Diary of a Mad Scientist

I’ve been in excruciating pain for the past 10 days or so with my right hand, which typing seems to exacerbate.. I finally set up left-handed Dvorak keyboard layout on the computer, but havent’ gotten proficient yet (it takes a while, and I"m on two-hand QUERTY typing right now) . A friend had given me his copy of a voice recognition program that he no longer uses- and sadly, it won’t work on Windoze XP. Ugh.

I got insanely busy, and went offline for a few days- and looky, the hand pain improved dramatically, in time for me to have to do massive crap-moving at the shop and use my hands all over again. But boy does the shop look good, and usable, and I know where my stuff is, and I took care of a bunch of emergencies…

Every few hours now if I open my email I have something like 15 emails related to the classes I"m about to teach- hence the massive typing marathons. I took on teaching the classes because I cant’ do my normal jobs right now (electrical work). I didn’t expect I"d be hurting my hands anyway. Yes, something to complain about everywhere.

I think I"ll go back to the hospital on Monday and ask to have my right hand put in a cast- immobilization really helps, but I dont’ have the self-control to keep my removable ’splint’ on all day, and seem to reinjure it regularly. We’ll see how that goes.

*********************
class updates:

New:
a. North Carolina and Atlanta homebrew classes are full, no more registrants possible.

However, the North Carolina Jan 20th evening presentation in Pittsboro is still open to anyone to attend (and free) . The lineup includes speakers from biodiesel co-ops and groups from throughout the state. More info at www.biofuels.coop/events

b. we’re discussing adding a second Atlanta class in late March
c. Utah class postponed to Friday night-Saturday day May 12 and 13th due to almost complete lack of response. Mid-winter in Utah certainly slows everybody down.
d. Denver class is now scheduled- March 18-19, with a possible workshop in Colo. Springs or Puebla somewhere around the same time. Phew!
I might drive to the East Coast at that point rather than fly out. I"m going to a medical training in NC for two weeks in April, then have a
e. Berlin MD class on Easter weekend, April 15-16
f. At some point I’ve got a Northern Michigan class for a farming community and a school district which are interested in a homebrew-type biodiesel demonstration project
g. Folks in Colorado are fired up about having a biodiesel co-op conference in early June, still trying to get a host facility to be ‘fired up’ about it also
h. At some point I"m probably heading to NY State to do some work for some small farmers who’ve been in one of my classes, which means a NY State class is in the works.

i. I was trying out a new print shop and I had a miscommunication with them, and have 100 spanking new copies of the book PRINTED SINGLE SIDED by accident. I’ll drag some of these misprints to NC with me and will sell others at a discount (like $9 plus shipping) soon. Let me know if you want one. I’ll put up a web page shortly for this deal. Ugh.

A big thanks goes out to everyone who’s hosting the workshops so far!

Mark