 Design
Industrial design, metalwork, architecture ... etc.
When I get some free time and when the creative juices
are flowing I design my own furniture, although it has been
hard to get most pieces done without regular access to a workshop.
 Real time graphics / Photorealistic renderings
My work involves virtual reality and augmented reality.
Which is a lot of fun for me to work of projects
developing these immersive environments. For my own enjoyment
I also do renderings of photorealistic images and animations
using whatever tools I have at my disposal.
Geometric puzzles / Optical illusions
I enjoy the work of MC Escher, Roger Penrose and others like them. I like recreating their works or concepts
in my renderings or virtual environments. Applying their tessalations and fractals to my work or my renderings.
See the
Virtual Reality Lab page for my Perose staircase animation in VRML and still rendering in Bryce 3D
Latin / Swing / Ballroom Dancing
I've found a group of friends who like to go salsa dancing.
MSalsa.
So on most weekend evenings like Friday and/or Saturday we go
to the Latin dance clubs. I'll also go do swing and ballroom
on various days of the week, although not as frequently.
University of Michigan Ballroom
Dance Club .
Travel / Cultures / Religions
I end up doing a lot of travelling in my life. I feel it is enriching for me
visiting countries with different cultures , customs and religions to
gain a better perspective of the world. To see famous or exotic places
with my own eyes rather than a postcard or a National Geograhic documentary.
I grew up in several different countries where the languages, cultures
and religious beliefs have all been different. It has helped me to gain a
broad view of people around the world, rather than form an opinion solely
by reading what is in the news or an editorial column.
Pico Iyer probably summed it up best for me in his essay "Why we travel"
"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find
ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about
the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what
little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the
globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence,
to become young fools again -- to slow time down and get taken in, and
fall in love once more..."
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