December 2020 Monthly Review

disclaimer: these reviews are for my own personal accountability and aren’t really meant to be articulate blog posts. if you are curious about anything I write here, feel free to email me at nichole.lynn.bennett <at> gmail.com

highlights from the past month

• Transmission from 2050 pilots with Kealing 8th grade marine bio class
• Transmissions from 2050 performance from Austin Youth River Watch
• learned to knit
• continued watching great films from my list
• played RPGs with friends (Brindlewood Bay, Masks)
• did my first twitch stream
• end of Fall 2020 semester
• self love sessions with Perle Noire
• attended writing plan workshop and started my own
• started working with the Stories of Ancient Resilience Research Group
• wrote my first policy brief in how high stakes testing affects the arts and presented it to TAMSA
• finished a first draft of the race evasive racism in science communication fellowships paper
• wrote a rough outline of the inclusive scicomm class for graduate students
• set up seedling starter shelf
• bought a stripper pole for the house
• got rollerskates
• playing piano
• tried pilates for the first time
• tried gi gong for the first time
• burlesque dance a lot
• yoga a lot

reflections on last month (lessons, themes, emotions)

• learning to make foods I love eating
• making foods with what I have (I have enough)
• mindful eating
• Marc grilling out for us
• time spent outdoors in the hammock
• being in my body with Perle’s seduction classes and in yoga
• eating food I grew
• being gentle with myself
• watching plants grow
• playing rpgs with friends
• watching good films
• reading good books
• Marc scratching my back
• sex with Marc
• meeting my writing goals
• watching animals
• recommitment to healing from my traumas
• resilience (love, hope, awe, creativity) woven in
• slowing down, reflecting
• hope I felt watching my group perform for Transmissions from 2050
• learning as I go in gardening
• exhaustion I feel when I take on too many things (one at a time)
• less social media is good for me
• watching how I talk to myself
• “begin again” mindset from mindfulness training for habits
• being more gentle with myself and not yanking myself around
• loving my academic mentors

media consumed in the last month

tv shows

• Mandalorian

films

• Night and Fog
• Hiroshima Mon Amour
• Do the Right Thing
• La Jetee
• Seven Samurai
• Wonder Woman 1984
• Breathless
• Umberto D
• The 400 Blows
• Bicycle Thieves
• Rome, Open City
• Boudu, Saved from Drowning
• The Rules of the Game
• Grand Illusion
• High Noon
• Singin’ in the Rain

books

• Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1)
• Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose
• The Calculating Stars
• How to Write a Lot
• The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
• Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
• Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time
• The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities
• The Elements of Style
• The Deep
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
• Akata Warrior
• Akata Witch
• Between the World and Me
• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
• A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1)
• Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society

music

• Drexyia
• KAYE
• Issy Wood
• Avalanches
• Taylor Swift

board games/rpgs

• Masks
• Brindlewood Bay

video games

• Rimworld

MOOCS

• MIT’s Film Experience
• Ron Finley’s Masterclass on gardening
• Mindfulness Coursera
• Graphic Design Coursera
• Science Writing Coursera