jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

weekly retro #86: a paranasal nor'easter before the real one

i'm drinking a baja blast as i write this, unsponsored and unbothered after 2 nights in a row of sleeping through without waking up to heartburn and a sneeze and cough attack. pumagreg is cone-free, i am symbolically cone-free, and writing this retro has helped me remember what a crazy week i managed to function through.

this week started with me excited to start a new class, get back to the studio, and - along with pumagreg - live life without the constraints of allergies. all but one of those things happened (allergies).

a photo of my computer screen showing a slide covered in dat boi memes (frog on a unicycle) with the text "jenn schiffer (she/her) taking this class to experiment on my voice and aesthetic through games. last week i finished and really enjoyed playing desktop explorer"

i started my first ever sfpc course, 100 games. i will be making at least 100 games ok!! we introduced ourselves by adding a slide with our name, why we're taking the class and what the last game we really liked playing was. i spent the entire class feeling like i was going to sneeze my face off, it was so fucking annoying. the class was great though.

a photo of a skeleton sitting in/on a large planter in a neighbor's yard and it's holding the flag of poland

it was earlier that day when i realized my allergies triggered a sinus infection, which is typical for my stupid chronically inflamed sinuses. i tried over the counter remedies, getting fresh air (dumbass), and even taking edibles to try to get me through the night. the only relief i felt was during a hot shower. for a day or so i was worried that i'd have to move down into the sewer if i wanted to function (dramatic).

a photo of a clay jack o'lantern i hand-built and carved, sitting on a banding wheel and leather-hard

fortunately it passed after a couple of days and i was able to make it back to the ceramics studio, where past jenn was SO SMART to completely plastic-wrap my pumpkin so that it was still carvable after two weeks. it's looking super cute, and hopefully will be dry enough for me to stop by tomorrow and put it on the shelf for bisque firing.

a photo of a section of michael's (a big-box craft store) that's dedicated to iwata brand (airbrush) products. most of the expensive items are not there and everything that is there is unlocked and available which is very rare for these kinds of products in nyc

speaking of art stuff, i stopped by michael's to look at halloween items - none of which i liked - and saw they had either gotten rid of or hid the candle-making section which is fine because it sucked. they also now have this half-assed iwata section which was quite surprising. i wonder how long it will be until they put the airbrush needles in jail lol.

a photo of the beautiful sky that's deep blue with mostly pink and orange and gray clouds as the sun sets the night a huge storm is coming

and just as i started sleeping entirely through the night and feeling like a full human being, a nor'easter started approaching which lead to my felt-making class at the library being cancelled and being stuck inside most of the weekend. the sky looked so cool before the storm, and now it's just a boring, wet gray. i spent the time inside cleaning out closets and cabinets, as well as on a call with jamie to make sure my laptop is all set up to host robot karaoke live solo tomorrow.

things i enjoyed this week

  • when dealing with post-nasal drip or any sinus issues, hydration and sleep are important - with the latter being something i'm always bad at. for hydration, i always keep a large vessel of water and when feeling the worst i've been adding nuun hydration tablets. big cup, fizzy tablet for water, that's the post.
  • water
  • i enjoyed this critical analysis of yves klein. one of my pet peeves is when videos say he owns the color and everyone is like "looks like ultramarine" and, yeah, the color is just ultramarine! he didn't register the pigment, but the binding formula. all that aside, please don't get me started on proprietary colors!!
  • it's always nice for a friend (ryan) to post a video giving me an update on what happens on the robot karaoke stage while i'm not there.

along with the show day and starting a new month with a stronger immune system, i'm most excited this week to get back to working out. i haven't been to the gym in a week and a half as i dealt with my sinus problems and it feels good to know that even with the break i've got a momentum going with my movement.

xoxo jenn

this was published September 27, 2026 under living art tech weekly-retro ceramics jersey-city sick airbrush sfpc pumagreg weather

weekly retro #85: aggressively hydrated

as i write this, i'm watching pumagreg cleaning himself for the first time in a week, having just removed his cone. what a feeling that must be for him, regaining the ability to act on his animal brained instinct of cleaning his ass. i wish some of the men in my gym had that instinct for wiping the equipment they use down when they're done.

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what i made during my fifth ceramics class

welcome to the latest in my *what i made in my ceramics class* series. this class was my 2nd time taking this wheel-throwing class because the time was convenient and i really like the instructor. because there were lots of summer camps going on and a kiln malfunction, i had to wait longer than usual to get these pieces home but i finally did today.

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weekly retro #83: new month, new git meltdown

this week was the 2-year anniversary of me quitting my corporate job and i spent a significant portion of it toeing the line between calm and an absolute fucking meltdown over getting an ssh key to authorize me into one of my git repos. for a moment it felt like literally nothing changed, but ultimately so much has. welcome to da retro.

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weekly retro #81: inventing time management

this week i tried scheduling out my entire week in my calendar, down to the times i go to the gym or read. normally i wing that or have it scheduled in my mind, but i had a busy weekend and i wanted to make it to and through it without dropping the ball on my routines. who would have thought that time management would help one better manage their time. what helped is going in knowing that i will have to move things around or skip things and that's just life, not failure.

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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.

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weekly retro #79: just an italian girl from new york

my doctor told me to get bloodwork done on the second day of my period and i scheduled it for tomorrow in hopes it would work out so i wouldn't have to miss ceramics class on tuesday, and can you believe that my period *started today just in time*. it's important to call out and celebrate one's wins and also add a disclaimer that the following was written and edited throughout a series of cramps. ciao amici, and welcome to the weekly retro.

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