"And Now I've Had My Head in a Squid."
Jun. 26th, 2004 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woodwardiocom-So, Wednesday, I get together with Jen/![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anotherjen for our regular Wednesday date. She suggests, "Why don't we go bowling?"
"Uh, okay," sez I.
-Turns out to be a lot of fun. The bowling alley is a block out of Davis Square, and has that slightly worn 1950s ambience. Turns out I'm adequately good at candlepins. The drawback being that Jen has a competitive streak, but I have no doubt she'll be kicking my ass soon. She has more opportunity to practice, and was cleverly people-watching to see how it's done.
-Then we headed over to OPN. At which I was once again reminded of how many cute women there are in my social circle. (Of course, the sample isn't statistically valid, since I brought the prettiest in my car...) I'm always expecting the rug to be pulled out from under me -- this can't be my life, can it?
(And, note to self, stop being smug about it.)
-A little while back, Bey/buxom_bey told me she was participating in a science experiment at MIT. Subjects had to be right-handed native speakers of English. I figured it sounded interesting, so today I headed up to Cambridge to rendevous with her. Bey was delayed, so the experimenter did me first. She taped electrodes to my forehead, stuck me in a magnetically sealed room with my head in a Superconducting QUantum Interference Detector (SQUID), and had me look at a few hundred letter-strings and push buttons denoting whether they were words or nonwords. (Note to experimenters: "luffing" is actually a word.) Then she played electronic tones in my ear, and we were done. Bey had arrived, and went in next. While she was in the tank, the experimenter tells me, "Well, your brain is normal, and we got very clear readings. You process sounds properly. Huge improvement over the undergrads we've been using; they have a lot more stuff going on in their brains."
-I think that was meant as a compliment.
-Then Bey and I grabbed some Indian food, and parted ways. I came home, and exchanged days with Housemate Mom. "Got that brain scan, and she said everything is perfectly normal."
"Oh, good. Wait, when did you get a brain scan?"
"I told you about this. I said I was participating in an experiment at MIT where they needed right-handed native English speakers?"
"Oh. I thought you were making that up."
[fond sigh]
-And, of course, having had my head in a SQUID is cool, 'cause Gibson wrote about one in "Johnny Mnemonic" back when I was in high school. (I ended up telling half the history of that story to the experimenter while she was taping me up, to explain why I knew what SQUID stands for.)
anotherjen for our regular Wednesday date. She suggests, "Why don't we go bowling?""Uh, okay," sez I.
-Turns out to be a lot of fun. The bowling alley is a block out of Davis Square, and has that slightly worn 1950s ambience. Turns out I'm adequately good at candlepins. The drawback being that Jen has a competitive streak, but I have no doubt she'll be kicking my ass soon. She has more opportunity to practice, and was cleverly people-watching to see how it's done.
-Then we headed over to OPN. At which I was once again reminded of how many cute women there are in my social circle. (Of course, the sample isn't statistically valid, since I brought the prettiest in my car...) I'm always expecting the rug to be pulled out from under me -- this can't be my life, can it?
(And, note to self, stop being smug about it.)
-A little while back, Bey/
buxom_bey told me she was participating in a science experiment at MIT. Subjects had to be right-handed native speakers of English. I figured it sounded interesting, so today I headed up to Cambridge to rendevous with her. Bey was delayed, so the experimenter did me first. She taped electrodes to my forehead, stuck me in a magnetically sealed room with my head in a Superconducting QUantum Interference Detector (SQUID), and had me look at a few hundred letter-strings and push buttons denoting whether they were words or nonwords. (Note to experimenters: "luffing" is actually a word.) Then she played electronic tones in my ear, and we were done. Bey had arrived, and went in next. While she was in the tank, the experimenter tells me, "Well, your brain is normal, and we got very clear readings. You process sounds properly. Huge improvement over the undergrads we've been using; they have a lot more stuff going on in their brains."-I think that was meant as a compliment.
-Then Bey and I grabbed some Indian food, and parted ways. I came home, and exchanged days with Housemate Mom. "Got that brain scan, and she said everything is perfectly normal."
"Oh, good. Wait, when did you get a brain scan?"
"I told you about this. I said I was participating in an experiment at MIT where they needed right-handed native English speakers?"
"Oh. I thought you were making that up."
[fond sigh]
-And, of course, having had my head in a SQUID is cool, 'cause Gibson wrote about one in "Johnny Mnemonic" back when I was in high school. (I ended up telling half the history of that story to the experimenter while she was taping me up, to explain why I knew what SQUID stands for.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-25 11:37 pm (UTC)Is this experiment still going on and more importantly, do you get compensated for it ?
no subject
Date: 2004-06-26 06:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-26 07:19 am (UTC)Said by one who decorates the room so nicely... ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-26 10:12 am (UTC)Envious. I like brain stuff.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-26 11:35 am (UTC)