# A Mixed Day // 18-6-19,21

Yesterday, one of our older machines (again) broke, not in a spectacular
but annoying way. Pumping or venting the loadlock did not work any more,
then I found out the loadlock valve actually doesn't close anymore, and
so I passed a good part of yesterday and today with digging through the
wiring and related diagrams. Finally I found out the problem was (as
usual) not where I first thought (air pressure, pneumatic valves, or
electronics driving them), but in a control signal from the loadlock
itself, which resulted in too low voltage driving the relevant pneumatic
valve. It's still a bit of a puzzle, because that control signal was
shown as all fine by the interface software. Perhaps the digital input
feeding the software is more sensitive than the coil in the pneumatic
valve. Whatever -- it works again, which makes my clients happy, but as
I don't know what really was causing the flaky signal, the case is not
closed, at least not for me mentally. *sigh*

At noon, I got a call for first aid response (at work, I'm part of a
volunteer's team for internal first aid responders), and I found my
colleagues gathered around an apathic guy sitting in our ambulance
room. They were already trying to find out what the issue was, but it was
not clear at all. The ambulance was already en route, though, because
somebody decided it looked too bad for us to handle internally, and they
showed up right when I decided I would give the guy some sugar, in case
it was hypoglycemia. The professionals immediately confirmed this
(they can measure blood sugar, we don't) and gave an infusion with sugar.
It was impressive (although well know to the professionals) how quickly
the guy recovered! In about a minute, he changed from almost falling off
the chair to asking why he was here, what happened, and telling us he
suffered a similar situation more than a year ago.
What was also impressive to me was his body temperature: it was the first
time I witnessed less than 34 degC (93 degF if I convert correctly) body
temperature, the guy felt really icy even as I touched him with gloves.
And it was also astonishing that the guy could tell us his
name and birthdate, but did not react at all to the question whether he was
diabetic (he later confirmed he was type 1 diabetic) -- I would assume
somebody with diabetes would rather find the energy to tell people about
this condition than the birthdate.
It was slightly scary and very educating at the same time.
(Yes, you may criticize the fact we kept him on a chair, when the general
rule for somebody possibly falling unconscious is to lay them down to
prevent injuries. But he was sitting in a wheelchair, which is quite stable,
and in addition we were enough people so that we could easily keep him in
any position. In hindsight, we should have laid him down on the bed in
that room, though.)

And towards the end of the day, I got an e-mail from one of our clients
(lab users) about an academic guest not returning to our lab, because
his daughter was diagnosed with some incurable genetic disease forcing
her to pass her entire life in bed.
Such news put everything into perspective. I only knew that guest from
one meeting, where we discussed photomasks I should design for him, and
his planned processing in our lab. Nevertheless, as a father I can relate
to what he's probably going through, together with his family...

Speaking about kids: I didn't notice until now the scandal about the US
administration ripping apart children and parents, when
the latter try to illegally enter the USA. Whatever the rules are,
forcefully separating kids and parents is wrong in my humble opinion,
and there must be a way to prevent this.
Now I just heard in the news the US is withdrawing from the UN human
rights council, because they were criticized for this "orphanisation",
and officially because the council issued more resolutions against Israel
than against North Korea, Syria, and some other country.
Sorry, but I find your reasoning highly unpalatable, opportunistic and bigot.
Sounds like high-level whataboutism.

I'm getting more and more bad feelings about big states and governments,
while thinking people should just leave each other in peace without
imposing their rules.
And it's a heavy piece of irony, when the US claims it does not want to
impose its way of living and views on humanity onto others, and therefore
withdraws from that council. Sickening.
Or might it be rather a flat lie than irony?


UPDATE 18-6-21:

Donald has generously given in, claiming he was uneasy himself about the
families ripped apart. Hey, that guy has genuine feelings, when
they are politically useful! I'm so happy and relieved!!
Now the parents can mend their traumatized kid's souls, all fine!

.:.