Face Scan

Face Scan
Originally uploaded by jessriggs.

I participated in an MIT face scan study yesterday. The whole process, which consisted of me sitting still for 2 minutes inside a metal dome filled with cameras as they took 900+ pictures of my face, took all of 15 minutes to sign in, set up, and get all the photo's taken. For that they gave me $30 and some of the images, thus the spooky picture of me in a hairnet looking like a statue. I wish I could have posted the 3-D image... it was in a strange format and would not save to a standard .jpg format.

I guess they are using the data to develop software to age images, and various other reasons. They don't exactly seem to have all the uses for this data hammered out yet, but it definitely seems interesting and totally worth $30 for my time :)

Memorial Day BBQ

Memorial Day BBQ
Originally uploaded by jessriggs.

Matt and I went to a BBQ in Cambridge on Memorial Day at his friend Irene's place in Cambridge. There was a grill and people were instructed to bring food. Someone decided to bring stuff to make Smore's and I came up with the brilliant idea of melting my chocolate using a spatula and tin foil prior to placing it inbetween the graham crackers with the toasted marshmellow. I did this because the marshmellow never seems to stay hot enough to melt the chocolate. I figured I would just preheat the chocolate, easy solution!

Well, the chocolate definitely metled and here I am attempting to eat my Smore's without losing too much of the marshmellow and chocolate oozing out the sides. Matt is laughing at me, but I still consider the venture a success!

Cape Cod Crew

Cape Cod Crew
Originally uploaded by jessriggs.

A month ago, a bunch of us headed down to the Cape for some R & R before I started classes and the summer officially begun. We were down at Matt's parents' house the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, which was rainy and cold the entire time. Still we managed to entertain ourselves and have a great time.

Here we all are eating breakfast the first morning. Michelle and I, seated at the head of the table here, made waffles and eggs each morning since we tended to be awake a good hour or two before anyone else. See, it pays to bring a morning person on trips like this!

Matt and Rob look quite pleased about their waffles :)

My Last Interview

So, I was trying hard not to have any interviews on my birthday but when the opportunity came up to get both of my Mass General Hospital (MGH) interviews done in one day (on my birthday), I decided to just get the last interviews over with. I had a group interview Tuesday at Newton Wellesley that consisted on 6 of them grilling the 5 of us on various topics mainly related to spine manipulation.... grueling! This was followed by a more casual one on one interview at Youville on Wednesday, saving 2 interviews (one with the department directors, and one with 2 clinical specialists) at MGH for Thursday.
Well, after the Youville interview, I decided to leave my nice pants and blazer (my interview outfit that I will have to take a picture of and post for Sara) at school in my locker, since I had to bike in early Thursday morning to work in the computer lab. My plan was to bike in, change, work for 2 hours, and then take the Partners Shuttle over to MGH for my 9:30am interview.

I biked in yesterday morning, with my portfolio and various other school items, to find that the entire Naval Yard was without power and even though the security guard had keys, he would not allow me to go upstairs to get my suit with the lights out (liability or some crap like that). I waited an hour for NStar to figure out the power issue, and then decided to bike home (25 minute ride), change into the best pair of pants and shirt I could find, and then take the subway to MGH.

I made it to my interview on time, and the new outfit was acceptable, but I still told them my story to explain my slightly more casual attire and because it was so unbelievable. The interview seemed to go really well, and now I have a tough decision to make. I need to submit a ranked list by next Friday, and I think it now looks something like this:

1. Mass General Hospital
2. Spaulding
3. Brigham and Women's
4. Youville
5. Newton Wellesley
6. Shaughnessey Kaplan

Although I am debating on rearranging the top 3. I plan to discuss it with some faculty members who's opinion I value, and hopefully I will have a concrete list that I feel good about. And then I should find out my placement in July. I'll keep you posted.

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home
Originally uploaded by jessriggs.

My roommate recently moved out of the apartment she had live in for 7 years, leaving me with a lot of cat hair and grime to take care of! I decided that if I was going to put in the effort to fix the place up, that I would go all out. My mom came up from PA to help and in 4 days we managed to fully clean and paint the place.

Here is what the living room now looks like with the fresh coat of paint and my furniture.

I just signed a 15 month lease starting June 1, so it looks like I have a place to call home for a while.... ahhh, it's about time!