Self-Isolation: Week Thirty Seven

Nov 29

Not a slowing, but a shift in creative focus over the past two weeks, away from the design-oriented projects of the summer and much of self-isolation so far, towards a more academic set of activities. I completed the fantastic ‘Science of Wellbeing’ course from Yale University, and have been accepted into The University of Pennsylvania’s online Bachelor of Applied Arts & Sciences degree program, where my first course in January will be on Positive Psychology. As part of my orientation around starting at Penn early next year, I joined the Penn Moviegoer club, and as part of that I’ll be writing an article a month for them - my application essay on Detective Blanc’s donut theory is below. I’m excited to meet other like-minded cinema buffs, but also to meet other Penn students, learn from them, and find some great new movies to watch along the way.

In parallel, I’ve also been watching a lot of movies over the past two weeks, especially some great ones from the seventies. Love Story, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, Badlands and many more, and it’s been a real treat to spend some time with all of these. Also finished off Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but the gaming has definitely taken a back seat to all of this, which actually feels like a positive thing given the massive amount of gaming I’ve done since lockdown started. The new Destiny: Beyond Light levels are good, but I’m so chronically under-leveled that I just can’t be bothered to grind my way up to a place where I’ll actually be able to progress and enjoy it. At least not yet anyway.

I’ll be doing a lot of reading in preparation for January’s start at Penn over the next few weeks, and overall just getting set up and ready to go. What a great thing to have come out of self-isolation so far. Let’s do this.

Continuing Education (2020)