Nope, that the motto for the Olympics.
What I am thinking of is:
   "We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster."

​The other night I came across the Six Million Dollar Man series on Peacock. I saw it when it first aired but did YOU know that this is one of the shows that influenced by career path???
Go, go on! Go get a cuppa and sit back and enjoy the story!

Let's start with my father. A self-made engineer who said I could be anything I wanted and gently pushed me into STEM because I could tell him how to take apart, put together, improve and fix things​ since I was a wee lass.

Then Star Trek came along (1966-1969). Most women in STEM might say it was Nyota Uhura who showed them that not only a woman in space was possible but they can be very smart too. But for me it was Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. I could see myself as an engineer who could fix anything and I really really wanted to go to space.

Fast forward to the early 1970's I am in high school and I am now pondering what I want to do with my life - should I become an engineer, nurse or doctor; teach science or home economics; become a chef, or..?? I could not decide.

In 1973, I was starting to look at engineering schools and ABC aired a made for TV movie "The Six Million Dollar Man" and I realized it was possible to combine engineering and medicine.  My parents were so confused when I said I wanted to do THAT! 

I went to my guidance counselor Mr. Clarke, who was fantastic in his position, and asked him what sort of engineering program would I study to make medical stuff - prosthetics, equipment, and tools for medicine and he said he would look into it. Sometime later we had a meeting and he said that ANY field of engineers except possibly Aeronautics or Marine, could go to work for a company that researched and made items for the medical industry BUT there was a new field called Biomedical Engineering which was focused on just that - teaching medical science and engineering specifically for the research and development of medical equipment. He handed me a brochure from the Society of Biomedical Engineers and I was ecstatic.   

Mr. Clarke then did more research and passed along a list of schools where I could get an engineering degree but only ONE, at that time, had an accredited undergraduate program specifically for Biomedical Engineering and that was Case Institute to Technology, later to be the Case School of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. 

Eventually my father and I did tours and took interviews at the schools I was applying to: Case and as fallback schools Carnegie-Mellon, Northeastern, Boston College, Wooster Polytech and a SUNY just in case. I wanted to apply to Rensselaer Poly Tech or Rochester Institute of Technology but they did not accept women at that time.
I was accepted at Case and Carnegie-Mellon but there I would be in a general Engineering program and then use electives to take other medical science courses.

So Case it was and that is where I graduated from. My undergraduate thesis was on the Impedance layers for Ultrasonic Transducers. From there I went to work on Ultrasonic Medical Scanners, Silicone Medical devices, Intravenous Pumps and IV bags, Angioplasty devices, Intercranial Pressure Monitors and Transducers and then I moved into Engineering consulting.

And that ,dear friends is how I became a Biomedical Engineer.

It was my birthday on Friday \0/. 

It was a rather good day despite having to work. Afterwork Eric & Michelle, Will, Chris, Jeff and I all met up and had beer and pizza. After that Jeff, Will and I went off to another place and had even more fun playing pool and some dancing. I got home at ONE in the morning. Yes, it was quite a bit of fun.

Yesterday, I was up at SEVEN AM and was at Diane's by Ten where we spent the day working on some chasing and repousse together. I am helping Diane learn so we discussed her next project and I worked on another tin for my article that will be published in Art Jewelry Magazine (hopefully) next year.  

Today, I am further relaxing by doing some more weaving on my waffle weave towels. I need to finish this towel so I can cut the warp threads and remove the reed. This reed [12 dent], belongs with the loom that Yuko bought from me. I will have to re-slay another reed [10 dent] I have after I cut the threads and tie on to the front beam so I can finish the other 3 towels that are part of the warp.

I did but did not get a present from Erich. My present is what I am doing NEXT week. I am taking a week long chasing and repousse class with Valentin Yotkov. He has schedule a workshop in San Diego so I will not have any travel (air, hotel, meals) expense except for the gas to drive to the class - and the cost of the workshop.  I will be posting pictures over on The Adventurous Silversmith if you want to see what I am learning.

Back to weaving.

OH - MY- GOSH! WEeeeeeee - a real roller, I felt like I was on a boat!

We just had a big earthquake and it shook for a long time! 

It was a 6.9 down in Baja  - Thats 150 miles

You can see the details from the USGS are here  - at the bottom of the map is a big square representing the size. The color changes from Red (within the hour of the event) to blue and yellow as time passes. 

And look there was a good sized one north of the bay area.

So if you click on the square, you can find out more about it, if you are into this sort of thing.

So, who else felt it??

I am getting lots of sleep this weekend - I slept 12 hours Friday night and about 9 last night. 


I spent yesterday trying to finish the redesign of the e-man's website and clean my office. Today is printing pictures of my metal work for a small portfolio I want to keep  as non-electronic is the best backup and easy to show when you don't know if you will have access to the web.


There are some new pictures posted on Metals 2010 page - enjoy!

It has been raining since Sunday afternoon. In So. Cal this is a love hate relationship. I love the rain, I even miss it at times BUT people here forget how to drive in it from year to year.

The rainy season is from October through April with most of the falling in the months of  January, February and March. Where I live the average rainfall for the year is about 12 inches.  And every year, without fail, the big pickup trucks drive like there is no rain falling; the roads are not slick; and everyone else is the idiot for going slow. As a result there are many accidents that just make the driving worse.

We are now into the third storm out of four that is rolling through the area and this morning as I was driving in to work, the clouds parted for just a few minutes and this bright and perfect half circle rainbow appeared over the highway. 

As for rainfall, we have a rain gauge at the house and since Sunday we have recorded the following amounts:
Sunday afternoon - Monday morning: 0.40"
Monday morning to Monday afternoon: 2.00"
Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning: 0.06"
Tuesday morning to Tuesday afternoon: 0.85"
Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning: 0.12"

And our Year-To-Date total is 8.04"

I have been a bad person, I started this blog months ago and I have not been keeping up. Between the day job, learning to be a silver (metal) smith, over committing myself to help friends - well it all just got away from me.

I promise to do better in 2010!

I am also going to be expanding the site over the next few weeks. I want to add more pictures from my hobbies - specifically the smithing and sewing.  I am also going to be putting up a store so you can buy my creations.

Have a joyous holiday, no matter what you observe, and have a great start to YOUR New Year.

Hey, I am setting up (again) kernology! There have 2 or 3 prior incarnations of kernology though the last one has been down for over a year. I figured it was time to bring it back.
So follow along as I build this out.

I have another blog, over at the Ganoksin Orchid Network. This "other" blog is specifically about my learning to be a silversmith. GO READ IT