Strange title for a blog, so I guess I should properly explicate and I sincerely hope I don’t loose any of my already small "number" (yes singular!) of readers. I should first thank Brett, because after reading his recent blog entry, all be it with a slightly different twist, I can come clean so to speak and admit that I do spend a lot of my time behind this computer, working on my interest – that which provides the “butter” for my bread -pays the bills, if you follow me!

Apologies in advance as I need to digress, but I promise to stay on point. I currently work as a post doc researcher in Medical Physics. My speciality is Medical Imaging, or, more succinctly, the application of computerized tomography (CT) / positron emission tomography (PET) in the early detection of breast cancer. I’m struggling this side of the PC to refrain from elaborating any further, so you can stop edging away from me, I know illuminating any further would only put you to sleep!

Digression aside, my thanks to Brett is because my sister tells me (and very often!) I should avoid giving too much detail of what my research and hobbies are, as it is one sure way to stay single! G-d, you got to love my sister, never one for “mincing words!" Anyway, in his last blog he has what appears to be rendered images of a 3D spiders web. This got me thinking of the latest rendering I have done on a NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) magnet, used for a document I am writing. You can rest safely and assured, I’m not going to get into the details of NMR or what it is, only to say we use it for analysis.

I have included the images of the magnet and the rendering, not to show off, but more as my accomplishments as there is not an artistic bone in my body. The more noteworthy point here is that as a quadriplegic with no use of my arms or hands, I am able to generate this all via speech software and using my mouth-stick. Technology is amazing! The amazing thing is that the was done with free software (POVRay - www.povray.org) and all generated using mathematics to describe the scene!

Here’s a latitude request here if you read this far. I was thinking as I wrote this blog entry, for those of us with disabilities, technology has been a blessing – oh and a cruse (with a small “c”!) Today, as part of a program I participate in that encourages students to consider a career in science, I spoke with some sixth form students (equivalent to US high school seniors), anyway, my presentation went well, and just as I was about to leave the stage, my chair decided to go on strike!

It turns out the failure was due to a fault with my “sip and puff” array (just a way for telling my chair to move essentially). In any event I was there for like 5 minutes, eventually relying on my attendant to come to my aide, when the though struck me, “If any of you go into science / engineering and make a wheelchair that does this I shall hunt you down, and put a curse on you! Haha! Anyway, problem has since been resolved!