I’m Back

After over a year of neglect QuasiControl is back online.  However this blog has been reborn with a new purpose. During the last go around I wrote for you. I wanted to be funny and witty. I tried to chose topics that I predicted you all wanted to read about. This is going to change. If I’m going to keep a blog its going to be for myself and I will be my own intended audience. I’m not going to polish these posts very much and I’m going to reveal a bit more about myself.

 

2011 has been a big year for me with a lot of changes and I’ve got big aspirations for 2012 most of which I hope to talk about on this blog. However before I start into 2012 I want to take some time to point out some of the things I got done in 2011.  I’m going to do most of these in list form.

  1. Presented my work on Bayesian decoding COSYNE in Utah
  2. Passed my Oral Qualifying Exam
  3. Successfully Proposed my Thesis
  4. Published my first Android app
  5. Published my first iPad/iPhone App
  6. Published my second Android app (now has over 350K installs)
  7. Presented my work on Bayesian decoding at SfN in Washington DC
  8. Finished my course work
  9. Acquired the final set of data I need for my thesis work
  10. Submitted by resume to a few big tech companies
  11. Heard back no from a few big tech companies
  12. Spent a week reworking my resume and sent it to the same companies
  13. Heard back asking me to apply for jobs
  14. Re-learned C++ and began teaching myself OpenGL

I’ve come up with a few goals for 2012. I’m not going to list them all out but hopefully I’ll write about each of them in more detail in the future. But by the end of the year I sincerly hope to have a few things worked out.

  1. Path to graduation mapped out. This could mean that I’m done with my analysis and am writing my dissertation.
  2. I’ve made a decision about my professional future. Wether its to go work for a big company like Google, move to Europe, teach at a small university, start a business.
  3. Lose some weight. I’ve been needing to lose weight for a while now and I have to start.
  4. Waste less time at home. When I’m home I need to be spending the time in meaningful ways.
  5. Form more meaningful relationships with my siblings. I’ve been away in boston now for a few years and I hardly talk to most of them. Over the last few years I’ve changed a lot and I’m certain many of them aren’t sure how to relate to my anymore. I want to fix this.

 

1 Comment
by slayton on January 1, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Misc

Posted by slayton on January 1, 2012

http://quasicontrol.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/im-back/

Bottle Exchanges

For a while I’ve been thinking about ways that we as a nation can better help the homeless.  I’ve ben extremely impressed with how much Massachusetts does to help these people who have been all but forgotten by society.  I’ve think i’ve come up with a way to help them out that is feasible and would have a real effect.

What I propose is a 5 cent deposit on the containers of sodas, sports drinks, alcoholic beverages, and any other beverages that can be packaged in reusable containers. This could be nation wide or a state by state issue, my vote would be for a nationwide policy.    Then the unclaimed deposits can be used to subsidize programs for the homeless.  Right now what happens to the unclaimed deposit depends on the state, but in many cases the retailers can simply keep the deposit).

The program that is the simplest in my mind is this: Bottles and cans could be exchanged at state run shelters for goods and packaged food at a rate that is higher than 5 cents a bottle, say 6½ cents a bottle. This would have a number of positive effects.

  1. It would give the homeless greater buying power to meet their needs.
  2. It would de-incentivize the purchase of alcohol as alcohol would be effectively more expensive
  3. It would give the homeless access to goods they really need at lower costs.
  4. It would allow the state a way to monitor the homeless and to intervene in more cases
  5. If it were imposed nationally it would increase the national recycling rate while simultaneously reducing litter on the streets and overal collected waste.
  6. It would create a few jobs. People will need to build the depots, supply them and then work at them. While not many jobs would be created there would still be a few. If this were implemented in all major cities across the country there would be probably a few thousand jobs created.
  7. It would provide the homeless with more resources.

Just a thought I’ve been milling around for a while, what do you think?

 

by slayton on November 13, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Health, Politics
Tagged , , ,

Posted by slayton on November 13, 2010

http://quasicontrol.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/bottle-exchanges/

Ok Wow!

This is the newest video by  OK Go. It blew me away for several reasons, the biggest of which, is that this was shot in a single take.

Check it out

by slayton on September 20, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Music
Tagged ,

Posted by slayton on September 20, 2010

http://quasicontrol.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/ok-wow/

New Music: Beirut

I feel like was time for me to plug another band as its been a while since I last did.  A few months ago a friend suggested I should check out Beirut. He promised they would blow my mind. They did! Every time without fail that a song by Beirut comes up on my mp3 player I stop whatever I’m doing and just listen.

Here are a few songs that I absolutely love:

Nantes:

The sound quality of this video isn’t great as it was filmed on the street with minimal equipment; however, I feel that this just highlights the pure musical talent that these guys have.

Here is a studio recorded version of the song. I love how rich the sounds in this song are.

Scenic World

I couldn’t find an official music video for this song, so I picked this fan made video.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

UPDATE: For a limited time they are offering a free MP3 from their website http://www.beirutband.com/

by slayton on August 11, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Music
Tagged , ,

Posted by slayton on August 11, 2010

http://quasicontrol.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/new-music-beirut/

Reply to “Nowadays”

Cat Scans are amazing! While they have absolutely nothing to do with cats but are just fancy x rays, you can however use a cat scan on a cat. One of the great uses of cat scans is finding: Sub dermal Hematomas. Your brain is in a leather sack called the Dura Mater. When you start to bleed between your brain and the sack you have what is referred to as a sub dermal hematoma. In the picture on the right the white area in the 2nd and third panels is blood that is literally poisoning the brain, be grateful for your blood brain barrier, seriously be grateful.

Is Robbie Manheim, in any way shape or form involved in or related to the guys from Mannheim Steamroller?

Sorry rituximab, plasma exchange, and cytoxan but Richard Simmons will always be my exerciser or choice (although I think he could do with some rituximab himself, although holy water might do the trick).

BTW did you know you can make a TON of money sleeping in an EEG lab. Some labs will pay your ~$5,000 for 24 days of sleep. However, they require you to actually sleep. One other thing is that you can’t leave, seriously you’re locked in there for 4 weeks. It makes me wonder who in their right mind would get themselve locked up in a hospital for weeks/months/years at a time? ;-)

by slayton on August 11, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Misc, Science
Tagged

Posted by slayton on August 11, 2010

http://quasicontrol.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/reply-to-nowadays/

Parking Violation

The city of cambridge is pretty strict about enforcing parking violations outside my building.  Its not uncommon for me to see two or three cars with parking tickets on my way to work.  The most amazing thing I’ve ever seen was after watching an officer ticket a car (5 minutes before the parking limits expire for the night) and then walk away, another parking attendant came running down the street (literally running) from a different direction and ticketed the same car.

So I thought I had seen it all until I today when I saw this:

by slayton on August 9, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Humor
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by slayton on August 9, 2010

http://quasicontrol.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/parking-violation/

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