At Ted’s Butcherblock today, I spotted this bacon chocolate bar (by Vosges Chocolate) at the counter. It was the last one, so I had to buy it to check it out.
It’s milk chocolate bar with little bits of bacon in it!
As a chocolate bar it was actually pretty good, despite the milk chocolate. It’s a little bit salty, a little bit smoky from the bacon and sweet from the chocolate. Maybe a little bit strange at first look, and I’m sure it’s not going to suit everybody’s tastes who expect chocolate to be a sweet treat, but this one works pretty well. It’s pretty expensive for a chocolate bar, but makes for an interesting and different treat. Looks like there’s a dark chocolate version of the bar out now, which I think might be even better. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it now.
I’ve never been one to dwell in the past, or spend much time pondering “what-ifs“, but over the past few years as 40 gets closer, I have found myself reflecting on what I suppose could be considered sentinel moments in my life.
During my undergrad, I decided to take a summer job that ended up switching my intended career plans onto a completely different track. Not sure what I would have ended up doing if I hadn’t taken that job.
How would things have turned out if I had decided to throw caution to the wind and pack myself off to McGill to do my Masters instead of staying at U of A? One of the reasons I chose not to go to McGill was funding. McGill didn’t fund MSc students, but at U of A, I could get funded as a grad student.
After I finished my Masters degree, I spent a few months doing sysadmin work and being the resident computer geek for a couple of departments at the U of A Hospitals. I got a call asking me if I was still interested in a residency position in Detroit that to this day I still I don’t remember applying for. I moved to Detroit with nothing more than a couple of suitcases and a few hundred dollars in my bank account and spent three years there learning my craft. It was arguably the biggest leap my normally conservative and safe self has ever made so far. Where would I have ended up if I didn’t move?
A few years ago, shortly after starting this blog, I had a chance to take a research position at Duke University. I decided to stay. It would have switched me to a slightly different track had I taken it.
A few months ago, I decided to pursue an opportunity to do a PhD. It’s not something that’s necessary for me to do my job, but has been on my TODO list for a long time. In a couple of months, I should be starting classes. The voices in my head that say “WTF are you doing!” are getting a little louder, but I’m still looking forward to this. It’s going to be a big shift for me for the next 5 or 6 years.
I’ve never regretted any of the decisions I made. Looking back, I don’t know that there were really any other decisions that I could have made. If I had, I’m pretty sure my life would quite different from what it is now.
When I find myself in these moments, I can’t help but think of this scene from The Matrix: Reloaded:
Neo: Well, that didn’t go so well. Morpheus: Are you certain the Oracle didn’t say anything else? Neo: Yes. Trinity: Maybe we did something wrong. Neo: Or didn’t do something. Morpheus: No, what happened, happened and couldn’t have happened any other way. Neo: How do you know? Morpheus: We are still alive.
One of the things I do with the radiology residents is do some practical labs with them, where they get to see some of the things they’ve been learning about in the classes we give them before they take the first part of their board certification exams.
A few months ago, it was a demonstration on the gamma cameras in nuclear medicine, where I attempted to show them how changing the image matrix size affects the image. Nuclear medicine images are typically acquired using matrix sizes ranging from 642 all the way up to 10242. Most are acquired using a 1282 image matrix size.
Generally, as you increase the matrix size, the resolution of the image improves. Most people might think that because of this, you should always use the highest matrix size possible, because that will give you the best image. But you’d be wrong.
Nuclear medicine images are acquired either for a fixed time, or a fixed number of counts. Let’s suppose an image is acquired containing a total of 106 (1 million) counts. If the image matrix size is 642, that 106 counts is spread out over 4096 pixels (which gets you about 244 counts/pixel).
Below is an image of a bar quadrant phantom acquired in a 642 matrix for 106 counts.
It’s a fairly smooth looking image, not a lot of noise, but none of the bars are resolved.
If that image matrix size is 1282 instead, now that million counts is spread out over 4 times as many pixels (16384 pixels), and now you only have 61 counts/pixel. Below is the same bar quadrant phantom, same 106 counts but acquired in a 1282 matrix size
Now one set of bars is visible but the noise has increased a little bit.
You can resolve smaller structures with the larger matrix size, but now the count density of your image has decreased by a factor of 4 (and the noise in your image has also increased).
Let’s go to 2562
The next set of bars is visible but notice how the noise has increased significantly.
Let’s see what 10242 looks like. You might expect that we would be able to see even more bars at this matrix size.
Nope, no more bars visible, and the noise has really gone up. At 10242, the count density has decreased to less than 1 count/pixel.
Of course there are ways around this. At higher matrix sizes, you can acquire more counts in your image but this requires either imaging with more activity in the patient or imaging for a longer time, which may or may not be feasible.
Photographers, take note. The same thing happens with digital cameras. Naturally, the amount of light digital cameras capture is orders of magnitude higher than in nuclear medicine, but problem is the same. More megapixels (MP) is not always better.
For a while now, I’ve been pondering getting some kind of gaming console, because I’ve never had one before. Do I want a Wii? Maybe a PS3. Xbox is kinda cool.
This past week, I borrowed an Xbox 360 and a few games from a friend while he was on vacation. Started playing Fallout 3 and promptly got sucked into the game. The first day I played for about 4 hours without realizing how much time had gone by. The rest of the week would go pretty much the same way (thus the lack of blog entries).
So now I’m thinking maybe a gaming console might not be such a good idea, especially with school starting next month. Then again, if I get one now, the novelty aspect of it will probably wear off by the time classes start and I probably won’t be quite as into it by then.
Actually, getting one now would take a significant chunk out of my new computer fund, so I think I’ll wait a while on the console system. Or maybe I’ll just build a kick-ass gaming system.
