Lee.org

This coming week’s calendar is smoother than last week’s. Tuesday is the deciding factor. I’m waiting to hear if I get into Anatomy 25.

Yellow= I’m registered, or an important timely thing.
Purple= Anatomy 25. I don’t know what section I’m getting so I’ve got to keep it all open
Blue= maybe classes
Gray= other stuff

Phew.

I got in to Chem 32 & Lab. I have Physics 10 but not the lab (I could teach the course but I need the stupid lab credit, feh!). I need Anatomy and I’m starting from 0 on that one.

Tomorrow… err 5 hours away… is going to be pretty crazy.

I’ve got a busy week coming up, trying to get into all the classes I need.

Phew!

Last semester at CCSF I was in a circuit training class. They’ve got a nice gym at the Ocean Campus!

I totally loved working out. Just about every time at the gym I pushed myself 100%, grunting and groaning and letting it burn. I worked to muscle failure on most machines most days. It was awesome. The “Growing Old Is Not For Sissies” poster is hanging in the gym. Yes, it inspired me.

I loved working my biceps; boy they get big quick! I hated doing abdominals; the burn feels like knives in my belly. I did them all.

Here is my review of the semester’s workout:

Data is taken from the Fitlinxx system. Every machine has a little Fitlinxx computer that tracks your progress. It’s not a perfect system but it’s pretty good and convenient to tell you what weight you did last time. The Fitlinxx online charts effing suck. It took me 45 minutes of copy-pasting and reformatting to get the data you see below.

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All measurements below are “2 sets of 10 reps of nn pounds”. That was my goal at each session. When I had to rest mid-way through a set, I’d tell myself, “Fine, you can take a break, you just have to do one more rep.”

Bicep curl. I never made much progress, going from 80 to 100. But my arms started to look awesome.

Tricep extension. Huge gains! Started at 30 (and huge lactic acid burn the day after) ended at 95!

Chest Press. Great progress. 60 to 120!

Chin Assist. Small gains 130 to 100 (at this rate, I’ll be doing a real chinup in 2 years, meh.

Hip Abduction. 130 to 220. Nice!

Hip Adduction. 70 to 100. Good.

Lateral Raise (trying to build up my shoulder profile) I worked it every time I went to the gym and went from 30 to 90!

Back Extension. 150 to 190. Good.

Leg Press. 155 to 200. Good.

Leg Curl. 50 to 90. Good.

Leg Extension. 85 to 130. Good.

Leg Press. 210 to 210. Bad!

Some exercises not on the Fitlinxx system:
* Lower abdominal hyperextension crunch. Lay way back on a yoga ball and then sit up slowly. I started doing this mid-semester and went from 7 to about 11 reps. It buuuuuurns!

* A Lower back contraption where you lay face down, put your pelvis on the pad, hook your legs on a bar and let your upper body fall forward toward the ground. Then you straighten your back so it looks like you are superman. I started doing this mid-semester and went from 6 to 10 reps.

I’ll definitely sign up for the gym next semester :-)
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Life Fitness Arm Curl Bicep Curl
8/23/2011	1	10	30.00
8/30/2011	1	10	50.00
11/8/2011	1	9	70.00
		2	6	50.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Bicep Curl (pretty much identical to the above machine...
they have 2 bicep curl machines)
9/6/2011	1	9	80.00	
		2	10	65.00	
9/9/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	10	65.00	
9/13/2011	1	6	80.00	
		2	3	80.00	
9/16/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	6	80.00	
10/21/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	6	80.00	
11/14/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	10	95.00	
12/2/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	12	80.00	
12/9/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	10	80.00	
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	12	110.00	
12/20/2011	1	8	95.00	

Life Fitness Arm Extension Tricep Extension
8/23/2011	1	11	30.00
		2	10	30.00
9/27/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	14	40.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Tricep Extension
8/26/2011	1	11	40.00
8/30/2011	1	11	50.00
		2	10	50.00
		3	11	50.00
9/6/2011	1	10	65.00
		2	2	40.00
9/13/2011	1	12	80.00
		2	5	80.00
9/20/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	80.00
10/21/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	65.00
11/1/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	7	80.00
11/14/2011	1	10	95.00
12/2/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	80.00
12/9/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	95.00
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00
12/20/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	10	95.00

Life Fitness Chest Press
8/30/2011	1	12	60.00	
		2	12	60.00	
10/21/2011	1	10	75.00	
		2	11	90.00	
11/1/2011	1	2	75.00	
		2	10	90.00	
		3	12	90.00	
11/8/2011	1	10	105.00
		2	10	105.00
12/16/2011	1	10	105.00
		2	9	105.00
12/20/2011	1	12	120.00
		2	8	120.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Chest Press
8/26/2011	1	12	55.00
9/6/2011	1	10	70.00
		2	7	70.00
9/9/2011	1	8	70.00
		2	8	70.00
9/20/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	8	85.00
9/27/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	7	85.00

Life Fitness Dip & Chin Assist Narrow Grip Pullup
8/30/2011	1	8	130.00
9/16/2011	1	10	120.00
		2	8	120.00
9/20/2011	1	10	120.00
		2	10	120.00
11/1/2011	1	10	110.00
		2	8	110.00
12/2/2011	1	10	110.00
		2	5	120.00
12/20/2011	1	9	100.00

Life Fitness Hip Abductor (Outer Thigh) Abduction
9/6/2011	1	2	10.00
		2	10	70.00
		3	10	70.00
9/13/2011	1	9	90.00
		2	12	90.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Hip Abduction
9/9/2011	1	10	130.00
		2	10	130.00
9/20/2011	1	12	160.00
		2	11	160.00
10/21/2011	1	10	160.00
		2	11	160.00
11/1/2011	1	10	175.00
		2	10	185.00
11/8/2011	1	10	190.00
		2	10	190.00
12/9/2011	1	10	205.00
		2	10	205.00
12/16/2011	1	10	220.00
		2	10	220.00
12/20/2011	1	10	220.00
		2	10	220.00

Life Fitness Hip Abductor (Inner Thigh) Adduction
8/26/2011	1	12	70.00	
9/6/2011	1	4	75.00	
		2	10	10.00	
		3	10	90.00	
11/1/2011	1	8	90.00	
		2	11	100.00

Life Fitness Lateral Raise
8/23/2011	1	10	30.00
8/30/2011	1	6	30.00
		2	9	10.00
9/6/2011	1	8	40.00
		2	8	40.00
9/9/2011	1	10	40.00
		2	8	40.00
9/13/2011	1	10	47.50
		2	10	47.50
9/20/2011	1	10	60.00
		2	11	60.00
9/27/2011	1	9	70.00
		2	12	70.00
10/21/2011	1	10	62.50
		2	9	70.00
11/1/2011	1	8	62.50
		2	8	70.00
11/8/2011	1	10	70.00
		2	11	70.00
11/14/2011	1	9	77.50
		2	10	77.50
12/2/2011	1	10	77.50
		2	8	77.50
12/9/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	9	85.00
12/16/2011	1	10	90.00
		2	8	82.50

Life Fitness Leg Extension
9/16/2011	1	10	75.00
		2	10	75.00
12/16/2011	1	10	90.00
		2	10	90.00

Life Fitness Back Extension
8/26/2011	1	12	150.00
		2	12	150.00
8/30/2011	1	12	165.00
		2	12	165.00
11/14/2011	1	10	180.00
		2	10	195.00

Life Fitness Leg Press
8/30/2011	1	6	95.00	
		2	12	155.00
		3	11	155.00
		4	10	215.00
9/9/2011	1	14	175.00
		2	13	195.00
9/16/2011	1	10	115.00
		2	12	115.00
10/21/2011	1	10	195.00
		2	13	235.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Curl
9/13/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	9	50.00
9/16/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	10	50.00
9/20/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	11	50.00
9/27/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	10	50.00
11/1/2011	1	10	65.00
		2	8	65.00
11/8/2011	1	11	80.00
		2	10	80.00
12/2/2011	1	1	80.00
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	10	80.00
12/20/2011	1	3	95.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Extension
9/20/2011	1	12	85.00	
		2	10	85.00	
9/27/2011	1	10	100.00
		2	10	100.00
10/21/2011	1	11	115.00
		2	12	115.00
11/8/2011	1	10	130.00
		2	8	130.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Press
11/1/2011	1	10	170.00
		2	12	210.00
11/8/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	11	230.00
11/14/2011	1	10	230.00
		2	5	230.00
12/2/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	10	210.00
12/9/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	10	210.00
12/20/2011	1	12	210.00
		2	12	210.00

From a frenzied evening of studying Medical Terminology and then going out with friends…

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Please apply suction to my midventral subpelvic acral epidermis.

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Here, let me give you a dorsal view of my third distal phalanx.

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Someone asked me recently “How’d you come to decide that radiation therapy technology is for you?”. Here’s a brief answer.

For the last couple years I’ve been having a harder and harder time finding good work. I started out of college way back doing software QA (Quality Assurance) work. As proofreaders are for books, QA is for computer software. It went well enough but after many years I got tired of always being a critic and never actually MAKING anything. When I moved to San Francisco about 6 years ago, I saw a couple things happening. For one, my tech skills were not staying current and I didn’t feel the passion I once had to keep them updated. I found that I really loved working on some large art projects in the Bay Area. I realized that, yeah, building stuff is cathartic. I’ve found a few jobs building things, I’m a Department Head at the Crucible, I helped and install some fancy cameras last year. But one thing I realized was that I needed to do something quite active in order to keep this up. I considered becoming a full time mechanical artist, or getting a mechanical engineering degree, or just finding a career that would be good and afford me the time and money to pursue my desires.

So this past June my dad called me up and told me about a newspaper article he read about Radiation Therapy. He relayed from the article that the career required someone that is very good with people and comfortable with technology, had limited hours (9-5-ish), paid well, the field had excellent growth and low unemployment projections for the next 20 years, a reasonable path into the career (a 2 year degree) and… well, he thought I should look into it. So I did! I’m a bit concerned how I’ll handle the patients of mine that don’t survive treatment (if you pick that up, this is radiation treatments mostly for people with cancer) but I’ve been speaking with people and I’m getting ready to volunteer in a hospital to get more of a feel for it so… it’ll all work out.

cerebrotomy – cutting into your brain
cerebrectomy – removing your brain!

A pyrometer measures heat. A pyometer measures pus. Eiw!

I think I got cerebromalacia from studying so hard for my DMI medical terminology test.

Oh, and if we went by latin roots, we’d all be taking photograms with photographs.

Tuesday: stand up comedy at the Roxie
Wednesday: hot tubbing in the East Bay
Thursday: Exploratorium After Dark 6-10. Science with a cash bar! Wanna go?
Friday: Star Trek Live at the Dark Room
Saturday Balsa Man!!!
Sunday: free and clear

I started a yoga class and circuit training.
Yoga stretches my limbs funny. I feel all floppy after. Can’t work out at the gym for fear of my limbs detaching. I’m guessing that’s the norm.

The gym is good. Just 3 workouts into it and my strength is building. I feel more “in my body” which is nice. I want bigger shoulders. We’ll see what happens.

Here is a good sign, XKCD just ran this comic, which, in 4 years will officially be considered “professional humor” to me.

Alt text: “I calculate that the electrons in radiation therapy hit you at 99.8% of the speed of light, and the beam used in a 90-second gamma ray therapy session could, if fired with less precision, kill a horse (they did not let me test this)”

On your marks, get set, go:

DMI 49 Intro To Radiologic Technology 3.0
HLTH 14 Adv First Aid & Basic Life Sup 2.0
HIST 1 The U.S. Since 1900 3.0