broken tamagotchi feels
there are hard things
It's been a hell of a week already. I am doing the most intense professional training of my life very far outside my comfort zone (and in which every other trainee is an expert). The cognitive labor is so intense and everything is going so fast. I haven't felt stupid in a professional setting in a really, really long time. At least I am pleasant and working hard to keep up so that I don't drag others down in the group work. I haven't felt like this since my first (of three! I failed) pre-calculus classes.
A few of my students were deported. It's happening everywhere, and we talk about what we're allowed to in the halls between our training sessions. The kids I lost were some of my best artists with great families who tolerated my compliments of their kids' work in my poor Spanish. I've screamed a lot. And felt sad and still, then screamed again. TPS ending has been devastating to our communities.
There's pressure in very direction in public education, mostly from politicians who couldn't do what we do for a single day. There's more random suited visitors walking around, which even on the good days makes us feel a little more on edge.
I was feeling so heavy I decided to treat myself with this Teku Teku Angel pedometer I coveted since I saw someone with one on Mastodon. I never had a tamagotchi, but I love weird cute productivity shit.
It was so cute. It lasted a full 90 seconds before it completely froze. The screws stripped immediately so I can't reset the battery. I sent an eBay message and sat down to write this blog since that stupid tamagotchi not working felt like some kind of cosmic final straw.
but there are so many good things
I made a medaka page for the 32-bit cafe Back to School: Second Nature codejam!
I had wanted to put together a simple care sheet for total beginners to give to friends I give baby fish to next summer - fingers crossed that my current fry all grow up nice and strong indoors this winter. I've already convinced three local friends and coworkers to get their own buckets of outdoor fish!
This was my first time using an analog drawing in a website like this, and it was fun! They're just some acrylic markers doodles in my Midori MD journal, with my headers in my handwriting as well.
Baltimore Ukranian Festival
I went both days of the festival last weekend, and it was worth it. A buddy is Ukranian and grew up in the church that hosts the festival.
On the first day I didn't have my spouse's phone camera to steal, so you're stuck with these absolute princesses in potato quality:
But lucky you, I had it for inside the church. I find it most delightful that these paintings are from 1997! I love that people are still skilled in this style of decorative painting.
Many pierogies (there's another, more accurate name for them that starts with a "v") and crepes were had in the church basement, which everyone swore was better than the vendor tents outside. The drinkers on both days in my group had gigantic green bottles of beer with wild shapes. I bought a pysanka from an artist in Kiev that sells them through Ukranian churches.
Media
We watched Moonstruck! You should watch it even though you should adjust your expectations for what a "good" movie is. Cher is better than you would think. Whoever wrote Nicholas Cage's character (and lines!) - like, I just want to meet this person. I want to try to understand what was going on during their creative process.
I also started watching Homicide: Life on the Streets, a crime procedural from the 90's about Baltimore. It was kind of eclipsed from memory, understandably, by the Wire. It has none of the criminal perspective or the Wire's sense that both sides were playing the same game, it's more similar to Law & Order.
And lo and behold, it's Munch! Law & Order SVU was my guilty pleasure show (yes, the cops are pretty terrible, I know) and I watched eighteen seasons when I had long covid a few years ago. I also think having a crime procedural as a "comfort show" will do something to your nervous system.
It's kind of wild to see Detective Munch go from a character in a TV adaptation of a non-fiction book into a spin-off of a different franchise show - it feels like characters don't just get to hop worlds that easily. And the show is good! It's interesting to see the difference almost a decade makes between Homicide (1993-98) and the Wire (2002-2008)
I love Thao's new single "Fossils" and she keeps dropping great videos and visualizers.
Lucy Dacus finally released the video for "Planting Tomatoes" which I can't get off rotation. I love Richmond. This is the future the left (ok well me) wants, and the lyrics get me real tender. It's a good feelings.
Anyways, we carry on.