Live Laugh Blog

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…

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 fe…

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. it's also a blessing to be able to go outside and do all my responsibilities ind…

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

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

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 imp…

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. after finishing my latest one several da…

over the past several months i've been very slowly working on some pixel art gouache studies based off of figure drawings i'd done of both live models at jc print room and online. if you read my weekly retros you'd have seen some peeks into my work. if no…

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.

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. earlier…

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 wasn't ready, so i've decided to push that time to tomorrow and instead publish the latest in the what i made in my cer…

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.…

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 "he…

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

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…

i wrote last week's retro from the floor of my bathroom next to pumagreg as he lay lethargic after pissing blood, and with advice from the animal hospital to see if it clears in the morning otherwise bringing to an emergency room. today, i type this from…

happy june, happy pride. it's also the beginning of what i'd been preparing for weeks, which is a new chapter in my cat's life as a (hopefully) cancer-free tripod. in this weekly retro i talk about some dark stuff but calling attention to the dark makes t…

yesterday was saturday and it felt like a sunday. today is sunday and it feels like some other kind of day. i'm coming out of a period fog but things are still a bit hazy. writing, editing, and perhaps showering will cure me. welcome to the 69th weekly re…

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

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…

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…

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 d…

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. this week offered me a re…

this past week was packed with trains, fish, friends i don't get to see often, and pumagreg getting back to his old self. i went to boston first thing on monday by train, which takes a bajillion hours for some reason. this was a session i was facilitating…

"this pussy depressed" - megan thee stallion this week was a rough one, but before i get into it i do want to say i'm feeling a lot better now. i was carrying the post-period lows with bad news, the anxiety of responsibility, and sweat from a heat wave th…

this week was a rough one: the week of pumagreg's surgery to remove the inconclusively-aspirated lump on his hind leg. a lot could have gone wrong: he's at least 13 years old and has a slight heart murmur, but all the diagnostics we had done beforehand cl…

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. monday night as my first time this year hosting - the blizzard kept me home f…

congratulate me on my first load-bearing gray eyebrow hair — jenn schiffer 🕷️🕯️ (@jennschiffer.com) March 29, 2026 at 3:11 PM 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

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…

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…

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…

on march 13, 2016 i tweeted "i just keep getting hotter and smarter." tweeting was a thing a lot of people used to do and it was often fun and free, but that website doesn't exist anymore, so i can only prove the existence of the post with this screenshot…

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?

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. you know, i was at recruiting age when the united states invaded iraq - i was anti-war and told i was too young to understan…

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. local dog owners lower backs are gonna atrophy from another 4 weeks of not picking up their shit…

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

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 scrapi…

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!

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 w…

back in november/december i took an 8-week course on hand-building ceramics, taught by the very cool and talented nish. i had been playing around with air dry clay and realizing i need some in-person instruction and a place to go away from my desk where i…

this week was all about getting back into my routines and i did just that. i reopened the store with what i am calling the core collection, my "classic" egg and sky candles. this week i start making scented candle inventory to come out in time for valenti…

my body is finally free of covid, but it wasn't until friday that i actually went outside - so you can understand why i don't have any photographs to offer in this retro besides my primary view of the week: jenn nation, this week fucking sucked - pumagreg…

it's a new year!

it is new years eve as i start this, around 9:30pm. i'm sitting on the couch alone in quasi-silence - my upstairs neighbors are blasting music and there's the typical commotion outside during holidays. one of us in this apartment is getting over covid and…

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

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!

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. most days this week started with me packing bugs rock orders, walking them to the…

sometimes it's not until sunday when i can connect my exhaustion to the fact that it was a chaotic week. it happened again tonight. the week started off with me busting my ass on candle stuff, but also beating myself up for being some fake idea of "behind…

i, a woman who was born to eat sweets and go on the computer, am getting pecan pie all over my laptop as i type this. welcome!

i closed my retro last week with "i have a bit of a cold right now that i hope goes the fuck away after a good night's rest. i just need to work on the good night's rest part." well, she did not get a good night's rest and the cold did not go the fuck awa…