10/26/2005 | I am still working on my PhD proposal. I hope to finish in the next several days so that I can do the proposal presentation before the end of the year. Then on to the big thesis! Wish me luck (if you ever see me out of my office). |
11/18/2005 | My PhD proposal is finished! Go to my publications page to check out the text. I will be proposing the first week of December. Check back for a date and time. |
11/24/2005 | Happy Turkey Day! I hope everyone is having a good one. It's time once again to kick off the eating holiday. Looks like it might be January before I do my proposal presentation. It is really difficult getting 6 MDs/PhDs to agree on a single two-hour window. |
11/27/2005 | For our first anniversary, my wife and I went to the Melting Pot, a great fondue restaurant. We had a four coarse meal and ended up eating a ton and brought home a lot as well. Make sure to bring your wallet though, they will thin it down considerably. |
12/08/2005 | The time, date, and place are decided on for my PhD proposal presentation.
10am on Friday, December 16th, 2005
Georgia Tech, Van Leer Bldg Room 218
Come over and listen to the beginning and then be excused while the committee grills me. I'll post my presentation as soon as I finish it. |
12/14/2005 | The 26th is not one of those birthdays you look upon as important or dreadful or even a major stepping stone. It's just there following many important ones making it all the more bland. Still, it came so quickly. It seems Heather and I met just the other day, yet been together our entire lives. I guess the theory of relativity applies; It all depends on where or when you are looking from. |
12/16/2005 | Thank you to everyone who came and participated in my PhD proposal presentation as well as my committee who gave me many great suggestions. A special thanks to my beautiful wife for taking care of both my wardrobe and catering. There may be a new source of patient data from a professor I met from Emory, Sam Dudley. This could make a huge difference in my result significance. Hopefully, this time next year we will be celebrating my PhD thesis defense! Back to work. |
12/19/2005 | An abstract I submitted recently was accepted in the American College of Cardiology's 2006 Conference in Atlanta, March 11-14th. I will be presenting Monday morning at 9 am. If you want to learn about Cardiology and have $75 to blow in Atlanta, swing on by the Georgia World Congress Center and say hello. You can read the abstract here. |
12/25/2005 | Merry Christmas! Santa brought me a table saw and a Dremel rotary tool, so I should be set for future home improvement projects. Enjoying a little rest and relaxation, as I hope you and your's are doing as well. |
12/27/2005 | When doing experiments on actual patient data, there are sure a lot of hoops you need to jump through. I am currently studying and testing for all the laws/protocols/standards that must be observed at Emory and they are numerous. I understand the need to protect the patient's data and to do ethical experiments but the prose that these things have puts me to sleep every twenty minutes. |
1/1/2006 | Happy New Year! My resolution is to focus on my research and finish my classes for my PhD. What is yours? Go to the forum and let us all know. |
1/5/2006 | I attended a National Institute of Heath grant writing workshop today. It was excellent! The presenter made the grant format into a basic outline that must be filled out in a very systematic way. For an engineer, "plug and chug" is the way you want your projects to go. I think after I finish my thesis, grant writing is in my future. |
1/6/2006 | My wife gave me a type of logic game book called Su Doku. It is a game of logic and juggling many requirements in your mind at one time. I invite you to try some Su Doku here. |
1/9/2006 | Don't forget to paste those extra two pennies to your letters. First class stamps are now 39 cents. |
1/13/2006 | Heather and I head to Missoula, Montana this weekend to see the folks and hopefully get in some good skiing. I will be checking phone messages and email in case anyone needs to contact me. Again, I encourage everyone to go to the forums page and leave your contact information in the appropriate forum so everyone can stay in touch. Have a great MLK holiday! |
1/18/2006 | We just returned to my parent's house from a two day ski trip in Big Sky, Montana. There was great snow, not to mention another foot or two falling while we were there. I can't recommend it enough for those with a taste for the slopes. |
1/22/2006 | What a great welcome home. I turned my water heater back on after returning from our vacation only to find a small puddle under it. So, my weekend project will be replacing a water heater. I think I have it all figured out but it would be nice to something differnt with our time. |
1/25/2006 | Heather just told me about a new credit card scam going on where they have all your information and are calling to ask you about unusual charging activity. They give all your info back to you and it sounds legit. Then they ask for the three digit code on the signature strip on the back of you card and then they start racking up charges. Keep your guard up and never "verify" unusual information. Tell them you will call them back at the number on the back of your card if anything sounds suspicious. |
1/26/2006 | Today, I finished the training to become an employee at the Veteran Affairs Hospital at Emory. I also received notification from Dr. Dudley that the IRB will review my study proposal on Feb. 1st. Hopefully, I can start using that data soon and have better statistical significance. |
1/29/2006 | After many trips to my favorite store - Home Depot - I have finished replacing our water heater. It has saved us a ~$300 but I have more than a few aches, scratches, and burns to show for it. Another job completed, on to the laminate flooring! |
2/1/2006 | Today, the IRB is reviewing my research proposal for looking at the VA's CABG patients. Hopefully this will go quickly and I can start working with the data next week. |
2/2/2006 | I have resolved to have the first two chapters of my dissertation done by the beginning of March. I think this will give me the start I need to get see the finish line. It will also give deadlines to work toward, which is something I always need. |
2/6/2006 | I have been working on a 12-lead ECG P-wave detector with some success. I have actually been looking at where the signals diverge from one another and use this point to look for the onset (and offset) of the wave. If it continues to work, it might be publishable. We will see. |
2/8/2006 | I started installing the laminate floor tonight and it looks great! I was a stumped at the beginning of how to hook all these pieces together and make it all fit in the room, but it all turned out well in the end. Hopefully, I can finish laying it this weekend and I can do the finish work next weekend. I will post pictures in the home improvement section once I finish. |
3/12/2006 | No, I didn't fall off the planet. We have just been very busy. We finished the laminate floors several weeks agoand they look great. The real challenge was putting down the thresholds or transitions to the carpet and tile areas. My next project will be an entryway table with a friend of mine. Finally, I can use that router that my parents bought me for Christmas. |
3/13/2006 | I presented at the American College of Cardiology Conference today and it went well. They were used to clinical presentations all day and my engineering approach was a little of a shock. I learned a lot about the physician's concerns and needs regarding AF prediction. It sems the more I know about it, the more there is to investigate. You would be suprised by the small number of people investigating billion dollar medical problems. Engineering approaches have so much to offer in this domain, I think the people in our research group are just the experts to do it. |
5/24/2006 | I just had a paper accepted to the Computers in Cardiology Conference taking place in Valencia, Spain in mid-September. I am excited for the presentation of the work, but a little worried about getting around Spain with my rusty high school spanish. |
6/1/2006 | I have started listening to spanish CDs in my car to try to brush up on my spanish. Me gusta Espanol! (Translation: I like spanish!) |
6/07/2006 | My parents move out of their Montana house in 5 more days and head for Missouri. They will then be an 8 hour drive away instead of 3 days. It has been fun to visit them in Big Sky country but I will really appreciate them being closer. |
6/19/2006 | Good news! I have had a paper accepted to the 2006 Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference in New York in September. Money is a little tight in the office though so I might be funding myself on this one. After the conference (due to copyright issues), you will be able to view it in my publications section. Contact me if you would like a copy earlier. |
6/22/2006 | Heather and I are headed up to Missouri this weekend for my cousin's baby shower as well as to see my parents' new house. Lots of things to celebrate in one weekend. I am not looking to the 8 hour drive there and back in a time span of 3 days though. Thank God for books on tape... |
10/1/2006 | Heather and I are back from our vacation. Snorkeling in Cozumel, Cave Tubing in Belize, Mayan ruins in Costa Maya, and forts in the Bahamas. What a trip! |
10/04/2006 | I'm working on marking the characteristic points of a large number of ECGs. I'm hoping that my method for marking and the results of my markings (predicting AF following CABG) will make a great paper. Currently there is no standard marking method. I am thinking this could be one which works. |
11/01/2006 | Heather and I just bought a new Digital Camera, the Digital Rebel XTi DSLR. It takes 10.1 Megapixel shots, automatically cleans dust off the CMOS sensor, and my old 35mm Canon lenses fit it. I feel like grunting in some Tim Allen show. Hopefully this will improve my photography. See the results in the Photo Gallery. |
11/13/2006 | We are back from a weekend of camping in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. It is always a good place to relax and get some things out of your head. Back to the dissertation. I am rewriting Chapter 2 and have lots of work still to do before Christmas. To complicate things, I am job hunting. Busy, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. |
11/24/2006 | I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Heather and I did. I have also put many hours into my thesis this week. Chapter 2 looks like it will be huge. I feel I need to give the reader a full understanding of the methods to date, and there is a lot to explain. I almost feel sorry for my reading committee. |
2/8/2007 | I have taken a job with a great company called TIAX up in Boston, Mass and Heather and I will be moving up there as soon as I complete my thesis. I have been having many distractions but the end is drawing near despite them. If anyone is interested in buying a great condo in Smyrna, GA, please let me know and I would be glad to show you ours. |
4/15/2007 | I am currently experiencing my first nor'easter up in Boston. Not terrible, but certainly different than the Atlanta weather I am used to in April. I had been staying in an extended stay hotel in Burlington and now I am in a furnished apartment on the Cambridge/Arlington border. Heather and I are really excited to get out and explore the city a bit. I promise to keep the updates coming. |
2/25/2008 | It has been a long time since an update! So, here I go. Heather came up on 4/23/2007. She found a job at Grossman Marketing Group as Senior Graphic Designer and has since been promoted to Art Director. We lived in East Arlington in a furnished apratment and enjoyed being close to downtown and the T. I even walked to work on pretty days. In October, we moved to another furnished apartment in Arlington Heights, from which we have enjoyed being so close to the shops and restaurants of th Heights. Both locations have had great access to the bike trail as well, so we have enjoyed many good strolls. The seasons have been great! I never understood what people meant by saying "Boston has all four distinct seasons." Everywhere has four seasons! After living here a year, I think the important difference is that New England has the characteristic, prototypical four seasons. A power-sugar covered, sock-cap wearing winter, a flowering, duckling waddling spring, a beach-lounging, sweating iced tea summer, and a paintbrush worthy fall. Each season seems to have its own energy, though I have enjoyed the winter most of all; It is so different from anything I have experienced while living in Atlanta. |
2/29/2008 | The purchase and sale is all signed on our new house. We plan to close the end of March and move in over the following two weeks. During that time we will be cleaning, painting, and removing wallpaper. |
7/19/2008 | Well, we closed on our new house on St. Patrick's day (3/17/08) and have been busy on it ever since. We worked on the kitchen first, being the room that we spend a lot of time and that really showed the house's age. We took down wallpaper, spackled, painted the cabinets black, took out the green carpet, and put up wain's coating. Then, my parents came for a week and helped us tile the backsplash and the floors. We also enlarged the area for the refrigerator so it could fit a modern model and put in a garbage disposal. Finally, we got a new stainless steel fridge to replace the 1970's almond fridge that came with the house. We are really happy with the results. |
