Update, Part 2
More on how my life has been going:
Work: Over the summer, I started working for a company called Rior Technologies. They're a mechanical engineering consultancy that tend to work with high-tech companies, which means I'm back to doing what I was doing before I went to grad school. Almost exactly, actually (I'm designing servers again for the most part), except I don't get paid as much and I work out of my bedroom and get to work part time so I can continue with school. I consider those things as canceling each other out for the moment, since I'm at least getting paid more than I would be on campus, if only slightly. I appreciate that I didn't have to do anything to get this job (I ran into my boss at Sports Basement and mentioned I might be looking for work and he emailed me a couple days later with an offer), and that it's very flexible. This week, I went down to our client's office in Menlo Park and got to play with the chassis I'd been working on. I'm a big fan of that part of the process. Away from the computer, I get to play around with things and it's neat to see how big they actually are and how they actually fit together and whatnot. The flip side of that coin is seeing where the design *didn't* work, but this one didn't have too many issues, which is nice, even if it is only a 1U.
School: school is back in full swing, and I go to campus about 2-3 days a week this semester. I'm taking a statistics course in the psych department, and the professor is hilarious (sadly, I can't find a picture of him). He seems like he'd be old and dry and what not, but he's so enthusiastic about statistics and has a wry sense of humor to boot. We had our first exam last week, and I aced it (w00t). Statistics is odd because mathematically, it's really easy, but figuring out what's ok when and why… that can be confusing. That's the only academic class I'm taking, but I've participated in writing my first grant proposal, and have plans to continue writing a lot this semester (mostly because I hate writing because it's hard and I want it to be easier before I get to the point when I have to write something as big as a dissertation). First up is *ehem* finally finishing my Master's thesis so I'll have *a* degree to show for my time here already. This is turning out to be hard, because I'm not very good at organizing my thoughts without talking them out (luckily I have an awesome labmate that lets me talk to her if I need to). If anyone has suggestions for strategies, they are welcome. Then, I have a paper I want to submit to ICED that needs to be rewritten first. I might try to get another paper published, too (then I'll finally have a few publications to show for my time here , too), and I have an idea for an article for an upcoming addition to Ambidextrous. Finally, I will attempt to keep a blog on design. I have to decide what to call it, first, but it's supposed to focus on the user-centered design process in general, and my research (how stories play into that process) specifically. I will post a link to that when I get it up.
Work: Over the summer, I started working for a company called Rior Technologies. They're a mechanical engineering consultancy that tend to work with high-tech companies, which means I'm back to doing what I was doing before I went to grad school. Almost exactly, actually (I'm designing servers again for the most part), except I don't get paid as much and I work out of my bedroom and get to work part time so I can continue with school. I consider those things as canceling each other out for the moment, since I'm at least getting paid more than I would be on campus, if only slightly. I appreciate that I didn't have to do anything to get this job (I ran into my boss at Sports Basement and mentioned I might be looking for work and he emailed me a couple days later with an offer), and that it's very flexible. This week, I went down to our client's office in Menlo Park and got to play with the chassis I'd been working on. I'm a big fan of that part of the process. Away from the computer, I get to play around with things and it's neat to see how big they actually are and how they actually fit together and whatnot. The flip side of that coin is seeing where the design *didn't* work, but this one didn't have too many issues, which is nice, even if it is only a 1U.
School: school is back in full swing, and I go to campus about 2-3 days a week this semester. I'm taking a statistics course in the psych department, and the professor is hilarious (sadly, I can't find a picture of him). He seems like he'd be old and dry and what not, but he's so enthusiastic about statistics and has a wry sense of humor to boot. We had our first exam last week, and I aced it (w00t). Statistics is odd because mathematically, it's really easy, but figuring out what's ok when and why… that can be confusing. That's the only academic class I'm taking, but I've participated in writing my first grant proposal, and have plans to continue writing a lot this semester (mostly because I hate writing because it's hard and I want it to be easier before I get to the point when I have to write something as big as a dissertation). First up is *ehem* finally finishing my Master's thesis so I'll have *a* degree to show for my time here already. This is turning out to be hard, because I'm not very good at organizing my thoughts without talking them out (luckily I have an awesome labmate that lets me talk to her if I need to). If anyone has suggestions for strategies, they are welcome. Then, I have a paper I want to submit to ICED that needs to be rewritten first. I might try to get another paper published, too (then I'll finally have a few publications to show for my time here , too), and I have an idea for an article for an upcoming addition to Ambidextrous. Finally, I will attempt to keep a blog on design. I have to decide what to call it, first, but it's supposed to focus on the user-centered design process in general, and my research (how stories play into that process) specifically. I will post a link to that when I get it up.