CS Day Hack-a-thon Website

The CS Day Hack-a-thon Projects Page

CS 1550 (COE 2111) Students

Click here for the recitation web page.

Welcome

Hi.

Welcome to the page. The following distills the contents and substance of my life as a grad student into text, picture(s), and little bit of style.

I've made dozens of attempts at writing an introductory paragraph to concisely describe who I am only to find the process of condensing and confining my experience into a short blurb moves me to physical discomfort with each attempt. Who I am and what I do are too complex of subjects to adequately describe. All I can say is that I'm trying to figure it out too.

Social Media and Professionalism

I going to warn you now. You'll find content here from my various social networking accounts. I've made no and probably won't make an attempt to filter what I publish to them. You, therefore, get a less "professional" view of me by most standards. But professional is a code word for boring. We are people: diverse, unique, multifaceted, and semi-conscious (most of the time). That we should expect adherence to accepted decorum isn't entirely unwarranted to the degree that it's a sign of mutual respect. But we must be conscious of the fact that adherence to these rules are a choice you and I make and that the rules themselves evolve with our culture. And so, in this site, my challenge to you is an increased awareness of this. Act as judge if you must, but know that this collection of content will never be a substitute for actually meeting me.

Interests

My Work

I have, for the last year or so, been trying to remove as many distractions from my life as possible, paring everything down to a monk-like focus on my research. As you might imagine, it's a bit of struggle, but it reflects a larger realization I've had: nothing matters... and, therefore, everything matters equally.

Growing up, the message was that the big questions have answers: who am I, why am I here, what's my purpose, what's important, what's a good use of my time on this planet. And the message came with answers too, which today essentially revolves around relationships and peak experiences. These are values someone suggests I espouse... blindly. The other thing is that, when you're stuck in grad school, you ask yourself why you're doing it... a lot.

There's no answer to the questions (not verbal ones, anyway). Nothing really matters, not even my Ph.D. thesis, and that offers the greatest freedom. I don't have to spend my time chasing "what matters." I choose where to devote my effort without fear of failure, hope for redemption, or a vain struggle to make something last forever. For now, this is where I am. This is what I do. When I'm done, I'll do something else.

Creative Design

Presentation matters... and it doesn't. We've learned from evolution that the display of excess—overly expensive merchandise, huge peacock feathers, larger muscles—is a signal to others that the individual has energy or resources to waste, a signal that can't be faked. To that end, the attention we put towards the visual appeal of an item's presentation subconsciously indicates to others that we had time and energy to spare in the item's creation, as if it was effortless.

Yet more than that, when we stumble upon the right design for a project, we discover a piece that was missing from the whole. We have observed some new aspect of reality into which the new tool can fit seamlessly. Done right, we can move mankind into greater harmony. Done wrong and we create another avenue to distract man from his purpose.

Zen

It's time we all woke up.

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