Allison Cooke

Archive Page 2

R.I.P.

28Jun09

Such a sad week . . .

RIP

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At your fingertips

23Jun09

Along with EA Sports Active, I asked for an iPod Touch for my birthday. My loving parents, awesome as they are, came together and got me a 32 gig Touch.

When the iPhone first came out I thought it was pretty silly. Who needs all that and why? Thirty bucks a month for a data package??? At this point I was not the Apple convert that I am now and thought most people were buying them just for the name. So yeah, I was skeptical.

Even when the initial hype died down, I wasn’t interested. When everyone was talking about the awesome “apps” (a word I loathe), I waved them off. When my DAD got an iPhone I was bewildered. I told him that he wouldn’t be looking to me for tech support — I don’t have one, don’t know anything about it. But somehow he managed to figure it out.

In December, as preparation (and gift to myself?) for grad school I decided to get a MacBook. Sure my Gateway (yes, Gateway) laptop was fine. Yeah, it was pretty big, but it worked. But I gave in to social pressure and the desire to look cool (yeah, I said it) and took the plunge. And so I loved it. Shoot me. I loved the sleek design, the compact size, it’s general awesomeness.

Once school started and I began hanging out with people from my class, I noticed that pretty much everyone had an iPhone. I was starting to become more convinced that it was a meaningful product with my addiction to Twitter, but with the convenience of my new MacBook, who needed it.

But after a few months the MacBook seemed to be too big. Do I haul it out just to see if one of my friends has tweeted? Then my friend Paul showed me the Touch — it’s the awesomeness of an iPhone without the phone and the pricey data plan — it’s just wireless! I was sold. Now I just had to wait three months until my birthday.

So fast forward to June 6 (the day after my birthday) and I got the Touch. That next day I loaded it up, downloaded a few free apps (grrr!) and then used it for a full day that Monday. So what did I decided Monday evening? That I needed an iPhone. Yeah, that’s right, I want an iPhone.

Sure the Touch is great, but what if I am stuck in traffic or just got out of the gym and want to see if people are getting together for dinner? Do I drive to the Panera parking lot and see if I can steal their wi-fi?? No, you don’t do that, you get an iPhone (or you just call people, but come on, who does that anymore??).

The deal I have made with myself is that if I get an awesome raise this year, I will treat myself to an iPhone. That’s the plan.

And what to do with this practically brand new iPod touch? Well, turns out my boyfriend (definitely not a “Mac person”) took an immediate liking to it — especially to Falling Gems (a fun free game I recommend). So maybe I’ll make him buy it from me!

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EA Sports Active

20Jun09

When WiiFit first came out I was super excited about it and thought it was going to be revolutionary for me. For a while I was doing it on a regular basis and having a pretty good time, but after a while (or a couple weeks) it became boring and frustrating. I was tired on having to pick a new exercise every few minutes, interrupting the workout. I thought that there was going to have to be an expansion pack, something with more exercises, with the ability to create a workout — a series of the individual exercises.
active
I have to admit that I haven’t done the WiiFit in several SEVERAL months, but I have been pretty good about going to the gym three times a week. But once I saw EA Sports Active, I thought it looked like the improvement that WiiFit needed. Since I had a birthday coming up, I thought maybe it would be a nice think to ask for.

I have only worked out with it twice, but I have to say it is quite an improvement from WiiFit. After my first workout, doing the Day 1 easy workout, my hamstrings were so sore! I could definitely tell I had worked my body. After today’s workout I didn’t feel as sore, but we’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Active has a ton of preset workouts — ones that are 15 minutes up to 45 or so, easy to hard levels and workouts that target specific body areas. The balance board can also be used with Active, but I haven’t tried it yet. The trainer is nice and offers lots of encouragement. While that may sound cheesy, I think it actually is pretty encouraging without being obnoxious, but then again maybe I’m just that desperate for praise! :)

There are a couple downsides I have found – 1) the exercises alternate between using the nun chuck in the leg strap and holding it in your hand, so that means you have to wedge the nun chuck in the holder and wrestle it out between exercises. 2) The leg strap starts to fall off unless you have it tight enough to cut off circulation to your leg. But, I do sweat a lot, so it may not be a problem for most normal people.

So, based on my first impressions, I give EA Sports Active two thumbs up. I have enjoyed it so far and think I can keep it up.

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Another one down

18Jun09

As of today I have officially finished my second graduate school class. So I now have 6 out of 36 hours of the degree down, so only 30 more to go . . .

Obviously 30 divided by three is ten, so that means I have ten more classes. And ten divided by two is five, so that would be five more years if I took one class a semester. Hopefully I would be able to get in a summer class or two, so that could knock out a year. So that would be four years . . . The program is supposed to be completed in five years, so theoretically I should be okay — but I am not sure if the classes I have already taken will be counted in the five years or not since I won’t be officially in the program/school until the fall semester. /sigh

This class was not as enjoyable as my first class, but I guess it has helped me realize what things I find important as a designer and what part of HCI I fit into.

I am looking forward to officially becoming a part of the HCI/d program, but I am also sad that I will not be continuing along with the people I had my first class with. I have made so many great friends already and had a ton of fun and it is sad that I won’t be in the same classes as them, but I am sure there will be some awesome new people starting this year as well. I just feel like I really lucked out with being accepted into this group and fear that maybe I won’t fit in as well with this new group.

I’m sure it will all be okay, but I like to have something to worry about! And since I don’t have appendicitis, this gets to be it!

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videos

15Jun09

Ha. I was just looking back at my other entries and apparently all I do is bitch about Flickr videos! Grr!

UPDATE!! OMG! Thanks to @satre0nil I got it to work!!

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Back again

15Jun09

So I just realize that it has been forever (again) since I have written anything. I think I had a revelation though — I have a couple things I have been thinking about and will hopefully make them into posts in the near future.

But no one reads this anyway, soooo . . .

Why can’t I embed a Flickr video??

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Welcome to school

31Mar09

So what has been happening? I have officially been accepted into the IU School of Informatics master’s program in Human Computer Interaction Design. While I didn’t really have doubts that I would get in, I was still telling myself that I might not.

Now this means that I will basically continue what I am currently doing, which is taking one class a semester while working full-time. On one hand I think it would be great to be able to go to school full-time, but on the other hand, it’s kind of nice not to have a full load of classes, studying, reading and assignments. Of course this means that I will probably be in school for the next five years . . .

I don’t really have any other options at the moment, so the plan is to keep plugging along. I will be taking a human computer interaction class in the School of Library and Information Sciences this summer, and then in the fall will take another required design course with the new first years.

One thing that really disappoints me about not going full time is not being able to stay with the group I have met in class this semester. Everyone I have met has been great — they are a really fun group and have accepted me with open arms. I even found a boyfriend! :P

While I am sad that I will not be on track with that group, I will have the privilege of being a part of next year’s class AND the current class . . . and then the class after that and the class after that . . . I will know everyone in the school!

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