Shawn Lankton Online » Personal

Spring Photos

Shawn Lankton — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:14:38 +0000

Last weekend, I planted a new container garden… this time incorporating tomatoes for the first time! I was inspired by the beautiful spring weather and budding trees to take some photos around my apartment. I’m always amazed at the pictures that can be found in places you thought you already knew.

PhD Thesis Proposal Presentation

Shawn Lankton — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:40:31 +0000

This week I made a presentation to my thesis committee at Georgia Tech to propose the content that will make up my Ph.D. dissertation. I’m happy to say that it went well and I’m on-track to graduate in September of 2009. The video below is an abridged version of the presentation I gave. It’s about 15 minutes long, and gives a general idea of the work I’ve been doing over the past three years as well as what I hope to accomplish before I finish. In a sentence, I propose a way to analyze image statistics locally that improves performance in several medical image processing applications.

On a side note, people interested in creating screen-casts of presentations on a Mac, should consider the program ScreenFlow, which worked great for me! This was also my first presentation created with Apple’s Keynote software, but I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Ice Climbing in Alaska

Shawn Lankton — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:00:16 +0000

In addition to work and science, last week I spent some time ascending ice in Alaska! Rome and I rented a car and drove north from Anchorage to the Matanuska Glacier [map]. There we met our guide, got geared up, and headed into the white. It is amazing to see a 26 mile glacier snaking into the huge snow-capped mountains looming all around.

The gear involved in ice climbing is fantastic. Serious mountaineering boots with a dozen three inch spikes attached to each foot make for a menacing pair of shoes. The crampons give terrific grip while trekking over the ice, and allow you to walk right up verticle faces when needed!

Then you have the “hammers:” long sharp picks that hack into the ice giving you a hand-hold wherever you need it. Combine this with a length of good rope and all the climbing harnesses common to rock-climbing and you’ve got an ice-cold vertical adventure.

We trekked about a half mile onto the glacier before we started making our way up sheer ice walls. Our guide would free-climb the faces and set up safety rigging before we made our way up. The first climb was a real challenge, but once I got an understanding of the technique, and the rhythm: pick, hook, toe-toe-toe. pick, hook, toe-toe-toe… climbing up verticle ice and slight overhangs became a smooth, and exhilarating process.

All said and done… I want more. However, the way things are going there won’t be any glaciers in Atlanta any time soon!

Fun Fact: If you converted all the ice in the Matanuska glacier into margaritas, it would be enough for everyone on the planet to drink a 32oz. margarita every day for the next 20 years!

Ride or Die.

Shawn Lankton — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:18:46 +0000

I got my motorcycle license a few weeks ago. Now I’ve got a bike! My buddy Ian let me take this sweet little Suzuki GS500 off his hands. With a new carb and a little bit of work its running pretty well, and I’ve been zipping around town on it!

I must say that I’m addicted to riding it! Since Jon and I got it working, I haven’t started my car : )

I plan to do a bit more engine work and make some cosmetic upgrades too. If there are any other new GS owners out there, make sure to check out these sites for lots of good info:

GS Twin (The guys on the forum here helped me out a lot)
GS500 Wiki
GS Resource

Any other riders in ATL who want to meet up? Let me know!

Motorcycle School

Shawn Lankton — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:00:57 +0000

Last weekend, I spent all day Saturday and Sunday learning how to ride a motorcycle! I went to the American Honda Driver Education Center where they provide bikes, helmets, and instruction. I got to ride a sweet little Honda, and I must say: I’m pretty hooked on the feeling.

We practiced everything from fast turns to hard stops to the basics of shifting and driving. All that’s left to do is ride (on my bicycle) down to the DMV, get a little ‘M’ on my license, and of course… buy a motorcycle! Anybody have a nice one for sale?

Pictures from the No-No

Shawn Lankton — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:53:08 +0000

I’ve been living in Atlanta for years and years now, and the city holds a special place in my heart. I went out yesterday to take some pictures in my neighborhood, the “No-No” district. This is the area just North of North Ave. on the South side of Midtown. “No-No” is my little joke since my hood is just North of the area city marketeers are now referring to as “So-No” (South of North). Atlanta is starting to feel more like London and New York already!

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Color me ENTPJ

Shawn Lankton — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:13:04 +0000

I took a Myers-Briggs test today during my business class today. My score? E(29), N(25), T(23), P/J(20)

I —————|—- E
N ——-|———— S
T ——–|———– F
P ———-|———- J

This means that I’m Extroverted, INtuitive, Thinking, and a perfect split between Perceiving and Judging. They usually group these in terms of certain complementary groups. I’m in the NT group. Therefore, my personality is split between ENTP, “The Visionary,” and ENTJ, “The Executive.” I’m pretty psyched about that! Here’s an online version of the test (although not the same one I took) if you’re interested to find out what you are.

In fact, after a quick internet search, its hard to find a good version of this test online… maybe I’ll put one up!

Good Day

Shawn Lankton — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:36:00 +0000

Some days you just jump up and down and then do a little boogie-woogie right in the office. Today was one of those days. The day began with a slow start and some celebratory end-of-semester lunches. When I got back to the office and checked my email…

I found out that I got a TI:GER fellowship that will let me work on cool entrepreneurial projects with MBAs and law students from Emory. (*AND* give me a $7,000 per year raise!)

Ok, I took that in stride, and played it cool. Then I got to work on that off-frame tracker I’ve been talking about… I added a non-hacked version of on-line motion model learning, and got some stellar results! That did it. I started dancing. Too bad no one was here to see : )

Its days like this when I really, really, *really* love my job.

Marathon Complete!

Shawn Lankton — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 18:29:00 +0000

Well, I’ve done it! My first marathon is completed. I ran the 26.2 miles of the inaugural ING Georgia Marathon! My time although not too embarrassing will definitely need to be improved next time. I finished the race in 4 hours, 55 minutes. That comes to 11.2 minutes per mile and betrays the fact that I walked part of the way because my calves were cramping… oh well. Here are the intermediate results: (see… I was fast at first!)

10K	Half	20Mile	FINISH
00:52:51	02:00:53	03:30:59	4:55:31

(here is the course)

Point is, I did it! And, as a treat my roomies decided that that was an accomplishment worthy of a free dinner… so I get taken out tonight! Hurrah! Hmm… maybe that will make up for the throbbing pain in my legs.

New Bike!

Shawn Lankton — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 03:07:00 +0000

On Friday in a mad dash to do research I had a bicycle accident and busted my arm and my bike. The wheel was a little bent up, and the brake handle was busted. I took it to a bike repair shop to see about getting it repaired…

The price started low, but then I started getting calls every 10 minutes… “The blank is bent and needs to be replaced.” “If we replace your blank it won’t fit on your old blank.” “You know… now that I’m looking at it, the blank is totally messed up.”Before I knew it, the price was getting way too high. I told them to forget the old bike, I was coming in to replace it. Now, I’m the proud new owner of the beauty you see pictured above. Its a single-speed bike meaning that 1) I won’t ever have problems with gears, derailers, etc. ever again, and 2) I’m gonna have to pedal like a maniac to get up hills.

This bike is very clean and very nice, and I got a good deal on it. I’m really excited to get to riding!

I	—————\|—-	E
N	——-\|————	S
T	——–\|———–	F
P	———-\|———-	J