On Intense Creativity & Building Things... Week 8 of Hackbright!

Curious. Driven. Thoughtful. Inquisitive. Funny. Irreverent. Brave.

I find myself repeating these words when asked about my colleagues at Hackbright Academy. Everyone is intense about something: traveling, tinkering, dancing, cooking; intensely critical, intensely ambitious, intensely focused.  We must be intense, otherwise we wouldn't thrive in this environment, where we set aside our insecurities to plunge headfirst into pursuing a dream once thought inconceivable.

Programming gives us an entirely new way to control our environments, in super-creative capacities. Suddenly, we all have new tools at our disposal. Suddenly, we can talk to machines in their languages and make them DO things we want them to -- and the ramifications of this newfound power are almost unlimited.

Arduino micro-controller, able to
communicate with lights,
cameras, motors & more! 

We've discovered that robotics isn't just for high-level scientists in research labs, and programming isn't just for tech-wizards who started in grade school. Today, affordable technologies like Raspberry Pi and Arduino, along with vast repositories of open-source software & project guides, enable anyone with a basic knowledge of programming and a knack for problem-solving to build nearly any practical computerized gadget they can imagine.

Raspberry Pi, the brains behind
the automatic pet feeder

So while I'm not about to construct an automatic cat feeder this weekend, I *am* already reading the instructions, checking out the code on github, and talking to my partner about how he can help with each step of the project. It feels amazing to know I can take control of my surroundings by building things that make life easier, more interesting and ultimately, more functional.

Leap motion controller

And in the past week, I've seen my classmates demonstrate 3D motion sensors, devise their own algorithms, instruct our teachers on new technologies, and encounter more "A-HA!" victory moments than I can count. What an amazing transformation from when we started! As intense people, we can be pretty hard on ourselves -- but it's clear to me that we've all acquired a new superpower. From "Hello, world" to "Watch out, world" in just 10 weeks!

Fish & Code and Code & Fish

Somehow I deleted an entire blog post that had been saved from earlier this evening. Here's the replacement.

Tech -- it's already Week 6 at Hackbright! We've finished the formal curriculum and are beginning our projects, which is really exciting. I'm happy with the project I chose & have already had an awesome time storyboarding, mapping and creating my data model. Had an energizing meeting with my mentor where she pointed out small gaps in my data model and potential clusterf*cks to avoid -- SO HELPFUL! I continue to be absolutely blown away by the calibur of the teachers, alum and other mentors.

Yes, there are FOUR kinds of oysters here.
If you ask, I'll tell you where to get 'em!

Food/Life -- Had another insanely busy but awesome weekend. I managed to squeeze in a bikram class each day before I had to tutor, which keeps me calm, balanced & pumped full of endorphins, and is a minor foil to sitting in a chair all week. Was regaled on Saturday evening with a lovely bouquet of flowers & a few dozen oysters from my husband (aka the sweetest person I know) to celebrate my Hackbright halfway point. Then we explored an Asian strip mall in Milpitas and discovered a pretty respectable (ie, actually *Japanese*) sushi place. We had whole mackerel sashimi and I so wish I'd taken a picture of their gorgeous presentation! Rows of beautifully folded sashimi slices, with the fish body curving around them and seaweed salad accents, topped with a pile of shaved green onions & ginger. After you eat the sashimi, they deep-fry the carcass karaage-style and you eat it like a cracker. A hot, crunchy, greasy fishmeat and fishbone cracker... Heaven :)

On Sunday we made smoked albacore tuna salad to sample for the folks at Three Stone Hearth on Wednesday (Hackbright friends might recognize it as my Monday lunch). It's really good. Here's the recipe:

Smoked Tuna Salad (4-6 servings)

Ingredients

• 8-10 oz smoked tuna loin, chunked
• 4-5 radishes, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 1 medium shallot, finely diced
• 1 dill pickle, diced
• 1/2 cup parsley, rough chopped
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise or mayo substitute
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt (I use 2%)
• juice of 1 lemon
• fresh black pepper

Instructions:

Combine first 6 ingredients in a mixing bowl; stir to combine well. Add mayo, yogurt & lemon juice and fold mixture to thoroughly incorporate the dressing into the salad. Stir to less to keep the tuna chunky; more if you like it mashed-up. Sprinkle on some fresh black pepper to taste and refrigerate before serving.