If you have attended SIGGRAPH this year, you probably have noticed this Corgi cam inside the experience hall of the Vancouver convention center.
I am not sure if there was a live video feed, whether someone was behind the camera, and what was the purpose of this whole setup (except for people to play with the dog), but below is my sketch of my (imaginary) mental image of the Corgi cam based on a reference photo.
2022-08-14
Corgi cam
2022-08-11
Church view from a hotel room
The floor-to-ceiling glass window of my hotel room provides a great view of two churches across the street, the closer one I drew after coming back from the Snap party at the Lamplighter Public House until it was too dark and continued the finish touch the next morning, as a slight change of course from the usual little time I spent with the places I stay during travels.
2022-08-07
Arriving at SIGGRAPH 2022
I didn’t realize how much I missed academic conferences until attending EGSR earlier in the summer, so I look forward to SIGGRAPH this year. And traveling to Vancouver is much easier than to Prague.
I arrived at the flight gate earlier than usual, but fortunately spotted an excellent drawing subject while waiting for boarding.
During the incoming trip I got spotted by several folks, including one MSRA intern from eons ego (who now reports to one of my former direct reports), one Adobe intern from last year (mentored by my former office mate), and one guy who reports to one of my former (and most favorite) collaborators. I didn’t recognize any of them initially as they all wore masks, which begged the question how could they recognize me given that I wore masks as well. Maybe they have better upper facial recognition capabilities than I do?
I wonder if the pandemic would fundamentally shift how evolution shapes human facial recognition.
2022-08-06
A flower immersed in a jam jar cap
A flower can last days, if not longer, by submerging its rear end in water.
https://youtu.be/usmhzgAXWEw
2022-08-03
SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 papers PC meetings
As a pseudo-miracle, I managed to wake up before 5 am for 3 straight days for the virtual SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 PC meetings (ending 10+ am), and set a personal record of reviewing 5 papers as an extra PC member, which, with the original 15 assignments, totaling 20, still less than like 22 I reviewed a few years back (but with fewer extra PC reviews which tend to have more time urgency).
Aaron Hertzmann has a recent post about expectation creep that is worth taking a look for future PC members.
2022-07-24
Lufthansa inflight snacks
A 1-hour flight between FRA and PRG would naturally not provide much food or drink, but I like the quality and simplicity of a bottle of water and a piece of chocolate.
2022-07-17
Moving around at work
After my turn of presentation in a recent intern seminar about how to write research papers, I took a break mandated by the eye-break program installed in my computer. Instead of moving around elsewhere as I would usually do, I stayed in front of my computer to attend the next presentation, but moved a bit to avoid staring directly into the display. Later I got a message from the meeting host reminding me that everyone can see me stretch in the virtual meeting, which I replied that everyone should do that during a long meeting!
A related thread from Cornell about the importance of moving around during work instead of just standing or sitting (or remaining in any other stationary poses).
I think knowing how to take care of our body is more important than knowing how to write papers.
2022-07-16
John Wick
While waiting for boarding at FRA I downloaded John Wick 1 + 2 in Netflix in anticipation for the need of some stylish actions without complex plots during a long flight, but did not manage to watch them until coming back home. I kept my device in airplane mode meanwhile as I am aware that these two movies are not available for streaming in the US.
2022-07-15
James Webb
The astonishing beauty of the images captured by the James Webb space telescope is a reminder that we are capable of extraordinary achievement, amid all the economical, political, biological, and environmental chaos.
The fact that the telescope almost did not make it (delays and over-budgeting) is also a lesson all by itself.