A slow week in terms of things to show for it, but felt busy regardless.

Things I made

Embroidery. I don't recall ever having done any before (maybe cross-stitch?) but I had bought this little jellyfish kit a while back and had some friends over on Saturday afternoon for a bit of a crafternoon, so I made it up. It's a really relaxing thing to do. I drew up my own pattern yesterday to start another.

Ikebana follows the seasons - the plants you work with change over time, reflecting the year. Autumn definitely arrived this week with a green to orange two material shoka.

Things I saw

There's a podcast I listen to that was recommended to me by Jake earlier this year called All Killa No Filla. It's by two women who chat about serial killers, but actually mostly just talk nonsense to each other about their lives. I love it. Not least because I miss the pub-like banter of British people, so it's very homey for me. On Wednesday, Alex and I went to see them record live at Cobb's Comedy Club, and it was rad.

Things I've been doing

Mostly meetings. It's the end of a quarter and we're embarking on the OKR process for the first time at this company.

I love my neighbour birds, but sometimes they're a challenge. The scrub jay couple that live in a big tree near us wake us up every morning at the bedroom window, waiting for peanuts. Sometimes, they literally sit on the windowsill and just yell.

This week started with one landing for a peanut and the other being too hasty to go in for his (for some reason, they can't both just sit nicely together), so a brief scuffle occurred resulting in one coming into the bedroom, flying into the glass door, twice, then hiding in my wardrobe. Chasing a bird around at 8am in my PJs is not usually how I like to start a new week.

The rest of this week has been fairly uneventful. Alex has been away on a work trip to Shanghai, so I've mostly been filling my time catching up on horror flicks. I watched a few oldies, but the most interesting recent one was Hereditary, which ended up not being exactly what I expected, but actually somehow better. It's got some really inventive shots and a nice slow build and doesn't rely on a lot of exposition. I'll probably watch A Quiet Place tonight.

This week's ikebana class consisted of a 3 material, 7 stem shoka and a more traditional moribana style freestyle arrangement. Teacher said I should be receiving two diplomas next month!

I started my weeknotes when I moved to the USA, and I lost count somewhere along the way, but I think we're at week 267.

XOXO This week started with me at XOXO 2018. For various reasons, it wasn't my favourite. It was roughly 4x larger attendee wise and I think that's way beyond my human crowd size limit. Art + code were standout highlights, with basically everything in that track being fascinating (I would go to a conference that was just that sort of thing exclusively, tbh). The main stage conference track was a bit too one-note/preaching to the choir for me, but Open Mike Eagle was excellent, as was Hari Kondabolu. I really missed being in Portland, too. This year everything was under one, very large, roof, rather than scattered around an area of Portland. We could have been in any city.

Ikebana I'm 10 months-ish into my ikebana practice at the JCCCNC. This week I made a 2 material, 3 piece shoka and a freestyle arrangement in class. Related, our class is supposed to be taking a study trip to the Ikenobo school in Kyoto in February so I'm working on my language lessons again, both for that and so I can understand more of the tut-tuts I receive in class.

Day job Work is workin'. Lots to do, interns start next week!

Walked ~30.6 miles.

A couple of months ago I read Jenny Odell's transcript of a keynote she gave at a conference. It's a good talk and well worth a read/watch, but the part about her bird encounters caught my attention the most.

I ended up reading "The Genius of Birds", which she mentions and that book referenced some sections of "Gifts of the Crow" which I read immediately after. The latter covers a lot of the same topics as the first, but focuses on Corvid research. Since reading them, I'd say I've become mildly obsessed with crows and their kin - I generally have nuts in my bag now just in case I meet a friendly one.

I highly recommend at least reading The Genius of Birds - it's an easy-going read in a light-hearted tone and just generally full of fascinating little stories about bird research and their obvious intelligence and charm.

I just moved house, and it turns out that a member of the corvid family already frequents my yard - a pair of bright blue Scrub Jays. On just the first day of my hanging out with them, they already know what the deal is. So happy about my new neighbours!