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 :)
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)
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 :)
Possible helpers for planning:
ReplyDeletehttp://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.)
A comment from Philip:
ReplyDeleteI 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
And another from Philip:
ReplyDeleteIn 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