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Learning what wasn’t taught
A good part of this afternoon was spent trying to figure out something someone else engineered years ago. It’s been too long since the process was crafted. No documentation of course. Who does that?
That is the story of my life lately. I find myself walking so many paths I’ve been down before, every day. The challenges and confusion that confront me; I know you. We’ve danced this dance before.
Whether it’s homework or figuring out a bash script that fiddles with crazy Cygwin to Windows permissions, I’m not unfamiliar with your deceptive and crafty moves. So easy to feign ignorance but that’s not me. I can figure this stuff out. I’ve always told myself: if someone else figured it out, so can I.
Not always so easy though. Solving riddles take a creative and flexible mind. You need to be able to think of things to test, to probe, to verify, before you can make an assertion. Design claims not withstanding, asserting that something was done for a reason is no different.
Image: This was taken at work about a week ago. My custom monitor stand is kind of lame. And I went through a can of spray paint for that?
Trying for something
After my 4pm class ended today I headed to Cafe Royale to fill my coffee thermos. Maybe not the best idea, but I had a three hour class staring me in the face and I’d been up late the night before. And it’s looking like I’ll be up late again tonight. But I’m not working on a presentation, a paper, a design claim, a blog post1, or reading some journal article or book chapter.
This past weekend was almost exclusively devoted to school work. I know, I’m tired of hearing it too…but I need to make note of these things. Mixed in with studies was a funeral for the older sister of a dear friend. We shared pain in hope of relieving it in some minuscule way.
But the rest of the weekend was devoted to studying. Except when I did some chores around the house. Though I’m not saying what I did comes close to what others2 have been doing these weekends where I hole up in my cave to work on school stuff.
A classmate and I had submitted a business proposal to a local venture capitalist company that trolls the creative at SI. We were selected as finalists and had an interview today. If selected we can receive up to $25,000 to spend during a 10 week period this summer bringing our idea to life. We’ll see what happens. I’m looking forward to finding out what they think.
Besides that presentation and another presentation I gave in a class on the analysis and design of online communities, today was just like any other day. A future at stake, a present in flux, a past to reflect on. Tomorrow will be like any other day too…except it will be a little different and I’ll have to make some adjustments. And that’s what keeps things interesting.
Image: A cat sleeping on my notes. And pen. Goofball.
- Actually I am, but I’m referring to a blog post for class as opposed to one that I’m not graded on, like this one. [↩]
- Like W. [↩]
Staying busy as student
My blog is suffering a bit of attrition. But there are good reasons. The first, I’m not liking my blog theme anymore and it’s deterring me in a subtle yet very real way. Another reason is that my creative energies are being tapped to engage in online forums for both classes I have this semester.
This past week I wrote the first paper of the semester, due today. Seven pages summarizing the community on Yelp.com from a structural perspective.
I sat down to write a post this morning, started reviewing my paper…had some edits, now I have to concentrate on work tasks…then off to class in the early afternoon.
But I’m still out here going about life. Thinking about my friends and the challenging time some of them are having. Powerless to help. Always fighting that powerless feeling yet wondering if there is a magic is being okay with some drift. Trying to learn and interact with the world around me. Pushing forward with grand ideas and plans while competing interests steal attention.
Online social networking is changing what we know about our friends and acquaintances and the emergence of a larger, more integrated, online social community is interesting to watch. Where it will go remains to be seen.