[Toshi]

I reached out and got an answer to a question that I've been wondering about for awhile: Are e-bikes allowed on the Sand Creek Regional Greenway?

Short answer is "no", because the greenway in question is unpaved for much of its course. Long answer, from the Open Space and Natural Resources Manager of the City of Aurora:

We allow e-bikes on concrete or asphalt trails but not soft surface trails. They must not take up more than 1/3 of the trail width. They must be electric assisted, not electric powered which keeps the speed down.

We do not allow motor powered vehicles of any kind on soft surface trails like SCRG is in Aurora. The only exception is for Other Power Driven Mobility Devices (OPDMD), a type of transportation vehicle which is a designation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Aurora allows any OPDMD on any trail as long as it is under a certain weight (so it won’t damage trails, including soft surface) and size (no more than 1/3 of the trail width).

I'm not actually considering it since I still need the miles for many reasons but it's good to have clarity on this issue. E-bikes on road or concrete paths == kosher. E-bikes on the greenway, which is my preferred commute route == not kosher.

 

[Toshi]

 

[Toshi]

I overestimated how large of a case I might need for my fancy charging setup. Back to Amazon at my expense shall this 15 lb beast of a case go.

Instead I think I'm just going to ziptie the individual components (separate power supply, charger, modular board that will let me charge two packs at once) to a piece of thin hardwood I have lying about.

 

[Toshi]

Ski day 4 logged today. Crap visibility since it was snowing, but there was snow due to the same. Scant true powder but I did get some under the Panoramic Express lift on the one run I made there. (Too cold and windy and too long of lift lines.) I ventured all over the mountain and found that I really dislike all the flat sections that are ubiquitous.

Maybe next year I'll try Epic instead? Hmm.

In any case, 21.6k vertical, 3500+ active calories for the day, and suitably tired me now. Mariko had her first ski lesson today as well, and she was happy all day per the instructors. They apparently didn't do too much skiing, per se, but rather a bunch of stepping around the mountain because the amount of slightly heavy powder was a bit much for the wee ones.

 

[Toshi]

Oh, I saw a Tesla Model X on the road back from Winter Park. The surprising thing was that it was a 60D model. I don't think my wife's 41.8 kWh RAV4 EV would make it there reliably but apparently 60 does the trick. (Charging there is a given.)

 

[canadmos]

Oh, I saw a Tesla Model X on the road back from Winter Park. The surprising thing was that it was a 60D model. I don't think my wife's 41.8 kWh RAV4 EV would make it there reliably but apparently 60 does the trick. (Charging there is a given.)

They kind of look like big lumbering beasts from behind..

I tried to pass one on the freeway yesterday, but the damn thing kept speeding up and slowing down at almost my exact pace. Does autopilot have a douche mode?

 

[StiHacka]

They kind of look like big lumbering beasts from behind..

I tried to pass one on the freeway yesterday, but the damn thing kept speeding up and slowing down at almost my exact pace. Does autopilot have a douche mode?

Did it by any chance have Mass. plates?

 

[Toshi]

Quick edit from the past two days of bike commuting. The main purpose was to check whether horizon tilt was obvious after resetting and recalibrating (again) the Karma Grip. Looks good to me so far, but then again so did my initial footage.

 

[canadmos]

:28 looks like a slight pucker moment.

 

[Toshi]

:28 looks like a slight pucker moment.

It's consistently icy there for weeks after a snow. It's under an overpass for the interstate, an underpass that I believe I have mentioned is unique in that the giant metal girders are hollow. Homeless people live inside the girders of the freeway, because 'murica.

 

[Toshi]

In other, unrelated news, I'm going to use this post as a scratchpad to figure out the proper strategy for travel costs this upcoming year:

Assumptions: Need 4 tickets for DEN-HNL for an April conference. Also 4 tickets DEN to any of the DC area airports in July for a cousin's wedding, probably 4 tickets in August or September for another random trip to Seattle and possibly down the coast to my parents' place, and 4 more in December for our annual trip out here for the holidays.

More travel scratchpad time:

By the end of January I'll have about 60k Ultimate Rewards points, which transfer 1:1 to United or can be redeemed at 1.25 cents/point directly for travel. Probably will be at 65k by the end of February. I have 9k United points at the moment, the wife 14.5k, so it's not like we can blow hundreds of thousands of points to redeem for reward travel.

The specific question is whether any reward travel redemptions for my travels in the next few months would be worth more than $0.0125/point. Specifics hidden behind the tag.

NSFW

DEN-HNL tix run about $950 per at the time of my conference (person, roundtrip, economy which would transmute into Economy Plus via subscription). Award travel is 45k points per leg ($0.0105/point).

DEN-IAD tix run about $460 per at the time of my cousin's wedding. The sane time flights aren't available on points, and they're 25k/leg anyway ($0.0092/point).

DEN-CUN tix run about $820 per at the time when my MIL wants to sunbathe in Mexico. Each leg is 37.5k points ($0.0109/point) plus it looks like the nonstop return is not available on points anyway.

DEN-SEA tix at the mid-day hours the wife would want to travel will be about $420 per in September. Each leg is valued at 25k points ($0.0084/point).

The long and short of it is that reward travel is worth less than Chase values these points. This means I'm effectively getting about 1.25% cash back via Chase (a little more than that since I get 5% for a small subset of my spending between Ink Plus Business and the 5% Freedom categories).

Related scratchpad musing: is the 5% that I get for about $225 monthly spending from Ink Plus worth the $95 annual fee? (since the ability to transfer points to United that that card brings clearly isn't worth much at all) The premium I get is 4% since Freedom's baseline is 1%, so it's $225/month * 100 cents/dollar since it's a point per cent * 0.04 conversion to points greater than Freedom * 0.0125 (value of points as above) * 12 months == $135 in benefit for $95 fee. Ok, at least I'm doing that part right, I guess.

If I stick with the Chase ecosystem then I'll re-up for the Sapphire Reserved in about a year, once clear of the 5/24 rule. That'd give me 50k or ideally 100k points, so $625-1250 in travel credit. The year's spending on Freedom would probably also give another 50k points. Let's call it 150k total to be generous: $1875 travel credit. The non-Chase alternative would be to switch everything over to Citi Double Cash (except for the Ink Plus, which is paying for itself apparently), which would result in about $1000 in cash. It looks like sticking with Chase wins even in the worst case, so the course shall be stayed.

/me likes numbers

 

[Adventurous]

Are you some sort of time creating magician? I fail to see how you can work a full time schedule as a doctor no less, occupy two kids, AND keep track of all this stuff.

 

[Toshi]

Hypomania is the answer. Have I mentioned I've published 5 papers in the last year and have something like 3 out for review right now?

 

[Toshi]

For @Adventurous, who was wondering what the gimbal-dildo setup looked like:

 

[Toshi]

Another Quik edit featuring this above self-portrait, no less. This footage from today and yesterday.

More pucker moments in there for @canadmos, too.

 

[canadmos]

Love a good pucker moment.

 

[StiHacka]

I envy the ice and snow. Our winter sucks again.

 

[Toshi]

Hypomania is the answer. Have I mentioned I've published 5 papers in the last year and have something like 3 out for review right now?

Relevant to hypomania: I had my mentor look over my (as of now practice/fake) promotions dossier this afternoon in between me running about town doing non-academic things, and he was very happy with its content. He's going to push for me to go up for promotion this cycle, the drawn-out process of which would take until late autumn.

That'd be nice if I get promoted (slightly greater than 5% pay bump), and kind of awkward if I get it and then defect to private practice around the time it's awarded. Private practice phone screening interview is tomorrow morning!

 

[Toshi]

Private practice phone screening interview is tomorrow morning!

The scoop based off of my nice chat with the non-MD recruitment manager:

Current gig:

- 23 days of vacation (so 4.6 weeks), not counting conference time since that's not truly vacation
- let's call my pay 1.0, using the fair assumption that we get 90% of the bonus going forward, with a bump to 1.05 if I were to get promoted
- I work at about the pace of private practice currently so that wouldn't be a huge shift

Possible gig:

- 3 year track to partner, $20k buy-in
- base salaries are based off of taking 10 weeks of vacation
- partners make 1.10, and in the track to partnership I'd make 0.88, 0.94, and 0.99
- reasonable benefits as a W-2 employee, not quite as posh as here but not bad and not enough to skew the numbers significantly

The long and short of it is that I could make 5-10% more as a partner there while taking 10 weeks of vacation instead of 4.6. If I took 5 weeks of vacation I would make 36% more, assuming I didn't screw up the math of their shift-based system. Shifts are 7-4, 8-5, or various swing shifts until 9 PM, so it's not like it's fundamentally longer hours, either.

I think I'll have them fly me out for an interview if they bite based off of my credentials.



Edit: Probably flying out in May on their dime for an interview. Pending date now. I also forgot that Colorado has a 4.63% income tax as opposed to 0% in Washington. That changes those relative income figures to 0.92, 0.98, 1.04 and 1.15 for the first three years to partner and partner money.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Mmmmm... 10 weeks of vacation...

 

[6thElement]

Mmmmm... 10 weeks of vacation...

That alone is worth the price of admission.

 

[Nick]

I have 30 days off in total this year.

Last job I left with over 200 hours of unused PTO Go out. Play. Don't be like Nick.

 

[Toshi]

Yeah, if I go out in December I'm going to go out with my vacation hours counter as close to zero as the math will allow for.

 

[Toshi]

Yeah, if I go out in December I'm going to go out with my vacation hours counter as close to zero as the math will allow for.

Possibility:

I can't end months that aren't my final month under 14.67, since I accrue that much at the end of each month and in theory shouldn't be dipping below 0 hours on the clock at any point. Lots of Wednesdays since that's apparently decent for the kids (for the weeks I'd take Mariko spring skiing) and because it'd be nice to break up the week for the other months.

In reality I'd probably lose approximately as much academic time as I'd take vacation but it'd give me free reign to go biking/hiking/skiing on those days. Plus we could certainly burn a few days in RMNP (staying in Estes Park), etc.

 

[Toshi]

In the midst of my fever delirium today I did some work around the house, and also worked on my RC truck.

4.8" tires with a 9t pinion swapped in (13t stock) both for the increased diameter and to keep loads in check with 3S batteries. Lots and lots of Lexan cut away to fit those tires and to allow the newly remounted GoPro setup to peek out.

GoPro setup from another angle. Note that it's under the body now. The bolted down mount on the body is reserved for my light setup.

Under the hood, er, body. That plate is a Traxxas part, a factory GoPro mount that requires one to hack away at the body as I did. It comes as just a blank plate in the middle so I drilled out some holes and bolted on a K-Edge GoPro mount. That mount is designed to be bolted to the helmet of skydivers. Also note the Traxxas optional fan atop the ESC, which is supposed to be more or less necessary when running 3S.

The Karma Grip itself. It's touching the body/shock mounts at the rear so I can't get it any lower without some probably inadvisable cutting. Note that the Grip is mounted high with an extension from GoPro's grab bag of mounts. Without this the camera was basically at hood level, and that Richard Hammond-esque perspective probably would not make for good videos.

 

[canadmos]

Are you using any sort of lens protector on your gopro? Replacement lenses are ~35 dollars if I recall, but a cheap protector might be a few bucks...but would probably affect the quality and perhaps even distort the image a little?

 

[Toshi]

No lens protector. I don't run them on my SLRs lenses, either: no sense in paying for quality and then hobbling it with a cheap piece of glass.

 

[Toshi]

The family is back in Denver two days early. 4 of the 5 of us (the extra being the MIL) are sick. Yuna tested positive for influenza A, which explains that.

I got sick on Saturday so am too far along to treat. The others are on Tamiflu, which is almost EpiPen overpriced.

Skiing when it's 15 out, the lungs and sinuses clogged with flu-shit, and temperature regulation all off isn't so fun. I suffered through a lesson on Tuesday because I'm stubborn. Due to a website error I booked something they shouldn't have sold so ended up with a private lesson in the bumps. I feel and look smoother now, which was the goal.

Related to being sick and my reference to hypomania a few posts up: I didn't eat or drink much Saturday or Sunday. On Monday I was therefore a zombie to start with, hopped up on cough meds. I also got an email from the Seattle private practice inviting me out for an interview ASAP, which further threw me for a loop.

So in this tenuous state I had to take over driving on Hwy 40 over Berthoud, as my wife was uneasy with the conditions. I skidded a bit wide on one corner but ultimately got us there safely.

My brain was miles back on the road. I was delirious from the meds, the drive, the lack of sleep and food, the dehydration, and the onslaught of information. My brain's reaction was to withdraw from the world. I felt totally disconnected and couldn't react to anything—I could see everything fine and force a smile for my kids but felt nothing. I was actually a bit worried that I'd get stuck in that state and have essentially a break from reality.

Thankfully I snapped out of it after about 3 hours of lying on beds and couches and mental navel gazing. That shit was scary, though, and I hope to never be in that place again.

(For those who actually followed along: I ended up asking for an interview trip in April. It's looking more likely that I'll jump ship and head back to Seattle…)

Edit: Trip pushed back to May. This is actually better, as I'd want to sign a contract in June and give notice to work through the end of calendar 2017 somewhere that same month.

 

[Toshi]

What's a GoPro setup good for if one doesn't abuse it regularly?

This short edit is from this afternoon, a frigid, windy day thus my gnarled, reddened hands at the end of the video (when the car hits its low voltage cutoff).

 

[Adventurous]

Looks like the gimbal is back to working. No hiccups since the reboot?

 

[Toshi]

Looks like the gimbal is back to working. No hiccups since the reboot?

One of the clips in the vid has some horizon tilt and you can see post-crash recovery sometimes took a minute. Overall a pretty good performance with high speed abuse, I reckon.

 

[Adventurous]

One of the clips in the vid has some horizon tilt and you can see post-crash recovery sometimes took a minute. Overall a pretty good performance with high speed abuse, I reckon.

Good to know . I'm tempted by the Feiyu but keep coming back to the GoPro for their ubiquity and support.

 

[Toshi]

Mariko's $20 Amazon RC truck stopped working today so we went to the LHS and picked her out something a step up. Her criteria were yellow color (check) and on-board lights (couldn't get that at a reasonable speed/price point).

 

[Toshi]

30 second condensation of running my truck around for about 25 minutes today.

 

[Toshi]

Note the stabilization failure in the middle of the video. It came back every time but sometimes it gets all confused.

 

[Adventurous]

Note the stabilization failure in the middle of the video. It came back every time but sometimes it gets all confused.

Looks like a pretty jarring hit at high speed. Any chance the extreme angle you have the Karma mounted at means it runs out of travel on instances like that?

 

[Toshi]

Looks like a pretty jarring hit at high speed. Any chance the extreme angle you have the Karma mounted at means it runs out of travel on instances like that?

I read that the controls up, dildo pointed forward position (as one would hand-hold) is actually the most neutral in terms of range of motion out from there. Rolling a truck several times at 30 mph is more jarring than most biking crashes, I hope.

 

[Toshi]

Welp. My Hawaii meeting abstract somewhat inexplicably was rejected, so I will not need to pony up for expensive flights + AirBNB for whole family in April. This is actually somewhat of a relief. Time to work on alternate vacation plans for then.

We therefore might be going to Mexico in April then in July again, the latter because it's for the MIL's birthday and that's where we've been told we're going. Cabos from Denver is non-stop actually pretty cheap for all inclusive deals via Costco Travel. That'll be tough to pass up since making a connection with kids and crap is a pain in the ass (e.g. Puerto Rico) and paying a bunch of money for essentially a set of beds and a nice pool is similarly painful.

 

[Toshi]

So I broke a few parts on my RC truck in making those videos and crashing into a curb. Namely I broke a rear bearing carrier and two drive axles. I bought these axles to replace 'em:

Then I price matched to online prices from what I paid at the local hobby shop. Straightforward enough to this point. Well, the claim for one of the axles was rejected as an item explicitly not covered.

I had a sneaking suspicion that the examiner had googled the part, saw that picture and name, and assumed it was a part for full-size automobiles (as such parts aren't covered). Suspicion confirmed: I called them up now, let them know it was a replacement part for a toy car, and they should process the claim.

 

[Toshi]

For the bored out there:



https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2WDoaJQHlYId1o3eW5QbGMwQmM

That's my first draft of a presentation I'll be making in March at a Florida conference. This is designed to get radiologists to write lightweight web apps like I do. Since I publish all these apps' code as Open Source it's actually self-promotion for a good cause.

My website, for reference: http://raddecisionsupport.com/




Update: Another in a similar vein. (I'm doing two presentations at this one conference.)



https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2WDoaJQHlYIYXFseGFoUEY0YkE