The Spinning Nexus

Hunting in Chicago 6

2008-04-26T18:27:00.000-04:00

So... the estimate? Two phases. Phase 1? $2800. Phase 2? $1400. Making $4200 total. Yikes. Can't do it, I'm afraid. Sorry Curtis. Couldn't happen. Well, I thought that was all. I said sorry, and I really appreciated it, and we would recommend him to all our friends, and I loved him so so much.

Um, yeah. That wasn't the end of Curtis. He's persistent and he means business. I made the mistake of telling him where the other apartment we were looking at was, just because he wanted to check if it was listed with his company. I thought, I really doubt that it's listed with them, because if it was, my wife would have noticed that. So I went on my merry way, and 30 min later got a call from him. Well, they hadn't been listed with Curtis' company, but he had called the landlord and persuaded him to list. What the eff? Crap, so I was thinking, I can't just go with Curtis, because Debra (the other realtor) had shown me the place first. To be honest, although Debra had done a fine job, Curtis had gone much more out of his way. So, first come first serve? Or is it meritocratic?

My wife luckily resolved this dilemma by telling me that #1, I was an idiot, and #2, that Debra had been super helpful to her, going out of her way finding places that were in our specifications, before I went out there. So, I called Curtis and told him that I didn't feel right about getting the place through him, because another realtor had shown it first. He was understanding and wished me luck. He's an all around classy guy, definitely. In a sneaky sort of way.

So that's really that. A place with over 1700 square feet, for $1300 a month, in a pretty good area with a huge playground right across the street. The only thing is there was a mass murder there in 1972, and the place is still haunted. But we have earplugs; I just hope the constant wailing doesn't wake the kids.

I made dinner (authentic cart-style chicken tacos) for the couple that let me stay with them, because, well, they are super nice and let me stay with them. They ruled. Turns out the husband Brandon went to the same mission as my brother, and told me some cool stuff about it.

The flight back was fast, and actually almost felt faster than taking the bus and train back from LaGuardia to my apartment (might be, actually--haven't calculated), because the freaking trains took forever and my half of the A train was shut down.

But whatever. I got back. We have a new apartment!

Hunting in Chicago 5

2008-04-25T16:03:00.001-04:00

Day 3. Uggh. I had hoped to be done by this time. Unfortunately, there are two apartments that we really like and it is getting super hard to decide, especially since there are people (friendly, and coincidentally working on commission) involved. Curtis, the guy I mentioned before, is super nice and very very persistent. He really wants to make this sale work.

The non-Curtis apartment is less expensive and bigger, but every other amenity (location, perks, free cable, all that) is better in the Curtis one. I would have already taken Curtis, but there is one small problem: the place has no complete walls. I.e. The ceiling is higher than the walls go up. This makes for a very cool "loft" look, but makes it so screaming kids will be able to make themselves audible anywhere in the apartment.

So we had a contractor come and look at the place and make an estimate on putting in doors and wall extensions. Right now, everything hangs on that. If it's too much, non-Curtis. If it is reasonable, Curtis.

Only time (about 30 min or so) will tell... Da da da DUM!

Hunting in Chicago 4

2008-04-24T17:55:00.000-04:00

I would have written a long time ago. But I spent all last night last night figuring out the best way to transfer pictures from my camera to the computer. My computer that runs Windows Vista, the memory and CPU resources hog that everyone loves. It actually sucks a lot, because, with the new operating system, my camera cannot just copy the files to my disk because Vista doesn't recognize the camera in Explorer, only asks me if I want to transfer them to a Word document. A Word document? What the eff, seriously. Of course, I ended up doing that because it was my only option.

Anyway, turns out while I was writing that blog post yesterday, the dude that was supposed to show me the apartment was sitting in his truck the whole time. Whoops. Hey, he should have been more obvious. That apartment was cool, it reminded me a lot of our apartment we have now, only bigger. In other words, still pretty ghetto.

Later I was walking around and found this girl's ID card on the ground. The first thing I thought was, if this girl isn't a lesbian, I have no gaydar. It had her name and home address (in Pittsburgh) but no phone number, so I whipped out this phone, started up the internets, and found the number associated with that last name and address on Infospace. I called it and told the girl who answered that if Allison wanted her ID card, she should take my cell number and call me.

I saw some other apartments, on a tour with a super nice guy named Jaz. ID girl Allison called me during the tour and thanked me, but I couldn't meet her at all yesterday. She didn't sound too concerned. Probably because it was like this non-driver's licence thing that also said she was under 21. So maybe it's useful for, I don't know, getting a library card or something.

That's enough. The boring meter of this post is starting to get a little high.

Hunting in Chicago 3

2008-04-23T15:19:00.001-04:00

So I walked on my own to a place called Chicago Apartment Locators; wasn't too far away. The agent there, an older black guy with a short white fro and crazy/cool green eyes named Curtis, decided to show me around the neighborhood to check out 2 apartments that were ok. Well, the first one was kinda lame -- in fact I would say it was a downgrade in size from our apt right now in NYC. Sorry, but no. We're movin' on up. The second was pretty huge, but no central AC or in-unit laundry, which are essentials for the wife.

We didn't get to look at the one that we really liked, because the dude that owns the place couldn't show it today. So tomorrow, I'm headed over there -- at noon.

I just had lunch at this gyros place, called Hyde Park Gyros. It was good, in the sense that it was exactly the same as every other place like that (that specializes in gyros but has a million other greasy things--you know what I'm talking about). It must be some sort of cartel, or hidden franchise.

Hunting in Chicago 2

2008-04-23T12:20:00.001-04:00

So here I am, in a little park next to the apartment building that I'm staying at, pondering my fate. The flight over was good, except for the lady sitting next to me who talked loudly THE ENTIRE TIME to the guy sittng across the aisle from her, whom she obviously worked with. The guy had an empty seat next to him, so come on. Get a room. I just wanted to sleep.

I think I'm going to end up taking the bus here, mainly because it only costs $12 for 3 days, and there's a lot of convenient buses. I forgot how long the bus ride was from the airport though. It took about an hour for me to get to this apartment building, Regent's Park.

I picked up some Kettle Sea Salt and Vinegar chips (I acquired an addiction for these when I was at Stanford in August and have subsequently gone through an 8-month withdrawal) and Cherry Coke Zero at this little market attached to Regent's Park.

So one realtor dude hasn't called me back, so now I'm going to try the others. Hopefully I won't be sitting in Harold Washington Park all day. Although I hear he was a cool guy.

Hunting in Chicago 1

2008-04-23T06:53:00.001-04:00

So here I am in a little bus taking me to the "Marine Terminal" at LaGuardia. Has anyone ever been to this terminal? It's for the Delta Shuttle flights and it's like as far away from the regular terminals as the regular terminals are from my apartment. Ok, maybe not that far. But I was pretty frustrated when I got all the way to the TSA girl who checks your ID in the normal Delta terminal and she was like... "Um, wrong place dear." Embarassing! I had to be led out of line to let the non-terminal-ignorant people through.

This bus is taking forever.

So that's the first part of my trip. Not knowing that there's a special Delta terminal for people who jump back and forth from Boston/Washington/Chicago as often as I jump back and forth between my two couches.

What? Don't you still do that?

Mana what now?

2008-03-20T19:57:00.002-04:00

I found probably THE most pathetic thing I have seen in a long time.
It's an energy drink for World of Warcraft players that need to play longer because they are tired due to playing for 40 hours straight.

The link is here:

Mana Energy Drink

I love thinkgeek.com - they have some sweet stuff. But there's a definite line between geeks and total losers. I like to think I'm the former, but I suppose that's up for debate.

More library time

2008-02-19T09:32:00.001-05:00

So, here I am, in the Columbia library again, wondering if what I am doing is going to make any difference in the world.

Well, now that sounds quite depressing. I really don’t think that way much of the time, although, I don’t know, maybe I should. Right now, I’m writing a computer program that will look at radiological images (such as MRI) and then decide whether those images have problems. The disease I am beginning with is aneurysms and stenoses of the brain vessels. There is a set of equations that detail how vessels should be growing as they get closer to the heart, and how their diameter should be shrinking as they split into two, etc. So, hopefully, since there seems to be some sort of order to the madness of the crazy blood vessels in the brain, we will be able to get some analyzable data out of it.

Right now, I am hand-copying an old (circa 1997) kernel of a genetic programming application. I am copying it by hand because I want to be able to look at every line and say, oh yes – that’s why that’s in there. It’s a pretty good way to learn a programming language, I’ve found. This particular language being C++.

Oh, and in case you couldn’t tell, genetic programming is going to be used to detect problems in these vessels. (Please?)

For Reals - I live.

2008-01-26T18:11:00.000-05:00

Haha, you all thought this blog was just a flash-in-the-pan, ephemeral thing that happened on a whim of mine! Well, you're... not totally right... not yet.

Anyway, I am really glad I have this blog. Mainly because it is a good indication of how self-reflective I have been lately. As you can tell, not much: a BAD thing, I will say on record. But, I repent. I have the disease of not being able to focus on anything for very long. You may well wonder how I got into medical school. It is a good question and one that I shall not attempt to go into at this time.

I had the last 2 months off, the first one on purpose and the second due to some Christmas/New Years induced laziness, where I didn't think of signing up for an elective until like Dec 30th. Whoops.

But in the last couple weeks, I have been really working on my research/review paper of perimedullary arteriovenous fistulae. These are basically big enlargements of blood vessels right outside the spinal cord that get so huge they press on the spinal cord and cause paralysis, pain, numbness, and/or lack of sphincter control (my favorite)!

Almost done. Just about ready to send it in, so it can be rejected a second time.

Disturbing

2007-12-12T16:02:00.001-05:00

So I was playing Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin while I was working and my 1 year old daughter started dancing to it. I really didn't think that was very appropriate, so I gave her a lighter instead and taught her how to hold it above her head while lit.

The universe is now back in balance.

XKCDsayswhat?

2007-12-12T13:51:00.000-05:00

This webcomic rules. It combines my nerdy scientific nature with random humor. I love it so much, I even posted it on my non-anonymous blog.

Here are some of my favorites:
I totally have the same exact fantasies all the time, everywhere. They also often involve me having telekinesis, for some reason.

This is basically me on most computer projects I work on at home.

And who doesn't love the balls? I get a little frustrated every time I see one of those ball pits and then the requisite sign that you have to be under like 4 feet tall to get in. Come on!

Also, is it wrong that I really REALLY want this shirt? But, as a scientist, is it wrong for me not to own it?

Front:

Back:

(That's right, I'm a scientist. Promise.)

Done!

2007-11-30T17:05:00.001-05:00

Well, neuropathology sign-out was done early today; it only lasted an hour. Fitting, since today was the last day of the rotation.

It has been a rough 4 weeks. Well, ok, no it hasn't actually. All the attendings were cool, generally I didn't have to be in until 1:30, and we were usually done by 4:30 or so. All in all, I would say it was an interesting elective, but there were of course times when I felt the need to kill myself - generally in the early days of the month, when my eyes were not used to the light and constant lens accomodation required when looking in a microscope. Many times, I felt the need for my head and eyes to explode to reduce the pain after 3 hours of that.

But now, my eyes are doing pretty ok after a couple hours of it. I have even learned how to press my eyes down on the lenses and get a little sleep while making it appear that I am intensely looking at the slide. Quite ingenious, I know. Luckily, I understand about as much with my eyes closed as with them open.

Rounds

2007-11-29T10:35:00.001-05:00

So right now I am sitting in a room participating in one of the most common medical student rituals: rounds. Rounds is a generic term for any sort of conference where medical topics are discussed. They come in many flavors and levels of formality:

1. Formal lecture on a topic. Patients sometimes are discussed, but only in the context of furthering the speaker's point.
2. Formal discussion of a series of patients. Generally one person guides the patent order and moderates any discussion that takes place. Morbidity and Mortality conferences are this type.
3. Work rounds. These are rather informal and pretty much any one can speak. These happen on a frequent basis, every day within a single specialty, once a week or so for rounds where multiple specialties meet.

By 'formal' I mean like in a lecture hall with someone at the front.

Right now I'm sitting in work rounds of multiple specialties (#3). It's called Brain Tumor Board and consists of neuropathologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, radiation oncologists, and neuroradiologists. And some other people constantly talking about chemotherapy drugs who I can't really identify. They do this once a week, kind of to make sure they're on the same page because they all are essentially treating different aspects of the same patient.

For medical students, these kinds of things can range from incredibly interesting to insanely "kill me now" boring.

Rounds today were going more toward the insane direction, when they just brought up a case of this 87 year old lady who had such a huge tumor in her brain and outside of her skull that it looked like she was a conehead. It was awesome. She should be fine, she just needs it dug out. The only thing she wants in her life is to be able to sit on her porch and talk to her neighbor. Priorities change when you get older, apparently.

A lot of egos in these rounds. And not only the neurosurgeons, surprisingly. It's pretty funny. I hope I don't turn into that.

This is Kind of a Test

2007-11-24T18:56:00.001-05:00

One of the reasons I started this anonymous blog is that I wanted to be able to send random emails from my phone and have them be blog posts.

The reason is that, basically anywhere I am, I can have a thought, however retarded, and write up a post about it. This spontaneity will undoubtedly result in many regrettable moments for me, but so be it. It will be funnier this way.

Oh, if you couldn't tell from the subject of this post, it was written from my phone and emailed. Awesome.

Frist Post

2007-11-24T18:10:00.000-05:00

If you are reading this, you probably know me. Which means you probably linked here from my other blog, which shall remain nameless at this point.

The reason? This is more of my ranting blog - a place where I can randomly say stuff that I think without all the people who google my name (yes both of them) finding out that this is what I really think. Well, no - not that I am really going to be abrasive (I probably would have to make up stuff to do that) but I often think of a lot of things I want to write about, and then say, "nah, that doesn't seem like a good idea on my blog, with pictures of my family and all that. It just doesn't fit."

The title of this post is not a typo - well, not unintentionally, anyway. It's kind of an inside joke, if you've ever read Slashdot. See, on Slashdot, people always want to post first after articles are put up, and they often spell it like that: "frist." Like Bill, like the senator. Uh, anyway. It's not that funny, sorry.

Anyway, today was the day after the day after Thanksgiving. I didn't have to do anything at work yesterday, so it kind of felt like a Saturday. That's really the best - when you go to bed at night feeling like the next day is Sunday, and thus the weekend is almost over, but then you realize - hey, today was really Friday, and I still have some serious weekend time. Pretty awesome feeling. Like when you groggily wake up at 5:00 am and you don't have to be up until 7:00.

It also means I should have gotten more work done. But, of course I didn't really. Hey, how can you blame me? My new laptop came yesterday, and it required a whole day of setting up and configurating. More on this beautiful device later.