sacha chua living an awesome life

I’m not really sure where to begin demonstrating what I’ve been
working on. Unlike the other groups who are creating something new
and easy to explain, I’ve been spending the last few months exploring
a different way of life. My contribution to the computer science body
of knowledge isn’t some killer application or breakthrough theory, but
rather experiments, documentation and incremental improvements.

My project is about wearable computing. I aim to show that it can be
done inexpensively, using only off-the-shelf equipment and free
software. To that end, I have been gradually adapting Emacs to
wearable computing needs. Most of what I am demonstrating is not my
code, but the use of it is uncommon even in the Emacs and Emacspeak
communities, and so my contributions have mostly been in the form of
documentation and patches. I have also become the official maintainer
of planner.el, a text-based organizer for Emacs.

Since I’ve based my project off Emacspeak, a lot of things were
instantly accessible. For example, I can easily check the time and
date by pressing C-e t. Emacspeak also allows me to work with
practically all modules in Emacs. Because this foundation is already
quite good, I decided to focus on documenting its setup, demonstrating
its usability and writing or improving upon Emacs features.

“A human being who is weaned from all attachment to internally unstable
pursuits such as love, sexual activity, power-seeking, and
money-making is automatically at the same time rid of many of the most
common grounds of value conflict. In part, the superior harmony of the
philosopher’s life results directly from this reduction in the number
of his or her commitments. The pursuit of mathematics and the pursuit
of love will not come into conflict for a mathematician who does not
care about love or a lover who does not care about mathematics. But
the philosopher or mathematician’s particular choice of content
contributes powerfully, too, to his harmonious condition. He chose
these pursuits precisely because they were always available and did
not require any special conditions for their exercise. He can think
about theorems in all kinds of circumstances; they are always
available for his activity, regardless of his political circumstances,
regardless of the activities and attachments of other human beings. So
how often will he be forced to make a painful choice? The
self-sufficiency of individual pursuits leads, then, to a reduction in
conflict.”

Interesting thought, isn’t it?

I think I’ll go for HTML. If animation is necessary, then I’ll use Flash. I won’t be able to reach the auditory/kinetic people as much, but I’ll be able to provide them with more material.

The module definitely has to be downloadable and ‘runnable’ on any system.

Sleepy. Was rewriting script. I think I’ve got a much better idea now.

I had my social immersion this weekend. See, our university requires
that all graduating students spend two and a half days living among
the poor so that we can get an idea of what their life is like. I
actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t too bad. Actually, it was kinda fun
watching my groupmates freak out. Shhh.

We learned how to cook some of the things the vendors sell on the
street. We slept in their shanties, ate their food, and (to the horror
of some of my groupmates) showered in their tiny bathrooms equipped
only with a bucket of water and a small pitcher. I’m sorta used to it
because of camping. =) Not a kind of life I’d want to live
permanently, but I made do.

Most of the time, though, we listened. They have interesting
stories. Apparently most of them are from a few provinces in the
Visayas, and they left because they feared the insurgents in the
area. They’ve been occupying that lot for some 30 – 40 years now, and
a few generations have grown up there.

As part of our social immersion program under Fr. Padua (our theology
teacher), we looked into the issues that united and divided their
community. A major bone of contention for the different groups in
these slums is a small chapel. Hardly a chapel, even – just a clear
space with a roof over its head and a small altar for Mass – but it
has resulted in deep rifts. Fr. Padua and the other people we talked
to seem to think that one of the families there is trying to maintain
control over this chapel for somewhat less than admirable
reasons. It’s apparently quite a lucrative venture – P2,000 for a
wake, when the actual costs are so much lower! Other people complain
about the drinking and gambling going on there – sometimes even inside
the chapel. Accusations of nepotism abound, especially since the
controlling family seems to be exploiting the common space for their
own personal gain.

Of course, I feel vaguely uncomfortable at hearing only one side of
this. I wonder what they would have to say.

We’ll probably be focusing on that for our report. Anyway, look – I survived
immersion. Cool, yes?

Bad karma: Didn’t do too well on my Theology test because I hadn’t read the assigned readings. How embarrassing.

No classes last Monday and Tuesday because of typhoons. My only class tomorrow is a free cut because the teacher needs to be somewhere else. No classes next Monday and Tuesday because of some elections.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Gosh, today is stressful. I thought I’d finished all the bugs already, but of course there’s always one more bug – probably caused by my, ahem, editing earlier. Lemme see if I can convince mom to let me go back early. I am such an idiot!

Just remember, Sacha. Even big, well-known companies like Microsoft have bugs. Serious bugs. Bugs that let people get away with messing up other people’s money.

Alright. Today I’m going to clean up my schedule…

I’ve learned a little more about emacs. Right now I feel really, really sleepy, so I’ll probably turn in soon. I have to learn more about the different tools I have on my system, but let’s take care of my requirements first!

ACK! ACP reg starts _tomorrow?!_ I thought it started on Monday! Think quickly, Sacha.

That means I need to go to school early tomorrow – get there before 8. Check on the alternative class program.