Monday, May 17, 2004

Oh! Um. Yes. Must update.

Briefly: Spent most of the good, if somewhat tiring weekend shopping. Ended up with some more anime (Angelic Layer and Kaze no Yojimbo), a new CD rack, some kitchen utensils, and some cookbooks.

I could write a few paragraphs about each of the above, but frustratingly, I have to leave work in a few minutes to pick up my parents at the airport.

I was able to finish reading all of the Edward Tufte books I got at his course last Wednesday. Very informative. I’ve begun using his advice at work, charting our documentation progress using small multiples.

Small multiples are essentially several diagrams all arranged next to each other, usually forming a sequence. Here’s an example:

It’s a surprisingly powerful visual technique. Clustered diagrams invite comparison and contrast, which are essential to good information design.

>Writing Thoughts

After a long slump, I finally managed to write a little something over the weekend. Just a few hundred more words of Seeing Things Invisible.

I also assembled all my STI writing and VR Story snippets into a complete website, which I intend to use to replace my current writing website once everything’s moved over to the new server.

See, I’ve been demotivated for awhile, and I’ve had no problems with story, or characters, or forcing myself to write. The journey’s not a problem. It’s the destination.

I’ve had nowhere to put any of these stories. STI might’ve been a book, or a webdrama, or a series of short stories. But after awhile I couldn’t keep writing it while it stayed in limbo.

So finally I decided, screw it, I’m going to post all of this. My “publication” will be posting it all to the web. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get some readers. And maybe I’ll be able to sell paper copies that way.