The Mike Moffat (#2 at Schiit) Blog

Discussion in 'Schiit' started by baldr, Dec 15, 2016.

  1. Sonorus

    Sonorus Facebook Friend

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    Glad to have you back!
     
  2. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Good News! Welcome back! It's been a while, so I guess you must have had a tough time: glad to see you winning.
     
  3. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    Good to have you back Mike. Glad you’re doing better!
     
  4. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    What they said!
     
  5. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    Great news Mike! You have been missed.
     
  6. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    That's great news! Welcome back! Looking forward to more of your insights.

    Cheers!
     
  7. baldr

    baldr Schiit-sterer

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    Prologue: When I was eighteen years old and my dad was in his fifties, it was customary for a Doctor to deliver a cancer diagnosis to not only the patient, but to another family member as well. Well, my dad was the patient and I was the family member and we went to see Dr. Virgil Crawley. Funny how you remember some details from over 50 years ago. Now my father was of very few words and never, never swore. I think I remember one or two times hearing him utter “Damn”. When Dr. Crawley told him he had lymph cancer and maybe a year to live my Dad said “Bullshit!” almost solemnly, as if it were a creed. He died in his early 80’s over thirty years later of heart failure. It was a lesson I applied in Vietnam, and several times over the last couple of years.

    The Main Text: Now for complete disclosure of what was going on with me health-wise lately. I believe I previously mentioned that I had some neurological issues going on; minor ones like it was difficult for me to walk without falling down; it was also challenging for me to talk when I absolutely couldn’t or grunt or sound drunk at best. The brain trust or neurologists up here in Santa Clarita assured me in turn I must have suffered strokes, yet the MRIs all came back clean. No one has persistence quite like Rosie my wife, who arranged to have me fixed up with a neuro-muscular professor/super specialist at the UCLA teaching hospital. I always refer to him as Dr. Alphabet because of the complex nature of his last name. Anything over two syllables and 8 letters I find challenging. His diagnosis was that I must have an auto-immune disorder which was statistically uncommon.

    Thus Dr. Alphabet (Soltanzedeh) embarked on a year long mission to find exactly what auto-immune disorder I had. The finally on a subsequent visit came out to the UCLA neuro-muscular waiting area to pick me up with a knowing look on his face for the first time. He enthusiastically exclaimed he knew exactly what was wrong. When I asked him to clarify, he went on for several incomprehensible sentences – Crmp something. The only understandable portion for me was there were several hundred other cases. “In LA?”, I ask. No, he says – in the world. Nothing like rarefied company.

    His face gradually took on a serious look as he told me he was going to turn me over to a thoracic surgeon, a pulmonologist, and sundry other specialists. I pressed him for further clarification – he went on to explain that all several hundred of my fellow Crmp travelers all either had, or soon would have lung cancer. I protested that I just a year or so before that I had surgery due to prostate cancer and was tired of cancer - Was he sure? He was and he was right.

    After 3 or so months of chest scans, an anomaly appeared. The many more appointments to make sure the surgery wouldn’t kill me only brought the “Bullshit!” creed taught by my dad very much to mind. Then, just 3 months ago, I went in to get the deed done. All seemed fine in my recovery until ten days later when all of a sudden I couldn’t breathe until I got up and threw myself back down on the bed. They sent me down for more scans which indicated a pair of pulmonary embolisms. Soon, Dr. Alphabet appeared to deliver the news that I was lucky. It seems the first symptom of many/most pulmonary embolisms is death – two of them quadruples the odds. Time for the “Bullshit!” creed again.

    Five days later I was home right in time for Christmas with a nurse coming to see me every other day or so for health checkups. I thought it was to make sure I wasn’t sneaking off to my MMA practice again. I finally was released from the nursing at home care early February and back to work (slowly) 2-4 weeks later, after my clearance to drive. Here I am today, with an ability to walk (albeit with a cane) and I can talk to cops without fear of getting arrested for drunkenness. Life gets better. I seem to have prostate and lung cancers and a pair of pulmonary embolisms in the rear view mirror – the unpronounceable multiple sentence auto-immune disease remains improves.

    Epilogue: The “Bullshit!” creed continues to work for me – for example when I am told I will probably die or told I need 2 months extra recovery time in a rehab, or told driving after my surgery will be at least at least 6 months. The worst was when they told me what and how I could work. Sorry – I am back at work on my terms, I still have waaaay too much to do on this ride I am really enjoying, My wife says I am a fighter – maybe so. It is not as simple as it’s my way or the highway. It is more that the senior expert on what is good for me and those connected to me as family, friend, or client is --- me! Therefore, you are all stuck with me for a while longer. Thanks to all of you! Special thanks to the physicians on these sites who pointed me in the right directions.

    Postscript: This my last multiple post – next will be tecchie schiit - I promise,
     
  8. Jinxy245

    Jinxy245 Vegan Puss

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    Obviously we're all happy to be still stuck with you. "Work on your terms" seems to be your M.O., even if the terms change as time goes on. Here's hoping you enjoy the ride for many more years to come.
     
  9. Velomane

    Velomane Acquaintance

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    Jesus Mike, you're one tough SOB! Thanks for sharing your story with us.
     
  10. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    I'm so glad Dr. Alphabet did not give up, neither did you! For the curious

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11220734
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6028676/
    http://www.clinicsinoncology.com/pdfs_folder/cio-v4-id1620.pdf

    Oh, and what CRMP stands for.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapsin_response_mediator_protein_family

    "The neurological syndromes associated with anti-CRMP-5 include peripheral neuropathy, limbic encephalitis, ataxia, paraneoplastic chore or optic neuritis but most commonly, small-cell lung carcinomas is detected."

    I'm not an MD, but I've been curious about molecular biology and neurological stuff throughout my decades in computing, I spend spent part of my career working on bioinformatics so had to learn a bit more about this stuff.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2020
  11. insidious meme

    insidious meme Ambivalent Kumquat

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    Continued ass kickin, Mike! Good to see you posting!
     
  12. joch

    joch Friend

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    Bullschiit! indeed, especially in these times.

    I wish everyone good health.
     
  13. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Thank god for that. Or, rather, thank Soltanzedeh for that!

    The wheels of medical science are wonderful, but they do sometimes grind exceeding slow. We can be thankful for the times when they get there while we are still here. Been there, with five years of don't know, until they eventually found something to remove (not even knowing what it was until they did) and surgery restored health.

    Apparently, a member of my mother's family was told that he had a few months to live. He may or may not have exclaimed Bullshit, but he did decide that he might as well sell up and go to USA to be a cowboy. He lived sixty years.

    This may be myth, but as another of her tribe was a ground-breaking anthropologist/explorer who found eventual retirement boring, so finished off his lifespan exploring Tierra del Fuego, it might not.
     
  14. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    You’re such a force of nature, Mike!
    I guess after tackling seemingly impossible math problems, cancer didn’t seem so hard to beat!
    Kudos to Dr Alphabet and your wife for figuring things out!
     
  15. aamefford

    aamefford Nothing like chamberpot coffee

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    This just makes me happy! Welcome back Mike.
     
  16. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

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    My wife is an RN in neurology and says this is pretty new breakthrough stuff. She also says the medications they give to these CRMP epilepsy patients is really new and very expensive.
     
  17. baldr

    baldr Schiit-sterer

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    Back to work, sorting out what the f**k to do first. One circuit block we really need is a Unison USB out – it would seem to be simple, right? Just turn around a Unison USB input. No such luck. It is an engineering nightmare in the same sense that it was on the Unison USB input. The chipmaker says the part will not work for audio over USB, either as an input or an output. Period. So why use the part at all?? It seems we made it work for the input. Besides, there are no other chips I know of that say they will. So to do our own USB audio I/O, we’re on our own. At the end of the development, we will have an edge, just like we do on the USB in. It is just that we really had to work for it, Dr. Ivana and all. Perhaps the real problem is that I just do not listen sometimes.

    We cobbled together one more new kinda DAC that seems to be interesting. Seems is the keyword, as the DAC got re-cobbled into a DAC evaluator circuit. It seems there are a few new DAC chips worth evaluating. If the chips survive the DAC evaluator, we put them in my own Yggdrasil just to try. We haven't found any “the king is dead – long live the king” DAC parts yet, but the trials must go on.

    That’s it for now. It is just I haven’t been back for that long. More will be revealed.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2020
  18. magnium

    magnium Facebook Friend

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    @baldr Glad to see you back at work and can't wait to see what you'll release in the years to come. I imagine you saying "bullshit" to the chipmaker and get it to work for USB out.

    side note: glad UCLA Health was able to diagnose and treat your condition. They helped solve my own chronic skin condition that I suffered with for over twenty years. Several doctors and dermatologist couldn't figure out what I had until a UCLA doc gave a proper diagnosis. Turns out I suffered from Confluent and Reticulated Papillomatosis (CRP, and pronounced "crap") and haven't experienced an outbreak since treatment. I'm hoping all of the med students they brought into to see it first hand will prevent future misery for others.

     
  19. Larry Megugorac

    Larry Megugorac Craps on Filipino accents to ease inner poverty

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    Mike,

    Great to have you talking about Circuits again instead of Medical issues!

    Cheers!
     
  20. baldr

    baldr Schiit-sterer

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    We lost John Prine this week. The next day Ivana shows up and before the sun went down the Unison USB Out worked. f**k-ton of bugs but good enough to compare to S/PDIF out. Damn - I then cued up JPs Tree of Forgiveness. What a loss, regardless of the sound good as it is. I'm listening to Bruised Orange right now as I write. You know, I have seen the Ring dozens of times, I have seen Earl Scruggs play Foggy Mountain Breakdown, and Janis sing Every Little Piece of my Heart. I've seen the David #1 but John Prine really works right now. The magnitude of the loss is now sinking in.
     
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2020

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