Blog and a Beer

Dreaming up the future

2009-04-06T11:07:00.004-04:00

This certain phenomenon has happened to me before, and it happened again last night. It's an experience that tends to come after 14+ hour days of sitting in front of a computer coding and then trying to get to sleep. After tossing around for 1+ hour, I enter a dream state that I wish I could be in every night (although by no means all night long, I still need my wacky dreams too). In these fantastical slumbers, I'm neither flying nor saving the world nor getting the babe princess at the end (obviously Jamie, and only Jamie). No, these dreams are far better. In these remarkably rewarding respites, I actually dream about...

...work.

Yes, my most exciting dreams are about work. Now it's not the content that makes these dreams great, it's the outcome. This is now the 2nd time that I've actually solved problems about my research in my dreams.

The first time that this happened, I really didn't believe it too much. I was actually stuck on two different problems, one from each of the labs that I work in. They were also problems from different coding languages (one in LabVIEW, the other in Matlab). When morning came, I had somehow worked out both problems in my head. I sort of just brushed it aside and figures I had just thought about it before I drifted off to sleep, and solved the problems then just without remembering it.

But this article confirmed my theory: You and Your Research. It is a transcript of a talk that this guy at Bell Labs gave about people who do great work/research, and what characteristics they display. I've kind of been in a work/research rut for a little while this year, and have been looking for some inspiration as I take on basically a life of research. That article is a great read, so take a look if you have time. Anyways, what struck me was this passage:

Now again, emotional commitment is not enough. It is a necessary condition apparently. And I think I can tell you the reason why. Everybody who has studied creativity is driven finally to saying, ``creativity comes out of your subconscious.'' Somehow, suddenly, there it is. It just appears. Well, we know very little about the subconscious; but one thing you are pretty well aware of is that your dreams also come out of your subconscious. And you're aware your dreams are, to a fair extent, a reworking of the experiences of the day. If you are deeply immersed and committed to a topic, day after day after day, your subconscious has nothing to do but work on your problem. And so you wake up one morning, or on some afternoon, and there's the answer. For those who don't get committed to their current problem, the subconscious goofs off on other things and doesn't produce the big result. So the way to manage yourself is that when you have a real important problem you don't let anything else get the center of your attention - you keep your thoughts on the problem. Keep your subconscious starved so it has to work on your problem, so you can sleep peacefully and get the answer in the morning, free.

I love it! So last night when I went to bed wondering why my program was returning more cases than the program actually iterates, wouldn't you know to my delight that I awake this morning realizing that I need to clear my variables because they are cell arrays and continue seeding when the program is run multiple times, DUHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy St. Louis Day

2009-03-17T15:39:00.001-04:00

There is hope for us nerds

2008-09-28T09:51:00.002-04:00

I'm usually they type of guy who keeps his politics to himself. But since 90% of you who read this are engineers or scientists (that means 9 of you) and 10% aren't (Dallas), this may be of interest to you. An article published 2 days ago in Nature outlines Obama's plan for increasing the national science spending budget here. I encourage you to have a read even though I'm probably preaching to the choir, since who is going to really vote for McCain anyways?

Landscaping

2008-08-19T10:38:00.003-04:00

So yesterday I was at the Bloomfield Post Office. I was there to deliver some gifts to my sis. I'm in line, and in front of me is a man no younger than 55. Well it took me about 20 seconds, but I eventually look up, see this, and snap a picture of it:
Yes, that's right reader. It is a bald man's head with a tattoo of a dude mowing away the hair. The little bubble that the guy is saying states "Is this you?". What the hell does that mean??? Please offer your interpretation, because my mind is blown.

A Public Service

2008-08-13T09:39:00.003-04:00

So I feel it is my duty, as a connoisseur of all music great, to set my reader straight if he or she has gone astray. As of late, I've heard banter of some song about Paper Airplanes becoming rather popular. Now, I'm just like the next guy, I love a good paper airplane flight on a Fall day. But, I feel it is my responsibility to introduce all those who enjoy this song to the original song from which the M.I.A. song was sampled. So here it is, The Clash's "Straight to Hell" released on their 1982 album Combat Rock.

Deerhunted

2008-08-10T23:47:00.006-04:00

Just got back from the Deerhunter show at Garfield Artworks. Dallas, Bru and I showed up about an hour late in order to avoid some of the opening bands. Well our scheduling was a little off and we had to sit through some local act for a while. Seeking release, we took a tour of Friendship/Bloomfield in search of libations. Unfortunately, joke was on us, as it was Sunday night at 10 o'clock. But who would have thought?! Even the trusty dives of West Penn Tavern and Lou's Little Corner bar were closed for business.

After stopping back at my place for a beer, we eventually made it back to GarArt just in time for Deerhunter. I would rate the show as a 7 or 8 out of 10. I didn't even know much about Deerhunter; I've only heard a few songs online. But they had a very good presence: it was a very layered sound of guitars with a metronome-like bass and drum section, while the singer added layers of synth-harmony on top of the music, sometimes melodic, sometimes droning. The sound was very good for the venue, however the vocals tended to drown in the music. All in all, a good Sunday night, although GarArt was about 100 degrees inside and Bru noticed that I lost about 5 pounds. Here are some pics, and a sampling of deerhunter.

'lymps

2008-08-10T20:27:00.003-04:00

My latest excuse for not blogging is because I'm enthralled by the Olympics. These Chinese gymnastic girls can't be older than 14. It's ridiculous.

I guess this post also implies that yes, I do now have internet, and cable, at the place. I'm feeling so...CyberCraig!

I'm out

2008-08-04T10:35:00.002-04:00

So for real this time, my phone is done. After repeatedly trying to plug in the phone and having the power fail, only for the phone to shut off again, I "accidentally" smashed the screen off the corner of my desk.

Whoops.

clehocky "at" gmail "dot" com --> get at me.

Sup, Canuck?

2008-07-30T13:59:00.007-04:00

Reader, welcome back. I again apologize for the hiatus. But this time it was warranted, because I was spending a wonderful week in Canada (otherwise known as America's Hat). It was a blast, as always. It's nice to get off the grid every once and a while, and I'm sorry if you were trying to contact me during that week.

The trip consisted of fishing every morning, eating tons of food and playing a lot of cornhole during the afternoon, eating dinner, fishing until it got dark, and then drinking around a campfire until sleep. Everyday. It doesn't get much better than that.

I was the master angler of the trip, catching the largest bass of the week (2lb 12oz). Now, that's usually a medium sized fish for our trips, but the fishing wasn't too great this week. Here are some mugshots of yours truly with my big 'ole bass. (Sorry, these were the only pictures we took during the whole week. That's what you get with a bunch of guys).

There you can see beautiful Bob's Lake in the background. I need to send a passport-sized photo for all my med school applications. I'm thinkin' the kissy fish pic.

Nothing beats breaking away from the grind and heading up to the middle of nowhere with basically no civilization. Today's song - "Going Up the Country" by Canned Heat. The 60s were so weird.

PGH

2008-07-14T10:09:00.003-04:00

Last week I treated myself to some delicious Mexican treats at my favorite burrito shack in all of Oakland, Vera Cruz. I was reading the City Paper and came upon a great article: Reign of Error - Infamous News that has made History in Pittsburgh.

My favorite excerpt was this one:

Feb. 26, 1927. How unpopular is prohibition in Pittsburgh? A city police lieutenant and two patrolmen are convicted of assaulting two federal prohibition agents.

By the way, does anyone actually watch and/or listen to these music videos?

For those who missed it

2008-07-10T09:22:00.002-04:00

Last night a few of us went to the southside. Naturally, good times were had and libations were consumed.

Dallas had to drive about 2 blocks home from our house, so he stopped drinking around 4 hours before they left. He, Parker, and Nicole went home before myself, Kristen Bonnasso and Jen Carter. At the last bar, which will remain undisclosed, Bonnasso thinks that the Jesus-like chalices that they brought out the beer specials in would be a great thing to have. So she shoves one into Jen's purse, and then the other one into Jamie's. I don't know what she planned on doing with these, but anyways, we took them.

Jen agreed to take Jamie and I home. As we were walking back to her car, Jamie became fixated on a stoop. Now, who knows why Jamie does these things, but she does. She proceeds to climb to the 3rd step of the stoop. I can't quite remember what she did on the 3rd step, I think it might have been some kind of dance or something stupid. Anyways, reader, if you know Jamie, you know what comes next.

Jen yells, "Oh no, Jamie!"

I yell, "Oh no, the glass!"

As you guessed, Jamie face plants from the stoop. The glass bifts and shatters inside her purse. She thinks she ripped her jeans. Scrapes on her arms. She's embarrassed, and the hilarity ensues. But what more can you ask for after a 8 hour drinking tour?

On another note, as I was getting onto the 54C this morning an old guy was having a tough time getting off. As he walked past me he hit me with his cane and said "don't get old, kid!" In the spirit of staying young, today's song is Thrash Unreal by Against Me!

No crying in baseball

2008-07-09T10:11:00.003-04:00

If you haven't heard about his story yet, you can read about John Challis here. There's also a picture of my goofy little cousin, Derek.

Song - a cover of The Band's "The Weight" by Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and Old Crow Medicine Show.

Where have I been?

2008-07-08T10:06:00.006-04:00

I apologize for the infrequent posts as of late. It seems like there is this type of lull that falls near this time every summer. It's the time when all of your potential projects from the beginning of summer have somehow or other fallen to the wayside and you've been occupied by unforeseen tasks. Here is what has kept me away from you, reader:

Training my monkey! Lincoln is my monk, and he has been working like a champ.

I have been performing research for about the past month or so on a journal paper that I'm writing. It's about my work in premotor cortex cross-correlations (and lack thereof). It's an exciting and new experience for me, though very daunting and intensive.

About two days ago I found out that my abstract was accepted to Neuroscience 2008, the national conference for the Society for Neuroscience. I'm now starting to make a poster for the conference, which is in DC in November, but what has stopped the previous two projects has been...

Computers. I am blogging at work because I have little else that I can do outside of blogging and training Lincoln. The people who tell you that Linux is superior to other operating systems are either stubborn, cheap, or both. Ok that in jest but really, Linux is quite frustrating. I need a virtual machine running Windows to do pretty much anything useful (which itself isn't working right now so I can't access my Microsoft Word documents). Open Office is terrible. Conveniently, certain functions in MATLAB such as 'hist' aren't working, which are necessary to perform my analysis. Finally, Firefox isn't even working! I'm reduced to using Opera, which is a joke as well.

A certain bike store, which I will leave nameless since they're just a small independent place, is pretty much the Midas Muffler Store of bikes. I took in my 1984 Schwinn Firenze to have new brake cables installed. If you've seen my bike before, you know it's probably worth about $4.50 in steel if it were melted down; nothing if not. So I eventually get a call back from said bike store, saying that it's going to be about $250 for new alloy wheels. Well I go down to the shop, because surely they must be looking at the wrong bike. When I arrive, they give me the same story. It's odd that they don't mention repairing the brakes, since there aren't actually brake cables on the bike. I remind them that I brought the bike in to get new brake cables. Goofball 1 looks at Goofball 2, they both scratch their heads a bit, then tell me that I can buy steel wheels for $150. I try one last time to decipher how I can just get brakes from their store, and no one has a clue what's going on. So now I'm stuck with a brakeless bike and not much motivation to fix it since I've been teetering on the notion of buying a new bike. Hence I have been limited in transportation outside of the PAT system.

Essays. As many of you know, I'm applying to medical schools over the summer (mostly MD/PhD programs). And I have been rather occupied with the process of writing endless amounts of essays about myself and giving schools endless amounts of dollars. The process is almost as narcissistic as this blog, but much more painful.

Finally, Scrabble. I recently finished reading Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. Then we watched Word Wars by Erik Chaikan. The book was much, much better but it was nice to actually see what the stars (G.I. Joel, Joe Edley, Marlon etc...) looked like. Good move I learned from the movie: you can turn TOMATO into AUTOMATON...!

Alas, all hope is not lost. The homebrews are still going strong. I'm almost ready to start my next brew, which is going to be a bavarian hefewiessen. It should have a nice, crisp taste that complements the waning days of summer, so stay tuned reader. If you still have not tried my first brew, the Bitter Old Man, let me know to save you one (review post coming soon!). Supplies are dwindling!

I had many projects going into summer that have yet to see the light of day. But, there is still a lot of time. Things come up, and things get in the way. Wouldn't it be nice to live in simpler times? That though inspired today's post's song, "Well Oiled Machine" by Hot Buttered Rum.

Free Agents

2008-07-01T13:55:00.005-04:00

The Pens have made some moves as of late, and I'm going to weigh in on those thus far:

Ryan Malone dealt to the Lightning. He had a great run the past couple of years, rising from barely making the cut for the team 3 or 4 years ago to becoming alternate captain. We will surely miss the physical play he brings, and his presence in front of the net. However, Tampa is giving him a 7 years, 31 million dollar contract: THANK GOD WE DID NOT MATCH THAT! Overpaid.

Gary Roberts dealt to the Lightning. Gonna miss the guy, but a necessary trade.

Side note: look out for the Lightning in the upcoming years. Brining in new staff, new players, and signing Vinny Lecavelier to a 100 year 10 billion dollar contract. Marty St. Louis is still my hero.

Pens re-sign Dupuis. 3 years, 1.4 mil per year. I think we got a good price for him.

Pens closing extension with Malkin. So the Pens are in talks with Malkin, but it looks like they are going to offer him a contract similar to Sid's: 5 years for about 8.7 million per year. That's a lot of bucks, but I am ecstatic that Malkin will most likely be sticking around for a while. However, this does pretty much mean that Hossa is gone. Oh well, can't have 'em all.

For today's video, I'm going to stray away from music and present to you my absolute favorite memory of Gary Roberts' tenure with the Penguins. The game was this past year against the Flyers, in Philly. Here's the matchup:

	Gary Roberts	vs.	Ben Eager
Age	41		24
Height	6-2		6-3
Weight	209		225
Mental Status	Clinically Insane		None

Enjoy.

Communication Breakdown

2008-06-27T14:23:00.003-04:00

Today is the day that all of my faithful readers have seen coming: the end of my communication via cell phone. Well, at least temporarily. It's been quite a two years with my Verizon Chocolate phone(s), and all I can say is, it's about god-damn time.

I've gone through three models of this phone. Each time I've tried to get a different phone from Verizon, they graciously remind me that I'm bound by contract to remain talking on their defunct, no longer advertised, piece of shit phone.

As many have known, I haven't really been able to talk on my phone for the past 4 months (SD = 1 month, p < 0.01), and I have been reduced to 99% of telecommunications via texting. Well readers, even texting is now gone. Today at work, as I tried to view a text from my sister, I received an abnormal mechanical resistance from my phone as I tried to slide it up. In fact, it was nearly infinite Ohms, since the keyboard was completely removed from the phone and jammed in the slider!!! So now, it seems as though I have no possible way of communicating back to you with my phone. You can still call me; I'll see the missed call. You can send me texts, I should be able to open then. But, reader, please do not waste precious hours of sleep waiting for me to text you back. I'm afraid the time is come.

Thanks to ole miser Verizon, I still can't get a new phone until August. This is where you come in reader. I want you to suggest me a new phone. Here are the parameters in which I am interested:

Must be on Verizon (gotta leech off my parents for as long as possible)
Access to email (syncing well with Gmail, and/or with Outlook)
Calendar (again syncing with online Google cal, and Outlook)
Battery life more than 4 minutes
Sweet ringtones
Camera would be nice since I don't own a real camera
Snakes and other assorted games.

So let me know what you think will work best for me. In the meantime, if you do actually want to get in touch with me for the next month, I would suggest you a) email/chat me (clehocky@gmail.com), b) call Jamie, or c) get your local carrier pigeon to send me a message to the corner of Gross and Frienship.

So, as I'm now without a phone, internet at home, and cable, I'm pretty out of touch with the world. That inspired today's pick, "Analog Boy" by the Rx Bandits.

BrewTube

2008-06-24T14:03:00.000-04:00

So this is my blog. It's going to mainly focus on two things that I am interested: music and brewing beer. Every now and again I'm going to post some music videos or clips for you, my faithful readers, to indulge. It would be fabulous if you too, reader, would respond with some music of your own for me to check out. Heck, even start up your own Blog and a Beer.

In addition, I will keep you posted on my latest brews, and I expect feedback on them if you are one of the lucky ones to have tried it.

Without further ado, here is our first video. It is by a young chap on his grind named Wiz Khalifa. The song is entitled "All in my Blood - Pittsburgh Sound." Enjoy!