Category Archives: Today I Made

you know, of stuff I’ve made.

• about a million emails organizing meetings, planning projects, gathering required information, things and stuff. Writing logistical emails wears me out, but not as much as the frustration of not getting things planned. I have strong opinions about the Myers-Briggs personality theory, many of them negative, but I have to admit that when it comes to project work I am such a mastermind.
• tons of progress on the Super Secret Project. It’s been crazy, but I think it’s going to turn out really well, and I’ve learned a lot more about working with InDesign.
• a quick and dirty outline of my capstone presentation
• more Arduino funtimes
• a summary of our HRI interview findings
• another interview of a local nonprofit org for Tech for Social Good
• another HRI reading response, of course
• lots of I101 lab grading

Today I’m hoping to work some more on an arduino side project that I’ve been neglecting, get a few job applications in, and do some writing for my final capstone report. I think I was going to blog more about capstone someday, too.

I also have a meeting for Tech for Social Good that I’m mainly hoping will not be a failure. Remember how I said not getting things planned frustrates me? Well, that class has been a significant source of stress this semester. We’ll see how it turns out in the end.

I’ve been doing things, really I have. But it never feels like I’ve been doing enough things, and when I am feeling unproductive and useless I get stuck in a spiral of being unproductive and useless, and if that continues I will really be in trouble.

So! for the last hour or so I’ve been better, getting some real work done, and now I’m listening to Bach (listening to high-energy dancey pop really helps me get down to doing things like cleaning or cooking, but any music with words completely distracts me from reading or writing or anything that requires a lot of verbal thinking. classical music doesn’t get my energy going the way the pop does, but it does seem to help me focus on more sedentary tasks like reading, writing or programming) and I started the whole lots of things I made deal to help deal with this precise problem, so here’s a big list of stuff that I’ve made lately!

• dinner tonight: Chili and honey chicken legs (super easy! super delicious!) and pasta with roasted red pepper sauce (not quite as easy, but just as delicious) and of course various other foods in the past
• all kinds of physical changes to my capstone arduino prototype over the past few weeks
• all kinds of code changes to my capstone prototype over the past few weeks*
• Illustrator and InDesign documents for the Super Secret Project I mentioned ages ago
• notes on a whole lot of interviews I conducted last week, some for my Tech for Social Good class, some for my Human-Robot Interaction class project, which is ever-so-conveniently related to my capstone project, so I can use some of the interview data in my final capstone report
• more mix CD playlists, but for myself, not for other people this time
• HRI reading responses
• A presentation on our HRI project progress so far
• sketches for our HRI project
• little mini-models of possible forms for our HRI robot prototype (using Model Magic, which is wonderful stuff)
• various adjustments to I101 lessons, example exercises, etc

See, look at that! that’s a lot of stuff! and most of those items are not just one thing but a collection of things I did over time. I’ve just got to establish and maintain momentum. And just now I’ve been doing pretty good too I think, I’ve either been writing this blog or my latest HRI reading reflection, which is now finished.

Another important thing is that I’ve been getting better at waking up and then getting out of bed. I was afraid that the combination of going on daylight savings time and being in a later time zone for a week would really screw me up, but my partner gets up at 6:30 for work, and being with him provides me with some much-needed outside structure, so I generally have much better sleep hygiene when I’m with him. Getting up at 6:30 pacific time for several days, and then getting up at 3:45 to catch my 6 am flight home, seem to have kept my sleep schedule from being too disrupted. And now that it’s spring and the days are lengthening all the time, I tend to have more energy in the mornings and get up more willingly anyway.

Maybe someday I will blog about my sleeping issues. For now I will just say that, with no exaggeration, the number one reason I do not want to get a phd is that the structure of academic life is almost 100% antithetical to my ability to sleep well. The last time I can remember going to bed and falling asleep quickly, staying asleep all night and then waking up feeling well-rested and energetic (and staying that way for most of the day), was once about four years ago when, during winter break my sleeping schedule got severely offset from what I’d need in order to function when I got back to school, so I lived on a 27-hour schedule for a week. If it weren’t for the social awkwardness, it would have been perfect.

* I’ve found starting out by writing pseudocode in my sketchbook is a good way to get myself started on work when using my computer just leads to google reader and youtube and spider solitaire and whatever else I can think of that is not work. Plus it means I’m actually planning out my work better and writing better code the first time around! A win for everyone.

You know, I started blogging on my official professional website here with the intention of writing about my capstone. I have clearly failed to do so. But maybe, now that I am actually building fun little things relating to it, I will? I’m also starting a small independent study project that is related to my capstone, and I’m writing a proposal about that that should serve as a nice capsule introduction to my topic and work so far. Once I get that finished I will probably post it. For now I just have another list.

Lately I’ve made…

• Lots of progress on the grumpasaurus! I just have a little bit left to finish.
• More Arduino experiments, and today Dane figured out to make a circuit with my flexiforce sensor that wasn’t full of random noise obscuring the actual sensor data, and also lent me some components to make it happen. I should really do something nice for him in return.
• Another HRI reading response, I think this one I will post.
• Ideas and plans and such for our HRI group project
• Lentil soup and corn pudding, both delicious
• Super Secret Mockups for the Super Secret Project
• Tweaks to my homepage & portfolio pages
• Boring stuff for the lab I teach.

The best way to keep a secret is not to let anyone know you have one, of course, but in this case I am reasonably confident that the people we are keeping the project secret from do not read my blog and even if they did would probably not suspect much or pressure me to divulge the secret. I hope.

I haven’t applied to any new jobs since the last time I posted a list, but I did ask for people to recommend me on linkedin since I was including my profile info in a couple of applications, and clearly all I need to do the next time I am feeling insecure about a cover letter is reread those recommendations. I mean, obviously I asked them for the recommendations, and it’s not like the people I asked were going to say bad things, but some people wrote rather embarrassingly nice things. Thanks you guys, I like you too!

Still busy making things! Haven’t really been able to work on my knitting, but maybe I will be able to get in some time with the grumpasaurus this weekend.

Since I last posted a list, I have made…

• Lots of sketches and notes and pseudocode for capstone
• More simple Arduino circuits and programs
• The discovery that my weight sensor does not sense weights heavy enough for my project (or else I need to buy some translucent plastic cups instead of trying to use glass)
• A couple more job applications (inspiring last night’s post about cover letters)
• The beginnings of a new iTunes playlist, this one just for fun for myself
• Super Secret Plans for a Super Secret Project I’m working on with some classmates
• Plans for a 1-credit independent study project
• Potential background images for my capstone presentation

In fact I’ve spent the last two hours messing around in Photoshop trying to make background images that satisfy me, instead of working on content like I probably should be. Really what I think I need is a great image of a real prototype of my own, instead of just altering stock photography to try and make it look vaguely relevant.

I’ve also realized I’m becoming happier with my sketching style. It’s nice to look at my work and think “well, this could be better, but it is kind of appealing” instead of “ugh why am I even trying?” Of course this may have to do with the fact that lately all I’ve been sketching is computer equipment and glasses of water and LEDs and other shapes that are mainly rectangles with simple curvy bits, but I’ll take what I can get.

Maybe I should practice drawing people and dogs and stuff in ways that are basically just rectangles with simple curvy bits and a couple suggestive detail lines.

Back when I was using livejournal, I really liked the “current music” feature, maybe just because my last year of high school all my lj friends were quasi-hipsters who were really into indie music, but anyway Pandora just introduced me to this artist Clare Fader and I fell immediately in love and so I’m listening to her now and wanted to tell everyone. I haven’t bothered to add any custom fields to my wordpress theme that I could use as my own “current music” field, so I’ll just have to be obvious about it. Hey everyone, I’m listening to Clare Fader and she’s great.

Alas, I have neglected my blog.

To be honest for a few days there I was sort of in denial about my life and beyond the bare essentials of schoolwork all I did was cook and make houses in The Sims 3. And listen to audiobooks while I made houses in The Sims. But then I ordered an Arduino starter kit, bought some new yarn, got myself back into gear and have been busy making things. Here is a list of them!

• this hat (in my effort to make sure it was not too big, I ended up making it a little smaller than the style is supposed to be. First hat ever to be too small for my tiny head)
• several of these little owls (I don’t know what to do with them, but they’re so cute!)
• the beginnings of a grumpasaurus but I’m new to using double-pointed needles and it’s going slowly
• a couple of mix CDs for friends
• lots of delicious food. I even started a post on my food blog about a recipe, but then kinda abandoned it to the “denial sims-building”
• Sim houses totally count as things I’ve made, though! I put a lot of thought into making them both playable and attractive-looking
• more HRI reading responses that I haven’t posted here. The first few I wrote used the readings as jumping-off points for my own thoughts, but I’ve been writing ones that rely more on the actual content of articles, which seems less appropriate for standalone blogging. One reading did sort of inspire a tangent that wasn’t appropriate to the class assignment that I might make into its own post
• my Arduino kit came today and this evening I’ve made a couple really simple circuits and programs. blinking LEDs!
• An order for these glasses in green. This doesn’t even sort of count as something I actually made, I’m just really excited about the glasses, I think they are supercute

I uh, got really excited about knitting this weekend. And for the first half-hour or so of possessing my Arduino kit I was so excited I couldn’t really focus well enough to do anything with it. I mainly got it for prototyping my capstone project, but I might have to come up with some sort of project that combines knitting and physical computing. Like the Happiness Hat only maybe not involving stabbing people.

That list really ought to involve more cover letters and job applications, but that’s one part of my life I am still in some denial about. I’ve already applied to what is, from everything I can tell, a dream job for me, and I’ll totally get it, right? Right?

Yeah.

Oh! and I posted the mixes to Art of the Mix, because I keep losing iTunes libraries and therefore not having records of the totally sweet playlists I make (I kind of spend a lot of time listening to playlists that started out as mixes for other people). The latest three are the ones I sent her.

I’ve been so bad about posting lists! In my defense I have not had a real good week, including several untimely computer near-disasters. I love computers!!! Actually I’m pretty sure the best reason to go into HCI is because computers drive you crazy.

I’m back to having a usable computer, and I didn’t lose any data, but it’s all on an external drive while I use a hard drive image that is almost a year old. I’m hoping to get back to a more permanent situation this weekend. Anyway, here are some things I’ve made since the last time I posted:

• EMERGENCY COMPUTER SURGERY (a 3-hour comedy of errors!)
• The beginnings of a mix CD for a friend, interrupted by computer emergencies
• Updates to my portfolio
• Cover letters for some job applications
• Yet more cranberry sauce
• Pasta and meat sauce
• A pretty label for my new sketchbook (I like to keep them organized by semester)
• That HRI reading response and a review of human-robot interactions in a movie
• Sketches and an, um, extremely low-fidelity prototype during today’s HCI CONNECT professional networking event
• Sketchnotes of companies’ presentations at said professional networking event

None of the companies at HCI Connect are in Seattle, so I wasn’t really looking to be hired by any of them, but it was still a valuable experience for me. I get some practice with this whole scary “networking” thing, and also an opportunity to learn more about how different companies view design, and designers, and what kind of skills they want to see in the people they hire.

Now I think it may be time to make some rice pudding.

So Monday, I made

• This deliciousness plus some balsamic vinegar
• an unfortunate sartorial choice. Jeans are not enough to protect my lower half from the cold while I wait 15 minutes for a bus.
• plans for teaching my first lab of the semester

I wrote a recipe blog for a while, maybe I should try to do that regularly again.
Maybe after I graduate.

Right now I am too sleepy remember if I made anything worth commenting about yesterday. Today I made that blog post about my HRI reading, and uh…put up some of that plastic film stuff that’s supposed to help insulate your windows.

Oh I know what else I made:

• an excel file for tracking grades
• a contact list for emailing students in my lab

I bet those are just as boring to read about as they were to make. Be glad it didn’t take you nearly as long to do.