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Description
In summer 2016, I created this little plush as a personal talisman. She is made from gray velvet, scraps of red satin, polyester fibre stuffing and glass beads for the eyes.

Reeya's history is tightly linked to my identity as a computer scientist. I think it was 2002 when I started programming her as my virtual pet. At least, that is the time stamp of the oldest files that I could find. So I must have been in 9th grade at that time - my third year of learning computer science in school, in which I realized that this was what I wanted to do for a living.

Thanks to the Tamagotchi craze and similar computer applications in the late nineties, I was fascinated by the idea of bringing an artificial animal to life that way. The logical consequence was to create my own on my spare time.
Originally, Reeya was just a placeholder - a quick doodle of a generic pet critter, some strange mix of a dog and a pony. My plan was to replace those doodles with 3D-rendered images of some cooler animal later. However, the more time I spent on this project, the more I got used to the red stick figure on the gray screen. I created more animations for her, using the same style, and eventually grew so fond of her that I decided to keep her this way.

You can take a look at the original Reeya in my Scraps folder: fav.me/dbuxa59

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Years passed. I finished school, went to the university... and gradually worked myself into a burn-out. I no longer found time for personal programming projects. The topic of my PhD thesis kept squirming out of my grip, with its focus shifting every couple of weeks. I found myself drowning in organizational tasks, and spent more time on diagnosing broken robots and making arrangements for having them repaired than on actually doing any research with them. My hobby had become a chore. Then in early summer 2016, I broke down completely and had to take a lengthy sick leave.

I finally found professional help and was taught various strategies for taking my mind off the stressful part when I eventually returned to work. One of those strategies was focusing on the primary senses - touch, for instance. Well, I've always liked plushies, and making them was another hobby that I had been neglecting for far too long. So it was time to create my special companion for long, frustrating work hours.

If you look back to the first paragraph, you can probably see why Reeya was the obvious choice for this job. Now she spends every workday sitting on my desk, being cute and keeping my fingers busy. Reminding me why I had come to the university in the first place. Reminding me why I had chosen this field of study.

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Reeya is my own creation. Please do not use her without my permission.

Description
In summer 2016, I created this little plush as a personal talisman. She is made from gray velvet, scraps of red satin, polyester fibre stuffing and glass beads for the eyes.

Reeya's history is tightly linked to my identity as a computer scientist. I think it was 2002 when I started programming her as my virtual pet. At least, that is the time stamp of the oldest files that I could find. So I must have been in 9th grade at that time - my third year of learning computer science in school, in which I realized that this was what I wanted to do for a living.

Thanks to the Tamagotchi craze and similar computer applications in the late nineties, I was fascinated by the idea of bringing an artificial animal to life that way. The logical consequence was to create my own on my spare time.
Originally, Reeya was just a placeholder - a quick doodle of a generic pet critter, some strange mix of a dog and a pony. My plan was to replace those doodles with 3D-rendered images of some cooler animal later. However, the more time I spent on this project, the more I got used to the red stick figure on the gray screen. I created more animations for her, using the same style, and eventually grew so fond of her that I decided to keep her this way.

You can take a look at the original Reeya in my Scraps folder: fav.me/dbuxa59

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Years passed. I finished school, went to the university... and gradually worked myself into a burn-out. I no longer found time for personal programming projects. The topic of my PhD thesis kept squirming out of my grip, with its focus shifting every couple of weeks. I found myself drowning in organizational tasks, and spent more time on diagnosing broken robots and making arrangements for having them repaired than on actually doing any research with them. My hobby had become a chore. Then in early summer 2016, I broke down completely and had to take a lengthy sick leave.

I finally found professional help and was taught various strategies for taking my mind off the stressful part when I eventually returned to work. One of those strategies was focusing on the primary senses - touch, for instance. Well, I've always liked plushies, and making them was another hobby that I had been neglecting for far too long. So it was time to create my special companion for long, frustrating work hours.

If you look back to the first paragraph, you can probably see why Reeya was the obvious choice for this job. Now she spends every workday sitting on my desk, being cute and keeping my fingers busy. Reminding me why I had come to the university in the first place. Reminding me why I had chosen this field of study.

----------------
Reeya is my own creation. Please do not use her without my permission.