Thursday, April 7, 2016

Sorely in need of updates

Sorry I dropped off planet earth! How about some FAQ to make it better?

How will you be spending the days you have the plaque implanted?
I'll be confined to the hotel my doctors recommend (including for meals); except for eating, I'll be in my room. I'm thinking these days will consist mostly of:
  • Podcasts*
  • Movies*
  • Catching up with those of you I don't talk enough with :)
 *Recommendations welcome (use the comments!)

Will you be radioactive?
Not externally; the dosage will be comparable in radiation to that of a single chest X-ray, which is to say not much. My mom will be staying with me; she's allowed to share a room with me and stuff :)

What won't you be able to do?
Lots of things:
  • Leave the hotel
  • Yoga
  • Heavy lifting
  • Bending at the head (I can bend at the knees, however)
Do you have a superhero costume lined up?
No. Volunteers welcome :)

Will you have x-ray vision after this?
Yes.

I live in Madison/surrounding area. Can I help when you return?
Yes! I won't be able to drive right away and am sure I'll want company; I'll figure out a system for organizing this as it gets closer.

I don't live in Wisconsin. Boo.
Agreed. Visit me! Wisconsin is lovely in the summer, and I just moved into an adorable new house (just renting) with a second bedroom, now equipped with a real live bed :)

3 comments:

  1. Possible helpers for planning:
    http://www.takethemameal.com/
    http://www.carecalendar.org/

    (that second one is far more comprehensive, I think? I've never used that 2nd one. I maybe might have possibly sort of been briefly procrastinating doing some other thing and searched a bit.... maybe.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. A comment from Philip:

    I have a lot of podcasts to recommend. Becca and I have talked about podcasts before, but I have a few new ones to recommend.

    First things first, I highly recommend using Overcast as your podcast player on your iPhone. It does a great job with creating and organizing playlists, and makes it easy to add new podcasts or single episodes. It also has two unique features in Vocal Boost (EQ adjustments to help make spoken audio sound clearer) and Smart Speed (intelligently skips silence to let you listen to more podcasts!). It syncs your playlists to it's simple web app, where you can listen to podcasts, too.

    Ok, now on to the actual shows. The hard thing about picking up a podcast recommendation is knowing where to start. Therefore, I've included some example episodes to get you started. Hopefully, this gives a better sense of what the podcast is about.

    Radiolab
    https://overcast.fm/itunes152249110/radiolab
    My all-time favorite podcast, and the podcast that got me listening to podcasts.

    Recommended episodes:
    - Colors
    - Shorts: The Bus Stop
    - Words
    - Desperately Seeking Symmetry
    - Shorts: Loop the Loop
    - Shorts: Neither Confirm Nor Deny
    - Things
    - The Good Show
    - The Bad Show

    99% Invisible
    https://overcast.fm/itunes394775318/99-invisible
    A show about "design, architecture & the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world." Consistently one of the most interesting podcasts, and usually under a half-hour, too.

    Recommended episodes:
    - 198- The Ice King
    - 189- The Landlord’s Game
    - 154- PDX Carpet

    - - -

    Here are some other ones that I've come across since we've last talked about podcasts.

    The Memory Palace
    https://overcast.fm/itunes299436963/the-memory-palace
    "Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, always super-great. For history buffs, fans of public radio shows like This American Life."

    Recommended episodes:
    - 76 (Mary Walker Would Wear What She Wanted)
    - 82 (The Wheel)

    The Mystery Show
    https://overcast.fm/itunes952044185/mystery-show
    Starlee Kine solves one mystery at a time.

    Recommended episode:
    - #3 Belt Buckle

    The Truth
    https://overcast.fm/itunes502304410/the-truth
    Radio drama, in the style of old-time radio shows. I've only listened to a few, but have been pretty captivated by them so far. Make sure you listen to the whole episode in a single sitting (they're usually shorter than a half hour).

    Recommended episodes:
    - Moon Graffiti
    - Silvia’s Blood
    - That's Democracy

    Surprisingly Awesome
    https://overcast.fm/itunes1053898371/surprisingly-awesome
    In the same vein as 99% Invisible, this show takes something that sounds boring and shows you how awesome it actually is.

    Recommended episodes:
    - #1 Mold
    - #6 Broccoli

    - - -

    Finally, if you need a tech nerdery podcast to listen to, the only one I currently subscribe to is Accidental Tech Podcast, with John Siracusa, Casey Liss, and Marco Arment (who wrote Instapaper and Overcast).
    https://overcast.fm/itunes617416468/accidental-tech-podcast

    ReplyDelete
  3. And another from Philip:

    In case you get tired of watching movies and listening to podcasts and want to do a little reading, I have some long-form articles I've collected in Instapaper that I thought I'd pass along as well.


    Here is my 'Best of' list of magazine articles, newspaper stories, and blog posts that I've saved over the past few years. Mostly, they come from my random surfing on the internet; I probably couldn't say how exactly I came across some of these. I'm presenting them below without comment, except for placing them in broad categories, lest I impart my prejudice.

    A few of these have been saved simply because they are good writing or tell a good story. Others have been chosen not so much for the strength or uniqueness of the writing, but for the topic. For the topical stories, I found the most interesting ones were those where the points raised by the author prompted me to think differently, challenged my current opinion in some way, or gave words to similar thoughts swirling around in my head.

    - - -

    Human interest stories

    The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever
    http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2012/July/The_Most_Amazing_Bowling_Story_Ever_Bill_Fong.aspx?page=1

    Unsinkable
    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/16/120416fa_fact_mendelsohn?currentPage=all
    (Because of this article, I read Walter Lord's short but excellent account of the Titanic, A Night to Remember)

    The Blind Man Who Taught Himself To See
    http://archive.mensjournal.com/the-blind-man-who-taught-himself-to-see/print/

    The Man Who Broke Atlantic City
    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/04/the-man-who-broke-atlantic-city/308900/

    The Boy Who Played With Fusion
    http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/boy-who-played-fusion?page=all

    Pocketful of Dough
    http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2000/10/pocketful?printable=true

    When I'm Gone
    https://medium.com/life-tips/when-i-m-gone-f1611ceb759f

    The Suicide Catcher
    http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201005/suicide-catchers-nanjing-bridge-yangtze-river-mr-chen?printable=true


    Gender studies

    Is There Anything Good About Men
    http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/goodaboutmen.htm

    The Woman Who Bested the Men at Math
    http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/10/the-woman-who-bested-the-men-at-math/


    Work life, career, job, etc.

    Some thoughts on the real world by one who glimpsed it and fled
    Kenyon College Commencement speech by Bill Watterson
    http://web.mit.edu/jmorzins/www/C-H-speech.html

    The ‘Busy’ Trap
    http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/

    Brainstorming Doesn’t Really Work : The New Yorker
    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lehrer?currentPage=all

    Cranking
    http://www.43folders.com/2011/04/22/cranking

    The $4 Million Complaint Call
    http://www.inc.com/ron-burley/4-million-complaint-call.html


    Geek

    A Hacker’s Guide to Bending the Universe
    https://backchannel.com/a-hacker-s-guide-to-bending-the-universe-86a5636b04da
    Sorry, one comment on this one: the second to last paragraph is key, and why I related to this.

    How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet, the Most Menacing Malware in History
    http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/how-digital-detectives-deciphered-stuxnet/all/1

    McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: In Which I Fix My Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ WiFi and Am Hailed as a Conquering Hero
    http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/in-which-i-fix-my-girlfriends-grandparents-wifi-and-am-hailed-as-a-conquering-hero#.Txl6BNkI7fg.twitter


    Education

    Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t) - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-why-finlands-schools-are-great-by-doing-what-we-dont/2011/10/12/gIQAmTyLgL_blog.html?wprss=answer-shee

    Bad Education
    http://nplusonemag.com/bad-education

    I Don't Want to be a Teacher Any More
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/26/950079/-I-Don-t-Want-to-be-a-Teacher-Any-More

    The Grandmaster Experiment
    http://www.psychologytoday.com/print/23195

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