Traveling to LA…

Notes:
.. Sat next to a plasma physicist from atl to phx, works on a mega joule frequency tripled laser at Livermore
.. Had a better burrito in the Phoenix airport than I could get *anywhere* in the south
.. Imaculately dressed guy in a white dress shirt, blue slacks and both arms covered in tattoos, full sleve
.. Us air has brand new awesome planes with no tv’s, awesome
..

Loosenuts Kits!

Our race team (Sunshine / Loosenuts) kits have finally arrived, just in time for the second race of the season! Note the profusion of pink jackalopes.

My kingdom for this poster

This poster was made by Cinelli after Hampsten won the 1988 Giro di Italia. There’s a newer version, made by Hampsten Cycles, but it doesn’t include the cool elevation profile for Passo Gavia (the snow covered mountain pass he’s climbing in the picture). Where, oh where can I find one?

At revision 666

I use subversion (SVN) to handle revision control on important documents and data as well as to keep a sync’d backup of all my important stuff on my office computer. Every time you commit a change to the repository, one per working day usually, a new revision is created. I committed changes on a paper I’m working on today and in doing so reached revision 666.

What will the course be like?

Apparently this is the cyclocross course at Dahlonega this weekend:

so stoked!

Reading this fascinating case study in NEJM

Anatomical diagnosis:

Acute megacolon (Ogilvie’s syndrome), with extensive mucosal ischemic necrosis, due to clozapine-induced gastrointestinal hypomotility.

LaTeX: The “framed minipage”

I can’t remember if I’ve written this down at some point in the past, but I needed to produce a “framed” version of the minipage enviromment in to put some figures on an exam in boxes. Here’s some good code to define such a thing. Maybe there’s an easier way (there always is), but this works well. The code defines a new environment called “fmpage” which takes one argument (the same argument that minipage takes).


\newsavebox{\fmbox}
\newenvironment{fmpage}[1]
{\begin{lrbox}{\fmbox}\begin{minipage}{#1}}
{\end{minipage}\end{lrbox}\fbox{\usebox{\fmbox}}}


Example:


\begin{fmpage}{0.5\linewidth}
$$ P(t) = 180 \cdot (1.1150)^t $$ Note: Population is measured here in millions and t=0 corresponds to Jan. 1, 2000.
\caption{Population Model \#1}
\label{fig:figure1}
\end{fmpage}


Produces:

$2,830 later, I’m home

I got an emergency root canal today and it’s finally feeling better.. got barely any sleep last night, was tripping the light fantastic on pain killers, and the best person in the world drove me to Gainsville this morning to get roto-rooted in the tooth. No pictures this time.. it wasn’t very funny unfortunately.

Put this on, I need to listen to your lungs

I was in the ER last night. It’s the first time I’ve ever been admitted to an actual hospital. A tooth of mine started hurting yesterday morning and kept getting worse and worse, despite heavy pain killers. It felt like someone was driving an icepick down through my tooth #31 (in the lingo). This is the first time I’ve ever had to put on one of those hospital gowns, the kind with that make your butt hang out. Actually though, my butt didn’t seem to hang out of this one. It took me quite a while to figure out how to put the damn thing on. Anyway, a few observations:

1. When the nurse asks whether you want a shot in the butt or the thigh, choose the butt. She doesn’t mean a normal old needle under the skin shot, she means she’s about to stab you straight down with the needle in her fist. Somehow it seems like it would be easier to take in the butt (hehe).

2. Whenever I’ve been in a doctor’s office, or dentist’s office, with a TV on during the daytime, it’s always Sponge Bob or something worse on Nickelodian. In the ER at 10pm however, we get a charming flick about domestic abuse on BET.

3. The insurance hit-man they send in to get your financial information is quite menacing, even though he’s a doughy farm boy with a flushed face.

4. I was asked my name and birthday literally 25 times. Why don’t they just print up a little sign I can wear around my neck at reception so everyone is clear what my name is and when I was born?

Enough observations, now for the photos!

You weren’t expecting that!

Cross! Race #1 “Macon Bacon” or “Macon Whoopie”?

I took 12th place out of a bit more than 50, not quite sure, but over 50. Photos and a post-race wrap-up to follow. For now, here’s a YouTube video of the start of my race. I go by, in a bright green jersey and red helmet on the far left, between seconds 0:04 and 0:07 (also briefly at second 0:22).