Fireflies, Synchronizing Fireflies



I just remembered this little gift of awesome my friends Nick Wong and Anurag Panda, both class of 2011, whipped together. Intended as tactile and visual stimulation for deaf kids (and non-deaf, and adults, stimulating for the whole family), the individual ‘firefly’ units blink at a steady rate, but synchronize when brought close together, and at some distance stop blinking and simply stay lit. When a bunch of these magnetic gizmos are on together in a dark room, the effect is beautiful, pensive, a bit psychedelic. Complex forms born of simple rules.

Kim Jong-il is dead; the “Juche” Stalinist kleptocracy lives on. I have no idea what to say that hasn’t already been said. Except that it’s 2011 and all over Eastern Europe exists a malignancy of the human spirit. Politicians are as strong as their wallets are thick. Bribery gets things done, and is the approved way to keep the authorities off one’s back. Uppity reformers go missing, or go to jail for tax fraud, forever. The strong man says maybe he’ll think about releasing the guy if everyone just treads lightly for awhile on the reforms agenda. The state-owned media says it’s all a sham; foreign powers are instigating, meddling because they need a fight to distract their public from their own problems (http://on.rt.com/11eg01). And this thing is metastasizing slowly; just as small grassroots movements seem to mount an immune response, as happens every decade or so, there is some percieved act of aggression, some crisis, some pitiful reason that all this reform stuff really can wait. And by the way how dear you bring something up so trivial at a time like this, and sit idly by while we lose precious time, time for decisive, unilateral action against the aggressor. This is all fine. No wait, none of this is fine. But the family can finally afford a vacation abroad. Who wants to think about all that nonsense anyway?

Joseph Stalin died in 1953 and was denounced, internally, in 1956. By 1974 Soviet textbooks stated that he’d violated Lenin’s ideals of collective leadership. 35% of Russians would vote for him if he were still alive. Don’t even ask what the youth think.

I hope that denouncement comes soon. I hope it comes softly, and neither side of the DMZ has to suffer the usual, boring escalation – some have too much to lose, some are just too miserably poor for me or anyone to even fucking think about what it would mean for more of their resources to be pawned for munitions.

I hope we do better, if we do anything at all.

Incentives, Scratching Itchy Fingers

I did it! I did what I’ve been putting off doing for some wacky reason – I sent a follow-up cover letter and updated resume to a contact at a firm I’m applying to, the first of 21 such personalized resumes and applications over the next 3 weeks. I had to blackmail myself to do it, using the wonderful stickk.com. For every week, of the next 3, that I report less than 7 sent resumes, $10 gets donated to the hate-mongering Institute for Marriage and Public Policy. I won’t let that happen.

I’ve used Stickk before, same anti-charity, same premise. I had to get moving on my thesis, and did I ever. Now, thesis under belt, I’ve been faced with some creeping malaise and inertia. According to marathontraining.com, it’s not uncommon for marathoners to feel depressed following completion of a marathon, because of all the sacrifice and dedication that went into it. They suggest running for fun for awhile to get their bearings. These last two weeks have been my “run for fun” phase, and now I’m ready for the next thing.

I understand that there are underlying issues that may impair one’s ability to reach out for exciting career prospects, including a fear of failure or sense of unworthiness, a fear that career decisions are more permanent than they are, and a sense that control over one’s life choices has been muddled by circumstance. These, in turn, are symptoms of persistent self-image issues, dysfunctional beliefs many people who’ve struggled with depression and anxiety may have. For this, there is counseling, and I’m not in the least ashamed that I’m seeing a counselor as well. There are many tools for self-ignition, and I for one intend to use them all.

I’ve discussed self-structure in the Pomodoro Technique post and in older posts, and here I cover negative reinforcement – i.e. self-blackmail – and personal development with a professional. Also, the prize – financial independence with a rewarding career. I’ll be working on mapping this out, and invite anyone to suggest ways to track goal progress.

Side note: I have this broken lamp in my room that I wrapped “Haloween lights” (orange Christmas lights) around to make a cool deep red night light, that’ll improve my circadian rhythms. Haloween lights aren’t a long-term option – I am an engineer, after all – so I wanna re-make this with LED strip lights, and possibly with a bright white LED in the center for when I want a functioning reading light.

Also let’s end bullying. Seriously. We landed a guy on the freakin’ moon, we can figure this one out. Empathy training compulsory in schools? More (way more) extracurriculars? We have options, and we can vastly improve the lives of kids, and the adults that kids become, when we address this. No child should feel hopeless, ever. www.standtogether.tv.

Also I’m starting a health and fitness blog, with an applied science twist! Stay tuned for Anatomically Modern Human, http://anatomicallymodernhuman.wordpress.com/.

Itchy Writing Fingers – Part 1

There’s a hollow feeling that accompanies finishing stuff, and I now know it’s best to fill that with tasks that are important – but not urgent – to you yourself. Self determination equals energy equals stuff gets done. All well and good; I just finished my thesis, which I’ll write about sm’more and which can be found here: http://bit.ly/solwUN.

Now I want lots of things – financial security, mastery of some important skillsets, new and old, chill time. And I think structured ‘do’ time, called chunking, is key. Right now, this weekend and next few days, my chunking is just about “mapping” the next step(s). I’ll report on what I did and how it went, and am open to suggestions.

The Arduino Temp Sensor Array

This is for measuring heat in soil and tweaking a pump that controls it with captured waste heat.

I’m a Pomodoro User

It’s been awhile. But change is a-coming. More content, regularly-posted, relevant content. This is a blog about sustainability and sustainable design, lifestyle, management and organization, from a perma-student, non-judgmental perspective. Soon to come: policy and economics, using the magic new social webby 2.0 hack-a-thingy in a straightforward, demystified way to get the most bang for your efforts…and much much more.

In the meantime: Pomodoro Technique. It’s free. Learn it. Use it. I personally can’t get enough of it, I’m endorsing. It’s free.

It’s free.

Sticking it Out – Week 7/15-21/11

Advanced Experiment Phase, part II – create the sensor array with thermocouple readouts and take readings with the arduino controller. Make LEDs light on and off based on set-points for the soil. Create a block-diagram model of an accumulator-pump-sensor system that would replace the heater/pump. Research options for operating the pump (both the experimental heater/pump and the future “field” pump) with low-current devices such as the Arduino microcontroller.