Makin' not postin'

So due to unemployment and general to-be-determined suckiness I've been making tons of stuff--knits, paper goods, sewn items and other crafty arty bits. But there has definitely been a lack of photographing said items, blogging and "earning a living."

To fill up space I give you:

Tech sneakers

Hey lB! How are you?

Your boy and you might be amused by these techie Nike sneakers. It's just 15 pounds...

Highlights from SfN and Chicago

1. Met more hot shots in our field!
Dr. Lee glanced at my poster, rather than just sending his students.
Dr. Tanji visited my poster.
I finally met Dr.s Rudebeck and Procyk and saw Dr. Murrary, but couldn't muster up the courage to introduce myself to her...

2. Learned of some amazing science
Dr. Sobel is making a prosthetic that is controlled by the patient's breathing, one of the few voluntary actions a locked-in patient keeps.
David, formerly in the Desposito Lab, had an excellent poster on hierarchical reinforcement learning, though I still don't know what to make of the PMd (and parietal area) being the primary region showing differential BOLD activity from no-chunking vs. chunking.
Miss Noonan gave a superb talk on the double dissociation of the roles of medial vs. lateral OFC. Violations of the independence axiom in economic theory is correlated with medial OFC activity.

3. Was complimented on my LED flower necklace at the BCI Social
I bumped into Gopal, Dr. Shenoy's first graduate student, who also remembered me from the Harvard-Berkeley Engineering Event.
Dr. Shenoy asked about my necklace with the best question being, "So are you a closet EE?" My inner me was jumping up and down with joy from getting to talk to him.
Dr. Velliste even came by my poster the following day, which I never expected any BCI expert to do.

(My collection of work was talked about at the unofficial Berkeley dance party!?)

4. Got some great prototyping side research done
A couple grad. students at Ann Arbor built a DIY electrophysiology rig for $100, as oppose to $40,000! It blew my mind, so I contacted Wired Magazine about them. Hopefully they get the media interested. Their circuit is surprisingly simple, so I may work towards making my own for biometric jewelry and clothing. Will need to inform Eric too.
Pairs of Victoria Secret's trademark wings from their annual fashion show are on display. Since I've been meaning to make myself a pair of wings that glow of course, this close-up look was the best surprise ever! I also learned that the wings are in honor of the grand opening of the N Michigan store, which I serendipitously checked out. Gorgeous store!
I played Mind Ball at the Museum of Science and Technology - the headbands are very comfortable for having three flat electrodes on them. In another exhibit, I bought an LED necklace, which had a similar structure to my LED flower necklace. Good to know that my design jives with others.

5. Had some bummer moments
I failed to make a good connection with those in my field. Alas, I'm a terrible networker.
I missed catching Dr. Sobel and thanking him in person for the continuous letters of recommendation, guidance, and inspiration.
While checking out posters on the last afternoon, my ex spotted me. I never expected him to enter neuroscience. grr. It's my field (and his girlfriend's)! I'd have no problem seeing him around either, if he weren't so insecurely competitive.

Waiting for a boyfriend is demoralizing

I've been giving myself headaches forgetting to eat, putting electronics in food and "clothing", and bringing my plushie lion on all trips - business and pleasure alike.

Need stability.


~~~~ Hope your job search goes well, lB! ~~~~

Looking for a job is demoralizing

How do I know?

Well, I've made a couch cover, 26 little socks, and cute bento lunches for the boy recently.


Need to work. Desperately.

Sorting out life

How goes the life-sorting, lB?

I'll be visiting your territory next week and bringing Spanish chocolate for you. I'm free for dinner Thursday night and/or Saturday night. What fits your schedule?

As for my life-sorting, I think I've reached a good point - I'm refreshed from my first journey across the Atlantic to beautiful Spain (and France). I'm already dreaming about going back, especially to Barcelona! I adore the art nouveau look that Gaudi sprinkles upon the city. It's far nicer than the rigid art deco look of NYC or the lacking art of SF and HK. From the trip, I've realized that I was meant to live in a walkable city, so after I get my PhD, I'm inclined to move eastward to Boston or Europe. My lingering ideas of moving to HK or Singapore are rather remote now - both cities lack science/technology and art in comparison.

I'm also happy in lab. Experiments are moving forward, albeit slowly. I'm starting to feel useful and proficient at what I do at last! My extracurricular project at Noisebridge is serving as a great outlet for my need to create, and this semester I'm taking a course on tangible user interfaces (TUIs). The class has confirmed my love for soldering, building, and electronics, and more importantly, has made me realize that my thought process is best utilized in science and engineering. More precisely, bioengineering. I was offended when a guest professor made light of my interest in biometrics for TUIs by retorting with "Anyone can slap on sensors." He clearly has no idea what many scientists and engineers do on a daily basis...

I've come to realize that regardless of what I do, I will always be meek and uncertain about myself. Perhaps it's an inferiority complex. C'est la vie.

Ending on a girly note: my love life is stable too. Single and comfortably so! Still not over my past, but at last I can live by myself for once. I don't need a guy besides me...well unless perfect he magically shows up. I've now openly accepted the fact that I do in fact have a type preference. For so long, I tried being open-minded and practice equal opportunity in dating, but alas, I'm attracted to certain things: drive, sense of adventure, talent in the performing arts (to contrast with my abilities in the plastic arts), football (aka soccer) passion, metro style, and the most superficial of all - guys who look like Ricky Martin or Kaká (below middle between Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi):

I love this blogger's comment to the following photo too:
"clearly, ronaldo can also see how hot kaka is." She's totally right! Though I'd cave to the bad-boy look that Ronaldo sports.

lol, I always end up talking about boys with you, lB, huh? The things you put up with! =P

...continued

Went to Berkeley Bowl today after the hospital to buy my favorite snacks, tea, and some fruit. The amount of heirloom tomatoes there would put most farmer's markets to shame. Will go tomorrow to the Cheeseboard for dinner and to buy some cheese and bread for the plane.

Dinner at my friend's co-op the last two days has been delicious and free (though on the other side of campus from where i'm staying--like 25 minutes walking there and 30 walking uphill back). Co-op's are fun and friendly! Somebody stopped me in the dinner line to ask if I knit my sweater. She had just been to "Sock Summit" and took classes from all the knitting celebrities I knew. I'm jealous! (Yes there are conventions for sock knitting).

Also I sort of wish I knew about the new School of Information when I was applying to grad school. It's really something closer to what I'm interested in (a combination of their old library studies program folded together with new media studies). And they have their own offices and study lounge accessible 24/7. Though public schools do tend to treat their grad students as the cheapest, lowest form of labor... I guess it's not a trade off I need to concern myself over.