Good morning/afternoon/evening or whatever it is. Just woke up from a three hour "nap" after a 17 hour drive back from Boston interrupted by a stop at Niagara Falls and the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, home of the "original" buffalo chicken wing so the trip was actually 23 hours door to door.

When I woke up, I realized I was having a dream that I was working on a Student Design Competition Surprise Bonus Round that was open to all students. We could either work solo or in groups of 2-4 people and we had two hours to re-iterate one of the designs from the presentation round. When will it end??? Glad I woke up.

So, CHI was all about answers to questions, asking new questions, pondering the questions yet to be asked and the answers that continue to elude. Here is my set of top ten lists. Maybe you could help out by adding your questions and answers in the comments section below.

Questions Answered

1. Bloomington and Boston are 1,037 miles away from each other (including our aimless wanderings).
2. It takes a lot of time to drive 1,037 miles.
3. There are a lot of beautiful places between Bloomington and Boston.
4. There are a lot of beautiful places in Boston.
5. I love Bloomington.
6. I love the people that live in Bloomington, especially my wife, children, family and dogs (who think they are people).
7. The rifts within the CHI community are very real and will probably never go away.
8. There are people in the design community that are grappling with how to manage these rifts. Thank you Jeffrey Bardzell!
9. The Indiana University School of Informatics HCI/design Master's Program is the bomb fo' shizzle. Thank you Marty, Erik, Eli, Jeff, Shaowen, past and future students.
10. I AM a designer!

Questions That Remain Unanswered

1. What am I going to be doing this summer.
2. What am I going to do after I graduate.
3. What am I going to do for the rest of my life.
4. Should I pursue a PhD?
   
5. Why do we spend so much time figuring out how to determine whether or not specific design is good?
6. How many teams from IU would have made it into the SDC if we were exempt from IRB approval like the other schools?
7. How different would our presentation have been if we were second year students?
   
8. What were the metrics used to determine rankings on the SDC Presentation round?
9. Did participating in the SDC Presentation round, missing two days of sessions and networking make me a better designer than if I had attended those sessions and networked with the design community?
10. Will the home electricity monitoring system formerly known as WattBot (and now known as "Watt Finder" ever become a reality?
    

New Questions

1. If four people sat in a car for eighteen hours in the driveway, would the bonding experience be as rewarding as if you drove over 1,000 miles?
2. If I could only go to one design conference next year, which one would I go to?
3. Isn't it really HHI to the power of C?
4. Why are the other schools exempt and we are not?
5. What other questions should I be asking?

This is Jay Steele in the comfort of my recliner in my living room on my reliable broadband internet access signing off from CHI2009.