Well, I haven’t been posting here because I’ve been putting all of my free time and energy into my marriage, my house, and my grad school.  My, my my… Seems a little self-centered when I put it that way (and maybe it is).

My wife is helping me clean up my office.  I might be a bit of a pack-rat especially when it comes to things that might be useful in the future (like my friend Kevin who has a collection of disassembled printer gears, rods, and other things).  Basically this means that I keep all papers (never know when you might need to refer back to that information!), all outdated technology (why throw away a perfectly good coax cable?), and anything else that might cost something to replace (I know I have 50 different stacks of half-used post-it’s… but they’re useful).  However, with my beautiful wife’s loving encouragement, I’m throwing away old papers, parting with old technology, and organizing everything I’m going to keep.  I will admit, my office is getting neater.  And that’s a good thing.  It’s more functional this way, though I’m sure (if I wanted to – not that I have) I could argue that my office was functional before the cleaning as well.

On the grad school side of things, I’m updating the blog regularly now that I’ve started to build my actual project.  My project is building a game using a certain exploratory methodology.  You can read more about it if you want to.  But basically, I have to document every day I work on the project so I have it all archived when I write my thesis paper (if you have to spend 50 pages writing about a single focused topic, it had better be something you like and you had better document all of your sources).  Some people might question why I chose to create a game for my thesis when all my background and focus is in interactive media design and development.  The short answer to that question is basically that I see an important language emerging from this current / the next generation which is heavily based on gaming.  I think there are some important issues around gaming (doing good, reward systems, critical thinking) and I think gaming and education relate to each other on multiple levels (beyond the obvious).  I am one of those who believe all games teach (thank you Raph Koster) and as a teacher, I need to study this form of teaching.  Additionally, I’m using my interactive skills (project management, Flash / AS3 Coding, design, art) in producing this game, so in that way it’s directly applicable.  My hope is that this process will make me a better, more relevant teacher in years to come.  All that said, I also enjoy games immensely and I see game design as an artform.

So that’s my update for this quarter… ha!

On a side note, Josephine Leong and SuAnne Fu (both at SCAD) are really excellent teachers.  I’ve had a couple teachers in grad school that I haven’t really understood (which makes me more empathetic to my own students) but those two are really amazing.  I respect them very much.

About to start grad school – again.  This time I’m going for an MFA.  Still at Savannah, just the deeper degree.  I’m looking forward to it.  I enjoy the structured shell within which to experiment.

In other news I’ve been doing some spring cleaning around the house.  Both physically and digitally I’ve been getting organized and throwing out the old.  It feels good to purge a bit.  I’ve been contemplating which domains and things to keep as well.  Still a bit unsure.

In the last few months I’ve done quite a lot of reading on Game Design.  I’m looking forward to writing a bit on the topic.  I really enjoy games and think they have a lot of untapped potential in our society.

I finished my Masters degree Thursday. Feels good to be done. WooHoo!

The 4027 Error

I had the funniest error message on a computer at the school this morning.  After I rebooted it was fine, but it made me smile.  It’s now floating around to all the techs.  The screen capture is to the left, but the error read as follows:

“You can’t use this version of the application EPSON Scan with this version of Mac OS X.
You have Mac OS X 10.6.4. The application requires Mac OS X 214753.53.9 or later.”

Mac OS X 214,753?  Is it year 4027 yet?  I thought it was 2010! And where’s my rocket pack?

My wife and I just got back from a very restful trip out to the Shepherd of the Ozarks Camp in Arkansas.  It was really wonderful.  I scheduled next to nothing, made some new friends and caught up on sleep.  I finished two books while I was there – The Design of Everyday Things, which I’m reading for a class this semester, and On Intelligence, which I read just for fun.  I felt as though The Design of Everyday Things would be best rewritten as a brochure about design – there were some really great points, but the book did not need to be 272 pages.

On Intelligence, however, was wonderful.  The book is by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee.  Jeff Hawkins started Palm, among other things, and is a neuroscientist along with his many other technology ventures.  He talks about a general idea of brain function, specifically dealing with the neo-cortex, but casts the whole thing in a technological light.  His discoveries have serious implications for intelligence in computer systems.  He outlines a new system, better than neural networks and has a company called Nuementa which is trying to implement that system.  I won’t be using his work this semester in grad school, but I am using neural networks to do some basic pattern recognition.  I wish I had more time to research his technology.  If you want to know more about Jeff Hawkins, you might check out his talk at Stanford.

I also met a wonder retired professor that has become a friend and I look forward to talking more.  He’s been very helpful so far in providing some much needed guidance to a career path that seems a little ambiguous at times.  All in all, it was a really wonderful trip.

Theo Jansen rocks.  I bought his book The Great Pretender to read partly for pleasure and partly for a class I’m in.  I’m writing a paper on Jansen and 2 other sculpture artists.  It’s very interesting reading.  He has used genetic algorithms, among other things, in developing his “beach animals“.  I love it.  I’ve done some experimentation with genetic algorithms myself, though I have yet to use them as effectively as he has.

On a reading break today I checked Facebook (sigh) and AID alumni Chris Griffith posted a note about “one of the best Flash games he’s ever played,” which caught my attention.  It’s Record Tripping by the Bell Brothers.  Go check it out.  Very interesting stuff.

I’m still banging away in grad school.  I’ll be taking 15 hours next semester.  Fortunately two of those classes are programming classes and *should* be a cake walk.  We shall see.

Has anyone ever thought that the public might not be able to support the music or movie industry as it is?  That perhaps we shouldn’t be trying to save these industries, but let them die back to something the public will be able to support.  Much like a plant, maybe it’s a natural process of purging the excess, irrelevant, dead blooms so that the good will be able to live.

You might be a geek if… you believe you can do anything, provided there’s proper documentation.

Well, I got everything sent off to apply to grad school (SCAD) this week.  Now I’m waiting for some kind of word back.  Though I doubt they’ve received the materials yet as I sent them Wednesday.  Just nice to have everything out the door.

In the process of writing and thinking about my process and purpose I have decided to start carrying a notebook again.  And, mind you, not a computer but a real live notebook with a pen and everything.  I think I was at my most creative when I did, and I need to return to that mentality.

In other news, I’ve been working with genetic algorithms for the first time.  It’s a combination of binary, Flash’s drawing api, evolution, etc for the sake of creating something beautiful.  Right now it’s totally separate from the artificial neural network development I’ve been doing the past couple years, but there my eventually be a convergence.

I’ve added a link to the right for the portfolio I sent in to grad school.

Oatmeal Cream Pie and Juice

So I’m a member of This Is Awesome Club as of yesterday.  You can read the faq and about sections, but basically this kid really loves oatmeal cream pies and apple juice, so his dad started a club for him, for people who love the same.  I joined and part of joining is taking a photograph of yourself with your juice and pie.  Feeling rather artistically inclined after lunch with Braun, I took some photos.  The photo you see on the left is what I submitted to the site (click on the photo to see the full version).  I’m “Professor Half Face”.  Ha.