Is This Me?

2012-02-06T20:04:00.001-07:00

New toy to complement my recently back from the dead PC. howmuchisenough?

2012-02-01T17:11:00.001-07:00

PT, PTA, and aides are 3 of the to 20 projected growing jobs. GraduateIn95Days physicaltherapy regisDPT http://ping.fm/7ITp8

2012-01-21T09:42:00.001-07:00

4hrs at seatec. Saweet.

2012-01-20T21:32:00.001-07:00

Amen brother! physicaltherapy physicaltherapist clinical education model needs to be revamped. http://ping.fm/vQbrK

2012-01-18T14:26:00.001-07:00

When did we lose Congress? This is a fantastic blog post about Congress and leadership.

http://ping.fm/xkepR

2012-01-16T13:20:00.001-07:00

The importance of am accurate paradigm. "Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion." - Francis Bacon

No, I'm NOT Reading Journal Articles on My Last Academic Xmas Break. . .

2012-01-08T01:02:00.002-07:00

We don't necessarily need new evidence to support abandoning outdated standards. There is a need for more reflective practicing clinicians who don't accept the notion of having"arrived" in their clinical expertise. ONGOING and purposeful reflection of skills and outcomes is why I choose a DPT. I think the abstract hints at this. I'm adding the rest of the scooter to my kindle reading list. http://ping.fm/9rf5X

Denver + Sweater Vest - 45 Lbs = Awesome.

2012-01-01T19:59:00.001-07:00

My first sweater vest! New chapter in my life? It's coming! Stay tuned for my self indulgent blog post about how I lost 50 lbs as soon as I lose the last 5. Happy New Year!

2011-12-03T17:42:00.001-07:00

Grand Junction CO Parade of Lights!

2011-11-26T21:14:00.001-07:00

Motivation is necessary to gain expertise. How much motivation is enough? http://ping.fm/y4nAe

Worksite Ergonomics

2011-10-24T14:50:00.001-06:00

Seeing a lot of patients on CE III who could avoid a lot of pain by making minor changes to working conditions. Pay attention to ergonomics. MOVE as much as you can to take breaks. See a physical therapist!

Official OSHA Guidelines for Computer Desk Work Stations

Denver

Freakonomics Repost...

2011-10-11T21:25:00.001-06:00

Freakonomics is one of my favorite blogs. This is a post about the new Danish fat tax and just how misguided policy makers were in creating this legislation... This fat tax, as pointed out in the article by Steve Sexton, disadvantages the poor for being too poor to make healthy eating decisions.

This kind of legislation has proven marginally effective in the past with smoking cessation. As a sin tax, smoking cessation is completely that unhealthy eating. EVERYBODY HAS TO EAT. And we can't all afford $5.00 - $9.00 for a red pepper at the Community No-Op.

Anyway, great article. The answer isn't always just "live more like us healthy people!" Give it a read:

The Orwellian Efficiency of a “Being Fat” Tax

-d

LBP and Muscle Sequencing

2011-09-30T18:13:00.000-06:00

My first wordcloud! Research we are presenting (poster) at CSM. I cannot wait to put this image in a PPT for research night on campus!!!

2011-09-13T15:08:00.001-06:00

Dude. Elderly is not the the preferred nomenclature.

When performing a literature search on pubmed, the preferred term is "aged."

2011-08-11T14:47:00.001-06:00

GCB ride! Ryan's first ride. No big deal.

A major part of my weight loss plan this year has been drinking beer. Yep. Beer. Beer has helped me lose weight. How?? With a 26 mile round trip ride from my house to Golden City Brewery. I have great friends that go on this ride with me on a regular basis!

Seriously though, I have been biking a lot more, and am now down to 222 - 1 pound away from the 40lb mark!!!! It hasn't been a dramatic or life changing story. There wasn't anything except a little confidence and a lot of boredom that led to me riding my bike more, and swimming a little bit while I was on my last clinical rotation. Once I started SEEING and FEELING the weight loss (ease of sleeping, pants sizes dropping, pretty girls smiling at me, etc...) I became more motivated, rode a little more, and then started eating a little less. Baby Steps. It felt like the first 20 pounds came off over night. It came off so fast I was actually worried it was a little unhealthy. Once I got under 240 it started slowing down - being back in class might have changed the trajectory, as well. Still, my weight is trending downward.

261 lbs on Memorial Day 2011.

Goal: 215 by Halloween.

Today on the scale: 229

2011-07-30T11:10:00.001-06:00

I stepped on the scale on Memorial Day at 261. I was in Hastings Nebraska on a clinical rotation which left my afternoons (from 2PM and later) completely open. I dropped from 261 to 229 by eating a little less, and a little healthier, and being active a lot more. It started with walking (a mile) to the gym to swim. Then I dusted off the road bike. Biking 2 - 3 days/wk, swimming 2x weekly (sometimes the same day as biking), and walking back and forth to groceries, the gym, and the hospital. None of it was dramatic - except maybe the biking. But I love riding my bicycle. It was an easy change to make.

My goal, from here on out, is to continue exercising into my final semester going into my last two clinical rotations. The first 35 pounds came off very quickly once I got interested, but I know that my happy routine will be challenged with school, moving, and new clinical experiences. My goal, by May 2012, is to be under 210 lbs. GET 'ER DONE!

-d

2011-07-25T22:27:00.001-06:00

Freaktrain at thebug! Good shows tonight!

Chondrocyte Implantation Procedure Presentation

2011-07-18T15:13:00.000-06:00

Additional Resources and Research (*.rar format) and My PPT Presentation

I just presented a case study presentation on a patient I saw in my last clinical rotation. The purpose of the presentation was to explore 3rd Generation Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) indications and contraindications for therapy.

To briefly summarize, rehab protocols and movement restriction post-op depends GREATLY on the site and size of the site grafted with chondrocytes. The patient in the case presented had chondrocytes grafted to the articular surface of his patella. Compression of the grafting site can decrease chondrocyte proliferation by more than half of un-compressed controls. This compression is not immediately reversible, either, as chondrocyte proliferation begins to plateau at 7 days post op (in animal studies).

Different portions of the patella articulate with the femur depending on the angle of knee bend. The portion of the patella which was grafted with juvenile chondrocytes would have articulated with the femur between 30 and 60-70 degrees. Tension through the quadricep inside that range would compress the patella and grafting site directly into the femur and hurt chondrocyte proliferation.

In order to effectively decide on a protocol, we, as autonomous practitioners of PT, have a foundation in sciences (such as biomechanics, kindesiology, cell biology, research) to keep up to date with novel surgical procedures. We have the skills, abilities, and informational background to make clinical decisions for patients as technology continues to advance in the medical field. Don't get left behind.

1.Buckwalter JA. Articular Cartilage: injuries and potential for healing. J of Ortho Spo

2.Hettrich C, Crawford D, Rodeo, Scott. Cartilage Repair: Third-Generation Cell-based Technologies – Basic Science, Surgical Techniques, and Clinical Outcomes. Sports Med Arthrosc Rev. 16:4; 2008.

3.Kon E, Gobb A, Filardo G, et al. Arthroscopic Second Generation Autologous Chondrocyte Implantion Compared with Microfracture for Chondral Lesions of the Knee. Am J Sports Med. 37:33; 2009.

4.Li K, Falcovitz YH, Nagrampa JP, Chen AC, et al. Mechanical Compression Modulates Proliferation of Transplanted Chondrocytes. J Orthop Res. 18:3; 2000

5.Levangie PK, Norkin CC. Joint Structure And Function: A Comprehensive Analysis Fourth (4th) Edition. 4th Edition; 2005.

2011-07-15T17:19:00.001-06:00

Neuroplasric changes in low back pain. http://ping.fm/g7Iri

A fish does not know it is in water.

2011-07-14T17:02:00.001-06:00

From lifehacker:
"The point: it's easy to forget that what surrounds you is only normal because it's what you know. To others, those surroundings might seem pretty strange."

This is a little off topic specifically... When I am really stressed out, I have a tendency to forget about everything going on around me, and just focus on me, and my stress. It's like being in murky water with junk floating around in it. I focus so much on myself, and the things happening to me in the immediate present - more of a mechanical response to stimuli, like some kind of a survival instinct. I completely lose sight of the future, and can't see anything else happening around me. Just me, stuck in the murky water alone.

Also, when I get stressed out, I apparently misplace things. I found my wallet in the freezer a few days ago, and this morning put my glasses in the dishwasher. Wallet is fine. My glasses got all bendy and look like they belong on a wax figure from Ripley's Believe it or Not.

2011-07-02T20:42:00.001-06:00

2nd of july fireworks over coors field sunset for your viewing pleasure.

2011-06-29T05:51:00.001-06:00

Dorm Phones: To reach the internets please dial your operator.

Do more, eat less, eat better. Cheating is okay.

2011-06-28T11:21:00.001-06:00

This was a great article I read recently about one man's ~~struggle~~ dramatic weight loss without a dramatic struggle. The writer did a great job hitting every part of being fat and changing - what it feels like, social stigma, how people responded to the weight loss, all the failed fad diets and failed attempts, self efficacy, environment, support, mechanics, goals, etc...All the weight loss took was a change in lifestyle activity! That's it. He started walking more (partially because he had to moving to New York). He saw a nutritionist at one point, when he came to a plateau, worked out a simple plan and lost even more. He said he wanted to cheat and eat things he shouldn't, and did sometimes. He ended on a note which was particularly poignant about encouraging other people to make change - basically that you can't. The process is simple, but it either takes motivation or forced lifestyle change. Change will happen when the pain of the solution is less than the pain of the problem.

How I Lost 80 Pounds!

Ride Day

2011-06-25T19:49:00.001-06:00

Reflecting

Oceans of Corn

38.6 Miles of Pudendal Compression and 25mph Headwind

2011-06-22T23:38:00.001-06:00

38.6mi. 2hr 28min 18sec. HRavg=167 Max=188. AvgSpeed=15.3mph. TopSpeed=28.3. 1hr 28min HR>168bpm. BAM!

On Wednesday I went riding with a group in Hastings in an effort to get out of my dorm room. It's probably the best time outside of clinic I've had since I've been here! Fun group of people, too bad I didn't meet them 6 weeks ago. Weekly rides at 6PM leaving from the museum. I've attached a couple pictures of the ride and other rides from around Hastings.

Coming up on my last week in Hastings Nebraska at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital. My rotation here has been in the Med/Surg, Progressive Medical, ICU, Oncology, and Acute floors of the hospital. I've seen a lot (of bowel movement), to say the least. It's been a good learning experience, trying to keep up with the patient load and the pace going from room to room with evals cropping up faster than the freaking corn in this state!

It's an 8 week rotation and I'm one week away from the end. I have 2 more rotations starting in October and January - 12 weeks each. The 8 weeks away from home have been a drag. I miss home, the dog, cat, garden, civilization, etc... Pics of the dog and cat while I'm gone doing silly things. Here they are on the right. She woke up one morning and they were both staring at her. The other picture is the cat taking the dog bed, and the dog wanting to play. I wish I could have been there to see it! 7 days from now I will be home again, then back on the road. I'm not already packed to leave Hastings NE (YESIAM).

The end of this rotation marks the beginning of the last academic semesters of my career! A few weeks on, comps, and a few weeks off, last two clinical rotations, portfolio, research, big exam, then gainful employment as DPL DPT. There was a goal about that I wrote about when I started this blog. See Goal #1, 10/7/2007 10:49PM. 1 year away from something I've spent several working for!

And now for the Hastings Nebraska picture slide show for your viewing pleasure. I want to start with a picture I call IRONY:

Neighborhood Watch. Wait... WHAT? This was on a bike ride. 8 miles from nothing in any direction along the side of highway 281. All that's missing is a scarecrow (unless someone stole it).

A picture from another part of town. South side of town. Paul's House of Pancakes on the right, dust and corn on the left.

Found this monolith on another ride. It has nothing to do with 2001, technology, or intelligence. A big stupid rock, 15 miles from nothing. #exceptcorn. This monument depicts two brothers riding away from an Indian attack (#cowboysandindiansinreallife). An arrow pinned the two boys together. Then it fell out and they lived. The arrow is ACTUALLY ON DISPLAY at the Hastings Museum next to a gigantic vat of Kool Aid.

This is a picture I took on a ride on the west side of town.

This is a pic of the west side of town.

Here's the East side of town.

That's it. Dust. Corn. Peace out.

-d

QOTD

2011-06-22T21:27:00.001-06:00

Quote of the ride: "Eeverybody's gambled on a fart and lost." Where these guys 6 weeks ago?

Feed Your Eyes on This or In Web2.0, Literature Searches YOU!

2011-06-21T20:28:00.000-06:00

I apologize for their not being any audio - you would have had to have been there... Comments Welcome!

The Presentation PDF
Useful Resources
Obscure Yakov Smirnoff "In Soviet Russia..." joke

Demonstrations:

Signing up for Google Reader (if you don't already have an account)

Here you can see how quick and easy it SHOULD be to sign up for a google reader account. It can, however, go terribly wrong, too - and probably will if you try to work it into a presentation.

Netvibes Highlights

More features than Google Reader - more of a homepage app than Google Reader, with widget support! See your email, common searches, and other things all on one page in several small widgets which you can organize and reorder however you please.

Adding Feeds from PUBMED and the APTA

Searching a #hashtag or @user on Twitter without creating an account!

FINDING RSS to subscribe to by unsubscribing to a feed with a similar tags if you can't find it in a search!

Sometimes the search function in google doesn't yield the results I'm looking for - in this case it was the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy. No dice. I DID find it when I unsubscribed from another PT related RSS feed. #iheartshortcuts

Tweetdeck

Organize common twitter hashtag searches into columns so you can see everything you care about quickly, instead searching each individually. There are other programs like it, I use this one.

1 thing I could have emphasized more was Tags and Organization. Tags help you find things along common threads throughout the internet. Searching a hashtag like #pain on twitter will give you all kinds of results. Use them accordingly to classify and thread items you wish to save or recall for later - either with cloud based apps like Evernote or Springpad, blogs, or more traditional desktop apps like Onenote. Finding a balance between over-tagging and under-tagging is an art. You want to be descriptive without washing out the exclusivity of each tag. If you figure out a good system, let me know...

-d

2011-05-17T21:12:00.001-06:00

Over-complicating getting things done. http://ping.fm/bac43

2011-05-08T21:14:00.001-06:00

Good article about patient choice and access to pgysical therapy from EIM http://ping.fm/d9z5V

Where's my 40?

2011-04-26T18:36:00.000-06:00

Practical exams, I've decided, isn't about showing off what you've learned - it's strictly an endurance test. Yeah you have to do stuff. Hopefully it's stuff you've been doing for weeks now. With MM and MAP out of the way, now only an NM practical and 4 final exams stand between me and my third clinical rotation which should (final grades pending) be in Hastings Nebraska at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital. I also got word today that CE IV is going to put me in Irving Texas at the Centre for Neuro Skills - a dedicated neuro rehab facility. It's another long commute, but definitely quality added. CE III (out of order, sorry) is going to be in Grand Junction at Soar PT with Britt Smith. I am psyched for that, too!

On a side note, I'm writing now because I managed to lock myself out of the house and haven't mustered the energy yet to jump the 6' fence yet. I want to be a PT, not be IN PT. Just sitting on my patio watching ants. They are back and massed up just below the first step of the porch. I've kinda been playing tower defense against them. They managed to take a caterpillar hostage - that's been kind of interesting to watch, I guess.

5 more evaluative activities and then released (mostly) from the shackles of academia to ACTUALLY DO GOOD. Happy finals everyone.

Everybody Whistle...

2011-04-11T15:11:00.001-06:00

The truth is out there. I want to believe. Trust no one. http://ping.fm/5PIST

Rec Femoris Causes an Extensor Moment at the Hip

2011-04-08T17:08:00.001-06:00

Spent the weekend at the Rocky Mountain Chapter American Society of Biomechanics meeting (RMASB). It was a cool conference showcasing research done by graduate students and researchers in the region. One of the presentations that blew my mind was by Darryl Thelen about biarticulate muscles. Using a computer model, he showed that the over-activation of the rectus femoris muscle causes extension at the hip. Then, he showed that it worked on a real human being. Then he showed that it works on real human beings in normal walking, and not just theoretical models or controlled experiments. Very cool. Link to his abstract with the NIH: http://bit.ly/hNr8ET The message I took from his presentation was that the mechanics of the human body are far more complicated than muscle origins and insertions.

There was also an outstanding presentation by Alena Grabowski about her work with MIT in the development of a mechanical prosthetic ankle which simulated normal ankle responses. The prosthetic ankle improved gait mechanics and reduced energy expenditures to within normal levels!

After platforms and poster presentations (I did one!) the first night, several of us from different schools got together for ~~Cranium~~ professional socialization. Lots of fun! Met some cool people working on cool stuff from schools in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Nebraska.

I also got to present a poster on FRR (flexion relaxation response) and low back pain. The research I'm doing right now is related to the sequence of activation of the glute max, lumbar erector spinae, and thoracic erector spinae. People in the study who developed back pain have a distinctly different sequence of activation of those muscle groups when returning to standing from a forward flexed position. Very cool stuff. Here is a picture of me explaining it.

This is going in my portfolio.

A few more pics I took wandering around at Estes Park YMCA:

RegisDPT achieving great heights. GO PT!

We're on a ROCK!

Thinking on a ROCK!

Sun setting over the rockies. I don't know what mountain, specifically. Erika is the one with the fancy phone app with mountain names.

Blue skies shining on me, nothing but blue skies...

Elk. I took one step and he lifted his head and stared at me. No Pics - I just left. No need to get mauled today. Awesome sunrise!

A view from the back door of the conference. Spec-freaking-tacular.

Should I be studying? Probably...

2011-04-04T23:07:00.000-06:00

So sometime around spring break this year I thought it would be good to buy a new ~~toy~~ tool. I wanted a tablet for school mostly so I could read journal articles (more sustainable than printing them, right?). That was the big excuse. Since I bought it, I have managed to sell my cell phone and go off contract completely (no more cell bill) and no longer scan coffee shops and class rooms for seats close to an electrical outlet for my now cumbersome feeling netbook. Not bad for under 300 bucks! It isn't without hiccups here and there, but nothing I haven't found some kind of a workaround for.

The Homescreen! Circle Launcher used to set up sweet looking buttons stolen from the Wind7HD something or other theme for ADW Launcher.

This is a thought of possible clinical significance - I can resize the little white circles so that only a couple would fit on the screen. This gtablet has to be cheaper than some of the "talky" buttons and systems set up to help children with disabilities communicate better - and Android lends itself to easy customization for anyone with patience. Cheap(ish) easily customizable talky tool? Maybe...

All 3 home screens - I can swipe left to right for calendar/organizer/mail, or news/social networking/media. Center for app launchers and a sweet clock!

Even geekier if you've read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galexy.

This is the boot screen. It was a pain in the butt I can't even begin to explain to get this to boot as an image instead of the stupid viewsonic birds and ugly green and black G-tablet logo. Don't Panic, in large friendly letters. Nice visual cue in the midst of my final full 16 wk semester of grad school. I still wouldn't recommend this modification to anyone that didn't want to learn to compile in linux. Enjoy. If you've got a gtablet and you're running Calkulin's 1.1 Rom, I can send you the boot image and you can have "Don't Panic" on yours, too, without the stress of linux.

Revned911's Apps on the ViewSonic G Tablet
Favorites are yellow, green is stuff I don't think I could survive without. Otherwise enjoy a huge clumsy list of everything running on my Gtab.

View this Android app list on AppBrain

I'm not trying to sell this or anything, but THUMB keyboard is awesome. SlideIt is a crumby knock off of Swype (which I can't get to work) but gets the job done when I need it to.

Peripherals:

My keyboard. If you zoom in it says "Genius" Light weight and cheap, but corded. All the kids at school make fun of me for my corded keyboard.

I made this from a pile of junk (see previous post). 2 binder clips, a door hinge, and some sugru to keep it from scratching

View from the rear. Also showcases my sweet carbon-fiber stick on vinyl covering. This is way better than the stupid G-tablet logo and a nice texture.

Front Profile

Love my new deadguy hat!

2011-04-04T16:51:00.000-06:00

Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland CO. Sweet new hat courtesy of my checking account. Got there too late to see the coffin-races, but got some beer, saw some live music, and was blown over by slightly less than hurricane level winds. Success!

I was pretty much sold on Nederland when I heard they had a dead guy in a shed. Alpaca store sealed the deal!

Frozen.

A sense of humor about having a dead guy frozen in a cabin in your town.

Gtablet in my future?

2011-04-03T17:31:00.000-06:00

Enhance focus in class by taking notes on a tablet. Ideas for android tablet apps? File this under experiments, RegisDPT, and notangrybirds.

Update: Success!

I have managed to replace my phone, laptop, and attention span with a g-Tablet!

Happy to be SPT

2011-03-19T23:06:00.001-06:00

A post from Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed about the hardest exam ever. Great blog.

http://ping.fm/ilr4Q

2011-03-10T18:18:00.001-07:00

My kung fu is the best.

Conservative Treatment!!!

2011-03-02T19:14:00.001-07:00

So you're saying there might be something to conservative treatments... like physical therapy? Shameless plug for my profession-to-be.

Aggressive Diabetes Therapy May Raise Death Risk

http://ping.fm/oG4b8

2011-02-25T17:37:00.001-07:00

Type2 Diabetes linked to far levels in thr liver.

http://ping.fm/Odc0p

Goal #4, or maybe 3? I don't remember anymore.

2011-02-24T17:10:00.001-07:00

I finally went out on my roadbike. Its been too long. Seeing me ride by must look like getting passed by a large silvery colored Shrek. I don't care. My goal of gradually increasing my ride distance to Golden and back is a good plan. One ride at a time!

File this under goals...

2011-02-24T12:25:00.001-07:00

Because who doesn't want to build their own automated home security from the ground up?

How to Monitor and Control Your Home From Anywhere

http://ping.fm/AOzFF

Teacher Hit Me With a Ruler

2011-02-15T17:56:00.001-07:00

A commitment to quality . . .

...let me explain...

This is the last full (16 week) semester of my Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Regis University. It's not over yet. It is a very busy semester. It is busy in a purely volumetric way. The whole program has been so far. There are towers of articles to read. There are multiple (different) groups for even more projects. Video assignments skill checks, live skills checks, skills checks formatted like practicals, practicals, quizzes, papers, service learning, and finally service learning now, to consider.

Life gets busy and I lose track of myself at times - more times than I care to admit. When I get stressed out like this, it brings me back to the rules, and I want to explain what that means to me. I got these from my friends Mark and Joe. I know the rules have changed, many times, but I've stuck to these ones.

The Rules:

Rule #1: Keep Your Mouth Shut
As it was told to me, Rule #1 means SHUT UP. See Rule #4. When I start thinking I do, forgetting Rule #1 gets me in trouble. See Rule #2.

Rule #2: You Reap What You Sow
This isn't a rule as much as it is a hope. Joe would say, I hope you reap what you sow so you learn something from it. I've ruined rule number 1 more times than I care to remember and end up getting Rule #2'd HARD. Hopefully, though, I keep learning from my mistakes.

Rule #3: No One Can Help Your or Be Helped By You if You Won't Help Yourself
I believe this one speaks for itself but seems more applicable right now in my life. I sometimes feel like I am struggling in school, and "spinning my wheels" way more than I should be to get some things done. I get frustrated with class sometimes because I don't know what's going on - but it's usually because I'm not paying attention. I need to wake up and get with the program before I start criticizing others for making my life feel more complicated.

Rule #4: You Do Not Know Everything
See rule #1, See Rule #2. Breathe.

Rule #5: Pull When Possible
Joe's model of leadership - if you push a string of pearls (I'm not calling anyone in my class a pearl) they go in every direction, but if you pull them, lead by example, and DO something first they will achieve a graceful order.

Rule #6: First Seek to Understand, Then to Be Understood
In this order: See Rule #4, #1, #2, #5, #6. School or personal life. I need to listen more to what other people are trying to communicate, not just to what they are saying. And then respond in a meaningful way to them. I'm terrible at using my words to communicate what I'm thinking or feeling about anything. This isn't just "active listening." I hate when people say that. You're still only listing to make sure you get every last word of what a person says - I think people still have (I certainly do) a propensity for hearing the words and skipping the context. Ours is one of the few cultures in which ALL of the emphasis is put on the communicator to accurately make a point so that the other person can make his or her own point. I need to learn to understand better when I listen. This one matters.

Rule #7: Do The Job, And Do It Well

That's it. Simple. If you're going to do something do it to completion. Mark, when reviewing it as an addendum to The Rules, was going to call it "Do the dishes." He literally meant "do the dishes" and not just do some of the dishes. In finding figurative meaning to #7, I think to a glass of wine I was drinking a couple of nights ago. I had previously done a pitiful job washing a wine glass. When it came time to enjoy a new glass of wine some days later, my enjoyment of said spirit was attenuated by several floating specs of what I can only call disappointment. It was my own laziness in the past (which at the time was the present) that ruined my present (which is now the past) glass of wine. If I had finished the job well the first time, I would have enjoyed the fruits of my labor later on. Mark's #7 was a roommate conflict. He has since taken this off the list of rules. I have, however, decided I'm keeping it along with the first 6, and am going to start adopting my own.

Rule under review:

Rule #8: Find a Way

It is close in context to rule #7 and in that I'm not sure belongs on the list. I'm mulling it over. While similar in face value to "Git 'Er Done" but wiff intecity. There are 2 stories that come to my mind when I say Find a Way - the first is of high school football. I might actually be making this up. I'm not sure anymore. IF I were a HS football coach talking to me, I would tell me to find a way to stop the guy who was 50 pounds my superior. It's as much a form of delegation as it is leadership - I don't care how you do it, find a way to achieve the end product. It also reminds me of a chapter of Blink (by Malcom Gladwell) where the US was playing war games with it self. It pitted General VanRipper to head the "Red Team" and gave him make-believe cruise missiles, rubber boats, and a small but dedicated force of follower. The military gave the "Blue Team" all the technology in the world in order to better dictate every possible aspect of the war. VanRipper didn't know anything about the enemy but sent some guys out in rubber boats with make-believe bombs in the middle of the night and said "Sink the bigger boats, I don't care how." And they did. just about all of them. Blue exit stage right.

Anyway...

(have somebody in the room hum the tune of something patriotic while you read this last part)

I'm here. I'm in my second year of PT school with most of the hard work behind me. I have to find a way to survive this final full semester and still find the energy to exploit every opportunity for academic, professional, and personal growth I have - starting with my neuro exam tomorrow...

-d

Wiki presentation, lbp, or probono clinics?

2011-02-12T09:14:00.001-07:00

What to do Saturday... I'm thinking presentation about the use of wikis and physical therapy.

Update: It was a good talk from Eric Robertson and Rachel Lowe about Physiopedia and how PTs and Students can learn from and contribute to the cause. Collaborative efforts are always difficult until someone gets the ball going. This is a great place for PT related information.

You won't get it 'til you click it!

2011-02-07T13:46:00.001-07:00

Things I Like About Springpad:

http://sprng.me/9n61g

Kitchen PC

2011-01-30T17:05:00.001-07:00

My latest project. I took apart an old laptop and reversed the screen. Running an older version of ubuntu as th os which replaced windows xp. I also tried Puppy Linux, Slitaz, netbook remix, android, chrome, jollicloud, mint, and one or two other operating systems that did not bear fruit.

I found a cheapo mini wireless keyboard and had to order additional ram to bring the old laptop up to speed. There are broken coat hangers bent into brackets to hold the laptop in place, and zip ties keeping the cords out of view.

Its in place as a dedicated kitchen pc. I tabbed and book marked various meal planning websites, extensions, and applications. Lots of different timers, organizers, and index applications for recipes and cooking. Springpad is the tool i think i will rely on the most. There are also a few multimedia apps for streaming and uploading music from various sources, including dropbox as a means for uploading media from remote locations easily. I'm open to thoughts and ideas for making this more functional.

1 project down, 11 to go.

-d

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BRILLIANT!

2011-01-29T21:03:00.001-07:00

Outlet eject button! Brilliant. This could definitely make homes safer for people whose balance may be compromised.

Outlet Eject Buttons: For the Sake of Old People Everywhere

http://ping.fm/3NsXz

2011-01-29T20:46:00.001-07:00

Maintain some sanity and avoid information overflow. http://ping.fm/6to5Q

Thanks Netflix!

2011-01-29T18:42:00.001-07:00

2% credit because netflix wasnt working for a couple hours? The cable company would never refund money if it stopped working for a couple hours. Great reminder of how often netflix isn't down and how much better off I am with them.

CUT THE CORD!

2011-01-29T11:17:00.001-07:00

This week on my android: AppBrain : http://ping.fm/Ny5te

Screwed again!

2011-01-13T00:26:00.001-07:00

Thanks for the additional punch in the face verizon. As if cell phone conpanies weren't shady or greedy enough already. http://ping.fm/PjIfZ

You can't handle the truef!

2011-01-12T16:43:00.001-07:00

Truef does not play in scrabble.

Irony

2011-01-09T14:51:00.001-07:00

US Government Strategy To Prevent Leaks Is Leaked

http://ping.fm/qntWt

Here!

2010-12-27T14:46:00.001-07:00

Quick stop off at a brewery in Newport. Yes, that's me sitting on top of a throne made out of beer cases. Ash taking the picture.

I'm not smart enough to rotate pictures.

How many roads...

2010-12-22T22:23:00.001-07:00

...must a man drive down with a pug breathing on him?

Arrived in Billings safely! 8 hours down. Billion more to go! copilot

Our Elevator Only Goes to the Second Floor.

2010-12-15T14:22:00.001-07:00

Weber and I won 2nd in EIM's Elevator Pitch video contest! Serious finals week boost! physicaltherapy RegisDPT

EIM Elevator Pitch

2010-12-01T02:34:00.000-07:00

Submitted a little late... Hopefully they still take it.

John, Denver, and a Turkey (or Denver, John?)

2010-11-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Picture of John and I with the finished turkey - good shot for relative size of the bird compared to John an I.

Turkey and Potato Eating Extravaganza!

2010-11-28T13:26:00.001-07:00

Lots of people came over. There are lots of pictures too. Good times. I have mountains of extra food that people left, including 2 pies, bourbon sweet potatoes, mashed candied yams, casserole with green beans, jello, ice cream, whipped cream, turkey (lots), eye glasses, 2 chairs, a camera case, 2 cookie sheets, wine, beer, and a big mess. Happy holidays!

Click on the image below to see the entire album.

Turkey and Potato Eating Extravaganza!

2010-11-22T12:06:00.001-07:00

I'm staying in Denver over Thanskgiving. It's too far a drive for too much $ to justify leaving for the short thanksgiving break. It's fine though, because I've invited classmates over for thanksgiving and have a guest list over 10 now. Should be a good time!

In other (but related) news, I have cooked 3 turkeys now. There is at least 20 pounds of turkey meat (after carving) that we have frozen or eaten. Turkey and mashed potatoes, turkey sandwiches, turkey for the sake of turkey, turkey grilled cheese, turkey enchiladas, turkey chili, turkey taquitos, and a great big county fair style turkey leg.

There is one more bird to carve, and one more after that to cook ON thanksgiving. I'm still not sure if it's enough. Maybe one more???

To CRUSH your enemies! To see them driven before you!

2010-10-28T22:02:00.000-06:00

My mission? To boldy seek out new life forms wherever they may fester and snub them out completely.

This rampage took place in early August right before I left for clinical. It started becasue I had an ant problem. Investigating the ant problem led me farther down the rabbit hole. I found lots of fun stuff. To date, I've probably killed 5 or 6 black widows in my back yard now but only took pictures of 2. Read below:

Monomorium pharaonis. The Pharaoh Ant. The Texas Piss Ant.

These sterile females are tiny. When disturbed, their colonies SCATTER with hundreds of queens per colony and form new ones. Sprays were ineffective for that reason. I've moved to boric acid gel baits. Here they are after the dug a hole under the dog's food dish. It was the same night Dimitri scratched little Mia's eye. I was in a bug killin' mood. This little mass of ants inspired a midnight bug killing spree.

Lasius niger. The Black Garden Ant.

These guys have basically been harmless except for really small piles of dirt on my back patio. Sometimes they mass up in the front yard and form piles on the sidewalk. Not a single one in the house all summer, but Bobby didn't like the way the looked when the piled up on the sidewalk for an hour or two a couple mornings a month. I didn't have to bait and poison them, but I was in a bad mood.

Latrodectus hesperus. The Western Black Widow. A BLACK FUCKING WIDOW!

I saw this funny looking web on a midnight prowl for ants. I saw 3 black legs right over the rim of the post. Closer inspection revealed a black body and something red - but she bolted up into the shaft before I could ID her... I should stick my camera in and get a better view...

All you can see is a blurred red dot at the very top. Neigh unidentifiable. Going to come back in the light with proper ant killing equipment. You might need to click on the image to get a better view.

Moments before an agonizing death. Raid. Lots. Up into the tube. She repelled down onto this brick and took a few steps and paused. We locked eyes. It was her or me. She's a man killer, to be certain. I don't want to give her that chance. She made a move. I hit her with a Hammer. Twice. Gallagher that fuck, would wish... The RAID probably would have done the trick given a minute or two more but my way was much more satisfying.

Changing Gears...

Genus: Vespa, Species: beats me - it's a fucking hornet. or a wasp. This picture always makes me want to watch Kill Bill.

Pictured previously, this little guy didn't stand a chance. He did not appear to be any part of the 3 formal wasp nests I had pwnd in the last week, but he had trespassed onto my bbq grill anyway. In my mind that offense justified using what was left of a can of flying bug RAID. First shot, he dropped out of the air like those helicopters you see in movies falling: "Oh SHIT! WE'RE GOING DOWN!" But, after he hit the ground, he got back up and flew in a couple small circles and then came straight for me. Luckily the 2nd shot grounded him permanently - where I took a quick snap shot - and then curbstomped him (not pictured - too much gore).

Wasp grounded seconds before curbstomp.

Nest #1: The first hornet mass grave. These guys were in the fence on my patio. It was the first of 3 hornets nests I would find. This was the biggest, and there are at least 8 to 10 fallen soldiers in this shallow space of dirt and weeds next to the fence post.

Best Friends!!!

Nest #2: Opposing side of the nest.

Nest #2. MORE CARNAGE!!!

Nest #3: This picture also makes me want to watch kill bill. This little guy was trying to crawl away when I shot him. Shot him ded.

Pogonomyrmex barbatus. The Red Harvester Ant (I think). Related somewhat to Pogonomyrmex maricopa (found in Arizona) - one of the most venomous insects in the world (20x stronger than a bee sting). W. L. Meyer (1996-05-01). "Chapter 23 — Most Toxic Insect Venom". Book of Insect Records. University of Florida.

This little harvester ant is not the most poisonous ant in the world. He's just a dead red ant. It's worth noting though, that the big mandibles in the front are designed to bite and dig in, so that if you flick it off, they tear or cut your arm. This ant is HUGE - about 1/3d the length of one of the hornets previously killed. Alive, he was very hard to photograph because he was FAST. He's easier to photograph now because he is dead (or dieing). Kicked the bucket. It's passed on. This ant is no more. It has ceased to be. This is a late ant. It's bleeding demised! THIS IS AN EX-ANT!

Best Spider PIcs to come:

Juvenile Latrodectus hesperus. A young western black widow. Found in a crack in the bricks of my patio while I was playing with the puppy - 5 feet from previously dispatched widow.

To boldly seek out new life forms wherever they may fester, and destroy them with extreme prejudice. Can I put any of this in my PT portfolio?

Fear not for my life, for she is dead. The white and orange stripes indicate that this here lady is a youngin - and has not reached maturity (not to be mistaken for reaching full potential to kill). All I see is a young man, girlfriend, or puppy killer (as well as a killer photo-op?). This one was gassed, squashed, then sealed into a zip-lock snack baggy and thrown into the dumpster so the puppy couldn't eat it.

Very Ded. Hour-glass underbelly - I had to be certain.

Continue Later

2010-10-15T11:44:00.001-06:00

The first few days of a semester are always my favorite. I start out with hope and optimism for all the things I'm going to learn. And there is a lot of cool stuff to learn. I even get a little excited to read articles. I gather supplies, categorize, and organize material and resources for the upcoming weeks. I pat myself on the back for weaning off coffee prior to the start to increase efficacy later when I need a pick me up.

DIY Laptop Cord Mouse Trap

2010-09-21T23:34:00.000-06:00

Supplies Needed:

Mouse - at least one.
Baking Dish
Cheese and/or Peanut Butter
Laptop Cord.

ICD-9: 728.87 (Generalized Weakness): Insufficient strength prevents mouse from lifting heavy objects and participating in great mouse escape. Appears to be motivated, but stupid. Potential for patient to achieve patient goals: poor. Skilled PT 3x weekly for 8 - 10 weeks with therapies to include therapeutic exercise, therapeutic activities, functional self care/occupational training, manual therapy, modalities, physical agents, and patient education.

You must first discover and identify your foe - get to know feeding habits.

Phase II: Set the trap - Cheese with Peanut butter under a baking dish supported by a laptop cord. I am on a clinical rotation in Wyoming and do not have off hand things like yarn, sufficient boxes, or real mouse traps. I do however have my laptop, the charging cord, a piece of cheese, some bakeware, and lots of extra time.

CAPTURED!!! Hypothesis confirmed. Far too weak to lift a baking dish. Evolution and Gravity prevail!!! Now... A name... Meet Paul Newman!

DPT 750

2010-09-07T23:51:00.001-06:00

I am on my first clinical rotation as a Doctor of Physical Therapy Student. 6 weeks in Thermopolis, WY. I am in clinics in Basin, WY and Worland, WY learning hands on how to manage patients, document, educate, and relax again. Excited to be here DOING something and learning instead of sitting in a class room for 8 hours a day practicing my backwards pen flip, updating facebook statuses, and pondering the approximate amount of adaptive shortening my hip muscles have gone through. Good times.

About Thermopolis (in no order): ~3,174 people. A few less deer. A neighbor with Owls. Nobody has successful gardens or small pets. 1 Stoplight referred to as "The Stoplight." 1 hardware store. 1 Sports Store with sports stuff in it. 1 Sports Store with dead animals in it. 4 - 7 restaurants (hard to pin down an exact number - like cockroaches). 3 Hot Springs. 2 Parks. 1 Cultural Center. 2 Grocery Stores. 2 or fewer police cruisers on duty at any one time. Rafting. Floating. Golf. A hill behind my back yard and that's all there is back there. Buffalo. Cheap poultry and expensive fruit. 1 movie theater. And finally, one video store that has every episode of The Waltons on VHS. God Bless 'Merica!

That 1 Guy

2010-05-22T10:38:00.000-06:00

I went to Ft Collins last night to see That 1 Guy. Fun concert. This guy BUILT his own instrument with steel pipes and bass strings. He's like a 1 man blue man group that didn't have to blue himself! Also, he played an electric sampled cowboy boot. A BOOT! THE MAN PLAYED A GOD DAMN BOOT!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XHt32UVqLk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wGMsOhaPJs

Potshot Ambition: Coffee Shop Weekdays, Hardware Weekends.

2010-04-06T20:18:00.000-06:00

Just living the dream. Finals is in 4 weeks and includes lots of stuff. I'm pretty sure I'm going to sweat caffeine again. Soooo, that will be fun (see Caffeine Pit Stains).

I other news, the house I was buying FINALLY closed. There is a picture below. It isn't really big, but it's big enough, and close enough to stumble hungover to campus instead of driving to school drunk first thing in the morning when circumstances require. I'm sure there were some mothers out there pretty MADD about that.

The inside had an interesting color scheme. It screamed "I just finished my first semester of my AA in Graphic Design and finished a Home Depot workshop on color schemes so I'm going to wing it!" There was a pink room, a yellow room, and 2 rooms that were their own unique flavor of vomit (one yager, one tequilla). You'd be amazed at how quickly 10 or 11 drunk grad students can paint the inside of a house! I got to buy a drill, a rake, and a couple other fun implements of destruction. Shades in the mail tomorrow.

And by the way - when did Home Depot start sucking? I'm looking for... lets call it a dowel-pin-nut-thing. I show up to the appropriate portion of the store saying to myself "Self, surely someone here can identify this!" The lady there didn't know a nut from a bolt let alone what this thing was called or where in the mile long stretch of shiny stuff hanging on the wall to find my little toy. "You were wrong, self. And don't call me Shirley." Next task: A Drill. I have a 12v battery and no charger. I show up to the drill section while I wait for Rip VanWinkle to tell me they don't carry a battery charger for my drill and that he doesn't know anything about batteries, drills, or chargers anyway. Fail. I bought a rake and decide to go home.

Something Funny

2010-01-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

I thought of something I thought was really funny today, but forgot it. My brain was mush today after an hour of Neuroscience and 2 hours of MAP 2.

Beardface

2009-12-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

I grew out my facial hair for 2 and a half months and then decided to style a new beard for every day of finals. Survived finals one day one beard at a time. For your viewing pleasure:

Patriot Act

2009-12-21T01:30:00.001-07:00

Someone had terrible gas in the airplane. Where's the patriot act when you need it?

Prepare the colon to return fire!

The whole plane sat on the tarmac for at least 15 minutes after we landed in Medford Oregon because the people in the Tower (a glorified term for the two drunks with binoculars in a hunting stand) on top of the airport (another 18 cent word I'm using to describe the shed the hunting stand was sitting on) had apparently smelled the fart on the plane and were otherwise too incapacitated to direct the pilot to one of the 3 available gates for de-boarding. The pilot, paralyzed by the open ended math problem facing him, decided the best course of action was to sit with all of the passengers and wait for the tower to wake up from their shit coma.

Plane A leaves Denver traveling west at 326 mph for 2 hours and 43 minutes, arrives with 59 normal passengers and 1 carrying a polluted payload. Plane A comes to a complete stand still at soon to be shit-stained airport. What is the difference between the captain's capacity for spatial reasoning and the passengers' perception of the passage of time as the limit of the passengers' tolerance for fecal math jokes approaches zero?

Shaking like a Rockstar

2009-12-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

It's been 9 days since my last sip of a caffeinated drink. Prior to that (see my previous post) I was drinking a lot of coffee. Lots. Too much. I know that because my headache went away.

Today I was walking through Denver International Airport. My flight from Denver to SF was delayed an hour, which would have put me in a major crunch to get on my flight to Medford, OR. The airline gods are on my side today. 1 seat available on a direct flight to Medford? Check. After a satisfy interaction with the airplane guy behind the desk, I got to march a mile to the new gate. On my journey I stumbled across a ROCKSTAR energy drink.

It's hard to describe exactly how I felt about seeing this. I do not need energy to fly. In fact, I would rather drink a beer or two (or 6) and get on the plane and sleep for a couple hours. I'm not a particularly nervous flyer, but sometimes if I act that way I can get extra booze for free on the airplanes. Something different about today. The rockstar. I don't need any caffeine. I don't need energy, awareness, increase HR, shakes, or the diuretic effect of caffeine prior to boarding my flight.

It's calling my name. I bought it. Drank it. Now I'm sitting at my gate waiting (and now shaking). The feeling I got when I saw the drink (I'm bad at telling stories) was happiness. I know exactly what the physiological response to this drink is supposed to be. I know that I'm going to shake, and eventually crash. But all I can think, looking at the rockstar, is that drinking it is going to make me happy. Satisified? Thirst Quenched? Energetic? NAY. Looking at the Rockstar made me feel fucking euphoric.

Anyone know where I can score some cocaine?

Caffeine Pit Stains

2009-12-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

It's the end of finals week. Strung out and tired for nearly 3 weeks of studying like a maniac. Bags under my eyes. Stacks of neglected laundry, mail, dirty dishes. Mountains of rewritten notes, drawings, textbooks, photocopies. A whole tree's worth of paper in the trash can. Pens and pencils stashed in every coat, pants, and backpack pocket of every pants, coat and backpack I own. Broke. Scraping by on what's left of ego waffles and campbell's soup. 1 more exam left. Functioning purely on instinct and caffeine. I'm practically sweating coffee. It's ridiculous but I'm here because I believe in what I'm doing. This is going to pay off. I'm here for a reason. One more exam.

Steve McQueen

2009-09-09T19:19:00.000-06:00

I was thinking I wanted to get a model of a human skeleton. Probably not a full sized skeleton - I don't even want to think about shipping costs... A half sized skeleton would do just fine, but accurately proportioned and molded with all the appropriate bony landmarks so it could be used for studying should I ever feel so inclined. It's hard to say whether or not I would actually use it to study. The real reason I want a skeleton is so that I can name something and introduce it to people who come to visit my dungeon apartment. Steve McQueen. Ashlee suggested Boris Karloff. That is a good one too.

I'm putting this on my "Things I want for Christmas" list.

All I want for Christmas is hypertrophy of my rectus abdominus.

A cool article on Forecasting the cost of Healthcare in the US

2009-09-09T19:17:00.000-06:00

http://www.american.com/archive/2009/september/forecasting-the-cost-of-u-s-healthcare

A good read if you get time. No conclusions drawn, but something worth thinking about.

@ Regis

2009-09-07T20:17:00.001-06:00

Beginning of week 3 and already every time I am out of line of sight of my books I start to feel a lot of anxiety. I don't even have them open all the time, but if I'm not around I feel like I have a weight on my chest. This is unhealthy. My goal for Week 4 is to study hard and start creating balance. I need to start riding my bike again. Baby steps, I guess.

On a more positive note - I did spend this last weekend as the best man at a very good friend's wedding in Havre MT. It was a long way away from most of my books, but I brought enough homework help me forget any homework-related anxiety. I got to spend the rest of labor day weekend driving to Bozeman singing Flight of the Conchords songs and nursing hangovers. I needed the break after my first two full weeks of grad school, but I have a lot of catching up to do from missing Friday.

I am also going to maintain this blog a little more faithfully. This is partially in case anybody actually reads, and every once in a while to keep myself in check and to make sure I'm doing the things I set out to do. It's like a journal - but not as private, and I might get to crack some good jokes and rant about something every once in a while. -d

Removing the Northstar Engine on a 97 Cadillac Deville Concours.

2009-06-07T12:27:00.000-06:00

It's like legos but I swear a lot more...

So I said to myself "Self, what you need is something complicated to do for the next couple months. You should buy this second car and sell chunks of it to people and keep what you need for your own car."

This was a bear of a job that took me a few days less than I thought it would. Still, no easy task here. The broken engine came out and a man bought it for $300. Success!

This is what it looks like before you start pulling all the stuff off. There is NOT a lot of room to work with here. There are 2 ways to remove the engine, lifting it out of the car, or lifting the car off of the engine. The second option is the preferred way to do it. Guess what way I'm NOT doing it...

Air intake has to come off with lots of ground wires and the ignition core, spark plug wires, and lots of other junk. Mostly this is to access the starter, whic his in the CENTER OF THE FREAKING ENGINE BLOCK. What drunk asshole engineer at GM thought that would be a good idea?

Zero clearence. It's a tight freaking job - and nobody should have to do it.

The starter goes in that big hole in the middle.

With the starter gone, I could disconnect the flywheel from the transmission, and then eventually the transmission from the engine.

There is a bracket that connects to this son of a bitchin' thing to the transmission that I had NO IDEA existed. Imagine my suprise when I finally started lifting the engine and the whole car started going into the air. Anyway, don't forget this little guy.

Aaannnnnndddd PRESTO! You too, can remove the Northstar from your cadillac using some simple hand tools, a freaking crane, foul language, and some kinves. After that, you might consider putting easter eggs in it, or lighting it on fire. I hate this engine. Enjoy.

Questions, comments, concerns?

Denver for Denver

2009-05-13T17:36:00.001-06:00

My Decision (drum roll)...........................................................

in DENVER!

Don't worry, this doesn't mean I'm going to start acting Catholic...

As of August 24, 2009, Denver P. Lancaster (me!) begins his last scholastic push to get more letters behind his name. And, he's doing it in Denver. DPL, DPT, BS. I don't know if the order of that is right or not. I'm sure they're going to tell me when I get to school. They'd better, for the 100K it's going to cost me to attend their private school. Regis University is where I plan on attending school for 33 months beginning in August, and ending in my eventual burn out. It should be a lot of fun... When I am finished, I plan on making my lisence plate DPL-DPT, getting rich, and running for office in Denver with the slogan "Denver for Denver!" I can't lose. You can start donating to my campaign now by sending money via paypal to denver.like.the.state@gmail.com. More on my campaign to come but for now, pictures of my trip to Denver.

The St. Regis, the patron saint of social workers for helping poor people and prostitutes. My dad is going to be so pround of me.

This is where I will attend Sunday Mass.

Shortly after my interview, I met some Canadians. I told them a Canada joke they didn't think was funny, but they were nice enough so we all got drunk and I forgot a bunch of stuff. Good times.

BONUS:

Campaign Slogan Contest!!!!!!! Post your own ideas for posters/lawn signs/slogans for my campaign for mayor for Denver, CO as a comment to this post. The person whose comment I believe is the best fit for my campaign will recieve a picture of ME, autographed and printed (black and white) from my HP Deskjet printer.

I am Denver Lancaster, and I approve this message.

In my travels, I witnessed many remarkably dull things.

2009-04-17T08:31:00.000-06:00

Goal #1 Revisited...

Applications went out in November and December for 6 physical therapy graduate schools. They are as follows: Columbia University, The Mayo Clinic, Regis University, University of Washington, University of Montana, and University of Puget Sound. Thank god for the PTCAS. It is a centralized application service for physical therapy school applicants. It made the whole application process extremely easy, as long as you mail your transcripts in early.

A few weeks later I heard from most of the schools (except for UW and UM). I was offeredinterviews at 3 of the schools in this order: Columbia (NY), Regis (CO), and Mayo (MN). Shortly after receiving interview confirmations, I drove to Havre, MT on a tip from my friend Jacob that I could have a suit tailored for half the cost of buying one in Bozeman. He was right. I bought a pretty slick suit, shoes, ties, pants, and a belt. This was expensive, but still slightly cheaper than the same package in Bozeman, even with gas for a 10 hour round trip commute. A few different people told me I look like Big in that photo - but I watch the movie and I assure you, I look WAY less creepy. I would really like to see that same in some creepy B Horror movie. I think it would be a great fit.

Next came the inverviews which I have described below. There are some pictures for your viewing entertainment.

Columbia University, New York, NY - Rejected

Dr. Dr. Dr. K: "Lets go ahead and start this interview."

Denver: "Okay!"

Dr. Dr. Dr. K: "I'm reading through your application here and your GRE scores appear to be very low, especially your writing score. Lets talk about that. I mean, tell me about that."

Denver: "-------"

All right, motherfucker, lets do this. I can only describe the 20 minutes following Dr. Dr. Dr. K's opening question/comment/concern as an academic sodomy. It was bad. The whole interivew was more of an inquisition into my academic inadequacy as a candidate for their program. 3 months later, I received a letter in the mail that said "Thank you.....we regret to inform you that our admission committee has failed to act favorably on your application to our physical therapy program." FAIL. But I got some neat pictures, I think.

New york was fun, and big. The only people who seemed to communicate with strangers or one another were the dogs and the cabs. Dogs barked and cabs honked their horns. I would venture to predict that judging the relative importance and general hierarchy of lifeforms in NYC can be based on 2 criteria: (1)the number of parts contacting the ground and, (2) the relative size to other lifeforms. Cars, being the largest lifeforms and with 4 contacts, are clearly the dominant species. This is evident by observing their high speed and blatant disregard for ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING in their paths. Right below that is dogs who also make 4 contacts to the ground, but are clearly smaller than most humans. The exception to the height predictor comes from observation. Dogs lead humans around the city by leashes, deficate and urinate wherever they please while it is the human's job to clean up, and bark at any god damn thing they please, without fear of reprisal. Next down the list is humans, and below that is pigeons. Somewhat harder to classify are the cyclists - who appear to be going through an identity crisis. They are not humans, or vehicles, yet travel on both paths and are loathed by both humans and vehicles.

This lady on the left is standing in the water with an arm on fire. This person on the right is taking a picture of an ugly round thing surrounded by grass. I felt it would make me MORE of a tourist to take a picture of a tourist taking a picture of something obscure in NYC. I am the king tourist. I own that look.

And to your left, there is a statue of a bird with tall buildings behind it. Also pictured, next to the bird, is another tall building. I'm sure it has a name, I just don't care what it is.

This picture was taken in TIMES SQUARE!!!1woot1!11one!!! Right after I took this picture, a complete fucking stranger walked by and hit me in the ear. I shit you not, I got deliberately HIT in the FUCKING EAR! This is bullshit.

ihateny

The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN - Waitlisted

The mayo clinic was by far the most impressive "campus" I have ever been on. Their facilities are incredible, their fitness center was like something out of a utopia movie. The interview to get into their school was very hard. It was strictly behavioral in its approach. The idea behind behavorial interviews is that the best predictor of future performance is past performance, so all of the questions are situationally specific. To prepare for this, I read through several of my resumes, and spent a considerable amount of time thinking about past jobs and stressful situations I had been in. This helped a little bit with my thought processes, but did not prepare me for any of the questions specifically. The interviewers said hello, told me their names, explained that I was going to get 5 questions, asked me 5 questions, then thanked me for my time and sent me away.

While I was in Rochester, and NY for that matter, I used a website called Couchsurfing.com to seek out accomidations for my travels. When I describe it, people think it sounds shady, but I assure you it isn't. It's a hospitality network, of sorts, with an feedback and reporting system so you can see who has and hasn't hosted guests, and how they were as a host or guest. Very cool. The two people directly to my right hosted me in Rochester and were more than accomidating. We went gambling togehter! Good times... My host in NYC was also very good, as well, and showed me around downtown NY (i think that's where I was). The picture on the left is of the front doors of The Mayo Clinic. The whole thing is amazing.

University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA - Accepted!

There isn't any really cool story here except when I flew to Seattle I forgot my debit and credit cards, and only had $40 on hand after I arrived in the city. Oops. I was rescued by friends though, and thanks anyone who talked to me while I was in the airport bored and alone. Edwin saved my life the first night, we had nachos, beers, and visited chopsticks - a sweet ass bar with "dualing" pianos" (Picture 1). That was probably the coolest thing. I got a little bit drunk and ate too many spicy things. The next day, I visited U of Puget Sound. There was no interview - I appliced and got a letter a 2 months later letting me know I had been accepted to their school. The purpose of this visit was for me to assess my own interest in attending. BEAUTIFUL campus (Picture 2), except the PT school. Everyone was very friendly, and it was a comfortable setting, but something - I can't put my finger on it exactly - told me this wasn't the place for me. I have to go with my gut on this one.

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around a few blocks away from UPS in search of US Bank. I found one, acquired money to fund the next 3 days, and took my life in my own hands riding Tacoma's public transportation system: Sound Transit. Bullshit. The whole thing. I was on busses for 4 hours trying to get 25 miles. The busses run stupid routs and stupid times and stop running early, and I didn't really know where I was or where I was going. I got back to Edwin's place, but hated the stench of Tacoma too much. I spent the rest of the weekend with Craig rooting for the Sounders, Michigan, and Arrested Development. Good times.

Chopsticks on the left, University of Puget Sound on the right.

I found this guy while I was wandering around looking for a US Bank. I liked his hat, and asked if he would be my friend. We shook hands and the rest is history.

Columbia University - Rejected

University of Washington - Waitlisted

University of Montana - Waitlisted

The Mayo Clinic - Waitlisted

Regis University - Accepted

University of Puget Sound - Accepted

Where on earth is...

2008-09-29T00:05:00.001-06:00

Sunday: Scavenger Hunt Day.

Every once in a while a friend (JaNaie') throws a scavenger hunt. It's a pretty big deal... She has a flow chart she uses to keep track of where people are, and what clues each group is supposed to find and in what order... Fun times. We finished the day at Columbo's eating pizza, drinking beer, and playing the video games there until Colt broke them. Ruined our fun, AND ruined the fun of every child in the room. Thanks, Colt.

The Team fresh out of Hastings. On to the next clue! On the right, we're putting together one of our clues...

Hunting in the bowling alley. Colt got a strike on the first try and Whitney had to take a picture of the score.

Clue: impossible to find because it's in the wrong section children's book. We had to find a ball at the end of a tangled string on the car. Last pic is in the car.

Pics taken by cellphone.

COIT Tower

2008-09-21T19:47:00.000-06:00

Stacie and I went on a hike to COIT tower. Apparently some lady that was romantically involved with a fireman donated a bunch of money and some stupid tower to the city of SF. Not a lot of pictures of this, but I'll give it my best description.

Stacie insisted on going WAY out of the way to hike some stairs (like a million stairs) to get to this tower. There are a couple pictures from that. Once we got to the tower, there was a gift shop roughly the size of a shoe-box if it were wrapped around a tall garbage can (that would be the tower). You have to buy a ticket for a few dollars to go to the top of this mega-trash can.

Once yo uhave your ticket, you pile into an elevator roughly the size of a toe nail (sticking with the trash-can/shoebox analogy scaling). Standing room only. You'd better have good breath or keep your goddamn mouth shut. The tour guide rambled on about the history of the trash can, but I couldn't understand a word of it. His breath was't very good either.

Once you reach the top of the elevator, you have to go up a spiral flight of stairs - more stairs... Along the way, you pass by all the other people that got to the top of the trash can, and decided they wanted to go back down. This line is a long line. It's nice they give you something to look forward to...

The rim of the can: big windows, extremely crowded with both tourists trying to get a good view of the fog and people who saw the fog waiting in line to go back down the elevator. FAIL. We looked around, elbowed a bunch of people, laughed at some people doing Segway Tours, and then got in line to go back down. The tour guide had a second speech for the trip back down which was equally stinky and muddled.

We left the tower in search of Lombard Street. Stacie had the map and was reading it upside down. More walking... Apparently, Lombard street was on the EXACT OPPOSITE side of us...

Pictures:

Some rich person's back yard, and some other rich person's outside wall...

A view from the top.

Hey Stacie, find Lombard Street!!! "OOh, here it is!"

Exploratorium!

2008-09-21T17:15:00.000-06:00

This was a detour going across the bridge. Lots of fun to be had tinkering with things. I felt like a kid again, except taller, and disappointed at having to pay to get in (something I never did as a kid).

Standing outside the Exploratorium. Cool "us" pic on the left. Top right: Stacie trying to figure out her camera... On the bottom: Dogs walking Dogs. Not as cool as Dogs Playing Poker, but a good photo-op nonetheless.

Sitting on the blue seat, you can talk to someone on the other side of the room sitting in a similar blue seat. Doesn't sound cool, but the effect is neater than you think. Stacie did not appreciate some of the demos as much as others...

So we left for the rest of the Golden Gate.

Stacie and Denver do The Golden Gate

2008-09-21T00:30:00.001-06:00

One fateful Friday of my visit to SF was dedicated to bikes Stacie and I rented. We toured the piers, the Exploratorium (a HS science teacher's wet dream), biked the bridge, drank in Saucelito, waited in line for 4 hours to catch a ferry back to the city, returned the bikes, got in a fight which resulted in the only 5 peaceful minutes of my entire visit to SF, found Safeway, showered, got drunk, had my pizza stolen, and finally passed out after finding Stacie's apartment without using a map or a compass (a god damned miracle).

The bridge from a distance. This is near when we started our little journey.

And we're off!!! Neat picture of a park, also, Stacie riding along the bay. No pigeons were harmed biking this day.

My favorite picture of the bridge.

The bridge up close... You can only see 3 people now, but there was a serious opportunity to rack up an impressive body count biking down that narrow path... Our situation got desperate, as Stacie demonstrates reaching for the "Don't jump, somebody cares about you." The prospect of drinking in a new town was enough to keep us going...

This is the only real photo taken in Saucelito. Another one exists on my phone, but it is very poor quality. This was a very brave pigeon, needless to say, so I took his picture. He wandered around in the sandwich shop where we ate and made his way behind the counter eating scraps off the floor. I'm sure this was in some violation of a health code, but it would have been a shame to stop him, having worked so hard to get back there...

The great bicycle bell protest of 2008. Waiting in line for 4 hours to ride a ferry back into the city. The ferry was not accepting bicyclists. The line to get on the ferry was several hundred bikers long. We protested the only appropriate way we knew how. When that was ignored, we resorted to boo's, angry yelling, and re-routing non cyclists (who were given priority) to a different line entirely.

We did finally get on the ferry to go back to the city. In these photos, Stacie demonstrates the meaning of "photogenic." Nice. Also, a lovely view of the bridge from the Ferry.

I couldn't resist adding this one...

Alcatraz and the city from the ferry.

Happiest 20 minutes of the day - trying to get off the ferry.

Sadly, there aren't any other pictures from the rest of the day. The short version is I got annoyed and told Stacie she couldn't talk to me. I found Safeway. We both got drunk. I cock-blocked Stacie. Stacie stole my pizza. I got frumpy, angry, and disoriented. Stacie and I were drunk and yelling at each other. I ended up back at her place but don't remember how. Went inside and passed out.

Denver and Stacie Do Alcatraz

2008-09-21T00:10:00.001-06:00

I was bored one afternoon at work, and found a ride on craigslist headed to SF. Found another one headed back to MT later in the week. Thursday night I called the guy headed to SF, Friday I found coverage at work. Saturday I typed out a To-Do list for the guy covering me. I was gone on Sunday, and drinking coffee with Stacie Monday morning.

First thing's first... Lets get drunk and go to Alcatraz! We are most definitely anti-prohibition.

Next stop, The Rock!

The ferry captain told us "If you two stand out in front like that you will get wet!" We took funny pictures and DARED him to soak us.

Famous last words: "You know, for warning us about getting wet, I'm REALLY dry right n...*SPLASH*" We were splashed several times after the initial spraying, and remained outside until the salty wet was too much to deal with. We were almost to the door to get inside and got NAILED by the biggest wave yet. We didn't stop laughing for 10 minutes.

As you can see, Stacie was still wet upon incarceration. I've been trying to think of a good caption for this picture and only came up with "You must be 56" tall (the green line) to go on the tour." and "Welcome to OZ bitch!"

Misc pics from inside Alcatraz. In the picture on the top right, I was learning something. Top left is a cell (a guest bedroom of sorts). The bottom left is a view of the solitary confinement cells. Bottom right is the playground. This is where the inmates were allowed to play kickball, four-square, handball, and their own special version of UFC.

Thug Life with a view...

More misc pictures. No good captions. Ending the tour and headed back to the city. We sat on the back of the ferry this time, and didn't get wet.

Stacie and I were CLEARLY drunk and loving life when this picture was taken. Standing in ferry line to get to The Rock, the tour people take pictures of you against a background showing the island.

Tour Tickets: ?? (Stacie paid...)
Beers: $18
Pre-Tour Pictures: $22
Ending the tour by taking a picture OF a $22 picture, re-racking the picture and calling everyone else standing in line waiting to pay $22 for a picture suckers: Priceless.

Pond-Water and Athlete's Foot Stew

2008-07-19T19:10:00.000-06:00

I finished my second Sprint Triathlon. My overall time was 1:42:15. Not quite the 25 faster (see below) I was aiming for, but there was significant improvement in every event, which is very satisfying. My goal - aside from moving quicker, was to work a lot harder than the first time, too (makes sense, right?). This was also accomplished as was evident from the terrible jaw cramp I got trying to chew a bagel after the race. It was painful, but satisfying and fulfilling in a way I didn't think was possible from a bagel. I'm happy about my performance but still have a lot of room for improvement.

Total: 1:42:15
Swim Time: 0:24:34
Bike Time: 0:40:00
Run Time 0:33:40
T1 0:02:10
T2 0:01:51

The first tri swim I did was 800 meters, and I did it in 21:32. The second swim was 1000 meters and I did that in 24:34 minutes. Adjusted for the distance and lack of turn and push-offs, I would like to say I moved about 3 minutes faster swimming than last time. My total transition time was 4:01 minutes, this is 2:14 minutes faster transitioning. I was exactly 6:18 minutes faster biking. And finally, the biggest improvement was 8:38 minutes faster running.

All this for a total improvement of 20 Minutes and 10 Seconds faster than my first triathlon. Only 5 minutes shy of my original goal.

My next goal is to finish 10 minutes faster than this last triathlon. Again, I have a feeling the largest improvement will come from running - I'm seeing an orthopedist to get rid of some knee pain problems I have been living with for a while. Free from pain, I will be able to train a lot harder and move a lot faster.

Training Log Graphs:

Tri Pic

2008-07-13T12:00:00.001-06:00

Buff and Lancaster at Spring Meadow lake.

Tri Pic

2008-07-13T11:32:00.001-06:00

Resting in the shade.

Tri Pic

2008-07-13T11:29:00.001-06:00

Jaw cramps trying to eat a eat a bagel after the race... WTF?

How You Doin'?

2008-07-04T21:37:00.001-06:00

This is my first race since my triathlon. It's only a 5k run but it was a good one for me. 32 minutes(10 minutes faster than last time!) with an average heart rate of 170 and 180 max. Knee pain was manageable. July 13th - Bring on the next Tri!!

From Perfect-Timing.org:

There were 8 finishers in the Male 20 to 29 age group and
80 finishers in your distance. A total of 179 runners signed
up for the inaugural race.

Your overall finish place was 57 and your age group finish place
was 7. Your overall finish percentile was 71 while your age group
percentile was 88. Your time of 32:19.1 gave you a 10:25 pace per mile.

My Big Fat Triathlon

2008-06-02T20:37:00.000-06:00

I Tri'd My Best...

Technically, it was a Sprint Triathlon - a shorter faster version of an Olympic length triathlon. Sprint = 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. First and foremost, I did not cry before or after the finish line. I did a lot of sweating and that may have looked like crying but I assure it was only my skin crying from exhaustion.

My second, although previously unstated, goal was to get some profound insight into my soul, a deeper understanding of myself and my ambitions in life, or at the very least an overpowering sense of self satisfaction from competing something that only a year ago would have been enough to scare me into getting really hammered and I don't know... Drive around or something. In this regard, upon crossing the finish line resulted in complete and utter failure but not total dissatisfaction. My friend Mark Lancaster (no relation) told me he started running and didn't get that clarity/satisfaction/deeper understanding for a long time after he started running, so I am going to trust his wisdom (since it has helped me on more than one occasion) and go ahead and keep at it...

The one thing I did get at the finish line was complete and utter exhaustion. I had swam 1/2 mile faster than I've ever swam before (21 minutes - grease lightening if your name is Denver), biked 10 miles and hit the wall so to speak for miles 10-12 (46 minutes) and got off my bike and tried to run a total of 3 miles (42 minutes - long story). Every muscle and joint I used in the previous 2 hours hurt. It was either cramped, completely limp, or it just hurt. It was the most miserable I can remember feeling in a LONG time. I hated it. I'm going to do it again in 5 weeks.

Swim 21:32
Bike 46:18
Run 42:18
Transition 6:15

The Plan
This race served as a good starting point. My swim can be improved dramatically if I can build the endurance to swim continually and turn around effeciently. As it is, I get to the end of the pool, stand up, cough up a lot of water, breathe, and jump back in and go. Biking can be improved by starting a real training routine instead of going out once or twice a week for 12 miles and riding until my legs hurt, then whining some more - so my plan is to begin a structured bicycling exercise routine. Running - this was truly a pathetic low for me for more reasons than I care to count. One thing I wasn't read for was knee pain. I had a surgery a year ago on my left knee. After the first mile of running (very slow) my knee started to hurt - it got to a point where I had to walk until the pain went away and jog again. Unfortunately this didn't even allow me to run hard or long enough to get my heart rate up - SO, one of my biggest goals in the next 5 weeks is to strength train my left knee and hopefully run and condition it to a point where there is no pain running. My transition time was also pathetic - so I will work on cutting this in half. My goal for for my next triathlon is to finish 25 minutes faster than the first - most of this will come from running. My goal is to maintain at least a 10min/mile pace.

Below are some pictures... Click on the image to make it larger. Camera work is fuzzy - I blame Dave Conners.

Very quickly, my bike (again if you missed the first time) and my slow turn.

Too bad I couldn't keep that thumbs-up attitude through the entire race...

These two are going on my resume for Baywatch.

Go Denver!!

-d

Gagging on dirty gulps of irony...

2008-05-30T21:40:00.000-06:00

I'd be lying if I said I'm not nervous about my upcoming triathlon. Physically I'm mostly unprepared. I'm not even worried about the transitions between events, I'll shed no tears over 30 seconds lost not finding the most efficient way to go from swimming, to biking, to puking, to running, to puking, crying, and finally collapse.

I've always enjoyed swimming, until I did it for exercise... It's not something I ever thought I could break a sweat doing - regardless of how fast I flailed my arms or how much water I swallowed. Luckily the water at The Ridge tastes like a combination between week old dishwater and sweat. Something about natural water cleaners instead of chlorine... I've been swimming a lot (nightly for 2 weeks) trying to get my strokes, kicking, and breathing all in sync. It gets better every night. Still, I can't help but wonder how much easier it would be to learn if my eyes burned instead trying to swim constantly gagging on salty dishwater.

The biking is going well... I should be able to crank out 12 miles in about 40 minutes - which for me will be a very swift pace.

Running: who the hell knows. I've been doing my First Day to 5K intervals for 10 weeks now - but I've done all the work on a treadmill. I went for a few runs, nothing significant. Two nights ago I went on a 2.5 mile run (the competition is 3.1) and I thought I was going to die. Treadmill running doesn't translate to real running very well at all. I'm sure when it comes time to run - trained or not - I'm going to be exhausted from biking and swimming. Here's hoping I don't puke my guts out!!!

I hope that when this is all over I have a brief moment of clarity that will allow me to reflect on this whole thing in a different and motivating light. The only real goal I've set in the last couple weeks is that I want to cross the finish line without crying like a baby. Wish me luck!!!

Below is a couple graphs from my training log... So far, since learning the exact date of my own personal apocalypse, I've significantly ramped things up - both in intensity and duration. If I had any sense - before my next event, I will train the same amount of time (and more) but keep most of it in Zone 1 (blue) and gradually ease into more rigorous Zone 2 (Red) and Zone 3 (Yellow) exercise bouts, decreasing duration as intensity increases.

A rash decision...

2008-05-22T20:59:00.000-06:00

I made a rash decision two nights ago and decided to sign up for a mini-triathlon. Specifically, it is the Queen City Traithlon - in Helena, MT. 1/4 swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. This was the shortest possible triathlon I could find - and I'm most scared of the swimming. It's been a while since I've been in a pool so I've decided to use my free membership to The Ridge to try to learn how to swim. Not so rash when you look at it that way, right? The Triathlon is June 1 (which gives me less than 10 days to train) and let's just say I haven't be spot on doing my running intervals lately. It should be interesting however it works out. Stay tuned...

My Newest Toy

2008-05-12T16:56:00.001-06:00

I bought this new plaything at Summit Bike Shop in Bozeman, MT. It will take me about 4 months of riding to work and back before i start saving money on gas - 2 or 3 months if prices keep rising :). I have plans for this bike - I really do. I'm going to start doing some of the nightly rides the some of the bike clubs and shops put on, and hopefully do a couple longer tours this summer, as well as a triathlon or two - I would really like to be fit enough for a big triathlon at the end of the summer. Wish me luck!!!

And the winner is...

2008-05-09T17:10:00.001-06:00

This is Lucelle. She is the winner of the 1st ever Springmeadows Wii Golf Tournament. GO LUCELLE!

The salty dew of success...

2008-05-05T18:39:00.000-06:00

I've been exercising pretty regularly these last few weeks. My physical activity level (and weight) has fluctuated some since my original few posts about losing weight. I said I wanted to exercise X number of hours/wk and start doing plyometrics and other such things. None of it panned out. I turned out to be a lazier bum than I expected and shortly after those posts, I stopped exercising all together. Took a couple weeks off. It was a mistake and set me back in a few ways.

I'm back at it now - and I HAVE BEEN SWEATING A LOT with a new program. I have been running. I started out running as long as I could at a slow pace... I was going about 5 minutes at 5.5 MPH to start with. I think the farthest I ran to start out with was under a mile. My HR creeped up to high 170's, low 180's. After I got a little endurance built up, I started a more scripted interval program I found as a podcast. It's called Podrunners Intervals: First day to 5K.

I've been following the program the best I can in terms of actually getting off my butt to exercise. I do it 3 days a week for around 30 minutes. On the off-days, I try to get to the gym for at least 30-40 minutes of very light biking or stepping on the eliptical machine. So far it's a really motivating program. I can run a couple miles now, nonstop and my heartrate doesn't go over 165 running at 6.5 MPH (a huge success). I recommend anyone who wants to get into running to give this a shot, it's worked out very well for me. Also, my total weight went from about 252 lbs to 235 lbs. I haven't noticed a huge decrease in the way I look, but I've gone down a beltloop on my pants and I feel like I have more energy during the day. I will keep you posted. This week is supposed to be my first non-stop run. It should be fun (jk).

2008-05-01T18:30:00.001-06:00

From the back...

2008-05-01T18:27:00.001-06:00

2008-05-01T18:24:00.001-06:00

Round 2!

2008-05-01T18:12:00.001-06:00

The back nine...

2008-05-01T17:46:00.001-06:00

Tire

2008-04-16T23:46:00.001-06:00

This is the rim of a tire. Thought it was cool that the ice went in every direction like it did.

I am...

2008-04-15T18:19:00.000-06:00

...completely unsatisfied with the things I am doing with my life right now. Time for a change.

Stay tuned.

For Cady

2008-04-15T12:57:00.001-06:00

A picture of the beetle hood hanging in the garage.