respiratory

So over on the right hand side of the main page of artlung.com there I include a statement about when I’ll be available for work, and that just changed again. I am continuing on with Sierra for another two months while we continue an ongoing project. It’s always simpler to renew something than it is to start something new, but Sierra has been very good to me, and I like to repay that good treatment with loyalty while they have a lot of different stuff going on.

Co-incident with that a friend of mine has been having multiple respiratory issues which honestly make me consider getting my Respiratory Therapy license again. It’s like $500 in California, but it has me thinking about it. He’s getting a BiPAP machine and feeling poorly. I hope he gets well soon!

In line with that I’ve been pleased to see my moribund respiratory care site, Rhonchi.com, be active these days, particularly this post: Are you a Respiratory Therapist? Do you blog?—which was originally supposed to be a post trying to find RTs who blog, but has turned into a heated debate, cheerleading, and bitch session about the whole profession of respiratory care. It’s a very good comment thread, with some vitriol, but real passion, which is great. I’m always interested to hear from fellow RTs (hah! I still self-identify as an RT! matter of a fact I still carry my RRT card from the NBRC in my wallet out of habit).

I’m hearing reports from my Mom that the latest chemo was too hard and she’s regrouping a bit. I’m going to give her a call during my commute. If you are of a mind to say a prayer or have a good thought, please include her in yours. You can read more about my Mom and her struggle with Renal Cell cancer by looking here and working backwards. I love her so much.

Okay, time to get started on the day. Cheat Commandos, Rock, Rock Onward!

I woke up with my throat dry and with an acrid feel in my nose. I can also feel, with a deep breath, some pain on inhalation. This is not good. It’ll do me good to get out and out of this air. I’m going to encourage Leah and our houseguests to get away from it too for at least a while today.

Sunday night we were calling the Sheriff’s Department and City and School District to find out about possible school closures and didn’t get any information till late at night. But there were no school closings for Moorpark.

Today, however, there is no school. Here’s the advisory from the Moorpark Unified School District:

BASED ON THE CONTINUING DEVELOPMENTS OF THE PIRU FIRE LINE AND HIGH WIND FORECAST, ALL MOORPARK UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT SCHOOLS WILL BE CLOSED FOR CLASSES ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2007.

Please check the website for notification about the following day. By Tuesday afternoon, a decision will be made regarding the status of school on Wednesday.

And this is from the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District:

Due to the smoke from many of the wildfires in and around Ventura County, it is possible that almost all areas of Ventura County will encounter smoke at some time. Air Quality in areas affected by the smoke are considered to be unhealthful. If you smell smoke, be cautious and use common sense to protect your family’s health. Everyone, especially people with heart or lung disease (including asthma), older adults and children should limit time spent outdoors, and limit prolonged or heavy exertion. If you have symptoms of lung or heart disease that may be related to excess smoke exposure, including repeated coughing, shortness of breathe or difficulty breathing, wheezing, chest tightness or pain, palpitations, nausea or unusual fatique or lightheadedness, contact your health care provider. This advisory will be extended as conditions warrant. If you have questions contact Ventura County Air Pollution District, Kent Field or Mallory Ham at 805 662-6960 or 645-1400.
For more information see also:

Air Quality Forecast

Ventura County Fire Department, LAFD News & Information, Ventura County Sheriff Department, InciWeb, Satellite 1, Satellite 2

The Air Quality forecast is continuing to be “101-150 Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.” That is right at the top end of the scale in terms of airborne particulates.

I hate unhealthy air.

Don’t use oxygen and smoke, please.

Thomas PM Barnett, a great Powerpointer, mentions that Al Gore has his Nobel Prize because of his PPTs (actually Keynote, but same difference, presentation software).

Read/Write Web has good thoughts on Microsoft’s playing catch-up with Google on a number of web tools. I like competitor for Google. It means we’ll keep getting innovation. And don’t count our Yahoo. They are building a lot of stuff these days.

The cartoon where Jesus, Mohammed, and the unseen Barmaid talk are usually good. Like this one: Snake.

Free To Play notes a study that says of the time kids ages 2 to 17 play games, 91% of it is on free games.

WebKit now has an implementation of a local SQL database (via John Gruber). That’s odd, and cool. It seems to be what Google Gears is trying to do, or what Flash does with its Local Shared Objects. All of these kick the butt of mere cookies for storage. The real thing they allow is to allow web applications to work without an internet connection. What’s WebKit? It’s the engine inside Safari and KDE browsers. This local storage thing is being discussed with great enthusiasm these days seems like. It’s still a great time to be working on web stuff.

Last night Leah and I visited a bookstore after dinner and I looked at a book called Beautiful Code. It’s got a chapter by Douglas Crockford. I’ve not bought it yet, but it’s been added to my “to read” list. I’ve been trying to write my JavaScript according to his code conventions.