Category Archives: Louisville

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 11:10 am on December 31, 2015  

Life in the Clouds

Here is my year, presented in word cloud format from my three feeds.

There’s a lot of overlap, as you’d expect, but each platform presents its own slice of my life.

Blog

Blog Wordle 2015

Twitter

Twitter Wordle 2015

Facebook

Facebook Wordle 2015

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 4:24 pm on December 21, 2015  

Post Mortem

Sometimes called a retrospective or autopsy, a post mortem is a means of looking back at an event or period of time, to determine what can be learned from it with an eye towards improving what doesn’t work, and keeping what does.

So, here’s how 2015 looked for me and my family — body, heart, mind, and soul.

Body / Personal / Family

There was a lot of loss this year. I lost my job, our home was robbed (twice!), we lost five(!) cars. Thanks to the robberies, our home insurance company ended their coverage, even though they didn’t pay us anything for either robbery, and we bought and installed a hidden camera motion-detecting system after the second robbery (which was a week after the first).  We ended up finding insurance through Liberty Mutual at an even better rate than we were getting.

To make the thefts even more annoying, they took nearly all of our medications, which we had just refilled three-month supplies of. And since my health care coverage had just ended (thanks to losing my job), the day that we lost all those medicines, we had to pay for a month of COBRA just to be able to get those medicines refilled.

Linda nearly died in an emergency room visit when they injected her with a substance that she was allergic to. So instead of a five-hour visit, it turned into a five-day stay in ICU and recovery. We checked with an attorney who said we didn’t have enough proof of wrongdoing/incompetence to do anything.

I had a “UEO”, an unidentified encephalic occurrence. Basically, a stroke that wasn’t a stroke. My brain got all weird and slow, my limbs went numb and tingly, and my speech became less intelligible. The U part of UEO means that the neurologist couldn’t find the cause, and by the time (seven weeks later) that I saw him, the symptoms were all gone.

Heart / Emotional / Arts

Boy, there were plenty of funerals this year. My aunt Dale passed away, and we helped her family with the estate. My friends Steve Goldberg, Ryan Kemp, Elizabeth Burnley, Debi Magnes, and Darren Routt passed away. Plus a few celebrities I looked up to, like Roddy Piper and Mick Lynch.

I attended the Sing-Off at the Louisville Palace, the Nutcracker Suite at KY Center for the Arts (with my niece dancing on stage!), the Real Inspector Hound (a play-within-a-play), Superman: the Musical, the Connect|Disconnect art exhibit, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, The Tick!, Project KempProv, the Theater Alliance of Louisville meeting, Market of Mischief with Louis-Villainz.

I cut back on the sci-fi / comic / literary shows that I attend, but this year I still went to ConGlomeration, Mo*Con, WonderFest, Origins Game Fair, GenCon, Imaginarium, and the Louisville Comic Con.

Mind / Technical / Career

I started a new job at Baptist Health. There were several irons in the fire, and it was wonderful to be able to choose among some good offers (tech exec at a startup, budding data scientist at a large insurance company, or data master at a chain of hospitals). Baptist is a great company to work for. I get to do cool stuff with great people, and learn a lot as I go.

I launched TechFest Louisville! That’s a post for another time.

I spoke at a lot of conferences. I spoke at CodepaLOUsa, the Louisville Agile Forum, SQL Saturdays in Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Louisville, and Dress for Success.

I was there for many other big events, like VEX Worlds (the worldwide championship of robotic competitions) and the opening of Chattanooga’s TechTown (an amazing makerspace/creative studio for kids).

I attended gobs of other events, like half a dozen Open Coffees, two Startup Weekends, Gear-Up, S#*! I Wish I Knew, the Tech Security Conference, two Non-Profit Toolbox conferences, the SBIR/STTR Road Show, the IoT Developer’s Workshop, the How-To Festival, MapTime, the CIO Symposium, the JDRF Diabetes Summit, GeoEd 15, XlerateHealth Demo Day, Mini-Maker Faire, DerbyCon, World Trade Day, TALK‘s tour of the BioAssemblyBot, the Vogt Awards, the Civic Data Alliance party, the Louisville Digital Association party, and TALK’s panel on EMV and retail tech.

Soul / Spiritual

I taught several classes at Southeast Christian, I preached at Bible Abridged: the Complete Word of God in 90 Minutes, ConGlomeration, Imaginarium, and the Louisville Comic Con. I helped the Grave Robbers ministry (an outreach to goths and punks) at Ichthus Festival, and met a variety of ministries at the Global Missions Health Conference.

The Year in Photos

Prosthetic Fist-Bump TechTown Farkin' TechFest TechFest Gadgetry TechFest Kickoff TechFest Fun SQL Saturday Atlanta Mini-Me RIP Ryan Kemp Beth Cannon Mike Stackpole Buddy Christ GenCon Church Service GenCon Booth

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 3:51 pm on December 16, 2015  

Louisville Music

I used to be a radio DJ back in the ’80s and ’90s, focusing mostly on punk and comedy. In a way, I guess my whole life continues to focus on punk and comedy…

One of my favorite Louisville singers, Joan Shelley, just made the LA Times’ Best Albums of 2015 list.

And Houndmouth just made David “World Cafe” Dye’s Top Ten Albums of 2015.

Here are some local bands that I like, organized vaguely by genre:

Here are some likely radio stations where you might hear some of these groups:

  • WFPK, the NPR king of indie radio
  • WNAS, broadcast from a high school for 75 years
  • ARTxFM, online station with a radio frequency forthcoming
  • Crescent Hill Radio, all local all the time
  • Ville TV, online TV that also covers the local music scene

The blog Backseat Sandbar keeps an extensive list of local talent, venues, shops, etc.

Read the blog series Dave Mattingly: The Musical

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 2:45 pm on December 8, 2015  

Sheep Versus Goats

I’m a Christian, and sometimes a teacher/preacher.

I wanted to focus on ways that we can help those in need. To throw on a goofy nerdy spin, I gave the lesson an odd title.

SHEEP VERSUS GOATS!

DISCUSS

  • What do you think are some of God’s priorities for church ministry?
  • What gets in the way of us following them?

SCRIPTURE

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and with all the angels, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered, and he will separate people as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.

He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

He will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Take your inheritance: the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me; thirsty and you gave me water; homeless and you invited me in; naked and you clothed me; sick and you tended to me; in prison and you visited me.”

The righteous will ask, “When did we see you like that and do that stuff you said?”

The King will reply, “Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.”

To those on his left he will say, “Away with you, cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry and thirsty, homeless and naked, and you gave me nothing. I was sick and jailed, and you did not visit.”

They will ask, “When did we not help you?”

He will reply, “Weren’t you just listening when I told the sheep? Whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Then he will send the wicked to eternal punishment, and bring the righteous to eternal life.”

(Matthew 25:31-46, the unauthorized “Dave’s summary of stuff so it all fits well on slides” translation)

IN CONTEXT

The sheep/goat story was the unifying conclusion of several stories that Jesus told in (apparently) a single sermon.

  • The end times will come (Matthew 24:1-35)
    WATCH — there is a deadline to all of this
  • Unknown hour (Matthew 24:35-51)
    WAIT — you won’t know when it’s coming
  • Ten bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13)
    PREPARE — be ready to act
  • The talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
    GIVE — to whom much is given, much is required
  • Sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46)
    GET — we’ll all get what’s coming to us

COMING BACK

This was not the only time that Christ’s return and judgment were brought up. Here are a few others.

  • The Son of Man will come in his Father’s glory with his angels to reward each person for what they have done. (Matthew 16:27)
  • The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
  • Enoch* prophesied, “See, the Lord is coming with thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone and to convict them of all the ungodly acts they have committed and the defiant words they have spoken.” (Jude 1:14-15)
    • Enoch was old school Old Testament, from the pre-flood days, and went to heaven without dying first.

HELP THE NEEDY

  • Share your food with the hungry and provide shelter to the homeless. When you see the naked, provide them with clothing. (Isaiah 58:7)
  • Share with the Lord’s people in need. Practice hospitality. (Romans 12:13)
  • If your brother is without clothes and food, but you do nothing about his physical needs, what good is that? (James 2:15)
  • If you see your brother in need, yet close your heart against him, does God’s love truly abide in you? (1 John 3:17)
  • God will remember the love you have shown to him by helping his people. (Hebrews 6:10)
  • When you host a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind, who cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection. (Luke 14:12-14)
  • Remember those in prison as if you were together with them, and those who are mistreated as if you suffer with them. (Hebrews 13:3)
  • Visit orphans and widows in their suffering, to keep yourself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)
  • Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none. (Luke 3:10)
  • A young man followed Jesus wearing nothing but a linen garment. When the soldiers seized him, he left his garment behind and ran away naked.* (Mark 14:51)
    * Say what? Yes, there was a streaker with Jesus when he was arrested…
  • It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)
  • God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
  • Oppressing the poor scorns their Maker, but kindness to the needy honors God. (Proverbs 14:31)

JESUS SUFFERED

“For I was hungry and you fed me; thirsty and you gave me water; homeless and you invited me in; naked and you clothed me; sick and you tended to me; in prison and you visited me.”

  • After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (Matthew 4:2)
  • Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28)
  • Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20)
  • Once the soldiers crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. (John 19:23)
  • Jesus prayed fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.* (Luke 22:44)
    * Luke (a doctor) described a medical condition known as hematohidrosis. Blood vessels are all around our body, including near the sweat glands. Under stress these vessels constrict. In rare cases of extremely intense stress, they constrict so much that they close off. When that happens, the pumping blood escapes into the sweat glands and mixes with sweat.
  • Then the soldiers arrested Jesusand bound him. (John 18:12)

DISCUSS

  • Who are the least of these?
  • How can you help them?
Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 12:31 pm on November 27, 2015  

Events and Comradery

Many organizations have get-togethers in December. It’s a good chance to catch up with friends and colleagues, and find new connections.

If you’re in the Louisville area, here are some of the social gatherings that I’m quite likely to attend.

And here are some more focused events.

And shopping/entertainment opportunities.

You can keep up with all the events I’m part of or interested in on my calendar.

 

 

 

 

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 6:33 pm on November 11, 2015  

Louisville Comic Con

This past weekend, I attended the Wizard World Louisville Comic Con. Wizard World is a national organization that hosts comic book conventions in various cities around the country.

I like going to these, to meet the authors and artists, to shop at the various vendors who carry all sorts of memorabilia and oddities. There were toys, sculptures, knick knacks, gadgets, games, and more — over a hundred vendors.

But one of the biggest attractions for me is the costumes. I saw Mr. Freeze and Scarecrow, Batman and Catwoman, the Joker and Harley Quinn, Static Shock, Red X, Batman Beyond, Beast Boy, Deathstroke, Supergirl, Thor, Kingpin, Dr. Octopus, the Mad Hatter, Beetlejuice, a Discworld wizard, Vashta Nerada, Medusa and Jeepers Creepers, a Guy Fawkes Teletubby (that I can’t unsee), and many more.

I wore two of my own costumes there — Mini-Me, and Cyborg Pirate Ninja Jesus.

Here’s some coverage from a local TV station and newspaper.

There are similar conventions in Louisville, each with a different focus and run by a different group:

  • ConGlomeration is a nonprofit fan-run science fiction convention, and my personal favorite; crowds are small and friendly
  • Derby City Comic Con is fairly new and rapidly growing, with plenty of local creators
  • WonderFest is a special effects and model-building convention, and attracts a lot of Hollywood pros
  • FandomFest has grown rapidly into a 30,000-ish fan convention, with a focus on celebrities
  • Louisville Anime Weekend collects cartoon creators and fans
  • Imaginarium is a creative writing convention with top-notch programming
  • Fright Night is focused on horror films

Besides enjoying the usual festivities of being among my own kind, I also held the church service on Sunday morning.

My sermon this time was based on Ghostbusters, in honor of my friend Ryan Kemp who passed away recently. The scripture I used was Luke 16:19-31, with references to Psalms 146:4, Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, Isaiah 8:19, Leviticus 19:31, Revelation 12:9, James 4:7, 1 John 4:1, Romans 8:38, Matthew 27:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and Acts 24:15. The gist was that we don’t need to be afraid of no ghosts, because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.

As usual, I game a shout-out to various geeky ministries.

Wizard World Louisville Church ServiceWizard World Church Flyer

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 8:26 am on November 2, 2015  

Health Tech

Thursday was the annual XlterateHealth’s Demo Day. The healthcare startups involved all showed off their latest and greatest ideas and achievements. I love checking out the new ideas that inventors and creators come up with.

Here are the companies that were there showing their wares:

Digital

  • iClinical is an app for trial clinicians to collect, analyze, and display realtime test results, saving months of time in the research process. Also, since the data is pulled in as it happens, they can quickly respond to changes. Imagine that during the trial, they find out that someone with a certain condition or taking a certain drug has died. The clinicians could send out an instant alert to others in the same metaphorical boat to have them stop the test and seek help.
  • Trajectory is a data analysis tool that studies lots of patients who have had a similar health occurrence (stroke, heart attack, etc.), and finds similarities before and after. This helps to identify accurate warning signs and the most effect treatment.
  • SYSGenomics uses molecular diagnostic tests to predict which type of cancer treatment is likely to be the most effective for any given cancer patient.
  • MedUX combines a video display and a sterile wireless joystick so that doctors can access medical systems even after they’ve scrubbed up.

Physical

  • Inscope invented a laryngoscope (the tube that doctors use to intuabte your airways) that is wifi enabled with an onboard video feed. That makes it easier and safer for the tubes to go into the right place without scraping or bruising the throat as it goes.
  • NormaLyte created a drink mix that reverses the effect of dehydration. This is also great for relief efforts in areas where water is rare or tainted, by helping people’s bodies get more use out of the water that they do drink.
  • iPillbox is a pill organizer that let doctors and caregivers monitor whether or not their patients have taken their medicines. Imagine that your parents are aging and taking many types of medications at different frequencies throughout the day; this could alert you that they missed their lunchtime pills.

This year, the event was held at the Play Dance Bar, which I hadn’t been to yet. (Me not frequenting dance clubs; go figure.) The place was decorated for Halloween. Very nicely done, too.

Here’s the Business First article about the event.

Thursday was also the “Data! Fostering Health Innovation in Kentucky and Ohio 2015” event, that I didn’t hear about early enough to get involved with. But a friend who went told me that even thought “data” was the first word in the event, it was mostly Department of Health officials talking about policy. Bullet dodged.

Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me Oh What a Feeling, Monsters on the Ceiling I See Dead People

 

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 1:21 pm on October 28, 2015  

Odd Ministries

Halloween is this weekend! My favorite holiday. I love the creativity and artistry that goes into costume design. I find that the costume-wearing community (often known as cosplayers, for costume play) are a friendly and enthusiastic bunch.

In the past, I’ve made a variety of my own costumes — Cap’n Crunch, Cyborg Pirate Ninja Jesus, Mini-Me, and others.

Some people consider it odd that as born-again Christian like me is into Halloween and similar events. But I don’t see it as a problem at all — costumes are sometimes a part of my ministry. Science ficiton, games, costumes, technology, cartoons, and other “geeky” activities are celebrated by thousands of enthusiasts in cities all over the world. Wearing a costume sometimes opens metaphorical doors for me that would sometimes be hard to get into. It allows me to have conversations that may be hard to arrange otherwise.

Here are some of the Christian geeky groups that I’m involved in:

And some great people / groups / media that I keep up with:

In a week, I’ll be preaching at Wizard World’s Louisville Comic Con. This is my first time preaching at this particular event (only in its second year here, although Wizard World has been running events in other cities for a long time).

This sermon will be Ghostbusters-themed, as a tribute to my friend Ryan Kemp.

Here are some fun costumes I’ve come across over the years:
The Joker, with his amazing boxing glove gun (complete with its own sound effect) Captain America, punching out Dave Mattingly Squirrel Girl, defeater of Doom, Thanos, and Galactus Steampunk Oz, I don't think we're grokking Kansas anymore Willy Wonka, master of Oompa Loompas Klingon Elvis, because the King sounds better in the original Klingon Tusken Raider, riding single file to hide its numbers Gumby and Pokey, reliving their childhoods Ace Ventura, Pet Detective The Last Crusader, he chose wisely

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 7:23 am on October 16, 2015  

Robots

The REC Foundation (Robotics Education and Competition Foundation) hosts the VEX Robotics Competition each year. This is a competition for middle schoolers, high schoolers, and collegians. The worldwide championship came to Louisville in 2015, and will stay here for at least four more years. That’s a whole lotta flights, hotels, restaurants, and shuttling — about $5 Million worth.

At this year’s event, I volunteered for all four days of the event (Wednesday through Saturday). I was at the registration table for the first two days, which was an amazing experience. With over 800 teams from around the world, there were volunteers at the desk who could speak Portuguese, Mandarin, and a host of other languages. Each team had several students, plus their coaches, meaning that there were roughly 10,000 participants all told. For the next two days, I manned (i.e. “commandeered”) the booth for FirstBuild. They were one of the event sponsors, but didn’t realize that they’d also be getting a booth out of the deal. Since the booth would have been empty otherwise (which would disappoint me), and since I had a FirstBuild t-shirt, I sat at the booth and told people what FirstBuild is, how it came to be, what they do, and how jealous they should be because they haven’t been there yet.

The event is huge. It takes over the entire Fairgrounds and Expo Center — all four wings, and both stadiums.

You can volunteer here. (You don’t have to commit for the entire event like I did.) You don’t need to know anything about robots — they need all sorts of volunteers: registration, coordination, setup, scoring, etc. Kids can also help out, so this is a great family activity.

This week, the REC met with the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and dozens of leaders from business, technology, government, and education. (And somehow, also me.) They let us know some pretty cool things:
• the State Championship might be happening at U of L
• NASA has given them a grant to get at least one robot into every school in the county
• they’ll be offering “combo” exhibitor space in a Louisville Showcase for local business and tech, to make the sponsorship rates more affordable
• the event will once again coincide with the Thunder Over Louisville celebration
• they’ll once again rent out the entire Kentucky Kingdom amusement park for the kids Saturday night
• there are many scholarships for entry, including one from U of L

Here are some other cool robotic groups around town, if you’d like to find out more or get involved:
• The U of L Robotics Team
• The U of L Engineering Outreach
• Advanced Solutions
• DUG, the Drone Users Group
• The First Robotics competition

VEX Championship Arenas Rock Star Kids Robots in the Arena Robot Teams Nothin' But NetAww, He's So Cute

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 1:56 pm on October 14, 2015  

BioAssemblyBot

Last night, Advanced Solutions hosted a great tour last night of the BioAssemblyBot for the members of TALK (and anyone else who was interested in signing up for this free event). The BioAssemblyBot (or BAB, as she’s affectionately known) uses biological “inks” (any form of liquid bio-matter) to assemble organic tissue in any shape from any angle thanks to its six degrees of articulation.

Bio-PrintingOkay, so it can’t actually recreate Leeloo from The Fifth Element like the image above (click for animation), but it can create some amazing biological constructs. Besides their eventual goal of creating on-the-spot organ transplants (in the US alone, 22 people per day die while waiting for organ transplants), it’s great for medical and pharmaceutical research. Being able to exactly replicate hundreds of cells exactly the same way, or with intentional slight variations, make it so much faster and easier to find the right “recipe” for a medicine, and with definably repeatable results.

Michael Golway, the President and CEO, walked us through the what the bot does, and how it does it. He joked that, “It’s so easy, even a physician could do it.” While he was talking, their machine 3D-printed a heart valve for us (that I got to take away as a souvenir!), in just a few minutes.

Here are some other cool medical/biotech companies in Louisville:
• MobileMedTek, creating a portable turbo-charge EEG (their president Dave Kennedy also judged our Startup Weekend a few days ago)
• Inscope Medical, creating an easier and smarter scope for intubation
• Xlerate Health, the accelerator for medical startups
• Neuronetrix, giving neurologists a peek inside your brain (the owner Dr. John Barker is also doing incredible work regenerative medicine)
• Whip-Mix, creators of dental bionics
• …and several that I don’t have much direct experience with (Genenscape, MedVenture, RhinoCyte, Apellis, and others)

To learn more about medical technologies, experts, issues, and events, get involved with the Health Enterprises Networks (HEN), Louisville’s healthcare chamber of commerce. They consistently host great events, and help all the right people meet each other.

Some good healthcare/biotech events:
• TechFest (blending biotech, gadgetry, software, business, and more)
• Innovation Summit
• Southeast Christian Church’s Medical Missions Conference
• KY Association of Healthcare Facilities Trade Show
• the Oral Health Summit
• …and pretty much everything that HEN does

Michael Golway