from the desk of stinkpot

I gave a 20-minute talk today to about 200 grad students, post docs, and faculty at a departmental retreat. I think the talk went pretty well — I don’t think I rushed at all and I stayed on time. Folks I met afterwards also appeared enthusiastic about my material / delivery. The relative ease I […]

wonderful transaction seen scribbled on a bathroom stall here at school:

i’m working on my thesis committee meeting slides under the loft bed in our bedroom.  christina is asleep “upstairs,” exhausted from the drain of med school.  fortunately for my blog, christina’s exhaustion and her penchant for sleep talking are on good terms. christina: “yeah!” me: “yeah what?” christina: “the liver is filling inconsistently.” me: “how […]

i don’t think i’ve blogged about this topic yet; with the aid of some wonderful experimental collaborators and my advisor, i co-authored a paper in science this past summer on microbial ecology. my contribution to the project was an algorithm i named AdaptML. it’s a pretty cool algorithm*: i think it’s one of the first […]

great moment #432: you’re brainstorming in your advisor’s office and the conservation culminates in his declaration: “we’ll become the watson and crick of poop!” i love grad school.

i had dinner with a good friend from high school — JD — last friday night.  we traded stories from high school, most notably reminiscing how he had actually dated lady gaga and brought her to prom. JD is now studying architecture up the street at harvard. it was insanely fun to talk to someone […]

this is one of those days that i’m really glad i’ve got a blog, and can record somewhere (that i won’t lose) what i was thinking the day barack obama was inaugurated. decades from now, when i, or perhaps even my children revisit this, i’m sure it’ll make for pleasant recollections. anyways, on to what […]

my bike ride to work today through the boston arctic was cold enough to make me wonder if my eyeballs could freeze in their sockets.  weather.com tells me it’s 0 degrees fahrenheit with the windchill — make that -5F or -10F then if you’re cruising along on your bike.  i did my best to bundle […]

my highlight for the week (or perhaps the year?): dressing up as TIM the MIT beaver for the lab halloween party. it’s not everyday you get to dress up as a 7-ft tall beaver. i should note that it wasn’t all fun and games in there; the fan that was supposed to be installed in […]

my server has been down for the past couple of weeks as i completed my move back onto MIT’s campus.  now that the server is back online, i should hopefully be able to update this forlorn blog in the near future.  it’s been an eventful summer.