Stefan Sagmeister, designer extraordinaire, talks about his practice of taking a year off every seven years for creative purposes.  Not that anybody should be surprised, but I enjoyed the hell out of this talk.  We’re using it as kind of a catalyst to get our travel blog project off the ground – but more on that later, when we’ve got everything in place.

Despite some recent setbacks, I am still enjoying my time here in Melbourne.  For those of you who didn’t hear, my camera (the big one) and mp3 player were stolen two weeks ago.  I’ve managed to get replacements for everything, and it’ll be all covered by insurance in the end.  But let me tell you – being without those things for a week and a half was brutal!  I’m just considering it all a reminder that I need to be less comfortable and more aware when  I’m overseas…

More excitingly, this month brought the Melbourne Arts Festival, which has been pretty much excellent so far.  Peter Greenaway was in town for a couple film screenings, lectures, and most importantly, his installation around Leonardo’s Last Supper.  In addition to all that, I got to see the London Philharmonic, and on Saturday I am going to a big event all about Tropicalia, with music and documentaries and such.  So I’ve been feeling rather cultured lately!

Speaking of cultural activities… one of my housemates plays on a rec netball team, and since basketball was on break, I agreed to give it a try.  I know I’ve always said netball is a sexist sport – take a look at its history, or perhaps this article – but I figured I’d give it a try, since it’s such a big thing down here.  My current goal is to not suck at it, which is more difficult than it sounds.  The sport just has SO MANY RULES!  For example, when you’re playing defense, you can’t have your hands up, and you can’t be any closer than 3 feet from the person with the ball.  “Intimidation” is against the rules.  And before you start playing, the refs actually check the fingernail length of all the players.  It’s hardly the kind of game you could ever play pickup, but so far I’m enjoying the challenge of learning a ridiculous new sport.

Oh, and I’ve got SIX WORKING DAYS left in the ENTIRE YEAR.  Just to rub that in!