Random Rant: What would you be more afraid of?

The other day I got into an argument on social media with someone because they said that "chicken pox is not a big deal". Now, to a certain extent I agree with this as only 1% of chicken pox patients end up with complications. But, there is still a smaller population that we share this earth with that don't have such a luxury to contract infections and be able to bounce back so its important to spread awareness and to debunk this idea that chicken pox is "relatively harmless".

For instance, for people who have weakened immune systems due to chemotherapy or pregnancy, contracting chicken pox and other infectious and highly contagious diseases can be life-threatening. The statistic, according to the CDC is something like 40% of women that contract chicken pox while pregnant die. I realize that this is not such a scary statistic since cases like that do not represent a significant portion of the population. However, the point is that people don't seem to think that contracting chicken pox can be life-threatening and they proliferate this idea that certain infectious diseases are harmless because it doesn't pose a significant risk to the general population.

Now, you may be thinking, but aren't most chemotherapy patients hospitalized during that time? Not always, there are various versions of chemotherapy treatments out there. Oral chemotherapy, while expensive, and represents only 10% or so of chemotherapy treatments, can be administered at home. So can various other chemotherapy treatments depending on the type of treatment.  Anyway, my point is that, you really never know someone's circumstance and it seems ignorant to assume that all cancer patients are "safe"  from disease because they are in a hospital. They are people too and they can be discharged after chemotherapy treatments. Cancer patients already have enough on their plate, and now they have to worry about ignorant people incubating chicken pox and walking around without a care in the world because the general population will survive contracting chicken pox.

This brings me to my next point. The chicken pox virus, while it may result in "just a few itchy bumps", can come back with a vengeance in the form of Shingles, because the chicken pox virus just hangs out in your spine. Shingles is something people just shrug off as a more severe case of chicken pox, but what a lot of people don't realize is that in some cases shingles can cause severe nerve damage. Again, the chances are not high that such complications will arise, but what are your odds? What are the odds of your loved ones?

People on social media even went so far as to say that they would be more worried about being hit by a car than contracting chicken pox. But, what would you be more afraid of? A large, loud piece of metal that you can see and hear coming down a road  and can consequently avoid? Or something that you can't see, hear or smell such as a contagious disease?

Chicken pox is harmful. It is not an innocuous disease. Yes, if you compare it to other infectious diseases it may not be the most harmful to the general population, but it is for some people. For the general population, the symptoms may be "just a few itchy bumps", but for others it means life or death. Do those people not matter just because there are a few of them? Chicken pox is an infectious and highly contagious disease and should be treated as such. It's an untrue statement to say that it's "not the end of the world" if other people should contract it, because while the entire world may not end, someone else's world could end.

Yes, this post may be a bit over dramatic, but I want to encourage others to consider this perspective and really think about what you would be more afraid of? Something threatening to you that you can see and hear or something threatening to you that you can't see or hear?

-The Lonely Mechanic

LEGO EV3 MINDSTORMS R3PTAR

I built the R3PTAR robot a couple weeks ago, but finally got around to testing out the programs from the "mission"s that LEGO has.

In the first mission you get the robot to slither. In the second, you get the robot to snap its jaws. In the third, the robot slithers back and forth and if you wave a hand or some object in front of its eyes "infrared sensor" its jaws will snap. Then, finally in the fourth mission you learn how to program the robot so you can control the "slither" motor, "forward/backward" motor, and the "snapping motor".

The first three missions were rather straightforward, but for some reason the robot will not respond in the third mission. Most of the time it will stop responding to infrared controls after the "snapping" motion is completed, but other times you can still control the motion and the snapping of the robot. Seems strange, I tried messing around with the program controls and haven't found a solution for that yet. I'm thinking that it has something to do with the loops and switches involved in the program. I'm wondering why a loop is even necessary now that I think about it. It's feeling less likely that it is a sensor problem. At least I hope it is not a sensor problem because this set is relatively new and I haven't gotten to do a whole lot with it.

Anyway, footage of the different things I got it to do is provided below. I was too lazy to film the robot when it was controlled by IR remote. It's nothing too interesting anyway as it is basically just the same movements but its movement is no longer autonomous.

As always, this post is not sponsored. Just sharing this information for the sake of sharing.

-The Lonely Mechanic

LEGO EV3 Mindstorms GRIPP3R

And we're back!

I built the GRIPP3R robot a couple weeks ago and have finally got around to documenting the final product and etc. I had followed the instructions LEGO provided with the set, but realized that the length of the "arms" for GRIPP3R are too long and interfere with the gripping mechanism so I ended up removing the last link of the arms.

Part of the arms that I ended up having to remove from the robot

GRIPP3R fully assembled with the length of the arms adjusted

I think what I like most about this design is how quickly GRIPP3R grabs the stack of tires. It's also a lot of fun to just control the robot via IR remote. You can drive it around and pick up random things and carry them somewhere else. Its very entertaining. I took a video of GRIPP3R doing its thing and you can view it below:

LEGO EV3 Mindstorms TRACK3R

The other day I built the LEGO EV3 Mindstorms Robot Track3r. I believe that the coolest thing about this robot is that it can be modified to shoot balls in Mission 2. Best investment ever. Below, is a video of me controlling the robot to shoot balls at some LEGO tires with an IR remote. I know the video is rather anti-climactic, but I've never built a robot on my own in my life and I thought that accomplishing this much was a success.

If you're interested in what these robots are all about:

http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/products/31313-mindstorms-ev3

This post is in no way sponsored. Just thought LEGO should get some credit for making some pretty cool toys.

-The Lonely Mechanic

Premise for this Blog

This is a place to share some of the at home projects I've been working on because my current internship is a desk job (doing CAD all day) that makes me miss doing things with my hands and building things.

-The Lonely Mechanic