weekly retro #80: hematomas and hope
we've finally reached the halfway point through august, where "back to school" signs make a lot more sense to see and i check the weather app every day to see if the temperatures are starting to trend downward. right now it is a cooler 80F just in time for this 80TH weekly retro.
this week i finished a book, wrote about art mentioned in another, and tried to stick to my art and workout routines as much as possible as i went through the motions of my period.
this week kicked off the quarterly poking and prodding of endocrinology, starting with routine bloodwork. because i have to fast beforehand, i try to go as early as possible and the office is a mile walk away. my doctor wanted me to go on the second day of my period, so this was a pretty taxing trip. the phlebotomist was very kind but left a doozy of a hematoma got blood on my shirt. fortunately i was wearing my "you can get blood on this shirt" shirt. i got home and slept for like 3 hours, waking up to pumagreg smothering me. credit to andy for the above photo.
i streamed painting pixel art onto one of the biggest pieces i've made. i underestimated how hard it would be to paint on a 3lb round vase a few hours after my arm strength workout. i have no idea if this piece will even come out well, it's an experiment, but i am having fun trying out pixel art on this medium.
jamie and i gave a robot karaoke talk and demo at HOPE on the iconically mcdonalds-coded carpeting of the new yorker hotel. it was my first time attending HOPE, and everyone we talked to and performed to were so kind and cool. we ran into some technical difficulties, but jamie and i were made for the stage and handled it like the champions of karaoke we are. if you were there in attendance, you may find it hard to believe from his incredible live-debugging that jamie was running on just 2 hours of sleep after getting in on a red-eye from california that morning.
my bloodwork came back showing that i've been doing a pretty great job with my hydration, nutrition and fitness, with the only issue being related to prescription dosage - a typical part of the trial and error aspect of managing endocrine issues. this coming week i want to focus on getting enough sleep and staying on track with my strength training while also managing the busy performance and social schedule i have coming up. pumagreg is going to have to find a surface that's not my neck to nap on.
things i enjoyed this week
- i finished in cold blood, my first time ever reading it. it's a beautifully written book that is what true crime (a genre today i do not like) could actually be even though its not without its faults and bias from capote. i think i should re-read to kill a mockingbird next iykyk.
- we haven't finished desktop explorer yet but have played enough to feel comfortable sharing that andy and i both love it. the puzzles are great, the ui is pretty authentic, and the story is well written. it's what i call a great sativa game. i'm excited to see how it ends but i also don't want it to end.
- pckt launched a cool explore page for blogs all across the ATmosphere not just on pckt - one of those being my little art blog, which i do write on pckt of course.
as i write this, i am feeling energized and ready to enjoy a fresh follicular phase that has come at just the right time. next week i've got more robot karaoke performances to co-host, an atproto event to attend, and plenty of pixels to paint.
xoxo jenn
p.s. if you're in the nyc area later this week, on friday we'll be hosting robot karaoke at boshi's place and the monday after that at wonderville 😈