Morgan Ames - DMP 2003

I have a room in the World House (http://www.geocities.com/worldhouse/, with the obnoxious geocities ads), which is smack dab in the middle of frat row, and I feel like I should be doing a study on their bizarre, violent coming-of-age/mating rituals in addition to my interface usability tests ... but I have a basement room, so most of the time I can be blissfully unaware of them. I didn't think I could despise their type any more than I did before moving in here, but I've found new depths to my disgust and/or pity! :~) Hopefully most of them will clear out one the quarter ends here (one more week of classes, another week for finals), and it'll be quieter over the summer.

And hopefully parking will loosen up, too. They have permit zones like Berkeley, except on frat. row where it's a free-for-all ... which is good for people like me who don't want to deal with permits, but always really crowded. But after dealing with Berkeley parking for so long, I don't bat an eyelash. I have to start taking the bus to ballroom practice and such - I've discovered a nice trip planner, so I should be able to take the bus more easily now.

That aside, I like it here, apart from the occasional bout of homesickness. I haven't done much exploring - I've mostly been settling in: putting a chain on my window so I can leave it open, convincing a housemate to share his cable modem connection by plugging in my wireless access point (thank god there's a fellow CS geek in the building who understands ...), getting the fluids in my poor car topped off after the long drive up, wandering around campus and "the Ave" (University way, Seattle's analogue to Berkeley's Telegraph or College), finding the local ballroom studios ... I've been dancing every day since I came, and I have a standard partner who's good - I can finally feel like I'm making some progress with my dancing! :~) We've had two private lessons and have been practicing every day. I've also been social dancing a few times, and I'm taking other standard lessons too.

I've been reading - This Place on Earth 2002, about sustainable Seattle, and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. I read it long ago in my junior high sci-fi stage, but I had forgotten all but a bit about grokking and about Valentine Michael Smith's good kisses, so it's nice to re-read it. It's an interesting historical artifact too - it was written in the 1950s, and though it is futuristic, it reflects the chauvenist/misogynist and homophobic values of the time. I also wandered through the cat-shops, er, book-shops along The Ave yesterday, perusing the poetry and political science sections and petting various bookstore felines.

Oh, and I managed to thoroughly shock my father by going to a burlesque show last Thursday, after seeing the flyer in a local coffeeshop and remember what fun the one I saw in New Orleans was. Too bad it's not going through Salt Lake.

I've been attending interesting talks - I attended one today on people's "personal information spaces" which renewed my interest of doing a survey of how people (probably fellow classmates) organize files on their computers. There is a reading group up here like the Berkeley Technology and Sustainability group, so I'll participate in that over the summer.

For research, I've (almost) decided to do a meta-study investigating the effectiveness of synchronous remote usability tests (e.g. the tester is watching the user's screen, and the two are talking on the phone) versus local usability tests (tester and user are in the same room).

The weather has been gorgeous - I need to get a replacement rollerblade brake so I can tool around to Ravenna, a local ravine park, and around campus.

Here's the MapQuest-generated route David and I drove from Berkeley to Seattle. The numbers are:
1. Klamath Falls, Oregon (where we spent Saturday night)
2. Crater Lake National Park (very snowy!)
3. Bend, Oregon (slept through it)
4. Sweet Home, Oregon (slept through it too, but went to a hot spring between Bend and here)
5. Portland, Oregon (where we spent Sunday night)
We're thinking of driving back to Berkeley along the coast when I'm finished in August, though it may be more important to just get back quickly.

Above: My room in World House. Smallish, but cozy and cheap, at least for this room. (And I've lived in smaller ...)
Below: The lock I installed on my window, so I can counteract stuffiness by leaving it open all the time. Then, my Google t-shirt!

David's coming to visit! He arrives next Saturday morning, and leaves the following Monday night. This weekend I'm going to bus around to all of the interesting parks in the area, and maybe wander around downtown so I'll have something to show him when he gets here. I'll probably go social dancing again, at one of the local ballrooms - DanceSport International, Washington Dance Club, or Orion Dance Club.

Today I chatted with many interesting women and men at the end-of-year CS picnic, and scored a cool Google t-shirt. Hooray to Google, who makes t-shirts in women's SIZES, and women's STYLES too! At the CHI conference, which is heavily attended by women as far as CS events go, they don't even deign to stock small men's t-shirts, meaning any smallish woman drowns in the smallest available t-shirt. I picked up a Google shirt for Tasha, my fellow DMPer, since she didn't come to the picnic.

I also went to an Information School end-of-year party, where I met Batya's daughter and Melody Ivory's son. It's interesting to see how Batya and her husband Peter interact in meetings: they have different research styles, but they get along so well. (Peter is in the Psych. department, Batya in the Information School, but they collaborate.) Jen and Anind are at odds with one another much more.

I should get myself a library card soon - I've finished Stranger in a Strange Land and don't want to undertake a Gutenberg Project book just now. More sci-fi would be good - I haven't read much since junior high. But more of the so-called "classics" would be very pleasant too. I have so much time here! Yesterday I took a walk, and considered bringing my drawing pad and doing some sketches. I haven't done that in a long time. This last semester has been so hectic, I haven't had a moment to think, much less draw or be creative. I've decided to redesign my website again, and am writing ever more scripts for the UC ballroom dancers site. I've been in contact with friends more in the last week than I have all semester, too. I'm looking forward to more time like this in graduate school ...

I spent much of the weekend coding a partner match interface for the UCBD site, which I'm going to redesign again anyway, but I managed to get out a bit. It was ghastly hot - record-breaking, in fact, at 90+ degrees Farenheit - on Friday and Saturday, so I was only too happy to lounge around in my basement room for much of it. I danced a little on Saturday with my Latin partner, but my standard partner was sick so I danced with him on Sunday instead, and got a lovely compliment about being a "beautiful dancer, and beautifully trained" from one of the instructors at the studio where we practice.

I did explore a couple of parks - Green Lake, which is mostly a recreational park with baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and a paved footpath all the way around the lake; and Ravenna, which is a lovely wild ravine with hiking trails, making you almost forget you're in the city! At Ravenna I partook in lemonade that a bunch of little girls were selling to combat the heat.

On Monday I had another private ballroom lesson with Olga and my dance partner. We registered for novice level standard, which means we'll do quickstep, foxtrot, and waltz. We've been practicing like crazy - 1.5 to 2 hours a day, 5 to 7 days a week (though my partner was sick a bit last week). It makes me feel good (usually) and keeps me busy so I don't get too homesick.

This long-distance relationship thing is tricky. It's hard to feel attachment to someone when all you have are phone calls - somewhat distracted, and usually only summarizing the day - and the occasional instant message session when he's not too busy. I end up getting resentful, which in turn makes me even more reticent ... well, I'm glad he's visiting this weekend, in any case. He sent me a picture of a rose he took with his newfangled phone-camera on Sunday, and I thought that was very sweet. I endeavored to take a picture of the sunset to return the favor, but the sunset was pretty lack-luster that day, and I couldn't find a good vantage-point anyway. I'll have to try another day. My replacement rollerblade brakes came in, so I'm a bit more mobile - and my DMP travel reimbursement check came in too, so quickly!

I've seen more of Seattle in one weekend with David here than I have in the three weeks prior! The whirlwind started when I picked David up at the airport at 8:45am on Saturday. We went to the farmer's market on the Ave, following it with buffet at one of the many good Indian places. We wandered around northern Seattle to various parks and beaches, had an exciting encounter with a do-it-yourself car wash, then danced downtown and caught a very late dinner at one of the few restaurants we could find in the University District open past eleven.

Sunday we walked around campus, squinted to see Mount Rainier past the fountain, and wandered around the observatory near the north entrance. We had sandwiches at Flowers on the Ave, and I showed him "the sauna," as Tasha and I named our office, in Point 5 (which David wanted to rename "Point 1 base 2"). Then I practiced ballroom for two hours while he fixed his laptop. In the afternoon we engaged in lover's spats ("no, row on THAT side!") while canoeing around the inlet south of the university. Then we drove to Seattle Center, decided not to spend $12.50 to go up the space needle, and wandered around the "Neototem" sculpture gardens and strange fountains until dark (which is always much later than I expect!). We had another late dinner at a Thai restaurant northwest of Seattle Center, then rented a Sundance film that a friend recommended from Scarecrow Video, which looks like it has a fabulous selection of foreign and artsy flicks, the kind that I like.

"I've had enough!"; Space Needle reflected on E.M.P.; Mt. Rainier

Today we stumbled out of bed and drove the 90 miles to Mt. Rainier for some sliding around on the snow on Glacier Basin trail. We made it about two-thirds of the way up the trail before turning back ... to take David straight to the airport for his 8:56pm flight. David's in the air as I write this, and already I miss him. Three more weeks and it'll be my birthday, and he'll visit again. Meanwhile, I need to better keep up with current events, so we can get back in our habit of having intellectual debates. They fall by the wayside when my classwork gets thick, and though the semester is long over now, I haven't visited slashdot or google news even once since I arrived here! And I should check out Washington hot springs, for his next visit. We've made a habit of hiking and backpacking to hot springs in California (here's another site, but I usually consult a book or my uncle), and I think they make great outing destinations.

As for research - what research? :~) Actually, I've been a bit worried all weekend about a preliminary study I found as I was writing the "related work" section that seems pretty close to what we want to do this summer ... but I guess I'll save that for the "research" part of my website, enforcing my somewhat arbitrary distinction between "work" and "play." :~)

I've been introduced to the wonderful world of IRC, which sinks more of my off-time than AIM now. Most is just listening on #csua, though. With the weather drizzling and dance plodding along, it's nice to escape online. I wish we'd get a thunderstorm - they're one thing I love about the desert, and miss in Berkeley. I've heard they don't get them here much, either. I'm reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I got out of the library yesterday, and am enchanted already by the first chapter. Meanwhile, David has checked out an apartment for me in Berkeley, for the fall. It's a bit pricy at $625, but looks nice from the photos, and is so close to campus! ...

I've made all sorts of promises to "go out and do stuff" with people - housemates at a gathering on Thursday, various Berkeley people in Seattle for the summer - we'll see if anything comes of it. :~) Maybe I can load everyone up at once and go check out the hot spring resorts on the Olympic Peninsula. I've been also meaning to check out secondhand stores along the Ave, and maybe Toys in Babeland, Seattle's version of Good Vibes.

I'm excited and a little intimidated for this remote usability workshop Monday. One of the attendees is Jakob Nielsen - and while it'll be great to be able to interact with "the web usability guru," I'll feel even more ill-prepared for the workshop - not only am I a mere "peon" in the research hierarchy, I haven't actually run any remote usability tests like everyone else there. :~) But it's so great that A.J. and Alan are giving me this opportunity!

And next Saturday night I'm competing! My partner and I had a lesson with a Alexandria Hawkins (who I took some group lessons with in the Bay Area) today, who was much more helpful than Olga Foraponova was. I have new shoes, and have to hem my dress up.

Phoenix doesn't realize it's a desert. The opulent conference hotel, the Phoenician, has no less than four fountains - and probably several more that I didn't find - plus acres of perfectly green, perfectly even, and perfectly soft grass (non-water-resistant I'm sure :~)) and nine holes of a golf course, some of which were being watered in the heat of the day (already it was the heat of the day at 7:30am) when we rolled into the hotel this morning. All buildings are kept at a constant 68F, at least thirty degrees below the temperature outside - even at night. The restaurants and Starbucks coffee shops that open to the outside of the "Fashion Mall" adjacent to my room in Days Inn exude a constant hiss of mist over their doorways and balconies, to give their customers the impression that they're in muggy Florida by the ocean before it dissipates into the 12 percent humidity. Swaying palms and glass pyrimidal scutptures make the place more surreal than Vegas, which is at least (proudly, flagrantly) self-aware.

The city is sparse and the streets are wide and often named by their coordinates, just like Salt Lake City. I wonder if the Mormons founded this city too, like they have others across the west? I wandered through the vast mall parking lot and into the misty coolness in search of dinner, and found it in the form of a mild bean burrito at La Salsa. I serendipitously saw the Finding Nemo banner at the theater adjacent, and watched a much different world than Phoenix for a few hours, thanks to Pixar's delightful realism. Finally, a kid's movie that doesn't depict a whale as hollow! (There's enough that's wonderous in the world - kids don't need the untruths of fairytales for their imaginations to roam.) On the way out I serendipitously bought a moonfood-like bag of Dippin' Dots from a machine that sucked in three dollars and vacuumed up the pouch from the freezer with a long probiscus. I became disoriented in the directionless expanses of parking lot, eating Dippin' Dots, and saw a rock that looked like a washed-out, washed-up Nemo.

sad Nemo-rock

Oh, and I read about half of Neruda's One Hundred Years of Solitude on the plane ride here, can you tell? :~) I had a stopover in Salt Lake and gleefully called my dad, telling him I could see the outline of the Wasatch from my plane window. I was exhausted when I reached the Phoenix airport, and slept well until 7, when we woke to go to registration. The usability workshop was very interesting, and during the first break Jakob Nielsen said he was looking for part-time interns, and since I was in Berkeley and all, and since it seemed like the research I was doing was more relevant than that of the Stanford students they hire ... so maybe I'll work for the (Hayward-based) Neilsen-Norman group next year! I offered him my contact information, realizing too late that I didn't have a spiffy business card to hand him, and embarassedly scrawled my name, affiliation, number, and email on a business-card-sized scrap of yellow notebook paper. I'll have to follow up with an e-mail soon. Strange that just yesterday, I was reviewing my finances and telling David that I'll probably need a job to pay for tuition next year! ... The Phoenician served sandwiches and cookies for lunch in cute corrugated lunch pails (though they were about 30 lunches short), and A.J. took hers home for her son. As for the workshop itself - I'll be posting my conference report on my research page soon.

Woo hoo! My dance partner and I won second place out of 16 couples in novice standard in the ballroom competition last Saturday! (Novice is above the so-called "syllabus" levels [bronze, silver, and gold], where you can only dance certain figures, but below the pre-championship and championship levels. The International Standard dances are Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Tango, and Viennese Waltz, though only the first three are danced at the novice level.) Our marks varied from judge to judge, but across all judges we placed second in waltz, fourth in foxtrot, and first in quickstep, for an overall second place. I was glad that we made the semifinal round (12 out of 16 couples were recalled), then excited when we made the final round (6 of 12 couples were recalled), then ecstatic when we came in second, behind a seasoned couple who also won fourth in the pre-championship level. All this after only 4 1/2 weeks of dancing!

hopping through quickstep

Sunday I was going to explore on rollerblades, but as I was lacing up it started to pour, so rather than rust my bearings I returned my blades to the corner of my room and walked down the Ave in search of a yoga mat, harassed by various punks and street people just as if I was walking down Telegraph. :~) Sunday night I returned to see the last half of the dance competition (Latin and Smooth styles), though I wasn't competing again. By the time I got back home from that I was achy and had a fever of 102, so I spent most of Monday in urgent care (just the flu) and in bed.

I finished One Hundred Years of Solitude over the weekend, and visited the library again to check out The Dubliners by Joyce and The Diffusion of Innovations, a book that caught my eye at Powell's in Portland. I don't know if I'll have much time to read this weekend, though, because David's flying in tomorrow night and it's my 22nd birthday on Friday.

What a weekend! It started with another trip to Urgent Care Thursday morning, followed by a trek up north to the emerald waters and tranquil beaches of Deception Pass State Park. Captain Vancouver passed this way, and apparently wasn't too happy with what he found on the other side. On Friday, David plied me with birthday presents, and then we drove south to Olympia to visit some of his high school friends - who also made the leap across the Atlantic and to the west coast - for barbeque, badminton, and fireworks. On the drive back, one of my tires blew out, whipping steel across the underside and side of my car, so we drove the last 30 miles on my donut spare. Saturday we had the tire replaced and wandered downtown in the afternoon and evening, going to Pike Place Market and a wacky Jungian planetarium show called Starball. (Between my stint as presenter at Holt Planetarium and my longstanding astrogeekiness, I usually patronize the local planetarium of any town I visit. :~)) Sunday we took the car ferry out to the Olympic Peninsula and hiked the gorgeous subalpine meadows of Hurricane Hill, then had a delicious belated birthday dinner in the rotating restaurant in the Space Needle.

Deception Pass in the distance, Pike Place

Hurricane Hill subalpine meadows, artsy needle

My aunt and uncle from Berkeley drove up to visit the weekend before last. We drove west on I-90 into the Cascades with their local friend and their dog, and hiked up the Snow Lake trail in the Alpine Lakes area of Snoqualmie National Forest. That night we walked around the lovely Fremont area, and saw Lenin (few U.S. cities would display a 10-foot Russian original like this :~)) and a creepy troll under Aurora Bridge.

The next day, we took the bus downtown, wandering through Pike Place Market, south to Pioneer Square, and southeast into the International District. Seattle is full of beautiful old buildings - I think it's much more interesting than San Francisco. I ran into a Berkeley friend interning at Amazon.com, which is in the International District. Just this LAST weekend I showed him and a friend around the university district, and I also revisited the places in the city that I saw with my aunt and uncle, this time with my camera.

Last Saturday I took the (in)famous Seattle Underground Tour with a very energetic tour guide named TerriLyn (sp?). Saturday night I caught the very first U-district "movie in the park"(ing lot) - Toy Story, for a $5 donation. Next weekend is City of the Lost Children, which is lovely and whimsical and dark ... and next weekend the Seattle Shakespeare in the Park group will be performing The Merry Wives of Windsor in nearby Woodland park.

David was telling me about a big monolith, a la 2001, that was erected Jan. 1, 2001 in a nearby park. Alas, I visited the Kite Hill where it was placed, and it is no longer there. The hill has a lovely breeze though, and easily lives up to its name - too bad my nifty stunt kite is in storage in Berkeley, and has a broken strut anyway. :~)

Cascades, underground

I wanna hold your hand ...

On Wednesday I got a $42 ticket for jaywalking. I've never heard of tickets for jaywalking before! Don't Seattle cops have anything better to do, than harass people and give them exorbitant tickets for silly reasons? Why is jaywalking illegal, anyway? And what kind of police state do we live in anyway, that movement can only take place along prespecified channels, not only for cars but for pedestrians? :~) Anyway, Seattle Police Department didn't make a new friend today.

On a lighter note, I discovered yesterday that the Buffalo Exchange secondhand store up here has some great stuff - I've never had luck with the ones in Berkeley or San Fransisco, but I walked out of this one with ten shirts and two pairs pants, and I can finally retire some of my more aged blouses and tees and won't have to shop again for a long time! I saw the Merry Wives of Windsor in Woodland Park today, after nearly giving up on finding it (they tucked it away at the northeast end of the park, and only put up signage along one road leading into the park - never mind that it wasn't the one their website directed us to!). In the evening I went to a barbeque that A.J. put on for Tasha and I, where we played bocce (Italian lawn bowling) and ate delicious burgers and salads and ice cream, and drank sangria, and chatted. I met Tasha's family at last, as well as SO's of other researchers, and we were all amused at the antics of A.J.'s adorable 18-month old son.

It's hard to believe this is my last week here. It's also hard to believe how much more I have to do before I'm ready to leave. In addition to packing and moving out of here by Thursday (to stay with a friend of my aunt's on Friday and Saturday), there are still 10 more user tests to run, and I have to put all the data on my laptop before I go so I can work on analyzing it. I also need to get my car repaired before the long drive down, take back my library books, have one last private ballroom lesson and practice for the competition this Friday and Saturday, and if I have time, get small gifts for various people I've worked with up here.

Just before leaving Seattle, my ballroom partner and I competed in the Seattle Star Ball, placing fourth in prechamp and second in open novice, behind the same couple as before. We were very nervous for the pre-champ competition Friday night, and I think we could have danced better, though perhaps not place better. :~) David flew into Seattle and arrived at the hotel just in time for the prechamp round Friday night, and shortly after the awards ceremony Saturday afternoon, he and I left for Eugene, where we would spend a night and then cut over to the coast for most of the rest of the drive to Berkeley. As we drove down on Saturday, just as the sun set, it rained on us and created an amazing red-only rainbow from the sun's filtered light.

The next day, we cut across to Florence, Oregon and drove down the coast, stopping to wander around a few Oregon beaches (I've heard that all beaches in Oregon are public). When we reached the coastal redwoods of California, the fog began to roll in, and we decided to drive all the way to Berkeley since there wasn't too much to see in the fog.

I was back in Berkeley for about 30 hours at the beginning of last week, just enough time to catch my breath, have dinner with David and two recently-married friends, and pack for my annual trip to Michigan, to visit my grandparents and the rest of my mom's family. David also came to Michigan, and yesterday we took a trip up to Mackinac Island, rented a tandem bike, and wobbled our way around the island's 8-mile perimeter. He and my sister left today (for Berkeley and Salt Lake City respectively), but I'm here for another week - lots of time for research data entry, small programming projects, and the last year of National Geographic. :~)

And thus concludes my summer in Seattle, at least my official DMP stint. I'll probably be back in September for more user tests, then in October for the Ubicomp conference, and I'll be doing a lot of data analysis and writing in between. I have trouble conveying to family and friends how wonderful Seattle was, especially that it only rained two days the whole summer (it's winter that's grey and drizzly). :~) And I find it really difficult to express the changes I've gone through this summer - especially in terms of feeling capable of research and prepared for graduate school. It was wonderful to have a mentor who could take the time and energy to help me like A.J. did, and it was also great to get to know other researchers like Tasha, Janet, Alan Borning, and even Batya Friedman and Peter Kahn back at the beginning of the summer. It was also very reassuring to meet women who had both families and careers in computer science, though I'm not necessarily planning to start a family myself anytime soon. (I mentioned this to a friend in Berkeley who got her undergraduate degree in engineering, and she enviously responded with how great it would be to have such role models.)

Seattle inSanity