[ink in my moleskine]

The Harbinger Co. by Yvonne Hung of San Francisco uses eco-friendly materials in unique ways to make amazing products. The bulk of their jewelry line consists of a series of earrings and pendants made from laser-cut bamboo, in both artistic and mathematically beautiful designs. I bought the Large Honeycomb Pendant today; really excited to get it.

Thursday we watched the Perseid meteor shower from the huge yard of a Schwenk family property 20 miles out of town – despite the bugs, it was pretty great. The date Dustin and I chose for our anniversary was the night we first watched the Leonids together, so meteor showers are special for us beyond their inherent coolness.

In other news, I’m starting the game Bioshock on the PS3 tonight too to see how my taste for FPSs has evolved, and I can count on Dustin to devour it regardless if I run out of steam. This is a hanging-around sort of weekend, because next weekend is the Gold Coast Art Fair, and the weekend after that is the Illinois Renaissance Festival.
Later edit: A few pictures from these events are on Flickr.

Meet my new Orla Kiely bag that just arrived today — its maiden voyage is tomorrow when we start our summer vacation.

I’m finally visiting my brother in LA. This will be my second trip there and Dustin’s first; I went once in 2005 during the Christmas season when things can actually get rainy and dreary.
We’re really excited, it’s been a while since we’ve traveled. We’ll be seeing Jim Gaffigan live and otherwise seeing and eating and touring everything we can, including the grounds of the Eames House (of course).

It occurred to me during some passive rambling thinking recently that English uses the same root word for two types of rooms, studios and studies. It’s the Latin word “studium”:

studium -i n. [zeal , eagerness, application, enthusiasm; devotion to, goodwill towards a person or cause; application to learning, study].

The two words are pretty different in definition/intention, however; a study is quiet, a place of cloistering, of absorbing knowledge and thinking — it fits the “application to learning” and “study” part of the definition.

study: [noun] a room used or designed for reading, writing, or academic work.

A studio, on the other hand, indicates a more creative and active space, probably drawing from the “zeal, eagerness, application” part of the definition.

studio: [noun] a room where an artist, photographer, sculptor, etc., works.

The interesting dichotomy that then jumped out at me is that a study is where you absorb and learn, and a studio is where you emanate and practice. But both are places where you interact with your brain and engage in the very human pursuits of knowledge and expression.

These are spaces that some people never care to seek or make for themselves, that some people want and put together one or the other of them depending on their hobbies and personality, and that still others create and make use of both. So some combine them, some make a corner of a room a makeshift study or studio, and some keep spaces outside of their homes for this purpose. I would personally love a combined version, which I’m sort of working on right now in a small and simple way for my small and simple current house; we just bought some furniture for a reading nook in the “office” room of our place. Pictures of this coming soon…

For now, enjoy a view of Jay Walker’s incredible library, the most spectacular private library and personal museum I’ve ever seen.

My parents left for a trip to Hawaii on Thursday. The three of us siblings are watching the house, dog, bird and fish while they are gone. Before they left though we had a nice early-summer evening outside with berries, beer and bugs.

It’s time to revisit this blog and readdress my life. Big changes and small have happened. This will be my place to reflect and explore.

Continuing the tradition of the original Museum Carissapoda, I’ve move operations to Tumblr. Please visit the museum’s new location at ‘onion of infinite leaf’.

These are images taken and uploaded from my mobile phone without titles or descriptions – just moments in time through my eyes.

Our house was recently featured by the blog Rearranged Design; thank you, Ana!

[click]

I know I haven’t posted in a while, I need to revisit my motivation and direction here and get going again.

I ordered some Birkenstock sandals on eBay last week. They arrived Friday; I tried them on and found they fit a little weirdly. On closer inspection, they were fake! Aarrggh.
(For comparison, picture shows real [blue] Birks on top, fakes on the bottom.)
The seller was cool about it and offered a refund, but still, sucks getting burned on eBay. Luckily I have mostly good experiences there, but the occasional issue. EBay is a mysterious beast.

I’ve been sick for ~10 days now, really sick for 5 or so of those, though the end is in sight and hopefully I’ll be back to normal soon. Friend Brandon is staying with us starting Wednesday for a while while he kicks off his library sciences courses here at UIUC, so that should be a source of adventure too; hope I feel nearly normal again by then.