Featured EyeWirer: @tiikerikani

A behind the scenes look at the EyeWire community.

Meet the EyeWirers who are mapping the brain. Today’s featured EyeWirer is @tiikerikani.

So, tell the world a little about yourself.

I’m Tuuli, and I’m Canadian, but I moved to Finland last Fall to do my MA degree in Linguistics. I’m interested in cognitive semantics, which has to do with how concepts in your mind (in an abstract way) get described using the language you speak.

I’ve been in school for what seems like forever (I have BSc and BA degrees, which I did completely separately so it took a while), but I really don’t mind it.

Why do you play EyeWire?

I’m a really visual kind of person, and Eyewire really taps into that as well as into my compulsive need for visual neatness (just yesterday I took out my paint set to paint over some crease marks on one of my posters; it was just bugging me a lot). It’s also nice to procrastinate on your own work while still doing something that’s useful for science, so it’s not just wasted idle time.

How did you discover EyeWire?

I saw an article from Wired magazine about Eyewire. I was trying to write a research article manuscript over the last summer (which, having just finished my BA degree, was a bit of a jump into the deep end of things) and discovering Eyewire took away what was left of my motivation to work on it. Please don’t tell my undergrad thesis supervisor. I think he’s trying to track me down from the other side of the planet to make me finish writing it.

Share a few facts that helps the world get to know you.

Some things that would be on my bucket list if I actually kept one:

  • Learn to play “Postscript: O Holy Night” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra on classical guitar (I play classical piano so this is a totally different thing altogether)
  • Perform vocals in a band
  • (if not the above, at least) Record a demo tape in a studio
  • Learn to read the books in Finnish which are lying around my apartment
  • Go ice fishing and catch something
  • Go on a hiking/camping trip the old-fashioned way (building your own fire, using paper maps, etc.)
  • Eat Korean food in Korea

Anything else you’d like to share?

The first few weeks I was playing Eyewire, it was the Geek Games with Youtube, and there were a couple of nights I was up playing and chatting with my new boyfriend (who I live with now) until 5AM 🙂

I have a tumblr blog at this same username where I post pictures of interesting things I see in Finland and sometimes write about how everyday things are different here than in Canada.

Would you like to be a featured EyeWirer? Submit your own responses here Featured EyeWirer Questionnaire

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