It seems such a shame. Ever since the year 1100 some people have been waiting for the next time a year could be reduced to two roman numerals. Now 2000 rolls around but instead of 'MM' everywhere (which the Mars Candy Co would have loved to see and tried hard to make happen) it's all 'Y2K'. Now the end is neigh and what will next year's colloquialism be? 2001? MMI? No, more than likely '2K1'.

No real point. I'm just sayin'...

Okay, back to work. More later! Saw three movies this week: You Can Count on Me, Cast Away, Finding Forrester, and tonight I'm seeing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. After so long without a movie I'm making up for lost time. I'll have writeups over the weekend.

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Updated on Dec 31:
Rob Mayoff chimes in to correct my mistake. We've only been waiting since 1500 (MD), not 1100 (MC). My bad! I'm actually miffed that 1999 was MCMXCIX instead of MIM. It seems strange to me that the 'minus bit' only works for the 'single' instance of whatever degree of magnitude the subsequent digit is. For example, IV is 4, IX is 9, but IL isn't 49 (it's XLIX ("10 away from 50 and 1 away from 10"). Binary would even be easier. That's it. Happy (doing it in my head...) 11111010001 everyone! Only 101111 (47) more years to 100000000000! (2048)

Yahoo came out with the first batch of their Picks of the Year for 2000, and they included AOLiza!

Also very cool: HP's 100 Cameras project made the cut. 100 Cameras was the last project I worked on as a tech lead and UI designer before leaving Eleven Inc. to go back to Berkeley last year. I'm glad it's getting its kudos.

Also a big congrats to In Passing for its nod. I can't wait to see what's in Part Two of the list!

Okay, back from Christmas in sunny beautiful Carmel. I've got a slideshow/story I'm putting together of bits of it. Hopefully it'll be up tonight or tomorrow morning.

Working on my statement of purpose for my grad school apps. I find that whenever I have to 'explain myself' to someone, I pick and choose from a menu and try to make a cogent person out of it, but unless they really want to talk for hours, all they'll get is a simulation or (in honor of Searle) an aspectual shape of who I am.

Anyhow, I'm back and happy. I've got some stories to tell, and some photos to go with them. Also say Cast Away last night and I highly recommend it. Great Tom Hanks stuff as usual. (Tom Hanks:Christmas as Will Smith:4th of July)

Gotta unpack, grab some lunch, work, play, read, convey.

Later!

So one of my Christmas presents was Gran Turismo (2) for the Playstation (1). Considering the only Playstation game I regularly played before was Need for Speed III, Gran Turismo was a welcome addition to my jet-black CD-ROM library.

The game is really cool and, after having played NFS for far too long, it seems to load really quickly. The graphics are great, but most interestingly, the UI is fantastic in some areas, showing a great deal of careful thought and, dare I say, usability testing, yet there are some features that are simply so boneheaded I can't help but wonder if they were altered later, or if two houses were responsible for different aspects of the UI.

Cases in point: Some navigational screens (administrative screens, not actual racing play) seem to be prefetched off the CD for faster display times. Music is consistant throughout the experience (unlike NFS where the music stops when the 'station has to 'think hard'!), the nonlinear progress bar is just amazing. It starts slow and speeds up gradually so it never seems to take as long as you think it will, and this isn't just careless guestimation of time. The acceleration of the progress bar is linear, though the rate of completion is parabolic (I know this doesn't make sense. It just gets faster is all.)

On the down side, GT:2 assumes that you want to see a replay of your last race after every race you perform, and you have to press three seperate keys with the same thumb (and one with the other) to make it stop. Also, every single time you start a race, test, or other sim, you have to tell it whether you want to drive a manual or automatic transmission. This seems to be a setting most people would set once and forget, or maybe modify once in a long while, but not confirm for every race. In the same category, I shouldn't have to confirm my name (in a non-intuitive two keypress process) every time I set or break one of a hundred records. Either let me link the name to the memory card forever, or at least make it a one keypress confirm (like in NFS:HS).

Without going on too long, it looks like they did a great job of laying out static UI pics and performing a heuristic analysis on individual screens, but a lousy job at task analysis (it looks like there was little work with cognitive walkthroughs and probably no GOMS modelling at all) that would show problems with the actual use of the UI screens displayed.

Still it's frightfully addictive. I'm going to go read now, then wake up, feel guilty for not picking up Karen at the airport at 5:30am, get my long-missed large chai (oregon chai, not that swill Starbucks changed to 18 months ago (what's up with that, anyhow??)) and cranberry scone, and get to work on my statement of purpose.

More on that in my next entry which, ironically, you probably just read.

Working on my statements of purpose for Berkeley SIMS and CMU HCII programs. I'm wondering about the intelligence of posting it for open review/suggestions. In a way, it epitomises what my statement of purpose is about, collaboration in widespread information systems like the web. It only makes sense that my SoP should reflect that in practice as well as content.

Anyone here particularly well-versed in the art of the statement of purpose? Let me know what you think either way!

(with a tip of the hat to Clerks)

Anyhow, I was planning on driving down to the family in Carmel this afternoon, but last minute stuff, a flurry of very necessary email writing, and one other project kept me here to the point where it would be easier for me to drive down early tomorrow morning instead. At least there's not rush hour on traffic on Saturdays...

Okay, I'm done talking about grades for a while. I'm working on grad school applications, and on (gasp) having a little time to myself (as much as tht's possible with 30 relatives around).

I'm going to try writing a few short stories, very short, actually. I don't know who said it, but I remember a prolific author advising would-be writers to write a work of fiction every day. It doesn't matter what it's about, whether you show it to someone, or how good it is. Waiting around for 'the right story' to want to come out doesn't do any good if you haven't been practicing writing in the first place. Trying to write the great novel once inspiration strikes, without regular expository practice, would be like sitting on yor butt, waiting for a marathon.

Anyhow, I'm thinking aobut using that technique for my statement of purpose. I think I'll better be able to not take it so seriously if I write a statement of purpose a day for a week. If I write 10 or 20 of these things I might start building an appreciation for what the admissions committees go through reading a few thousand of these things. I'll see if I can entertain a little bit. After all, if you can have fun talking about yourself, when can you?

Peace, happy holidays, I'll do my best to check in, perhaps with pictures. Be in good cheer! Adieu.

Good morning! I don't have anything particular to say, so I'll share some tidbits:

• I went to the most amazing basketball game last night, between #1 in the country Duke and #3 Stanford. I missed the first half outside the arena with my cousin Sara, waiting for her ticket to come with her brother Craig, but that was good because we got to talk. I almost got in two fights yesterday, one with a traffic cpop at Oakland airport who was insisting that I move my car even though she could see Sara and Alan waiving their arms at me and walking over with bags 40 feet away ("If you're not loading you're not loading." Which make me wonder how anyone can stop their car without popping their trunk and having people physically putting things into it before the car comes to a stop.) the second was this jerk who gave me the finger in the concession line because while we were ordering my Aunt came up and I asked if she wanted us to get her anything (we still hadn't finished ordering). I think I'm still hopped up about grades. I've probably never been this tense over a 'report card' in my life.
  Anyhow, the game was great. Stanford was behind the whole game. going into the second half they were down 13 points, but they pulled it out and took a 1 point lead with 3.6 seconds to go. Duke missed their next shot and got it in on the rebound, 3 tenths of a second too late. Everyone went crazy. Cal played against Georgia right after, but I took off to pack. turned out to be a no-brainer win for Cal anyhow.
• I got an email today from my neuroscience professor who let me know I got a B on the final, an A on my term paper, and a C in the class, because I didn't do the research proposal that's worth 7% of the grade. Of course, I did do the proposal, albeit in another section, with full knowledge and permission of both TAs involved (backed up, thankfully, with email correspondence to that effect), and it was just a clerical error. So now, assuming (hah, never assume anything) I did a good job on the proposal (and I did) I have a B in the class which, in and of itself I'm not thrilled about it, but a C would have been death to my grad school apps (and of course, not accurate!). I just wish I did as well at the beginning and middle of the semester as I do in the end. Oh wait, Philosophy, nevermind. I wish I did great all the time.
• The chart I linked to yesterday is a grid of what my final in-major GPA is based on my final grades in Neuro and UI Design. I should get the UI grade today (hopefully) and the Neuro is an almost certain B. I think UI will be an A, though possibly an A-. (James or Francis, if you're reading this, I'm really, really hoping for an A! there, that should offset any effect that my saying that I might get an A- will have on my grade. I'm just a grade pessimist (usually).)
• Finishing up Christmas Cards (hey,it's before Christmas!).
• What else? I'm sure something will happen within the next hour that, if happened earlier, I'd put in this spot. I'll keep you posted.

I'll apologize in advance if entries get sporadic for the next few days. With my extended family in town for the holidays, things are getting a little overwhelming. But then, you'll probably have better things to do for the next few days than reading my webog anyhow.

If I don't get the chance later: Good tidings for Christmas, and a Happy New Year! (And Solstice (today!!!), Hanukkah, Yule, Grunthar's Day of Ascention (sorry, Buffy reference) and all the rest!)

I hate being bored and nervous.

I hate even more that I got a B+ in Philosophy. I must have scored a C+ or lower on the final and that really didn't seem possible. Still, in a class where only 8% of the students got an A, I guess anything's possible...

So I got my Cog Sci grade, and it was slightly better than I expected, and was actually what I'd hoped. (B+). Now I'm still waiting to hear about Cog Neurosci, which is bugging me since the final was given in the last lecture instead of finals week, so they've now had two weeks to grade and post but we've heard nothing...

Similarly, I've been really curious about my Philosophy grade (Searle's class). I had an A going into the final, and I think I did well onthe final, basically nailing 7 of 8 essay questions, but I got an ominous letter from my TA saying grades have been posted outside the office, and overall people did worse on the final than he expected...

The message arrived at 10:00pm and at 10:30 I'm in front of Moses Hall but of course it's locked. So not only has my paranoia been sparked, but now I have to sleep with it for a night, and let me tell you: Paranoia's the kind of emotion that steals ALL the covers.

Ah well. If all goes as expected (A's in CS160 and Philo132, B in CogNeuro) I'll have a 3.74 since my reentry in January, which should be good enough for CMU. Each grade-step down (A to A-, A- to B+, etc) will lower that by 0.03.

So I know CogSci, I'll get Philo tomorrow, Neuro is overdue, and UI Design will come when it comes. Probably by Friday...

Sigh...

"Some people say I overanalyze. I'm still trying to figure out why."