I think I’ve found my perfect side hustle. Charcuterie boards are out. Cookie trays are in!

I took the advice to at least photograph them all before disposing, and spent some time reflecting on how awesome it is that I have gotten to travel all over the world to share my research over the last 20 years. I also discovered some lanyards are not built to last and I’m now covered in blue dust.

What does one do with 15+ years of conference name tags and lanyards? It feels oddly painful to just throw them out but I can’t keep them.

I'm seriously considering buying this shirt and wearing it to every meeting I'm running from here on out.

I do a lot of jigsaw puzzles and was mildly disturbed when I saw this one. [To be clear, I did *not* purchase it.]

More data isn't always better. Video data isn't irrefutable. The idea that video data 100% proves a crime was committed is ridiculous. But that is where we have arrived thanks to mass surveillance technologies. I also really appreciate this reflection from the woman at the end of the article.

If you're still with me, thanks for reading about my newest (and maybe weirdest) hobby, and hopefully I'll have more updates on it in a year. To wrap up, here's my favorite new puzzle, 1008pc from Karen Puzzles. I got it for Christmas and it took me just over 4hr.

What am I fastest at? Probably the same as many: collages with distinct borders. My fastest time yet is 52min on this one (Good Puzzle Company, Dogs and Flowers). It has nine distinct sections and mostly distinct colors.

Most people gravitate toward certain puzzles. For example, some people love solid color blocks. Most hate animal fur. I like busy puzzles with lots of little elements, but they're not great for speed. Here's a favorite busy puzzle, Where's Prince? Prince in 1999. My fastest time: 1hr, 28min.

I'm still not great a first-runs, which is what matters in competitions because the puzzles are usually brand new, so no one has seen them before. I mentioned London Postcard took 2hr, 18min first time. My most recent new puzzle, Jazzy, took 1hr, 35min. I've done ~10 puzzles under 90min first time.

And I did improve. Here's a super basic chart showing my average time, which improved greatly early on and has been somewhere between 80-90min over the last nine months. This is complicated by how many puzzles & how many new puzzles I do in a given month, so I really need to look at 1st run data.

This was the first puzzle I did for speed last January. It took me 2hr, 18min. As you can see, I have done it 12 times. Yesterday, I did it again and finished in 1hr, 4min. Good, but not great. I am frustrated I never got this under an hour and my times are not really improving.

Take a look at this puzzle. How fast do you think you could complete it if you were handed an unopened box and go from there? I'm assuming you've never done it before.

Well, I utterly failed at documenting this year’s cookie weekend but I was just too busy baking! Final numbers: 32 kinds 4266 cookies 35 hours of oven time 1 tired Vitak Here’s a picture of the two boxes I’m taking into work in an hour. Happy colleagues = happy Vitak.

Cookies are now bagged and ready for cookie exchanges tomorrow and Friday. I put three of each in a self-sealing bag and attach a small note with cookie information. cc @hcil-umd.bsky.social & @dmgreene.bsky.social

Update: I made two batches of each cookie, which made way more than I needed. To my colleagues' delight, I was still baking away during some meetings. *Gochujang -- 10/10, amazing *Peppermint Choc -- 9/10, great if you love brownies

Little did these little beauties know that Vitak would quickly forget about them and less than an hour later, some of the sugar will have burned, making them inedible and requiring yet another trip to the store.

Gina Neff @ginasue.bsky.social shares her research on the evolution of technology and how it is shaping AI and the future of work. #cscw2025

Jill gives background on how the paper and how hard it was to get feminist HCI research published at the time. #cscw2025

Michaelanne talks about joining this project before she even started grad school—she volunteered to get research experience and was immediately drawn to Jill’s research. This is what led her to get a human-centered computing PhD. #cscw2025

Amy @asbruckman.bsky.social talks about the importance of partnering with people and orgs in the community of interest, and the need for humility in doing this research. #cscw2025

Big congrats to Jill Diamond, Michaelanne Thomas, Daphne LaRose, and @asbruckman.bsky.social for winning the Lasting Impact Award for their 2013 paper Hollaback on the power of narrative. #cscw2025

There are so many sessions in this space that one of the main clusters I created when doing the scheduling was Community Engagement and Activism!

We’re getting a fun history of the “European” CSCW (not a place but a state of mind) from one of the original CSCW researchers, Dr. Kari Kuutti. #cscw2025

For #cscw2025, we have literally rolled out the red carpet for you! Can’t wait to see many of you in Bergen.

Exciting news! Just in time for the start of #cscw2025, the new issue of PACM HCI is out, featuring 400+ articles accepted at CSCW. All should be free to view now and many are open access. dl.acm.org/toc/pacmhci/...

Did someone say cake? I’m in.

At #ica25? Interested in data research ethics? Head over to the Grand Hyatt this morning at 10:30am for a Blue Sky hosted by myself, @michaelzimmer.bsky.social & @cfiesler.bsky.social. We'll be in the Grand Hyatt Mt Yale (Grand 3).

Top of my hit list? This cute little birb: the tufted titmouse. Great name but it has a call that makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Some levity: I got very excited walking to teach this morning when I saw a student with a bedazzled pizza slice purse. I was also tired and dragging my feet a bit, and fell flat on my face outside the building I teach in. Fun times. But adorable purse!