Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Even though I lived through three years of Rebecca's graduate experience, I didn't notice anything different between what she was doing and how I approached undergraduate classes. This, I now know, was a lack of perception on my part because there are obvious differences between graduate programs and undergraduate programs, especially with the current program I am in. My first year was a blur, but not because I was appropriately using my time to research my field. It is true that I was learning about theory and practice in my discipline -- which I needed to spend a year to catch up -- but I was missing the essential research ingredient which would inform my practice.  read more »

We were sad on Monday to say good-bye to Jon and Faith, but at least we had a good visit while they were here. We made our traditional ice cream with them, played lots of games, and hung out both at our home and up in San Francisco (pictures here).  read more »

With the advent of school, things have quickly come to an abrupt halt in the adventure district. School started with force and most of my time is spent reading theory texts. We already began our schedule of getting home late. Tuesday night, after class got out at nine, Rebecca met me downtown because I went out to dinner with colleagues. I'm still not sure of the best way to become an active member in my academic circle.

Wednesday evening, Rebecca and I stayed up working on a collaborative project on ego-surfing. We tapped out some quick code which evaluates google's search results for references to my work under any keyword search. My art theory course wanted us to create a diagram/project to place ourselves in the art community.  read more »

We didn't pack this week quite as full as the previous several have felt. Saturday, for example, we dubbed "lazy Saturday", and we only cleaned house after sleeping in. We took care of a few errands and took a walk and such, but we didn't "go somewhere" or "have plans." It was nice for a change. Though we already came up with ideas for what to do this coming Saturday, so "lazy Saturday" isn't going to become a regular thing by any means.

Part of what I'm excited about is the freecycle/ebay/craigslist posts we took care of on Saturday. It's nice to get junk cleaned up and moved on to someone who will make better use of it.  read more »

Phew. It's been a long one and with school right around the corner, we must use up all our summer time to maximize the efficiency of our remaining summer hours. Not to mention it was my birthday this week, so with two birthday celebrations and every other evening booked, we spent most of this week outside of our apartment.

We try to see our local friends as much as we can, but that turns out to be an infrequent event at best. Still, we managed to do dinner with Erika this past Monday evening and then stopped by the Rock's house to tend their little tyke while they went out for some anniversary fun. Tending kids: just as easy as I remembered it [especially when they sleep almost the whole time].  read more »

The main event of the week happened Friday night. Most of the rest of the week built up to that event. Wayne worked with a couple of other artists on a project to be shown at the Montalvo Arts Center for their Starry, Starry Night show. Montalvo has this event every year celebrating art and astronomy with lots of activities and art projects and guest speakers, ending with a sleepover under the stars on the front lawn and a pancake breakfast. They also had telescopes set up for people to do some star-gazing. We heard lectures on sun-spots and saw installations in the trees; we listened to people (mostly kids) singing karaoke for popsicles. There were movies and hands on painting prayer flags and story-telling. It was quite the event. We didn't end up staying the night after all; we opted to drive home really late and sleep in a real bed where we would actually sleep instead of tossing on the ground.  read more »

Birthdays are great as a kid because presents seem to be given to you for free, without any strings attached. As you grow older and have a family, you realize that Birthday presents are being purchased out of your communal funds and, indirectly, you are buying your own gifts. This conundrum has drained some of the magic from birthdays for me. I'm not sure how to clearly explain it, but gifts received for free always seem a bit different than a gift which costs our family. This makes the gift seem less like a gift, more like a present to yourself.  read more »

This week marked our fourth anniversary. We felt fortunate to be able to celebrate on our anniversary itself; last year I was at Girl's Camp on the day. And so we went to a fancy restaurant to celebrate -- probably the nicest we've ever been to, though I know there are nicer places out there in the world. What better way to celebrate than with cheese and chocolate fondue (no, not in the same course)?  read more »

Rebecca's hands fall asleep in the middle of the night. Normally, sleeping would be a good thing, but this is referring to the "pins and needles" sensation of a loss of blood flow to an appendage. We were a bit concerned about this happening to both hands (since sleeping on her side she could only possibly be laying on one hand at a time), so we called the doctor. The nurse told us that everything was normal and the best thing to do is "to have the baby." It looks like she's just stuck with it.  read more »

We had a nice relaxing week. It didn't take too long to feel recovered from our big camping trip. We had errands to run and tons of laundry to do, but that just took a couple of days to get things taken care of.  read more »