The neverending cycle of incompetence

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

Short form: incompetent people cannot become aware even of their own incompetence until they become more competent. Even shorter form: the stupid stay stupid 'cause they're too stupid to know better. This may explain things like upper management.

Injury report: day 45

Today I had the cast cut off again. After Dr. Vitek examined my leg (quietly commenting, "brilliant" when he finished) I got a removeable walking boot instead. He also gave me a list of strengthening and flexibility exercises, along with a long piece of green rubber sheet -- it looks a lot like the stuff they tie around your arm when drawing blood.

I'd been putting a bit of weight on my left foot even with the cast on, mostly using my left leg to balance. However, once I got the boot, I discovered my left leg would take a fair bit of weight. Unfortunately, the boot leaves my left foot much higher than my right, so I cannot quite walk evenly with it, even if I wanted to. For the moment, I'll continue using the crutches; I am not yet ready to go with even just one right now.

After the appointment, I went home, promptly took the walking boot off, and had a bath. A substantial amount of dead skin came off of my lower left leg over the course of the bath. Given that this was the first time in six weeks I've been able to wash there, I'm not surprised.

I will start with the exercises tomorrow. Today I'm getting used to having my foot flat again. I return to the doctor in three weeks; he told me to bring a shoe with me. With luck, I'll be pretty much done with the crutches by then!

Jim's Big Ego playing DC

Jim's Big Ego is playing the Mt. Vernon Pub at George Washington University tomorrow (14 October) at 11 PM. JBE is an excellent three-piece folk-rock-weird band from Boston; I will be going, gimpy as I am. Anyone want to join in?

EDIT: The Mt. Vernon Pub is at 2100 Foxhall Road NW, Washington DC -- this is the Mt. Vernon campus of GWU, not the main campus. Further, the pertinent GWU webpage claims that JBE will be going on at 11 PM. The pertinent JBE webpage agrees, saying that the show is from 11 PM - 1 AM. The earlier announcements said 8 PM, but they appear to have been wrong. (I may still make a point of arriving at 8 PM, just in case.)