The end of Christmas (trees)

On to the New Year!

Activities redux

The writing project: More Skype and editing -- but just the summary.

The building project:

Storage modules for Alexis and Ethan

The admire-a-Christmas-tree project: a tour of Mark's new "space" - St Anthony's Hospital that opened in 2009 in GigHarbor.

There were several trees, but I

liked the ones in the cafeteria best (and lunch was good too!)

Captivated in Seattle

If, as I am, you are a fan of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, you will understand why I enjoyed the performance of the Nutcracker by the Pacific Northwest Ballet so much -- he created the settings and costumes. Clara's brother was particularly "naughty" (Godfather Drosselmeyer egged him on to tease his sister) and here was even a "dance of the wild thing" in the second act. And of course there was a Christmas tree that grew huge in a very special way. We all (Mary, Alexis, Ethan, Jack, and I - Mark was in surgery) had a wonderful afternoon.

Back and Forth

Over the last couple of days Ulla and I have "been on a roll" with our paper for EGOS (3000-word short paper on an ironic analysis of the hype of design thinking due Jan 10). We've been shipping it back and forth, working when the other is asleep, and Skyping each day. A couple more days and the framework of the argument should be OK. Then Ulla is off to Australia and I'll be left to finish the linguistic editing and check the references.

In between times we've been enjoying activities with Alexis and Ethan -- making balloon animals, firing rockets (that's frost on the ground, not snow),

and a trip to the Train Show at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma. All successful activities!

The other side of Christmas Day

I've finished "The elegance of the hedgehog". I read it too quickly to savor all the references to Proust and Tolstoy, but those authors aren't really "my thing" anyway. But the book was engaging -- the fact that I finished it in three days attests to that. The ending was a bit disappointing -- the pieces all came together a little too neatly, rather as if the author had suddenly tired of writing.

As to my other book, I'm finding it very hard going. I hoped it would enlighten me to the consultant's perspective on design thinking. I suppose it has -- it's all the rhetoric of the enterprise ideology and, so far, little else. The case study examples are so banal as to be useless. Am I to believe that no-one struggled over any concepts, and there were no tensions or contradictions as part of the process? A while ago when Ulla suggested I should take on the editorship of a Business & Design Lab book on Design Thinking from the Business and Design Lab, I pooh-poohed the notion, saying, "That's old hat." But, after grinding my way through (actually I'm only about a third of the way through) a book on the topic published in November 2009, I have a different perspective myself. Maybe delving into the epistemology and ontology of the concept is not. More thinking and talking are needed.

Meanwhile, Jack and Ethan made a super balloon-dog.

Tracking Santa

We kept track of Santa's progress throughout the day via NORAD, and checked on the number of cookies he has already eaten (81,168 as far as Tulsa, OK). Our tree is ready ....

Books on hand

I've been reading two books "simultaneously" - no, not one book in each hand the way Karen used to as a cild because both were so good she didn't want to put either down - but rather "iteratively" - one book for a while, then the next one.

One book is Muriel Barbery's "The elegance of the hedgehog", which itself is two juxtaposed stories, one written by the concierge of an expensive Paris apartment building, and the other by a 12-year old who lives in the building. The book is translated from French, and reminds me of all that is "highbrow" in French philosophy and culture. But it also pokes fun of such culture itself. Thus I can give it an ironic read.

The other is a new book on Design Thinking edited by Thomas Lockwood of DMI. The chapters are written by various consultants and academics who understand the consultant's perspective. I think it will be beneficial to read the whole book to acquire the perspective of design consultants who work in the enterprise environment. I must take notes. It is probably just as important to understand the landscape of the design consultants as it is the content of their messages.

And in between there are the daily tasks -- which is why I hop from book to book by

using the "task interruptions." Playing, shopping, talking, checking email, and so on.

We watched the movie Julia/Julie in the evening (I'd already read the book.) Mary was

surprised to hear I have a "first printing" -

or at least an early one -- of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (the book is now in the 49th printing). I noticed Mary doesn't own one among all her cookbooks. Now, because I like to follow original sources, I suppose I should read "My life in France". (Maybe there's even a book about making the movie, but I think I will forego that!)

Tis blog is quite and advertisement for Amazon!

11 hours and 58 minutes after Prime Time Shuttle picked us up in Fairfield we arrived at Mary and Mark's home in Gig Harbor, Washington. Our flight was crowded -- it took an hour to get through security and there wasn't an empty seat on the plane. There were piles of baggage sitting waiting for people who'd been stranded because of the snowstorm and hadn't yet reached their destination. The (Christmas) trees in the airport lobby were a more welcoming sight!

Lots of tasks

Spent the day doing all the things we needed to do before heading for Gig Harbor, including: post office, laundry, vacuuming, suitcase packing, laundry, suitcase repacking, actually writing a paragraph on an ironic view of design thinking, UPS, and practising our latest moves.

Jack's activities

Before ...

And after!

More trees

We took time away from the computer and other holiday preparations to enjoy the trees at the Mystic Aquarium donated by various community groups -- and to enjoy the exhibits without a crush of other visitors.

New? project

Yesterday, while in New York, we stopped at the Portuguese Travel Office. Jack needed information to prepare for our "anticipated" visit to Lisbon for the EGOS colloquium next June. He read through the various brochures on the train home, and kept saying to me, "Look at this! Shall we go here?" All I could say was, "I can't look till our paper is accepted, and it's hardly started." I've a lot of work to do before January 10!

But Christmas shopping and helping Ulla with the final edits to the EU grant proposal intervened. What excuse will I have tomorrow?

Sounds and images

Wednesday - Handel's Messiah in the Sacred Heart Chapel of the Holy Spirit performed by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Cathedral of Saint Joseph Schola Cantorum. Awesome! The singing was wonderful and the orchestral accompaniment appropriate for this great work. Before the performance we were "treated" to a lecture on the mosaic by the University President. Watch a slideshow...

Thursday to New York to see the Bauhaus exhibition at the MoMA

Wonderful! Only trouble was, I reached "saturation" from examining and reading and digesting before I had looked at all the pieces. I was particularly interested in the examples from the first course (I hadn't realized that Bauhaus was a "real" school/university as well as a school/style) where students learned theories of colour and form. I was a little surprised that there was not more furniture -- another misconception from my incomplete knowledge. No photography allowed, and the exhibition catalog was $75 (I refrained from buying). ADDITION: 12/27/09, New York Times review of a new book on the Bauhaus.

We also walked quickly through the Tim Burton exhibit -- very crowded and lots of lively drawings, sculptures and videos, before the calming experience of Monet's waterlilies.

And, what would Christmas in New York be without seeing the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree?

Or, what would Christmas

in Fairfield be without seeing the GE Christmas tree?

This one!

Did you ever have any doubts?

Here's what you might have missed (click on the link to read the post):

One done!

Today's output

Preparation

Ways of working

Events back in the northeast

Monday

Sunday

Catching up on work

Morning ritual

Changing beaches, continuing topics

Thinking wicked

Why this new blog?

Dilemma

What to do -- tell followers to go to Jill Temporariiy (Re)Designed to catch up with my doings of the past month when this blog was removed by Google robots trolling for spam, and continue HERE, or link this original blog to the one I have been writing for the past month?

To be resolved ...