Whew, what a busy month. I finished up teaching the Summer semester, had a nice, active outdoorsy vacation, unexpectedly took on my sister’s dog for a week while she dealt with illness, have hosted my other sister for a few weeks during her return to the States, and slid right into teaching the Fall semester with an extra class on my plate. That last one has been the real doozy since I’ve never taught this particular course before and am revamping a lot of content on the fly.

Honestly, I’ve been pretty exhausted lately, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays when I teach for six hours or more. BUt I’m determined to figure out some strategies for burnout avoidance.

Events & Places

Since well before the pandemic’s unfortunate return, we’d been planning a trip out to Utah with my sister for her fortieth birthday. And because we’re vaccinated and careful we decided to go ahead with it. I’m really glad I did. We staid in Moab, spent days hiking in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and had a day-long rafting adventure down the Colorado. It was hot as the blazes of heck out there, but it was a lot of fun in truly otherworldly surroundings. Pictures forthcoming at some point, I promise.

Blogposts

None on the books, but several in the queue that I hope to publish soon.

Books

The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
This is an interesting one. The first half is almost all drama and the second half mostly comedy, with a big time jump in the middle. I prefer the former, a portrait of someone mad with jealousy destroying himself and all he holds dear.
Atomic Design by Brad Frost
I think this book would have been mind blowing if I had read it when it was new. But so many of its ideas are now mainstream in the design and development world that it feels very old hat. Something of a victim of its own success as far as the reading experience goes.

Films / Shows

Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage
This documentary tells the story of the chaos that unfolded at the festival. Ultimately, it's about half interesting peak into some of the darker aspects of popular culture at the time and half VH1-style hyperbole ridden fluff.
Luca
Meh. Disney/Pixar's new animated film is paint by numbers, but not offensively so.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
(Rewatch) Kubrik is amazing.
Loki
Great production design. Fun and unique story for Marvel.
Reservation Dogs
There are only five episodes out so far, but I'm digging it. An interesting mix of comedy and drama elements that follows a group of Native teens in Oklahoma.

Projects

Not much to boast of, but I did set up a system to manage drafts on this blog, which is much better than my old system of just not git committing any posts until publication. At some point I may write up the details of my approach.