Interfaces, Internships, and... Houses? If HCI had an equivalent to X-Games, this project would be part of it. Ultimate HCI... move the computer into the brain!
So my intership is going amazingly well, considering the fact that I don't think I've really accomplished much. Everyone else thinks I have accomplished a lot, and I suppose that's what counts. I'm giving a presentation to upper level management the first week in August on my work with Common Components, and I have the potential to keep this job in some form or another during the school year. Which would be cool, but might actually require me to, I don't know, move to a planet with 30 hour days.
And we're thinking of buying a house. Torn, actually, between buying something sensible and, you know, cheap... and buying the house we really want. We're looking at about a $50k difference between the two, which is, interestingly enough, the price of a 2007 Shelby Mustang GT500. (not that we could get both... I'm just saying is all). We should figure something out, pretty shortly, I hope. The possibility of continueing my internship has changed the situation some... So yeah. Decisions are more complicated when you are a grown-up, I guess.
Ran to Huntsville for like, 30-something hours. Saw my sister graduate. And came home. (Also saw David and Nichole for like, 20 minutes... the only thing we chose to do all weekend) :)
Then spent a Saturday at Sixflags (while trying not to die of the worst head cold evar). Had an ok time, ate a corn dog (yay for corn dogs), and some cotton candy (but not as much as I wanted).
Friday, I'm going to a conference on Human Factors at Rice. The nSaturday we're going to Memphis, and we'll be ther until sometime Monday.
Rediscovered facebook. it is teh awesome. Found lots of old high school friends (and middle school friends, and elementary school friends)... having a good time messaging back and forth with them. Also re-connected with some college friends (or at least let them know I was still alive). Peer pressured Chad into being on facebook... working on some other people. :-)
I need more sleep, as usual, and more hours in the day.
Happy Fat Tuesday... So I totally missed out on Mardis Gras this year. Chad and I were going to catch the start of hte parades in Galveston weekend before last, but the weather was gross. And we were thinking about this past weekend... but I was at Rice all weekend.
Where I had a great time. And found out lots of important things. I now have a major professor, and it looks like I have (interesting) research for the fall. I will most likely be working on the design of non-traditional computing devices, specifically medical equipment. The campus is beautiful, and I really liked everyone in the department. Fall can't get here fast enough, seriously.
And we bought a lawn mower yesterday. One more step into the real world of grown-ups, I guess.
Ha. If you're ever looking for a good article on why user interfaces don't necessarily make or break a project... try an article called "Heckel’s law: conclusions from the user interface design of a music appliance — the bassoon." It was published in Personal & Ubiquitous Computing (Jul2004, p208). If you can't find it, e-mail me and I send you a pdf copy (I'd post it, but it's not online... copyright laws and all that). A must read if you ever even thought about playing a woodwind instrument. Really.
This is my brain..... in part, at least.
