Meet Mable...

Mable was born on Dec. 27th. She is an English Mastiff. As of the end of July, she's 7 months old and nearing 70 lbs.  She enjoys long walks, drooling, having her belly scratched, and chewing on anything she can sink her little teeth into.  She is the cause of at least 30% of the anxiety in my life.  Ins't she cute? 

 Watch closely, you're going to see that chair again.

How bad could she be? 

She's just a puppy, right?

.

97 Cadillac Deville Alternator Removal

What goes in, must come out...

 I took the alternator out of my cadillac deville myself. I don't hate myself and I wasn't looking for a challenge. I was just broke. The instructions are as follows:

REMOVE OR DISCONNECT
Negative battery cable
Serpentine belt.
Upper front bolt. 
Raise vehicle.
Front engine splash shield.
Radiator support access panel.
 Loosen rear generator bracket from engine.
Remove top bolt.
Front lower bolt.
Lower rear bolt.
Upper rear bolt.
Duct from back of generator.
Electrical connections.
Regulator,
Battery output,
Heated windshield (if equipped).
Front generator/ A/C bracket.
Rotate generator and remove.


Rotate the generator and remove.  


Rotate the generator and remove.  

Okay.  Sure.  Rotate and... rotate and... wtf?!  So I toyed with it, and decided to make a video for posterity.  This is the alternator of a 1997 Cadillac Deville coming out of the bottom of the car.  No radiator removal required.  I apologize in advance for the swearing.

A few days later, my AC compressor clutch seized up.  Luckily, I had purchased the wrong length serpentine belt (when replacing the radiator) - which was just long enough to go through the engine without including the AC compressor.   Who's got 2 thumbs and not getting stuck in Midland, Tx?  This guy.

-d

Post NPTE Plans

Reading List 7/25/12 

Just a quick overview of the things going in (and likely out) of my head these days. Also, observe my "On The Docket" list. I am looking for suggestions for good fiction. I LOVED Enders Game. I felt like the Hunger Games were good stories but the writing felt... annoying at times? Anyway, I'm looking for more Fiction to add to this list. Hit me with something deep, folks!  Right now I'm hiding "You are Not So Smart" from myself until I pass the NPTE.  It's like a mental playground of cognitive biases and delusions. 

Just Finished: 

• Enders Game - Card 
• Autobiography of Ben Franklin 
• Atlas of Human Anatomy - Netter 
• Hunger Games 1, 2, and 3. 

In Progress: 

• Scorebuilders PTEXAM Study Guide - Ta' Devil! 
• Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Kuhn 
• You Are Not So Smart - McRaney 
• A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness - Ghaemi 

On the Docket: 

• All The Strange Hours - Loren Eiseley
• Start with WHY - Sinek 
• Doctors: The Biography of Medicine - Nuland 
• The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives - Mlodinow 
• Ready Player One - Cline 
• How Doctors Think - Groopmman 
• Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Aspergers - Robinson 
• Second Opinions - Groopman 
• One for the Money - Evanovich
• Every Patient Tells a Story - Sanders 
• The Fifth Discipline - Senge
• Hippocrates Shadow - Newman 
• Consciousness Explained - Dennett 
• Death of the Guilds - Krause 
• The Best Practice - Kenney 
• The Black Swan: Impact of Highly Improbable - Taleb 
• Dan Brown Books -  The Da Vinci Code
• Checklist Manifesto - Gawande 
• Blink - Gladwell (re-read) 
• One Step at a Time - Bliell 
• Courage to Teach - Palmer
• The Seven Laws of Magical Thinking.. - Hutson
• Blindness - Jose Saramago
• The Road - McCarthy
• The Postman - David Brin
• Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
• A Canticle for Leibowitz - Miller
• Alas, Babylon - Frank
• Z for Zachariah - O'Brien

PUBLISHED!

We are officially being published in Clinical Biomechanics for our graduate research.  This is great news!  Adding it to my CV.

Article title: Altered Muscle Recruitment During Extension from Trunk Flexion in Low Back Pain Developers
Reference: *********
Journal title: Clinical Biomechanics
Corresponding author: Dr. Erika Nelson-Wong
First author: Dr. Erika Nelson-Wong

Dear Dr. Nelson-Wong,

Please find attached a copy of the "Journal Publishing Agreement" which you completed online on 25-JUL-2012.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. To help us assist you, please quote our reference ******** in all correspondence.

We are committed to publishing your article as quickly as possible.


Yours sincerely,
Elsevier Author Support

Inter-professional pissing contest.

First and last time I'll ever engage in this conversation (I hope).


My friend @RGWooderson, sent me a link to a post by a physical therapist who has been in the profession a long time, and done a lot of cool stuff. You can read his CV on his website. He has been the CRO: Chief Revolutionary Officer since 2011 for a company he started - The Smart Life Project. Thank you Allen, for your insight into damned future of our profession. But who are you mad at? All I did was start applying to PT schools in 2008/2009.


You can read his post here: Was the DPT The Right Direction?


Here's the problem I have with it, more than anything. We're, as a profession, trying to elevate ourselves in the public's eyes and through legislation. Blog posts like his only hurt our profession. While he is spending an evening trying to start an interprofessional pissing contest (which I'm sure won't interest people in his "institute"), others among us will be working together to move forward.


Thomas Kuhn wrote a great book int he 60's and coined the term paradigm shift, discussing the history of science and how exactly competing ideologies came about, and came to die in the face of new world views. He quoted Max Plank (long story) in the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, saying "a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."


The conversation over the presence of DPT in the profession ended a while ago (whenever, I don't know). Taking time away to engage people who have already made up their mind about a topic isn't going to do anything but stir the professional pot, if you will. He's an old guy. He's treated 10,000 patients! He, and the rest like him, will be out of the profession and dead before I can even afford to retire.


Have a great week.


-d

After Thoughts...

This is a wordcloud that says more than I could about graduating from PT school.  I stole borrowed all of the facebook and twitter "congrats!" posts floating around the sidewebs and put them together for your viewing pleasure.

El mejor dia de me vida!

Those of you following me here may or may not know that I've graduated!  As of May 6th 2012 you may call me Denver Lancaster, Doctor of Physical Therapy.  Licensure exam scheduled for July 31st.  

 I thought about taking this time to reflect on 33 months of balls-out academic struggle and tom foolery.  Instead, I think I might just close the book on this one, and show off some fun pictures.

 

There was a party after graduation at Red Rocks!  It didn't hit me until I was leaving...  I spent more than a full time job's worth of hours every single week for 33 months with all of my classmates.  Got to know families, significant others.  Made a lot of friends.  Wasn't thinking, right at that moment, that I will never  be in the same place with all of them again.  Bitter-sweet. :)  Maybe it still hasn't hit me.  It was a good send off!  Parents got to meet friends, faculty.  I ate myself sick.

Carmen came, as well, and we posed for some photos.  Red Rocks is an amazing place.  I will have to make a point of going down there more frequently after I start working and making money.

I'd like to send out a great big generic thank you to everyone who helped me through this - especially family, and good friends (new and old), the counseling center, and modern pharmaceuticals. Thank you.