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The beach.

This past weekend I went to the beach to unwind a little. I got the chance to catch up on some major reading, some good movies, and some face time with my favorite beach house. I cooked two incredible meals. I didn't talk to anyone. It was glorious.

I'm finding that I'm becoming more comfortable with myself. After an adolescence replete with unfulfilling relationships, I'm currently forced to come to terms with an identity that has yet to be forged. Loneliness, somewhat ironically, is a constant companion. But every day, I learn and discover and disconnect and reconnect. I give a lot of thought to seemingly meaningless dribble. The more I think about it, the more I find it's just that—meaningless dribble—and I make room for more interesting and fruitful intellectual pursuits.

Tonight I caught a special on TV about design. It featured two particularly fascinating studios, the Art Center College of Design and Yves Béhar’s fuseproject. Someday, I would like to at least take a course at Art Center, if not become a full time student. Just to be exposed to that type of creative environment, if only for a moment. fuseproject is simply further evidence that design matters. The level of innovation and creativity that is constantly generated and nourished here is nothing short of inspiring.

I began a job today at DISYS, Inc. I spent the morning on an index file for a CD-ROM, then moved to a Flash project. It is unclear at this point whether or not I will be needed, however, as they have hired a full-time designer. Were I not going to Vienna, that job would likely be mine, but with opportunity comes sacrifice. In the meantime, I earn a little spending cash.

Café Europa is a solid read thus far. Slovenka Drakulic paints a stoic, gray portrait of formerly-communist Eastern Europe, specifically her home country, Croatia. The perspectives Ms. Drakulic offers seem at first to be obvious, but upon further thought are indeed taken for granted and ultimately quite sobering.

Vienna approaches. Tate e-mailed a few days ago from Berlin. He is clearly energized, and his enthusiasm is no doubt shared by the rest of us.

Two weeks from today. The time has diminished from some ambiguous number to a genuine comprehensible standard unit of measurement. Two weeks is something I can grasp. Two weeks is nothing.

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