June rundown

30 June 2018 on monthly and rundown. 8 minutes

Hello everyone! I'm starting a new monthly blog post where I reflect on my favorite things from the month. The categories are subject to change in the future, and suggestions are always welcome!


Quick links:

Article | Poem | Music | Podcast | Adventure | Recipe | Charles update | Photo

Article or otherwise useful academic resource

This section is intended to be an interesting or thought provoking journal article or news article that I read during the month. It's also possible it will be a tweet, or a thread from twitter. (because I follow great people with interesting perspectives!)

Inside Palmer Luckey's Bid to Build a Border Wall by Steven Levy

This month, I read an article that once again made me wonder what our future will look like as we continue to develop new technology at the rate we are. We often whisper about the ethics involved, but articles like this make me wonder how often those whispers make it to the decision-making table.

Back to top

Poem

Home by Warsan Shire

This one is particularly relevant this month as our country grapples with our past, present, and future decisions around immigration. This poem breaks my heart every time I read it, but I think it's so important for everyone to read and reread and remind ourselves of the choices being made by others that we may not even be able to conceptualize.

Back to top

Music

"Make Me Feel" by Janelle Monae

This whole album is so fun and great! But this song is the one I've definitely kept on repeat this month.


"Dining Alone" by Shakey Graves

I got to see him live at the end of May, and this song hadn't stuck out to me until he performed it, explained it, and acted it out. It was great. I think "Counting Sheep" is actually the song I've listened to most on this album, but this one gets the shoutout because it's the one that stuck out most from the concert.


"The Deep" by clipping.

There is so much going on in this song! It's great! And a quick preview to the podcast section - Switched on Pop is the reason I know about this song, and they have a great episode about it.

Back to top

Podcast

Switched on Pop

Afrofuturism in Kali Uchis & Clipping (with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes)

Shout out to Adam Vandeusen for recommending this podcast to me!! (This will likely be a common theme of my podcast section - he has great podcast recs). I've already told so many people about this podcast because I absolutely love it. They break down pop songs to understand all the cool hidden elements in them that we hear but may never notice. This was the first episode I heard, but so far I have listened to as many as I could and loved them all (except one).

Back to top

Activity

International Conference on Transport and Health 2018

This month, I had the privilege to attend this fun and interesting conference on Mackinac Island, which I have to say is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. We were there the week after the lilac festival, so there were beautiful lilacs still in bloom along with all kinds of other flowers that typically are done blooming by this time of the year in Asheville. There are no cars on this island that is 8 miles in circumference, so all transportation is through non-motorized transport like walking, horse-drawn carriages, and bicycles, which was interesting for the theme of the conference (transport and health). There are also twelve(12!) fudge shops on this tiny island, which I suppose was less perfect for the health part of the theme. I was able to bring my mom with me, which made it even more fun, and she helped me identify all the flowers. We saw beautiful sunsets, and I got to bike and run around the island during my free time away from the conference. I also got to present my research on the health patterns associated with historic discriminatory housing policy, which I hope to be able to share soon!

Here are just a few pictures from our trip that don't nearly do it justice:

Mission Point Resort

The wonderful place we stayed and attended the conference.

Pretty much how the sky looked every night.

Or like this.

Mom and I in some matching flannel!

A cairn along our bike ride.

We both love taking pictures of trees..

Imagine flowers this pretty but everywhere you looked

That relieved look when you finish your presentation (on the last day of the conference).

We also got matching hats

Our first bridge sunset of the trip - this was probably one of the best sunsets I have ever seen, even though the picture doesn't show it. It felt like a real gift after starting the trip off with a car breakdown.

Taxis to the hotel

Some remaining lilacs

If you look closely you'll see the most posh dog riding in a carriage.

Back to top

more


Recipe or dining out experience

This isn't actually a new recipe to me, but I made it again this month and I love it. I don't have a food processor, but the blender still does the job, and the recipe isn't too hard to make. I've been trying to cook vegan when I make dinner at home (my roommate and I alternate), so most of the recipes I post will probably be vegan even if the dining out posts aren't.

Vegan Zucchini 'Meatballs' (click the picture for the recipe)

Back to top

Charles update

Charles is my 14 month old cat, and everyone deserves at least one picture of him per month, so I'll pick my favorites. (I was going to pick just one, but it was too hard)

King Chuck of boxes

Charles protector of suitcase

I traveled a lot this month, sorry bud :(

Back to top

Photo/moment of the month

Sometimes these will be nice pictures, sometimes they will be funny/unfortunate moments I caught in a picture.


Two laundry updates, because apparently I like to talk about laundry a lot:

  1. The washing machine in my building is now cheaper by a quarter!!
  2. I almost got this old quarter stuck in the dryer with a whole load of wet clothes waiting to be dried, but I fixed it with pliers and a screwdriver. Sorry for the scare, everyone in my building.
Back to top

Next

July rundown

My favorite article, poem, songs, activity, fun fact, ..., in July 2018