The semester has flown. Clinq.tv, Bubble-UP, and the HearMirror, are a few of the main pieces coming out of it. I’ve worked through a number of other exercises as well, some of which were enlightening in different ways. Last night, I had another moment (similar to the one related to the blog entry “morning thinking aint bad”) that gave me some clarity about what I’m doing and where I’m going. I’ve submitted a vague thesis idea related to quality of life, balance, social impact, etc. yet I think I need to feel more passionate about it. Yesterday, I drew maps with crayons for one of my classes and looked at some animations in the evening. I’m reminded that maps, motion, and other subjects like sneaker-style appreciation and the oh so wonderful goodness that comes from a healthy relationship with a beautiful, loving woman and super whacked out inexplicable dreams…(yes random whatever) maybe should play into my projects more. After glancing up at what I’ve just written, I guess I am still a lost mess, but I feel more confident and clear somehow. I think positive conversations and socializing in general combined with regular journaling and exercercise keeps me good. This is a crazy entry, but I’m thinking not so different from some of my others. I’m going to eat some sushi and drink some alchohol tonight. Fun.
Category: Miscellaneous
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Two Videos…
I’ve come across online have sprawled out in my brain lately. The first speaks to my interest in people, well-being, and quality of life. It’s inspiring to realize that these broad and abstract ideas are being studied and refined. The second is entertaining just as watching stacked dominoes is entertaining, but more inportantly it implies to me that jobs/work can be pleasant and even fun.
Martin Seligman on positive psychology at TED
and
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Thanksgiving
It was niiiice .
There’s a belief that life in New York is a race, more so than in other parts of the country and the world. I sense that …yea for sure, but I’m actually more inclined to support the idea that belief is a matter of perspective, and perspective should be semi-controllable, hopefully to a healthy level. Last night, I stepped back and puffed on a nice cigar (old men do that at least once a year right) and reflected by watching my entire flickr photostream. Today, my perspective is loaded — honestly, it’s overloaded and fuzzy as hell. For me, moving forward is crucial, but keeping up a rapid pace seems increasingly difficult and decreasingly significant. As I begin the final lap at ITP and start to see how being 30 might look, anxiety is saying “hello there” … I wonder if I need to shift into turbo mode, focus on well-being and balance, or something completely different. I’m pretty sure I just need some air, a great meal, or a tough workout.
Anyway, on a practical note, I’ve generated some names for the projects I’m currently persuing.
- clinq.tv (metal sound in reference to coins/slots for an online tv watching and betting experience) [emerging + flash]
- plexinko (it’s a “bean machine, plinko, quincunx” thing made of plexi, metal, pegs, and marbles) [crafting]
- hear mirror (i’m gaining insight / perspective on myself through the sounds of my voice) [rest of]
- bubble-up (it’s literal in that bubbles are going upward in the game, but also a play on meetup cause players are connecting through bubble blowing) [liveweb + flash]
For next semester, I’m thinking of thesis, another class, and an internship…(RGA? BAM? Frog? Schematic? IDEO?…hrmm)
were kinda great — three main reason.
1. A talk on the ITP floor from…
Zoran Josipovic, Ph.D. is a research scientist and an adjunct professor at the Center for Neural Science and Psychology Dept., New York University. His main interests are the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain, global versus local theories of consciousness, and the functioning of anti-correlated neural networks. Zoran is a long-term practitioner of meditation in the nondual traditions of Dzogchen, Mahamudra and Advaita Vedanta. He has also worked as a psychotherapist and a bodyworker and has taught meditation at Esalen Institute for many years.
2. AS3 progress for a game I’m working on for FlashOfFlash and LiveWeb. The late-night session was productive because I was alert, and all distractions from people were gone, as they were either asleep or out socializing.
3. The bomb dream, which was like a vacation to a new world:
… swimming like flight … large man-made pond with islands, pockets of people, couples, plants … warm and fluid … video game … exercise and adrenalin … strength and play … odd smelling … coaching with specific exercise advice … bday dinner with crab legs times two … gum gift wrapper with chocolate inside …
(4.) Also, a peer shared this super interesting video, which sounds like my initial thoughts for the RestOfYou final project. Thanks, Hulya.
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Hiccup maybe
The past week has left me feeling unmotivated and stalled. Maybe there’s more on my plate than I’m capable or driven enough to do. I’ve kept myself fairly content in terms of getting out, resting, and doing things I enjoy, like eating good meals, playing sports, and some time with good folks, but the projects at school are lacking overall, and it’s having an effect on me. It’s thinking about the next couple months and next year that is particularly daunting, and if I could magically absorb programming languages, things would be easier. I want to be producing more and designing more, but similar to the time when I held a fullt-time job, responsibilities are fighting each other for my attention, which doesn’t seem healthy. Anyway, some more solid hours in a quiet room with this machine might be what I need. I’ll try to make it happen this week.
On a more positive note, today was voting day. The wait at the polls was almost two hours, but it provided an interesting opportunity to observe my fellow residents and press a little input into the bigger picture. My fingers are crossed for change with Obama/Biden…
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Ordinarily I…
Assignment: “go do something you would not ordinarily do or something haven’t had time to do this semester. Sit in the park alone for an hour, attend a lecture, go to a museum, take a boat ride, visit an old person.”
Ordinarily I…do get out and try to do things beyond of my own routine, so I guess my routine is by definition “extra-ordinary.” Ha, not really. In the sense of being outdoors though, I played soccer again on Friday, which was great, as ITP won again (yes, we’re currently undefeated). I also went to a presentation at Eyebeam and an exhibit at Bitforms on Saturday. It seemed like it had been awhile since I had done something like this, perhaps the first this semester. Given the cold and growing depth of my personal geeking, I think I’ve actually spent more time indoors this week than others, and it seems a little strange for me. For example, I spent a fair amount of time on a couple unnecessary activities 1) re-subscribing to Netflix and rating more than 400 movies and 2) installing VMware Fusion and Ubuntu. Beyond this rambling, I did do something that seems to be perhaps a better fit for this assignment. On Sunday (laundry day), we stopped and walked through Fort Greene Park to observe the annual Halloween Festival for an hour or so. It was pretty adorable. Frida Kahlo was my favorite costume.
I got a good night’s rest last night and woke up with possible project ideas on the brain, initially for my Flash course. The train of thought gained enough momentum that I decided to boot up and write a little to start my day…
Flash is an application that motivates and reassures me sometimes. Why? Well, it’s a piece of software that combines technical coding (with Action Script) and visual design (with the ide). It’s a blend similar to ITP itself — on a micro or macro level, depending on your perspective. AS3 specifically seems to be more hardcore than AS1 or AS2, more closely related to other object oriented programming languages, so that’s positive in the sense that my draw to the application will automatically force me to improve my “engineering” self. And there’s Flex and Flex builder for development, which I still don’t fully understand, but seem beneficial, much the same as Eclipse is beneficial for Java and other software development. The ide with Photoshop-like tools and a timeline is much more natural for me to use, since I would consider myself a visually oriented person, and my instances of “flow” generally occur when I’m creating something visual. I remember spending many hours in a foundation design course on simple assignments, not because I hadn’t fulfilled the requirements already, but because I was so wrapped up in analyzing different possibilities until my eye was satisfied.
Anyway, needless to say, I think Flash is great, and I will improve my skills with it with time undoubtedly. But this entry should be more about my ideas interconnecting coursework and general career path / project direction. I took a class with Amit Pitaru called Designing for Constraints last year. It wasn’t a stressful course, but it was challenging, built new skills, and exposed my mind to various new concepts, which is really my ideal course. In the context of this mornings brainstorming, it is relevant for a couple reasons. 1- Amit is an interesting instructor and I suspect a really cool person, whose path I’d like to know better and potentially follow, and 2- I made a game in his class called Burbujitas, which I could work on evolving now. If I do expand the game, it would become a project both for Flash and Live Web; it would be significant enough to serve as a fundamental direction/pillar in my ITP work.
The game itself would be assistive, education, and social. The primary audience would be paralyzed individuals who are learning to use sip-and-puff technology and would benefit from a connection with others experiencing the same lessons who might be living in different parts of the world. In short, Burbujitas is a 2-player, lightly (ferociously) competitive game, with a goal of improved coordination and a prize of victory and virtual ice-cream delight. At this point, the controls are marginal and the design functional. As a Flash project, I could take the graphics and animation to the next level and migrate the code to AS3. As a Live Web project, I could add live video screens around or in the game itself to allow players to view their competitor in real-time. This would require the use of shared objects and the Flash Media Server.
Further, I attended a Web2NewYork networking event last night in the Lower East Side (LES), where four groups of young entrepreneurs pitched their concepts to what seemed to be a room full of middle-aged venture capitalists. How does this relate? So, there’s an overload of information in my generation, and ITP, a graduate program focused on technology and the information age doesn’t exactly reduce the amount of information, though it does offer ways of filtering and understanding the information at times. This perhaps is why I’m so drawn to meditation/sleep, exercise, and dreams as a form of escape. Additionally, maybe it’s part of why I want to keep “quality of life” at the core of my work. Getting back to the event last night, I’m reminded that much of what my peers and I are reading and thinking about is designing for and actually building the future of technology and thus the future of interaction and society. I’ve put myself in an environment where staying on the cutting edge is the aim. In one sense, I think of this as progressive thought and infinitely important. On the other hand, I think it’s super challenging to come up with original ideas for the traditional privileged audiences that seem to be easier to keep in sight. So, as the masses move forward, are their populations needing better designs, needing universal designs? Clearly. What’s keeping me from having my focus there?
End brain dump. A good night of sleep is… good.
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ITP social and such
After another excellent game of intramural soccer today, I realized I’ve been documenting my projects and some random thoughts, but I haven’t noted other pieces of ITP / NYU that are treating me quite well (i.e. soccer, Coles Rec Center, foosball, TNO, floor conversations). I’m not sure how well I will remember all this later on, and I don’t always have the camera on hand, so I should do myself a favor and at least leave a partial log.
Today was another soccer victory for ITP’s Baked Potatoes (don’t know where the name came from or what it means). We play on Friday mornings at 10 am at the East River Park. It’s difficult to wake up sometimes, given the time and the Thursday Nights Out, but getting the blood flowing and having some athletic comradery during the week is great.
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End September
So this weekend was fairly crazed, with basically three back-to-back “out nights,” including a Bulgarian bar, a connect-four /cupcake house party, and a big awesome BAMtakover event. Plus, there was the DUMBO arts festival stuff. On the upside, lots of fun was had. On the downside, several goof teenagers tried to grab miss Marlencita, and I got popped in the jaw twice for no good reason. It sucks and the po-po was of no help, but we’re safe and living. More positive news involves a job opportunity for above mentioned lady (woohoo!), school-work accomplished, and a more polished look for my blog. I’ve been experimenting with different themes and am currently satisfied with a tweaked version of Hemingwayex, which is an upgraded version of Hemingway itself. Good times overall.
