Nursery rhyme revisted

From XKCD http://xkcd.com/1662/ 

So, when does water flow uphill?  Anytime the potentiometric surface causes it to do so!

Want to learn more about groundwater?  Check out the USGS Water Science School.  Can water flow uphill?  Check out the Artesian water section there.

The Nature of GIS

This is a thought-provoking question. According to ESRI, GIS is an integration of "...hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information (http://www.esri.com/what-is-gis/overview#overview_panel)." This is a standard definition used widely. The term, "science", however, is used in a variety of ways. At its most basic, "science" derives from the Latin "scientia" for "knowledge". From there, its usage diverges into 2 main directions. For some, science is a particular body of knowledge. For others, myself included, science is a way of thinking and a method of inquiry that involves making observations about the natural world, asking questions based on those observations, forming a hypothesis to try to explain what is being observed, gathering additional data, testing the hypothesis, and sharing the results. Therefore, I consider GIS an immensely useful tool for scientific inquiry, but not a science in and of itself.  Cory Blackeagle 12/23/2012

People who fully appreciate how data is collected, used, and distributed discover the most effective ways to analyze the data to create information. The experience we gain through data collection, digitization, conversion, etc. is how we gain confidence to ask the right questions when presenting information via map applications. We all realize that just because you can mash apps together does not immediately create value. The data may not have the scale, temporal, or integrity expected. Those who can make the best interpretation add value while those who cannot will not last long.  Chris Blough, Oct. 2012, http://www.directionsmag.com/podcasts/is-gis-education-bait-and-switch/289488?goback=%2Egmp_49657

The Gift of Gab

I never thought I took much for granted until my TBI took away my ability to speak clearly and fluently. Now that I can't do either, I find myself watching and listening to others chat away and realizing how very much I took for granted my ability to carry on a conversation. I also never realized how central that ability is to living creatures. No matter the language or style, EVERYONE talks to others. Every creature that is social depends on it. I can't now. Me talking is very hard, very tiring, and very hard for others to understand. I miss it. One speech therapist told me it is neurological and nothing can be done. I stopped seeing her. Another speech therapist agreed with me when she said, "We won't know until we try, eh?" Thankfully, she is the speech therapist I saw after the TBI in 2000 but before the accidents in August and September 2014. She and I work very well together, she is patient, she is very good at what she does, she pushes me, and she is a fighter. I need fellow fighters working with me. I won't give up until and unless I know I need to.

If I am Pooh, Christopher Robin is my Brain

Story and sketches by Cory. "Oh bother!" muttered Pooh. "What's the matter, Pooh?" squeaked Piglet. "I've lost something very important, and I don't know how to get it back!" Pooh sighed. Piglet nodded seriously. "Yes, I can see that would be a bother. What is this very important something, Pooh, and where did you lose it?" Piglet pondered. "See, that's the tricky part, Piglet. It's not WHERE I lost it. It's WHEN. See, losing something in when is far more difficult than losing something in where." "Oh, I see," Piglet tried to say very thoughtfully, though he really didn't see at all. Pooh sighed a very long, sad sigh. "That's the problem with being a Bear of Very Little Brains, Piglet. I know I've lost it, but I don't know how to find it again."

Suddenly, Piglet bounced up in the air and squeaked, startling himself as much as Pooh. Maybe more. He squeaked again, but this time it sounded more like "Pooh!" than a squeak. "Pooh!" he tried again, and this time it sounded exactly like "Pooh!" and not at all like a squeak. "Yes, Piglet?" asked Pooh. "Ask Christopher Robin! He's ever so good at finding things." Piglet sort of squeaked.

Pooh looked even sadder. "Yes, that's true, Piglet, he is, but you see, that's the real problem - the tip-top of the problem, the foundation upon which the entire problem rests." Pooh sighed. Piglet felt very proud to have found the tip-top and the foundation all at the very same time. "Good!" he squeaked. "No," Pooh sighed again, "not good at all. You see, it is Christopher Robin I've lost." "Pooh?" Piglet began carefully. "Yes, Piglet?" Pooh asked. "Perhaps if we start walking towards WHERE you saw Christopher Robin last, you'll run into When you were last with him and then you'll have found him!" Piglet said in a rush before his thought ran away. Pooh thought this over and then brightened. "Yes, Piglet! I believe that is EXACTLY what we should do! Thank you, Piglet!" And off they went, in search of Christopher Robin, who was lost not so much some where as he was some when.  (7 May 2015)

"Within Normal Limits" = Invisible

But that is how the medical community treated me... Invisible.  The evening of 5/21/200, I was kicked behind the right ear while teaching martial arts, and in that instant (which I don't remember), I suffered a closed head injury (a traumatic brain injury or TBI) and my life changed forever.  The only thing I remember after that and for the 4 months following was being awakened that night by pain - pain like someone was driving a metal stake into my brain.  I remembering stumbling to the bathroom, taking some ibuprofen, and stumbling back to bed.  I lived alone with my 3 dogs and I could not think.  My notes tell me I saw medical doctors and was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome.  Since it was a work comp claim, my employer assumed I must be malingering and sent me to a neuropsychologist, who did an evaluation and declared that all was within normal limits and I was, therefore, fine.  The work comp claim was terminated, and eventually, the doctors caring for me felt it had been long enough, I should be fully recovered, and that was the end of it.  Whatever was still going on was "all in your head" (i.e., psychological).  I was left to deal with everything I was experiencing on my own, but I was definitely not normal, at least not for me and probably not for anyone else.  I have come to hate the phrase, "within normal limits".   

Years went by and I kept asking medical providers about everything I was experiencing:  headaches, balance problems, vertigo, decreased coordination, vision problems.  As always, I was "within normal limits".  I had trouble at work - lots of trouble.  Supervisors told me that I did not follow directions, didn't do what I was told, was difficult, "high-maintenance", hard to get along with, didn't focus, or stay on task.  I was confused - I knew I was doing what I heard I was told.  So, I started using active listening skills - repeating, rephrasing, asking clarifying questions.  Then supervisors told me I was argumentative and questioning their authority.  All of this was completely at odds with who I had always known myself to be:  focused, highly intelligent, competent, mentally quick, physically gifted.  I did not know what to do with this incredible conflict between who I knew myself to be and who everyone else told me I was.  I did the only thing I knew to do - I took it all to heart - they must be correct.  I was a bad employee and person.  

The TBI didn't turn me in to the sad, tentative, isolated person with no self-confidence and no self-esteem that I became.  I lay that blame not on the people around me but on the medical professionals who wouldn't listen to me and said I was "within normal limits".

It took 11 years until my chance encounter with an article reporting on post-concussion-syndrome research at the local medical school, an email to the researcher so extensively quoted in that article, and a family doctor with an open mind that would finally lead to a diagnosis and treatment.  Things were getting better for me.  I still remember the exact words a the researcher's colleague said after he did a quick post-concussion evaluation.  

"I've got the results of the testing and it IS all in your head.....but it is physical damage, not psychological issues.  You suffered a TBI and suffer from its effects.  We can't heal it, but we can help you function better with accommodations."  

Amazing what turning an unknown into a known can do.   With treatment and both the accommodations I was learning for myself and the official accommodations I now had at work, I was making progress.  I wasn't the smooth-running, well-oiled, high-performance, athletic and intellectual human machine I had been before the TBI, but I was doing much, much better and I was once again experiencing successes personally and professionally.  I met an amazing woman who loved me as I was, and we joined our lives together.  I was making progress with my doctoral research.  I had gained a measure of peace with what I had to give up (my beloved martial arts for one).  I was beginning to accept who I was now after the TBI.  I was learning to be happy  again, and I was slowly gaining a bit of confidence.  And then.....

Two accidents in quick succession and 2 more concussions.  A heavy object fell on me, landing on the left side of my head the evening of August 28, 2014, and then I must've lost my balance and and I fell down the stairs on September 25, 2014, striking the right side of the top of my head and injuring my right shoulder when I landed (I have no memory of this second event - only what my wife tells me she saw happen).  I am not back where I started for good and bad.  The good:  being guided by the TBI that I was already documented to have suffered, the diagnosis was immediate, and so I have begun treatment quickly.   The bad:  all my existing problems are much, much worse, and I have new problems.  Reading and writing are both incredibly difficult and time-consuming for me now, so each blog post will take a great deal of effort and time.

Still, I will learn to cope and accommodate my new reality, but I don't know where I will end up except that I will continue traveling my path.  And part of my path is to share what I am experiencing with whoever cares to read about it here.  Stay tuned....