new news:

 

october 9, 2005

fall is here.  i'll be taking part B of "computational neuroimaging," and beginning sign language, and joining Brian Knutson's lab full time.

in the mean time, i am recovering from tonsillectomy, which i had at the stanford hospital on october 3.  ouch.  i'm not posting them publically (since they're horrific), but if anyone's interested i can direct you to dramatic before and after pictures of my throat.

the tonsillectomy was necessary because as a result of my health problems lately (being sick on-and-off throughout the spring, coming down with mono in the summer), my tonsils had swollen to a point where they nearly met in the middle of my throat.  in addition to causing recurrent inflammation, this was almost certainly causing obstructive sleep apnea, which could explain why 10 weeks after my mono diagnosis the fatigue was not getting any better.  and they were not getting any smaller.  tonsillectomy is difficult and slow for adults to recover from.  my procedure was performed by Dr. Janice Janas of the menlo clinic, who has been great.  according to her estimate, by a week from today, i'll be a new man.

(update, october 16, 2005:  i'm a new man.)

 

old news:

april 10, 2005

spring quarter has started.  it's a bit of a fresh start--i have moved from my 3BR into an on-campus studio apartment.  it makes me very very happy (which i was not in the other place).  i am taking developmental neurobiology with Sue McConnell, and she is pretty much inspirational.  this class should be really good.  and i am rotating with Ricardo Dolmetsch figuring out how to grow neuron networks on chips.

 

january 13, 2005

it's the start of a new quarter. i'm rotating with John Desmond, and taking the neuroanatomy course the med students take plus beginning gymnastics (i.e. playing around in giant pits of foam cubes).

i've updated my links page recently to include more activist resources and some random thoughts i've had recently on motivation.

 

november 8, 2004

perhaps i am naive in addition to being cynical. but i find it pretty easy to believe that the GOP (or more likely the business interests it serves, including the manufacturers of voting machines and software) conspired to rig the 2004 election. but not just through the usual tactics of intimidation and voter suppression. here is a good summary of some irregularities that have been uncovered so far. also check out blackboxvoting.org and the documentary-in-progress at votergate.tv. (update 11/14/04: a good illustration of the insecurity of e-voting central tabulators)

 

november 4, 2004

well, here we are. 4 more years of Bush, but this time with a majority of the country behind him. republicans control the house and senate. Bush will appoint two or three supreme court justices, possibly replacing Stevens. i am taking suggestions for where i should expatriate to after i get my phd.

i don't know whether to be proud or frightened that our loss is not through any lack of effort. we got out our vote, but it wasn't enough. here are some pictures from las vegas, NV, where i went for the last two days to volunteer with America Coming Together.

 

october 19, 2004

i'm at stanford now, and pretty much settled in. currently i'm rotating in the Knutson lab, taking "computational neuroimaging" and auditing a genetics methods course. updated contact info here.

september 15, 2004

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

july 29, 2004

ok, so this has been a bit out of date. enjoying a nice summer in cambridge, and looking forward to starting grad school in the fall. i'll be living on campus at stanford, in a three-bedroom apartment in the "escondido village" complex. apparently i won't know my address or who my roommates are until i arrive. in the mean time, i'll be leaving my harvard job and my windsor street apartment at the end of august, and shacking up with Justine in porter square to work full time on Carl Sciortino's campaign until the primary, september 14. then flying to minnesota on the 15th to see family and friends, celebrate my 25th, and pack for school. i'll leave for stanford on september 21.

 

1 october, 2003

finally have a job.  i'm going to be working in the Kosslyn laboratory in the psych department at harvard (have my first meeting this afternoon).  the project is a study of how best to compose teams working on group analysis tasks, taking into account the cognitive strengths of the team members. here's the project website.

 

19 september, 2003

things fall into place one at a time.  i have a place to live now, and have just about gotten settled into it.  i'm getting close on the job:  looks like i'll be working in the psych department at harvard, rather than in a cog neuro lab at mgh, and i hope to be able to start before the beginning of october.  i now have a cell phone, the number for which you can find on my contact info page.

8 september, 2003

been a busy summer.  the long and short of it is, i'm now living in boston, which has always been one of my favorite cities.  it was a fairly late change of plans, so things are only now beginning to fall into place.  hopefully within the next few days i'll be moving into a new apartment on windsor st. in east cambridge, and within the next couple of weeks i'll be starting at a new job as a research assistant in a cognitive neuroscience lab.

1 june, 2003

so i just graduated from brown.  it was quite nice—my parents and brother came out, a bunch of alumni friends came back, and despite some inclemence, i had a great time and am feeling good about moving on and out of providence, sad though i am to leave my friends.

if you want to contact me, the way to do it is email me:  (see contact info page).


for the next few weeks, i'll be bumming around mostly in boston, and coming down to providence a few times to wrap up loose ends and visit people.  email will be the only reliable way to reach me.

then, around 19 june, i'll be heading down to princeton, NJ, to start my intensive 8-week chinese language course.