A multi-media meme
I don’t usually participate in memes that make the rounds on facebook and blogs, but a couple people have tagged me for this album cover meme and I couldn’t resist the chance to practice some random creativity.
Here’s the deal:
Create your own RANDOM Band and Album cover!
1 – Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 – Go to “Random quotations” or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 – Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 – Use photoshop or similar to put it all together (I used Gimp).
5 – If you’re using Facebook, post your result with this text in the “caption” and TAG the friends you want to join in. If you’re not using facebookm do whatever the heck you want to tag people!
I’m going to tag some folks via Facebook, but if anyone else feels like posting this to their blog please meme away!
Back from hiatus
I figure if I can find the time to help friends launch/update/customize their blogs this week, I should be able to find time to update my own blog!
Where did all the time go? When I last posted here I was in the midst of a job hunt, and now I’m happy to report I’ve been employed as a User Experience Architect for two whole months! I’m working for a great little consulting company in downtown Vancouver and am thoroughly enjoying the “real world” and all of the 8-hour work days, email-less evenings and paycheques that come along with it.
One consequence of having distinctly separate work and play times is that when I’ve been working at a computer all day (and I don’t have to worry about checking my work email into the evening! woo hoo!) I am less likely to want to come home and check my personal email, read RSS feeds, etc. While I certainly haven’t stopped reading blogs or email over the past two months, I have enjoyed leading a slightly more “unplugged” life. However, I think the time has come to plug back into the matrix, so look for more here soon.
Come run with us on Wednesdays!
Our first weekly Vancouver running meetup last week was a success so we’re making it a regular thing.
This week we’re meeting up at 6pm near City Square. I’ve created a permanent page for our group with details on the run. It’ll be updated weekly.
Vancouver Twitterers’ Weekly Run Group
The idea of a weekly running meetup has been bandied about by a few Vancouverites on Twitter, and I have decided to unilaterally declare this week our official first run!
The regular time for our run will be 6:30pm on Wednesdays, and the location will rotate based on group membership so we’re not always starting at the same location. For this week, we’ll start in the west end near my apartment. Next week maybe it’ll be Kitsilano or somewhere else convenient to other group members.
What: Vancouver Tech/Blogger/Twitter Running Group
When: 6:30pm, Wednesday September 17th
Where: In front of the Inukshuk on the seawall, near the corner of Bidwell & Beach
All levels are welcome! I know that some people who have expressed interest are fairly new to running, while others are seasoned veterans. We’ll make sure everyone is included, no matter what their experience.
If you think you’ll be able to make it please leave a comment on this post!
Excuse the mess
As you can see I’ve got a new design for this here blog, but I’m still fixing little things here and there. If something looks wonky don’t worry -it’ll be fixed soon.
New RSS
I’ve just moved to Feedburner for my RSS syndication. If you’d like to subscribe, you can find me at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jkparker
HCI at the movies
As a user interface designer, I get a kick out of seeing some of the cool (or ridiculous!) interfaces that filmmakers dream up. Interactions, an HCI journal, had a neat article about this phenomenon a couple years back:
Can you remember the first science fiction movie you ever saw? What about the first science fiction program you ever saw on television? Can you remember what you thought about the user-interface design or user experience of any computer-based telecommunication system presented in these shows? And what about today? Do you cast a critical eye on the technology and its use whenever you watch the latest movie or video presentation about a world of the future?
CHI at the Movies and on TV, Aaron Marcus
I saw Iron Man last month and appreciated it as a great superhero movie, but also loved the fact that Robert Downey Jr.’s workshop had an elaborate gesture-based interface. Not something we’re likely to see in the mass market anytime soon, but not so far off from the bleeding edge of research!
The summer movie I’m really looking forward to, though, is Get Smart. If there was ever an opportunity for the filmmakers to dream up some ridiculous interfaces, this is it! (Shoe phone, anyone?)
Miss 604 is giving away tickets to a preview showing that’s happening tomorrow night, and I’d love to have them.
Two Fun Research Studies
I recently stumbled upon two research studies that are very relevant to my daily life, since they deal with two of my favourite things: public transit and wine!
A mathematician at Harvard has done a research study which appeals to my lazier tendencies. Have you ever waited for a bus and eventually given up and walked to your destination? Scott Kominers has shown that it’s almost always better to keep waiting at the stop. Yes! My lazy waiting strategy (often ridiculed by Dan) is vindicated!
And on the wine front: Researchers from CalTech and Stanford hooked subjects up to a brain scanner and had them taste wine at supposedly different price points. It turns out that people enjoy a wine a lot more when they’re told it costs $90, than when they’re told the exact same wine costs $10.
Why can’t my research be this fun?
Lazy Sunday
Conferences are so much fun, but also oh-so-tiring!
I attended my first Northern Voice this past Friday and Saturday and had a great time. While blogging and social media aren’t really related to my personal area of study in HCI (I study people collaborating in the same space, rather than online) they are definitely areas of personal interest to me. I met lots of cool local (and not-so-local) bloggers, and saw lots of great talks.
At the conference I also realized that many bloggers aren’t techies like me, and there is definitely a market for someone who could help install WordPress or Drupal, or tweak a blog template to look a bit more original. What’s a reasonable hourly price for a blog software consultant? Because some of the prices I see people being charged for this stuff are crazy! I occasionally help friends with their sites or do a one-off project for a group I am affiliated with, but I am not very good at putting a price on my time. I am also not always the greatest at time management and am worried that freelance work would eat into thesis time. But if I could make it work it might be a good way to share my tech knowledge with others and supplement my grad student income.
Speaking of time management, today I’m trying to get my head back into “thesis” mode, as I need to finish up the final draft of my thesis proposal and put the finishing touches on the ethics application for my upcoming user study. I’m feeling pretty tired and unmotivated, though. I’m still decompressing from the conference, and I’m on day 8 of the d-tox, which is probably contributing to my low energy level. Other than having slightly less energy I’m very happy with the d-tox so far. I’ve been sticking to the list of approved foods (with the exception of a couple vodka-sodas at the Northern Voice opening party) and am feeling pretty good. Only five more days to go!
(b)logging
I’m shamelessly stealing Tony’s conversation posting style on this one… But that’s okay because he was the other half of the conversation.
K: So I decided to register for a blogging conference that’s happening in the forestry building at UBC next month.
T: Really?!
K: Yeah, i figure it’s good to see what’s going on outside my immediate research area, and I’m interested in that stuff anyhow.
T: Wow, I didn’t know you were interested in that.
K: Of course I am! Blogging, social media, all that stuff.
T: Wait a minute. Social media? What does that have to do with… – Oh. you said blogging! When you said it was in the forestry building I thought…
K: …that I was going to a logging conference?
T: Yeah.