My dad did a lot of quick pencil drawings on papers while waiting, and I did the same with fingers on a mobile phone (moto-x4 with Autodesk Sketchbook installed).
2023-06-04
2023-06-01
Caltrain rides
I have been taking Caltrain recently for commute while my car is in the body shop, and thus could resume a favorite activity of mine – quick portrait sketches of fellow passengers during the rides.
These are obviously not the best sketches in terms of absolute quality, but I like them given how much I can achieve in such a short amount of time (at most a few minutes and sometimes only a few seconds).
The train schedule has become sparser (and less convenient for passengers) since the pandemic, likely for cost saving due to reduced ridership, which in turn could cause further ridership reduction in a negative feedback loop.
I hope both the ridership and schedule will pick up again soon.
2023-05-25
When a programmer needs an extra break
// when a programmer needs an extra break
// inspired by real code I saw
switch(day)
{
case "Mon":
doWorkA();
break;
case "Tue":
doWorkB();
break;
case "Wed":
doWorkC();
break;
case "Thu":
doWorkD();
break;
case "Fri":
doWorkE();
break;
break;
}
It took me a few days later to realize how to achieve this effect via motion graphics.
https://youtube.com/shorts/PUP1q54Kn9w
2023-05-12
Dying squirrel
Dying squirrel, road side, blinking eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Uh8-kJ6KuQA
2023-05-07
2023-05-04
Squid back brain
This is a story-let inspired by real-life events.
He likes to work out at the start of every day, without which he would could not ignite the engine of this body and mind and feels awful throughout the day.
Later last year, he started to notice some soreness at his lower back when he was dead-lifting.
He thought that was caused by misaligned posture, or maybe he is just getting old.
One night, while tossing and turning in bed, he accidentally felt a small lump at his lower back.
He went to see a doctor, who told him that it was a benign nerve tumor and he could either live with it or have it removed.
Later that night, he dreamed about the back lump trying to tell him that it was not an ordinary nerve tumor but an extension of his brain, which was formed after he ate some san-nakji (live octopus) during a recent trip to an Asian country known for that cuisine.
Specifically, since octopus was eaten a live, parts of the genes encoding distributed brains was spliced into his DNA along with his recent mRNA covid vaccination, which he injected per requirement just prior for the trip.
After some pondering, he opted to remove that lump, brain or not.
To the chagrin of the surgeon, he asked to take the lump home after the surgery, and ate for dinner, but cooked in a tako-yaki style, not raw like san-nakji.
As to whether the nerve tumor is really a brain, he does not know yet, but will see if he will become more or less creative and productive, especially for his lower body movement.
For now, at least he no longer feels the squeeze of the lump.
2023-04-26
Sketch creativity
It was told that I would be too run down to have meetings after the surgery, but I managed to come back 10 minutes prior to the start of the seminar and gave a live talk without any issues.
But just as a back-up plan, I also pre-recorded a rehearsal.
2023-04-22
Happiest moments of the day
My happiest moments of the day are when I finished my physical trainings, especially at weekend mornings, which made me realize that physical, mental, and relationship health are the most important things to me and everything else is icing on the cake.
2023-03-26
Optometry visit
I manually traced the vector contours over the photographs captured by my mom to highlight the cute hand gestures and facial expressions of my niece performed during an optometry visit.