I love it when you're tired, and you are just sitting at your computer not doing anything in particular, and you're thinking "Hmmm, I'm tired, I should probably go to bed." But you don't, and instead you just keep staring at your computer, and maybe you go and make a really stupid entry in your blog...
In General
Posted at 01:08 AM | Permanent link
Man, I love the girl smell. I really miss it.
In General
Posted at 04:10 AM | Permanent link
This past weekend was quite the creative weekend for me.
On Saturday morning, I made it out to the Cleveland Museum of Art with my Dad. Right now they are showing a collection of Jasper Johns' "number" pieces. I really liked these a lot. After looking at some of his other works, I think that I would like to read a bit more about Johns.
I also decided that I really like Roy Lichtenstein as well.
On Saturday afternoon, CIA was having an open house for prospective students. Given that my sister is thinking about going there, she participated, and I decided to tag along for the fun of it. I've walked through CIA studio space a few times now (many times when I wasn't supposed to be there), and each time I have really enjoyed doing so. There is just something really cool about being in the middle of so much creativity, seeing all the projects in progress. There's just something very raw and beautiful about it all, much more so in my opinion than just walking through a gallery.
It makes me wonder how other professions could benefit from that kind of an atmosphere. What would computer science be like if we set aside a significant portion of time just to think of ideas for projects and run with them?
At any rate, given that this was more of an "official" tour, I also got to see the computer art department, where they work on interactive applications and a lot of three-dimensional modeling. One student even showed us one of his past homework assignments: animating a guy moving a really heavy box. Wickedly cool! If only I could have homework like that. Makes me wonder what would have happened if I would have gone that route...
On Sunday, I went to Playhouse Square for the first time to see Hamlet with Amy Chan and friends. The play was totally badass! I enjoyed it a great deal. I remember reading Hamlet in eighth grade and barely understanding a word of it. Needless to say, things have changed. That Bill Shakespeare certainly knew what he was doing (who knew?) :) When I was down in North Carolina, I remembered hearing about a Shakespearian play company that put on performances around Chapel Hill. I may just have to check that out when I get back down there.
In General
Posted at 04:05 PM | Permanent link
So I saw The Matrix Revolutions this past week. Overally, I was pretty disappointed with it. By itself, I actually don't think it was a bad movie, but as a Matrix movie, I thought it was very poor. Unfortunately it didn't bother with explaining much of any of the questions that were raised in Reloaded (which was the whole reason that I was anticipating this movie so much). Also, although there were some really amazing battle scenes, for a a Matrix movie I am much more interested in kick-ass Kung Fu inside the Matrix, than I am in a futuristic war movie.
On the bright side, as a war movie, I thought there were some very creative ideas on how the machines attacked (like a swarm of bees), and I overall liked the hive/insect mentality of the machines strategy. The special effects for these parts were amazing, but I would have liked to have seen all this in a different movie, and something more focused for the final Matrix movie in the trilogy.
Ah well. There's always The Return of the King, and Kill Bill Vol 2....
In General
Posted at 04:45 PM | Permanent link
Today, I spent some time reading Bruce Eckel's weblog. I recently picked up a copy of his book, Thinking in Java, and the more I read his stuff, the more I like the guy.
One of his entires, The Ideal Programmer, is chock full some very insightful viewpoints on the field. In the entry, he links to an essay, written by a Computer Science professor, entitled "The psychology of Learning" which spells out explictely a lot of things that it seems I have known intuitively for a long time, but never really been able to put my finger on. It does indeed make me want to be more perfection-oriented.
All very interesting, thought-provoking reads.
Material like this just makes me want to take significant blocks of time and read up on "The Art of doing X". The problem is that there are just so many different Xs and who has the time? Invariably, whenever I spend a large amount of time studying a topic that is not immediately pressing to my situation, I feel like I am neglecting those things that are (homework/studying, and soon to be work), even though I know that I will benefit greatly from it in the long run.
I think that I ideally need to get into some kind of routine where I just automatically set aside a certain percentage of time, week to week, for studying the art of doing x.
I find the burnout is till the biggest problem with schemes like this, and how to combat that? That's the holy grail. Hmm...
In Matters involving the art of avoiding sloth
Posted at 02:34 PM | Permanent link