04.21.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:45 am by Tammy
After spending the latter half of the evening telling myself repeatedly that I could play just one more round of the game Tradewinds instead of doing my CS assignment (due at 6 am!), I was pretty impressed that I managed to finish everything on time and still feel like I did a pretty good job without having to cram. Of course, finishing my homework on time is not an indication that I will actually arrive at class on time, but I figured being fifteen minutes late for a 2 and a half hour class wouldn’t be too bad.
So imagine my surprise, upon walking into our small seminar classroom, of having the professor announce “Tammy, you have just won an award…” (pause for dramatic effect while I wonder if I might actually be called out for being late to class) “for being the person to turn in the assignment the latest at 5:48 am.” Oops, I guess he does pay attention to our email timestamps. Thankfully, he also presented me with a free cup of coffee (which I desperately needed…yay!) so I didn’t have to spend too long debating whether I was supposed to be embarrassed or amused, and instead just very gratefully accepted the free caffeine . Apparently, my work at school has not gone unnoticed…
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03.24.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:42 am by Tammy
So my group’s design project for our Comm class was asked to present at a poster session at the MediaX Conference at Stanford, a conference about interdisciplinary research. We created a PC tablet-like device that looks like an Etch-a-Sketch that can be used for storytelling to AIDS orphans in China. The monkey mentor character in the device tells Chinese fables and traditional folk tales in an attempt to teach children how to have a healthy attitude despite losing their parents. It ended up being well-received, which was pretty exciting, and we had a number of requests for prototypes (I see another technical nightmare looming).
Steve and Erik, you will be tickled to know that the character of the monkey was partially inspired by the Monkey King =D.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:37 am by Tammy
Steve was nice enough to not only come to our HCI class final project show, but to also write an entry in his blog. And of course, he referenced my blog in it, so I figured I should describe a little about my project. Plus, it was totally awesome. I can say this because our project incorporated a Dance Dance Revolution pad, which automatically means our project was either the coolest or the geekiest. I’ll leave it to the rest of you to decide. Plus, I was our technical lead in this project–yes, I am very impressed by my own meager skills. (I totally have to thank our TA, Bjoern, and the PALette group for being patient and and always willing to lend a helping hand.)
The goal or our project was to help market skirts which are hand-embroidered garments by artisans in India, who now have the chance to earn a decent living wage by using traditional culturla skills. We decided to create an interaction that strengthened the bond between shopper and artisan, so that ideally socially conscious shoppers felt validated by their purchase and more likely to return, and non-socially conscious shoppers might develop some social consciousness. We created a prototype of a giant photomosaic depicting one of the artisans, and every time someone bought a skirt, she was given a tile to add to the mosaic, as a symbol of joining a community of socially conscious shoppers. When the tile is placed on the mosaic, depending on the placement (the shopper is guided by an LED that tells them where to place the tile), a video pops up next to the mosaic with the artisan talking about her life in India. So where do the DDR pads come in? Well, we use the DDR pad so that users can walk around to select the color of the tile, as opposed to a boring click-through desktop interface.
If I learn how to put up pictures online, I’ll post some. Or if anyone is in the area and wants to see it, I now have a giant photomosaic sitting in my car =P…
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12.11.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:34 am by Tammy
My poor blog has been sadly neglected. Apparently, school has left me devoid all wit or humor (though I guess that didn’t really stop me from finding stuff to post before =P). I’ve found a temporary point of amusement: e-type donkey anaphora, so named for the sentence, “Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it.”
Yet linguists seem to have no problem discussing this subject with a straight face. Maybe I’m just starting to lose it…
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10.19.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:00 am by Tammy
I think I’m about to embark upon a hellish week, given that I have a Psych project due Thursday, a Psych midterm on Monday, and two problem sets due on Tuesday. Plus, I still have to maintain my training for the Nike Women’s Half-Marathon, which is this Sunday, though I’ve decided I should taper my training after all (all 4 weeks of it) because my body hurts and I just don’t have much time this week. Of course, I could have more time to do all my work this week if I didn’t feel a need to use all the perks from being in the race (20% off at Niketown, free pasta dinner, pedicures and massages on race day, etc.) . But given that these perks are the main reason I signed up for the marathon - the health benefits being secondary - I just can’t give those up. I know… I totally have my priorities in check. But it’s just one little hell week, and (Fong knows why I’m saying this) like diarrhea, this will eventually pass in a matter of days. And then I will have midterms to look forward to! Nope, that’s not sarcasm. At the moment, midterms mean no assignments for a week - yay! (My denial is alive and well if I remember midterms as being the low point in work in the semester.)
Of course, this week would probably pass a little faster and healthier if I were working on my project, instead of writing in my blog. Like I said, my priorities are totally in check. =P
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10.04.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:14 pm by Tammy
The freshmen at Stanford were born in 1987. And they don’t even seem to realize that there is something inherently wrong with that fact (I mean, were they even old enough to stay up and watch the series premier of Friends?). They’re cute, though, with their smooth unlined faces (or acne-ridden faces), bouncy walks, and lack of awareness that in fact it is true that everything will start to go downhill from here on in.
And yes, CS students are still overall the worst-looking (and smelliest) students. No more sitting in the middle of the classroom for a good view of the board. Nope, I’m hanging out by the door in the corner from now on.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 11:04 pm by Tammy
I thought there would be nothing to distract me from schoolwork, now that I am away from procrastination-filled undergraduate campus life. I was wrong. My dad practicing karaoke in the next room (with headphones, no less, so that all I hear is him) is worse than having people screaming and running down the hall. It’s certainly funny =P, though it doesn’t make up for the TV I will not get to watch since I will now be re-reading all of my Psych homework.
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09.26.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:47 am by Tammy
That’s the thought that has been running through my head all day. Classes start tomorrow, and up until this afternoon, I hadn’t even figured out my schedule yet. But even so, if I’m thinking of my life in the context of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I’m probably being a little melodramatic. That’s also what I told myself this afternoon. Then I sat down to look up some courses, and discovered that half my required classes have disappeared from the syllabus, and sadly, I don’t think that means that I get to skip these requirements now. Don’t Panic! The message from the Hitchhiker’s Guide got bolder and brighter in my mind–and also started to flash with increasing frequency. I showed up on campus for a meeting at the Career Development Center this evening and discovered that the CDC is no longer in the building that I remember. And of course none of the freshmen I asked in the bookstore even knew what the CDC was, much less where it was. The Don’t Panic was pretty much in full force at that point, making it even more difficult to figure out where I was and how to get to the new CDC building. Having to consult the campus map every 5 steps while only a block away from my freshmen dorm was ridiculously demoralizing. (Really, I used to take shortcuts throughout that whole area, and yes, it’s been 8 years, but come on, how am I going to find any of my classes tomorrow???) Thankfully, my meeting was with other students who also have been buying beer legally for many years now, and listening to them all voice their own concerns (which are not so different from mine) has reduced the Don’t Panic back to a small (smaller, anyways) flashing sign in the corner. It’s a little like one of those television network watermarks that stay on during the whole show–subtly reminding you that you are watching CBS–and to which viewers have become so accustomed, they forget they’re there, until suddenly it’s blocking something important on the show. So finally, I think I’m pretty much ready for class tomorrow. And it’s not till 11–the time at which I somehow always ended up getting to work! Plus, I now have an entire week off for Thanksgiving, which definitely makes up for classes starting on Monday instead of Tuesday. See, I can totally do this.
By the way, for all you capitalist-minded Steves who suggested I sell Dirt on eBay, tell me how to resell my textbooks from 6 years ago. This poor student thing is way harder than it used to be…
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09.24.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:03 am by Tammy
After over a month of searching, calling Sephora, and visiting his salon, I finally managed to get my hands on Jonathan Antin’s (”star of reality TV series, “Blow Out,” as he is described by all news articles) Dirt texturizing paste. I read about it a few years ago, but had no way to get my hands on it then. Once he went big with his new product line (Jonathan Product), I was determined to get it. Little did I know (since I TiVo’d the show and didn’t watch it for a month) that everyone else was equally excited about Dirt and that it would be sold out everywhere. But I lucked out and found it in the Sephora at Stanford, where the salespeople had only just gotten the Jonathan Product line and were still completely oblivious to how difficult it is to find Dirt everywhere else.
Preliminary experimenting shows that it does seem to make my hair more fabulous, but it’s hard to tell just how much right now. Maybe once I start actually styling my hair…or brushing it… I’m starting to look like a frumpy housewife, since I spent much of this week at home in pjs. Then again, the tens of thousands of frumpy housewives didn’t hesitate to buy Dirt on QVC–which really tells us, I think, that life is always better if you have great hair.
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09.19.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:22 pm by Tammy
I always knew no good would come from the Sims 2 Nightlife Expansion Pack coming out in the fall that I finally returned to school. But I think I’ve found a way to make it work. If I buy it right now, I still have an entire week to fritter away all my time and not sleep with few or no consequences. Then it’ll be all out of my system just in time for classes to start. How perfect is that plan?! I mean sure, I could just use some self-restraint and not buy the game at all or learn how to limit my game time to an hour a day, but if I already know that that’s bound to fail, then really, I think getting the expansion pack now is the best preventative measure I could possibly take. And, I could totally just let my Sims run around on their own free will while I cleaned my room. It’d be perfect…like having the TV on in the background, right?!?! Oh, who am I kidding… I’m such a control freak I’d just end up running their lives once I realize they don’t do all their homework and seem to fall in love with ugly Sims. It’s no wonder my Sims end up depressed and in need of therapy…they all have an omnipotent Asian mommy. (This does not at all dilute my argument for why I need to start playing the new expansion pack right away though, right?!?!?!?!?!?!)
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