2019-02-21
2019-02-19
Quick sketches on a morning train
Due to the need to ensure the dog I am sitting for a friend performed the morning biological dumps in both solid and liquid forms, I got on the train one second before the door closed.
I spotted this guy standing on the Palo Alto Caltrain station platform, and had only a few seconds to draw before the train departed.
I had a few more minutes drawing this girl sitting a few rows in front of me.
2019-02-17
Quick sketch of Rodin’s head of a man with one ear
There were less than 40 minutes until closing when I arrived at the museum, so I picked an object suitable for quick sketch.
I did not notice that the sculpture indeed has only one year until finishing the drawing and looking at the artifact title.
I plan to come back and draw from a view that show both sides of the face.
2019-02-09
What to do during wife’s haircut
Both took me about 1 hour before stopping for various reasons (museum closing, dinner time).
Daichi suggested me to spend more time and patience, as shown in his drawings
2019-02-07
Imposter syndrome
A colleague recently told me that he felt like being an imposter in our lab. I was surprised because in my view he has been very successful all around.
Many members of our research community feel likewise and need to shore up their facades. I guess we can all relax a bit once we realize everyone else is just like us.
Or you can be like me, too insensitive or self-absorbing to really care what others think about us. (I still pretend I do, mostly to fit in.)
🙂
2019-02-06
What to do during train commutes
Sighting people is a fascinating activity on public transports.
Below is my usual procedure.
Pick a subject that seems interesting and remains relatively stationary.
The subjects may move, but often come back to the original positions or cycle through a small set of configurations while sitting on a train.
Sketch as efficiently as possible without worrying about correctness.
Avoid direct eye contacts with the subjects.
This guy asked me what the train number is, and I said 193.
Sketch from memory of a toddler, whose face was partially blocked by his grandmother.
A sad-looking woman sitting with her dog looks fascinating, but the BART was too crowded for me to draw anything.
So I drew this lady with head scarf within a few seconds.
This double-chinned girl smiled brightly while typing on her cell phone, but turned back to her laptop with a grim expression.
What to do between conference meetings
There were about 2 hours between my meetings in the Moscone center.
I headed to SFMOMA only to realize it closes on Weds. Fortunately, the nearby St. Patrick’s church was open, so I went in and spent about 80 minutes drawing from a sculpture.
The church was very quiet and peaceful; downtrodden people napped on the benches, tourists wandered around, and church staff cleaned the floor.
Nobody really cared what I was doing.
A girl dropped by asking me if I was drawing St. Catherine. I told her that I don’t know.
2019-02-02
Self programming
Instead of the current medical technology which looks like ad-hoc hack, I look forward to the day when we could program ourselves (e.g., at a molecular or genetic level) as we could with artificial entities, so that we can adapt to any environments and resist all diseases, including aging and death.
Maybe eventually we will still perish, but we can at least watch the collapse of the universe.
PS: reincarnation is probably still the best form of immortality.
PPS: the same technology could be applied to restore biodiversity and revert climate change.
2019-02-01
Quick sketch of a pug
I just waited for the dog to fall sleep and remain quasi-stationary for a bit while.