35

I've always wanted to be 35. It's a great age, and I'm looking forward to it. Old enough not to do the stupid shit I did in my teens and twenties, young enough to still have health and energy and a whole lifetime of growth and change potential ahead of me. I'm thrilled.

This is a picture of what I got myself for my birthday:



The quote is the last seven words of James Joyce's Ulysses (I got it done on Bloomsday) and the font is Berling Roman, which my internet research turned up as a reasonable electronic analogue for the typeface (Elsevier) in which Ulysses was originally printed.

Browning

I'm working on making sure my kid has more books about kids who look like him.  No, this is not a useful list of kids' books with protagonists of color. It's a craft project.

What I am armed with:

• Some cheap brushes.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush pens in sand (992) and saddle brown (977). I also have wine red (837), pale cherry (912), and dark ochre (027) but I wouldn't recommend them; I will be ordering brown (879), redwood (899), chocolate (969), burnt sienna (947), and black (N15) soon, as I think they will better suit my purposes. If you've never used pens like these before (I hadn't), there's a handy tutorial on YouTube; I used the cheap brushes instead of their fancy blender pen, but maybe I will buy the fancy blender pen (N00) as well, while I am on a spree; it might help me get a more even look than I'm managing right now.
• Some softback paper versions of children's books. There are two key aspects to these books:
  1. The paper is at most only slightly glossy, which means that the ink of the pens will stay on the pages. 
  2. All the main characters and all/most of the secondary characters are White.

I've only done a few so far, but I'm very happy with the results, so I thought I'd share.

When I'm Big, done with the Tombow pens (this book is especially recommended for lesbian couples, as the two parents appear to both be female, though it's not An Issue, and the book is cute.)

BEFORE:

AFTER:


Danny and the Dinosaur, done with Crayola Washable Markers and watercolor paints (before I found the Tombow pens; this worked pretty well, too)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:


My Dad is Awesome, by Nick Butterworth, done with the Tombow pens:

BEFORE (the cover, which is too glossy to change):

AFTER: (the same image, inside the book and colored):


Thanks to my friend Lee for doing dorky crafty stuff with me; if we hadn't had an awesome day of play and crafting and hanging out with her and the Squid a few weekends ago, I might never have gotten around to sitting down and trying this out. Crafts are always more fun with friends! 

The process itself is a little time-consuming, but the results are not bad, and getting better. It's not only letting me give the books protagonists and other characters of different skin colors, it's letting me choose to color them like our family, which has different colors within it as well. It's about $20 for all the supplies to do it (plus the books, but I already had those; I am guiltily considering going all guerilla re-racination on a few library books, too). 

I still have to change words when I read the books - within the first two pages of Danny and the Dinosaur, which is an otherwise sweet book, Danny goes to the museum and sees "Indians, bears, and Eskimos" (all clearly statues) and "guns and swords." In our version, he sees Native Americans, Inuit, and rifles, but this still doesn't address the WTF of seeing people as exhibits in museums to be lumped in with bears...augh! Not all fail can be cured with a trip to the art store, more's the pity.

all their 20 pockets aren't enough for their lies

Happy Bloomsday, everyone!

I know I'm posting this a wee bit early, but I don't know if I'll get the chance tomorrow and I don't want it to go uncelebrated. I haven't the time or inclination to go to a 24-hour reading, but I do what I can, which in this case involved compiling an exhaustive list of all the things which Leopold Bloom puts in his many pockets on June 16, 1904. Just what you always wanted, I know.

Items we never see Leopold Bloom put into his pockets, but which are produced from them in any case:

• Potato
  
• Handkerchief
  
• Pocketbook (containing picture of Molly)
  
• Coin purse
  
• Watch fob

Calypso

• The kidney goes into Bloom's sidepocket, but is (removed) cooked and eaten in the same episode.
  
• The Freeman’s Journal is, I assume, the "cut page" he acquires at the butchers' - that is, I don't see him pick up a paper at any other point, and by the time he gets to the Lotus Eaters he definitely has it with him, in his sidepocket.
  
• He also puts Molly's book (Ruby: The Pride of the Ring) in his inside pocket in this episode, but I have no idea if it just stays there all day; I saw no later reference to it.

Lotus eaters

• He takes his (Henry Flower's) card from his hatband, transfers it to his waistcoat pocket, and then replaces it later in the same episode.
  
• The letter (to Henry Flower from Martha) goes in his sidepocket; the yellow flower inside it goes in his heartpocket, and the pin is discarded.
  
• He removes the envelope from his pocket later in the episode and shreds it under the railway arch.
  
• A cake of lemon-scented soap, unpaid-for. This goes in his hip pocket; it gets shifted around a bit, but eventually ends up back in the same pocket.

Aeolus

• He gets the Keyes ad in this episode, and it stays stowed in his pocket for the remainder of the day after he is unsuccessful at getting it placed in the paper.

Wandering Rocks

• He acquires the book Sweets of Sin, by Paul DeKock.

Nausicaa

• Both Bloom's hand and his watch go in and out of pockets in this episode. The watch is stopped. The hand rather less so.

Circe

• He acquires chocolate in this episode, which he then gives to Zoe the whore (she gives some back.) He stuffs it in his pockets with bread, but the provenance of either bread or chocolate is unclear.
  
• He buys a pig's crubeen & trotter at a butcher's and feeds them to a stray dog.
  
• Zoe takes the potato from him in this episode as well, but Bloom takes it back.
  
• He also takes Stephen's money for safekeeping, but returns it later.

Additions, clarifications, and corrections welcome!

Squidbits from May

I don't know what to say about this month. I've been changing my meds, sleeping poorly, and it's been kind of a rough time Squidwise, too, as he navigates the confusing waters of threeness. We had a good weekend aside from the part where I closed the car trunk on his fingers and we had to have x-rays at the Urgent Care clinic, but on the whole, May was kind of for the birds. He's picked up a bunch of language I'm not happy to see, including "I don't like you," "gun," "shoot," "leave me alone," "that's not fair," and "kill." Sigh. There was no way we were going to get out of that, of course, but I can't say I'm overjoyed.

I really don't know what to say, overall, so I'll just leave you with photos and a few conversational snippets and hope I do better next month.

Squid, piping up from the backseat, after getting in trouble: Mommy, it makes me sad when the angry comes out your mouth.



Squid: Aaaaah-CHOO!
Me: Cover when you sneeze! Come on. You know better.
Squid, scowling: I don't know better. I don't trust you.



Me to Squid: What do birds eat?
Squid: They eats little aminals!
Me: They do?
Squid: Yeah! The robins eats the worms!
Me: That's right, they do, and hawks and owls eat squirrels, too.
Squid: They eats squirls?
Me: Sometimes, yes.
Squid: No.
Me: Oh, they don't? What do they do, then?
Squid: They fly and the tweets come out of they mouf!



Me: What did you do at preschool today?
Squid, solemn: I was having bad decisions. I hit my Bumbles and the Bumbles cried.



Me, checking out books at the library: Here's your garbage truck book, and your book about dinosaurs, and here's Mommy's book about how to be a better Mommy, and...
Squid, upset: I don't want you to be a better Mommy!
Me: But wouldn't you like it if I were more patient and understanding?
Squid: No!
Me: You don't want me to change?
Squid: No! I want this Mommy!
Me: Awwww.



Me, showing Himself Squid's new wind-up toys: See, the bunny does backflips and the chicken runs around in circles.
Himself: It's kind of like our parenting styles.
Me: ...
Me: Which one are you?
Himself, wry: Does it matter?

We flew a kite this month, and had swimming lessons, and went to the Maker Faire, and we planned to go to LA but he got sick, and did many more things that are of little interest to people who are not us. Some months are just a blur like that. Maybe I will get more sleep now that it is June.