I think it’s time for my first real status report. Here is what I’ve accomplished in the last two weeks…

• I finished reading a number of papers on creativity, DIY, and appropriation. I would list them, but I don’t have them with me at the moment
• I created some fake Steampunk goggles for my Halloween costume
  • I made a Vimeo time lapse of the creation
• I completed my Steampunk machine for ceramics. It’s currently drying out and waiting to be fired in the kiln
• I defined my current idea of appropriation
• I went through all of the papers I’ve read and pulled interesting or important quotations that help build the argument I’m forming in my head
• I went back through all those same papers and pulled out interesting/important concepts, theories, issues, and questions from them. Each one got its own sticky note and pasted to the wall above my bed
  • There are about thirty of them, and I still have more papers to go through, so eventually, I need to determine which concepts/theories are more important, which are sub-concepts, etc
• I dressed up as a Steampunk character for Halloween
  • I created an entire persona and spoke with a fake English accent. I was “Lady Almyra Gunn, Steampunk scientist, researcher, and explorer extraodinaire.” It was awesome
  • Someone actually recognized I was Steampunk! Apparently they have a friend who modded their laptop to look Steampunk, and was highlighted in Gizmodo back in August
  • Obviously, I got their contact information and have asked to speak to their friend, especially since the friend lives in Indiana, perhaps Bloomington, even
  • I documented all stages of my costume, including the original clothing selection, the additions, etc. I plan to blog about this later
• I’ve collected some initial research questions on sticky notes

You know, I kind of thought I’d done more than that. But I guess not. It’s amazing how much time certain tasks will take! Well, with that out of the way, what would I like to accomplish in the next two weeks?

To do list

• I have to determine an activity for my capstone class tomorrow night. Don’t know what I’m going to do yet
• I want to determine my primary research question and any related sub-questions or potential opposing questions
  • This means I need to come up with more questions
  • I also need to start card sorting my questions, concepts, theories, issues, etc
• I want to determine my primary research plan. Where will I try to get interview subjects, and why? This includes sources like Etsy, Flickr, blogs, indie magazines, etc
• I’ve looked up the CHI work-in-progress details, but I still haven’t determined a plan of what I would like to have accomplished when
  • I need to figure out my plan for the remainder of the semester, actually. Gulp
• I keep finding more books and papers to read, but at some point, I need to cut myself off
  • Gotta find some reasons to do primary research
  • Again, this means I need to determine my primary research question

So yeah. That’s my plan.