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November 24, 2004
Fall '04 Final Projects
The last three weeks of the semester bring with them the final projects of the fall. Here's everything I have to do between now and winter break:
- Journal Layout. For Graduate Typography, designing and laying out six pages of a fake journal. We got to choose the content, so mine is a literary journal whose theme is "20 Years of Don DeLillo's White Noise." (Dec. 14)
- Networked Art Piece for Interactive Graphics. I'm designing a program that fetches custom RSS feeds from Yahoo News based on user input, then shows the headlines in some sort of expressive typography display. (Dec. 9)
- Fine Draft, Thesis Paper. Finishing and refining my draft of my thesis paper. I'm on page 26 of about 35 as of this morning. (Dec. 17)
- Paper Prototype, Pile Cabinets. Create and test a set of paper prototypes of my thesis project. (Dec. 10)
- Poster of my thesis project, to be presented to faculty and classmates (and hopefully at CHI). (Dec. 17)
- Abstract and Paper for CHI on my thesis project, to go along with the poster. (Dec. 6)
Obviously, a busy time.
Posted by Dan at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Drawing with Fungus
It's been a while since I've posted any projects from my interactive graphics class. I just finished this small drawing program (page with 108k java applet). I was trying for an organic feel with the spreading ink and it ended up looking like growing mold. Some of my classmates solutions
Posted by Dan at 08:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 23, 2004
Hi M.O.M.
Another week, another poster. This time, an event in a familiar place (ie. Pittsburgh). My event was a local tattoo convention.
Apologies for the large image, but since I'm underwhelmed with how this turned out (despite the best efforts of my model) there's no sense in providing a pdf. But I did want to show it, if only for the hours of effort that was poured into it. And maybe it's not as flawed as I think, who knows.
Posted by Dan at 12:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 22, 2004
Sick of It All
If you’re fine, you can wait
Don’t mention that you’re sick of this place
Say you’re not sold, you’re sick of it all
Say you’re not sold, you’re sick of it all
Just as long as it takes
What’s the upside of this place?
-Pete Yorn, "Carlos (Don't Let It Go To Your Head)"
This is a rant from a tired, burned out man. I can understand if you'd want to skip this post. You've been warned.
I am so sick of school. I'm tired of everything: the projects, the classes, the constant, unrelenting work. The lack of money. The lack of free time. (I haven't read a work of fiction in a year and a half.) The constant feeling that you are falling behind and need to be working on something. It's wearing me down and making me irritable and angry.
I feel like I don't have the time to do anything as well as I'd like, thus everything I'm doing sorta sucks. Everything is suffering. And I don't have the adrenaline (or, frankly, the desire) that I had last fall to just stay up until 2 a.m. every night to make it all come out all right. I am just creatively drained. Although I'm still learning a lot, the projects are all starting to just feel like impediments to my graduating, rather than being enjoying unto themselves.
Adding to my agony is the knowledge that I don't want to feel this way. I want to enjoy and appreciate school. I'm paying through the nose for it, after all. And I chose to do this. No one has to go to graduate school. And many would kill to be here, doing what I'm doing and learning what I'm learning. It's just exhausting and right now, I can't wait until it's over. I so envy the HCI students with their one-year program, and the classmates who've already graduated.
I'm hoping this is just some end-of-the-semester funk, because I've still got six months left of school to make it through. I am so over it.
Posted by Dan at 06:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack