One Week 100 People Day 3: Joe

Crazy day today so only one sketch, done while zooming with our friend Joe. This one was done using the Pentel Multi 8 lead holder, which I plan to review later on.

This brings up the count to 33.

One Week 100 People Day 2: Purim Party

We had a Purim party at a club after work and I tried to sketch people in the dark. These were all done very quickly with Faber Castell Pitt brush pens.

Day 2 brings the count up to 32.

One Week 100 People Day 1: The Protest Edition

I’m participating in the One Week 100 People challenge again this year, and this time with a new goal: to use new techniques, materials or styles when I sketch. It will likely take me more than 5 days to finish sketching 100 people, but that doesn’t matter that much to me.

I started a bit early this year, with a series of sketches of faces of protestors in the pro-democracy protest on Saturday. All apart from the girl in the brown beret (which was a warmup sketch done with Copic markers, Faber Castell Pitt brush pens and blue pencil) were sketched in the protest.

I stopped using copic markers very quickly as they soaked through the Stillman and Birn Alpha paper.

At a certain point I decided that I wanted to sketch the scene a bit more.

These were all done with a fine, hard kuretake brush pen, and Faber Castell Pitt brush pens.

Here’s a bit of the chaos of the scene. Everyone was moving all the time, which made sketching challenging.

That’s 27 people for day 1.

Weekly Update: Tel Aviv Marathon 2023

I have a complicated relationship with the Tel Aviv Marathon. It’s the largest local race, with 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon courses (Jerusalem’s Marathon doesn’t come close in the number of runners because hills. Runners don’t like them, in case you didn’t know). But it’s my least favourite local race, and there’s always something going on around it to make me dislike it more (bad organizing, heat wave, holding the race despite there being a global pandemic, etc).

The finish line

I was enrolled to run the 10k at the Tel Aviv Marathon in late February 2020, a few days before the lockdowns started. Everybody already had an idea of what Covid looked like, it was already a pandemic, and the number of sick people was rising daily. We were expecting the race to be cancelled, but the night before the race it was clear that the organizers planned to cram people into very dense corals, and just hope they didn’t get an outbreak. Anything but return people’s fees. My friend and I had a conversation that night, and we both decided not to run. The risk wasn’t worth it.

In late February 2021 there was no physical race – it was a digital (i.e. virtual) one instead. In late February 2022 the marathon returned in full force, but I was two months after completing my chemotherapy, and in no condition to run even the 5k course. I was running 3ks, which was great considering what my body had been through and the fact that I hadn’t been able to run for almost a year, and I had lost all my muscle mass and was working with a restricted lung capacity. I remember following this race on their site and on social media and feeling bereft, even though it was never my favourite race. I had no idea at the time that I’d be able to participate in the Women’s Race 4k three months later. For various good reasons I wasn’t sure I’d be able to race again.

Uncrowded part of the starting line

Last Friday I was set to run the 10k course in the Tel Aviv Marathon. Then on Monday I fell and hurt my knee on the way to work (the sidewalks and streets near my office are dreadfully maintained, and rushing across them is now no longer something I plan on doing). I took care of it as best I could, rested it as much as I could and wondered whether I could race on Friday, and if I set out could I complete the course?

The crowded part.

I woke up early, got race ready, took the train to the starting area, and walked to the coral. There were a lot of people there, and I don’t do well with crowds these days. I stood on the side, and once the race started, waited for most of the people to walk by (no running in those conditions – we were packed like sardines), so that I could start running too. About 5 minutes went by, I judged things to be safer and started making my way to the starting line when about 5 meters from the line they stopped us and had us wait for 10 minutes, as more and more people piled behind, and the crowds got thicker and thicker. Ostensibly this was so people could start in “waves” and “the route will clear up”. In reality, they had the original coral start late, and this was just a way to catch up by having half of the A coral start with about half of the B coral. The only way for me to power through was to look straight up at the sky for 10 minutes. My neck is still sore.

River of runners

But then we were finally allowed to run, and the magic of races kicked in. I can’t describe the adrenaline, the joy, the pure sense of life that racing gives me. It made everything disappear. I high-fived the kids that were cheering us on. I appreciate just how many runners (including myself) ran with pro-democracy stickers and flags. I enjoyed seeing the sheer variety of runners around me, and the feeling of belonging into a flowing river of runners moving constantly towards the finish line.

Just after crossing the finish line

It wasn’t my best time, but I did much better than I thought I could. My knee held up. I narrowly avoided a panic attack at the starting line, but I avoided it, which is the point. I saw a lot of people running for excellent causes, and just running for themselves. There was the kindness of races – people rushing to care for the marathon runner that collapsed in the heat, treating him until the medics (very quickly) arrived; people cheering others along, complimenting each other freely; kids cheering as loudly and boisterously as they could.

Try to find kindness around you this week, try to find joy.

Retro 51 Winnie-the-Pooh Set Review

There’s a renewed interest in Winnie-the-Pooh lately, as it has come into the public domain (the copyright has expired). Retro 51 issued a pen and pencil set recently, which reminded me that I haven’t reviewed this Winnie-the-Pooh Retro 51 collection set, which came out last summer.The set included a box that looked like the original hardcover book, with three Retro 51 tornado rollerball pens and one mechanical pencil inside.

The box.

I’m usually not someone who cares very much for packaging, but in this case the cardboard box was too nice to toss out. It’s not just the outer cover that is thoughtfully designed, but there’s the famous map of 100 acre wood inside, and it is a delightful touch. Inside the box you get the three pens, the pencil, pencil leads and a tube of pencil erasers. Everything is held snugly inside, and the box has magnetic closure.

The full set inside the box.

The pens and pencil feature E.H. Shepard’s charming original illustrations, as well as various sections of the book. The blue pen features the scene where Pooh tries to fool a nest of bees into believing that he’s a cloud (from the chapter “Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees”). The purple pen features the first appearance of Eyeore in the book, and is a mashup of two Eyeore chapters (from “Eyeore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One” and “Eyeore has a Birthday”). The yellow pen features the final chapter in the book, a delightful conversation between Pooh and Piglet (from “Christopher Robin Gives Pooh a Party and We Say Goodbye”) and the green pencil features an excerpt from the scene where Winnie-the-Pooh gets a pencil case with pencils in them that say B for Bear, BB for Brave Bear and HB for Helping Bear. This is of course a clever reference to HB, B and 2B pencil grades, and Retro 51 decided to not only use this excerpt very appropriately on a pencil, but also…

Three pens and a pencil.

To put B, HB, and BB on the pens’ finials. That’s the kind of thoughtful design touch that I appreciate. The pens have stonewashed pewter accents on their hardware, and the pastel bodies are lacquered, like most Retro 51 pens. The set was limited to 926 sets worldwide (the original book was published in 1926, which is the reason for this peculiar number), and as it was very popular, I doubt that you’ll manage to get your hands on one unless they pop up on the secondary market.

Clever finials.

So why review a pen set that’s out of stock? Because less than a year later Retro 51 issued a Winnie-the-Pooh pen and pencil set that are equally charming, but lower priced (as it’s just one pen and one pencil). The stationery scene is full of limited edition pens, pencils and notebooks and it’s very easy to get carried away on the FOMO train. This is a gentle reminder that after every limited edition pen or ink, there’s another one not very different from it, if you chanced to miss out. Don’t pay crazy prices on the secondary market or beat yourself up for missing out on something without taking a pause and remembering that there are very few stationery items that are ever truly limited and irreplaceable.

Oh, and how are the actual pens and pencil? The same as all the non-limited Retro 51 pens and pencils: I dislike the Schmidt refill they use for the pens and almost always replace it with something else, and the pencil is ok – it features a 1.15mm lead that most people will find way too wide, and it’s hard to find replacement leads for it.

Weekly Update: Busy Week Ahead

I went back to my usual running schedule this week, and was able to take a picture of two Monk Parakeets cuddling together on a tree during today’s long run. Decided to create a quick sketch of the couple:

There was too much unnecessary drama in my life this week, from a moderator in a group that I’m in deciding to take out her personal frustrations with the job market on me (and then apologizing profusely), through someone having issues with the week in Israel starting on Sunday and the weekend being Friday and Saturday here, to me deciding to go to the protests against the judicial system changes here for the first time. The large amount of people is likely going to trigger my PTSD and I’m not looking forward to the ensuing panic attacks, but I’m fed up with cancer taking things away from me, including the right to protest. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve been reading “Erebus” by Michael Palin, and it’s very good but slow going. I read non-fiction slower than I read fiction, especially when there are things that I want to stop and look up.

Next week is a tough one, with blood tests and an oncologist check up, a 10k race on Friday, running a new D&D adventure and having to scout for a new player, plus being understaffed at work. We’ll see how it goes – my planners are going to be working full time, for sure.

Someone put up these post-its in the elevators at work on valentine’s day, and I want to give them a hug. They made everyone smile.

You are amazing – have a great week!