Literary License Blog

Eight Weeks On Keto Diet – An Update!

February 27, 2019 by michellechandra in Keto

Just eight weeks ago, I embarked on a new dietary adventure – the keto diet! I largely undertook this diet to see if it would resolve my chronic migraines. You can read all about the first six weeks, and the symptoms of keto flu, in more detail in this blog post. Here’s a recap:

The first two weeks I felt symptoms of keto flu – dizzy, lightheaded, some depressed mood, tired, etc.
The second two weeks, I had a lot of severe hormonal symptoms – hot flashes, severe migraine, brain fog, anxiety, and fatigue. Keto is much harder when you are a lady!
After a month, I began to feel better overall although I was still feeling brain fog and fatigue and hadn’t resumed much by way of business activities!

Eight Weeks of Keto Versus Six Weeks – Do I Feel Different?

So do I feel much different today after eight weeks versus six weeks of keto-ing? → Read more

Six Weeks on the Keto Diet – New Year, New Brain

February 14, 2019 by michellechandra in Keto

Last year, I started hearing “things” about the keto diet, and it’s extreme take on low carb (no more than 20-50 grams of carbs a day, yikes!) I heard about people trying it for a few weeks before caving and going back to their carb ways. I learned it could do amazing things for energy levels, memory, etc. I was intrigued!

Fast forward to December, and I started to research the keto diet more seriously, which is when I discovered recent studies had shown the keto diet could be beneficial in reducing migraines – ding ding ding!

Aaaaand here’s a picture of me running down a hill at Coyote Hills park – which perfectly captures my excitement upon learning keto can kill migraines!

I had seen benefits in a lowish carb diet in reducing my own migraines, (but not a complete annihilation of migraines, as desired). → Read more

An Update (of Sorts) – Flash Forward to 2019

February 11, 2019 by michellechandra in Dirt Alley Design

Wow, it’s been a hot minute since I graduated NYU’s ITP program in 2015! This blog was solely dedicated to chronicling my graduate school adventures, and I left it up online since the posts drew steady traffic. Here’s an update to what happened to me post-ITP!

(First though, a shameless plug. If you have enjoyed reading this blog and want to follow me elsewhere, you can find me on Instagram @dirtalleydesign and on Twitter @dirtalleydesign).

Anyway, here’s what I look like these days in my natural environment – playfully posing under local murals…

Since graduating, I worked for a web mapping startup called CARTO as a Support Engineer. As is wont to happen, while working at CARTO, I immediately started a side project – a map art business called Dirt Alley Design. Not surprisingly, I left my role at CARTO last year to focus on Dirt Alley Design. Here’s what I look like these days screenprinting my map art… → Read more

Graphical Web Conference

September 23, 2015 by michellechandra in Conference

This is a really exciting blog post in which you can download my presentation from the Graphical Web Conference: Visualizing Instagram Data.

Hello World: I’ve Graduated

June 15, 2015 by michellechandra in Data Visualization, Photography

Two years ago, I packed my bags and left California for New York. Graduate school ended up being a tough haul, especially attending a challenging technical school when I had very little background in my new subject.

I hesitate to recommend such an endeavor to, well, anyone.

The good news is, I made it! Just a few weeks ago, I published my thesis and graduated to the words of Robert De Niro.

The even better news is that my thesis has resonated with people around the world. “All Our Yesterdays” has received great press. It’s been wonderful to hear from people from all over who have enjoyed the project. It was especially exciting this past weekend to see a writeup from the Daily Mail, which made my parents (who met in England and to this day watch the BBC) super proud.

Here’s a round up of press the project has received in the past few weeks:
Daily Mail – UK, From Dawn to Dusk
Engadget, Mapping project catalogs Instagram sunrises from around the world
Gizmodo, Travel the World Through Sunsets and Sunrises on this Map
PetaPixel, A Visualization of Sunrise and Sunset Photos Being Snapped Around the World
PSFK, See the World’s (Instagram) Sunrises and Sunsets as they Happen
The Creator’s Project, Instagram Viz Project Lets You Catch the Sunrise All Over the World
Design Taxi, You Can Now Watch The Sun Rise And Set Around The World Via Instagram

It’s strange to be let loose back on the world. That is to say, I think it’s time to start new projects!

Instagram and Processing

June 15, 2015 by michellechandra in Processing

I have had a few requests here and there for a Processing sketch to access the Instagram API and retrieve photographs.

Here is code for a very simple Processing sketch that retrieves and saves the first 10 photographs of an image based on provided hashtag. In the JSONObject, make sure to swap in your tag and client id.


void setup() {
  size(640, 640);
  JSONObject instagram = loadJSONObject("https://api.instagram.com/v1/tags/YOURTAGHERE/media/recent?client_id=YOURCLIENTIDHERE");
  JSONArray photos = instagram.getJSONArray("data");
  println(photos);

  for (int i = 0; i < photos.size(); i++) {
    String url1 = photos.getJSONObject(i).getJSONObject("images").getJSONObject("standard_resolution").getString("url");
    PImage img = loadImage(url1, "jpg");
    img.save("output/result"+i+".jpg");
    image(img, 0, 0, 640, 640);
  }
}

void draw() {
  noLoop();
}

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void setup() {

size(640, 640);

JSONObject instagram = loadJSONObject("https://api.instagram.com/v1/tags/YOURTAGHERE/media/recent?client_id=YOURCLIENTIDHERE");

JSONArray photos = instagram.getJSONArray("data");

println(photos);

for (int i = 0; i < photos.size(); i++) {

String url1 = photos.getJSONObject(i).getJSONObject("images").getJSONObject("standard_resolution").getString("url");

PImage img = loadImage(url1, "jpg");

img.save("output/result"+i+".jpg");

image(img, 0, 0, 640, 640);

}

void draw() {

noLoop();

}

My San Francisco Photodata

March 29, 2015 by michellechandra in Data Visualization, Photography

I moved to New York City in July of 2013 from San Francisco where I had lived on and off since 2007. In the six months leading up to my departure, I worked two temp gigs in downtown San Francisco and commuted from where I lived in the Outer Richmond. Just prior to these jobs, I caved and bought a smart phone.

I spent my last 6 months in SF photographing the city as a way to alleviate the boredom of my temp gigs and explore. These choropleth maps are abstracted to only show the neighborhoods and blocks where I photographed in SF from January 2013 – July 2013. The maps reveal the neighborhoods I spent most of my time and the locations I found visually interesting.

I ended up traveling a good deal before moving to New York City as I realized once I was in graduate school, I would have less opportunity to travel. This choropleth map shows the photos I took by state in the same timeframe.

I created the maps in CartoDB using geospatial aggregation to group the photos by administrative regions. I was hoping to also include the SF bus routes I took frequently, but I was unable to find a dataset that I could bring into CartoDB.

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