CHRISTINE ESOLDO · /NOW

LAST UPDATED: September 2026

What I’m doing now

The current state of my attention, work, and life. Updated monthly.

Work, as always, has taken up the bulk of my brain space. That said, I was able to kickstart some new research projects, including in-person journey workshops. It’s literally been years since I’ve been able to do one of those in person instead of remotely, and it was so energising. There’s nothing quite like post-its and a white board when it comes to research.
I’ve been ruminating on immersive data and data physicalisation and ways I can bring it into my current working life. I’ve got a hatchling of an idea that I’m working on fleshing out, so we’ll see where it goes.
Grad school has also been busy, but manageable. I’m more than halfway through the program at this point, and will soon start focusing on my final thesis/capstone. I haven’t fully decided on the topic out of the 13 ideas I had, but I have decided I want to do something focused on science and conservation.
I wrapped up one class focused on the visuals of data visualisation (as opposed to the data science side) and was able to experiment with more creative visualisations. I ended up hand painting an illustration with gouache, then bringing it into Procreate to continue the hand-drawn look of the data viz itself and connecting it to my illustration. It was so fun and definitely something I plan to explore more of.

I read Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty. In my last Now update, I was about halfway through it. But wow, the last several chapters really got me, and I did not expect that ending. It was so human, and definitely got the tears going. Highly recommend this one.
I’ve read a bunch of books in the past few months including Homecoming and The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. Homecoming didn’t land quite as well with me, and The Secret Keeper took a while to ramp up, but the ending was worth it. Neither of those are my favourites of Kate Morton’s but still entertaining. For a lighter read, I picked up The Picasso Ransom by AT Pruitt - funny, local, and a quick read.
Currently reading: Murder Most Delicious, a cosy mystery set in Paris and One Wild and Precious Life by Sarah Wilson. Two totally different books, but I like it that way. I’ve also got quite the backlog of new books that I’ve been accumulating, so I should probably read those before buying or borrowing more.

I’m not sure if this counts as wellbeing, but this is my website so I’m saying it does - I’ve been playing a few iPad games that keep me entertained, but also reduce the doomscrolling habit. I breezed the the entire The Room series in about a week. Loved those since it had escape room vibes, and I’m definitely obsessed with escape rooms.
We’ve also been doing puzzles as a family over the past month or so. I got a new puzzle table that we can move around or put away without ruining the puzzle. We’ll stop by it for a few minutes and add some pieces. We’re currently working on a fairly challenging “Positano Brunch” 1000 piece puzzle.
I joined Strong, which is a pilates-based workout studio but combines cardio (either rowing or cycling) and weights, and so far, I really like it. It seems like a good foray back into the world of workout studios for me. I haven’t really found one I like since moving to Australia, and back in the US, Covid kind of ruined my game there. So it’s been about 6 years since I’ve been a regular at a studio. Good to have that back.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Spring is springing, swooping season is upon us (IYKYK), and I’m looking ahead to do some gardening at home. I started with a little countertop microgreen garden that’s doing very well so far.
I have some travel coming up in November, but home for now.

Unfortunately art and creative side projects have taken a backseat during this stressful and busy season I’ve found myself in.

This page is inspired by Derek Siver’s /now.