I will try to update on my research more frequently from now on like when I used to write about my WiiPaint project. At the end of the week, it really helps to regroup my thoughts and remind myself what I have (or haven’t) accomplished.
Outdoor mobility project
People spend 5% of their time outdoors. This statistic from my Living Green Page-A-Day calendar struck me as awfully low. Per day, it translates to 1.2 hours of being outside, which may seem high or low depending on where you live. I’m currently working on a survey to better understand the activities people do indoors and outdoors, how their home and work lives play a part in indoor/outdoor habits, and the reasons why we are not spending more time outdoors. There is a lot of research on how physical activity, being outdoors, and nature have positive effects on physical and mental health, the factors that promote popularity of certain urban areas, and literature that focuses on specific populations: children, particularly overweight children, the elderly, and the mobility impaired.
Along with the broad survey I’m conducting to get a better idea of this area (and hope to find some interesting correlations), I’m also designing a second survey based on the literature on outdoor mobility and social interaction for the elderly. I hope to create an intervention for the home that brings the outdoors to those who are mobility impaired and might not be able to go out often. More to come on that soon.
Current: IRB undergoing review
Next: Hope to deploy by the end of the week
References I’ve collected:
- Outdoor mobility, urban and public spaces
- Outdoor mobility and social interaction for the elderly and mobility impaired
Pachuino
Meanwhile, I’m continuing building simple sensors using the Arduino as part of my engagement in public spaces research. I’m currently working on combining an RFID reader with a WiShield to upload tagged items to Pachube. I built this with logging elevator data in mind: the probe would be placed unobtrusively near an elevator door, and whenever it reaches a new floor, the RFID reader will read that floor’s tag and uploaded it to the Pachube server. The idea is that manually logging elevator activity for observation in public spaces is very time consuming, and this is one way to automate it.
I’m currently in the process of getting the WiShield to communicate with Pachube, but it’s a little harder than I thought. The tutorial on Pachube for connecting WiShield to Pachube is incomplete, and seems to be missing a chunk of code that’s present in the Arduino Ethernet to Pachube tutorial.
Current: Connecting WiShield to Pachube
Next: Create casing for probe, deploy in elevators
That’s all for this week. I’ll be visiting family in China for 2 weeks and will be back in early July. Will post later this week an update on some things related to public spaces.
You can also use “with:public” and any other keyword/s to find public waves of your interest.
Changing winds
The new minimalist theme reflects some changes that have recently happened in my life. In the past few months, I’ve been getting into books about travel1 because I realized that it’s one of the things that keeps life exciting and meaningful for me. I’ve also done a lot of thinking about what I’m passionate about and what my “muse”2 is after going through a bit of a rough patch figuring out what kind of research would motivate me to work the most. Writing a fellowship essay a few weeks ago made me realize that constant self-improvement and positive behavior changes keep me not only healthy and happy, but challenged and excited about life.
Looking back on the sad state of my blog with its sparse updates since last year, I decided that I wanted to write more often, not about my research progress necessarily, but my take on some of the things that I’ve read that are inspiring to me. Some of my favorite travel blogs are by Tynan, Tim Ferriss, Gary Arndt, and Trey Ratcliff. These guys are living on the edge and extremely successful at what they do. What could I possibly contribute in my blog that they haven’t already more or less perfected? They were experts on various topics such as traveling, living minimalistically, photography, and optimizing your life. However, they are also all white, male, and living in ways that most of us gawk at and say, “That sounds great, but I can’t do that because of my job/family/financial situation/whatever.” I’m hoping to turn my blog into a place where I, as a relatively shy Chinese-American graduate student, can provide a unique take on what it’s like traveling to as many places as I can afford on a grad student stipend, owning less material things, becoming comfortable photographing strangers, and eating healthier.
I am not expecting to turn my blog into a successful empire, but rather, share experiences that I hope others can relate to, and stimulate more discussion (or introspection) about how to make the most out of your life with what you have. So what can you expect from this blog from now on? A hodgepodge of articles on traveling, photography, living minimistically, eating healthy, and various other adventures. If you’re in a similar boat, I’d love to hear from you. Here’s to embracing positive life changes!
1. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Life Nomadic by Tynan, next: The Lost Girls by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, Amanda Pressner
2. 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
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Upcoming trips:
December 18-January 5: NYC, MA, NJ, MN, MT for winter break.
January 20-26: Madeira, Portugal, for TEI 2011
Update:
Adding links to mentioned blogs. Also, my good friend and fellow traveler Kona, who’s traveling in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur right now, recommended Go Girl Magazine, featuring stories and tips from women travelers.