little power monger, sleep tonight the city lights up like a dirty dime i hope that this letter finds you crying it would feel so good to see you cry under this same lifeless sky how is it i can find no peace? well i hope that someday we meet both broken we could kneel right down and kiss your feet wherever you are under the stars or under the influence of the cars and the neon lights don't shine through your frigid light though you're a total mess can you admit that yet? little power monger, sleep tonight the city lights up like a dirty dime i hope that someday we meet both broken it would feel so good to see you

Been awol for a bit. Mostly work-related ... i've been swamped with projects old and new both during and since my trip to Philadelphia. Let's start there.

ASTRO was overall a good experience, between several interesting sessions on hypoxia and functional imaging and multiple dinners with friends. I spent a bit of time with the residents from my department, having a pleasant dinner at Pif in south Philly on Sunday night then a late meal at Brasserie Perrier after the Stanford reception on Monday evening. I was unaware of the expense and difficulty of obtaining a liquor license in Philadelphia, and was a bit surprised when we found Pif didn't serve wine. Despite their BYOB policy, being Sunday night all the liquor stores were closed. Luckily the chef sent us on a somewhat clandestine operation to buy wine from a restaurant down the street, which proved successful. I ran into my old UCB/UCSF bioengineering chum Ken Wong at a vendor exhibit on Monday, so we caught up over a gargantuan Cuban supper at Alma de Cuba on Tuesday night. I also got to hang a bit with former Stanford RadOnc buddies Todd and Brian, who've both moved on to different climes. Last but not least, my final tally of Philly delicacies: three cheesesteaks (Geno's, Rick's, and some generic place in the airport), one roast beef sandwich (Dinic's), and two hoagies (a fantastic proscuitto one from Carmen's in the Reading Terminal Market, and a passable salami hoagie from a stand in 30th Street Station).

By Wednesday the meeting had shifted to topics that didn't catch my interest, so i took the opportunity to Amtrak an hour and a half north to Penn Station in New York. I planned on spending the afternoon wandering around Manhattan shopping and taking in the ambiance, followed by dinner and drinks with old friend Rudha before catching the late train back to Philly. However, i chose the one day during my east coast jaunt when the skies decided to open up and dump a few inches of rain on me. I walked through Times Square for a bit, becoming completely drenched in spite of the faulty $10 umbrella i bought in the Philadelphia train station. I finally opted to give up on my wandering and hole up in a Starbucks on Canal St. to read and sip hot coffee. I used my day Metrocard to head up to 5th Ave. and Rudha's office around 4pm, and wandered around the posh shopping area. I spotted a Niketown and decided to buy a hat, considering my umbrella was leaking all over my head. In addition to a US soccer ball cap, i also found a sweet hooded Barcelona sweatshirt on sale, and decided to purchase a slick green Mexico track top. I was a bit amazed that they didn't have any Barcelona replica kits for sale ... only blue practice jerseys, no trademark blue and burgundy striped tops. More Arsenal and Manchester United gear than you could shake a stick at, though. When Roo got off work at 5:15pm, we met up and headed into Tiffany's to buy Veronica a bracelet (it was her birthday, after all) using Rudha's employee discount. We thereafter met up with Becca and Aimee for dinner at Burger Haven and drinks at an Irish pub around the corner from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. I had a great time and was more than a little sad to say goodbye to my old Allston chums after a few hours catching up.

My travels afforded me an opportunity to finish Truman Capote's brilliant In Cold Blood. On the surface a straightforward true crime tale of a gruesome quadruple homicide, Capote weaves the bittersweet story of the victims (bittersweet even without consideration of their unfortunate and sudden end) as well as the story of two young men so disenchanted with the American dream that their frustration boils over in an act of unbelievable sadism. I was chilled to the bone when i read the final few pages on my flight home, a haunting denouement involving the chief detective and a childhood friend of one of the victims.

While traveling i also spent some time getting into my newly purchased copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. It's not bad ... the plot is a bit ridiculous, but (for better or worse) it's Grand Theft Auto. Same gameplay, same sense of freedom, etc etc. The next full GTA on the PS3 and/or Xbox 360 will hopefully make an aesthetic and gameplay leap commensurate with graduation to next-gen consoles. After returning to California, i picked up a copy of the new 360 killer app Gears of War. I've only spent an hour or so with it so far, but i'm not really blown away. For one thing, i can't figure out the mechanics of combat. I think i'm doing a reasonable job taking cover and using my squad, but it seems regardless of my actions the enemy never fails to mow me down. Hrm. I'm eager to complete Splinter Cell: Double Agent, so GoW (that Gears of War, not the similarly acronymed God of War) may get shelved temporarily. However, the game that's really captured my attention since i returned from Philly has been Guitar Hero II. An excellent soundtrack, which as in its predecessor manages to suck you in despite any stylistic complaints you may have (Veronica's favorite song in the original was "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead, for christ's sake). The difficulty has been ramped up in the sequel, but it's a welcome challenge. Watching my fingers melt trying to play Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized" is a kick. What really pushes the new version over the top is the addition of cooperative play, having one person shred the lead guitar while another provides rhythm or bass. V and i gave it a whirl and had a kickass time. Similar to GTA, GH has hit a home run with a sequel that maintains the basic elements of the original but offers interesting new functionality.

I flew home from Philly on Thursday, arriving at SFO around 5pm and hitching a ride home from Vroo. The Tara dog was of course overjoyed to see me. She's turning into a mischievous little scamp these days. The other day i came home from work and was curious why a stack of photos i'd retrieved from old memorabilia and placed on the coffee table were now on the floor. I suspected the dog, a hypothesis that was confirmed when i noticed a broken pint glass elsewhere on the table. It seems Tara hopped up on the coffee table to drink out of a glass containing a drop or two of orange juice. Oooookkkaaaaaaaay ...

After a day catching up on affairs at Stanford, i returned home for a weekend of relaxation. This included dinner with colleagues Frank and Jennifer on Saturday night, followed by a showing of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan at the new Century theater in downtown Redwood City on Saturday night. I love Borat, but was a bit concerned that the shtick wouldn't last for a full 90 minute film. I was wrong ... the movie had me rolling in the aisles in parts. Particularly the infamous naked wrestling scene, but also the encounter between Borat and his producer and a kindly old Jewish couple. I think the film mocks intolerance, as highlighted by Borat's programmed negative views of Jews and homosexuals with which he has zero actual experience. But that underlying message won't pacify the hordes of conservatives who are calling for Sacha Baron Cohen's head, denouncing his film as a cheap attack on Kazakhstan and middle America.

Sure i want a PlayStation 3, but there's no way i'm going to wade through the masses to pay $600 for one at launch. There was something on the news this morning about one being sold for $20k on eBay. People are nuts. I'm a video game nut ... just not a junkie apparently. V wants a Wii so we may be trying to scare up one of those soon, but luckily Nintendo is supplying 4 million of those at launch, as opposed to Sony's 400,000 PS3's.

Somehow the organizers of the World Music Awards convinced the titular hero from V for Vendetta to perform. How novel ... i thought he was dead.

Random coding notes: i've more fully implemented the location tracking feature of my mp3 listening statistics, so you'll see little work, home, or iPod icons next to any played information. I've also fixed some idiosyncrasies of my search utilities for the journal, concerts, reviews, and mp3s. Carry on.

Twice in the past two weeks have i tried to watch the Passion of the Christ. Both times i set my tivo to record it, as unlike most new movies on cable it's only showing once a week or so (gee, wonder why?). The first time i tivoed it the film started ten minutes before tivo said it would, meaning i missed the beginning. I deleted this incomplete recording and decided to grab the showing this past Thursday. Because the Office and Ugly Betty were competing for tivo time in the living room, i decided to add tPotC to the bedroom tivo. And wouldn't you know it, come recording time the tivo choked and failed to properly change the channel, leaving me with two hours and fifteen minutes of blank screen. Someone somewhere doesn't want me to see this film.

This week has been a morass of work, from attempting to hammer out a research deal between Stanford and Philips, hosting our most recent MIPS seminar speaker Brian Ross, grading exam questions from my portion of the bioengineering molecular imaging course, presenting a talk at the MIPS small animal imaging workshop, and arriving at Stanford this morning at the ungodly hour of 7:30am to speak to the Radiation Oncology residents on imaging hypoxia. I'm looking forward to another restful weekend, punctuated by assorted home improvement. Maybe some hard time with Gears of War, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and Guitar Hero II as well. V and i are going to see Latina chanteuse Julieta Venegas on Sunday. Next week is abbreviated by Thanksgiving, after which i'll be flying off to Chicago to attend my first RSNA meeting. I'm looking forward to that both for professional reasons as well as the opportunity to spend some time with old friend and Pete drummer Bill W. and his wife Elizabeth.