so i'm going to try a new experiment (and i hope it works) in doing stuff at home today. i have this paper to write for CHI, which isn't a terrifyingly insurmountable assignment, but as you know, it pretty much hits the fan when it comes down to the multiple cups of green tea and being swaddled in my oversized HARVARD sweatshirt. roommates and close friends, you know full well what i'm talking about.

haven't had much time to knit lately at all. with this new year picking up and excitement over classes and snowballing projects, i'm finding it harder and harder to isolate time to knit without feeling guilty about shirking other waiting obligations. sometimes i wish i had a long ride on the commuter rail or something so i could fiddle with a needles on a regular basis, since reading makes me carsick and it'd be a good way to start and end the day... a soothing transition to and fro.

however, yesterday i blocked a [secret project]. i do have something on the needles for my sister's birthday (and my mom's!) next week, which i might have time to finish up on a longish car ride this weekend for a friend's wedding at the cape. oh, which reminds me... must buy wedding present soon!

by the way, a to-do list is my best friend. i mean, as far as paper-based task-oriented friends go. [the nonpaper friends keep me on task too, though they do sort of get irritated when i try to check off their boxes.]

the secretpalsix thing has been hanging over the edge for a bit. everyone's been held in suspense since monday, which was the proposed date for match send-outs, but due to technical difficulties with gmail (which i have no clue about; i never thought google could ever be broken or wrong... doo bee doo...) they've been delayed a bit. i'm still in anticipation mode, though i did get an email from my hostess with the mostess, and should know by tomorrow. hope hope hope. i have to say that i'm probably more impatient than most (though i haven't gone so far as to harass the organisers, they're doing their best) because i really want to shape a coherent story about the other person. i mean, we're all going to read each other's blogs and become superspies about it, crafting a plausible narrative and then constructing ideas and gifts in effort to spark the most quintessential delights of the other. and actually, i'm most curious on how my pal will take me in, size me up, and make some assumptions based on my writings, my photos, and other clues of self-identity.

this really does sound like stuff from my research creeping into my personal life. but, oh how relevant sociable media is to everything we know and do these days! anyway, i invite my secret pal to read any of my blog entries from 2002 to today, to visit my personal website at cmliu.com (sorry for the pop-ups, i really do have to switch domain managers), and try to figure out anything about me. because, honestly, i'm still wondering myself. :) but online identities are so beautifully crafted and documented, though consistency is the key. hence another internal motivator to keep this blog's momemtum going.

okay, okay. enough procrastinating already. i will start writing my paper. heehee.

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postscript:

from: a media lab project coordinator
to: media lab list

Hi,

Will the creators of those great Lego murals that appeared overnight in the 3rd floor lounge off the kitchen kindly come up & reassemble them...then engineer a better solution to affix them to the walls than double-sided tape?

Thanks.


post-post script:

i saw it. legos. everywhere. pixels on the carpet. tear-inducing. soul-strengthening.