Learning Log, Feb 2020: the Golden Triangle
Late in February, I headed out to India with my S.O. (R) and some friends to meet R's family and do some tourism in the Golden Triangle (Delhi ⇒ Agra ⇒ Jaipur). We were absolutely spoiled by R's lovely parents—I am now 78% roti—and got the chance to visit a dizzying number of monuments.
Details from the mosque at the Taj Mahal and from Humayan’s Tomb
Some things I particularly enjoyed from our more touristy activities:
- Learning about the ancient Harappa civilization and viewing artifacts at the National Museum in Delhi. I'd love to get my hands on some further reading.
- Islamic architecture: mosques, monuments, tombs, I love the intricate details and the masterful adherence to symmetry. This also highlighted for me a gap in my previous sightseeing.*
- Centuries-old strategies for climate control: cross-ventilation, blue and white paint for cooling, silver-painted convex mirrors for heating. Also filling one’s bedroom floor with rose water—I’m guessing when you’re the king, that gets changed out frequently?
- Gazing out at the built-up, mountainous terrain around Amer Fort in Jaipur.
- The luxury of a metro train every 4 minutes in Delhi. 🚉
I couldn’t help but feel transfixed by the mega-sized sun dials on the Jatar Mantar complex.
Another vantage point of the world’s largest sundial.
* As an outsider, I’m not the right person to comment on this at length. But I do want to acknowledge the frustrating delta between the preservation of national Islamic monuments, vs. India’s recent anti-Muslim citizenship law and resulting escalated tensions (CW: graphic imagery). People > buildings.
As for side projects stateside…
Personal Site
- Decided to build upon what I already have and improve the things that bother me, rather than completely start over with a redesign.
- Re-implemented Webmentions in the Eleventy version of my site and found this walkthrough by Sia Karamalegos very helpful. There's something funky going on with date ordering in mentions on some but not all of the posts, so I need to play with this a little bit more.
Egg Weaving
After spending many months almost but not quiiiite finished, I finished sewing the header (top bit) to the back of the tapestry, added the loops for the bar, and hung this fried-egg weaving. 🎉🍳
Breathing
Love this sentiment from Sahil Lavingia:
Reading is the inhale, writing is the exhale. Breathe.
Related: this Mean Girls-esque acronym from Tatiana Mac.