYHH!"

-(the first is a lame pithy remark, and the second is a statement). Only the third example is superhero speak. Note each word is capitalized, each has a period after it, and there's what some would consider to be a requirement for true superhero speak: the somewhat unpronounceable expression of supreme effort, almost always completely capitalized, and finished with an exclamation (sometimes this last bit can be the entire superhero speak- as sometimes words get in the way, and you can bet your bottom local currency that these folks listen to pop music). Please note also: superhero speak is always expressed as two words, and is never anything other than a noun. It is not pluralized, conjugated or declined.

Wrong example: The superheroes spoke was like this: "This. Is. Wrong", grammarian! "ARRRRRRGH!" (Note: the parts in quotes is correct superhero speak- "grammarian, of course, is the "villian" and should be capitalized).

Correct example: Erase. This. Grammarian! SKREEESSSHK!

I hope this clarifies the title just a bit, as I bring this up because I went to bed at midnight, and for the third night in a row could not get to sleep in a reasonable amount of time. No clue why. So, I decided to make use of the time and get one more blog in before the end of the month.   

I'm happy to report that since my cataract surgery earlier this month, my vision has improved dramatically. 

I think that's about all for now. Oops- before I forget, a thank you and shout to all of my readers around the world and on the ships at sea- the blog broke 14K views worldwide. I've got a new reader somewhere (they're somewhere in Eurasia, but I hesitate to give a shout out because of current conditions there [no, it's not in the Middle East]). Still no one in Antarctica. Sigh. I'm putting the blog to bed... I've got least another hour and a half before I do the same.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Smokey has gone to a better place

In my last post, I introduced you to Smokey.

Now, before any readers who may be animal lovers get distressed, please be assured: Smokey is still "with us"... that is, he has not crossed over the rainbow bridge, kicked the bucket, met his fate, expired or achieved ambient temperature (that last one is a favorite at our house!) Here's what happened between my last blog (Saturday, Nov 14., and today Sunday, Nov. 15)

Jennifer has been watching the seven day weather forecast for the past few days, and last night noticed that snow is predicted for Friday of the coming week. She was concerned for Smokey, and accordingly tasked Mr. T with finding a nearby shelter where we could take him.

I should probably give a bit of background about "pet" animals in the United States.

This may seem a bit puzzling to those readers outside of North America, Europe and Australia, but we keep small (or sometimes, not so small) animals for pets. Be they cats, dogs, fish, birds, snakes (yuck), spiders (double-yuck!) or critters even more esoteric, we welcome them into our homes and adopt them as a part of the family. We love them. The livestock, in return, provide certain benefits to us.

Reptiles entertain- I suppose. I've never owned one of these, but some of them seem to have a universal "cool" factor- turtles, for example. Gerbils, chinchillas, ferrets and other rodents also tend to be popular with some folks. Fish are quite fun, generally pretty low maintenance and inexpensive. One typically does not develop much of an attachment to fish... they're almost biological art. I could stare at them for hours.

Larger animals- cattle- can also be pets. Jennifer's niece Paige was quite attached to a horse, and my cousin Lynda loved a bull that her family had raised for food.

There are others, but typically in the United States when one is talking about pets, one is usually talking about dogs and cats.


I can't speak for anywhere else, but here in the United States dogs and cats are LOVED. Pet owners treat their "furbabies" as they might treat biological children, and the most extreme ones will even put these critters into their will! Now, having been a pet owner for some time, I have to agree that a certain amount of bounding and love does occur between pet and pet parent. A certain amount of trust must be established. And, like children, not all animals are going to have the same personality, level of trust or personality.

Our own personal experience. A truism about cats which we lived out: a shelter from which we've adopted three of our four cats from, Furkeeps, had posted a picture of a beautiful pair of cats who were brothers (Cheech and Chong). We thought they would be a perfect addition to Schwarz and Tinka, but these two poor felines wanted nothing to do with us- they even hissed at us! We, of course, were quite disappointed: not only had we driven some distance to see these critters, but a lady from the shelter had agreed to meet us on her day off. The story ends well for everyone, though: we got Kenji (top photo) and Kaley (bottom photo) that day. Total opposites, but totally made for each other. In the small confines of their shelter environment, Kaley seemed to target Kenji. Kaley was a free spirit and Kenji was reserved; when we had them out of their caged environment, they were nice to us and each other, so we adopted them as a pair- and they've done quite well together.

Smokey, though....

As I had mentioned, Smokey is young- technically still a kitten. The weather reports indicate that we will get a cold snap by the end of the week, so we decided that it would be best to get Smokey in shelter. We could not take him, as we didn't want to expose our other four cats to any potential diseases. Mr. T was tasked with finding a shelter, and he came through. Buddy Rescue was the group he found.

There is a funny ending to Smokey's story.

We own a Subaru Outback. Subaru is somewhat famous among car brands in their support of pets. When we pulled up to The Buddy Foundation, there was a single car parked in the street- it was a Subaru.

I'm hoping that Smokey didn't contract some horrid feline disease while he was abandoned. I'm hoping he has a clean bill of health and will be adopted by a loving family.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.




                                                          




Saturday, November 14, 2015

Hello, Australia... and blogging

I've mentioned this at least once before: blogs don't always go according to plan. This is my 188th post, and to my credit or dismay, I've probably only scrapped a handful of original ideas for updated ones in that span. I've changed my mind before words ever hit the screen on a number of times- at least ten, including this one, but have only totally scrapped ~five blogs, including the most recently published one.

So, what is up with the shout out to Australia, one might ask?

I might ask that myself, if I only relied on the data I receive from Google about this blog.  However, Blogger is only one part of my online marketing strategy. LinkedIn, Twitter (and Facebook) and most recently Pinterest, round out my online strategy. At this point, it would be fair to ask, "Why does a blogger need an 'online strategy' at all?" And how does Australia fit into the grand scheme of a single blogger?

For starters, I like to look at the big picture. I was pleased beyond words when I touched six continents in one year with this blog (Antarctica still eludes me!). My blog has been read in over fifty countries, most of which do not have English as their primary tongue.

And, even though I currently write for fun and not money, its better to have more readers than fewer readers.

So... Australia- continent, country, attitude.

In the current Google rankings, Australia ranks 24th in my worldwide blog readership. However, as I've said, my blog is only one part of my e-presence. I'm seeing a fair amount of attention in the Twittersphere (@CJoelHarrison) in Australia primarily because of some retweets about coral reefs and related Australia-specific marine science. My Pinterest account (www.pinterest.com/hochspeyer) has not seen much activity from Australia, mainly because Pinterest doesn't seem to emphasize locations. And, there aren't many infographics that I've found on the Great Barrier Reef.

So that's what I've got- in terms of casual analysis- on Australia. To my e-friends "down under", thanks for the likes and the blog reads!

Finally, I'd like to close with a very candid photo of Mr. T in action. This is a photo from our back yard of Mr. T and "Smokey". Smokey showed up recently in our yard. He's a very friendly neutered male around 2-4 years old. We think he might be a cat that actually belongs to someone, but he has no problem taking food and water from us, which leads us to suspect that even if he has a home, he is being neglected. He's a delightful little animal, and he's actually come up to our back door. It pains us greatly, but we can't let him in, as we know nothing about his medical condition. We don't want to expose our little group of cats to whatever Smokey might have. We're going to try to get him picked up by one of the local cat rescue societies.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Careful, kid, you'll poke an eye out

This had originally started out as a blog on data quality, but I wasn't too sure about the direction in which it was headed- trust me, you didn't miss out on anything. Something happened to me recently that I found quite interesting, and which totally pertains to my programming career and aspirations to deepen and broaden my programming skills.

Back in April of this year (2015), I went in for an eye exam. Everything was good, and I ended up getting a frame with progressive lenses. As I'm far-sighted with astigmatism, I've been wearing reading glasses since I was eighteen. This was my first foray into "distance" lenses. To be completely honest, I don't strictly "need" a distance prescription, but I was told they might help out with night driving, which I do practically every day. So, my progressive stack has distance on top, "computer" in the middle and reading on the bottom. They take a little getting accustomed to,  but they're quite effective- especially in the car, where everything both in and outside of the cabin is in focus.

I did have a slight problem with them at work, however: the computer part of the prescription was not large enough. I was offered the option of a wider field of view when I first purchased the lenses, but being that this was my first progressive lens, I decided to go with the basic one. Bottom line: this pair works great in the car and is fine with my 15" (~38cm) laptop, but with 23" (over 58cm) monitors at work and in the Secret Underground Lair (SUL), I could only see with clarity what I was looking at directly; to get focus on the left- or right-most parts of the screen, I had to do a bit of adjusting. And, as the nature of my work requires that I take in the whole screen (left to right and top to bottom), these didn't quite fit my needs. Therefore, I got a second pair of single visions lenses designed specifically for computer work.

This was pretty much what I was hoping to avoid- the expense of a second pair of glasses. However, upon trying out the new single vision computer glasses, everything was perfect, and I was happy.

Until the morning of September 12th.

September 12th was a Saturday, but (in my "quantum" time) it was actually Friday. I still had a couple of hours worth of work left, so I got up to have a short stretch and clean my glasses. Normally I'll use the piece of microfiber that I keep in the case, but this time I decided to give them a good dousing from the water cooler. I rinsed them, gave them a good wiping with the cloth and returned to my desk. I put them on, and discovered that I still had the same blurriness. I took them off, and looked at them through my desk lamp. Yup, they were clean- which meant that the problem, literally, was inside my head- my right eye, specifically.

So, if you'll pardon the pun, the chronology gets just a bit fuzzy here. At some point after that, Jennifer and Mr. T had their eye exams. As they were wrapping up, I nonchalantly asked someone about my recently discovered difficulty. As I described my problem, the nice folks at Vision Care Specialists decided that what I had described was important enough to squeeze me into their late afternoon schedule. After a bunch of tests, it was determined that I "probably" had a cataract.

Now, I'm told that pretty much everyone over the age of forty is in a "pre-cataract" condition- in fact, I was told this at my exam in April. What I was not aware of is that some folks have a rapidly-developing type of cataract. Unusual, but not rare... I'm an overachiever.

I was referred to an opthamologist. He confirmed the diagnosis and recommended the treatment: REPLACEMENT OF MY EYE LENS! This well and truly deserves all caps, as I had never heard of such a thing. And outpatient, to boot! No sutures, no bandages... not even a stinkin' pirate patch!

Anyway, it JUST SO HAPPENED that I had scheduled the bulk of my vacation for November. I had to rearrange two days, but this is how November has shaped up so far:

On Tuesday the 10th I started my eyedrops. With discounts, three tiny vials of eyedrops were $~120! I'm not one of those "older" folks who seem to be constantly medicated, so I can't tell you what these drops are... suffice it to sat that one stings a bit, and the other two do their job painlessly.

Wednesday, 11/11, the day of the surgery/procedure (throughout the entire process, the medical community referred to it as a "procedure"; in my mind, when someone stabs your eye, rips out your lens and puts a new one in, it's an operation).

I arrived at Holy Family Hospital, did some paperwork, paid part of the bill and was admitted. Jennifer and I were directed to a waiting room. After a very short period of time, I was invited by a nurse to a room where I was asked to put on a hospital gown... but allowed to keep my socks and fire engine yellow skivies. I was given booties, but they just didn't seem to want to stay on.

I don't want to say I was nervous at all, but the blood pressure measurements from admission to release showed about a 70 point swing.

And for all of the hype, the procedure itself was pretty painless. The pre-op prep was pretty painless; I experienced many firsts: first IV, first gurney, first operation. When the procedure was done, I was a bit woozy from something they gave me, and happily accepted the wheelchair ride to the curb.  Jennifer drove us home, and I'm happy to report that everything seems to have turned out exactly as planned. It looks like I'll be taking eyedrops for the next 2-3 weeks... it's a small price to pay to be able to see.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Sunday Night

By the time I finish this, some of my readers may be well into Monday morning (actually it will be closer to the following weekend!) . If you're one of these folks, I apologize. Because for me, Sunday night is about relaxing.

Surprisingly enough, there's a backstory here: this is the first weekend in five where I have not worked on Sunday. In other words, I've worked thirty-four days in a row.To be completely honest, I'm not crazy about the hours, but Jennifer and I love the pay. OTOH, I've had checks that were smaller than the Federal witholding tax I was assessed recently.

So, here it is, Sunday night. The end of the week. My first free Sunday night in five weeks. What am I up to?

Besides writing a blog, I'm catching up on some music that I haven't listened to in some time. That, and playing Railnation.

And today is now Thursday. After my first weekend off in five weeks, I've had overtime every day this week. And for those of you who might have missed this: depending on personal circumstances and job requirements, my coworkers are not always able or willing to take overtime, and when this happens, it falls upon whoever is available to pick up the slack. And even though I do not program jobs as often as I'd like, I'm familiar with so many of the jobs we do, as well as those we do for other plants, that I'm often called upon to pick up the slack in quality control.

And I do this partly out of a sense of duty and partly because I have a familiarity with a broad base of jobs few others in my department possess. And, to be completely transparent, I like the money.

I need to close this and get on to the next great adventure in my blog... whatever that may be. It's been a week since I started this, and as you might guess, I worked another Sunday. So, the tally follows: five of the last six Sundays I've spent at least some time in the office. Now, before anyone gets into the "evils of capitalism" or "wage slave" mindset, I'd like to remind my readers that although I don't always enjoy OT, Jennifer and I certainly do enjoy its benefits. And, as I live so close to the office, in the end the benefits ($$$) far outweigh the liabilities!

That's all for now from the Secret Underground Lair. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.