beyond-sanity.ORG


Warning: array_flip() [function.array-flip]: The argument should be an array in /home/moonsha/public_html/beyond/layout.inc.php on line 122

Nara is a 22-year-old Dutch communication design student at Carnegie Mellon University, double-
minoring in computer science and Japanese. Her interest lies in discovering how the combination of design with new technology can aid us in finding more creative ways to communicate and exchange information. Her dream is to one day work at the MIT Media Lab. more »

beyond-sanity.ORG is Nara’s personal website and blog, where she writes about topics such as being a design student, her experiences abroad, and her various hobbies such as web design, cooking, and photography. Her current focus is on leading a more balanced life amidst school, work and stress, so she occasionally posts lifestyle improvement tips and zen-inspired ideas. more »

XHTML Validated CSS Validated RSS Atom

Many older posts are gone, since I cleaned up the blog in the summer of '08 and wanted a fresh start. Here is what is currently still in the archive:

About the Girl

Me on my 19th birthday
  • Name:
  • Nara
  • Age:
  • 22
  • Location:
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Occupation:
  • College student
  • School:
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Major:
  • Communication Design
  • Minors:
  • Computer Science, Japanese
  • Interests:
  • page is not available at this time, perhaps because you were hitting the site too quickly. Please make sure that you're, Bot Policy., are not using an automated service of the type described at the page above, then you may have been shown this page in error., the page and try again. If you are still blocked from using LiveJournal after refreshing the page, contact us at, the following information: eoXpXPvKkwt8rVr @ 72.29.68.107.

When people first meet me, the first thing they usually say to me is, "Wow, you're so tall!" I'm 5'11" and skinny, which seems to emphasize my height even further. While my mother is Asian, my father is Dutch, and I seem to have inherited nearly all of my looks from my dad's side of the family. I have reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes. I used to wear contact lenses, but I now wear glasses all the time.

Like my parents, I was born and raised in the Netherlands. I moved to Germany when I was 9 and to Houston, TX when I was 11. I never felt at home in Texas, so I worked hard in high school to make sure I could go to college out-of-state. I am now pursuing my BFA in Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, which I enjoy and consider "home" more than Texas ever has been.

I'm very much a workaholic, padding my schedule with lots of organizations and club activities, so I have very little free time. But I love the college life, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. This blog is mostly an attempt to keep old friends and relatives updated about what I'm doing, since I don't always find the time to keep in touch with all of them. I also use this as a place to reflect and generally indulge in my love of writing, even though I don't always have interesting things to write about.

I would say that I love writing even more than I love designing, though I've never truly doubted my choice of major. Though I prefer to express myself using the written word, I am a very visual person. The world around me and colors, especially, affect me very strongly, and I realized that any field that I went into that would seek to deny this side of me would only inhibit and restrict me. I eventually hope to write books, but until inspiration strikes, I fully plan to live and work as a designer.