![\"HuMn](\"/images/HuMnHW2/IMG_20140108_114129.jpg\")
Spaces for indentation and cuddled elses.
\nJavaScript is getting a wider audience at the office lately so I found myself\nsearching around for JavaScript style guides. With more people very new to\nwriting code maybe some guidelines would help establish good habits? Ultimately\nI realized the answer was no. Leading horses to water and all that. These\nthings have to come organically from the bottom up and I eventually remembered\nthat suggesting them tends to do the opposite.
\nBut reading through a few prominent guides made me think. You can tell a lot\nabout a community through its rules, reasonings and how they present them. Not\nsurprisingly, I didn’t find one that fit my personal style. Since that’s what\npersonal internet sites are all about…
\nOf all the nit picky things that show up in style guides the two that stood out\nfor me where how often spaces are preferred for indentation and all the else\ncuddling.
Lea Verou covers\nTABs versus\nspaces nicely. Spot on.
\nThe cuddling thing? It’s interesting that most places you see talking about\nbracing show simple if/else examples and nobody is talking about \"cuddled\nelse ifs\". I prefer the line start with the else if or else. Just like the\nline starts with the if.
1\n2\n3\n4\n5\n6\n7\n8\n9
if(inYourHouse) {\n\t// do what you like\n}\nelse if (inSomeoneElsesHouse) {\n\t// follow their rules\n}\nelse {\n\t// follow the community's social norms (and the law)\n}\n
Much easier for my brain to see the blocks that way.
\nOf course, \"match what’s there\" wins over all of this. If you’re in somebody\nelses' home play by their rules. But when I build my own they use TABs and\nelse is on its own line.
I have just had my first experience with Windows 2012 Server.
\n\nI was putting it off as long as possible but couldn’t avoid it today.\nThere was a test database I needed to see. So I started up remote\ndesktop and…
\n\n…it was like an H.P. Lovecraft story where you can’t find your way\nout, landmarks have been erased and there are things hiding in the\nshadows that make no sense and should not be.
\n\nNo. Just, no.
\n\nAnd yet the Great Old Ones cannot be stopped within the office\nwalls and we will all be consumed eventually. At least there’s Debian\nat home.
\n", "date_published": "2015-09-29T00:00:00-05:00", "date_modified": "2015-09-29T00:00:00-05:00" }, { "id": "/2015/06/11/on-bloomington-and-garbage", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2015/06/11/on-bloomington-and-garbage.html", "title": "On Bloomington and Garbage", "content_html": "Our new home city of Bloomington, MN currently uses a mostly open market\napproach to garbage collection. This works great. The haulers understand\neconomics because they actually have to run a business and pay people. This\nmakes them efficient and incentivizes new ideas. I get to price haulers against\neach other and use somebody else if I’m unhappy. Markets at work.
\n\nThe city council has decided this will not do and has been “investigating” a\nchange to city managed garbage collection. It’s a forgone conclusion the\ncouncil will decide that their idea for a government monopoly will bring peace\nto our time and good will toward men. Probably in the very near future because\nI have already seen city labeled trash bins in our parks and to avoid a recent\npetition initiative. This utopia is, of course,\nimpossible, but I need to write out why it’s a stupid idea so I can get it out\nof my head and move on.
\n\nAs an aside let me get off my chest that I’m pissed off I need to spend time on\nthis at all. It’s garbage. It’s a solved problem. Who wants to deal with that\nall over again? But NO. Something must be done!
\n\nAnd before the venting starts in earnest let me send sincere thanks to the\ncouncil members whom I have communicated with personally and in email. I very\nmuch appreciate their willingness to spend time on their constituents even if I\nthink the majority are telling themselves some seriously imaginative stories.\nThanks especially to Councilwoman Bemis Abrams, the sole dissenting member in\nall of this.
\n\nI also still believe individual Bloomington city workers are doing the best\npossible in a tough situation. If it’s unclear below replace “the city” with\n“the city council” because those are the people clearly deciding we are all\ngetting in this hand basket and where we are going.
\n\nNow onto politics.
\n\nI’m going to wade through this by responding to the nine issues called out in\nthe information packet offered at the open house on April 23rd.
\n\nThere’s been a lot of city propaganda but most of it falls into these blurry\ncategories in some tenuous way or another. I will note the list above buries\nthe lede quite a bit and the informational packet that boldly lists these in\nthe first page provided no actual information with respect to these bullet\npoints.
\n\nThe issue of the day will change depending on the audience and the day. Classic\npolitics. I’ll just go in the order above.
\n\nLitter is a red\nherring. Of course\nwe all want to reduce litter! Who hauls our garbage won’t change how much falls\nout of the trucks one bit but it sure sounds nice.
\n\nReducing truck noise makes some sense but there’s background here the city\ndoesn’t want you to think about.
\n\nSee, the last time the city council thought this was the greatest idea since\nsliced bread they got hammered by public opinion and backed off. (What has\nchanged since then nobody seems to know.) But politics being politics they\nstill got a ratchet locked down and required all garbage trucks to run in zones\non specific days. So all the trucks are in the same part of the city on the\nsame day. They’re concentrated by city ordinance.
\n\nLow and behold citizens noticed the higher truck density. Especially as\nBloomington residents aged and more were home during the day. Thus the bitching\nand moaning about all those trucks. Nice setup city council of old. Well\nplayed.
\n\nSo, sure, less truck noise. OK. Next up FedEx, UPS, DHL and the post office\ntrucks. Those bastards have been terrorizing our neighborhoods for decades.
\n\nThis is such a clichéd appeal to\nfear I’m\nsurprised (not really) they’re still flogging it. When will “for the children”\nget taken out for a spin?
\n\nThere has been zero, no, evidence offered to support the idea garbage trucks\nare a public safety issue. When asked, the city could not provide one example of\na garbage truck accident much less serious injury or fatality. With that kind\nof record these guys should be given Metro Area Transit jobs or start driving\ncity vehicles. The buses, trains and city trucks do get in accidents fairly\nregularly so let’s give the garbage drivers a chance.
\n\nThere’s no data to back up this claim either but, again, it sure sounds nice.
\n\nWe’re already recycling because it makes sense. It means getting by with a\nsmaller, cheaper, garbage bin. The city can’t change the economics of recycling\nso there’s nowhere to save on that one.
\n\nThat the city claims anything about composting shows they haven’t really\nthought about this. The people that do this already do it for free in their\nback yards. Adding curbside composing costs extra in the city’s proposal so who\nis going to sign up for that?
\n\nAnd how is government going to reduce waste exactly? (Insert joke about $500\nhammers here.) The dirty secret is the only way for this to happen is for the\ncity to control collection so they can set the rules we all have to follow.\nOnce they have the control they can start shrinking bin sizes until they meet\nwhatever waste stream size limit they make up out of thin air. It’s classic\nenvironmental cover pushing us along the path to this weird better place where\nwe’re freezing in the dark instead of killing the Earth with our furnaces or\nwasting electricity on a light bulb. Why are we still believing this stuff?
\n\nThis is another hand wavy, no data, feel good bullet point. I’m evil because I\ndon’t want to save the environment. Whatever.
\n\nWhen was the last time you saw government reduce anything? Me either.
\n\nThe city doesn’t need to take over garbage collection to make progress on this\none. So let’s charitably call it tinsel on the political Christmas tree this\nwhole issue has become and move on.
\n\nAgain, when has a government service ever done this? DMV? Public housing?\nHealth care? Transportation? Do you realize what that light rail is costing\nyou? Improved value on\nanything?\nEver? Government ran a whore house in Nevada and lost money for crying out\nloud.
\n\nBut let’s use this one as an example of not just the claims with no supporting\ndata mentioned above (with more below) but outright lies about “data” used to\npromote all this.
\n\nThe city spent (we don’t know how much) money on (we don’t know how many)\ncollection consultants. One of the consultant ideas was a survey. This survey\nis the only piece of data I’ve ever heard of in this entire fiasco. That\nsurvey asked about rates people were paying and, I believe, whether the city\nshould look at taking over collection. I just moved here so I never got a\nchance to fill it out.
\n\nIt had 276 respondents.
\n\nBloomington has approximately 26 thousand households. Never mind the biased\nsample of who\nresponds to a survey asking if the city should take over collection. Never\nmind the question\nbegging\nthat is part of every survey, as opposed to statistically valid sample\nmethodology, ever. This sample size represents 1%. One. Percent.\nAcross three different garbage bin sizes, seven haulers, with options for yard\nwaste and compost, across nobody knows how many different household sizes.
\n\nThis is not data, this is narrative crafting. And it’s being used to claim\nmillions, MILLIONS!, will be saved. The mayor doubled down on this\nstupidity\nin the recent (state required) public hearing (where I’ll guarantee nothing was\nactually heard) by admitting the survey wasn’t statistically valid but that\nhe’s sure the numbers will match up when the take over is complete.
\n\nUh huh.
\n\nIn the real world it took me 20 minutes when we moved here to find a rate 25%\nlower than the city used months to negotiate. And I hate talking on the phone.
\n\nSo another example where government comes to the rescue of those too lazy to\npick up the damned phone and save themselves a few bucks by taking it out of my\npocket instead. Great way to promote a strong civic culture there guys. Can’t\nwait to see what that line of thinking does for the city over the next\ngeneration.
\n\nOh, and yard waste and compost will still be additional fees but they don’t\nknow how much or how that will work yet. Top. Men. How much have we spent just\ngetting to this point again?
\n\nWhat the? Seriously? What the hell?
\n\nReduce staff resources from where to what? The city hours being burned to\ninvestigate and manage consultants and “negotiate” with haulers and watch the\ncity council naval gaze over this issue?
\n\nWe’re talking about adding new government responsibilities. City staff will be\nexpected to actually do the organizing part of organized city collection\nright? Something they are not responsible for today?
\n\nWhat the hell world do these people live in where new responsibilities\naccountable to 26,0000 households results in less work?
\n\nHere’s another one what I just have to shrug my shoulders on. The hypocrisy\nhere is obvious right?
\n\nThe city council has taken seven successful businesses, employing local workers\ndoing a difficult job, to the woodshed and made them offers they can’t refuse.\n(Nice business you have there. Shame if anything would happen to it.) The\nproposed setup says each hauler will keep their market share which is a nice\nway of saying their business growth potential is zero. On top of that these\nbusinesses and local jobs will suffer some level of chaos and losses as the\ncity, hopefully, learns and makes, inevitable, mistakes during this transition.
\n\nThis is the exact opposite of promoting local economic development. If I was a\nsmall business owner I wouldn’t touch Bloomington with a 10 foot pole. Who’s\nnext on the city’s chopping block?
\n\nThe city has admitted it has no data on this one either and, at the same time,\ndoesn’t hesitate to claim the savings will be hundreds of thousands of dollars.\nSo they don’t know and are just throwing more political tinsel on the tree.
\n\nI’ll admit that, yes, the bigger the truck the more wear it produces on\nroad ways. I have my own engineering degree and my roommates were a couple\nof civil engineering majors. This level of physics isn’t rocket\nscience.
\n\nThe fact we’re not supposed to remember is that those smelly garbage trucks pay\n(big) registration taxes, fuel taxes and (big) licensing fees just like you and\nI do. This money is supposed to go toward road maintenance. The haulers are\nalready paying their fair share. Like you and me they have every right to drive\ntheir trucks to Home Depot, McDonalds and to drop their kids off at school if\nthey want to. Would it be OK for the city to tell you how often you can drive\nyour car, truck, SUV, mini van or motorcycle? No. It would not be OK.
\n\nBut it’s somehow OK to tell the garbage haulers because those trucks smell or\nsomething?
\n\nThe city is admitting, but doesn’t want you to notice, that the government\nprogram for road maintenance isn’t working while claiming this government\ngarbage collection program is totally different and is absolutely going to be\nawesome.
\n\nI’m disappointed in my city’s council which has long term repercussions for my\ninteractions with my government.
\n\nInstead of incremental, data based, changes to well defined problems they’ve\ncreated a staggeringly massive all or nothing political problem out of thin\nair. They are ham handedly taking over responsibility for seven local\nbusinesses, an unknown number of area jobs and the decision making power of\n26,000 households all for the fleeting and emotional power of “doing something”\nand leaving their mark.
\n\nI don’t think that mark will last and, if it does, it’ll feel like graffiti in\nfew years.
\n\nAt best my family will pay more for the same great level of service we receive\nfrom our current hauler. I expect we’ll pay more\nfor worse service very soon; the city will be the customer to keep happy, not\nus. And we’ve seen how well the city responds to citizens concerns on this\nissue already. Over time the city will have to make real world decisions about\ncosts and services. As a monopoly the inevitable result will be less and\nless service for more and more money.
\n\n“We’re from the government and we’re here to help” shouldn’t make the hair on\nthe back of my neck stand up but it surely does. I didn’t need yet another\nexample…
\n\n", "tags": [ "government" ], "date_published": "2015-06-11T00:00:00-05:00", "date_modified": "2015-06-11T00:00:00-05:00" }, { "id": "/2015/01/24/on-perl-and-priorities", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2015/01/24/on-perl-and-priorities.html", "title": "On Perl and Priorities", "content_html": "A confession. My swiss army hacking tool is still Perl.
\n\nThe other day I was on a refactoring tear and needed something to\nfind unused SASS variables and mixins. A quick search for this\nhas-to-be-a-solved-problem showed a thousand links to the same Bash\none liner. Which is great if your Windows system at the office has\nBash installed…
\n\nSo I hacked something up in Perl.
\n\nThen I thought I should really start getting out there and put\nsomething onto my long ignored\nGitHub\naccount. Maybe somebody else could use this? Which is when I got\nthis odd feeling I might be doing the equivalent of airing my dirty\nlaundry in public. Which is when I got to wondering why I felt that\nway.
\n\nIt is no great secret that Perl is no longer the scripting language\nof the upscale professional. If it ever really was. Perl always reveled\nin a duct tape vibe 1\nwhich is what drew me in the first place. Duct tape is frick’n awesome.\nBut I lost touch with the community after it started wandering through\nthe Perl 6 desert lo those many years ago.
\n\nThe thing is, Perl 5 just keeps solving the problems I need solved.\nI’ve got a decade of muscle memory typing $, @ and %, CPAN hasn’t\ncrumbled into the ocean, Strawberry is pretty nice, ActivePerl is\nstill weird and useful for our corporate type customers and stuff\nstill needs to get taped together in the real world. Duct tape is\nstill handy stuff.
\n\nYes, Python and Ruby are on my list of things to try. Trouble is,\nPython doesn’t appear to do anything Perl can’t do and I mostly want\nto learn Ruby for the Rails not the Ruby. And, since my current gig\nis a Microsoft house, Rails isn’t anywhere near the top of of the\npriority list. What time I do have for new scripting languages is\nmostly used to find my way through the PowerShell maze these days.
\n\nAnd since I’m airing dirty laundry anyway I’ll admit that programming\nlanguages for their own sake aren’t high up my personal list right this\nmoment either.
\n\nWe’re finally into our new (to us) house and starting to feel like\nwe live here. With a new home comes new projects which get the nod\nafter coming home from the office. I’m finding it hard to get\nexcited about another six hours in front of the keyboard after the\nprevious eight hours in front of the keyboard.
\n\nI’d rather get the basement wired so I can find a lathe and learn\nhow to make threads in steel. My motorcycle needs more miles. The\ndogs need a walk in the park space down the road. I’ve owed my\nlovely wife a real vacation for years. There are new bourbons to\ntry and food to make. There are those 15 pounds to loose. My AR and\nM&P should be getting fed much more often and finding a trainer to\ndo that with would be good. Maybe some trap or skeet with friends.\nWe haven’t been to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in way too long.\nAnd on and on and on.
\n\nThere’s lots to learn out there. So I’m going to keep leveraging the\nlearning I’ve already done, keep hacking Perl and stop feeling bad\nabout that.
\n\nIf you’ve got a Node/Angular project you’d like some help on I might\nbe interested though…
\n\n[1]: In retrospect I like the idea of duct tape holding\nthings together more than the reality. Safety wire and a\nClampTite will stay put forever\nand don’t get gray goo all over everything.
\n\n", "date_published": "2015-01-24T00:00:00-06:00", "date_modified": "2016-12-18T14:41:37-06:00" }, { "id": "/2014/06/19/did-i-mention-we-re-selling-our-house-", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2014/06/19/did-i-mention-we-re-selling-our-house.html", "title": "Did I mention we're selling our house?", "content_html": "We’re knee deep in the process of selling the 100 year old house we’ve been\nupdating for the past 13 years and finding the next place for us.
\n\nThe black and white part of my brain knew this was going to be tough. But it’s\nrealizing how unprepared it is for the rainiest June in over 100 years and the\nfull onslaught of the fuzzy gray part of my brain raging against its loss of\nroutine and the demands of all these new people that want our time.
\n\nThankfully we’ve got willing friends and family and great people working with,\nand for, us.
\n\nNow back to driving on…
\n\n", "summary": "Did I mention I'm going a bit crazy?", "tags": [ "house" ], "date_published": "2014-06-19T00:00:00-05:00", "date_modified": "2014-06-19T00:00:00-05:00" }, { "id": "/2014/01/10/humn-hw2-aluminum-wallet-review", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2014/01/10/humn-hw2-aluminum-wallet-review.html", "title": "HuMn HW2 Aluminum Wallet Review", "content_html": "Also known as “why I had to, unfortunately, send mine back.”
\n\nLike many tech types I’m always on the lookout for a better way to deal with stuff. Most recently I’ve been on a wallet hunt.
\n\nMy last wallet hunt lead to a Dopp Regatta 88. It kept just the stuff I needed, forced me to keep what I needed to a minimum, looked good, and wasn’t too expensive. I’ve gone through two of them now. Eventually credit cards blow out the sidewall of the thiner cloth interiors. They’re still a great option, but it was time to try something else.
\n\nI’ve been intrigued by the HuMn designs ever since I first saw them in one of the thousand other wallet posts online. The aluminum plates make the mechanical engineering part of my brain happy and the idea is just so damn elegant. After a couple Regatta’s at $25 a piece the HuMn prices, that put me off a couple years ago, didn’t seem bad anymore. It’ll last forever. And good design is worth it, dammit.
\n\nSo I ordered a gray/black, two plate, HW2 just after Christmas.
\n\n
The order process was easy and it arrived faster than I was hoping. It came packed in a small microfiber bag and the plates were perfectly cut and finished with clean, but not sharp, edges. Very nice machine work. It also included their Shock Strap 2, using a rubber banding on the strap instead of the original metal. So my one concern about scratching whatever else is next to the wallet in my pocket wasn’t an issue. Perfect.
\n\nPutting my stuff in the HW2 gave me a bundle about as wide and thick as my Nexus 4 phone, and about 1/3 shorter. The phone and wallet fit together in the front left pocket of my Levi’s comfortably. So far so good.
\n\nUnfortunately, two issues killed the HW2 for me:
\n\nOpening the wallet as shown in HuMn’s videos pinned the US cash I wanted to carry on the inside behind my finger, making it very tricky to get it out of the wallet. I don’t want to show everybody who sees my wallet how much cash is there so I wasn’t willing to strap it to the outside of the wallet like others seem to do.
\n\n![\"HuMn](\"/images/HuMnHW2/IMG_20140108_114232.jpg\")
The cash access issue was pretty specific, but I found it tricky in general to get things in and out of the wallet. With my finger holding it open, pinning the bottom of the plates together, I felt like I was fighting the wallet to pick a card and pull it out. The reverse was also true for me. Putting stuff back in required navigating around the finger keeping the wallet open and pushing the stuff already in there down out of the bottom. Looking at the videos again as I’m writting this I probably would’ve figured it out after some more practice. It seems likely the “cash inside” layout was the problem for me.
\nI have two cards I need to swipe multiple times per day - a public transit smart card and a one of those common (in the US) white building access cards that are about double the thickness of a common credit card. Neither of the readers I need to use would register their respective cards when they were strapped to the outside of the HW2. Pulling those cards off the wallet each time seems like a minor issue until a few days go by and you realize how many times you swipe cards…
\nSo I regrettably filled in a return form on HuMn’s website outlining these issues. Ken replied almost instantly and thanked me for the feedback. Great customer service!
\n\nBoth of my issues are personal use things. If you don’t swipe cards daily, or the readers you use are more powerful, or you don’t carry/use cash often, or your fingers are smaller, or RFID skimming protection is more important to you, or, or, or, the HuMn is very much worth a try and the price. It’s an elegant design that will last forever, looks great, and can be customized via material and color selections to make yours unique.
\n\nKen at HuMn did mention a new polycarbonate option they’re working on so I’ll keep stopping back.
\n\n", "summary": "Quick review of the HuMn HW2 aluminum plate wallet. Also known as why I had to send mine back.", "date_published": "2014-01-10T00:00:00-06:00", "date_modified": "2014-01-10T00:00:00-06:00" }, { "id": "/2013/12/17/wfa-part-4", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2013/12/17/wfa-part-4.html", "title": "NOLS WMI Wilderness First Aid Part 4 (Misc Stuff)", "content_html": "To finish up this series I putting all the rest of the notes I haven’t rewritten yet here. These are out of context but maybe writing them down again will help me out.
\n\nIn between learning the PAS and going outside to practice it we did a ton of other stuff. Covering:
\n\nThis stuff is all online already or in books. It was a lot to take in that fast. A few things I wrote down above and beyond the handouts they provided:
\n\nThe acronym here is SHARP:
\n\nInfection is bad. If you see fever, swollen lymph nodes, sigh/symptoms of shock, read streaking it’s time to go. No good progress in 24 hours is also an EVAC.
\n\nFirst time I ever taped an ankle. Kind of crazy how much something like that can help. Assessment here is LAF:
\n\nTreatment is RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.
\n\nWhen taping two rolls of 1”x10yard athletic tape will do about three ankles. Since you want to take it off each night to monitor, check CSM, and run cold water over it, that could turn into a lot of tape.
\n\nWhen dealing with things like abdominal pain or general aches and pains it’s OPQRST:
\n\nWhen dealing with low levels of responsiveness it’s TO STOP:
\n\nWe didn’t talk much about first aid gear. Most of this can be done with what’s around you, like splinting with tent poles, branches, and their foam sleeping pad. Couple things stuck out as items I needed to add:
\n\nThese are all things that are hard to improvise, make a real difference, and are (generally) small. Otherwise, you’ll improvise. And, again, use there stuff when possible so when they EVAC away from the group you don’t loose your coat or pack stays.
\n\nThe two days were absolutely worth it. My WFA certificate is good for two years and when that’s coming due I’ll probably sign up for another class. I’d really like to take the WMI Wilderness First Responder course (WFR or woofer) but it’s 10 days on site. That’ll be hard to swing but it’d be great.
\n", "summary": "Fourth collection of notes from my NOLS WMI Wilderness First Aid class in October 2013.", "tags": [ "FirstAid","Outdoors" ], "date_published": "2013-12-17T00:00:00-06:00", "date_modified": "2013-12-17T00:00:00-06:00" }, { "id": "/2013/12/17/wfa-part-3", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2013/12/17/wfa-part-3.html", "title": "NOLS WMI Wilderness First Aid Part 3 (End Game)", "content_html": "In the last part I covered the patient assessment system (PAS) through the first three levels:
\n\nThe first part of a first aid situation will be a mess. I was seriously messed up ever time we did a scenario and it was just class in REI’s back yard. Try to get through the previous steps, write everything down or you’ll forget it, and do the best you can.
\n\nDuring all that chaos, with your other hand, you should also be trying to put the patient at ease and dealing with environmental issues. I learned damn fast that laying on the ground will make you cold right damn now. If your patient is laying on the ground get something underneath them when you roll them over to check their spine. I have a couple NATO, fold up, sleeping pads I picked up 100 years ago and my plan is to bring them along “outdoors.”
\n\nIf hypothermia is possible get them into some shelter. You may need to put the shelter up around them if you’re holding their head for a possible c-spine.
\n\nUse their stuff if you possibly can. If they’re EVACed away with your shell and it starts raining you’ll be the next hypothermia patient. And out your shell because you’re not getting that back.
\n\nBut now we’re to the introspective part. Deep breath.
\n\nThis is the fourth level on the PAS pyramid.
\n\nThe patient is as stable as possible, you’re squared away, and you have all kinds of information scribbled down incoherently all over the place. If you’re on day 4 of a 10 day hike and they’ve broken their leg, you can take some time to figure out how screwed you are.
\n\n“Stay and play” or “gotta go?”
\n\nSince this is first aid class we’ll assume gotta go. How’s that going to work? We practiced carrying a person and it sucked big damn rocks. Seriously. Sucked. If it is at all possible for them to self evac that is 110% the way to go. If they can’t, build a litter. Or call for help. Or ranger up because this is gonna suck.
\n\nNOLS has a protocol for calling for help. The idea is to get the most important info out first. If the connection is spotty search and rescue (SAR) will have something to go on.
\n\nAn aside. You let somebody know where you were going, right? Somebody knows when it’s been too long and something’s wrong, right? I need to get in the habit of leaving a note…
\n\nAnyway, you’re calling somebody for help.
\n\n“This is Aric Czarnowski (C as in Cat, Z as in Zebra …) and I’m 5 days into the BWCA from Saw[schreech]”
\n\nAt least now they can hit the permit list to find yours out of Sawbill and have a radius to start looking.
\n\nThe pocket card NOLS sells on their site covers the radio report so I won’t rewrite it in detail. Here’s what you’re trying to cover in order:
\n\nTry to keep this to the point. Reorganize your notes and you probably want to also write down what you’re planning to say on the call. The SAR guys don’t want to listen to you rambling for 15 minutes. And if you get the info out in a concise way you’ll be in a better position to hand off when they get there. They won’t think they’re dealing with an idiot.
\n\nWith your plan in place make it happen. That might mean making yourselves comfortable for a really long wait.
\n\nThis is the final, base layer, of the PAS pyramid. After all the rush of the previous PAS steps maybe your best option is to sit down and wait for the cavalry. Or you need to take a day to see what happens next. You’re now in a monitoring phase.
\n\nRetake vitals, check wounds for changes, make sure they’re doing OK, keep’em warm and fed, etc. Hurry up and wait. Catch them getting worse before it becomes a crisis.
\n\nGood notes matter here because you’ll eventually hand them off. Keep good records with time, LOR, HR, RR, SCTM, intake, output, etc. What else you got to do?
\n\nThere’s not much else to it at this point. Either they’re staying and playing, they’re self EVACing, you’re working our ass off to carry them out, or you’re waiting for the cavalry.
\n\n", "summary": "Third collection of notes from my NOLS WMI Wilderness First Aid class in October 2013.", "tags": [ "FirstAid","Outdoors" ], "date_published": "2013-12-17T00:00:00-06:00", "date_modified": "2013-12-17T00:00:00-06:00" }, { "id": "/2013/12/10/wfa-part-2", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2013/12/10/wfa-part-2.html", "title": "NOLS WMI Wilderness First Aid Part 2 (PAS)", "content_html": "The WMI Patient Assessment System (PAS) was the core of the course. It’s laid out as a pyramid starting at the most important and time critical, down through the stages where you clarify and dig deeper, until you get to a stabil(ish) patient and can deal with the long term “what now” at the bottom.
\n\nYou get a copy of a pocket sized card, showing the pyramid, that turned out to be really handy. I picked up another copy for my “other” first aid kit.
\n\nThe top of the PAS pyramid is scene assessment. This is supposed to take 30 seconds to a minute while you’re walking up to the [whatever is going on]. It has five steps which you can count down on your fingers as you go and rhyme to yourself:
\n\nThe next level of the pyramid is the approach. Once you’ve got an overview of the scene and have your gloves on, you get involved.
\n\nFirst you introduce yourself and ask if they want your help. This is also the best time, based on the scenarios\nwe ran, to ask how old they are. It’s hard to remember to do this later but it’s really good info to have.
\n\nAssuming they do, and you can assume that if they’re unconscious, you go through your ABCs:
\n\n“Hi, I’m Aric. I’m Bob. Hey Bob. I’ve got some first aid training. Can I help? OK. How old are you Bob? Got anything in your mouth? …”
\n\nThese are the big hitters. If at any point something isn’t good here you fix it ASAP. Choking on the teeth they just broke? Get those out of there. Can’t take a deep breath? Figure out what’s up. Bleeding out? Compression. Etc.
\n\nSome notes I made around this:
\n\nC-spine is a big decision. If you decide they may have a spinal and immobilize their head, you’re immobilizing their head for the duration. You can’t take this one back. Hope you have a competent partner with you because doing everything else you need to do while you’re holding their head is going to be hard.
\n\nOn the other hand, if you can’t convince yourself they for sure could not have hurt their spine you should immobilize it (hold their head).
\n\nThere aren’t a lot of hard rules they could give us here. The wilderness is pretty variable. But if they fell less than their body height, low speeds, and didn’t loose consciousness, they’re probably fine. Tipping over on your bike probably isn’t but coming down the mountain into a tree probably is. Vehicles - snowmobiles, ATVs, etc. - are good ?candidates for spinals.
\n\nThe next step down the PAS pyramid, it’s getting wider, is made up of three parts:
\n\nAt this stage you’re making sure you didn’t miss anything, getting more info and details, and making sure you didn’t miss anything. At this point you should really be writing stuff down.
\n\nHead to Toe
\n\nYou’re going to touch the patient on every part of their body looking for blood, feeling for stuff moving that shouldn’t, noting if the patient is in pain, etc. This is where you really get into their space. It’s going to be awkward. Push hard on stuff.
\n\nCheck their brow and nose. Back of their head. Push down on their hips with your full body weight (these are strong bones). You can check their sternum by putting the edge of your hand along it (karate chop style) and asking them to breath deep. They’ll need to deep breath to check ribs too.
\n\nRoll them over and check their back. Run your hands down their spine. Everything solid and in line? No wet spots (blood)? This is tricky if you’re holding their head because of a possible c-spine in the ABCDE phase. We got some techniques here but it’s really easiest if there’s two people helping.
\n\nWhile you’re going along keep checking your hands for blood spots.
\n\nIf you find anything, expose it. You need to see everything you think might be an injury.
\n\nThis is your last chance to find anything life threatening so be thorough.
\n\nWrite down what you find.
\n\nVital Signs
\n\nAs you finish up your head to toe:
\n\nYou’re looking for SCTM (skin color, temperature and moisture), LOR (level of responsiveness), and control differences side to side. If one hand isn’t as strong as the other, but you haven’t noted an injury on the weak side, you might have found something new.
\n\nWrite all this down.
\n\nNow you’re going to find their heart and respiratory rate. You have a watch right? I didn’t. I’m looking for one now. Doing this with a phone sucks.
\n\nFind their radial pulse (it’s less intrusive than going for their neck but, honestly, I’m not sure that’s worth the trade for finding the damn thing after you’ve touched them all over). Tell them you’re taking their heart rate. Take it for 30 and remember the number, then start counting chest rises to get breath rate. Remember that. Then double both of them to get the per minute values.
\n\nThey’ll think you’re taking pulse for a minute and hopefully won’t think about their breathing. If you tell somebody you’re checking their breathing they’ll do it wrong. ;)
\n\nIf you’re having trouble seeing their chest rise ask them to lay their arm across their chest. That makes it easier to see movement.
\n\nIs their pulse strong or week? Is their breathing easy or labored?
\n\nYou’re hoping for 50-100 beats per minute and 12-20 breaths per minute.
\n\nWrite these values down and the date and time. (I need to add a waterproof notebook to my going out kit along with the watch.) Something like:
\n\nTime: 11:40\n Brain: awake/oriented\n Heart: 78 bpm strong\n Resp: 14 rpm easy\n Skin: pink/warm/dry (chest)
\n\nYou’ll probably be checking these on intervals so you can tell if the patient is stable, getting worse, or getting better. You need the running log to tell this. A single set of numbers doesn’t tell you all that much. This might be every 5 minutes, hour, or half hour depending on what’s going on. If you’re waiting for evac what else do you have to do?
\n\nSAMPLE
\n\nNow that you’re getting to know each other, and you’re sure they’re not about to bleed out, you can finish up with Q and A. SAMPLE stands for:
\n\nYou’re trying to find any last details that might help figure out what’s going on with this person. If they had a granola bar and a bottle of water on the way out here 6 hours ago and they’re dizzy, dehydration?
\n\nRecreational drugs are a relatively new one. Pot is legal in a few states and many people don’t think of alcohol as a drug/medicine. You might need to work around to asking about weed and that flask you found during the head to toe…
\n\nThat’s in the next part…
\n", "summary": "Second collection of notes from my NOLS WMI Wilderness First Aid class in October 2013.", "tags": [ "FirstAid","Outdoors" ], "date_published": "2013-12-10T00:00:00-06:00", "date_modified": "2013-12-10T00:00:00-06:00" }, { "id": "/2013/12/09/wfa-part-1", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2013/12/09/wfa-part-1.html", "title": "NOLS WMI Wilderness First Aid Part 1 (Introduction)", "content_html": "In late October of 2013 I went to a two day wilderness first aid course put on by NOLS and taught at the REI in Bloomington. This is my first stab at some notes: part after action report, part concepts, and part random stuff before I loose track of what my hasty days of scribbles actually say. I’m not planning on rehashing signs and symptoms or treatments for wounds, head trauma, etc. That stuff is listed pretty accessibly in books and on the net.
\n\nHopefully, writing this down will help it stick in my head a bit better.
\n\nThe course was taught by Erik and Amy. Erik runs a wilderness program at Winona State and Amy is a nurse. Each had their own teaching styles that were great and complimented each other really nicely. Both were obviously comfortable in front of the group, handled questions great, and included everyone all through the course.
\n\nBoth days stayed as close as possible to the 0900-1800 schedule as 24 random students could allow.
\n\nThere was a ton of information passed along. Erik mentioned in his introduction that we were not going to simply soak it all up. His goal was to get us doing 100% in class so three months from now, after time takes its toll, we’ll still be running at 60% if we need to. I was pretty impressed with the honesty.
\n\nThe two days were split pretty evenly between lecture and actually doing things. We did get to know all the other students going through practice scenarios, checking them over for injuries, splinting, rolling people over, carrying them, etc. Remember to put stuff you don’t want others to deal with into your day bag before class starts!
\n\nWhen we did scenarios a group was taken outside and movie make-up dashed on to simulate injuries. I thought it was pretty interesting how much this detail helped get the right mindset setup.
\n\nWeather was 40s, overcast, and sprinkling for the weekend and we were outside in it practicing. Just like we would be in a real wilderness scenario. I appreciated this too. I definitely learned some things by really being out there in it.
\n\nThe end goal of the class was to get students to the point where we can decide if somebody can “stay and play” or “has gotta go.” For the most part, if there’s any doubt, going is the right choice. If somebody has a wound that makes you wonder if they’re done is anybody going to be having enough fun to stay?
\n\nOf course, that’s not always cut and dry when you’re on the fifth day of a 10 day trip…
\n\nBecause “going” is an outcome, we talked about that off and on through the course. Again, because the wilderness is a big variable, there wasn’t a lot of hard rules. How do you evac somebody that can’t walk? With a possible spinal injury? Who is unconscious?
\n\nIt’s not always going to be cut and dry.
\n\nI’ll get to WMI’s “radio report” for calling out for help, but want to mention here that you should be thinking about how to call for help on big trips. Do cell phones work? Radio? What kind? Who do you contact? What’s their level of service and their procedures? You don’t just get out your sat phone and expect a Chinook medvac in 30…
\n\nDo some research on the area you’ll be in so you’ll know your rescue and medical support options.
\n\nLike every specialty there were a bazillion acronyms. Here’s my list:
\n\nThe next part will start with the Patient Assessment System.
\n", "summary": "First collection of notes from my NOLS WMI Wilderness First Aid class in October 2013.", "tags": [ "FirstAid","Outdoors" ], "date_published": "2013-12-09T00:00:00-06:00", "date_modified": "2013-12-09T00:00:00-06:00" }, { "id": "/2010/12/03/30-steps-to-mastery", "url": "http://localhost:4000/2010/12/03/30-steps-to-mastery.html", "title": "The 30 Steps to Mastery", "content_html": "I knew I’d come back to this over and over again and didn’t want to risk losing it to the fickle memory of the web. By Onjibonrenat at Ben Casnocha’s:
\n\n