Notes

Yesterday I was having dinner with a friend. He mentioned that he had become addicted to the lectures posted on the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) web site. I found this interesting description of TED on their site: TED is all about connections. The connections of ideas and the connections of people. It is based on the insight that to truly understand anything, you need to understand a little bit of everything that surrounds it. And that by allowing ourselves to be exposed each year to a diverse group of some of the most remarkable people on the planet, we transplant ourselves out of the one-dimensional mind-set of much of our working lives and into fertile country that will allow us - actually, almost force us - to grow. ...

The Great Pumpkin Patch is a seasonal attraction in Arthur, IL (just 40 minutes drive from Urbana). You can find all sorts of pumpkins and Halloween-oriented decorations. The gift shop is culturally interesting, and the home bakery has a wide variety of angel cakes (really soft and nice looking). The Great Pumpkin Patch also has one of the 1900s rural one-room classroom schools—there was at least one school in a 2 miles reach of any farm in Illinois. Children of all ages were sharing one class and teacher, definitely a pedagogical challenge. If you are around, it is a must stop place before it closes its doors till next year. ...

In the mid 90’s I started reading Quim Monzó-–maybe a after everybody did. The funny history is that I never start reading his articles on the Sunday edition of the Avui. I just learned about him when he started showing up in a talk show at Catalunya Radio, together with Sergi Pàmies. They were hilarious and refreshingly new, something not easy back then. In the last twenty years Quim has made his way into one of the most prevalent figures in Catalan contemporary literature. The other day I just run into a collection of his early articles published on the Catalan newspapers. They were compiled into “El dia del senyor” book. It covers the articles from 1982 till 1985. I am just going over it during my vacations and I cannot belief what I read. Twenty years after, they are still about hot topics in Catalonia. I can just change the actors’ and places for current ones, but most of the topics in those articles are in still today’s newspaper headlines. Maybe the tune never changes much in Catalonia… ...

Piled Higher and Deeper the amazing fun of the PhD life. If the comic strip is not enough, Cecilia’s blog is a must read.

Here are some blogs that I usually track. Sometimes they have fascinating stuff :D Apartment therapy: Now with NYC, LA, SF, and Chicago, also a Kitchen section! Big one! Tendir: A never-ending source of home decoration ideas. Grassroots modern: A small spinoff for affordable ideas. Funfurde: The first one I tracked, it opened my eyes. Archidose: A daily dose of architecture. The Design Weblog: Some interesting entry door to design.