Thank you for all your sweet emails and comments about the Reader’s Digest article. I’m so happy everyone likes it so much! Jake was able to find a few copies at the pharmacy in his office building, so he brought some home the other day. If you are able to have access to an iPad, you can also download it on there and there is a sweet little 2 minute movie about Piper Jane and us. Cute!
Next up, I have pink hair, hooray! It’s a nice mix of old lady pink, and blush-rosy pink. I love it!
Photos by Jake.
I have to say, it’s basically impossible to get a true picture of this hair color. It always comes out more carroty looking than it is. Oh well. The pink will only last a few weeks, and then it will be mostly blonde.
According to one of the stupidest lists I have seen in a long time, GQ ranked BYU the 6th “douchiest” college in America, in its August ’11 issue. I’m not going to lie, I don’t have a lot of nice feelings or nice things to say about BYU. In fact, I don’t like the school– at all. I grew up being a fan (and later earned an undergraduate degree from) their most bitter rival. So, normally upon reading such a blurb in a magazine that I have traditionally enjoyed as one of my favorites, I would smile and snicker to myself in agreement.
Unfortunately these types of satirical/critical remarks lose a bit of credence/humor coming from a magazine that is apparently trying to bolster it’s own ranking in the douchiest magazine polls. August was one of the worst issues I have read in a long time. I’m not sure if it is just because I started reading it on the same train ride that I finished reading the latest Wired, or if it would have seemed just as bad had I chosen to read GQ before Wired. Either way, it was piss poor. Is Jim Nelson on vacation right now, or what? The overall article quality was crap, and in an apparent attempt to compensate, the magazine was riddled with incomprehensible pervy/porny infographics. Dude, if I wanted to read FHM, I would subscribe to FHM. Stop hiring Terry Richardson to shoot your covers (ok, maybe don’t go that far), and tone down the fratboy pervitude.
Given the massive level of disappointment that I felt towards the latest issue of GQ, I couldn’t even enjoy the dig at BYU. In fact, BYU– you and all of the rest of the schools who made the “douchiest,” you all get a pass. Someone who can’t come up with a better word than “douchiest” in a national publication to describe the schools that they are taking a piss at, is really not in a position to be talking down on anyone.
David DiSalvo wrote an interesting piece in the Forbes blogs this week about a study of the link between men’s wellbeing and their appreciation of art. The title of the article is “Study: Men Who Dig Art and Culture are Happier, Healthier and Calmer.” Sounds intriguing, right? You can check out the abstract of the actual study, over here. But the gist of the data, according to DiSalvo is that,
Overall, both men and women who participated in cultural activities—including playing an instrument, painting, going to the theater and visiting museums—had lower levels of anxiety and depression, reported more life satisfaction, and generally “felt better” than those not participating in cultural activities.
But the biggest beneficiaries were men. And here’s the strange part: men more interested in watching and looking at culture—in museums and art galleries, for example – enjoyed the greatest benefits of all; even more than men actively participating in cultural and creative activities.
So apparently, a guy doesn’t even have to be an actively creative person to reap the mental/health benefits of appreciating those who are creative. I feel like I’m wound a bit more tightly than I would like to be, a lot of the time. Apparently, I need to spend some more time in the galleries.
Guess who is in the August issue of the Reader’s Digest? The Breinholts!
There is a sweet little story about our relationship with Piper Jane and her determination, and I think you all will like it. It has been on some newsstands for a week or two, but I haven’t written about it on here yet because I still don’t have one myself! The only reason I was able to read it, is because my sister scanned hers in and sent it to me. Which is how I got this picture too!
It was a fun process. This story started all the way back last spring! The writer, Liz Leyden, spent lots of time with us both in the city and up with Pip so that she could write the story accurately. I know she worked very hard on it, and Jake/I agreed we might not have done it had there been a different writer.
It just occurred to me that after over a year, she is probably very sick of us, haha!
This story means so much to us, once I finally get my own copy, I’m going to keep it forever. My favorite part about the whole thing, was seeing our lives from someone else’s view. Liz spent a lot of time observing Piper Jane, talking to her doctors and sitting in on therapy sessions. And it’s great to know that she sees what I see. She sees a graceful, happy and curious child just like I do. It helps me know that I’m not just lying to myself to make things easier. We really do have a lot to be grateful for.
So, you should read it! If you want. And then tell me what you think! If you want.
Love,
Reags
(PS my hair blog is so fun these days. come over and play.)
Picture this…So I’m walking into Blythedale to have a little hang out with my Pip, when I run into her therapist. So she tells me “Piper is in a terrible mood today. She gave me attitude when we walked, she just gave everyone attitude!”.
Great.
I walked into her room. Her nurse says “Piper didn’t sleep last night and she is crank-Y! Throwing fits at school, etc.”.
So you know what I did? I took one look at that trouble making, tantrum throwing, attitude giving, sass dishing Pip. Then that trouble making, tantrum throwing, attitude giving, sass dishing Pip took one look at me.
And…
We smiled at each other. She reached for me to pick her up. She buried her face into my plentifully flat bosoms. We giggled together. We read together. We clipped her nails and we shared secrets via facial expressions. Pip showed no signs of trouble making, tantrum throwing, attitude giving OR sass dishing. Her nurse was amazing. And I died.
Reading Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. Dont you love her little hand?
This is definitely a secret sharing facial expression.
Piper Jane then proved everyone’s case when after just 45 minutes of playing, she couldn’t even pretend to fight off the sandman. She fell asleep in my lap and slept even when I put her down on the floor. She sleeps hard because she’s growing hard!
Well, I guess that settles it!
I must be Piper Jane’s favorite if I’m cheering her up and causing all kinds of good moods. Hooray!
I guess you could call it the new, newblog. This is the third iteration of my online journalistic persona. In the crude beginnings (which oddly enough, shares a similar color scheme) it was more of just a typographic version of bleeding from the mouth. All of the meaningful stuff has been redacted, anyway. Then came the new blog. It was a solid outlet for several years. In fact when grappling with the design concept for Jake’s Mag, I ultimately modified the structure that I had spent so many hours developing for JNB. PS, I’m not married to this schema, yet. I’m sure that it will still probably change a number of times in the coming months.
After all of the good times recorded on Jakesnewblog, I figured that it was time to move on. There are stacks of reasons. But the largest one is just that I feel like it is time to refine the scope of what I am writing on my blog. For example, detailed accounts of family goings on will most likely be omitted from this page. Not, that I’m going to stop writing about my amazing Reagan or the equally amazing Piper Jane. It is just not going to be appearing in this column as frequently.
The photo. I don’t know. I guess I used it because the catalyst of Jake’s mag was a series of emotional and mental beat-downs. Those type of events are hard to capture visually, so I threw in an image of my Achilles tendon getting a solid beat-down from my newest sneaks. This was only because I haven’t seen any phoenixes around recently. Otherwise, I would have snaped a shot of one, right as it was blasting skyward out of the bonfire. Does that sound super &@y? Anyway, I guess point of the tried (tired) and true phx metaphor is the fact that I’m turning a corner. Please feel free to turn this corner with me. [heart] Jake
My creative/musical/strange/artsy/awesome/silly/pink haired sister, Erin, has a shop where she sells miniature gnomes of all kinds. She has forest gnomes and garden gnomes that she *finds in her backyard, and she is hoping you might want to give them a good home. These gnomes are loving and joyful, but are also known to cause the occasional mischief. They often hide in tiny spots and have to be found by the most sly adults and detective like kids. My nieces are always proud and overjoyed to be the ones to find a gnome hiding behind a book or inside a small cupboard.
More on their mischief making in this video Erin sneakily captured!
I was lucky enough to be able to interview three of the gnomes that have been living/hiding in Erin’s home. Pontehaas, Timberly and Glimm had some very interesting things to say!
Reagan: How old are you?
Pontehaas: three hundred thirty and three quarters
Timberly: three hundred thirty-one
Glimm: (coughs the number) five hundred and twelve
Reagan: What sort of trouble do like to get into?
Pontehaas: I don’t ever think we get into trouble, but humans don’t seem to like some of the stuff we do. For example, Erin got real mad when we had a plant soil fight in her living room.
Reagan: What is your favorite thing about being small?
Timberly: Hiding.
Pontehaas: and our cute voices.
Glimm: My voice isn’t cute.
Reagan: What’s under your hats?
Pontehaas: I never looked before
Glimm: I did, but I don’t want to talk about it.
Reagan: How do you protect yourselves from roaches/bugs?
Pontehaas: We are friends with roaches and bugs!
Timberly: I have a pet ladybug named Zip, she’s an indoor/outdoor pet.
Are you scared of the dark?
All: No, that’s when we are the liveliest!
Do you ever talk to humans?
Glimm: It’s rare and frowned upon.
Reagan: What do you use for furniture?Glimm: Building furniture is a bit of a hobby of mine. I typically use found objects; sticks, buttons, paper clips, corks. I can make some pretty stylish pieces out of cork, using the reduction process. I’d say my style is a bit…Mod
Reagan: Do you play any musical instruments?
Glimm: We actually have a band called “the mushroom squatters”. I am the singer/songwriter and play on the Yotel-la-tru [yO’ tool’ lu’ trOO]
Pontehaas: I play the Mansa [mon’ zu]
Timberly: Grombolyn [grom’ bO’ lin]
Reagan: Do you have children?
Pontehaas: Glimm doesn’t want any, but Timberly is seriously dating Gazellia, so little gnomes might not be so far off. Me? I haven’t found the right gnome yet.
Reagan: What are you passionate about?
Glimm: Geology and music.
Pontehaas: Gardening and mischief.
Timberly: Dancing and eating.
I can’t believe how creative my sister is. The kids she babysits, my nieces and their friends are all obsessed with the little gnome adventures. There are families for sale, as well as individual gnomes too. To check out her shop (where you can also buy her art), click here. And she also has an Etsy shop!
We are Bear-sitting this weekend. Remember last year? Bear is such a good boy and when he is around I think, we could do this! But I’m too scared to get a dog. It’s like having a baby, except that you don’t have to be pregnant, deliver it, nurse it, it’s not a human and also it’s covered in hair.
Bear is black. So dark black that in pictures he usually looks like a black blob of fur. I like that a lot. The last time we watched him, he found a nice nook under our bed where he could have a little privacy. Well, I got home from work one day and called for him over and over. I couldn’t find him and called Jake bawling that I was certain Bear had jumped out the window while we were gone, but really Bear was just relaxing quietly while I frantically looked for him. He isn’t a normal dog. Marley would have jumped out the second she hear the key go in the knob, run over to me and look at me in a way that says “hello lady human, I think you want to give me some food, don’t you?”. Bear is a very dignified dog.
Anyway, sorry my blob has been weird. My life has been weird. I’d love to write about it on here, but a couple of people who read this are crazy and rude and ruin all the juicey stuff for everyone else. ‘Else I’d get mad-juicey on you all.
I am planning on posting a few pics of Pip soon though. She has been napping like a teenager. You know…don’t bother me I’m sleeping-teenager nap stuff. She covers her head with her blankie and acts annoyed if I try to talk to her about life. Someone needs to give her some chores because when I was her age I was straight up putting the laundry down the chute like it was my job.
That’s all. Happy Saturday. Off to walk little Bear-boy.
(ps, for some reason, Jake and I call Bear “Gary”. and that has morphed into “Gare”. which has morphed into “Gares”. Bear now responds to “Gares”, which I feel slightly guilty about.)
Dudes, thanks for all of the support over the years. I have really enjoyed writing this page. It is one of those times where a lot of things are changing and I have decided to retire Jake’s New Blog. You can still keep up with my latest photography stuff at shotbyjake.com. I’m also on Twitter as shotbyjake.
