"Have you recently written a paper, but you're not sure to which journal you should submit it? Or are you an editor, and do you need to find reviewers for a particular paper? Jane can help!"
I think I can safely say that 2007 was a very good year for me, especially in academic regards. I finished my master degree in psychology in September. In April, I applied for a studentship for a PhD at the University of Birmingham, got accepted and started that this October! And as a consequence, I also moved from the Netherlands to the UK.
So far, I'm quite enjoying myself as a PhD student - it's hard work, but it's very rewarding and I get to work with some of the best people in the field. I'm quite eager to see what next year will bring me! As for new years resolutions, I'd think my main one would be to get my first article published or at the very least submitted. Furthermore, I want to visit conferences, meet new people, and talk about the research I'm doing. In that respect I think I'll be up for a treat next year!
But, enough science talk. Tomorrow I'll fly back home to the Netherlands and enjoy two weeks of "rest". Quite looking forward to seeing my parents and my cat Floris again. Leaves me one last thing to do: I'd like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and all the best for the new year!
Originally sung by Sonny & Cher in 1967, then covered by Buddy Rich (you can only watch the video if you register, because Americans don't like 50's clips of women "fighting" in their underwear), whose version was then slightly remixed into the 1998 version I'm talking about: The All Seeing I, which was originally made for Britney Spears (is she actually singing "blah blah" at 0:31?). However, the album version of the All Seeing I still rocks - it's amazing how this song stood the test of time. And as a bonus: the video clip is very, very cool as well!
And, well.. There's other versions of this as well. There's a clip of a band called the Screamers, performing it live, their "singer" screaming the song (I'm guessing that's where they got their name from). If anyone knows another version, please let me know. I'd be very interested to hear it.
Still one of my favorite songs: (And) the beat goes on - The All Seeing I.
The PhD is going well, I think - First experiment should be up and running before I leave for Christmas the 22nd. And I've been working on some new designs again, expect to see this website change soon. Again.
In case you missed it, today is "international talk like a pirate day":
And in other news: Today will be t' day that you will forever remember as t' day that I finished me Master o' biological and cognitive psychology! And… Only 12 days port until I start in Birmin'ham!
Today, I'm publishing a small toolbox for Matlab which enables you to run simple adaptive staircase procedures. Its theoretical basics can be found in Levitt's 1971 influential article titled "Transformed up-down methods in psychoacoustics". Its code flow is inspired on code previously written by Dirk Beer.
More information about the toolbox itself can be found on the project page.