Songs without Words

In the mobile fashion-oriented gacha game Love Nikki, there’s a regularly-held contest in which you submit an outfit based on a prescribed theme. Entries are presented pairwise to other players, who must select one of the two entries to vote for, with an algorithm that standardizes the number of times an entry appears for voting. While the appearance of any given entry for judging is random, the paired entry will often share certain characteristics to make direct comparison more refined. Votes are tallied and the entry is assigned a percentile ranking, with a lower percentile being better (if in the top 1%, approximately the top 1000, then an absolute numeric ranking is provided instead). At the end of a contest cycle, in-game currency is awarded based on the percentile, heavily weighted towards the highest echelons (i.e. top 20%). The currency is then spent on new outfits that may be used for future contests.

This mechanic is actually very similar to applying for grants and fellowships from the NIH, where a researcher submits a research proposal in hopes of obtaining funding. These applications are reviewed by an independent committee (formally a “study section”), in which similarly themed applications are rated and then assigned a percentile ranking, again with a lower percentile being better. Funding is then awarded to applications ranked below the payline percentile (typically the top 10-20% depending on specific institute, grant mechanism, and other factors). The funding is then used to conduct research that produces results that then serve as the preliminary data for the next grant application.

1. The grant that’s guaranteed to never be funded is the one that’s never submitted at all.
It’s good to be detail-oriented, but delaying an application because of fear that the idea isn’t perfected is likely only to result in a missed opportunity in the end. This low-effort entry (using essentially a pre-curated outfit) adequately addresses the theme, and further refinement of the entry would definitely not have improved upon its ranking of <1%:

2. Sometimes, reviewers just won’t get what you were going for, but it doesn’t mean it was a bad idea. Though maybe this should be that clever pet project that’s happening in the background because it’s just too “out there” to ever bring in the $$$. (This entry really took a lot of effort to exploit the loopholes to create the illusion of 8 limbs)

3. And sometimes, you submit something you just know is the real deal, and it’s just what the reviewers were looking for. What a rare but satisfying event!

A few more just for fun (most screenshotted before voting occurred):

Now that my MD-PhD program is at long last drawing to a close – after nearly a decade – I’ve been thinking of creating a brief comic series to commemorate some memories and observations from this experience. What’s below started as just a character sketch test to figure out a quick and easy style to draw in, but I ended up deciding to annotate it a bit more. It’s hard to believe that you’re still the same person when you switch from being a PhD student to a medical student. Of course, maybe these observations aren’t as universally relatable as I think, and it’s just me because I’m a terrible student ………… ((profuse sweatdrops forming)). I’m in the process of categorizing comic ideas (in 4-panel format) into the various medical school clerkships, for a total of probably around a dozen.

Phenotypic differences between MD and PhD training

Two months ago, I was reading some quartets with a fellow violinist for fun.  At some point, I brought up my concept of “subway karma” – basically, that there was some quantity of good fortune I could build up (by waiting long times), and that it would dissipate at some point in the form of the train arriving immediately when I got to the station, ideally – and usually – when I really needed to get somewhere quickly.  I also threw out concept that when in a rush, the occurrence of either just missing or just catching a train was much higher than usual, and that this was somehow tied to some subway spirit’s judgment of me.

He of course told me this was ridiculous and that if I were really a scientist, I should prove it with data.  So I’ve done just that – I’ve recorded the majority of subway rides on the Red Line that I’ve taken in the past two months, notating the amount of time I waited (note that 0 = the train is right there as I enter the station and I’m able to board it; -1 = the train pulls out just as I’m entering the station – I did record the actual wait times for these, but those data are not presented here).

Here are the wait times for all the rides (n = 78), in chronological order.  I did not write down exactly what time I took each ride.

While it’s impossible to prove whether there’s a subway spirit or not, this looks pretty convincingly .. random.  No pattern of build-up and dissipation or anything like that.  But what about being in a rush?  Being in a rush was defined for these purposes as me having to get someplace at a set time, and that I was not leaving more than 5 or 10 minutes of extra wiggle-room in the estimated trip duration.  n=28 for being in a rush, n = 50 for not being in a rush.

What’s interesting here is how much more likely it is that I will catch a train just as it’s arriving at the station when I’m in a rush.  Most likely it’s something like the increased frequency – and increased stopping times – of trains during times when I’m likely to be in a rush (near or just after rush hour).  And it’s confounded by the fact that I can see people walking out of the station, or even hear the train pulling into the station, before I even enter the station, and make my own judgment about whether or not to book it.  But it’s interesting that my perception reflected a dimension of reality in this case, even if the magical interpretation is nonsensical.

Other notes: I never actually realized before how frequent the red line trains are, especially in comparison to the very long times I was accustomed to waiting on the green line.  My average wait time over this period was 2.6 minutes (here I’ve used the real wait times in place of the “-1” notation for missing a train), which makes sense given that I travel about half during rush hour (every 9 minutes per line, but I don’t care whether it’s Ashmont or Braintree so it’s every 4.5 minutes) and half during other times (every ~12 minutes per line, so 6 minutes per train) – the expected value of waiting would be 5.75/2 or ~2.9 minutes.  Weekend frequencies are lower, but I did not notate a lot of the weekend trips, because they were rarer and the “wait time” tickers are often shut off, so that it’s harder to keep track of how long I wait.  Overall, 62% of the time, I waited 2 minutes or less for the train.  Not too bad!

Luuuucky 7’s! In commemoration of the 777th post on this blog, I present to you a six-page improv comic that I drew over the last two days. I am very, very pleased with how it turned out, because with all the artistic and organizational shortcomings of the improvisational format, I feel like I was able to convey important perceptions of reality that I’ve never been able to in the past.  It’s easy to explain an idea to someone else, but it is very difficult to explain a perceptual experience to someone who has never shared that perception of the world before.

All six pages are presented below the cut.  Please read left to right.

Continue reading ‘[777] Melinoe’s World!’ »

After this is all over, I’m totally going to be drawing comics!

This morning, I renewed my love and passion for silly, off-the-wall humor in the form of those ever-wonderful meme posts on Deviant Art.  The imagination, spontaneity, and expressiveness never fail to hit the right spot!

I’m planning a short (12-strip?) 4-panel comic series.  Here’s a brief rundown of the concept:

This is the everyday life of three Bostonians: Elysia, Lamia, and a yet-unnamed barista.

Elysia – 22 years old, conservatory student at NEC doing a masters in cello.  Likes: classical music, cooking, crafts, shopping, coffee, and tennis.  Ht: 5′ 5″.  Personality: bright and cheerful, but likes deviancy.  Physical: long bown-blonde hair, usually in a messy bun, two piercings per ear.  Has a tattoo but if you’re a decent person you haven’t seen it yet.  Likes to wear loose-fitting tunics and tank-tops, tights or skirts, sandals or sneakers.  Named after: the Champs-Elyse’es, of course.

Lamia – 23 years old, medical student at HMS.  Likes: disgusting surgeries, fucking with people’s minds, video games, eating, beautiful women, tea, piano, running.  Ht: 5′ 7″.  Personality: intellectual, tactless, witty, and just plain weird.  Physical: short brown-black hair, no piercings but has a headband with anthers (?) on it.  Likes to wear dressier t-shirts, jeans, and heels.  Named after: the Greek flautist/courtesan.

No name yet dude – 24 years old, works at the coffee shop (I’ll pick one eventually).  Trying to get his rock band off the ground.  Likes: indie music, horror movies, poetry, baking, reading, and backyard/garage science (like Mythbusters crap).  Ht: 5′ 10″.  Personality: You know that kind of guy … friendly, excitable, juvenile at heart, somewhat of a chance he’s gay but he isn’t (he loves Lamia, who incidentally is gay).  Physical: short brown hair, a little bit of stubble but no nose-hair thank God.  Likes to wear dress shirts over band t-shirts and straight-legged jeans.

Character Design Sheet

There’s a love triangle, of course!  Elysia loves the coffee shop dude, the coffee shop dude loves Lamia, and Lamia loves Elysia!  But don’t expect deep, meaningful relationships.  It’s a gag comic!

Study plan for the next two days:

Today – go through as many practice questions as possible

Tomorrow – very few practice questions, focusing on going through the entire book and making sure that I remember things.

There is no better way to celebrate being done with it all than to transform the stressful ordeal into irreverent humor and introspective reflections – and for me, that means whipping up a few comics.  I’m not going to pretend like I can keep up any sort of regular update schedule (believe me, I’ve tried before!), so instead, I’m just going to draw a bunch of them out of order, upload them in some sensible order, and be done with it.  In total, I hope to produce one to two dozen four-panel strips in my usual lousy pencil style.
There are certainly pre-med comics in existence.  The one that I’m aware of is an offshoot of “Below the Mean” called “Pass/No Pass,” and I think that it’s certainly worth a read and quite a few chuckles.  My comic won’t repeat any ideas from there (alas, he has already claimed the “urge to say something inappropriate during the interview” gag).

So far, I have sketches for 7 strips, but I’ll hopefully have time to draw them formally when I get home.  I’m unfortunately currently occupied with my UROP and trying to pick out places to do a lab rotation over the summer, so I can only sketch and sketch.

I took a typing speed test at “TypingTest.com” (Lissa blogged about it, heheh). I’m never a terribly accurate typer, and on a different trial run, I got only 90% of the words. One thing I have always wondered about is the comparison between my maximum typing speed and the speed at which I can create prose. So, for reference and without further ado, here’s my baseline speed at which I type, if I am in the perfect situation of copying text on-screen.

As you can see, I’m effectively around 90 WPM. I think that’s decent, although that does also mean that I haven’t improved significantly since early high school or so (in middle school, I played this strange typing game involving invading letters/words and also typed long passages of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to achieve mid-70s range. I’ve never been and probably never will be particularly accurate, because when I am reading very quickly, my fingers do not usually act in order, but act as soon as they are given the cue that they will be needed).

Now, I am going to blog about two different topics: one will be a memory-dictation exercise, in which I will write and reflect about today. Then, I will blog about a philosophical topic, hidden excesses and indirect immorality.

Passage 1

Today, the “cooking group” from last summer reconvened, and it was a heartfelt return to one of the happiest sorts of patterns to have in one’s life. There’s nothing quite like the relaxing feeling of falling back into a ritual – especially when that ritual involves food and games, too! As usual, we caught the Saferide to go to Super 88; per usual, I got motion-sick on the way there; and as usual, we split up to our individual restaurant choices before settling down at a crowded table, under the muted TV, waiting however bitterly long for everyone to bring back their (sic) meal before commencing chow time.

106 words in 2:13, or ~48 WPM.

Passage 2

It’s really easy to say that people should not do wrong things, but how many people really think about their indirect wrongs? Ethicism seems to focus primarily on intent, when in fact most of the absolutist writings – chief amongst those, fantasy books or philosophy volumes – are nearly useless, because they assume that evil stems from evil nature. Temptation, seduction, failure of will. Or perhaps alternate motives – stealing for sustenance, hurting someone to help someone else.

But I would argue that evil doesn’t ordinarily come in those forms. Nearly every person I have ever met, from any walk of life, has been a kind person, a well-mannered person, a reasonable and morally sound person. So why is there evil and suffering in the world? I think that it’s because of the things we let slip between the cracks. There are cracks here and there, and most people do not notice them at all.

Funding and funds are a big part of this. Organizations and campaigns receive well-meaning donations from individuals; fundraisers rake in cash; companies earn significant profits. This money then comes into play in order to carry out necessary functions of the groups. However, at the same time, money begins to seep out in the form of superfluous spending, and efficiency drops significantly.

213 words in 4:34, or 47 WPM.

My point in this second passage, btw, which I didn’t really get to, is that evil is an indirect consequence of decisions. Taking a free sandwich means that someone else will not receive it; spending funding money on a lab party makes lab members happy, but the donors thought they were funding cancer research; buying land to build a new building can displace residents who once lived there. The other day, to catch a cab, I had to stand on the street in the snow. But this actually meant catching the cab before it made it to the hospital. But wasn’t there a line of people waiting for cabs at the hospital? Even though that cab may never have been headed to the hospital, perhaps it was. If I had not thought of this situation, would it have been a less bad action? Probably not. Indirect effects, intended or not, are the source of shortcomings in human behavior and progress, my own included.

Conclusions

1. Synthesis of text is indeed the rate-limiting step, not typing speed. Using original thought cuts down the typing speed by about 50% (half-speed). A 500-word essay would hypothetically take 10 minutes to compose, although high-rate synthesis clearly leads to divergence of text and poor organization.
2. There is not much of a difference between the rate of creation of brand-new ideas and the recollection of memories, put into words. The slowest step is thus probably the visualization step, in which the ideas or memories are formed into movies, whose playback is recorded as words.

As I type this, my computer is gradually freezing due to Windows Media Player’s spontaneous instability.  I performed the “error reporting” and received this helpful answer:

“This problem occurred because Windows Media Player was slow or unresponsive. Windows Media Player was created by Microsoft Corporation.

This type of problem occurs when a program is slow or has stopped responding and you choose to shut it down. This is also referred to as an application hang. Most of the time, there’s nothing you could have done to prevent this type of error, but there are some troubleshooting steps you can try.”

Notice the mental correlation that one makes between the first and second sentences … the causality is peeking out from behind the curtains …

:D

After dropping off my bow to be rehaired (and getting scolded by the bowmaker … ask me for details if you’re curious about bow matters), I was rather hungry, as it was already 3:30 and I hadn’t eaten lunch. As I strolled north to get from the violin shop to the Public Library (using a mental map that turned out to be correct), I spotted a curious fast-food restaurant called “b.good” to my right that had an amusing ad postered outside, to the effect of not needing an industrial fry cutter ’cause they’ve got Ronaldo or some generic-named character like that. I looked over their menu, and it looked pretty gourmet, for a fast-food burger joint, anyway. Then I spotted the pricing – $5.95 – and the option of “crisp veggies” as a side … and believe me, I was sold. Mouth watering, I wandered inside, noting the signs of “free wireless” and a few curious posters that I’ll describe later on.

I ordered the “Adopted Luke” (you can go to their website and find out yourself why on Earth a BBQ mushroom-onions-‘n-swiss burger has that name) and a side of the veggies. Before sitting down, I grabbed a fountain drink — and to my surprise, they had unsweetened iced tea. It had been so long since I unsweetened iced tea was spotted alongside Coke and Fanta, and I was so overjoyed that I ran up to the counter and announced my joy and gratefulness, to which she brightened and gave her two cents on over-sugared confectionary tea. I then sat down, but within one minute, the food was ready and I brought it back to chow down. The burger was indeed delicious, not huge but definitely not puny, and with that hearty, beefy taste that only comes with using lean, fresh-ground meat. And the vegetables – fresh broccoli, carrots, and red peppers, lightly stir-fried in garlic and olive oil so that they weren’t raw nor over-cooked, and nowhere near bland – were scrumptious and a perfect balance to the burger.

Now, the posters: there was one about the turkeys they used in their turkey burgers, proclaiming that turkeys across the nation were addicted to drugs (read: antibiotics), but theirs were “clean and sober.”  Always a good thing.  Then there was one about their fries, and how they loved the fries so much that they didn’t dare to dunk them into a giant vat of reused oil (they bake them instead, making them about as healthy as the veggie mix, believe it or not).  And then there was my personal favorite (paraphrased): “Han Solo was frozen by Jabba the Hutt, and that sucked.  So we don’t do the same thing to our crisp vegetables.”

Ohohoho :)

And now the :(

Why the heck is the Boston Public Library so disorganized?  Last time I went, the French section (several shelves) was in absolutely no order – not by title, author, or call number.  And now the foreign films are just jammed together onto two shelves at pure random.  Ranma 1/2: Nihao My Concubine was right next to a film in Farsi and one in Hindu, and then there was a Chinese film to the side.  This place is either for those who know exactly what they are looking for and would stop at no length to obtain it … or those who don’t care at all what they get (like the other woman there, who had an armful of ten rather random selections).