Design

Back From Cabo San Lucas

I made it home alive. A shirt and designer sunglasses stolen, irritated right eye and an unsettling distain for tequila marks one hell of a trip. That will be explained later. However, knowing the trip was going to be a huge merry-go-round, I soon realized that all I really wanted was to relax and let go. Break should be break and no work should be involved. A time to reflect, and a time to let go of the worries in hopes to restore a fresh perspective on what’s waiting at home. While lying on the sunny beach and looking into the sky patterned with thin spread clouds, it had finally felt like stress was lifting off my shoulders. Whew.

So for those wondering, my stuff was supposedly stolen while the cleaning maids where checking our room and a person passing by happened to lift a couple shirts (a friend and mine) from the nearby closet. This makes some sense considering other things like iPods, wallets and other desireables remained. First damn.

Not too long ago I had injured my eye which resulted in a corneal abrasion. This means that a chunk of that clear stuff coating your eye ball is missing. It burns. It feels like you have large rocks in your eyes and you just can get it out. Well it takes time to heal, even after vision is restored. Since you cacn imagine Mexico being somewhat dusty on the streets, I believe the strong winds started carrying the sand into my eye and the rubbing just made it all go down hill. Luckily, this happened on the last day so that is a bit of fortune. The eye is healing fine now and vision is returning slowly. Hopefully this won’t happen, ever, again. Second damn.

One last thing, there’s a full litre bottle of Jose in my fridge and it is just not going to live it’s life’s destiny anytime this month. But just only a month. Third damn?

On a brighter note, my sister finalized my taxes (she likes doing that kind of thing) and a large sum of money is coming my way in the near future. Good news because a trip to Europe in the summer doesn’t run cheap.

In the end, I’m happy that school is about to start. There are a lot of things that I personally enjoy about it and look forward to, especially a course that I will be taking this Spring. It is a Projects for Interaction Design course that is a platform for students to submit design solutions to Microsoft’s 2007 Design Expo. The theme this is year is “Health and Wellness.” It seems rather fitting considering a huge push for home technology advancement as well as increased research in the home in the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) field. Also, green is the new black, and purple, and pink. I’m all about it for sure. Here’s an experpt from the email about the class:

The 2007 design challenge explores the importance of health and wellness. Software can improve the daily life, and long term well being of a wide variety of users…

…We will develop design concepts and prototypes by first explaining the situation (via background research, interviews with your users and the local culture or healthcare system), and then explaining our design solutions (through scenarios, innovative designs and interface simulations/prototypes). We encourage you to think beyond traditional software, toward solutions such as lightweight user interfaces for inputting (entering) and outputting (disseminating information) which integrate with everyday life.

…Microsoft has invited six other international institutions [...] Hong Kong Polytechnic, School of Design; Indian Institute of Technology Bombay; Industrial Design Centre, Design Academy Eindhoven, Netherlands, Carnegie Mellon, Department of Design, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts: Interactive Telecommunications Program, and Universidate do Estado do Rio de Janeiro Design, Brazil.

It’s the only class I will be taking this quarter and I will be pouring my heart and soul into this. I can’t wait!