Adobe has week-long (or longer) shutdowns around early July and late December every year, which are often good opportunities for traveling (e.g., vacations, family visits, or conferences).
To me these are also often golden opportunities for focused work, such as reading papers, thinking about research problems, and conducting exploratory experiments, which are often hard to come by during the regular work days with frequent distractions (often fulfilling coworkers’ requests).
I have found such focus time incredibly productive and satisfying, and wonder if I could continue the effect outside shutdowns by trying to reduce distractions, at least those self-induced.
2024-07-07
Focus time during shutdowns
2024-05-24
Leg cramp exercise dream
I dreamed about doing some footwork exercises on early morning in May 23 2024 and ended up waking up with a severe leg cramp.
https://youtube.com/shorts/4-1UxNkwhkc
2024-05-06
趙媽媽的小孩吃冰淇淋
She bought some ice cream and ate it in front of a grand view behind the Ferry Building on a gorgeous sunny Sunday afternoon, and somehow I felt a bit impatient at the moment.
I realized what I had missed the next day and captured my feelings into this imaginative vector drawing.
Life is too short and time does not flow back; I should be more patient and present to enjoy every moment.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/197971047/HuiIceCream
2024-04-28
Cotton candy grapes
This is my attempt to visualize the taste upon the first bite of these grapes.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/197316059/CottonCandyGrapes
2024-04-05
DSGNR57
This “creative entity” has an impressive Behance portfolio and messaged me to connect.
We had an half-hour Zoom call on Friday afternoon, during which he remains anonymous and faceless.
From his voice I can figure out that he is a young European male whose is on an early stage of architecture design day job.
2024-02-25
Missed opportunity
When I boarded Caltrain 313 at San Jose on Thursday February 22, 2024, I saw a guy deep in sleep with his head resting on the window. The face constituted an excellent drawing subject but I decided to finish my dinner first. Then the train conductor came to check tickets, and the guy had none and was asked to leave the train at the next stop.
Afterwards I did a quick sketch from visual impression and produced a variation via image-2-image diffusion. Neither could catch the original face which I could better capture on spot.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/186107513/PortraitsMotoGStylus/modules/1088458927
2024-02-21
Visualizing dreams
One main reason that I would like to be able to draw is to share what I saw in my dreams which tend to be vivid and unusual. This is difficult enough due to both the required skills and the ephemeral nature of dreams. But how about visualizing other people’s dreams based on their descriptions?
https://www.behance.net/gallery/192128691/BakeryHouseDream
2024-01-30
Group urban hike
As part of the lab offsite, we took an urban hike between 601 Townsend Street and the Mission-Dolores Park. The weather was unusually nice for January in San Francisco, and this is actually the first time I walked through the neighborhood between Mission and SoMa which has this interesting industry-under-the-highway feel.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/190359367/ExteriorMotoGStylus/modules/1076608513
2024-01-28
A beautiful day
After finishing a demo in the morning, I drove to San Francisco, listening to Edvard Greig’s piano concerto (A minor, opus 16) on the way, and went to the Legion of Honor to see Boticelli’s drawings, which I finished on time by avoiding reading all the descriptions.
It was a beautiful day, with the sun shining and Golden Gate bridge visible from the museum.