Weeknotes #2
- After avoiding the preparation of my thesis defense presentation for an embarrassingly long time, I got it together, put it together, and did a dry run with my advisor. All’s well.
- Art seems to be reclaiming me after that dry spell, though who knows how long it’ll last. I gave my kids a short tour of Blender last night to showcase how animation works, and that sparked an idea which I’ll write about soon once I have a demo piece to show — probably tomorrow. (One could reasonably call it a very small breakthrough.)
- I’ve been thinking (as I often do, because I am weird) about the flow of time in the consumption of creative arts. More plainly: looking at and initially comprehending a painting is fast. Almost instantaneous. But a book, a song, a dance, a film — all these require time to consume and comprehend. No conclusions yet; still mulling it over, trying to suss out any relevant meaning. Which may not be there, of course.
- For fun, and to sharpen the saw, I’ve started working through some LeetCode problems. Mmm.
- I haven’t yet started working on a new story or novel, but that will happen soon, just figuring out which ideas to use.
- Several good video chats this week —family, friends, and office hours (of which I will post a writeup in the near future). It’s been a humanizing week.
- It would be nice to have virtual audio backgrounds in Zoom etc. as well as graphical backgrounds. Mask out the crying toddler, add some concert hall reverb.
- I have to say, getting back into blogging has been incredibly fun, and I’ve very much enjoyed my initial foray so far into working and learning in public.
- Went on a family drive round the lake. The lake is much larger than I expected; the version of the world in my head is so much smaller than the physical world.
- What’s caught my interest lately: PostGIS and cartography and map data. I love geography.