America's Next Top Statistical Model

I get a call from Jess, who was excited about this idea that has been conceived by her friend Andy. Andy who goes to the Harvard School of Public Health wanted to spoof the show "America's Next Top Model" and make "America's Next Top Statistical Model"!! Given that I am used to making the most pathetic statistical puns, even in Data analysis class, Jess thought that I would enjoy getting my hands dirty with this... and she was right... we sat together one sunny Sunday and made the whole thing!! it was great fun!
Andy got together a class cast to act out the characters and with about 6 practice sessions, they were ready... cool... i added background effects and we were good to go for Harvard School of Public Health's International Night! they were amazing on stage and i loved watching the abstract puns come to life...hahaha

The background of the play:
There are 8 statistical models and the compere, Ion T-test, gives them a task based on which one will be chosen "America's Next Top Statistical Model". The email (ahem..."STATA MAIL") outlining the task:
Hey Ya’ll, I need some help. My grandmother has come down with some serious heartache. I need you to help me lessen her risk. So ladies, it’s time to pimp my relative’s risk. In this challenge, you will each have to build a model that will fill her aorta and balloon her heart with love. Please turn your output and syntax into me by midnight.
In Confidence,
Ion T-Test

the fun begins soon after!

This is not the whole play and it is missing bits, as you can make out, and this was shot with a handheld so the audio is a little screwy, but enjoy it all the same!




It links here

Mascot? Cute, cuddly, fun?

Some of them, maybe.... but not all...

I loved Wired's presentation of Mascots Gone Wild!!

"Your so vain, you probably think this post is about you..."

... or maybe it is!
Have you had the the following phrases, or modifications thereof, thrown at you?
"I think your a great guy [/girl]"
"You're doctors scribble is atrocious"
"You're contribution is acknowledged"
Do not forget the classics: "Their is no one who can beat me"; "Dogs love to chew on they're bones"; "Is there meeting going to be long?"

hmmm...Who do people spell by pronunciation alone?... I wonder if this is why i run across personal (as in HR), dumbell, its vs it's, momento, greatful, bellweather, pronunciation, among others, so frequently!

Here's a WikiHow step-by-step instructional page on getting your yours right!!

I like the use of thereof, wherein, notwithstanding.... even if it makes no sense to use it... especially if it makes no sense to use it...

If I were in trouble....

...I would call ADG!!!




Or you can check it out here

UPDATE: This video has been taken off Youtube... pity... they cant take a joke anymore!!

Who's your Lead User?

Last week I bumped into an Innovation researcher, Eric Von Hippel, who is a Professor and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. I heard some fascinating case studies of "pioneers" or "lead users", leading me to look it up, and after the journey of a thousand steps, I found myself becoming a member of "The Instructables Squad"
And look, they have a "Not Liable" section too!!!! hahaha

"Yesterday was 1st April, so???"

"...and what has that got to do with your post?"
"oh....Aaaaaaaahh"

Ironically, the bait reeled in all of the fish only on the 2nd! *ow ow ow* Ducking from all the brickbats thrown his way

Thank you for the wishes and the request for details! I will take a raincheck on answering them! For there exists no question without an answer... unless it is "What is the meaning of life?"... hang on.. thats taken...42, isn't it?

"I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes..."

... "Love is all around me, And so the feeling grows..."

There's a song always running through my head, I skip when I walk, whistle a melodious refrain while on the train, smile at strangers, have this goofy happy face look all the time, I can't stop thinking of this one person, she finally said yes....
Diagnosis, Doctor?

hahaha... this is hilarious...

If you are having trouble opening it, follow the link

Wow, it's been a long time...

A flavour of soon-to-be-released stories...
1) Vitamin B12 kicks ass!
2) Adventures of Moving Out - A Remote Story
3) Ajanta - the Journey of a 2nd century B.C. to the 21st century
4) Delhi Roundup
5) Aah... to be with family and friends again!
6) Bike Angel
7) Back in Boston *sigh*

"It's all coming back to me now..."

...Or is it that I am going back?
A bit of both...
My next post will be after a trip across a few seas, if not all the seven!
Boston-Mumbai-Lonavla-Aurangabad-Mumbai-Delhi-Bangalore-Vellore-Bangalore-Boston...whew!!!

A Big Thank You...

...to the Shpais - Girish and Lo, Ram and his deep pockets (and I am not talking about Pita bread), Dinu-saurus and Lachchho...
...for keeping me afloat, solvent... for "dissolving" my pain :)

Eventful...

January 2005: Jim and the impromptu "Happy Birthday to You" rendition @ the Boston Symphony Hall!
January 2006: Ram, Shalini, Nunu and Sitara @ Asmara... and how did that cake get sneaked in under my very nose? Brilliant!
January 2007: Afsan, Tara, Mo, Caroline, Magali, Greg @ Addis and follow-up with sleigh bells, cake and "funny" (atleast he thought he was!) waiter at Garden of Eden....

Yep... eventful, wonderful, memorable... its what we live for, isnt it? *sigh*

Weirder and Weirder!

I have been tagged by the Axe-man and I have the not-so-popular task of listing 6 things about me, myself and me that make me weird... so here goes
1) I go banannas over banannas but I sometimes whine for grapes
2) Sense of humour
3) When I am on a concrete sidewalk that has been carved into large rectangles, I have to take equal number of steps on either side of the dividing line... it drives me nuts when they cant ensure that the rectangles are of the same size as then my walking pace varies... go figure that weird one out... something to do with my mathematical brain (i dont want to hear any more talk of "huh? dude, you? brain?")... and its not OCD if it does not happen all the time; only the times when my blood serotonin levels are the 98th percentile values
4) I have the attention span of a baby dodo (No backtalk about - "Did you know that the reason why the dodos went extinct was because they experienced an acute shortage of baby dodos?")
5) I want to join the Space Monkey Mafia :)
6) What lies beneath...

The Prodigal Son....

...Returns!

A shout out...

...to the dinu-saurus, who turns 16 today, or a multiple thereof!
Highlights of my New Years Eve:
1) Evening out with Mo, Beaudry and Chris at Boston's First Night
3) making calculated guesses on which part of the Pegasus Ice Sculpture was going to melt first... I put my money on the tail
2) Missing most events due to the really really slow progress of the T
3) Interpretive Dance performance by the Eva Dean Dance company
4) Bowling on the Nintendo Wii with MIT super-geniuses at a gathering
5) Making Aloo Parathas with the aforementioned New Years Eve gang on New Years Day, followed by Monty Python hilarity

All in all, a quiet time!
how was your day?

Conversations with Ella

Doggies are your unconditional best friends, but they've got the "puppy dog" look down pat! Ella, though, has more than a puppy dog look in her repertoire, and i received all of them during my week taking care of her. We also indulged in staring contests, mano a dogo, and to my credit, i won a few of them. Our conversations mainly went like this:
-----
Ella (with mournful look): Can I have a doggie treat?
Me: Didnt I give you one a few minutes ago?
Ella (deepening mournful look): I am a big doggie, the treat is a small treat; we suffer from a inadequacy of matching sizes
Me: I have my orders; your next treat comes with your medicine
-----
Ella (during our walks): Let's go near that man who is walking that tiny dog?
Me: I thought you didnt like other dogs?
Ella : No i dont. I want to tear that mutt limb from limb
Me: oh, sorry; I have my orders
-----
Ella (while I am cooking Indian food): What is that curious smell? Can i have a taste?
Me: Didnt you just polish off a bowl of your doggie food?
Ella : yep. pleaasee, pretty please with whipped cream and cherry on top
Me: Dude, I dont think you can handle this. Believe me, you are better off without it.
-----
Ella (squeezing herself onto my bed): Hey mister.. make space for me on your side
Me: Go lie on your bed
Ella : (puppy dog and mournful doggy look sent my way at the same time)
-----

Since Roslindale, MA was almost next door to Norwood, MA I took this opportunity to spend time with "Nunu Baby". Toddlers never tire of the peekaboo game, as I have learnt during my extensive pediatric training and reinforced over the last week with Nunu. And they love Bow-Bow, atleast Nunu does; and is not scared of her. The boys also make a sponge cake which was no too bad!

It was a relaxed week!

HoHoHo...

No, I am not cursing you out, girl!
Is a merry christmas to y'all, Happiness in the Hannukah and Kwanza in da house!
I am taking care of a wonderful little doggie mutt... ahem.. not so little but wonderful all the same... Ella... And missing being in India like crazy... and other random things that make me sad... questioning why I am here doing what I am doing... My aim is solid... but my goals looks distant... I want to translate all this knowledge that is bursting out of my head into action... NOW... but waiting teaches you a great lesson... its called Patience...
and "everybody needs a little patience"...
stream of consciousness thought is pooling into a lake of nonsense!

Chad Vader

I found this hilarious series on the adventures of Chad Vader, Darth's less than impressive younger brother...

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Hahahaha...

I discovered this here

" Weapons of Math Instruction

At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual later discovered to be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a protractor, a T-square, a slide rule, and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney general John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement. The man is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

"Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," Ashcroft said. "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search for absolute value. They use secret code names like x and y and refer to themselves as unknowns, but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, there are 3 sides to every triangle," Ashcroft declared.

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes. I am gratified that our government has given us a sine that it is intent on protracting us from these math-dogs who are willing to dis-integrate us with calculus disregard. Murky statisticians love to inflict plane on every sphere of influence," the President said, adding: "Under the circumferences, we must differentiate their root, make our point, and draw the line."

President Bush warned, "These weapons of math instruction have the potential to decimal everything in their math on a scalene never before seen unless we become exponents of a Higher Power and begin to factor-in random facts of vertex."

Attorney General Ashcroft said, "As our Great Leader would say, read my ellipse. Here is one principle he is uncertainty of: though they continue to multiply, their days are numbered as the hypotenuse tightens around their necks."
--
This fractured my punny bone!

This is the first day of the rest of your life...

Aah...

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