Didn't have class today, so I didn't do much. Read books and articles for most of the day. I went to dinner with various MCAD friends (Dylan, Skyler, Thomas, Sarah) and gossipped about various students we dislike. After dinner, we chatted more outside on the MCAD lawn, and Thad joined us. It was enjoyable and energetic.

I also spent a good amount of time today looking up vocabulary words and playing on Word Dynamo. I think that for me to actively retain the definitions of words, I must not only consistently encounter those words in the wild, but I have to actively commit them to memory. So, I've decided to spend some time every day playing Word Dynamo and looking up the etymologies of words in order to buff up my vocabulary. Today's word that will be committed to memory: inchoate (preliminary, the early stages of something, rudimentary). Unfortunately, my inchoate ability in game development will likely hinder progress on my senior project.

Speaking of, it's coming along drowningly (that is, to say, the opposite of swimmingly). Sorry. I shouldn't be so negative so early in the process. I haven't really allowed myself to feel proud of what little I've come up with thus far, and it's starting to wear me out. I was trying to explain my senior project to various people today, but I lacked apt terminology to describe my story articulately. I rushed home immediately after the conversation and read the entire Wikipedia page for "adventure game," and now I can confidently assert that my project is a graphic adventure game with narrative-focused, exploratory gameplay. Look at all my buzzwords!! I'm proud.

I am trying to read as much as I can and learn as much as I can. I cannot let myself be seduced by the Internet abyss. I am reading "Everything is Illuminated" and "Gesture Drawing for Animators" right now, and both have been very enjoyable. I started "Poetics of Space" a few nights ago when I couldn't sleep, but it was hard for me to understand (the definition of phenomenology is clear but I still don't really parsed out the concept abstractly) and I decided my time may be better spent reading one book at a time instead of fifty. I don't really count textbooks as books, because I can dive in and out of them easily and clearly. With fiction, I must follow the path at a steady rate, or else rapidly fall behind.

I have an early morning class tomorrow: Intro to Art History. What awful hell have I placed myself into. I have class later that day, too. I'm pretty sure one of my roommates is taking the same art history class. What are the chances that I will be able to avoid her for the entire semester? (Pretty high, if I'm sneaky enough.)

GOALS: Must be better at writing and drawing. Writing concisely but richly, and drawing...with those same characteristics. Funny how that transfers. In addition to learning a new word every day, reading every day, and listening to a podcast every day, maybe I should draw every day, too. I can consolidate the last two: drawing while listening. But I'm in no hurry; as soon as I start the grind on my senior project, I'll be listening to every podcast I can get my hands on.