Primitive laptop

Heather used some cardboard from a cereal box to fashion her own laptop.


Observations:

• not a QWERTY keyboard
  
• number keys
  
• cursor keys
  
• space bar (or track pad)
  
• icons/buttons on the screen
  

It's so cute... except for what it says about our parenting. Well, at least she's not simulating intravenous drug use.

My brains, spread all around the world

Every now and then, I get an e-mail from someone asking if they can use my MRI data for their paper or project. In case you've never seen "My Brain" page, it has a link to download a 3D stack of slices of my head. One of the 129 slices is shown on the right.

A couple years ago, I was approached by the creators of ImageJ, a free image-processing application offered by the National Institute of Health in the U.S. They asked if I would agree to allow them to use my MRI data as a standard sample dataset. OF COURSE! So now anyone that has ImageJ can get my MRI slices by simply choosing "Open samples..." from the File menu. They can also see a volume rendering from that MRI stack. ... the scanner adds at least 10 pounds.

Dude time

The Orchard ladies went to a birthday party yesterday afternoon, so the dudes (Dinders and daddy) hung out and did guy stuff. We started by checking out the diggers next to campus, and then walked over to see the damage done by the fire.


We saw a fire truck.


Sure enough, Sugar Mountain was destroyed. Though, looking through the windows at the in-tact Simpsons mural, I can't help wondering if there is still lots of perfectly edible (if wet) candy in there.


One of the front-wheel assemblies fell off the stroller. You know... guy stuff.


We got pizza, frozen yogurt (OK, that wasn't so manly), Lauchy had a lollipop, and we finished off in Waterloo park looking at the animals. This lama looks like my country cuzin' Buck!


We had a great time. And Lauchy told mommy all about it at bed time, "i-keem" (icecream), "gabba" (candy), "pee-ta" (pizza).

Why is that helicopter circling me?

On my walk to work, I noticed a helicopter in the sky. And I kept noticing it... circling and circling. It suddenly dawned on me that I might be in the middle of a police man-hunt.

Luckily for me, that wasn't it. As it turns out, there was a big fire nearby earlier in the morning. CTV has some brief coverage.

---

According to more recent CTV footage (probably from the helicopter I saw), it seems that Sugar Mountain was one of the businesses that went up in flames.


View Fire, April 22, 2010 in a larger map

Bulletin board fail

Well, this bulletin board is a little awkward, given the recent scandals alleged against the Catholic Church.

Books I've Read or Listened To

In case you're curious about what books I've gone through, here is a list. If you're not curious, then you can leave me a nasty comment about how I'm so narcissistic.

Oh my DOG!

Not sure what to make of this artwork by Addie.

As far as the eye can see

It's final exams, and anxious students are busy sealing their destiny.


As I type this, my students are writing the final exam for CS473, "Medical Image Processing". I can feel the mental heat emanating off these focused, talented people.

Choking game... not so much fun

My mom, Anne Phillips, was interviewed yesterday on CTV news. My brother died while playing a hypoxia game in 1993. Senseless. Here is the short piece that aired on the 6 o'clock news yesterday.

(click to see video)
You can find out more about what happened to Mike here. You can also find out more about hypoxia "games" (a.k.a. choking games, hyperventilation games) at www.aheadofthegrief.me.uk.

Interesting license plate

Saw this today. Thought it was worth a mention.


WARNING for the uninitiated: Before you google "milf", you might want to check wikipedia.