Synchala

Sloth and Procrastination

I’m off to a bad start on my masters project. This week I was supposed to be reading up on a wide variety of subjects. This reading I am supposed to be pursuing vigilantly will inform many of the decisions I make about my project in the next 2-3 weeks. However I have hit some snags.

• Snag #1: staying in NJ an extra day.
• Snag #2: not having the books when I got back.
• Snag #3: necessary errands (getting car and laptop fixed).
• Snag #4: World of Warcraft.

As of Friday the first three snags will be taken care of. I am back in Rochester, I have the books, and while my car and laptop aren’t fixed yet, I have laid the groundwork on that issue. Snag #4 is about to become a non-issue as I am not going to allow myself to play it before 10pm. Therefore I hope to actually get some real work done every single day (not including weekends unless I’m making up for slacking off during the week).

That being said, I have been doing some of the reading and so far it’s interesting. The first book I picked up is by Jef Raskin, the creator of the Mac UI and an accomplished HCI practitioner. It has some excellent tips on how to make an interface that is easy to use and takes advantage of the users built-in knowledge. I’ll be posting soon on my capstone blog with some of the most important lessons I am taking away from the reading.

P.S. Aaron, if you’re reading this, yes I’m getting work done, and yes I’m going to finish on time!