J . M A I L

School @ UCalgary

I have been in Calgary for a week and am really impressed with the university so far. The people, the facilities, the ideas, the classes, and the perspectives are are so different from what I am used to.

To start with, my classes seem really awesome. Qualitative Research Methods for System Engineering seems like it will really expand what I thought I knew about qualitative research. While I thought I was more of a qualitative researcher all along, rather than a quantitative (numbers) researcher, I think I might have been wrong all along. I really hope this course will help to really learn to study people without the idea that I always have to be able to numerical categorize my findings.

My other course, Software Planning and Release, will be interesting in that I will learn much more about best practices for software planning and I think this will be very important for web applications I work on now and will develop in the future, I kinda see my future as a movement towards focusing on development of web tools and apps.

From talking to my new advisor here I realize how much of usability mind set I have. I approach problems with a “fixit” attitude or with the idea that I will find problems to resolve or with the goal of improving systems. What I have never really focused on is creating COMPELLING systems and this is something I think I will learn here. The closest I have gotten to this in the past is making interesting things, I think this is the next step beyond just making good/interesting systems.

The iLab area, where I work out of, is a show piece for the university and I have already been warned, as we all have, to be ready to demo all the time as the president of the university makes this lab the first stop when showing people around the university. There is so much technology in this lab, Microsoft surface tables, giant displays, miniature hardware ect and so many research projects in so many areas it’s a bet overwhelming at this point. I do really like my computer and dual 24” displays at my desk though :)

Further, I learned that I will have a lot of opportunities to go to conferences, learn, and meet new people while I am here. If we publish here we go to the conference. We can even go to conferences that are important for our field that we may not even present in. This is very different from what I am used to and a very welcome change.

I will have the opportunity to take actual design courses here in the fall and work with different materials beyond just computers and I really really excited about that.

All the said, overall the University here seems nice although different. There are a LOT more people here and the building are much bigger. I am learning my way around and have even starting going to the gym here.

I am super excited to come and see everyone this coming week in Guelph/Toronto. That said, I hope you all can come out at some point and visit me here as well.

I will start updating this blog more regularly, the recent lack of posts just reflects how busy I have been the past little while.

Update Me

I just got to the red brick café for an evening of much needed work. I am going to create a test run of my methodology for my meeting tomorrow. Now this is the third methodology I have done. I hope it is the last and I don’t decide I need to change my focus once again.

I have been spending more time in Guelph recently, ie not going away on the weekend. It is an easy choice as I have no money to go away, ie I am broke, and staying in town affords me the opportunity to get work done.

The biggest hurdle to my work right now is my sleeping schedule. I sleep in far too late and far too often. It messes up my school work, it usually means I don’t end up going to the gym, and that I end up going to bed later than the night before. If I keep going the way I am now soon I will be entirely nocturnal.

I haven’t been to the gym in a while. I feel small. I look small. I don’t look lean. I don’t really look like someone that works out, I look just like a normal dude. When I don’t get to the gym I don’t get to expel the excess energy I have and I think this affects my sleeping patterns too. I definitely do not have the eye of the tiger at the moment.

Further, I haven’t been eating nearly enough. This is partially due to the sleeping situation, it’s hard to eat when one is asleep, and the money situation.

I know August started a little while back but this month there are some key school things that need to happen. It’s time for me to officially start my August a fresh as if it was the first day and I was back in a good routine.

School Update

Working on fixing my methodology for my thesis proposal today. If I can nail this stuff down now I think it will really help my methodology section on my final thesis and really make my thesis work going faster. I figure a bit of extra attention paid at this stage will pay off huge in the long wrong. Meeting with Blair on Wednesday. Will post two more chapter summaries of the Happiness book tomorrow.