Been teaching on-and-off (typography with NID-V, mentoring final-year students from NID-K on a brand-identity project) and neglecting most other important things including Exif. I have also been referencing some architecture bits for some potential architecture-ing; I’ve always loved that discipline and consider dropping everything to enroll into a full-fledged program, often. Been reading through 30by40 (I love the LongStudio) and *faircompanies while keeping things local with AtticLab.

What I haven’t been neglecting is feeding Kamal(a) in his habitat (now sans-the-plant thanks to filterlessness). The betta is intelligent and quite angry-slash-excited to see people. I’m extrapolating; he is probably happy seeing other people and is just temporarily pissed off having to deal with me all the time. We got him from one of those shops where bettas are in tiny blue-tinted cups and look space-starved. The tank is large and sits on the other end of our shared work-table, facing the road and its election-related-brouhaha. It looks like there will be more tanks-on-tables soon. Kamal(a) is impossible to photograph; I’ll have to invest in some sports-photography-level gear to catch him sans all the blur.

The past month has been painfully slow and it looks like I would have read far fewer books than the last year by the end of December. It is a depressing thought and the whole working-alone-staring-at-angry-Kamal(a) isn’t helping. Podcasts and non-serious RSS-feeding has helped deal with it. So has a lot of calligraphy practice. I’m loaded with new pens, nibs and inks and cheap-and-perfect-for-fountain-ink papers from Kanakam PaperMart in town. The copperplate practice has helped mitigate some stress (good-joke; copperplate and stress), with random flourishes for extra effect.