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May 4th, 2012
07:38 am - The value of higher education
My view towards a college education has always been pragmatic and perhaps not all that glowing. Don't get me wrong; more school is more gooder. But is the investment of four or more years and what can be a king's ransom worth the return on investment?
Things that can be learned at university include the actual material being taught, living without parental over site, living on your own, learning to hold your alcohol in public, dealing with any number of people and situations outside your prior experience, and hopefully starting to take some responsibility for you own crap. Or not: exposure to experience and learning from it are hardly guaranteed.
The most important thing, of course, in the materialistic sense, is the first job. You put that degree front and center on your first big kid resume; mostly because you usually have nothing else going for you. As years pass, that declaration of education gets pushed down as the all important job experience replaces it.
At least, that's how I thought it worked. Some people seem to place some nebulous value on the acquisition of sheep skins of particular pedigree. They buy into this cultural myth of success: the Graduate and their brilliant future. Perhaps if the Graduate were some rarity they would have value based on that alone. Alas, the Graduate today is just one of a mass of students with no experience trying to get a job. Presumably they have an advantage over their less schooled brethren...
Competent people I know often feel bad if they didn't get a college degree. They'll say it doesn't matter. They'll offer arguments about it's worth similar to mine. But, still, a cultural myth needn't have a basis in reality or rational thought. I'll usually say "when I was in school" rather than "in college" because I don't want to make anyone feel bad who didn't pursue the myth.
And yet, perhaps it's not such a myth. At least, in some rarefied venues. Where I work, we've undergone our share of layoffs and reorganization. Most of the decisions seem reasonable. Except for education.
Apparently certain positions now require a college degree. So, if the person who has been filling that position for years, and doing it competently, doesn't have a degree, they're moved! One of the very rare times I met the big boss, he asked about my degree. I didn't think much of it at the time. Now it seems almost ominous.
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May 2nd, 2012
09:26 pm - More on eyeballs
I've planned other posts since my last. But... I got back into an online game, so its lucky if people even know I'm alive. I've always had to be dragged out in public occasionally so rumors don't start to circulate that the cats ate me or something; but that's another story.
Back to eyeballs. New shift. I wanted to write this down so I had a time line to reference.
Still seeing UV. Still enjoy that. It does seem helpful on overcast days and driving in the rain. Today is one such day; gray and bleak looking. But, to the other eye, it's brighter and violet tinged; almost cheerful.
For better or worse, my dominant eye is the old one. The new one is more capable, but old habits die hard; if at all. When I first got the new eye I tried to force a shift to it by wearing a patch on the old one for a time. That didn't really work.
The basic problem is focal length. The two eyes don't focus the same at a given distance. In such cases the dominant eye wins. The new eye could theoretically allow me to read small print without glasses, but not yet.
If you think about it, you need two eyes for depth and field of vision, but visual clarity can be had with just one eye. Indeed, my good eye is so dominant that I didn't immediately notice when the other one started to look like a steamed up mirror. I was unconsciously using it for depth perception and little else.
I've actually blinked and focused enough that I can now tell which eye is being dominant. Yesterday I noticed something for the first time. Looking ahead, and without any conscious act, my vision had shifted to the new eye. It doesn't stay there long, but it might be thinking about it. The new one seems to click in when I'm driving on days like this. It's clearer in general, but during non sunny times it has more light so gets more feedback. Often, after the morning drive, the new eye twitches as if it was under extra strain.
Today I was trying to figure a decal on the back of a car. I became conscious as I was trying to focus that I'd shifted back to the old eye. I'm actually gaining more control of that shift, being able to focus more through one eye or the other without closing either.
I just now noted that I have easier time refocusing the new eye while closing the other than I've had in the past. It would be cool if my dominant eye actually changed. I'm afraid I'll just have to wait to see.
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March 6th, 2012
08:41 pm - Blacklight!
( Blacklight is a great word. Almost like jumbo shrimp, but not quite. )
Being able to see blacklight(UV), ironically, makes it fundamentally useless for most the FX and forensic applications associated with it.
An object, when hit by light, usually absorbs some and reflects the rest. This is standard illumination. Another, more unusual luminescence phenomenon, is known as fluorescence. It's kind of a step down mechanism, the original energy being absorbed and then given back at a generally lower energy. The drama of a blacklight is that the original energy is invisible, so the effect seems to exist independent of the catalyst.
But if you could see the blacklight, it's usually brighter than the stuff it makes glow. The thing that's busy floressing can get lost in light itself. And if the material does florese, it also tends to reflect as well, enhansing the visual noise. For example, shine a blacklight on a twenty and you'll see a bright green band on it. I can barely see this; the strength of light required to floresce the strip is too bright to let me really see the strip.
I did my best to give an idea of this: 
Yes, I have a few UV flashlights at this point. By far the most entertaining is the 375nm, which is about as high as I'm willing to go; the price jumps after. UV starts at 400nm and goes down (or higher in frequency) from there. The 400nm is considered the edge of visible light, but this probably varies by individual. The glowing $20 strip is from the 375nm. The saturation simulation is from the cheaper, usually way too visible, ~395nm kind.
The 375nm light is interesting because it reflects very brightly on things you wouldn't expect, when the visible light portion is relatively weak. My little gray cat is almost invisible to the normal range part of the light, but reflects a ton of UV. Things that you'd expect tamer reflections from, like various woods, nearly completely reflect UVA.
That's probably it for strange UV observations. I have one more experiment to run, but I need to rig the equipment. I want the glass from an incandescent black light so I can look through it. The result of this should be only seeing the UV through the glass, allowing me to really nail down how UV reacts in the wild, without all that normal visible light getting in the way.
If I ever get around to chopping up light bulbs, I'll let you know.
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February 29th, 2012
09:32 pm - The happy UV
We only perceive of UV via side effects. Sunburn. Florescence in minerals and other less savory substances. Special cameras showing alien worlds. Perhaps the ragged edge of glaring, artificial light. Given this, one might expect UV to look gaudy or harsh. Pleasantly, it's quite the opposite.
For lack of a better term, ultraviolet light is, well, cheerful. Like the blue of a perfect sky. It's also not real obvious and one can easily imagine many cataract patients simply dismissing the effect as just part of brightened colors. If the sky is a little more blue, why shouldn't it be a deeper blue into an evening that was once seen as simply black?
UV doesn't stand a chance against visible light and is imperceptible in it's presence. Florescence effects are drowned out, if they even exist. As a result, the mellow purple lives on the edges. Showing up in dim light. Bouncing into shadows.
It seems to have a capacity to pierce though more strongly when the rest of the spectrum is held back. Grey, dreary days have a pleasant purple tinge to them. Even during rain, it seems to lighten the sky a little extra, only fading out when the cloud cover is very thick.
The sky color during false dawn can be impressive. When the sky first begins to lighten, there is a subtle tinge of it. Later, after the sun has retreated, the color tints the sky for a time.
I enjoy the color greatly, though I can't say why. Part of it is probably just the satisfaction of seeing what's not supposed to be visible. And, admittedly, that most people can't. At the same time, I wish I could share it.
Then again, would I even care if I'd always seen it? If everyone just normally saw UV. I imagine some idiot running around gushing over some random color because they'd never seen it before. Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever.
I can't say there's any advantage in the perception. But I've spent every day since surgery verifying that it's still there, fearful the effect might fade. It hasn't. I'm starting to tentatively believe I get to keep it. I'm irked I still need reading glasses, but I believe if given a choice between the glasses and the UV, I'd keep the UV.
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February 28th, 2012
09:00 pm - Colors!
I thought I might have overdone my gushing about "I can see!" However, I've been assured that some folks don't mind. I also thought that I might want a record of my thoughts for my own reference, so I shall continue to blather on about my odd visual experiences and observations. You have been warned.
Colors are still extra bright, which is wonderful. I'd initially assumed this was directly related to the other, more unusual, perception of UV. This was based on two, I thought, reasonable assumptions. One, that my good eye was seeing in a completely normal way. Two, that UV light previously unseen was influencing color perception. While number two is a factor, it's not a major one.
Colors are brighter mostly because, I hate to say it, at 43 I'm old. Rather, our natural lenses tend to yellow as we get older. I have a picture, not too icky, but still biological, of lenses from a 79 year old (top) and 39 year old (bottom) donors. Picture here, source here.
The subtle beige that my natural lens sees and the new one doesn't? That's the yellow. It's not something you'd really notice. It happens slowly, so we have no basis for comparison. However, the side by side is striking. It's disconcerting that this just happens to everyone. Yes, the sky was bluer when you were a kid. Sorry. On the plus side, if you ever have a cataract...
I also have a way of figuring out old eye, new eye, and new eye sans UV. My sunglasses filter out all UV, but the colors are still noticeably brighter. More on that test in another post.
Knowing I can see "normally" ( if required ) with sunglasses makes me more comfortable with getting the other eye done with the same lens. This is good, because my research has found no other lens to be even close to better.
The accommodating IOLs seems to be a step forward in technology and I'm unwilling to risk the other options. The big danger is that you need a competent doctor for the surgery. I think I have that guy, so I'm willing to go two for two. And it will happen. The natural lens seems a little cloudy now. It still appears healthy, but the warning signs are there. Then again, the side by side vision can get odd.
The colors each eye sees can be quite different. Interestingly, I seem to generally see a normalized version of the two sides. I have to close an eye to see the actual color that eye is getting. This is going on continuously. It sounds distracting, but I really don't notice unless I'm focused on it. However, if I turn my head quickly, light quality of an object will shift enough to one eye's perspective that I'll be brought up short by it.
Still being fun, though. I find myself exceptionally appreciative of sight in general. Now, if only I could get reading range to focus. More on that later, too.
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February 19th, 2012
07:10 pm - Blue Skies!
Still having fun with extra blue in my vision. Been reading a lot about it. It's strange, the effect seems well known but almost dismissed. Found a story about someone who was so annoyed by it they got more surgery!
The lens is called the Crystalens AT50AO from Bausch and Lomb. The PR site has the tagline "Don't just see. See better." with Florence Henderson's smiling face.
What they don't tell you is that Crystalens is the only lens of it's kind that doesn't have "UV Protection." There seems to be some debate about it, with some seeing UV block as a requirement, while others feel it's lack offers better overall vision. Apparently the effect I'm getting is not universal, varying with how an individual perceives color naturally.
I must say, I'm enjoying it. At dawn, as the sky just begins to lighten, it's not really the brilliant blue it can reach later in the day. The new eye sees that blue, with extra glowing goodness, pretty much all day long. It's blue, not violet, and I've probably given myself headaches blinking at it and marveling at the different in the two eyes.
I got a prism. I had to journey to Princeton for it; science toys for kids seem to be passe. It's still a crappy prism, not an equilateral triangle, and acrylic. Still, I managed to get a rainbow on the wall and blink at it. New eye gets a noticeably longer streak of color at the violet end. Also, those colors seem brighter.
There are some things that are more bluish than they probably should be. Beiges, strangely, seem to white out. Unlike the halos, which are receding, it looks like this is a permanent effect.
If it were both eyes, I'm not sure I'd be able to tell with certainty how things hand changed. I'd know some things were brighter, but would I miss beige? Some people realized the difference because there fashions didn't match; not really an issue for me.
The compare and contrast is fun. I find myself wondering if I should get a different lens for the other eye when the time comes. Just to be able to keep the basis of comparison.
Honestly, it's amazing that I can see anything at all, let alone with clarity. I am in awe.
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February 17th, 2012
06:15 pm - I see strange stuff
I survived. That is, I went under the knife to have a procedure done that little old ladies routinely take in stride and did no worse than most. Well, I little worse than some. Some of the drugs they use can pop blood vessels so it looks like I was punched in the face. Feels like it too. Overall, not bad, really.
I wrote about wanting to see UV. I was being silly, of course, but... The whites ARE whiter. Having only one eye affected gives endless opportunities to compare and contrast. When porcelain in the bathroom shone at me, I started testing colors out on each eye. There is an odd vividness to stuff in the new eye.
The color of the sunset was visible through the blinds as a very soft purple. I closed the new eye and it was completely white! New eye, purple. I blinked at the colors of the sunset for a while. Color. No color. I bet I could fashion a flashlight that most people can't see...
Another freak out no one bothered to mention; I can feel the stitches. The hyper awareness of them is gone, but the first time I took the bandage off I feared the lens wasn't seated right. And halos? I thought I knew what they were, but this is a whole different strata. I was warned about those, at least, but wow.
Anyway, all seems well. I dared not get hopes up, really. I'm happy the cataract is gone. I'm still dilated so it's hard to get a gauge on how the vision will settle. Follow up check puts the eye at 25/20, which is definitely better than it's ever been.
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February 14th, 2012
07:27 pm - The Eyes have it...
In recent months, I've been giving a lot of thought to how I see the world. Not figuratively, but literally, with my eyeballs.
The left eye has always been the stronger of the two. It's close to 20/20 now, the other is half that; maybe. The left is dominant, which is supposed to be unusual if you're right handed. And, this is extra odd, when my eyes are watering during allergy season, the left never gets as gummy as the right.
Happily, the cataract in the left eye isn't even in the way. The right eye has a great cloudy cataract that seems nearly opaque at times. Yeah, I have cataracts in the my early forties. Very usual, apparently; lucky me. The thing is, I kind of got used to it. It doesn't seem to effect depth perception, really. And since it's the right, it barely gets in the way. Needing reading glasses is far more annoying.
I've always thought the world looked sharper in the dark, which makes me wonder about my vision in general. Indeed, the cloudy right eye often seems fine in very low light. The overall effect is generally odd, often like the world seen through a cheap gauze lens.
Today I began putting drops in my eye. In two days, the cloudy right lens will be removed and an artificial one put in. I'm not real sure what to think. If all goes well, the world should be clearer; but it won't be the world as I've always seen it. It's disconcerting. You also have to be awake and aware as they chop into your eye...
Today, I ran across this, which amused me. I've been compensating for what I have for a while. Will I have some kind of color shift? Now that would be cool!
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October 17th, 2011
05:46 am - Junk Food
Junk food is a subjective pejorative . I suppose most would count cookies and crisps and all things deserty in there. Some might champion the cause of various foods, like chocolate cake ( it's got eggs, milk, flour...). Some foods straddle the line, like yogurt, that can be healthy until you cover it in hot fudge. Though I have been told, in no uncertain terms, that yogurt is NOT desert.
Yesterday, we indulged in junk food. Fish sticks. They weren't even mass market; organic things with pronounceable ingredients and even a specific fish. And garlic bread. The garlic bread sported too many ingredients and too much grease, but we knew it would be yummy. We considered this junk food because it came frozen in a box. Humans were probably minimally involved and we hadn't made it ourselves or could point to someone who had.
It didn't really strike me how unusually narrow our junk food definition was until we checked out, admitted it was a junk food night, and had the check out chick truly confused. Oh, no, this isn't junk foods. It staple food. It's not like it's cookies or cake.
At some point, we've become suspicious of pretty much everything in a box. I think this comes from both reading the boxes and having proven to us, time and again, the questionable honesty of that information. The knowledge that seemingly innocuous terms like "spices" and "natural flavors" can contain untold amounts of toxin. That what this non specific stuff actually is changes with what's cheapest.
Sadly, it seems, it's mostly junk food.
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October 4th, 2011
07:14 pm - Recipe: Rice Pudding
I love rice pudding. I have vague memories of a long table in my uncle's house in Liverpool, filled with relatives, all bent over hot rice pudding. Honestly, I've never had anything quite like it since, it was more a creamy rice porridge, but they called in rice pudding.
If you were to ask me the primary ingredients in rice pudding, I would tell you rice, milk, and sugar. Thus, I was recently offered the challenge of no dairy or sugar. I've made excellent rice pudding by basically making rice risotto without dairy, but with sugar. This really, really doesn't work without the sugar. That was try number one. The second try came out well and was well received. Coconut worked much better than I could have hoped.
Ingredients
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1 1/2 cups Jasmine rice
1 can Coconut milk ( approx 1 1/2 cups )
2 vanilla beans
4 cinnamon sticks
3 cups water
You can spend your whole time stirring rice pudding. We're going to avoid that, because we don't have milk to scorch and we're going to do some simple prep.
Bring three or more cups of water to a boil with the cinnamon sticks in. We want a good strong cinnamon tea here. Once you can smell it and the water is very brown, take off the heat.
Add the rice and the whole vanilla beans, and cover. Wait for one hour. The rice will cook and absorb liquid with the heat it has, with no danger of over cooking.
Now, in another pot, bring your coconut milk to a simmer. This is to melt that lovely fat that will make your pudding worth eating.
Once warmed through, put the rice in the milk, but not any excess liquid or cinnamon sticks or vanilla pods. The vanilla pods have much more to offer. Cut them open an scrape out all the seeds. We'll add these at the end.
It's time to stir the mixture. The rice still has a lot of liquid it can absorb. When it starts to look thirsty, add any tea you have left over. You are pretty much looking for porridge. The finished product should be gloppy but still wet. Keep in mind it will get far more solid when cooled and absorb any extra liquid during that cooling.
( Note, the finished photo is brown from both tea and sweetener. )
I've avoided adding any sweetener up until this point. The coconut milk will give it a little something and the fragrant jasmine rice will make you think sweet rather than savory. You can eat it like this and be happy, but I like my pudding with a little sweet. Add what you think is best. I went with good maple syrup friends of mine made. This is why the picture is a little extra brown.
The final result was a little over two quarts. I'd like to tell you it lasted a good long time, but it went pretty quick.
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