It's been a while, but hey. I could use a place to reflect on various projects and interests too nebulous, over-ambitious, or, well, quotidian to promote elsewhere. And this sure is a place!

Besides, I've been thinking lately about how unpleasant most social media is and how much I enjoyed LJ/DW back when I was active on these old platforms. Some of that was due to life stage, no doubt. However, I think the structure and interface of these sites was also a factor. I'd like to revisit these old UIs and see if I can use my much-improved HCI skills to suss out what it is about these old journaling sites that makes them so enjoyable. I'm also curious to explore whether it's possible to modernize these sites without losing whatever it is that makes them feel so cozy.

At the very least it seems possible to up the font size and spacing on this HTML editor a bit. It's so cramped compared to most modern sites!

Some other musing on the subject

• DW feels rather heavy and complicated. A little more progressive disclosure could help with that.
• The lack of defaults for things like userpics makes the barrier to entry feel higher than it really is.
• A smarter text-editor might be nice. For instance, it would be cool if the text editor picked up on the fact that I'm writing a bulleted list here, and formatted the text accordingly.
• And I hear that the image upload options are kind of a mess. Would it be possible to get to at least DeviantArt levels of ease?
• The mood selector is so nostalgic I can't even handle it.
• It feels like everything in DW is in tight little boxes. It should be possible to open things up a bit and let the layout breathe.
• More modern text fields, drop-downs, and buttons would go a long way
• The site is definitely not responsive. It all feels very pre-mobile.
• The site doesn't feel like it has much of a brand identity. There's something very generic about it. (Maybe I feel that way in part because the color scheme reminds me of Zellers?)

... anyhow. More on this subject as it occurs to me. I'm going to check out the github repositories and see if I have the skills to actually mess around with some of this stuff.

As of today, I am unemployed. It's a weird feeling, but not altogether a bad one. I was planning on leaving soon anyway, so financially this is actually a pretty sweet deal for me. Not only am I now eligible for EI, but I'm also going to be getting a hefty severance package to float me along for the next few months. So, no complaints here.

Still, being laid off is a pretty emotional experience. It's a huge, life-altering change, and it happens unbelievably fast. One minute, you're working away at your many projects, a valued employee with a clearly defined purpose, and then suddenly you're... not. It's hard not to be a little bit shaken, no matter how welcome the change.

Anyhow, the big challenge for me over the next while will be staying productive and engaged, as I don't always deal well with having gobs of unstructured time and no guidance whatsoever. However, at least I know myself well enough to know that that will be a challenge, and that means I should be able to find ways to compensate for said marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth.

To that end, I've drawn up a list of rules I mean to follow:

1. Don't let inertia take hold! This mostly means that I've got to strictly limit the amount of time I devote to passive entertainment. In particular, I've got to keep my internet use under control.


2. Focus on goals. I want to go back to university to study HCI, so now would be a great time to make sure my intellectual foundations are solid. In practice, that will probably mean reading a lot of books/papers on HCI, working through free online course materials, and learning some C#.


3. Stay social. Without social interaction I will eventually go crazy. Staying social will likely require me to start organizing social events (eep!), joining volunteer organizations, and maybe devoting more time to keeping up with my correspondence.


4. Become a habit judo master. Good habits will hopefully provide me with much-needed structure.


5. Keep my apartment spotless. At this point, there's really no excuse for not keeping my apartment in a magazine-ready state of cleanliness.


6. Get ridiculously fit. Again, it's not like I'm not going to be too busy exercise or eat right.


7. Control costs. At the moment, I'm far from being in dire financial straits. However, with no new money coming in for... I don't know how long, it would probably be a good idea for me to start living like a penny-pinching grad student ASAP.


8. Pursue neglected personal projects.
All that writing and drawing and programming I said I'd get around to as soon as I had the time and energy? Now I have the time and energy.

If I can just stick to those rules, I think I'll do all right. At the very least, I shouldn't have to worry about not having enough to do!