Neural News

Insomnia out, Insomniac baby in

2008-05-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

For nearly all of my adult life, I have been brutalized by insomnia. About two and a half years ago it vanished, literally over night. Very little compares with that sort of life change.

Now I have an 8-month-old baby, and he has insomnia. No sleep unless I stand and bounce him. If I lay him down, the crying starts. We are weening him off of feeding throughout the night. He is expressing his displeasure. Nobody sleeps.

Hopefully, no one at any of my upcoming talks notices when I fall asleep around slide 24.

My Industry Flame-out

2008-05-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

The next couple of weeks in May will be a bit busy.

I'll be giving a talk at Google on May 20th. This came about from a very kind invitation from Martin at Google. Unfortunately, it was recently revealed to me that one of the principal "targets" of my talk, Dick Lyon, hated our Nature paper on this same material. Pehaps he'll appreciate it if I bring a bucket of rotten tomatoes with which he can pelt me during the show.

The Google talk has been on the back-burner for a while, but suddenly, I not only have a talk at Google, but also at Yahoo Research and Starkey Hearing Research (hearing aids), and completely unsolicited. I gave a very small talk at the "Vision Lunch" informal talk series at Stanford last week. Much to my surprise, Malcolm Slaney, a prominent auditory researcher now at Yahoo, showed up. After 1-1/2 hours of miscommunication, he walked up to me a said, "Why don't you come talk to people that will understand what you're talking about." What luck, bongos...

That night, back in Berkeley, I checked my email to find a message from the head of Starkey Research, also in Berkeley. He'd like me to come give my talk for them, along with a meet and greet and lunch. This email is just sitting in my inbox, materialized from out of the ether. Serendipity.

It's crunch time!

2008-05-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

Baby stuff just sat up on his own for the very first time!!!

I promise video, maybe later today. Oh and the clapping too...

Glorious & Terrible

2008-04-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

He's close... so close.

Python in, Matlab out

2008-04-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

My research has lived in Matlab, an exceptionally powerful but proprietary computing language designed for scientific and engineering tasks. Despite my continued affection for Matlab, however, I have decided to transition entirely into Python. A free and powerful language, Python has a real-world legitimacy that Matlab just can't quite muster. Both Google and the NYSE run on Python. Now my research will as well.

Of course, this means that I'm learning an entirely new language (object-oriented to boot) in the midst of the busiest, most stressful time in my life. I prefer to think of it as ambitious.

I guess this hasn't been quite as cute as previous posts. Perhaps a picture with Thumper and his toy snake would be in order.

Long Time Gone

2008-04-01T07:31:00.001-07:00

Following a recent existential freakout, I decided to start jogging again. So, for a while, my days started at 5am with a few "laps" around my over-sized block (~3 miles). Recently though, I've been more ambitious. Instead of staying down in the flats of Berkeley, my runs have wandered up into the hills, pounding up slopes that I honestly feel uncomfortable ascending in my car. But suddenly, even this was not enough. The jogging stroller arrived -- a gift from my mom. What else could I do but accept the challenge?

The first day I ran a slow lap around my neighborhood, completing a mile in just under 11 minutes. Yesterday, I push 25 lbs of Thumper up... and up ... and up. Every cross street leading further up the hill was irresistible. It was a fast paced expedition into the unknown wilds of the Berkeley Hills, a tour of beautiful (and hideous) homes and their $10 million views.

One park in particular has a spectacular view for Oakland, San Francisco, the Golden Gate and Marin.I was surprised by all of the "hidden" parks, seemingly reserved for the wealthy locals. One in Absolutely gorgeous. As I got a very late start on my exercise yesterday, the setting sun washed out the picture I took (left), making the Golden Gate the source of light to the Bay Area.

About 4 miles up, Thumper went on strike. No more stroller! People watched me pass decked out in my jogging gear, pushing an empty stroller and carrying a baby. Fortunately, Berkeley facilitates quick getaways with numerous hidden walkways winding between houses. We quickly descended, banging down stairway were necessary, finally arriving home 2.5 hours after we left. Fortunately, this was my "day off" (Mondays with just Thumper and Vivienne). Unfortunately, despite my near total exhaustion, it was time to cook dinner. Mom's are always on the job.

Tomorrow I'll relax with a few papers on HMM-based vocoder modeling for speech processing. I have a clever idea to advance the field.

Pear, Pear Everywhere

2008-03-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

Imagine a food of such supreme flavor, such gustatory gravitas, that it overwhelms not just the tongue but the entire body. What could possibly satisfy such a fantasy? Surely not the simple pear, or so I would have thought this morning. In my life up to this morning I had never seen someone lunging at spoonfuls of pureed pear. I had never seen a practice of diminutive self-flagellation in the absence of continued pear supply. I had not seen a very little boy overwhelmed not just in his sense of taste but in physical body.

Today was pear tasting #2. I pureed four red anjou pears and froze most of the resulting mush in ice cube trays for the future. With about a 1/2 cup left, the feeding frenzy began. Half of it went down Thumper's throat; half was smeared in an irregular but complete covering over his body. He loved it, possibly to much. The scene evoked images of Roman gluttony (and more). Perhaps he will be a emperor (ceasar?) some day.

Big smiles all around

2008-03-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

Thumper snored contentedly in D's lap, his first four hours of day care coming to an end. All my fears of tears and misery have lessened, run off to hide in the bushes of another day. D and I chatted for a bit, and then Thumper opened his eyes. The dimples dimpled. Cheeks puffed. Lips curled. All slow and brilliant as a sunrise. A smile just for me (but inevitably shared with everyone else; Thumper loves schmooze).

Day care appears to be a big success. We'll do half days again tomorrow and Friday to work out the kinks.

I feel rescued. Now for the next 108,283,472 items oon my "task' list.

Day Care Tomorrow

2008-03-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

Thumper's first day without his moms comes tomorrow. Daycare, one of many right things that don't feel right. He will cry. I will cry. He will stop after a few minutes (I hope!). I will spend the day claiming to have just chopped onions. Please, please, please go well.

More tomorrow.

P.S., We did sneak over to the park today for swing #2. He still loves it: kicking, squirming, giggling. What was strange, though, was the rather pronounced tribalism at the playground. Three clusters segregated to different corners of the toddler pen: Chinese nannies, Latina nannies and moms (mostly but not exclusively Caucasian). Most interesting was the apparent segregation, though to a lesser extent, of their various charges. The psychologist in me is intrigued by the posible implications.

First Meal

2008-03-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

After six months, the day has finally come: solid food for the Chubby Monster. He's been motivated for a while, recently taking to lunging at dinner plates (creating what I think of as a "zone of proximal destruction"). Based on the recommendations of friends, avocado won the honors of food substance #1. So, tonight I pureed up one avocado with a few table spoons of mother's milk until it looked like processed guacamole. The thought of chucks was too much for my over-protective heart. I'd actually spent a part of the day looking for a "first" spoon but, unsatisfied with the selection at various boutique stores, I ended up using a disposable plastic spoon that was twice the size of his mouth. That made the process tricky.

The first spoonful ended up in his left fist. The second spoonful was captured by his right fist. Several minutes of cleaning and devising a subtle arm constraint system later, spoonful #3 reached his mouth. Thumper even leaned forward and opened his mouth (thank you instinct). It was at this point that we both realized that he had no idea what to do next. For about 20 seconds, Thumper just looked around the room with a touch of puzzlement on his face.

My face likely showed anxiety or even terror as thoughts of a slimy, green Heimlich maneuver ran through my head. Eventually, though, his mouth started moving and some swallowing seemed to be happening. Most of the avocado ended up on his bib, but it seemed like some actual "eating" had actually occurred. So, we tried another bite and, with his hands incarcerated, another spoonful made lip fall. This time, the mouth started working right away, and most of the green seemed to have gone internal.

Now things were going great. He wasn't just eating (semi-)solid food; each bite brought more and more giggling. Very quickly, Thumper's laughter could only be silenced for another bite. Then, suddenly, it ended. "No more, thank you." Now I have a lot of pureed avocado with breast milk and a giddy urge to bring it in to lab meeting tomorrow with a bag of corn chips and a "help yourself" sign.

Into the Redwoods

2008-03-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

For the last 18 months I've been traveling back and forth between Stanford and Berkeley, spending a day on the Farm, another with the Bears and the rest with Thumper. I learned too much about traffic patterns in the Bay Area and not enough about auditory scene analysis. So now, the Redwood Center will be my full-time home. I remain affiliated, funded and fond with, by and of Stanford, but for now its all theoretical neuroscience all the time. Yeah!

Ticklishness!!!

2008-03-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

Finally, after months of waiting, Thumper has succumbed to ticklishness. He laughs and squirms. His eyes go all crescent moon. And if I stop, he gives me a "more, more!" look. I love being a mischievous mom!

Thumper goes for a swing

2008-03-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

Who knew that a first swing could bring such joy.

Welcome to my talking

2008-03-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

I finally decided to just get my own website and stop mooching off of various universities. So, welcome to www.vivienneming.com. It's been refined and updated... a bit. At the very least, this little blog will be a more amusing way to keep friends and family up to date.

There is second private blog, just something transitional for my own personal amusement. This one is strictly G-rated, however, and will welcome all comers.

Whoever you are, enjoy my words.