(Photo thanks to Vinita Israni)
What a busy month! End of my first semester of grad school and end of the year! There was so much free food during finals week. Cookies flowed like water.
I think 2014 has to be a good year: fourteen is one of my lucky numbers! My birthday is on the 14th. It’s going to be a 14/14 thing!
FEAST FOR THE EYES>>
- Hallucinations. Oliver Sacks. Finished! I liked it.
- Understanding Computers and Cognition. Terry Winograd & Fernado Flores. “Finished.”
- Crime & Punishment. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Finishhhheddddd!
- Kafka by the Shore. Haruki Murakami. Started and finished this audiobook while I was traveling. I really enjoyed it, it was something different.
- The Essential Calvin & Hobbes. Bill Waterson. When Sarah mentioned she was reading it, I got the craving to read it too and snagged a copy from Barnes & Nobel.
- Things that make us smart. Donald Norman. It’s ok so far. I have this weird thing about reading books in order so I can’t get over the fact that i’m reading his fourth book firs instead of his first book: The Design of Everyday Things. It’s killing me inside.
LISTENING>>
- I obviously had to learn “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?” on my ukulele yesterday.
- “Why don’t you let me stay here?” She & Him. I’m not not on a Zooey Deschanel kick.
ENTHUSED>>
- I am going to Amsterdam for the Interaction Design Association conference! Amsterdam, Paris, excited to get aquatinted ;). Hoping to run into my friend Dan who’s living in Koeln right now. If only his visa holds out.
- Friday I’m trekking to Colorado to see my friends! I’m looking forward to it like you wouldn’t believe.
- I’ve been working on my website and it’s pretty exciting. Last time I was personality focused (as new designer in the world) and this time I’m being content focused and that, my friends, takes some time.
- I was pretty excited to post a story to Medium, but also embarrassed because, well, you know how I write. But 2014, baby!
COMPULSIONS>>
- For the majority of this month I was compulsively looking at iPads because I really want to use the FiftyThree paper & pencil applications. I’ve resisted so far, but only time will tell when and if I’ll break. I just am trying to imagine what space in my life I need an iPad…(all of them?!)
COMPUNCTIONS>>
- Thesis fretting continued. Except that I totally forgot that I’m supposed to be thinking about it during break and every now and then I’ll remember and my heart will overflow with sadness.
- Being at home for three weeks for Christmas break, when you have known the joys of not living at home is not that fun. I’m thinking, next winter break I’m going to travel.
- What is life? What do I want to be when I graduate? How do you do good? Grad school has left me so confuddled.
SIGHTS>>
- When I saw Omaha Epply Airport I got a little nostalgic. I’ve been traveling a lot, but I haven’t seen Omaha’s airport since I was a kid.
- I honestly didn’t see that much this month because I was locked up in the studio most of the time. Finals were intense.
STORIES>>
- Saving Mr. Banks. I saw this with Carissa in Nebraska and enjoyed it. I’m convinced that Mary Poppins has shaped my life. Carissa hated Mary Poppins and still liked the movie.
- Upstream Color. This was such a weird movie. Artsy, surreal. Netflix associates it with Eternal Susnshine of a Spotless Mind, but this is like tense the whole time without the light-hearted fun. I liked it, but I wasn’t enamored by it. Carissa from Colorado loved it though, and she’s classier than I am.
- The seven things you’re not supposed to talk about. This American Life episode. I’ve been listening to a lot recently since my audio book ended, but I really liked this. I really liked the idea of having good conversation.