The cats are very excited about that white stuff falling outside. And so are the humans.

The volunteer lady from the shelter had told us that putting the kittens in a laundry net had a calming effect on them that would make it a lot easier to give them a shampoo…

A detail I should definitely have started with, when I asked the lady at the store if she thought that laundry net would fit a kitten.

Good news: our five-week old kitten is very athletic and can effortlessly scale the 2m high cupboard outside our bedroom (the curtains help).

Less good news: she has, however, not yet figured a way to climb down from it, other than by meowing at the top of her surprisingly capacious lungs, at 7 in the morning until a (sleepy) human elevator shows up.

In prevision of Tokyo’s cold Winter approaching, we have adopted a pair of 100% organic heaters. Although their current wattage is still a bit low (despite sustained high-level purring), we fully expect them to reach a good heating capacity before end of year…

And if you are looking to adopt cats in Japan, you should definitely have a look at these guys and these guys (recommended by previous): they do amazing work trapping, neutering and releasing adult stray cats, while placing kittens for adoption. (Needless to say, if you ever buy a cat from one of those horrendous pet mill shops, I will never talk to you again).

Freshly back from two weeks in Kyoto where I attended a Machine Learning Summer School organised at Kyoto University. The whole event was impeccably organised and featured some of the biggest names in the field lecturing on fundamental aspects of machine learning: two highly productive weeks leaving barely enough time in the evening to catch up with friends and enjoy life in my former hometown…

A few random thoughts and observations:

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aka: an Experiment in Drunken Collaborative Poetry Writing

Most of the haikus produced were lost to the drunken chaos and following day’s hangover, but a few still made it:

味噌汁と
浴衣の女子衆が
アツイ夜

平和な二階
蓮のお茶にして
あ!休憩!

焼酎やビール
ゴルデン街祭り
月曜ツラ!

Work discussion with my boss this morning:

– So, for this project, I think we should use the Cox regression model.
– Yes, let’s go with Cox.
– But the dimension of the data means we will need to adjust the model.
– Right, bigger Cox.
– That could work. Or perhaps smaller input.
– How about multiple Cox with wider input?

Don’t let the title on the door fool you: in my head, I am still in Junior High School.