I’m back in the Philippines for Xmas so I am now bored enough to post a new blog… actually, there’s a party later but this can be a quickie.

So LITZO was a project for IAT 336 that I did with Derek, Manuel and Joel. For this one, we had to make lamps using LED’s and the laser cutter or 3d printer at school. Inspired by Tetris, our idea was to create 5 tetris shapes for our lamp. Each piece would be made of assembled acrylic puzzle pieces lit up by LEDs. The cool thing about our idea was the “switch” to turn it on: you turn it on by stacking them. How? The current will run through each piece by magnets. Cool.

PROCESS

Here’s how we did it. First I drew the shapes out in vector. This took a while since a made a little boo boo with our first set. Then we took the shape into SolidWorks to see what it would look like in 3d, if the pieces actually FIT (since the boo boos didn’t). Then they were cut. It was cool watching the laser burn through making shapes but it stank like a mofo. Joel was our electronics guy since Derek and I had no clue how it would work. The pictures show the magnets soldered onto wires, and that’s just a bit of what we needed. We experimented with different adhesives when puttin the shapes together. We used this chemical that melts the plastic and dries up for all the corners of the puzzle pieces. For reinforcement, we used stinky epoxy inside.

RESULT

Here it is! I’m glad that the acrylic we picked out was that lovely white color. It was opaque enough for the LEDs to shine but still hide all the wiring and glue. The pictures show them all stacked up and now I wish I took pictures of them individually.

And that’s what I do in school. Tadaaaa! Wait for the process video coming up by Derek.

I really like my sound class and I didn’t think I would at first. One of the greatest things about this class is that all projects are individual, a refreshing change to working with groups. Not that I hate people, it’s just nice to have a class wherein you don’t have to rely on groupmates to show up for a meeting and vice versa (I don’t have to meet anyone!). I get to do what I want, when I want.

Secondly, the prof, Philippe, is a french guy and his accent makes me listen. I feel I have to pay extra attention to understand what he’s saying which keeps me awake. Also, he knows his stuff. Same with the TA, Andrew. He’s cool too.

So here’s what I did for the second project (I don’t like my first one so you’ll never hear it). We were supposed to re-soundtrack a short clip using Pro Tools software, an industry standard….oooo. I think mine was cute and I got a good grade. It would be such a waste to let it sit in my hard drive and be forgotten.

Clip taken from an old Dick Tracy episode. It’s entitled “Mr.X”

Click HERE to view (and listen) to the original.

So I’ve been going through my photobooth folder and I’ve decided to be a copycat and put it out for the world to see. Here’s a few of the events that went on this semester. It’s over, by the way. It’s over.

That’s Paula pretending to write on our imaginary invention for IAT 333. It’s a tablet as our fake interface and she’s our fake mom writing an event on her digital calendar thing.

This is Morgan on a sunny day in the hot tub. Why? It’s one of the few places on campus where they didn’t shut down the power. Why? They don’t want us studying in the study areas. Why? They’re fucktards. Check out Morgan’s Mac/PC!

We also drink in school! Here’s wine tasting day! I couldn’t stay long because of work so I didn’t really participate…officially. There’s the wines with the bottle openers from Alessi. Guess who has the giant scar on his arm.

Derek and I ideating like the smart people that we are. We like to write to organize our thoughts and draw relationships between all the research that we do. Plus it makes us feel extra intelligent. Good thing this room has wall to wall whiteboard.

Here’s Manuel and I working on IAT 404. Manuel likes to procrastinate and he gets easily distracted. That’s why I quit.

This is what Manuel likes to do: make things pretty. Doesn’t it look super after Photoshop? This is the final prototype for our concept, Sustain-a-Stack. Derek and Manuel made the website. We made a glorified plant box with lights and watering controlled by a widget… but not really since it didn’t fully work. Whatever, the teachers love us.

Nothing eventful here. My face just looks nice and my bangs are where they’re supposed to be. Say hi to Derek and Karen!

There you have it, me in school. I’m was there almost everyday more than I was at home. I go home to shower so those pictures with my hair down means I went home and those with my hair up means I didn’t. Gross huh?

Finals week is finally here and as interaction design students, we don’t need to do exams. As a replacement, we get to do final projects or portfolios that sum up the whole design process of the entire semester. Woohoo. There’s 333 due tonight at midnight(tuesday), 404 due thursday, 391 presentation on friday and Italian exam on saturday.

I quit a long time ago. I’ve stopped to care. After I do my part, I stand back and watch. Not a very good thing to do but it’s already officially summer in my opinion. So today while waiting for Azmina and Paula to finish up the documents, I completed my mother’s day card. I took off the wings since Virginie was worried that they wouldn’t fit in 5×5. She was right.

It’s now 12:29am and Derek is still in front of me finishing off his own project. Poor Derek.

Hello. Yes, I’m still alive.

So I’ve finally fallen asleep in class last week. I said earlier that I wasn’t bored by the class and no matter how long and dragging people might think of it I would still stay up and listen. Nope.

It was the week when I had April as a partner. Non c’e male! I stayed up till 6am and dozed off during Rus’ lecture on Florence. Woops. April did our topic on contemporary Rome, a nice change to all the historical research we’ve been doing for the first 4 weeks. I’ve always thought of the city as an outdoor museum, a preserved archaeological site. By doing a presentation on the cool new buildings and projects made me see it in a whole new light. I even got props from Rus for getting info on visiting the construction site of Zaha Hadid’s new project: MaXXI. 10 points for Kiks!

Zaha Hadid’s MaXXI

Lateran University Library by design firm King Roselli

outdoor concert in Auditorium Parco della Musica by Renzo Piano

ES Hotel by design firm King Roselli (we’re going here too!)

Last week was the start of research on Florence, the birthplace of Renaissance. Morgan and I did our topic on Brunelleschi, the guy who started it all. He was a weirdo and a genius who made the switch from Gothic style architecture (think Hunchback of Notre Dame) back to Classical inspired by ancient ruins in the cest pool Rome had become during the middle ages. He designed the dome of Florence’s cathedral S. Maria de Fiore without concrete! It was the easiest week ever since Morgan already did a whole paper on the topic and yes, I got a good night’s sleep.

After class, Simone, Karen, Brad + girlfriend, Derek, Yosheezy, Ryan and I (and Andrew!) had a celebratory movie night: Be Kind, Rewind. Funny! Super cute. Chinese MSG cheap food afterwards in Richmond. <3

School

I’ve had Brad and Azmina as partners in the past 2 weeks. With Brad, we did churches and basilicas. I learned that we we’re going to live down the street to the first church in Rome ever. It’s called the San Giovanni in Laterano and it’s the MOTHER of all churches even higher up that the Vatican. And right across the street from our apartment is this other fancy church called San Clemente built on top of St. Clement’s old house. Sweet. That’s on my list of go-to’s.

With Azmina, we did Piazza Campidoglio, Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. I was so into it that I can recognize EVERYTHING on that ceiling and also the mural of The Last Judgement on the altar wall. I’m so excited to stand in line for hours in anticipation of entering that squishy chapel. OMG noway.

Shopping

Yay for dresses! I went on a shopping spree this past week. 3 dresses from Urban Outfitters and some more guilty buys from Richmond Center. Though the whole mall was on sale, most of the stuff Steff and I got were not. Oh well, I’m happy. I got the dress down there but it’s too fancy for all day sweat-fests in Italy… or is it?

DDR

Okay, it’s impossible. There’s no way I can do an hour everyday so I’ve reduced it to half an hour. AND Stef found out how to crack open the hidden songs! Hoorah! More motivation to play.

Sad Part

1. Valentines Day [or Single Awareness Day] is coming up and I’m still single. Can someone hot pretend to like me for a day and make out?
2. I deleted my whole 391 folder. Shut up about it already!
3. I’m still fat.
4. I’m kinda hungry.
5. Money. Can I have some? I need a job but I’m picky…and I don’t wana work.

Tuesday: 333 presentation My first snow day.

I woke up around 9-ish because Steffi opened the apartment door to come in. She had just wasted 2 hours of her life going to school and finding out that it was closed. Thanks for heads up, Stef!

Instead of doing more Italia research, my Italian assignment or any catching up to readings, I played DDR like I promised myself. I also ironed, folded and arranged our bookshelf. Looking for other ways to procrastinate, I made myself a template for my long overdue portfolio website here. It’s pretty simple. I’ll probably hate it a month later.

I’ll be crossing my fingers for more snow days to come.