Archive for May, 2009

doceng abstracts, take two

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

submitted an abstract for some document classification work i’ve been doing lately.  feels good to even sign up to write a 4-page paper about what i’ve been up to.  it’s one thing to write a project report, another thing still to make i sound all academic.  i s’pose this will occupy art of the weekend.

but not the whole thing.  we’ve got plans to have a picnic, go see some plays, and hit a few museums.  tomorrow, we’ll start with museums and a coffee shop or two to get in some work on our personal projects.  so good to be out of school and able to focus on, frankly, more important things.

pulled down some data today at work and did some slicing and dicing.  feels good to pull out the ginsu code ninja skills.  i’ll need ‘em if i’m going to test out my summarization system on the duc04 dataset and find time to participate in the plagiarism detection competition…

also started gathering a few stories for a collection i’m calling against the grain of truth.  these will be stories insired by recent events in my life, but with chilling consequences.  consider a work of catharsis.  also started bringing together some poems for a collection i’m calling the limits of observation, in which i’m railing against the hubris of man to think we have the answers with our so-called science.

anyhoo, looking forward to productive times this summer!  time to exit stage left…

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doceng abstract #1 submission uploaded

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

aided by some old nirvana blasting in my headphones, i submitted an abstract, entitled “Low-Cost, Semantic Models of Sentence Salience for Document Summarization” this evening to the doceng conference.  i might change the name, but for now, that’s the title.  i’ve basically taken my thesis and condensed it down to 4 pages.  still needs more condensing, but it’s coming along.  maybe i should use my summarizer to summarize it!

i have another paper i’d like to submit, tentatively called “Classifying the Sensitivity of Proprietary Documents Using Ensemble Models” that i need to get to either later tonight or pretty early tomorrow, as the deadline is midnight central european time.  let’s see how it goes.

ah, that time zone.  miss it sometimes.  so many influential people live in that zone — and so many cultures that it seems have found a way to town together in some loose union bound by a single currency.

in the meantime, just trying to eat out of the garden back in the good ole u s of a!  another squash tonight; half of our food lately has come from our own li’l piece o’ earth, raised up from seed in 4′x4′ raised beds.   now there’s something that’s not abstract, and that we all can truly enjoy!

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gaming over great distances

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

this is something i’ve been thinking a bit about, since once day (maybe within a year), i’ll likely move a few more thousand miles away from just about everyone i know.

i’ve been gaming for a few months with old friends from maryland, and we’ve had some good success with skype as a teleconference system.  this lets the dm talk with the two of us who are in geographically disparate locations (almost) as if we’re in the room.  the trick is that in order for us to be heard, we sometimes have to raise our voices and interrupt the in-person action. it’s not ideal, but it’s definitely workable.

i wonder if we’ll be able to game much once i’m further afield, say in europe.  ’cause once i’m there, that’ll be the best way to get in touch with me.  i’d like to keep gaming with folks here in austin, but i wonder if they’d be as willing to put up with having a computer present as a mediator with a

i’d be willing to get up early in the morning (2am central european time for an 8pm central start time) to make it happen.  we’ll have to see if this is possible once this is the case.

what else can be done over great distances?  i’d love to be able to play music in real-time with friends back east and in other parts of the country.  still waiting for someone to develop the enabling technology.  hackers out there, are you listening?  think skype with instruments.  or rock band for real, not the five-button plastic instruments.  i don’t quite have the skill or interest to devote multiple years to developing this kind of ware, but i’m sure someone is.  i’d pay for it.

anyhoo, we do so much over great distances… even immersive tabletop gaming is very possible.

next step: videoconferencing to be able to see the battle mat!

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thanks to those who’ve served

Monday, May 25th, 2009

i mean, really served.

you’ve put more on the line than i’ve ever been able to.

and much more than most.

thanks.

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on-the-fly time w/friends

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

we’ve been so much more spontaneous these past few weeks.

just this week, we rapidly turned around a request to got to adult spelling bee, then went out to dinner and dropped by another friend’s place to play a board game and stop-and-chat.  had a great time, and didn’t get home until after 2am — on a weeknight!  at least it’s not a school night anymore.  i have my life back!

last night, had friends over, grilled out, and ran them through the next chapter in the sci-fi role playing world i’ve been running.  had friends over for dinner tonight somewhat on-the-fly and hung out past midnight.  inviting a friend over for brunch tomorrow.  huzzah!  so, those out there — let’s get together soon and hang out!

not having the burden of school over my head has even helped my posture and digestive health.  not to mention the fact that i’m sleeping better…

it’s gonna be a great year.

patriotism prep for tomorrow: john cougar mellencamp.  i played along on the mandolin…

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music day!

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

great to have time again.

had friends over — after meeting to talk through our approach to the plagiarism detection challenge, a few of us hopped over to play a bunch of music.  it was great!  first time we’d gotten together to play music in six months, but we all switched around from keys to drums, to bass to guitar, and a few of us played percussion, accordion, and flute.  made for a nice afternoon that bled into the evening with multiple drum circles and a fourth player who came in in the last hour.

need to have people over every week to play music.  just so much fun.

then played more music by myself in the later evening while kristin caught up with an old friend on the phone.

finishing up some of harlan ellison’s shatterday stories.  good reads, all, so far.

i feel so relaxed — all the pent-up-frustratedness has been blasted away by sonic movements.

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leaving there

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

that’s right.  no more.  master’s is all it’s gonna be.

now i can focus on starting a business on the side, working on stories, poems, music, taking hikes, and basically having my life back.  it’s a good thing.

not easy to face, but it’s time.  and now i have the time.

so, boldly go i in to the night.

look out world.

as for ut, one day i’ll have a building built there with my name attached.  i’ll definitely be back in one form or another!

starting a future blog now, where i’ll place notable events i expect over the rest of my life.

that’s where i’ll be.  leaving there.

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