As Far As I Can Tell

After a full day of travel I arrived here in France, first Paris, then Lille, and now Valenciennes in Meredith’s little house. It’s so great to see her and Andrea is here too visiting from Morocco. Unfortunately while I arrived safely my baggage did not and I can attest to the sinking feeling that accompanies an empty luggage claim track spinning around and around. Luckily they found it yesterday and will deliver it tomorrow. Especially lucky because nearly all my clothes are packed in there.

Today we’re going to explore Lille with bundled up jackets and scarves. Photos and things coming soon.

I just wanted to make a quick note that if you’re looking to get a hold of me for the next month or so I may not be checking my regular email address. The best way to reach me will be through my school address: sjking [at] andrew.cmu.edu.

My final project for The Interactive Image is now online. Similar Squircles was an exercise to learn more about image processing by analyzing and sorting photos by similarity. The collection of images I used comes from the Squared Circle group on Flickr and my sorted results are presented through both a Java and HTML based interface. Check it out.

It’s much later than I expected to be up tonight but I’m finally done; my last project is wrapped up and my last class was today. A few administrative things tomorrow, grading for my class, some odds and ends and then the semester is over. Time to get some sleep.

Today was my last regular day of the semester, so now there’s just finals week before I’m officially done. I have two projects to finish but I’m on track and don’t think there will be any all-nighters. It’s been a good 4 months, lots of new insights and plenty of expansion in my thinking about design. One week of finals, then one week in Michigan, and I’m off to see Meredith in France. It would be impossible to explain how excited I am about that.

Tonight winter laid down a blanket, or rather a thick down comforter of snow in Pittsburgh. It’s been cold but with no white layer and now it deserves to call itself winter. I love the quiet, the hushed night illuminated by the brightness of streetlamps on snowy streets. By morning the snow plows, caught by surprise this evening, will have cleared all the walk and driveways, but tonight it’s still magical.