Bees and Robots

* * * Edited on September 22nd to add: OK, so I lied about that whole "post twice a week" thing. I meant it when I posted it, and I even stuck to it for an entire week, but then I got called back to work and started teaching full-time again. So...sorry about that. No posting schedule. * * *
There is no story in this post. It's more of a sharing post, but it does have bees and robots. Bees and robots can be either lovely or terrible, depending on your frame of reference and also on whether they're helpful bees and robots or giant mutant bees and robots bringing about the apocalypse, but I doubt that anyone would ever call them boring. (Note to self: really must write a post about giant mutant bees and robots.)

But first, I'd like to say thanks to all of you who kept checking in even though I've barely posted over the past few months. I kind of sort of love you guys. If you glance over at the sidebar, you'll see something that wasn't there before:


I'm an extremely unstructured person. And for that reason, I need structure. (It sounded smart in my head, so I typed it out. Just do me a favour and pretend that it makes sense.) So I'm putting myself on a posting schedule, at least until I realize that I can't keep to a posting schedule. Look for new posts on Mondays and Thursdays. Most of them will be clay posts, although I'll probably do a sharing post like this one every couple of weeks.

And now for the robots.

I have some very good news. Sad robot is no longer sad. In fact, I'm overjoyed to announce that he's found love:


This fabulous pink robot lady was created my talented niece.


She's a natural artist. She's already developing her own painting style.


She's nine years old. I'm jealous.
My two-year-old niece is equally talented. She's a born actress. Here she is being a dog:


It's a very nuanced and subtle performance.
Love those funny, smart, beautiful girls. Sniff. I wish they didn't live so far away.

More art by someone who isn't me.

I won this painting by Violet, the talented and hilarious arteest who blogs at Creative Devolution:


I won that!!!! It's mine!!!! It's hanging on my wall!!!!
Isn't it beautiful? Violet makes me want to paint. Or just pretend that I made her painting. Either one works for me. Thank you, Violet. It's an honour to have your work hanging in my home!

Piggyback disaster


Lindsay (from the blog Happy or Hungry) suffered a major piggyback fail. Don't you hate it when you try to piggyback someone three times your size at a wedding and things just don't work out? (Lindsay, by the way, is one of the nicest people on the internet. She's funny and cheerful and talented and she doesn't even seem fazed by the fact that over 75 000 people have already seen the video of her piggyback fail. She's a star.)

At the beginning of this post, I promised you bees.

Well, here they are:


Amazing. Tete is awesome, in the true sense of the meaning. I found this video while trying to figure out whether raw honey is the same as unpasteurized honey. I'm still not sure, but it doesn't really matter. I'm just glad that I don't have to climb up and get it myself.

Happy Labour Day everyone. Try not to do anything too laborious.

Watch out for bees and robots.