Things I Like, or Don't.

an entomologist rates ant emojis

curlicuecal

Beautiful big almond eye, realistic and full of expression as she gazes gently at you. Elbowed antennae and delicately segmented legs and body. Gorgeous pearlescent sheen like she is glowing. This ant moisturizes. This ant is round and huggable. This ant is a star. 11/10.

Beautifully detailed, lifelike pose but with an unexpected neck and odd antennae, perhaps scared straight. Her eyes suggest she has seen things. Her expression confirms she has seen too much. She is haunted and I want to know more. 7/10.

Floppy antenna, pointy muppet face, oddly posed legs. What is she? She has no waist. May be she is some kind of bee in disguise? I find her unsettling. 3/10.

This ant has an unexplained, double-jointed thorax, and no evidence of a waist. Her four-footed pose suggests that she a centaur rather than an ant. Centaur ants would be cool. I’m not sure what was intended here. 2/10.

Good first impression, kind of bland in the details. This ant has no particular waist to speak of, floppy rather than elbowed antennae, and an inexpressive face. Her color scheme is soft and hazy. I like the sharp angles of her stylishly sophisticated legs. This ant may not know quite were she is going, but she knows how she is getting there. 6/10.

Were you even trying. 0/10

Gasp! This ant is elegant. This ant has a beautiful tapered thorax, a segmented abdomen, alert, elbowed antennae, and a light-footed pose. This ant’s face suggests curiosity and a desire to explore the world. This ant inspires me. I want to be like her. 10/10

3-legged, waistless centaur-ant with strange, limp antennae and a beak. I don’t know what this is? It kind of reminds me of a Hork-Bajir. 1/10, not an ant.

This ant… makes me sad. All of her legs are broken. The MS Paint art style and gradient abuse convey distress. She has a duck beak. Despite this, her expression suggests perseverance and determined cheerfulness. I want this ant to have a better life. I am rooting for her. 3/10

This ant is a bold and challenging mixture of photorealism and caricature. She is broad and low-built and seems very sturdy. She looks like she would help you move. This ant is a dependable friend. 9/10

A picture of an ant from a children’s book. She is wearing little boots. This ant is wrong in every way, and yet I can’t stay mad at her. 7/10

An interesting, top-down view of an ant; her legs are positioned with slightly jarring symmetry. Nevertheless, her overall impression is that of a graceful, stylized design, like a pictograph. She is suitable for adorning fine garments and jewelry or perhaps gracing the walls of a tiny ant church. I like this minimalist ant. 8/10.

This is a termite. -10/10

tess

I’m a pretty tidy person but most of the storage spaces in my house had slowly, sneakily devolved into chaos as the demands of life, job, and toddler took over my free time. With baby #2 looming in the near future, I wanted to tackle some serious reorganization projects before the renewed onslaught begins. I spent chunks of time during weekends where my daughter is away, plus a week of staycation, working on this. And this post is just the highlights. I was able to give away tons of items (our neighborhood has an awesome online buy/swap/sell group) to people who needed them, and I donated several large storage bins’ worth of clothes to a local shelter.

Certainly starting a very busy season of life off with a clean slate and an organized home will make diapering, lack of sleep, and all that jazz go more smoothly! Let’s freaking hope so. Regardless, I feel a lot better and can FIND STUFF in my house. I’m also really hoping that having lots of labeled bins will help the other humans in this house to self-enforce and put stuff back in the right place.

People ask me what the “secret” is to keeping a neat space, but there’s really no magic secret or special skill set needed for it. Every item in your house has a specific place (a “home,” if you will) where it lives. Put things back in their homes when you’re done with them. If they don’t have a home, there’s your problem. This project was me resetting my storage spaces and re-defining what “home” was for all my stuff.

P.S. I realize I don’t have a recent picture of what the master closet looks like with its curtains closed, but here’s an older one if you’re curious.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

an entomologist rates ant emojis

Big City Lights by Ivo van de Grift