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Life: Talking to Strangers In My Kitchen

My maternal grandmother and mother are both somewhat famous for talking to strangers, often in unusual situations.

I take after them.

On a recent work from home day, I was wrapping up a call when my entry doorknob moved. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and my boyfriend has the keycode, so it didn’t make sense that someone was trying to enter and was failing.

I went to the door, and found a couple looking a bit lost, staring into their phones. I asked if they needed assistance, and they said they were here to see my apartment, which is listed as being available soon.

[Insert me shaking my fist in the general direction of my landlord, who knows I’m moving at the end of the month. Reader: it is not the end of the month.]

Being me, I offered to show these total strangers my apartment, which is a total disaster because I’m inventorying things for packing, and also was working from home at the end of the week, by which time most order has broken down.

I asked them not to judge me IN FRONT OF ME. They said yes, so I showed them how the locks work, gave them a tour of my unit (have I mentioned it was the messiest it has been in months?), talked about the merits of other units I toured here when I was selecting, and answered their questions about my experience living here for the past year, safety, neighborhood features, temperature comfort, and so on.

Beyond that, we chatted about why they are in the market for an apartment, and it turned out one member of the couple got her Ph.D. in blood cancers and is interviewing at local biotech companies. By coincidence, the famous commercial drug for treating blood cancers was my responsibility in legal contract writing at a famous local biotech company. We chatted about the local biotech and biopharma landscape, employers I could recommend or warn her away from, and the wild over-qualification of many people in this industry. We also spoke in detail about specific blood cancers and HER+ breast cancers, because this is totally the sort of topic I can speak about in depth with strangers in my kitchen.

‘Nice couple. Small world, if I move out and another biotech person moves in.

Also, I have to keep an eye on my landlord, because sheesh.

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Music: Soundtrack for Recent Weeks

Secret Agent from SomaFM
The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life. For Spies and PIs too!

During November and December, I listened especially often to my favorite SomaFM station, Secret Agent. I’ve surely described it before: it is a Jazzy, spy-movie-themed mix of music that ranges from retro to downtempo electronic.

The variety over the past few months was even better than I expected (there was a lot of new-to-me songs), and it was a great soundtrack to set my mind into a different, stylish, fun setting.

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Art: Monotype Printing

Collage of three silver-green abstract monotype prints on black paper, suggesting sea monsters, lichen, or antlers, by A.E. Graves

Yes, I celebrated having time off my playing with paint, and it was deeply satisfying.

I learn so much every time.

Also, I have an amazing collection of strange shapes I’ve cut by hand based on my own designs, which are covered with layers of paint, and which look great when compiled into albums, so I have fun with the materials beyond the experimental prints.

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Life: Happy New Year

Decorative banner displaying San Francisco's financial district from the southeast in the evening, along with the western spans of the SF Bay Bridge, and fog draped over Mt. Tamalpais

2024… is definitely happening. Ready or not!

I had time off from work during the last week of the year, and used it to recover my health more fully (having been ill earlier in December), read, and print acrylic monotypes (a favorite art pastime!).

I don’t do new year’s resolutions – no one should wait until January of a new year to make useful life changes! – but as a concession to tradition, I’ll make a sincere effort to do a better job of using the ALT TEXT features of WordPress. (This feature helps disabled readers know what’s going on by making more information about images available to supportive tools.)

Out in the world, COVID is still spreading, my most alert friends don’t want to dine indoors, and my social circle includes several people who have had COVID two or three times (!). The data on Long COVID, and what scientists are finding as changes in the bodies of those who were exposed, is… alarming, and completely beyond the perception of my friends in Europe, somehow.

Humans continue to be… I’m looking for a euphemism for violently disagreeable, but it isn’t coming to me. There are multiple scary wars and attendant war crimes happening. It has become unpopular to say that genocide is wrong. (Sign I need to make: friends don’t let friends do war crimes!) Right wing, racist, and authoritarian parties do too well in elections. Fascism appears to be entirely too popular, though I observe that people who support it mosts don’t like the label, which is a minor concession to accepting that it is not good. (Not that semantic arguments work with fascists.)

My reading list has more books on it, but it might alarm you if I disclosed the full list, so I’ll just note that I am actively reading The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel. The title may sound provocative, unless you’ve ever taken art history in a U.S. college, in which case you noticed that only ancient Egyptians and European men have art that was considered worthy of books, and that these textbooks were all written by European men (coincidentally!). For the design degree I was pursuing, art from any other part of the world was only offered as an optional elective, implying that it didn’t really matter. This felt… wildly inaccurate. It took some nerve to call a class “Art History” when it should have been called “European Male Art History, plus some Egyptian Monuments.” [cough] So this book has a good premise, and is off to a good start. Perhaps I’ll be able to read it I have fewer 9pm meetings and people from work stop texting me on weekends to get me back online?

I have some personally disruptive events coming up, and expect my posting to be spotty, though more frequent than in 2023.

Here’s hoping 2024 is a better year for all living beings!

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Book (Manga): Claymore by Norihiro Yagi

Cover of Claymore volume 3 by Norihiro Yahi

Claymore
by Norihiro Yagi
published in English at Viz.com
2015 (originally published in Japanese 2001-2014)

I am excited that I finished reading all 155 chapters this month!

Terrifying monsters with superhuman strength roam the land, often stealing the appearance of specific people to hide in a community and (secretly) feast on their family and neighbors. The only defense: hiring a Claymore, a silver-haired, silver-eyed woman warrior who can detect and defeat such creatures. The Claymores themselves are spooky, can survive terrible physical harm, and don’t appear to need human companionship. They are held to a strict (but not visibly moral) code, and if they violate it, their peers track them down and brutally execute them.

This is the dark story of several of these warriors, who work at the behest of their governing body, The Organization. The Organization ranks them to engender competition, and won’t let them intervene in human affairs even when it would be ethical to do so. The Organization also appears to send small groups of them on suicide missions for unknown reasons. What is really going on? Why are there so many monsters? And why is the Organization so obsessive in controlling the Claymores?

A page from Claymore, with five panels showing shocked reactions from various Claymore warrior characters.
Claymore warriors expressing surprise during a conversation.

This tense and very violent story (not for kids!) unfolds at different speeds, with increasing battles and characters, but also increasing mysteries about the motivations of the Organization and the increasingly coordinated (!!) monsters. The origin of the Claymores themselves and the apparent leaders of the monsters are slowly revealed, with some secrets kept until the very last chapters.

The monsters range from simple to extremely complex and fanciful designs. The Claymore warriors themselves look somewhat Eastern European to me, and the artist distinguishes the matching-armor-wearing women with distinct hairstyles. The reason they are all women is explained over the course of the story, and the limited female nudity is intended to make some of the creatures more terrifying – I think it works well.

Great story, old-school drawings, great monsters, great comrade-in-arms bonding, solid (grim) story. I enjoyed this story very much.

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Book (Manga): Why Ophelia Couldn’t Leave by Joo Ahri & Samo

Why Ophelia Couldn’t Leave
by Joo Ahri & Samo
published by Tappytoon.com
2021

Here’s a webtoon/manga for the goth kids. :). This doesn’t follow the Tappytoon themes I’ve described earlier (a modern person wakes in a video game or novel), but instead this is a straight story.

Ophelia’s beautiful mother, Isolde, has married yet again! This time, rather than watching her stepfather die of a mysterious ailment like his predecessors, Isolde dies with her new husband in a tragic – and very strange – carriage wreck.

Ophelia is bereft. Alec, her young step-brother, asks Ophelia to to stay in his family home so he won’t be completely alone, and while the household is unfriendly, she may not have any better options. But when investigators come about the carriage crash, and people start turning up dead, Ophelia wonders what she’s gotten herself into, and whether she can keep her mother’s secrets.

This is a drama, a murder mystery, a story about self-absorbed parents, a tale of vengeance, and possibly a warning about trying too hard to attract romantic attention. It is 50 chapters long, the story is complete, the period costumes from [some European period setting] are pretty, and the images of Isolde float charmingly in a halo of her daughter’s affectionate memories. I enjoyed it.

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Book: My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Cover of the book Book "My Sister, The Serial Killer" by Oyinkan Braithwaite

My Sister, The Serial Killer
by Oyinkan Braithwaite
published by Penguin Random House
2019

The first time Ayoola calls her doting older sister, Kerede, to say that she’s in a bad situation and Kerede finds her covered in blood, it is stressful. The second time Ayoola insists another man had scared her tiny self, and that this man is dead, Kerede helps her unquestioningly.

But the third time?

No one could possibly think ill of angelic, beautiful Ayoola. No one would even believe Kerede if she told them – surely they would say she is mean due to jealousy, because she is so plain-looking! So Kerede pours her heart out to a comatose man at the hospital where she works.

But now Kerede wants someone who isn’t comatose to believe her, because Ayoola is going out of her way to attract the man Kerede cares about most.

This is a lively tale of family dynamics, trying to survive the patriarchy, loyalty, workplace crushes, the societal currency of being attractive, and the many uses of bleach. I was completely engrossed!

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Writing: Fountain Pens and Journals (orange theme)

Three image collage displaying the pearly Edison Collier Persimmon Swirl fountain pen; its Goulet stub nib; and a sample of the pen open atop a page of my journal, with writing in Mandarin orange-colored ink.
This is an Edison Collier fountain pen (made in Ohio!) in the color Persimmon Swirl; a Goulet 1.1mm stub nib assembly; a writing sample in Pelikan Edelstein ink in “Mandarin” orange on Rhodia cream paper.

I was writing yesterday about how wonderful it is to have a desk to write at (I have space!), was enjoying the orange theme a bit too much, and decided to post about it. (Materialism happens to me, too! I use a lot of tools and art supplies, and have been choosing prettier ones recently.)

This pen isn’t very “like” me – I own almost nothing that is orange – but it is so attractive looking, and so vivid, that I couldn’t resist. It is a lovely size and shape to hold, large, gently rounded, and easy to write with. It came with a medium nib, but I’m on a broad nib bender, so I ordered a replacement nib-and-feed assembly from Goulet, and am happier with it. I have ink feeding issues from time to time with the converter (it withholds ink after I’ve written a few pages, and I have to dial the converter to be more generous (postscript: this appears to be specific to certain inks, Herbin is flowing beautifully)), but standard international cartridges flow just fine.

Orange inks can be limited in legibility, but I’ve been testing some good ones. By coincidence, the 2023 Diamine Inkvent calendar (an advent calendar with a 12ml bottle of ink behind 24 doors, and a bigger bottle behind door 25 for Christmas), happens to have added two new oranges to my little collection, including one that was behind Saturday’s tiny door.

Five ink sample cards displaying orange inks atop a cream colored page of writing. Inks include Diamine Fireside Snug, Diamine Bucks Fizz, Sailor Studio 173 & 473, and Pelikan Edelstein Mandarin.
Sample cards displaying the five (!) orange inks currently in my collection. Diamine Fireside Snug, Diamine Bucks Fizz, Sailor Studio 173 & 473, and Pelikan Edelstein Mandarin.

My employer’s theme color is orange, and I’ve grown accustomed to using a sanctioned shade of burnt orange in my presentations, so I may be more open to using this color than I’ve historically been. Goodness knows there have been many shades of orange in the gorgeous sunsets recently! So, we’ll see if these tiny bottles lead to a bigger commitment for my writing. There are some famous American and Japanese orange inks I haven’t sampled yet, so it’s possible…

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Book: Designing Japan: A Future Built on Aesthetics by Kenya Hara

Designing Japan: A Future Built on Aesthetics
by Kenya Hara
published by Lars Müller Publishers
2019

This collection of Kenya Hara’s essays provide examples of Japanese design principles and customs, and suggests that Japan’s (and other local cultures’) values can shape unique products and experiences in ways that differentiate themselves in global marketplaces.

My copy of Hara’s book is filled with little book darts marking ideas I especially like. His optimism that design itself can inspire better decision-making and life choices is appealing. I find the idea that our lives are so crowded with objects that we can’t see and appreciate them individually feels fair. (I feel that the near-minimalist ideal this implies has been superficially transformed here into a different sort of materialism, seen in the vast spaces spotlighting curated “conversation pieces” within the enormous homes of the rich.) Hara’s planning and execution of exhibitions is interesting to read about, and his suggestion that novel demographic changes likely have design solutions is intriguing. His examples of rural support with mobile infrastructure is a lovely example of very democratic, well-designed approach.

Hara has numerous timely insights, such as on the decluttering fad: the problem isn’t just with the individual who has accumulated useless things. “It is not jettisoning the object that is mottenai (shameful waste), but rather the series of efforts conceived and executed with the goal of manufacturing a useless object destined for disposal.” YES YES YES!

I am tempted to delicately reword comments about historic Japanese sensibilities being “diluted” by external influences, due to my sensitivities toward current American xenophobic euphemisms. External influences can be dire, (I write here in the language of people who enslaved many of my ancestors, so I have feelings on this topic), but external influences CAN also bring ideas that can be transformed by the culture that consumes and reworks them. Japan has produced great innovations, including innovations on technologies that originated elsewhere. I fully acknowledge that industrialization (which I don’t conceptualize as a cultural product) specifically has proven both beneficial in raising basic living standards AND highly problematic in environmental impacts.

This is a thoughtful collection. I enjoyed the clarity of the language used, and the mix of theoretical discussions with specific examples of how these theories have been communicated for international exhibit audiences.

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