Booze'n'Bleach

I just shoot what I see.

Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope you're all taking it easy this week.

P.S. If you want to send me email, don't use my work address. I won't be checking that until January 8th(ish).

Swing comparisons

My golf swing is always changing - as a beginner I'm trying to learn the good habits before I get too many bad habits settled in. Here are two videos taken about 6 weeks apart. In the video from today I can see that I'm getting more weight onto my back leg (which the pro that teaches me keeps telling me to work on), my knees are no longer knocked in, there's less dip and lead with my left shoulder on the downswing, and for some reason it looks a lot more fluid. That might be because my legs are looser and move more naturally. The tempo is quite different too, probably for similar reasons. Today's video shows me swinging a 6 iron, and I didn't realise I got it so far around my body. The results of these changes are more consistent ball striking, straighter ball flight (if anything it goes to the right if not straight), and a longer carry of the ball in the air. There's much more to do, but I'm in no hurry.

Today. (A bit stiff from the cold and from running).

A month or so ago.

Exam Day

It's exam day today. I would wish all of our first year students good luck, but really I don't want luck to be a factor. I'd much rather that you had all done the work required to understand and store the information you'll need to demonstrate a good to high level of competency. If you see what I mean. Good luck anyway.

Hopefully the exam will not be as tough as many of you were expecting. This exam will be double marked by hand, and the results will not be available until mid-January so relax over Christmas and have a break. After speaking to most of you at yesterday afternoon's revision session many of you seemed to have a high level of understanding of many areas of the anatomy that we have studied.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

BBC condones file-sharing (with DRM!)

It looks like the BBC will make many of its programmes available to download from a third-party file-sharing site:

BBC article link.

1 more day

Only one more day to go before I start my holiday... I've had some new additions to my office recently, and very helpful they are too:

Big monitor, lots of pixels, lots of room. Everyone should have one, it makes working with multiple applications and windows so much faster.

Great big whiteboard. I never have enough whiteboard space to scribble on, draw diagrams explaining ideas and the such-like. I now seem to have the biggest whiteboard in Wales strapped to my wall.

iPod add-on 'fails' privacy test

What a load of rubbish. I cannot believe that the BBC are taking this seriously:

BBC article link.

This was slashdotted as a piece of research to be ridiculed weeks ago. In a nutshell, it says that one can intercept the information coming from a runner's shoe via the Nike iPod Sport Kit and in theory track a user with it. The shoe has an accelerometer and sends data wirelessy to the user's iPod, with which they can read useful run data.

According to the BBC, "The unique identifier could be tracked up to 20 metres away outdoors and at speeds up to 30 mph." Er, yes, but I can see someone further than 20 metres away with my own, naked eyes.

Also, "When someone is engaged in a workout with a sensor using a receiver attached to an iPod, a second receiver can detect the sensor transmitting its UID." Oh my God, someone could know how fast I was running! Oh, wait, I could see that with my eyes too. Oh, and the users of this system tend to share all this data with others around the world via a Nike website.

Apparently, "By concealing a few of the small custom-made receivers in select locations, the researchers showed how it would be possible to track someone's movements." Oh come on! If I run a 10km loop and you can only detect me within 20m, how many bloody custom-made receivers are you going to need? Most runners run the same routes week in and week out anyway, making tracking much easier by any other more boring method. How many receivers would you need to cover the whole city? This completely ignores the fact that the only time runners wear their running shoes is when they're running, so most of the time you'd be tracking me to the cupboard under the stairs, when in fact I am actually rather rarely in there.

"In the worst scenario suggested by the scientists, stalkers could use the tracking data to "engineer" encounters with victims." What a load of crap. Not only is it late by internet standards, but it has been written without any sign of thinking. Is this the aim, merely to report what others report? If so then please ignore the rubbish that doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

More rain

Today is the first Monday since August(ish) that we haven't been teaching anatomy. To commemorate this I thought I'd have a lie in, and read a book before starting work a little later than usual. It *is* late December after all. When I did get on my bike to cycle in, it started to rain. Heavily. I got absolutely soaked. Of course now I am at work the weather has improved, and there was no rain before I set off to work.

This is the sort of Sod's Law experience that makes you turn to religion. And is probably where vengeful Gods come from.

Christmas Pudding 10K

Yesterday I ran in the Christmas Pudding 10k "Challenge" (as the Brackla Harriers like to call it). As you can see, it was a proper cross-country 10km race with far too much sand (the race is infamous for its start up the largest sand dune in Europe). In lieu of a race report I've included a screenshot of my vitals during the race. The red line is my heart rate, the brown line the altitude, and the blue line my running speed. You'll notice that my heart rate is rather rapidly elevated from the start - that's the sand dune.

December Sun

We popped down to Caswell Bay today, as we've had the first day of blue sky in weeks. I took my camera:

School Play

Jack took part in his first Christmas school play this week, and we went to see it yesterday morning. Needless to say, it was ace. It had a nativity theme, but different classes dressed in the national costumes of different nationalities and sang a song and wished everyone Happy Christmas in that country's native language. Jack's class took the part of the Welsh. Kim shed tears.

The video of his part of the play is up on his website.

Fireman Jack

This is what we have at breakfast at the moment. Jack is currently heavily influenced by Fireman Sam.

Term 1 spotter questions

I've added the example musculoskeletal anatomy questions to the term 1 section on the medicine page. Remember that the real exam will not use multiple choice questions.

You are not prepared!

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Cinematic Intro

Haunted Cycle Route

Most evenings cycling home up the Clyne Valley cycle path, and particularly if I don't have my full beam on, I see the spectre of a ghostly jogger. At first I think I see a man running in the dark, ahead of my light, but I never catch him. He's wearing a light top, I can see the shape of his shoulders, and he's bobbing up and down as he runs. This occurs just after Killay. I have seen this phantom on at least three occasions.

Sure, I could apply the scientific method and test the hypothesis that in fact what I see is a light patch a long, long way ahead of me as the trees thin around the path before it reaches Dunvant, and that neither my eyes nor my brain work in quite the same manner in low light as they do in full light. I could stop my bike and see if the bobbing motion stops, and I could put on my full beam and see if that changes my perception. But then I wouldn't have a very interesting story, would I?

Christmas Pudding Race

I finally managed to get out for a short run today. I've not been running for about two and a half weeks, and I'm racing at Merthyr Mawr in the Brackla Harriers' annual Christmas Pudding 10K on Sunday. I had a throat infection last week and was just plain too busy the week before that, which is actually probably just a bad excuse as I'm supposed to put my own health and fitness on a level par with my work commitments these days. Nonetheless the result is that I'm struggling a little, with my 70% max HR pace delivering about 6:30min/km. Well, it is December, what do you expect? It's not like I'll be going for a time this weekend!

I ran in the Pembrey 10M multi-terrain race a few weeks ago with my brother and his girlfriend. I'd not been to the park before and it turned out to be a lovely route. We all very much enjoyed the course, even in the typical Swansea area weather. I hadn't raced for years and that race switched my mind back over to the old ways, so I entered the Pudding soon after. My brother and partner are now into next year's London Marathon.

Anyway, if any Swansea medical students are also running this weekend and need a lift, give me a shout. I know of one orthopaedic surgeon that will be running, and I wonder how many Cardiff Triathletes will be there?

Term 1 spotter questions

I've been putting together another selection of example online spotter questions for this term's anatomy teaching. Right now 10 questions about the gastrointestinal system are up and will soon be followed by a page of musculoskeletal questions. When they're all done I'll add an announcement to Blackboard.

They are multiple choice questions, and you'll get a score out of 10 at the bottom of the page when you score yourself. The aim is to give you an idea of how much information is staying in your brain after months of learning and weeks of revision. The questions are linked to from the Medicine page on the right hand side.

Christmas Do's

We had a teaching Christmas party last night on Wind St, and we went out for food and vodka shots. Well, the vodka shots weren't planned and I drove into town, so I stayed on the coffee. Bizarrely I appear to be the last one in work this morning after heavily oversleeping. I like drinking coffee and I may have had a little too much last night as I ended up reading my book until about 1.30am. Oops.

Bioengineering for bliss

Here's a use for bioengineering that I really hadn't thought of: creating rings from your own bone cells to give to your spouse after exchanging vows.

BBC article link.

Throat Infection

All week I've had a throat infection, and teaching for 3 hours on Monday morning didn't help.

It's on its way out now, but I have the most disgusting taste in my mouth. I hate to think how bad my breath must be. My tongue feels like it's in a petri dish. To combat this I'm drinking even more tea and coffee than usual, and that's saying something. Whisky would probably do a better job, but it wouldn't be so good for the rest of my head.

Christmas Skeleton

I pooped into the Anatomy Lab this morning and found this. Oi! My poor skeletons suffer like a cat with a toddler. It's a good job they're only plastic!

School

The School of Medicine by night.

Welcome to Hell

(Sainsbury's, Swansea)

Drawing