May 14, 2005
Master of Design
This is my last entry for this blog, as today I am no longer a master's candidate, I am a Master of Design. This isn't a boast; it's my degree: M.Des. And today I will walk across a stage and be handed my diploma and my graduate studies will officially end. I hope you'll move over to my other blog and follow my adventures at Adaptive Path and beyond.
Last night, a group of us went out together with our families for a pre-celebration, and tonight, on this rainy Saturday in Pittsburgh, I'll do it again with just my family, my friend Jeff Howard, and my advisor Shelley Evenson. I'm sure we'll raise a glass and toast CMU.
What Dick Buchanan said on the first day of school is ringing in my ears: "We will teach you to do design so well that we will, at the end of two years, call you a master of it." And so it has come to pass. I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog, especially those of you who have been following it since the beginning. I'm glad to have done it--almost as glad as I am to finish it.
Posted by Dan at 10:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 15, 2005
Carnival 2005
A CMU tradition, Carnival, started yesterday and continues throughout the weekend. The Shins are headlining the big concert that rages on the CFA lawn in the center of campus tonight.
Today and tomorrow are the particular CMU institution of Sweepstakes: buggy races that go through campus and into Schenley Park and back again. It's an amazingly huge deal and a blast to watch. I've been looking forward to it since last year. Also like last year, the weather is glorious: sunny with blue skies: a Pittsburgh rarity.
This is one of the things I'll miss.
Posted by Dan at 09:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 26, 2005
Karaoke
In honor of my and Jeff's birthday (and Chung's thesis paper on karaoke), we went out for karaoke during an ice storm last weekend at a local establishment to experience Joanie Karaoke. Chung brought his own karaoke music, and, it being my birthday and all, I was forced to perform my rendition of "Sympathy for the Devil" for the crowd.
Posted by Dan at 01:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Typographers with Balls
A group of us play in a graduate student intramural league. If you don't take it too seriously, it's a good way to blow off some steam.
(By the way, the title of this post is our team name. I had nothing to do with it.)
Posted by Dan at 01:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 07, 2005
Year of the Rooster Patriots
One of the great side benefits of my program is that it attracts a fair number of international students and people of fairly diverse backgrounds, so you learn about lots of different cultures and their traditions and celebrations. Yesterday, some of the Asian students who celebrate Chinese/Vietnamese New Year--Phi-Hong Ha, Yuan-Chou Chung, Pen-Fan Sun, and Chun-Yi Chen--threw a New Year's Party, complete with traditional Chinese and Vietnamese foods and candies.
Adding to the party was the fact that it was also Super Bowl Sunday, so the game was projected onto a wall, six feet high. Football and spring rolls...tasty!
Posted by Dan at 03:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2005
Ashwini's Bachelorette Party
Saturday night was a night that won't soon be forgotten. One of my classmates, Ashwini Asokan, is getting married in February in India. Since the wedding is in, well, India, none of us are going. To make up for it, Ashley Deal threw her a bachelorette party. Women only for the first half, men came later. The idea was that the stripper would have left by the time the men arrived. Not so. Someone (I'm not saying who) even got his phone number.
It was an evening of drunken dancing, intrigue, a five-foot-tall inflatable penis, and a bitter cold snowstorm blowing outside.
Posted by Dan at 03:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 07, 2004
A Fun Space for Interactive Art
In my Interactive Graphics class taught by digital artist Golan Levin, we naturally look at a lot of interactive and digital art. Imagine my surprise when I took my daughter to the grand opening of the new Pittsburgh Children's Museum yesterday and found it chock-full of interactive art exhibits, including a few we've actually discussed in class, including the very cool Text Rain and soon, the Wooden Mirror.
Posted by Dan at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 17, 2004
Navarathri
On Friday, most of the second-year students gathered at my classmate and friend Ashwini Asokan's apartment to celebrate the Indian festival of Navarathri. By celebrating, I mean eating a ton of food that Ashwini and some of her friends made especially for us and for the festival. I had to roll myself out of there.
Posted by Dan at 08:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 11, 2004
Political Party
Hong has posted up some pictures from when we gathered to watch the first presidential debate at her apartment. Most of us were flush left.
Posted by Dan at 01:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 22, 2004
Thursday Night Drinks
We've been pretty successful (so far) in resurrecting the Thursday night drink tradition, where all the design grads gather to blow off steam and gossip about the faculty and other students. Thus far, we've made stops at Kelly's, "The Cage," and Gooski's. Assuredly the old HCI hangout Sharp Edge can't be far behind...
Posted by Dan at 01:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack