In Which Our Hero Gets His Brain Scanned

This morning, tired from last evening's gales of laughter, I stumbled into my office at 9:30. Upon checking my email, I found a reminder of a Social Sciences Experimental Lab experiment that I was to take part in today. It told me to report to the MRI center at 10:15.

So I remov'd the earrings and dropped off my iPod and walked on over to the Broad Center (the MRI center is located therein). Down the elevator and to the appointed mustering point I went.

When I arrived, I was briefly interviewed and asked to fill out some documentation. Since I'm free of internal metal parts and in reasonable health, I was determined to be a suitable subject.

The experimenter had me get up on the little conveyor-thing and gave me earplugs, headphones, and a little goggle-display. Then she gave me this little keypad (for the experiment) and a pneumatic panic button. Presently, my head was strapped in snugly, and I was advanced into the scanner.

As I moved in, I thought I felt a little rotation about my nose- the high magnetic field can disorient people when they move through it- but it may have been my imagination. Surprisingly, I was mostly comfortable, despite the fact that I ended up in there for about an hour, prone, and unable to move (for the most part). I think that my interest in what was going on overcame my fidgetyness.

The experiment was a gambling experiment, where I had to guess beforehand if the second of two cards flashed would be higher or lower than the first. Then I had to indicate if I'd guessed correctly. (It's not ESP, I had to push a button for higher/lower, and correct/incorrect) There were 3 sessions of 30 trials, each.

The first run through I didn't realize there was a time-limit, and so I missed a couple of trials. I started with $25 and ended up with $23 ($1 automatic bet, $.25 for indicating right(wrong) when wrong(right)). The second time, I ended with $28. The third, I ended with $38.

Unfortunately, my winnings were determined randomly from those three values- and I got the least of them. Dang! Still, the experimenter was impressed with my winning ways and so was I. I came out with $28 ($5 for showing up), and the promise of a JPEG version of one of my scans in the near future.

'Twas fun, interesting.

Yep, this seems about right.

S.E. Hinton has written a new book. I hope the movie version of this one doesn't suck so much.

Heard on KPCC (local NPR affiliate):

What do you think is the pimp effect on this?

Alvin has a past.

So this is how things work at my school, in my option (we have divisions where others have schools and options where other people have departments; it is an odd place).

For the vast majority of people, the first year is about coursework and trying to find an advisor. The second year is about starting to do research and finish classes, and theoretically, taking the candidacy exam. However, since there are essentially no rules that must be followed here, many people wait for their 3rd or 4th year to take their candidacy exam (if not later).

That is, there is no fast rule about when to take this exam. In our group, there is something of a tradition in doing it winter of the 3rd year.

The candidacy exam in my option is an oral exam in front of >= 4 professors. It consists of a ~30 minute talk on your research, plus questions, and, at the discretion of the examiners, questioning on your coursework.

Currently, I am working on some research. Another dude in my group, my office-mate Matt, is starting his 4th year. We're working as a team, busting down all kinds of world records. We're opening up a lot of ground, so much so that there's too much work for the two of us to do. We are, nonetheless, gonna do every bit as much as we can. That entails a good deal of research, explaining my lack of summer break.

I'm busting my rear these days, and it sucks because I terribly need a break. Still, things are going pretty well. I'm trying to get a pretty significant body of work prepared for that exam, and that takes time.

Some people have too much time on their hands. Or too much taco sauce lying around the house.

So this weekend we watched two movies (well, at least that many- these are just the two I remember). Matchstick Men, and The In-Laws. You can't imagine two more dissimilar movies.

Matchstick Men caught me unawares. It looked cutsey, and I expected such. For the most part, I wasn't disappointed. I didn't expect the twist in the end, though, so it was pretty well done...

It got dark in a damn hurry, though- sorta killed the good mood that all the good-natured conning created for me.

The In-Laws, a farce, starring Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, was quite farcical. I can suggest it to you- on the condition you really don't care if it's good or bad.

Twenty Underused Yoga Positions

In the true spirit of British "customer service"...

Michael Phelps is a Choke Artist Who I Could Totally Beat at Everything.

So we have this high intensity UV lamp in one of our labs. Kartik says that it's pretty much the same kind his dentist uses for setting composite fillings. I read somewhere that some whitening treatments utilize just such a lamp...

I'm thinking we should get a dentist's chair and some o' this goo (though we have peroxide, and I reckon I could come up with a gelling agent), and start an underground tooth-whitening ring.

We'd call it White Club. And rule number one about White Club is?

You don't talk about White Club.

Wow- Fafblog is really putting out: Here. And here.

Wow- when The Sims start playing The Sims, that's creepy.

Ahh, geeks

Hmm, who's the flip-flopper now? Granted this article's source may bear consideration due to his tendency toward hyperbole, but it's an interesting timeline nonetheless.

Mmmmm. The sweet smell of safety.

Hysteria

Funny sendup of Burning Man.

Oh, dat rascally Ali G...