The life of Kartik

Wed Sep 28 01:27:28 EDT 2005

• Volunteered for BMES.. putting stuff inside bags... 'assembly line' it seems. good pizza though.
• Large batch of rats to be euthanized without purpose... not good.
• Friend over tomorrow... bong grub.. yummy !!!

Sat Sep 24 11:59:46 EDT 2005

• Went to Rehoboth beach for retreat last weekend... good fun. At the beach one night after a full moon .
  
  [gimped to remove some purple fringing and cropped. Full version.]
  
  
• Planning to get teleconvertor and some filters.
• Next stage of transfection - immunohistochemistry next week.
• 4 weeks to India !!!!!
• No more swimming .. trying out some other stuff ...

Sat Sep 10 18:26:31 EDT 2005

• Awesome Boston trip :) finished :(.
• Swam after ages.. body protesting wildly..
• NOS transfection etc going on.. amazingly long drawn out procedure. Need to develop questions ..

Wed Aug 31 08:10:49 EDT 2005

• Two more payable-in-blood loans given.. on the same day which also included getting a couch from ikea.
• Drive(philly-long island-orient point)-ferry to new london-drive(boston) plans confirmed. Major good time expected !!
• Transfection stuff going good.. Gel with rat nNOS (second from left, upper fragment):

Tue Aug 23 23:17:54 EDT 2005

• Academic stuff seems to be coming together.. neuron culturing, NOS transfection.. things better than before.
• Part of personal life going towards a very very wrong area, must make hardcore U turn with respect to the erroneous facet.
• Doing some LASER speckle imaging work towards a proposal.

Thu Aug 18 18:50:16 EDT 2005

• Pretty much fully shifted... like the place
  • Got on to Verizon dsl...
  • Some ikea stuff done .. some more to go
• Neuron cultures progressing ok.
• Infinitely hot weather.
• Restart swimming from next week.
• 7 undergrad buddies came. Too hot to go around as planned, so we talked and ate.

Sat Aug 6 12:18:14 EDT 2005

• Life sucks without net at home... gotta be a week more like this :(
• Lotsa dudes from undergrad days coming over next weekend.
• Got India tickets oct 23 - nov 23
• Academic stagnation happening :(
• Neuron culture work started... excruciatingly painful and finicky.

Mon Aug 1 10:58:06 EDT 2005

• Shifted after infinite amount of pain. No net. Must reshift in 2 weeks.
• Moving other people's stuff is a debt payable back only in blood.

Thu Jul 28 00:23:00 EDT 2005

• Last post from 2850 n charles st, apt 3b. dell house. been here almost 3 years !!!
• Truck, shift, ikea and bicycles planned for tomorrow.

Mon Jul 25 11:33:26 EDT 2005

• Packing going full swing - shifting thursday.
• Exploring rat neuron cultures as phd groundwork from next week ..
• Starting out on diffusive learning model. Must finish in couple of weeks.

Wed Jul 20 11:25:14 EDT 2005

• Back from Ozzfest 2005. Maiden was awesome as usual. Black Sabbath was also amazing.
  • Maiden setlist (not in order, complete) - Revelations, Wrathchild, Trooper, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Run To The Hills, Running Free, Number Of The Beast, Phantom Of The Opera, Sanctuary, Iron Maiden
  • Sabbath setlist (not in order, incomplete) - NIB, Ironman, War Pigs, After Forever, Black Sabbath, Dirty Women, Fairies Wear Boots, Into The Void ..

Sun Jul 17 12:06:18 EDT 2005

• Started making UT maps. Potential for amazing time waste. DM-Stairway Surprise

• Only 2 of us in house now... shifting 29th july. dell house sucks.
• Must read stuff for some meetings tomorrow. Potential PhD work.
• Went to clean room after infinite time yesterday. Reinforced how finicky and tough fabrication is :(

Wed Jul 13 03:53:03 EDT 2005

• Finally gotten around to making a matlab based scope that I half like. Test in action on thursday.
• Been swimming 2 days. Much less pain than before.
• Planning on getting some decent binoculars.

Fri Jul 8 20:11:52 EDT 2005

• Bloody noisy potentiostat system. Got very pained and moved tremendous tonnage to inside a faraday cage (and hopefully low noise).
• Rain or shine, swimming starts monday.
• Making proper goat meat biryani today. Details on the food page.

Tue Jul 5 13:53:43 EDT 2005

• Back to Baltimore and school after huge weekend !! Awesome fun..
  • Live 8 concert.
  • Ocean city and Atlantic city.
  • Philadelphia freedom concert - bryan adams, elton john, others and fireworks.
• Could not meet dudes from olden days :(
• Got B's in Neuroscience and Organ Systems (last two medical school courses). Satisfied.

Sat Jul 2 22:41:15 EDT 2005

• Went to the Live 8 concert in philly. Random juntaes played (except bon jovi), but the overall experience was awesome. About a million people !!!
• Unfair, Live 8 @ London gets Pink Floyd and we get 'p diddy' and 'jay z' and other suchlike crap.
• Beach plans tomorrow and hopefully meet up a bunch of people from olden days day after.

Wed Jun 29 17:58:00 EDT 2005

• Here's what (part of) my GBO looked like.

• Love the music from Innocence.. Kenji Kawai is brilliant.
• Driving to philly tomorrow... some pictures should come out of the trip !!

Tue Jun 28 18:05:11 EDT 2005

• And it's done. Passed it. Went off pretty cool !!!

Tue Jun 28 12:17:44 EDT 2005

• OK, this is it. Going for GBO !!! Wish me luck !!

Sat Jun 25 22:40:27 EDT 2005

• Found a neat trick to play songs by album in winamp lite. I use lite as it is less bloated, simpler and works with the skins I like.
  If using the full version can be done simply by <alt-l> to open the music database. This uses the extended jump to option.
  • In Preference->Titles, make the title display format [%artist% - ]$if2(%title% - %album%,$filepart(%filename%)).
    This puts up the album name in addition to the default artist and title.
  • Open the jump to file dialog and search by album name.
  • Right click->Enque options->Add current search into the queue.
  • Done !!!!
  • Naturally, you can add by artist or any other ID3 tag the same way..
• Mugging going on ok... very bored though.

Fri Jun 24 19:01:33 EDT 2005

• Very nice !! Instead of studying for GBO I add a RSS feed for this page. I deserve to be dammed to the deepest pits of hell.
• Otherwise mugging ok !!! Seem to have forgotten so much.. specially analog circuit analysis stuff :(

Wed Jun 22 22:01:35 EDT 2005

• Preparation on schedule... tougher than I thought. Promises to be an interesting experience !!
• I have realised that using my brain in mugmax mode consumes tremendous amounts of calories [ which therefore need to be replaced :( ].

Tue Jun 21 14:06:56 EDT 2005

• One week to the GBO... plodding along.
• New computers up and running.
• Been rereading some Dune stuff.
• Weather varying between very pleasant and pointlessly hot.

Sat Jun 18 10:21:59 EDT 2005

• Got memory for camera.. package now complete.
• Saw good quality version of Innocence and found it to be pretty good. Tremendous artwork !!
• Also saw Layer Cake... didnt understand some dialog and things.. but liked it in general.

Wed Jun 15 14:47:38 EDT 2005

• One more PC went down in the lab today bringing total of dead computers to 3. 2 new computers ordered. Adminning is tough !!
• Feeling that research is not going anywhere.. hopefully thats only because I've been busy with other stuff..
• First goto zombo and then to obmoz. Flash/audio required.

Mon Jun 13 21:48:46 EDT 2005

• Studied a bit... not on a roll yet :(
• Changed furniture in room... no more table bending under 60lb monitors. Solid and wickedly heavy table under the computer now.

Sun Jun 12 22:22:18 EDT 2005

• Out of time.... 4.5 month deadline given :(
• GIMP rocks... made the following
  
  
• Ond came... did some decent stuff... he's around for a week so more expected..

Fri Jun 10 22:26:29 EDT 2005

• Life, as I've known for about the past 2.5 years, might be coming to an end. Terrified of it.
• Went to a very nice chinese restaurent 'Hunan Manor' in columbia. Awesome.
• Been mugging on and off for GBO.. seriously from monday.

Wed Jun 8 12:39:51 EDT 2005

• Just done with the GI/Endocrinology/Reproductive part of the med school course.
  • Most disappointing part of the complete medical schhol. Just cant justify to myself why I should have done this.
  • Crappy exam.. might flunk the reproductive section.
• Still sick.. complete relaxation till next week :)
• Friend 1d coming for next week. Good fun expected !!!
• Must start mugging seriously for gbo, about 3 weeks to go.

Sun Jun 5 10:28:05 EDT 2005

• Sick last couple of days. General cold/fever/throat ache. No swimming for a few days.
• Exam on wednesday.. formal mug from today. Swimming and GBO mug after that.

Sat Jun 4 12:48:52 EDT 2005

• Figured out triple monitor.. using motherboard's integrated ATI9100IGP and dual head ATI9600. Rocks. Currently one small monitor temporary. To be replaced by a second sun branded sony 21".
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Pool closed over weekend ..

Fri Jun 3 20:41:30 EDT 2005

• Third day of increasing swimming !!! The pain is excruciating just before leaving the house ..
• Got tyranny of souls. Awesome. Songs = 1112.
• Ordered music from American McGee's Alice by NIN drummer Chris Vrenna. Had really liked it during gameplay..
• Must study for exam on wednesday and GBO on 28th.

Thu Jun 2 19:07:12 EDT 2005

• Swam again today... more than yesterday and less tired today.. things are looking up.
• Averagish scores in cardiovascular and pulmonary parts of the course. GI/endo/repro [and the very last] exam on wednesday, 8 june. dont know shit.
• Got my ms degree from jhu.
• Long and thoughtful discussion with advisor about idea/motivation for those ideas/feasibility/implementability.

Wed Jun 1 22:26:08 EDT 2005

• Went swimming today... dead tired. Hope to keep going..
• Got some more music.. joe satriani 'strange beautiful music' some good stuff. bruce dickinson's new album should be here tomorrow.
• Charles village festival this weekend.. will eat nice turkey leg.

Wed Jun 1 15:54:09 EDT 2005

• Saw old friend... had a nice time..
• Officially started mugging for gbo.
• Bad hot weather :(
• Lot of photos over the weekend..small gallery

Fri May 27 01:26:46 EDT 2005

• Been shooting on and off with new camera... very happy.. need big memory card before serious session.
• Back a while ago from a get together at advisor's palce. good fun.
• Classes shot to hell... missing them left, right and center.
• Meeting old friend this weekend.. havent seen her for about 9 years !!!

Mon May 23 22:59:27 EDT 2005

• Got camera !!!! Looks and works awesome. Beyond completely satisfied.
• Waiting for a nice day and putting camera through it's paces.
• Part (not crucial) of tripod broke :(

Sun May 22 15:37:54 EDT 2005

• Saw amazingly cheesy and funny Shaolin Soccer. Kung Fu Hustle planned for monday ..
• Network frag maxxed with psycho. good fun.
• Shrimp curry on monday.. (hopefully)
• Gastrointestinal sytem classes next from tomorrow.

Sat May 21 19:57:10 EDT 2005

• Looks like I succeeded. Chat transcript follows

  	(15:50:21) kalganian: i'm losing battle against resisting to bury my boredom in food ..
  	(15:50:27) avinash: why da
  	(15:50:34) kalganian: dunno.... da...
  	(15:50:39) kalganian: must be strong
  	(15:53:14) avinash: may the force be with you
  	(15:53:34) kalganian: may the wings be with me ...
  	(15:53:37) avinash: lol
  	(17:16:16) kalganian: still not succumbed
  	(17:30:18) avinash: good
  	(17:30:23) avinash: the force is strong in you
  	(17:30:29) avinash: you are the chosen one
  	(17:30:34) kalganian: hunger is stronger
  	(17:30:44) avinash: dont tempt and go to the dark side
  

• ... And still going strong..

Sat May 21 13:55:27 EDT 2005

• EMBS paper progressing nicely..
• Extremely bored today... must not fall into the trap of relieving boredom by eating.
• Cleaned room.

Fri May 20 11:33:37 EDT 2005

• Meatless regime a miserable failure :(
• Meeting up an old old friend next weekend.
• Bought the camera... missed delivery once.. must .. have .. patience..
• Giving some serious thought to neuron culturing...
• Can I write up a paper before june 3rd deadline for nips ?

Thu May 19 03:30:41 EDT 2005

• Back from sith...
  
  
  
  
  • Way better than episodes I and II
  • Good effects.
  • I, II and III suffered due to crappy dialog, casting and lack of han solo.

Wed May 18 17:38:26 EDT 2005

• Cardiovascular exam over... only a little more left in the class !!!
• Going to see the midnight show of return of the sith !!!!!!
• Mostly will buy the camera today...
• Should write a paper for embs by middle of next week.
• Chinese style pork chops recipe should be up tomorrow.

Mon May 16 00:11:26 EDT 2005

• Finepix sold... sigh.. great camera.. unforgettable times..
• Just waiting to handle the lumix before buying it online.
• Cardiovascular ends wednesday.

Wed May 11 22:00:47 EDT 2005

• Second meatless alternate day !!! looks like I CAN DO IT !!
• Wasted pretty much all day... some discussion at med school.. some general reading.
• India ticket looks costlier than i thought ~1200

Tue May 10 23:24:57 EDT 2005

• Saw kingdom of heaven... nice balanced portrayal.. slightly long movie though.. ~150 minutes !!
• Preordered and waiting for bruce dickinson's tyranny of souls... samples sound awesome.
• Cardiovascular section extremely random and unsatisfying compared to others.. excellent teachers being made to give crappy e-lectures :(
• Must start looking for india tickets. ~24 october to ~24 november

Mon May 9 23:18:55 EDT 2005

• BIOS (CER techfellowship grant worth 4000$) finished today.. symposium etc. good experience.
• Slight problem in academic plans... setback in something :((
• Gave gbo form... so it is done for tuesday, june 28th, 1300hrs, clark hall.
• First successful day on meat alternation plan... no meat on alternate days !!

Sun May 8 15:52:09 EDT 2005

• Food link from homepage activated !!! more to come as time goes by ..
• Should add 'back' and 'home' button sort of things in my webpages..
• Studied a bit today.. really excited by the current research idea :))

Sun May 8 10:27:15 EDT 2005

• OK, sure about the lumix fz3 + 512mb ultra II sd card.. just waiting till my finepix sells. It was a good camera.. went to some really memorable stuff with it.
• Planning to study today.. must read some papers and perhaps look at tomorrow's class ..

Sun May 8 00:06:08 EDT 2005

• NEAT !!! way easier than i thought !!

• Just decided to give this page some color - will now work on vim script to randomly generate a hex color for every new entry !! I LOVE VIM !!

• Going to ozzfest on july 19 near philly !! maiden, black sabbath and others.
• Very bored now.. trying to tell myself why i should not eat vast quantities of food.
• Got some more books from sfbc - a golden age anthology, 3 lensman books and rendezvous with rama.
• Spent all day today listening to all 19 of the hitchhiker's guide radio shows.

• Saw hitchiker's guide.. kind of disappointed but i guess i was expecting too much.. decent.
• Random cold weather out of nowhere for last couple of days.

• Almost sure about the lumix fz3.
• Very random online course material for next section (cardiovascular) of class :(

• Canon Powershot S1 IS or Panasonic Lumix FZ3 or Fuji FinePix S5100 ????
• GBO date seems to be converging on 28th june after several iterations.

• Drove to philly... first solo rental and driving... no problems, good fun.
• Planning to get a new digital camera.. looking at powershot s1
• Very tricksy exam day after.
• Current gbo date is 27 june.

• Some random computer simulation lab today.
• Mugged a little, feeling better. [mugged = studied ;) ]
• Some potential gold - dopamine work yesterday, looked ok.

• Give up 6.5 hours of class today !!!!!!! (I attended only 5.5 of it)
• Planning to drive to Philly and see Dali's exhibit this weekend.

• Getting data out of a matlab fig file
  • Open fig file.
  • On the figure select the line for which data is required.
  • xdata = get(get(gcf,'currentobject'),'xdata');
  • ydata = get(get(gcf,'currentobject'),'ydata');
• MUST STUDY TODAY !!!

• Saw Sahara... gen timepass
• Plan to mugmax tomorrow, as in today (sunday)
• Got some more jethro tull.. very nice. Songs now = 1075.

• Physiol on full force... lots to read.. planned to read this weekend... lets see if i do..
• Gave notice to dell house.. 90 days.. mostly moving to henderson house..

• Got back neuroscience exam... exactly class average.. i'm happy. and very happy that i got a 100% on the visual part of the exam !!!
• Third set of dopamine measurements with rfpstat worked... magnetic stirring is the key.
• Physiology on.. renal phys now.. seems ok.. lets see..
• Should fix up with profs for gbo this week.

• First bit of dopamine measurements with rfpstat bombed. 1 chip blown :(
• Did first bit of driving in the city and also on highway !!!

• Got driving license after 6 episodes.
  • Epidode 1: "That's not an Indian license. Goto embassy and get it endorsed."
  • Episode 2: <went to a different dmv> Flunked the written test.
  • Episode 3: <passed the written test> "You can't give a driving test in that rented car without your name on the driver list. Come with a cousin who owns a car."
  • Episode 4: <went to dmv with car owning labmate> Flunked the driving test.
  • Episode 5: <passed the driving test> "Your written test has expired. Give it again."
  • Episode 6: <passed the written test> Success.
• Classes from next week.
• Last week was good work with chris on the rfpstat.

• More rfpstat work, current sweeps tomorrow.
• Episode 5 of licensing on thursday - the written test part III and document verification part II

• Lot of intensive work on rfpstat... kinda works.. not exactly as expected.. but we're getting there.
• Finally migrated to thunderbird.

• 4 hours of debugging to realize that NI PCI 6733 does not support detecting level change on DIO.
• One more week of freedom and then Physiology begins.
• Really really great weather.. and beautiful white and pink blossomed trees.. pictures soon.

• Well, exam got over... it was ok types i guess.
• No classes for 2 weeks !!!!! YAYYY !!!
• BME mail is going away :( Trying to migrate to thunderbird.
• Awesome weather going on.

• May God please help me tomorrow in the exam.
• Simon Tatham rocks. PUTTY god and i love winurl.