a bit tanjential

How many unread messages? 300+

2012-03-01T01:48:00.001-05:00

Just in case some of you are wondering why I haven't responded to email. I currently have over 300 unread messages in my inbox. After a two day interview off campus, I got a huge backlog and haven't quite recovered yet. I'm going to try to spend some time this weekend fighting immediate fires and then will hope to get caught up this weekend. But yes, I am trying to get to your email asap. However, if you've sent me email and have not got a response, please either email again or bear with me until I get to it (depending on the urgency of your request).

Hal in Miami, Ft Lauderdale Museum of Discovery

2011-12-02T15:09:00.001-05:00

Hal in Miami, Ft Lauderdale Museum of Discovery, a set on Flickr.

Finally uploaded some pix from Hal's trip to Ft Lauderdale Museum of Science and Discovery. He had a great time driving a car, flying a plane and running around causing a riot.

First day of Dangerous Readings

2011-11-19T22:25:00.001-05:00

Today was my first "unConference" at the Dangerous Readings Conference. It was so much fun, can't wait to go back tomorrow. Made me think about how expressive the form of digital media is, and there is so much creativity out there. Electronic literature can be as wordy as a novel, as deep as generations of time, or as fleeting as a dramatic reading. I saw some cool stuff to check out, like "We Descend" and "Emberlight". Inspiring.

Linked to Galileo

2011-10-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

My colleague Adam S. sent an email saying "I began following our academic ancestry. Here's what I found."
Cynthia Lynn Breazeal
Rodney Allen Brooks
Thomas Oriel Binford
Myron Lindsay Good
Henry Winston Newson
William Draper Harkins
Robert Eccles Swain
Lafayette Benedict Mendel
Russell Henry Chittenden
Wilhelm Friedrich Kühne
Rudolph Wagner
Johann Lukas Schönlein
Ignaz Döllinger
Antonio Scarpa
Giovan Battista Morgagni
Antonio Valsalva
Marcello Malpighi
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli
Benedetto Castelli
Galileo Galilei

I stopped there, because my head nearly exploded from being so excited.

Source: Mathematics Geneology Project: http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/index.php

WHOAAA!

Congratulations Mr. Koski!

2011-10-27T14:46:00.004-04:00

Just went down to see some very important people. My family (mom & dad) and my cousin, Joyce (and Dan) and her new baby Andrea. It was fantastic. I also got to see my high school teacher, Mr. Sam Koski, receive an award for his inspirational teaching.

What a terrific surprise that the essay I wrote is the essay that got him the award. It was terrific to meet his new students, too. Then I got to give a speech on my work at the Media Lab, and also to help FIRST robotics kickoff in South Florida! Here are links to my slides:

my life in robots on Prezi

Dangerous Readings

2011-10-19T17:52:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be attending an unconference on hypertext hosted by Eastgate Systems called Dangerous Readings. Looks like it will be awesome!

Shah returns to CSAIL

2011-10-19T00:24:00.000-04:00

Welcome back Julie Shah!

My Dot Tour - Explore Fields Corner's Past, Present, and Future

2011-09-17T14:52:00.000-04:00

Congrats to Leo Burd, who worked on My Dot Tour. This is a youth-led walking tour of Fields Corner in Dorchester that presents a narrative of their neighborhood. It is great to see communities telling their stories and learning about their history, value and residents.

Propellers and Hong Kong 2004 pix

2011-07-02T03:45:00.002-04:00

Recently uploaded some new pix of Hal and the propellers
He's also a pretty fast walker now.

Running out of space on my HD and noticed I never uploaded my China 04 trip pix. First one is my favorite place: Hong Kong
We visited my gunma and had awesome food, encountering with towers of bao. We visited Lantau island and got invited to march and pray with the monks. My favorite was visiting the Star Ferry and taking the bus to see the floating restaurants.

If you meet the right one...

2011-05-29T23:07:00.000-04:00

My family friend R just got engaged to the love of his life, J! They are getting married soon, and I am very happy for them. My brother was very lucky to have R as his best friend while we were growing up. R and J- here's to you. R knew me since I was a little kid, and I am going to give them the biggest hug when I do get to go down to Miami. R always made things fun and exciting, and was hilarious to boot.

My heat-and-mass transfer class professor, Prof. G., once took his two undergraduates (it was a graduate level class), to lunch. He said, "Forget all this Heat and Mass Transfer stuff, its not important. Its my job, and I love it, and I am very good at it. In the long run however, what's important is this: If you meet the right one, you'll know."

I followed his advice to stay close to that "right one" and I am very happy. There were so many forces that could have pulled us apart (job offers across the world, different career paths)... Life is miraculous sometimes, you think that you're going to be fine alone, that you prefer it alone and then-- you meet the right one and the future is not complete without that person. You can't even remember life without that person. I feel this way now after 15 years with him, and even more strongly now with my son. I know that I had a life before him, but I can't remember anything really important about it other than the first time I saw him.

For Sarah

2011-05-24T14:12:00.000-04:00

The Loving Mother

A whisper in the wind,
though the night was silent.
Her breast is radiating warmth
touching every moment
Of a bittersweet melody
from an unreturned caress.
Although the rains may come,
The dandelions grow,
The winds blow gently,
sighing what they know.
Motherhood is forever
ever through sunrise and sunset.

Hal's Walking!

2011-05-10T00:35:00.005-04:00

Hal is now walking solidly and getting faster and quicker at it each day! Here he's blessing objects with his star wand as he gets to his lego box.

For mother's day, we had irises picked by Hal, a relaxing spa visit with gal pals,and the most awesome homemade dinner! Thank you for the card and calls from my family! What a treat, and here's to feeling special!

Also, this weekend was the celebration of MIT's 150th Anniversary. We saw the many beautiful projects around campus (like the Biblioptera), and enjoyed the walking around in the sunshine together. At FASTLIGHT, we really enjoyed experiencing the LightBridge and Light Drift. The highlight for us was the Liquid Archive, giant MIT letters floating on the Charles. Our lab also had an open house last week, and it was great to see so many families wandering around MIT.

Dan Paluska at the Stata Center

2011-02-08T17:34:00.002-05:00

Random sighting of artist Dan Paluska at the Stata center the other day. I finally got a chance to check out his work on The Brooklyn Mobile project. He built a mobile video phone booth to allow people who ordinarily do not use video messaging to send a video message to anyone. I was touched by how many people wanted to communicate, and the wide array of people who participated. People were eager, and also excited by the opportunity to share their message. There are over 1,000 videos of regular folks saying "hello"!
People are natural communicators. Communication is in our nature, and things that facilitate communication can only help the world become a better place.

Reunions

2010-11-02T01:02:00.004-04:00

Last month was a great time for reuniting with old friends at the Media Lab's 25th anniversary. I was pleasantly surprised by how productive everyone had been. I received one book from Kevin Brooks, "Storytelling for User Experience" and will read it soon. I also learned that many of the alumni have been busy with their art projects, consulting, and doing cool stuff like traveling, entrepreneurship, and volunteering. In general, I would say that ML alumni have a positive impact on the world by helping people with technology, whether its solving problems for one person, crafting art to inspire people about science, or designing whole infrastructure systems for power outages.

I also got to fly home to see my family and cousins. It was a wonderful reunion, and I was also struck by how productive my family had been. Old faces seemed new, as it had been so very long since I'd seen everyone. I was even happy to hear the noisy traffic outside, or the cats mewling in the middle of the night at home. There were new homes being nested, new jobs being performed, and little kids who have gotten bigger. It was terrific, and our own Hal was happy to meet everyone. So here's to growth and reunion, as we remember how far we've come!

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2010-10-30T22:38:00.003-04:00

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Here the Nothing by gloobic

2009-12-09T12:19:00.003-05:00

Here the Nothing from gloobic on Vimeo.

a beautiful integration of movement, sound, and visual photography juxtaposed atop a semi-aware city. Gloobic is a collaboration by my friend eric gunther (dancer), and jeff lieberman. Visit Gloobic.

Jonah in the Art Asia Pacific

2009-07-20T23:27:00.003-04:00

I just heard that Jonah of Coin-Operated took some time off from running Scrapyard challenge workshops all over the world to write a piece for Art Asia Pacific magazine issue #64 and an article in a brazilian magazine about his WiFi Hog(21mb)
I definitely look forward to checking it out on my next foray to Barnes and Nobles.
In his copious spare time, he's been writing iPhone art apps (photo src: coin-operated.com).

Happy birthday to Mrs. G, Roo, Chris, Cliff and Ying

2009-07-06T00:40:00.001-04:00

July 4th-5th 2009, originally uploaded by anjchang.

It was great to see you for July 4th. Glad you had a great time! Happy birthday, the fireworks were wonderful this year. This cake, decorated by Mrs. G, was really spectacular. I am looking forward to finishing the rest of this beautiful cake. Also, welcome to America, Ying!

Taking off on my Saucony Grid Ignitions

2009-06-29T21:49:00.003-04:00

Thanks to my friend Zahra's expert shoe shopping advice, I recently picked up a $35 pair of new Saucony Grid Ignitions. The effect, my feet are light as air and I literally flew around the bridge loop faster than I have in years. Of course, I had lots of help-- an encouraging running partner and a new running shirt (courtesy of Zahra) and having a regimen of weekly work-outs (dancing with Zahra and tae kwon do with Eric). I did the 2.82 mile loop in 27 minutes--- approximately a 9.5-minute mile. Not too shabby for this ole lady and the first time on these sneaks. The sneaks were a great price, too, got them at the Saucony outlet on Cambridge Street just a 10 minute walk from home. My "dogs" aren't even tired, though they are sweaty! ps. I'm not sponsored by Saucony but I welcome the proposition. :)

Five Ceramic Animal Whistles

2009-06-26T22:15:00.001-04:00

Five Ceramic Animal Whistles, originally uploaded by mmancuso2003.

I just ran across Marc's latest whistle creations. The detail on this set is amazing. I really like the soft lines on the whale, and the eyes are just too cute!

Congrats to Wai for his GOLD award at iF || Hoberman's transformable design

2009-03-04T12:50:00.003-05:00

iF - International Forum Design Hannover: Homepage > iF online exhibition > Entry Details: "Sonos". Wai's design is very clean and elegant, and its an exciting honor.

Today, I also got to see Chuck Hoberman talk about transformable design. It was terrific, to think about buildings having animism. I really enjoyed the design language around transformation and building display. The parts that resonated with me most are the emotive aspects of such transformations and the ability of the building to become alive. His aesthetic of simple and clean and manufacturability was another aspect I enjoyed. He showed that with simple units, you can build very compelling structures that were more complex. His favorite piece, which was very delightful, was a spiraling shell. Reminds me of a folding razor I worked on once. It was an inspiring talk and makes you think about the way buildings could have this personality, a relationship with the inhabitants based on it caring for itself. Wonderful talk!

Go Zoz!

2009-03-02T14:44:00.003-05:00

Our labmate, Zoz, who graduated from my research group, is featured in last Friday's Tech! Zoz is one of the stars of "Prototype This"-- one of the few shows that actually displays real engineering. Its always exciting to me to see someone soldering or coding-- and to show the real life excitement and frustrations that come with the job. The cool thing about this show is that it does try to expose the pace of engineering, how long it takes to make things and also the way engineers really think. There are always problems, brainstorming and solutions-- which is often glossed over in other shows, such as "Burn Notice." Burn Notice is not so realistic when it comes to engineering-- note, you cannot use a cellphone as a tracker as easily as they say. ( Oh but, I do love Burn Notice -- it is set in Miami! on SoBe!)

Media Lab creates Center for Future Storytelling - MIT News Office

2008-11-18T22:51:00.003-05:00

Hollywood is moving East! Media Lab creates Center for Future Storytelling. This is an exciting time for rethinking the idea of storytelling and how people and objects may engage in creating and sharing stories. Another aspect that is interesting is the mutation of story through different people, as a method to promote and distribute academic/intellectual creativity within our society. Plymouth Rock Studios will be there to foster the next generation of movie creation. This story made the New York Times and also the Boston Globe.

Tad Toulis on Ugly Design

2008-11-01T22:52:00.001-04:00

My buddy Tad wrote a treatise on Ugly Design. Ugly is a subjective term for the anti-mainstream embodiments of products. However, I aspire to accomplish more than a physical, visceral appearance, and visual reaction to my work. My goal is creative experience design, where ugly could be explored because it elicits something new in our experience of interacting with the product. I propose to answer the activity theorists question "what is the context of the purposeful action", through creating new contexts and new experiences for the user/customer.

Ugly is definitely a valid axis for design. Ugly in the visual sense could possess beauty in the other modalities, tactile and audio. Ugly can be beautiful if it is personalized. Ugly also embraces DIY culture, because the personal creation often possess an anti-professional aesthetic. Thanks to Tad for telling us "Ugly is the new 'cool kid'"

Dan and Joyce's wedding invite

2008-08-26T01:51:00.003-04:00

I just got my invitation to Dan & Joyce's
wedding in October in Miami. Looks like its a year of weddings. Jim and I just went to Lindsay and Dan's wedding last weekend in Methuen. The ceremony was followed by a gorgeous reception in Derry. There was a large robot turnout to celebrate the occasion.