jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

weekly retro #59: kicked, burned, but still spinning

i'm starting to write this after seeing jamie off for his trip to london. he's going to be hosting robot karaoke for an event at the london games festival, which i recommend for any of you in the area. when he gets back, we're both hosting at wonderville together for all of you in the jc/nyc area. we're also super stoked to be hosting a special tax themed robot karaoke at caveat nyc on april 15th! it was a gorgeous day out and a bird shit on us outside my local taqueria.

photo i took of the back side of my head by holding my arm up and around so it's framed poorly but there is a 3-square corner tetris piece-shaped bald spot on my head

i think i'm finally entering the stage of my life where i can accept that my body will forever be a mystery and work in progress. my recent alopecia started getting better on its own, no steroid shots this time, which is great because i have more important things to worry about. it's not something on my mind these days, but i figured i'd give this update since i've been sharing this journey since the beginning when it did matter a lot more to me.

photo of my table after i finished a pixel art figure painting. there's a large paper with the painting - yellow background and grayscale pixel art version of a feminine figure i sketched in real life awhile back. next to the paper is a smaller printer paper where i printed the reference out, and above that is my sketchbook and palette covered in yellow, black and gray paint

i finished a new painting, this time having the pixel figure in grayscale. i am pleased with how it came out, and thinking of what else to try in this series. in tandem with this painting, i started building a pixel art color editor.

sign above a public atm in the city that was grafittied to now say "EATME"

i went to a new aerial yoga class in the city and got kicked in the head 3 times because the class tried to accommodate too many students in my opinion. i got super frustrated and it took me a few hours to release the tension from my body from that class. i am trying silks and lyra classes and if neither of those interest me then i will probably have to go on indefinite hiatus with aerial. not the end of the world that i felt like it would be, honestly.

photo of the top of my hand on my desk. i have a clay cigarette balancing and there's red underneath it because the fake ciggie is covering my fresh oven burn

i burned my hand on the oven while trying to grab the potatoes roasting inside. i don't often use the oven because we have a large air fryer on the counter and the oven is in an awkward space where it's not unlike me to burn myself on the door whenever i use it.

photo of me posing rigidly, seated in front of a clean pottery wheel with my hands on my knees, looking straight at the camera as i get ready to start a session of making absolute garbage out of clay

this week i brought home my last piece from last semester, and i wrote about everything i made in that class. this week i trimmed bottles and learned how to throw closed form pieces. i'm excited for the journey of these pieces - it'll be a challenge to trim two matching pieces, and to glaze them in a way that's consisten but also doesn't get the pieces stuck together.

photo of my black cat pumagreg from behind him as he turns his head to the side, looking very handsome.

pumagreg had an ekg and cardiology consult to see if he was okay for surgery. the cardiologist said he was so handsome and such a good boy, and he's low risk for surgery. this week, we get him a chest x-ray to make sure the only growth is the one on his leg.

things i enjoyed this week

  • i learned about rhyming slang while watching a soap box car race that took place in london. it had an obstacle called "apples and pears" and i looked it up to find out why they were calling stairs that.
  • pumagreg's vet. if you're in jersey city and want a recommendation, email me and i'll share.
  • vijith introduced me to a curry with soya chunks, which i don't think i'd ever had before and it was so good. the texture was so much better to me than seitan is at a lot of places.
  • jess morrissette's "the video game soda machine project" is something i only just learned about today but am already in awe of and cannot wait to read all the press about it. i shared it with andy and he felt similarly.

wow

xoxo jenn

this was published March 22, 2026 under living tech art weekly-retro ceramics code pixel-art pumagreg alopecia