Shifting Walls and M.C. Escher

In these trying times of isolation we're all hard-pressed to find ways to occupy our startlingly more abundant free time to maintain some semblance of mental health. Some of us are creating more art or getting into a new hobby, some of us creating a new work out routine, some of us are mastering our cooking skills.... and some of us spent too much time staring at our walls and decided it was time to move some pictures around. Guess which one I did today?

A picture of my recently displayed print of "Reptiles" circa 1943, moodily enhanced with a greyscale filter. 

Yes, in a classic "I'm bored but don't know what to do with myself" move, I decided to rejig the art/pictures/ephemera-filled cork board that occupy the corner of wall that my desk is wedged into. I had a good rummage in the basement for spare frames and prints and came up with the above addition (more reason to rationalize my "never throw anything away, you never know when you'll need it" motto that occasionally, by certain significant others, is called into question...).

I was going to take a picture of my little nook but it's crammed with a whole bunch of super personal things that I didn't particularly feel like sharing. Plus, it's a dreary rainy day today, making it the worst day to take pictures- our walls are kind of a strange pinkish color (a unique choice of the previous landlord) and it's best to wait for good light before trying to take pictures. I will say though that this corner also features THIS Gauguin painting as well as a framed card featuring cats with laser beams coming out of their eyes.

My decor style is what they call "eclectic."

Anyhoo, as I noted, the print I chose is an M.C. Escher print which reminded me of a trip I took to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA two years ago. They had an amazing Escher exhibition that, sadly, is no longer running. It was- I gotta say it again- AMAZING.

How was this the only picture I took of this exhibit?!

I feel like M. C. Escher is an artist we all take for granted. We've all seen his painting "Relativity" (1953)

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or "Hand with Reflecting Sphere" (1935):

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and I think everyone is suitably impressed but for me personally, I only fully absorbed how intricate and broad his range of work was until I saw it in person at the MFA exhibit. It featured a lot of sketches so you got a sense of his intense and painstaking process and I left with a new appreciation of his work. 

One of the primary works featured was "Metamorphosis II" (1940).

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This bad boy is 13 FEET LONG (about 4 meters) and it is BANANAS. And it's a WOODCUT. You know what that means?! This dude drew this then carved 20 BLOCKS of it BACKWARD to print on 3 large sheets seamlessly so as not to disrupt the gradual metamorphosis between each segment. WHAT?! I had to take a break from the work of just putting together then putting up that one print! And it only took him like 4 months. While you absorb that, watch the below video of a pan across it's full length set to some Pink Floyd.

That one act of putting up new art in my space sent me on a whole new spiral of time wasting internet browsing but I think admiring art- something I always want to do more of but don't take enough time to do- is a perfectly acceptable way to spend an afternoon. Its another way to transport you to somewhere else which we all need a little these days, as our walls start getting a little monotonous. 

Luckily, we don't need to go to the actual museum to appreciate art. Lots of places are highlighting virtual tours- the MFA included- and Google Arts & Culture has 2,000 collections from 80 different countries on display. You can take virtual tours of empty museums and read interesting little tidbits from your favorite artist. 

So hey, if you get a little tired of staring at your walls, don't be afraid to move stuff around then go wander around a museum...


*UPDATE*
After writing this post, I discovered a Stuff You Should Know podcast about M.C. Escher from December 2019 that I missed. Give it a listen if you want to be even more impressed. It gives more detail on the woodcut and lithograph processes (he basically chose the hardest methods to make his super intricate art) and more insight into his super mathematical mind. 

Don't Panic

As the stay-at-home orders continue and futures remain uncertain, many of us are getting more and more stir-crazy and impatient. A normal human reaction I suppose- we don't like change and we hate being told what to do even more, right? There are also many of those dealing with being out of work and having their small businesses closed which can obviously pose more issues than extreme boredom. However, throwing a potentially dangerous temper tantrum is only going to make matters worse (and by matters worse I mean even more people sick/dead) so maybe it's time we accept the fact that we've packed so many people onto this big wet rock that pandemics are a Big Freaking Deal.

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...I'm sorry, I went past my mental-health allotted 10 minute max of news time today. 

To be honest, I've been finding the stay-at-home orders easier and easier as time goes by. I've been working hard to figure out what really bothers me about the new guidelines and I realized I'm more upset that my routines have been altered than temporarily not being able to do the activities themselves (for the most part anyway).

That being said, while most of us love our routines, humans are pretty resilient and can get used to just about anything if they let themselves. I mean, Stockholm Syndrome exists as an extreme example of the lengths the brain will go to be cool with any given situation and while it's probably not great to join your kidnappers on a crime spree Patty Hearst style, I think you can get used to chilling at your house for a while for the good of the entire planet.

I know I'm being flippant here. People have lost jobs. Parents are at home trying to work and also teach their kids. Healthcare workers are literally putting their lives on the line to deal with this. Not everyone has a safe home to be in right now. Not everyone's mind is a safe space right now. I know I'm one of the lucky ones, that though my job has drastically increased my changes of getting sick, I do get to spend a lot of my time out of my house, then come home to someone I love surrounded by things to keep me busy. I'm mostly focusing my ire on people who are blatantly ignoring cautions from doctors and health professionals for the simple reason that they are bored, or that they don't care, or that they don't think covid-19 is a big deal.

Oh don't worry, this is the last I plan to rant. I had to get it out of my system but going forward, I want to- and need to- continue this blog as it was intended- a sort of record of ways I'm improving my mental health, a repository of things that have been making me happy lately. 

What has been making me happier is that I've set about making new routines. Like I said earlier, it's those upset routines that threw me off at first but I'm gradually getting used to and even appreciating my new normal. Walks outside are even more looked forward to/enjoyed. My creativity in cooking is increasing now that I don't rely as heavily on recipes because I don't swing by a store after work to pick up ingredients at-will. I'm realizing how lucky I am to already enjoy a number of stay at home activities.

Going forward, I think it'd be fun to make starter posts for the activities/crafts I like to do that keep me sane in both "normal" times and in a pandemic. This is a great time to start something new and I like the idea of potentially helping someone start a new hobby. I've also got in mind a growing list of serotonin-boosting books and movies... 

I'll end this rambling rant or whatever this was and see you soon with more anger/stress free content. Stay smart and stay safe my dudes.

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Happy Easter!

Slightly late for an Easter post, sure, but hey, I got sick.

No, not that sick.

Yes, in a time of global pandemic and heightened contamination precautions, I managed to get a minor head cold. I'm feeling much better today though, and even made it out onto my porch with my laptop for some much needed fresh air after spending all of yesterday camped out under a quilt on my couch watching James Bond movies and eating half a box of white cheddar Cheez-Its (the king of all Cheez-Its in my opinion). I'm trying to shake off a little of my grogginess in time to take a nice afternoon walk.

I can't possibly believe this terry cloth romper was ever cool (source)

Anyway, Easter. Right.

I don't generally make a big fuss over Easter at the best, non-pandemic, of times. For some reason, my work doesn't classify it as an official holiday and it always seems to land on my weekend to work. I would normally head over to my aunt's house after work but of course I couldn't do it this year so I missed out on seeing my family and, tragically, having a good excuse to dress up (just joking, I don't need an excuse. I do like showing off a little though).
Despite these (very necessary) set-backs, I determined to make it a special day all the same. Unfortunately though, Easter crept up on me this year and I wasn't prepared to make our traditional ham-feast. I didn't think to pick any up on our last shopping expedition and I didn't want to be irresponsible and make a trip when it wasn't strictly necessary. No worries though- I had a good scrounge around my quarantine stash and came up with a pretty decent alternative.

Yes, that is a Kurt Vonnegut altar candle.

A little hard to see with all that ambiance maybe, but I made garlic butter baked chicken thighs adapted from this recipe with rosemary roasted potatoes and dill carrots, pared with the porter I talked about here. It was good, though I suppose I'm biased. We ate on the small table in our "office" because it was a little more romantic and also our kitchen table looked like this:

Eldritch Horror, not a game to be taken lightly... or with minimal table space. It takes so long to just set up that once you do, there's no clearing it off for dinner. We totally lost that game by the way.

For dessert, I made aquafaba meringues which are made from the juice leftover in a can of chickpeas (read about that weirdness here). It whips up exactly like egg whites and is a great waste-not-want-not tip. Also, you can give the meringues to unsuspecting family and friends and once they've finished, you can inform them that they just ate bean juice cookies, it's fun.

I topped the cookies with Lemon Krimi Skyr and crumbled graham crackers to make a sort of Frankenstein version of a lemon meringue pie. Again, I really nailed it here and had to stop myself from eating the whole batch.

As a last piece of Easter goodness, I had ordered something from Amazon a while back and in these days of more uncertain shipping times, I thought I'd be receiving it later in the week. The Amazon Easter Bunny pulled through though and I got home from work with the package waiting for me on my desk.

Just a little something I slipped into my cart along with the more necessary things. Its the OG nerd watch, the Casio CA53W-1 Databank. Coming in at a whopping $18 on Amazon, this dream come true was a no-brainer purchase. I love watches and appreciate the more complicated movements of traditional analog ones but there's something about Casio's vintage range of digital watches that I absolutely love. One day I'll ramble on more about my ever increasing and slightly weird watch collection but I'll leave it there for now.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter weekend and is holding up well in isolation! 

Top 5(ish) Podcasts

I've been in a bit of a depressive funk this weekend, one of those joyous periods where I just can't force myself to do anything other than sit around and be grumpy about not doing anything. I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this way given the current world situation so I'll tell you what I am now telling myself:

GO. FOR. A. FREAKING. WALK.

When I'm feeling this down, that's about the only thing that can snap me out of it and if I don't feel better after a walk, I'll just give up and cocoon myself in a quilt on the couch and watch some Star Trek: TNG (aside from just being a good show in general, it's like a warm balm of nostalgia for me). Sometimes you just gotta let the feels happen, but don't go down without at least a little bit of a fight.

Anyway, one of the things that motivates me on the walk itself is listening to a podcast. It sets a specific time for my walk- I can't stop early, I gotta finish the show!- and fully takes my mind off whatever it is that's getting me down (assuming I actually know what that is). Sometimes music just feeds my feelings; either that or it leaves room for my mind to wander.
If you're interested in trying out some podcasts for the first time, I've made a list of my top 5 most listened to podcasts, with an extra bonus at the end.

And without further ado:

website HERE

Stuff You Missed in History Class is probably heaviest in my rotation at the moment. I love hearing random fun historical stories because I am endlessly curious (nosey?) about other people's lives and this is a good, more respectable and less brain melting way to get my fix than watching the Kardashians or something. Seriously though, I always find their topics interesting and the delivery is pretty concise and to the point but friendly, if you know what I mean.

website HERE

Stuff You Should Know is a pretty popular choice. If you haven't heard about it, it is probably exactly what you think it is- a podcast where each episode is about a random thing you, you know, should know. The topics are all over the place (the last two I listened to were about sloths and barefoot running) and I find myself cherry picking which ones I listen to (as opposed to just listening to them all as they come out) but they're all pretty good, I just only have so much time. There's more banter between the two hosts in this one than Stuff You Missed in History Class but I like it and you can tell the dudes get along well.

website: HERE

Sawbones features a medical doctor and her husband who talk about medical history and some... misguided, shall we say, current and past medical practices. It's super interesting and the banter between the doctor and her husband is pretty funny and entertaining. If you're into interesting medical info but don't want to listen to a boring, dry podcast, give this a listen.

website HERE

Another popular choice (they have a whole fan cult!), this one is good if you're a fan of true crime and also laughing. An odd combo maybe but I feel like it totally works, mostly because they do so while still being respectful to the victims. They put out two episodes a week; one is about 1.5 hours long and in it, each host (there are two) talk about a different murder/crime. The second one is about a half hour long and features the hosts reading "hometown murders" as sent in by their listeners. 

There's a lot of banter and side bars and whatnot in this podcast-which, to be honest, I found off-putting at first- but I've come to enjoy it. That being said, it may not be for everyone.

website HERE

I tried to find a good way to say what this one was about but couldn't do any better than the website (link below picture) itself so here goes: "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships." I can only listen to this one when I'm feeling more serious and able to focus but every episode I've listened to has been super interesting. I also really like the hosts voice which is weird to say now that I type it out but an important consideration when choosing podcasts. 

website HERE

Flash Forward is an incredibly interesting podcast and I highly recommend it for anyone that likes science fiction.  In this podcast, the hosts examines a potential future scenario. For instance, the last couple I listened to was about pregnancy in space and teleportation. Its a good mix of interesting science mixed with educated speculation, all supported by knowledgable guest experts.

Bonus:

website HERE

Ok so this is a bonus podcast I like that I didn't want to put in my top 5 because 1. then it'd be a top 6 which isn't the same now is it? and 2. it's only a 10-part series.

Finding Fred is about, you guessed it, Fred Rogers who is a personal hero of mine. The host examines the impact of Mr. Rogers work and discusses it, and relates it to current day issues, with various guest experts. Very good, very well done, and I may or may not have cried a little bit at some points.

All podcasts, with the exception of Finding Fred of course, have a ton of backlogged episodes and continue to regularly put out new episodes (at least one a week) so you've got a pretty big pool to dive into. I didn't think I'd be able to pay attention to someone talking without seeing them but that hasn't proved to be the case so don't let that stop you from trying it out.

Well, I'm off to listen to a Stuff You Missed in History episode about poison control. If that doesn't get me out of this funk, I don't know what will.