Brian Parks


Yer damn right I came to work today

06 Dec 2009

So last night it snowed 3 inches or so and it now continues to snow. However, I still determined that I would come to work today, ignoring the fact that it’s a Sunday and that there was a blanket of snow on the ground through which I would have to ride on a road bike. I write this from the lab, so I obviously made it here successfully. Hopefully I have the same degree of success on the ride home.

The picture to the right is the El Pomar Institute for Innovation and Commercialiazation with last night’s snowfal on the ground in front of it. The nice thing about snow on a Sunday is that the University can’t close because it’s not officially open. However, the sidewalks still get cleared in preparation for Monday. Win-win situation.

I am now officially without a car — I brought the title to the junker yesterday. I keep meaning to look into the trend on 8 or so year old Subaru Outbacks, but keep forgetting. It’s probably not a bad thing, as my bank account isn’t quite where I want it to be for that purchase yet.

Work is going swimmingly. By that I mean I have a workload that most people would probably drown in, but as long as I stay afloat, I am swimming in it and quite enjoying myself. I have a report for a major portion of one of our contracts that I’m putting together. It’s hitting some snags, but should be done yesterday like our immediate customer ( Securics, Inc.) wanted. In addition, I’ve got a paper under review for CVPR2010 and should hear back on that early next year. I am also actively researching texture and text segmentation for one project, as well as the feasability of protecting a trained SVM as a facial recognition gallery (which is looking more and more infeasable). On top of that, I am officially the “Team Lead” of the Facial Imaging, Processing, and Analysis Team (FIPAT), which means I’m overseeing something on the order of six projects. Essentially, I’m the lab postdoc in the absence of an actual postdoc.

I guess the only remaining news to tell is that Vanessa and I are no longer together.

That said, the latest update of the report card is as follows: