Happy Feet Across the Universe

From time to time at work I download beautiful images from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive. Check out this find, a short film about the inhabitants of earth.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

AuburnHouseConcerts.org

After a very busy and entertaining July (Notorious and Legacy) Sharon and I decided to jump all the way into to house concert pool and build a website.

AuburnHouseConcerts.org

I've moved all the pages from www.ElbowMagic.com to the new site an left jump pages behind to teleport people to the new domain.

Please bookmark the site and tell you friends about it. Performers, room and board are part of the venue's offerings.

Note that we have a .org domain name because this whole operation is a charitable endeavor to promote music in our community.

Brine Shrimp Research

My last two years at San Francisco State University included working for Dr. Sarane Bowen. She was using brine shrimp to do genetics research. Sarane taught me that if you apply the techniques from one disciple to another disciple you often gain new incites. We were using mouse genetics techniques on Artemia (brine shrimp).

After my graduation she was kind enough to include me as an author on paper that reported our research findings. I have the original hard copy journal in my library. It is now also available in PDF format from the publisher, The Crustacean Society.

Ecological Isolation in Artemia: Population Differences in Tolerance of Anion Concentrations, by Sarane T. Bowen, Emil A. Fogarino, Kenneth N. Hitchner, Gayle L. Dana, Victor H. S. Chow, Martin R. Buoncristiani and Jaya R. Carl. Journal of Crustacean Biology, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Feb., 1985), pp. 106-129 (article consists of 24 pages)

Check out the abstract if you like. Then we can talk about the meaning of "species". And maybe I'll even tell you about the hopeful monster it was rumored we were searching for.

The Matrix Party

A couple of years ago, 2005, Sharon and I hosted a Matrix party where we showed the entire Matrix.

This included the three feature length films, the Animatrix and footage from the video game. We/Sharon also provided Matrix theme food timed to the viewing experience.

Check out the Matrix webpage I composed for the party announcement.

Summer Vacation 2008

It is 5:01 PM PST, my summer vacation just started. We are planning going to the session in Davis tonight, hiking Thursday morning, potluck session in Grass Valley Thursday night, Kungfu Panda IMAX early Friday morning followed by museums in Sacramento. Saturday the Qigong / Tai Chi class moves to the park down the street then back to Sactown for Argentine Tango class. At some point I want to clean the gutters.

The rest of the time I'll be working on making the CDs of both the Legacy and Notorious house concerts.

Shrinkage

When I grill up a pack of sausage on the weekend they seem to shrink in the refrigerator. Sharon cuts them up and puts it in my oatmeal for breakfast so I don't really see the shriveled weenies.

I read this in an email today from a local BBQ restaurant, "you can run some cool water over the sausage to bring the temp down and help prevent shrinkage." We'll try it this weekend.

Eye treatment changes

TheraTears is a product line that addresses my eye anomaly.

I have been washing my eye lids with baby shampoo for thirty years. Therapy has changed and we are now recommending using something like SteriLid to cleans and disinfect the lid.

For the next couple of weeks I do a daily 8 minute hot damp compress followed by eye lid massage and expression. Massage with SteriLid twice a day. Orally TheraTears twice a day. The plan is to clean up the oil production and get everything flowing. Once that is achieved the hot compress therapy three or four time a week for life.

It turns out the dry eyes is what causes the discomfort and blindness when driving. Got to ask the ophthalmologist about eye drops as first aid.

My new doctor (David Norcott, O.D.) is at the Auburn EyeCare Associates. Meibomitis is the name of the dis-ease of my lids, meibomian glands. The warm compresses are helping. When it gets really bad keratitis is also seen. We are working on opening up the gland ducts and getting the oil to flow naturally.

Treatment

1) Sterilid use two times a day for five days. Continue with daily treatment.
2) Warm compress for eight to ten minutes followed by massage of the upper and lower lids (20 second massage).
3) Two capsules of TheraTears Omaga-3.