Thursday Agenda
- Check in
- Opening Blessing
- Writing Exercise
- Projects
- Machine Learning/AI
- Flight in a Cage
- Evaluation
- Closing Blessing
- Equinox
Check-in
- Brandon … I'm under a lot of pressure at work, but I'm excited about it, so … I have some long nights ahead of me, and early mornings
- Ben … I have a cat on my lap and I have done some interesting work on my novel tonight that I’m excited to tell you about later … hopefully it won’t distract me too much from the exercise.
Opening Blessing
We come here today to share enthusiasm for our projects, to support each other in the practice of projects, and to catalogue our progress. May we enjoy our time together. May we come away with enthusiasm and quiet determination. May we rock! -- Blessed Be
Writing Exercise
The context for the dialogue is this: One of us (decide which one before starting the exercise) has found the other’s checkbook and would like to return it. As for what the character you assume will be like, that’s up to you—except for two important traits, chosen from the four lists below labeled “A, B, C, and D.” (Don't read those lists until we start!) You pick two numbers between 1 and 12, and using the numbers you’ve picked, read what it says next to the first number on list A and the second on list B. I will do the same thing, using lists C and D. (My plan is to "roll a d12" using this website to choose my numbers.) Do not reveal to me the numbers you’ve picked or the traits assigned to those numbers. Simply assume those traits as your own, and begin writing our 10-minute dialogue.
List A:
- Practitioner of polyamory (in an intentionally non-monogamous sexual and/or romantic relationship) 2. Multiple sclerosis patient 3. Atheist 4. Octogenarian 5. Buddhist 6. Muslim 7. Afro-Caribbean 8. Near-sighted person 9. Lesbian 10. Indian/Native American (you may have a specific tribe in mind) 11. Filipino 12. Tourette’s patient
List B:
- Blues guitarist 2. Technical rock-climber 3. Floridian 4. Erotica reader 5. Disc jockey 6. Child-support payment evader 7. Attorney 8. Well-groomed person 9. Good cook 10. Professional manicurist 11. Someone who dwells in a rural area 12. Person who frequently changes hair color
List C:
- Hermaphrodite 2. Spina bifida patient 3. Non-native-English speaker 4. Catholic 5. Anorexic 6. French-Canadian (if you’re not living in Canada, you’ll be an immigrant) 7. Person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 8. Mixed race person (you pick the mix) 9. WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) 10. Korean-American 11. Someone allergic to peanuts (if you eat peanuts, you may die of shock) 12. Eighteen years old
List D:
- Tarot reader 2. Executive Vice President (of whatever you choose) 3. Part-time student 4. Wine collector 5. Gardener 6. Insomniac 7. Pregnant woman 8. Misanthrope (hates everybody) 9. Nail biter 10. Biker (as in Harley rather than Schwinn) 11. Pet rabbit owner 12. Blogger (keeps an online journal)
Once we’ve completed the exercise, here are some things we should each consider about it: Did you find yourself trying to guess which characteristics your partner had assumed? Trying to keep yours secret, or to reveal them through your part of the dialogue? Did some of them come into the conversation naturally?
Machine Learning/AI
Two main areas:
- Concerning AI
- Has started up again after summer break, should be regular every week or two
- Fun and casual, keeps my energy up
- Having marbles to play marbles (quote from a professor)
- Find a coding project to dig into a particular area where I can add value and deepen my knowledge through practice
- I have a passion for starting at a low level and working my way up
- Researching what machine-learning libraries I could contribute to
- Looking into linear algebra libraries (machine learning and computer vision are built on it) to learn their performance characteristics and pick one to build on, looking at existing ML and CV libraries that use them, but mainly ensuring I'm okay with working with a good library where I can trace bugs easily
- I'm taking notes toward a survey of ML and CV libraries and the underlying LA libraries
- I think I want to make a selection of a ML, CV, and LA library and be able to explain why I didn't choose others … that will be my <s>first</s> second milestone
- Catch up on the state of the art
- I would like to pick a couple of problems and figure out what the best existing solutions/techniques are, and what libraries those are built on … that would help me figure out my criteria for picking tech
- For example, what libraries did AlphaGo use and why did they pick them?
- I can email them, in the past I've almost always gotten answers
Problems to identify and write up the state of the art (new first milestone)
- Go
- Face detection
- Speech recognition
- Self-driving cars
- Image segmentation
Flight in a Cage
Finished chapter 7 and sent it out. Working on chapter 8 realized that Act II hasn’t really gotten started until chapter 7. Considering starting out with a new chapter 1 that is chronologically in the middle of my current chapter 6. It would have some flashbacks that would cover some of Part 1. But I would probably have to give up some things. Possibly including everything about Stephanie Rogerson and the zoo scene with the animals running loose.
Act I … Get to know Eryn and Devan (and the bad guys) Act II … Danger from the DNO, Hopelessness of turning Pteros into a starship
Considering starting with Part II and then going back to Part I in order to get into the excitement right away. Or you get them confused … is Stephanie one of the main characters? Why did she end up dead?
Stephanie … be relatable from a time like our own, make it clear that the danger is real, and she’s confused and uncertain too
But we don’t want readers to be too confused about who the main characters are and what the main conflict is.
Evaluation
- Ben … The exercise was fun but kind of stressful because I had to try and figure out in real time how someone very different than me would react, and talking about my novel was stressful because I’m not that good at defending what I’m doing, you made me feel a little defensive
- Brandon … I had a lot of fun … I do feel sad that I was a critic rather than a cheerleader … give me another chance please? … but the main thing is fun
Closing Blessing
We came here today to learn about each other and what we care about and what we do with those passions. We also learned how to imagine ourselves to be very different people with different passions. This encourages empathy. May we continue to walk in each others (and others) shoes while pursuing our own highest aspirations. -- Blessed Be
Equinox
Shelley and the boys want to do more ivy pulling on the Saturday after, and an evening ritual on Thursday that celebrates the changes of the moment (looking back over the year).
Name ideas
- Recent Changes, or in Latin, Nuper Mutata
- ecce enim hoc momento … look at this moment
- futurum nunc est … the future is now
- mutationes celebrandi … celebrating changes
- Festival of Changes (Merge with the Earthseed event)
- "Falling" into the future