Josh Evnin

Check out this company: Approtec

Pretty cool company, me thinks. Perhaps if an internship opens up and I can get some departmental (or other) funding, I can do some work with them…just keeping my options open.

I’ve been waiting all day to write an entry. I should learn to just satiate my need to blog and get it over with. There is really no reason that I deserve this break. I have been working now for nearly 6 hours and have been able to produce a page and a half of notes for my I501 Social Informatics paper. The thing that really sucks is that I thought I would enjoy the topic immensely, but now that I sit down to contemplate the task I am somewhat bored. Here’s the question: How will Social Informatics affect my career?

Well Josh, you say, isn’t it blatantly obvious? Not only will SI build a framework for your future designs, but it will work to define the boundaries in which your users expect to work. I know, I know…it seems so simple, but at the same time I cannot for the life of me think of interesting examples to write about. Blech…I give up. Perhaps I’ll throw together a second stage outline in a bit, and give myself a chance to write it up tomorrow…

So the publication of this media has commenced. Before today I had been keeping my blog under wraps, as a secret forum in which I could practice my writing skills. Now it gets interesting. I think I’m hooked on adding entries, but now that others will be reading, they’ll have to be higher quality.

One could say that I am in a Beta phase of the project. The work is not ready for mass publication, but you can use it at your own risk. Either way, if you’ve found your way here, thanks for visiting. Leave a comment on what you think and I’ll approve it if I know you. At this point, there should only be about 2 people who know about the site, so remember, I know where you live.

As time progresses, I will invite others to view the site, eventually leading to mass publication on the School of Informatics Grad Student Blogs page. At that point I should be sufficiently hooked on blogging, and creating interesting writings regularly. We’ll see how long it will take to get there.

I have decided to think of rules to guide my writing. I’m sure more will pop up over time, but I have come up with my first:

Rule 1: When writing for a public audience, never admit that you are boring.

If I break that rule, then I’m only beating myself over my own head. Calling oneself dumb in front of others is never a good proposition. Let them make their own judgements. If you are bored by me, no one is forcing you to come back. More rules to come…

Hey, if you’ve never been to Chipotle.com check it out. Pretty interesting website. I don’t think many people are using as creative means as the designers of that site.

Check out the Anoto Pen. If you decide to buy one of these for me as a gift, I would be immensely happy. I just think it’s a really cool technology, with major implications for future designs. I’ll comment further at a later date.

This is getting a bit long, and at this point I think I could have written most of my 3-5 page paper. I’ll see you tomorrow (or perhaps sooner if I get bored with my work…).

“Jewish day of rest. Means I don’t work, I don’t drive a car, I don’t fucking ride in a car, I don’t handle money, I don’t turn on the oven, and I sure as shit don’t fucking roll!” -Walter, The Big Lebowski

Control yourselves, the ‘f’ word is alright, as long as it’s in context.

Great movie, that’s all I’ll say. See if you haven’t.

This is a great site for help with Movable Type

http://www.mattmaxwelldesign.com/mtforbeginners/

This is my first entry on www.ev9.org/weblog…if you’re seeing this, then my experimenting worked, go me!

I have my first test of graduate school today: I500. I’ll have to recite all my knowledge about topics such as the history of computing, computer architecture, how computers do math, Boolean operations, the Perl programming language, UNIX, and a bunch of other stuff. I think I’m ready…I’ve studied by building a pretty good cheat sheet, if I do say so myself.

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 last night with the HCI crew. It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen it, but it was much better than the first time. The point that was really driven home this time was that the poorest people in our country are the ones who actually defend the system that manages to screw them. That just seems strange to me. Sometimes I think that maybe I should join the military. I’m sure my formal academic training could apply in some way. I just don’t know if I have the pride to do such a thing, however. I’m ashamed of a lot of the things we’ve done recently as a country, and would not want to be viewed as a piece of the system that implements such embarrassing actions. But that’s just me…much love to those who are serving, you have more conviction than I.

On a completely different note, I’m listening to Radiohead’s “Amnesiac” album for the first time. Actually, it’s the first time I’ve ever listened to a Radiohead album at all. I like it, it’s not really something you can dance or sing to, more something to just bob my head to. There’s a time and a place for that kind of music.

I think I’m having a string of boring blogs…I’ll try to get out of this funk over the weekend, but no promises. I don’t think anyone is reading anyway!

Man, this evening has been somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster. I can’t really define what it has been more of…work life, personal life…Kinda like 2 bombs dropping at the exact same time. I kinda deserved a kick in the rear though, life seemed too easy for a while there.

This will have been my second post of the day. Go me! I guess the trick is to wake up and write an entry, then there’s less pressure for the rest of the day. I’ll probably ignore my own advice as soon as tomorrow morning rolls around.

Topic change…I wonder if others ignore their problems as much as I do. It just seems so easy for me to think about everything save for what is truly important in my life. Fech…I don’t want to talk about it.

This has been a weak entry so far…let’s keep it up. Go red! Woooo!

I need new clothes. Not because the old ones are old and tattered, but because it’s effing cold outside. It was 39 degrees when I woke up according to weather.com. That’s freaking freezing. Layers are going to be key, but I also must look super stylish. Oh, and I don’t mean Midwest flannel shirt and cargo pants stylish, I mean super-hip chic. We’ll see what I end up with…the mall here is pretty weak. Perhaps when I go up to Chicago in a few weeks I’ll be able to find some sweet threads.

So, what are you going to be for Halloween? It’s about time to start thinking about that. The coolest idea I’ve heard so far was a tomato. This girl wanted to fashion her getup such that when she spun around, her costume “poofed out” and looked like a Roma tomato. That was intriguing. I’m far less creative however, so I’ll probably throw something together last minute. (My favorite costume thus far in my life has to be my 5^th grade “Static Cling Man.” I woke up on Halloween morning and stuck socks and underwear all over my clothes. Man, was I cool?)

Ok, enough soup for you. I’m out. Peace.

I must say, I’m absolutely impressed that people find time to update their blogs many times in a single day. It’s great for the readers, but how do these people find the time? It’s not that it’s really that hard to do, it’s just that once I update my blog, I generally forget about it completely for the rest of the day. To each his (or her) own I guess.

So I looked at the little Microsoft calendar a minute ago and realized that it’s my half birthday! That means that you have exactly 6 months to finish building my birthday present…better get to it. Does anybody out there celebrate half birthdays anymore? I feel like when you’re 6 your half birthday is of utmost importance. You’re like, “Yeah, I’m 6 and a half, so I’m older than you.” Then the other kid is like, “Oh yeah, we’ll I’m gonna be 6 and three quarters, and my older brother could beat your dad up!” Ahh to be in first grade again…or was it second? Either way, I plan on celebrating my Half (ooh, I’ve created jargon) to its fullest extent.

I’ll try to post again later today…but chances are I’ll forget about blogging just as soon as I post this one…

BTW, here’s a shout out to Tami, the sister of all sisters. “What up girl, whhaaaat whhaaat?” (That’s not even an inside joke…)

-j