folks,

i know you’ve kept up well in terms of nice weahter but this beats everything: today it’s 36 degrees and tomorrow it’s supposed to be even hotter.

max

the ismrm conference was really good. haven’t seen as many nerds on one spot yet – but the talks were good and the atmosphere really motivating.
long days, short sleeps were taking turns.

we stayed in a well-established bed and breakfast in midst of toronto’s gay district. my ass still hurts *LOL* nono, jk

my presentation at the computer went easy. i was just speaking to 2-3 people unfortunately, those who i expected, whose work i improved, didn’t show up. anyway.

now i’m back safe and continue working as usual.

btw. i talked to my professor from zurich and i’m 100% looking forward to start my research career in september! this is the dream job for me, it’s going to be so fun to work with him as his group. yeah!

cheers, max

folks

last sunday, ivanka took filip and me flying! we took off in a cessna and toured around the bay, incl. san francisco, berkeley, stanford and everything in between!

awesome.

tomorrow, we’re flying out to toronto to the conference, it’s going to be really exciting!
cu dudes

klick on the link to view the cool pictures:
golden gate
golden gate park in sf
img_0071.jpg

hey!
i know i know i’m bad i haven0t been posting lately. here you go:
two weeks ago, i turned 25! we started the summer season in chilly waether in our backyard with bbq and a bunch of friends i invited. it was fun too see how many eth-peeps there are around here! i counted 7 incl. me at our place and this is pretty much!
my party started in the afternoon and went until late night. i was already getting ready to kick everyone out when someone came up with the idea of going dancing in mountain view! so off we went. it was a salsa club actually but that night they wouldn’t play much salsa but latino-pop that was waaaay too loud! the crowd was basically 80 1.50m tall latinos, their chicks and the 8 of us we had fun!

filip’s birthday party was right a week later, i.e. last sunday. and his was a major blast! incredible how many peeps he knows and how cool games he had organized! check out some pics; the competition included a filip trivia, water melon eating, flour swallowing and so on. i enjoyed myself alot!

for my personal birthday, i received really nice presents from everyone: my parents sent me a package with the original swiss soccer shirt! yes! i wanted it! plus a hoodie and a tee with the swiss cross – cool.
noe and amanda gave me that fantastic first volume of ‘phd-comic’ to entertain myself if my future life as a phd candidate sucked at any moment. hilarious!
my room mates gave me a new front wheel for my car! yes! i’m a safe driver again and i could really need that tire! and thanks erin and thad for sticking around redwood city for this – the weird german beer shop was awesome!

i’m having a really good time here but i’m already starting to think about going back and what’s coming when i’m back home. deniz and lucas are flying over here in less than 2 months which is pretty close from now and by theni need to have finished my project..
concerning this, i was pretty successful just a week ago. until then i were still trying to implement a 3d-mri sequence for angiography, especially for the head region. howver, i had some mathematical insight last tuesday and it seems as if i hasd solved some issues in that respect. since i know can handle that stuff and explain everything how to get nice HYPR angiograms, i’m going to write that up and maybe completely ignore the work i did between january and now. it’s exciting enough!

on may 1, my group is going to that conference in toronto to present our work. i’m really excited and i hope that the critics will not tear me and my poster apart i’m also meeting with my prof from zurich to discuss my thesis and possible projects for a phd in his group. it’s looking like i’m starting a career in research pretty soon

your dork,
max

p.s. i the pictures, it’s me with 3 contestors at the melon eating contest, me with sascha from eth and me jumping in our pool with a auerbacher (back-flip-thing kind of , erin is on one and the one with the google in the glass is a demonstration of my new super cool f/1.8 lense! isn’t it fantastic?

folks,

i’ve had a fun week: pascal, one of my old friends from eth was swinging by my place on his world trip. he stayed for 3 days, coming direct from fiji where it had obviously been much warmer than in beautiful silicon valley.
anyway, the start worked out kind of well, i punctually picked him up from the airport where he flew in one hour late. on his first day, he first needed to somehow overcome his jet lag and i could go to work – of course i provided a guided tour around campus (which he partly had already seen on another trip to california) and at night we took our house mates to a delicious margarita..ehhm..mexican place which proceeded a movie we watched in a theater (it was called ’21′, about the big money in las vegas. you don’t miss anything if you don’t watch it)

on friday, i showed him my favorite tourist attraction: google. it was another ‘family’ gathering: thad and erin joined us for lunch and sascha was there, too. he used to be on amiv with me and had just started an internship at google. it was nice to see you, dude!

after that, pascal persuaded me to take him to san fran to show him golden gate bridge. honestly, dude, i should have told you that i didn’t want to take my car all the way to san fran! i knew both front tires were all bald, worn down and not to be used on highways. i took the risk – we’re still alive!
btw: i managed to capture a nice shot of golden gate, i’ve posted it below.

on our way back, there was that minor incident. picture this: i’m on right lane behind a car that wants to make a right turn. i’m right at his tail, but, compellingly, on the crosswalk. he cannot make his turn because of pedestrians on another crosswalk and he doesn’t leave my lane far enough so that i can’t go past him and i get stuck right on my crosswalk. that wouldn’t be bad if the traffic light didn’t turn red meanwhile and the pedestrians on my crosswalk can’t really pass beacause of me.
i look back, it was raining, no rear window wiper, couldn’t see much, i saw no headlights at all and decided, in front of all peds, to back up. BANG!
i totally bumped into anotehr car and deserved the despise from all pedestrians. i was a bit shocked, thought that it will cost me alot of money but the other car, nor mine, didn’t get broken. phuuh!

the next day, i was taking pascal to the airport and, got a flat tire right after departing from home.
i must have been really lucky that the tire didn’t pop on our way back, that could have been costly and dangerous.

don’t worry, i’m fine!
cheers, max

folks,

much has happened. been to nyc, seen my family, eaten at an espn restaurant with them, enjoyed street artists in nyc’s grand central station and taken many fotos.

my most recent acquisition, the black dodge, turns out to be a surprise box: the back seats are not really fixated, the trunk has slits through with rain water may enter, the tires, as i already knew, though, are completely bold, the electric locking is not working and the passenger’s window is not operatable. and i didn’t even mention the drift it has – ive been steering constantly to the left

max

hallihallo,

finally, i get around to writing another post. a lot has happened since my last one: barack obama seems to be out of reach for hillary, it’s getting sunnier here, my car has not been driven yet and i’m working daily (i think i’m making progress, at leat).

some time ago, there was the graduate students’ formal – boys in suit and tie, girls in evening dress. dress up, pay 30 bucks and dance, drink and eat for free (flirting, kissing, fishing for compliments, teasing, everything was included). it works pretty similar as in switzerland: you shave, shower, get dressed up, a litle bit of gel, a little bit of perfume, black socks, black pants, dress shirt not to tight, nice color a must. girls: all the same (including the shave , different colors, different dress, less fabric, more skin, more time *lol*

pre party at kristen’s place in escondido village (on campus), there’s gin, good wine (they love gewürztaminer…), finger food, such as brownies (i would die for them). people come and go, and finally we leave for the shuttle that will take us to mountain view (yes, that’s where google makes its millions, pardon, billions). the location is the technical museum – just great a place! spacious, stunning atmosphere, what else do you want? the line is long, proceeds quickly, though. we get in and our first drink at the bar!
(man beachte das zeugma!)

yesterday, i volunteered at a triathlon event organized by the stanford triathlon team. three of my roomies are on it and i was asked to help out. it was so much fun! ok, to be fair, i had to get up at 515am – but the sunrise was really nice and my morning went by fast. my job was to stand at a sharp U-turn on the bike course and tell the bikers to slow down and watch out for it. of course, my inofficial job was to cheer them up and i think i did a good job! some people even thanked me for the cheering! i’m glad they appreciated it. as you can see on one picture, we had delicious pancake at our place the day before! american brunching is hot

and last but not least: i’ve just gotten back from my driving exaaam! i did pass. yes! phuhh
DMV (department of motor vehicles) procedures work like this: report at a desk, wait 1-2 hours (in my case exactly 1.5), drive around with your examiner, get your exam and go home. i don’t understand why the schedule 10 people at the same time for the driving test and have only 3 clerks working. two of them examine at the driving test, so only 2 applicants can be on the road at the same time. the third is in charge of preparing all the paper work. one person for all applicants!
at least he didn’t object to my expired driving licence ( i took the written exam some time ago in september).
well, i’m gonna be a safe driver, of course next thing: get liability insurance!

all the best! max

yoyo!
i’ve bought a car! it’s a huge dodge intrepit with worn-down front wheels and a big trunk. it’s a nice car and i’m looking forward to using it as our vehicle on the roadtrip with deniz and lucas.
now the urge is big enough to finally take the california driving exam! i’ll call them soon and fix an appointment. i need it not only to be better off when pulled over but also to get better rates with insurance companies. for the time being, i have no liability insurance and this upsets me somehow

adolf h. didn’t have as much luck with his car, for he leased it. but watch the video!

[youtube q-7QoiOH9r0]

i’ve been promising you pictures for a long time, here’s a bunch:

all pictures but the ‘granny’ were taken at rex’s farewell party at the lucas center and our place. the landscape was taken on hoover tower and
shows thestanford campus – the second largest of its kind.

good news! my and many of my colleagues’ abstracts have been accepted to the annual international conference on mri! i didn’t make the talk cut off, but i’ll be explaining my matrix thing and the regularization of HYPR during the e-poster session on my dear mum’s birthday, may 8.
it’ll be in the early afternoon, right about the time you guys will be celebrating her birthday!
yeepee, i’m really happy about the acceptance! another step in the direction i really want to go!