Avianto's Journal

If you think my lack of update since my last entry was because I was relaxing after my defense then you were wrong. Dead wrong.

Here’s the situation: I am broke. I have more or less € 11.000 worth of education (not including living cost), a Master degree and a life to enjoy but all of this process left me with a minus bank account (a couple hundreds short), a late apartment’s bill and jobless. What a life.

The next logical step is of course looking for a job as I already did but no luck so far, that’s fine, I never thought this would be an easy trip. So to sustain my life, I have to do some freelance jobs and so far, I already finished two, which at least will provide me some finance to keep myself sustainable. However, as an “unofficial” design guy at my school I have a couple of tasks to do for the graduation day and believe me, those tasks taking my time more than ever. In addition, I could not complain because officially I am working as a research assistant and get a monthly salary. Nevertheless, it was okay since I am proud of the result.

Last Minute Order

Let’s see. We have more or less 30 students here but I always am the only choice if there are any tasks concerning design or graphics. Why is that? I have to admit that I have two major strength in this field, I work fast and the result is good. And no, I am not coming inexpensive (I have a theory that for a project there are three major aspects; time, quality and money. Pick two, you can’t have all three.). Because of that, most of my tasks and projects were always what I called “Last Minute Order”.

Here’s the fun story about it. Most of my clients always said that I am too expensive the first time I pitch for a project. Fine, I am ok with that. However, usually what happened then, they will come back a couple of days or weeks before the deadline and ask me to do their project with the same price I asked them before. Hah! Of course, I raise my price immediately, and they always agree, but still I wish I could have more time to do my work. Well, at least I get a nice sum of payment after that.

So?

What I need right now is a business partner or a company. Currently I am a one man company do everything from pitching to finalizing the project and what I need right now is somebody or a company to deal with the “business” side of the project and let me deal with the major issue, the project itself. As I said, I have two strenghts in my field: fast and good. I may not come cheap but I always make the money spent worthwhile, guarantee.

So if you are a company looking for an excellent user experience professional (information architecture, user interface design, human computer interaction, and usability and accessibility analyst) or if you are an individual looking for a business partner in user experience consultancy field (we are talking about a couple of thousand € kind of projects, hopefully with your help we could achieve more), please contact me and we’ll discuss the option. If you need instant resume, you can read it here but it would be better if we communicate directly.

Until then, I still have to work on a couple of posters and pamphlets. Let me know your offer.

Current OST of my life:

Please Stand Up

British Sea Power

Take me somewhere quiet please

These motorway exit gates

Are calling to me dearly

And I need a place to go

And even numbers on a timetable

Arrivals and departures and

Those places, names

Never seemed so strange before

If there’s anyone asking, did you get a rush?

There’s no point in asking, it wasn’t enough

There’s nobody else here, so please stand up

If there’s anyone asking, did you get a rush?

There’s no point in asking, it wasn’t enough

There’s nobody else here, so please stand up

The occultation of a summer sun

Was burning holes in everyone

Defenceless, what was left inside could finally escape

It seemed as if the streets had melted

It seemed as if the air was scented

I wish all of time could be like this

And then all of the sudden it’s all better better

A little excitement makes us wetter wetter

Back to life…

Update:

Watch this song’s music video – from ifilm.

12 months of classes and projects, 4 months of research, 4 months of writing and 30 minutes of defence.

It’s all done. The result? Master of Science in Digital Media.

Thanks for all of your support! I am glad that I have a lot of people supporting me, even though I don’t know some of you personally. It is an honor to have so many people supporting me through out this process.

I don’t know what to write now, I am still shaking a bit, I might go outside and enjoy the gloomy weather (It’s warm but cloudy).

Again, thank you and I’ll be back later with more story, more article and of course, more fun . Later!

Received just a minute ago:

Dear Mr. Avianto

Congratulations on finishing your written Master Thesis!! Now you must face the final part of the Masters Exam: the Defense (in German: Colloquium.) Yours will take place on Tuesday, June 21^st at 11:00 in the conference room 2.3.07 on the second floor in the new office area next to Dr. Hasebrook’s office. Please be sure to arrive 10-15 minutes before the scheduled defense.

The Colloquium will consist of a 10-15 minute presentation involving a PowerPoint or other external digital media sources of the Master Thesis followed by 15-20 minute question and answer period relationg to the work, led by the First Examiner. Please note it is the First Examiners responsibility to lead the discussion and defense.

You will be examined by the First and Second examiners. Please note it is the First Examiners responsibility to lead the discussion and defense. The grade will be announced after your exam.

We emphasize that this is a formal event and therefore request that your choice of apparel reflect this. We recommend semiformal to formal attire.

We will provide still and sparkling water during the defense.

The Colloquium will be open to the University Public. A public announcement has been posted in the ISNM and the TNF, University of Lübeck, and University people not related to the ISNM may, and perhaps will, attend. These people also have the opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A period only upon permission and direction of the Chair (First Examiner) of the Colloquium. Please note that you do not need to feel as though you must present your thesis in a simplified manner for these people. It is simply required that the University Public be given an opportunity to attend.

If you have any further questions regarding the exam, please feel free to contact us.

Good luck.

Preparing now… The trick is how to compress 6 months of research and reading, more or less 70 pages of thesis plus tons of images/videos into 10-15 minutes presentation.

Update:

The Desk, 1 day prior to the Thesis Defence

Just want to let everybody know I am still alive. Been busy with The Thesis. June 10th is my thesis submission date and on June 17th or 21st (not quite set yet, I’ll let you know now it set.), I will have my defence.

Wish me luck!