For years, I had very long hair, partly because the Spousal Unit thinks I look better with long hair, but mostly because I could just tie it back and not do any styling. I must have not used a blowdryer for a couple of decades!
But, honestly, I think I look better with short hair. And even though I have to spend little bit of time making it look half-way decent after washing my hair, I kind of prefer it short. My parents had always kept my hair short as a kid because it was easier to deal with and was probably much more comfortable for me in the sweltering humidity of Hong Kong.
As I’m about to turn 60, I’m sporting approximately the same ‘do I had when I was 5. So, who do you think wore it better? I was a lot cuter back then, for sure.
In addition to being the International Respect for Chickens Day tomorrow,
but of course
it’s also May the fourth, and a day to let your inner Star Wars nerd out!
Has it really been 9 years since I did that drawing of little Princess Leia playing veterinarian to a kadu?? I feel like I should be drawing one piece of Star Wars fan art every year in May.
Back in the day, if you wanted to be able to identify plants, animals, and insects in the field, you had to either memorize them beforehand, or tote around field guides and learn to use taxonomic keys. Here’s an example from the Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide.
These days, we have apps of all kinds to help us identify just about anything we need to figure out and what a blessing that’s been. A couple of my personal favorites are the Merlin app (for birds) and the iNaturalist app for flora and fauna. Usually, they do pretty well in figuring out what your photo is of or what made a particular sound. Occasionally, however, you wonder if AI (that’s artificial intelligence, not your Uncle Al with issues) is drunk. Here are two recent examples that really cracked me up.
Box turtle?? I mean, insects and reptiles diverge all the way up to phylum!
How exactly is something that looks like a moth or butterfly even remotely like any of those mammals??
Have you ever had a super weird/hilarious ID from one of your apps?
I had spent a good chunk of time in the past couple of years fretting about the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Marvelous Midwest conference that ran this past weekend (April 12-14). When it finally arrived, the weekend flew by.
To the utter surprise of my introverted self, I actually enjoyed the event a lot! First of all, my dear long-time friend (our kids were in the same playgroup when they were tots) and critique partner, Tanya Konerman, is the best travel buddy one can ask for. We talked almost non-stop on the whole 5.5 hour drive there and the same amount of time back home. So, even traveling was a hoot!
Here are some of my fellow volunteers for Indiana SCBWI. We dined that first night at an Ethiopian restaurant a short walk from the hotel. We truly have the best team of volunteers!
At the conference itself, I met up with a ton of people I either only knew from online writing groups or hadn’t seen in several years due to there not being in-person conferences for a while.
This is the planning committee at the costume party. The theme of the conference was “work-in-progress.”
I had a great time being on my very first panel which was likely due to fabulous author-illustrator Zeke Peña and agent-extraordinaire Saritza Hernandez who were super fun and such pros at doing this.
Strangely enough, I even enjoyed giving my presentations on writing graphic novels and writing lyrical nonfiction. Not that I like to teach usually, but I thought I’d prefer doing it via Zoom than in person–nope, I really liked teaching in person. Go figure. Who is this stranger who’s taken over my body??
And then it was time to bid Davenport, Iowa, a fond farewell. Now I can say that I’ve sailed in the footsteps of Mark Twain on the Mississippi River. 😉
Have you ever been to Davenport? What’s your impression of it?
My mom lived through World War II fleeing from village to village to get away from enemy soldiers. Besides constantly not having enough to eat and almost no possessions to speak of while hiding, her own mother also died due to not being able to get medicine for her illness. Those lean and rough times traumatized my mom but they also taught her to be frugal. She was reusing, reducing, and recycling long before the phrase was coined. (On the bad end of that frugality spectrum, she was also a bit of a hoarder). She tried to teach me and my sister to be frugal, too.
My sister is much better about it than I am, but I do my fair share of the 3 Rs. Reusing is great, but there’s even more satisfaction when I can repurpose something. It makes me feel like I should post a life hack on Instagram or Tiktok. I don’t like to hear myself talk or see myself on video though…not that I come up with great ideas frequently. Probably just the opposite.
But here is one I am proud of. My FIL had a rack for the file folders on his desk. When he passed away, we took all those files for the Spousal Unit to sort through.
Meanwhile, in our kitchen, we have about 8-10 cutting boards leaning up against the wall next to the range. Don’t judge us. And sometimes, woods cockroaches would hang out for some alone time back there. You should hear me scream when I pick out a cutting board and the &^%$ing cockroach scurries out from behind like the ugliest alley cat ever. The only bright side to this is that they’re fairly benign woods cockroaches and not the more germ ridden types like German cockroaches (if there is ever a bright side to cockroaches).
So, I took my FIL’s file rack and I used it to slot the cutting boards into, as shown in the above photos. Now the rat-bastard insects have to squat elsewhere away from our food prep surfaces.
Do you have a clever life hack? I’d love to hear what it is!
I took Mike Lowery‘s free Illustrators Portfolio Challenge this spring where the assignment was to create a piece of illustration and turn it into a sticker. I cheated a little and refined a rough sketch I did in his 2023 Getting Paid to Draw class. Hey, I still had to finish and finalize it, so I call it a win.
Not only are chickens highly amusing anyway, but this also celebrates 23 years of chicken ownership for us. Unlike many illustrators or writers who draw and write about chickens, I’ve actually lived with them for over 2 decades.
I have had two different blue phases lately. One is…well…the blues, a.k.a. the blahs. It’s partly mild Seasonal Affective Disorder and partly discouragement over the whole publishing scene/my career.
But, the other blue phase is much more pleasant. We’ve had a surprising number of sunny days in February (which has helped keep the S.A.D. from becoming worse) and few things are as uplifting as crisp, blue skies.
When paired with our gorgeous property, it’s sublime. Makes me want to start singing a Carpenters’ song!
Teresa Robeson 何顥思 