Saw someone wearing a t-shirt with text “hate sucks”, whose meaning depends on which word is the verb/noun.
My immediate interpretation was “pain is temporary, suck is forever” (with “hate” the verb, “sucks” the noun) but then realized it probably meant the other way around.
June 23, 2023
“hate sucks” t-shirt
June 21, 2023
Harmonious colors from 4 rubber bands
I found these 4 rubber bands on the kitchen counter and was intrigued by their coincidental harmonious colors, which I experimented with in these drawings.
June 20, 2023
Friendly encounter with a Rouen duck
I almost stepped on this duck while walking on a trail, and saw it close by after hearing its quack sound.
June 16, 2023
Closed hookah lounge
Passing through this hookah lounge on a Thursday late afternoon and found it permanently closed, so I reanimated its prior activities via motion graphics over the doorframe paintings.
Oblivion
I was trying to rename a bitbucket repo that I created a long time ago via an alternative account, but just could not recall the email address associated it (which would be required to login to that alternative account).
After some digging I finally found the old .edu email address for that account, and recalled that the reason at the time was that I needed that to be able to add unlimited number of collaborators to all these repos.
June 15, 2023
Journal AE versus paper committee
After serving as an associate editor (AE) for a few journals (e.g., ToG, CGF, TVCG) and paper committee members for a few conferences/journals (e.g., SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, Eurographics), here is my personal take on the similarities and differences between the two roles.
Similarities: a main (and probably the most important) task for both is to recruit and manage reviewers.
Differences: an AE does not have to read the papers (even though I read every single one so far just to make sure my final recommendation is sound) and can decide the final recommendation without consulting other AEs, while a paper committee member has to read all the papers and present the recommendations in a committee meeting before the final decisions can be made.
June 12, 2023
Tire marks
I saw some tire marks over a newly sealed road surface, and tried to draw them via custom brush (multi-color eye-drop) in Adobe Fresco.
How to invite reviewers
Are you a paper committee paper or journal associate editor (AE) who want to increase the likelihood of reviewers responding positively to your invitations?
Here are some tips based on my own experience:
Instead of a machine-generated generic email, craft a custom message telling the candidate reviewer why you think they are a good fit for the paper, such as their background respect to the topic or specific components of the paper.
You should have this information already when deciding to invite that particular reviewer.
Add some personal greetings such as if the reviewer has a recent job change or life event, a new paper, or someone you both know, which could be found on their social media or personal website.
Do so particularly if you know the reviewer (or someone close to them like their collaborator/advisor) personally.
If you already read the paper, provide some estimation of the time commitment required for reviewing the paper, e.g., “I think it will take you about 2 hours to review this paper”.
If you have accepted review requests from that reviewer in the past, mention this as well as a hint of reciprocity.
This is another reason to accept review requests if you have the bandwidth.
June 10, 2023
Primitive emotion and advanced technology
“We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.” – Edward O. Wilson
Natural human evolution might not be fast enough for our primitive emotions to catch up with our advanced technology, and I predict pretty soon we will use technology to accelerate our evolution, e.g., by using AI to augment our intelligence and CRISPR to edit our genes.