this week i

updated our brief on the new medicaid-eligible population.

tested out the new 64 bit version of r, now able to use all 8gb of my computer's ram.

saw russell peters, impressed by his audience-insult improvisational skills.

thought about why programmers have difficulty working short days. more than other occupations, coding demands strong quantitative short-term memory to juggle all of the variable names and characteristics in your head; breaking for the night when a script has been half-written requires substantial memory-refreshment to pick up where you left off. so working 8 hrs x 5 days results in far less accomplishment than 10 x 4.

enjoyed two of my favorite out-of-towners..

..for front row! seats to mavis staples (1) (2) at the kennedy center..

..for delicious brunches..

..for great conversation until 3..

..for lazing into mid-afternoon..

..and for a venetian ball at the italian embassy:
hilarious masked beer consumption

ballroom dancing lessons

professional photography booths

handshakes, thumbs ups, sweet nothing whisperers

spanish embassy infil-traitors

full orchestras

madonna, despite being half french-canadian

the occasional sundarbans-style tiger-attack-prevention back-of-the-head mask

tats

heavenly tiramisu

and exclusive post-parties

4/29

this week i

finished the core programming required for our health plan tracker, designed to make cms medicare advantage data more easily understandable.

created some mammoth crosstabulation tables at the ahrq data center using our merge of medical expenditure person-level data and physician shortage area geo-data.

made avocado+cheese omelets & blueberry smoothies.

saw max, in town to work with federal foreclosure data. took her where i take all my visiting scholar friends, a sri lankan blues concert, of course.

drove to north carolina for a powwow..

..think of it as a native american state fair..

..with fry bread instead of funnel cake..

..slightly different crafts & trinkets..

..and occasional public health reminders (upper left)..

..all centered around a dance circle..



..and some drum solos.


the elders took it seriously..

..the kids just went to look cool.

camped on medoc mountain.


burned some cheerios. no reason.

took a rorschach test..

horse on hind legs chases fleeing angel

the leviathan opens its mouth

a dragon, mid-curtsey

toured petersburg battlefield, site of the longest siege of the war. union soldiers dug this mine..

..filled it with dynamite, blew up the confederate sentry from underground, made this crater.

can't get over civil war medicine.

stopped by richmond for the poe museum.

tasted virginia wines.

4/22

this week i

flavor tripped..

..$13 for a berry that makes lemons taste like watermelons..

.. + all-you-can-eat fruit tubs.

enjoyed west african dinner, another $13..

..with margaritas in our own private restaurant for dessert.

accompanied mark to a cbp-themed party, miss missouri on your left.

spent the night chatting with chris dodd's deputy press secretary & jim webb's personal assistant, would you believe.

saw george benson at the kennedy center, danny boy my favorite song.

began building my own lap steel guitar..

..built this same model five years ago, harder than i remember.

like the idea that statistics, not calculus, should be the summit of elementary through high school mathematics education.

continued updating our medicare advantage health plan tracker.

4/15

this week i

successfully merged meps with hrsa's hpsa data. ready to analyze how health insurance, expenditure, & utilization differ in places with physician shortages.

began writing the code to update kff's health plan tracker using cms 2010 data files.

saw marie diener-west at jhsph happy hour.

went to a nationals game. thinking the minor leagues would be more fun.

ate tiramisu on the boardwalk after the ncbf.

4/8