jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

ceramics

weekly retro #87: a shelf of her own

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.

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.

weekly retro #84: art, allergies and dying

this past week was full of endings and beginnings, and reflections of past cycles. there's no light without dark, life without death, blah blah blah welcome to the retro.

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.

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.

weekly retro #82: my doctor said to sleep more

first of all, rip dolly parton and tim curry. what a blessing it was to have shared a planet with them even if for such a short time relative to how long humans have existed.

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.

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.

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.

weekly retro #78: making art, taking trains

after spending a lot of today on trains and out of town, i almost completely zonked out for the night as soon as i got home. fortunately for you, i caught a second wind. fortunately for me, it happened before 10pm.

weekly retro #77: blue skies and painted pixels

after a week of smoke in the air and severe thunderstorms and heat, we got to see a week of blue skies and an atmosphere that doesn't burn one's nose more than it usually does around this car-dominated hellscape. this week we were all outside and it ruled.

weekly retro #76: hazy shade of whenever

this week was one of those weeks where i felt like i was just going through the motions, living in the moment but feeling a bit out of body. i think it was a mix of the heat, the wildfire smoke, my period, and the windup and down of the world cup.

what i made during my fourth ceramics class

technically i had scheduled myself to spend this hour in the ceramics studio, but i didn't want to go all the way there and find that my bisqueware isn't ready, so i've decided to push that time to tomorrow and instead publish the latest in the *what i made in my ceramics class* series.

weekly retro #75: bingo

this week began in recovery from the heat wave and being outside so much in the direct sunlight the few days before. i said i didn't want to see the sun for at least 48 hours and it obliged, although we could have done without the massive amounts of rain.

weekly retro #74: heat dome

it is presently a cool 84 degrees (F) out according to my laptop as i type this in a well air-conditioned room. don't be mistaken, though, your beloved princess of hating the heat (me) spent a lot of time outdoors despite, and in spite of, a three-day "heat dome" bringing over 100 temperatures to the metropolitan area throughout the 4th of july weekend.

weekly retro #73: frequent stops

this past week was a test for how bad i really want to be off my phone, and the answer is *very bad*. it's a tough habit to kick though, requiring intentional moves like deleting apps and logging off of web pages, keeping the phone further from me than other things i could fidget with my hands and eyes, and simply going outside. in an algorithmic world, making intentional moves is really hard.

weekly retro #72: cone's off, cramps on

when i was in college learning software engineering, my professor told us that there's no way to say with 100% certainty that your software is bug-free. even if everything is working perfectly now, there's always a chance that some kind of race condition or memory leak will rear its ugly head down the line. that doesn't mean you should never celebrate a release, just that there's a level of humility needed to align with reality. i bring that up to show that i know that there are caveats when i say that pumagreg is cancer-free. as far as the sarcoma in his leg is concerned, he's all clear, and that's a huge win!

weekly retro #68: quiet before the scheduled storm

this was a week of resetting after doing a lot and before doing even _more_ a lot. finding ways to ground myself is key to plan as i take care of responsibilities ranging from low risk (hosting a karaoke party lol) to higher risk than hosting a karaoke party (preparing the home for pumagreg's upcoming surgery).

weekly retro #67: prepare to compare my good mood now to my mood after the heat wave

i'm starting this post in a great mood because i worked out, showered and got the news that my landlord will be able to put our air conditioners in tonight - in time for a 90+ F heat wave happening over the next 3 days. let's start this retro with all the irises i've "collected" in snapshots over the past beautiful week...

weekly retro #66: spring showers and neighbors' flowers

the other day i was streaming and there was an incredible sounding rain. the chat and i sat in silence and just listened for a bit, it was so nice and refreshing sounding. it was like the earth was getting a nice, clean reset for the season. i hope that's the same for me.

what i made during my third ceramics class

i said in my second ceramics class post that i'd be back in early may with a roundup of my third class pieces and, here we are, in early may. i brought my final pieces home on monday and i am so stoked to get to finally show them off. here's what i made during my third ceramics class

weekly retro #65: may the third be with you

anyone who knows me personally knows i LOVE a reset. it's my favorite word in corporate, it's my favorite part of a new month, and it's also a word that literally means nothing to me but a chance to reflect before moving forward.

weekly retro #64: jetlag from the same time zone

this past week was packed with trains, fish, friends i don't get to see often, and pumagreg getting back to his old self.

weekly retro #62: pumagreg gets his ankle monitor removed

this week was a rough one: the week of pumagreg's surgery to remove the inconclusively-aspirated lump on his hind leg.

weekly retro #61: happy easter, xbox

sometimes my menstrual cycle really is on my team, because the few days ahead of it i feel invincible and i needed that with all the social activities i had going into the week.

weekly retro #60: spoony time

it's taking everything i've got to write this lol. i multi-tasked too close to the sun and burnt myself out from the computer, but at the end of this file and deployment is a scoop of peanut butter covered in chocolate chips waiting for me. i call it "spoony time". welcome to the weekly retro.

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.

what i made during my second ceramics class

a couple of months ago i shared what i made in my first (hand-building) ceramics class just as i was getting into my 2nd class (first at wheel-throwing). i'm now in my third week of my third class (second at wheel-throwing) and just brought home my final glazed piece from class two. that means it's time to share what i made during my second ceramics class.

weekly retro #58: logged off, touching clay

last week i had posted a couple of ai-related threads on bluesky and started to feel gross from letting the subject use up so much of my time, time i could have been making something with my hands and brain. it's the same feeling you get when you've eaten too many twizzlers and you're like "i think i do not need to eat another twizzler for a few weeks". you know that feeling, right? _right?_

weekly retro #57: the usual amount of clay, blood and lasagna

this week was a week of starting new routines to make up for lost ones and keep me mentally and physically well. did i do a good job? well, i was in an active, mild allergic reaction to an edible for 2 days before i realized my throat wasn't swollen because the air is dry lol. that doesn't matter though, i am here now, breathing well, and reflecting on the week.

weekly retro #56: didn't have to shovel but my back hurts

here we are, a new month. february was a slog and i was hoping it wouldn't be to naive to ask for peace in march, but here we are.

weekly retro #55: forgot the title lol whoops oh well

i come to you from the first blizzard here in the jc/nyc area in like a decade. it's coming down really hard, and it's going to be quite a week for all of us.

weekly retro #54: failing to be birthday neutral

birthday weeks are tough because i feel like everyone either puts a lot of pressure on me to enjoy it or they project their fear of aging and dying onto me about it. i very much want to be neutral on birthdays, but i also want to celebrate that i lived far longer than i was told i would or should by adults in my life growing up. here's to 41 years of i lived, bitch, bitch.

weekly retro #53: below zero temperatures should not be allowed outside

as i begin writing this, quite late on a very, very cold sunday, i am surrounded by the (organized) messes of my activities throughout the week. some instant film camera stuff in a pile on my desk, staging from my bugs rock product photo shoot, wax scrapings from future offerings in the shop...it reminds me of how much i've made this week and also how i need to be working on three projects at a time to finish anything.

weekly retro #52: walking in this cold for a haunted doll head

happy february, a month where we hope to celebrate love as well as my 41st birthday. it will also be the month we hit one full year of reading (and i, writing) these weekly retros! this is my personal "new years" season, and it's opening up with lots of opportunities for change. one of those changes that i know is coming and i'm dreading is my aerial yoga studio permanently closing at the end of the month.

weekly retro #51: wheel throwin' and storm postin'

i'm writing this in the middle of that big snow storm the news has been talking about all week. i'm also watching and hearing the little rice-sized sleet bouncing off the window sill, avoiding thinking about what conditions are going to be like tomorrow when we're all expected to go about our mondays.

what i made during my first ceramics class

last week i started wheel-throwing and was able to pick up the final 2 pieces i made last semester to reunite them with my other projects, so it's time to share everything i made that first semester.

weekly retro #50: back into the groove

this week was all about getting back into my routines and i did just that.

weekly retro #47: the one i almost forgot because what day is it even

this is the hardest time of the year to keep track of the days. even when i wasn't making my own schedule, these last several days of december are special and chaotic and slow all at once for so many people. but as the clock struck 8:25pm i shot up from my horizontal position on the couch, watching youtube on my phone, and exclaimed 'holy shit, it's sunday, i need to write my retro!' happy sunday, let's rock...

weekly retro #46: the ramp up to the ramp down

welcome to my retro, and in case you didn't know, there is a livelaugh.blog rss feed, and also a mailing list to have my blogs sent straight to your inbox. wait, don't close the tab! you haven't even finished your jocko molk!

weekly retro #45: stress is free and yet expensive

this week i worked on being intentional with my routine and fitting in movement and rest in healthy doses, while also managing consequences of the last few months of chaos.

weekly retro #41: slow vs. slop

someone posted somewhere that no one blogs, then someone tagged me. the thing is, i don't blog...i write blogs. welcome to my weekly retro.

weekly retro #39: hoping for a renewing november

happy november! this week brought a new month along with other new things and, after a couple of days of bad post-menstrual anxiety exacerbated by the senseless consequences of our government shutdown, i am feeling renewed and ready for november.

making butter (kind of)

happy valentines day, a good day to share a recent, small labor of love i did for a dear friend of mine. lisa and i went to college and lived on the same floor. when i got a remote job, she helped me find a new place in jersey city and so i've lived within a couple of blocks from her ever since - for over a decade now. if you've been to jerseyscript you may have had the pleasure of meeting her. lisa has a lot of style and her home has a lot of nice things that i like to touch and ooh and ahh at. one of those things is a ceramic piece of toast with a little butter candle by collin garrity.