- The worst thing about allergies is the medicine works so well that it's easy to forget that you need it. Then if you happen to forget for a couple days because you feel fine, BAM, miserable. I forgot again. I was low energy with sinus problems for a couple days, and it truly felt like a cold. Worn out despite plenty of sleep, headache. Last time I had this problem I thought maybe I was being a whiny baby, but no, it sucks. At least this time I realized what was happening and got back on the allergy meds pronto.

- I have invented poor person's kombucha. Tablespoon of good apple cider vinegar (braggs or whatever) in a glass of crystal light lemonade/iced tea. I know, sounds about as refined as mixing everclear and kool aid. But I think it improves the crystal light, and it doesn't cost $3 a bottle. Do I call it poverty kombucha? Lockdown kombucha? Garden level kombucha? Klassy kombucha? It's my new favorite thing. Spouse thinks it's an abomination, but he also thinks kombucha is an abomination. He doesn't know what's good.

- I dunno if my vitamins are doing anything though I would be suspicious if I noticed a huge sudden improvement, as in maybe it was just psychosomatic and vitamins are the equivalent of Dumbo's magic feather. I'm cured!!1! Ha ha, no. Coming out of a depressive state for reals is an incremental process. Tiny little internal shifts. Taking the vitamins isn't the step - the step happened weeks earlier when I had a stray thought about what I could do to give myself a boost. It's like climbing a sand dune, I suppose. Feels like a lot of struggle for not much measurable result. I got a new magnesium complex vitamin because I polished off the old magnesium. I didn't even know there were different kinds of magnesium beyond citrate and oxide. Magnesium is an important one for me because it does help with my headaches. We'll see if it seems better than the old magnesium. So we're doing krill oil, D3, sublingual B complex and the magnesium complex. Solid combo, I think.

- People are reporting cicada burrows. D-: Not seeing anything here yet. Temps have been cool the past week.

- For shits I was browsing a couple subreddits, r/amazonprime and r/amazondspdrivers. r/amazonprime amused me because it's a lot of frustrated customers just complaining to complain somewhere. Lots of people who have absolutely no grasp of logistics and are expecting a boutique experience when amazon has clearly figured out what exact level of customer service is an unprofitable waste. It's an interesting look at worst case scenarios, such as the person who ordered an expensive laptop that went missing during shipping and now they are SOL and amazon is telling them to file a police report. People who lost their account for returning too many things. At the other end of the spectrum, r/amazondspdrivers is for the drivers doing the last mile delivery. War stories of terrible routes, terrible customers, angry dogs, bad addresses and being seriously overworked. Forced to be constantly monitored by cameras. No time for proper bathroom breaks. Sounds like a really hard job. I've had bad bosses before, but at least I had co-workers to complain to, a restroom to use when I pleased and a place to stash a bottle of pain relievers. Drivers get none of that.

Normally I'd have packages left at the leasing office so delivery people can avoid the stairs, but it is not open to accept packages. I've been ordering more than normal just because, without a car, it would be difficult to impossible to get around to buy what I need in person (if I can even find a local store that carries the very specific item I am after). Anyway I feel pretty bad for making this beleaguered delivery person haul my shit all the way up to the fourth floor. So I have been leaving out bottled waters and snacks (prepackaged stuff for one handed eating) out on delivery days, and they vanish. Then I thought perhaps the water bottles were not staying cold, so I got a cheap little cooler and I put two cold water bottles and snacks in there with a note taped to the top. Now I don't have to worry about the drinks getting warm if delivery takes longer than expected. The cold is the best part, right? There's a problem with porch pirates on the lower floors but they are too lazy to come up to the fourth floor. Nobody seems to mess with anyone's stuff on the fourth floor. Spouse called me a weirdo when I set out the cooler, but yesterday I got a delivery and the person wrote "YOU ARE AWESOME!" on the package in sharpie, and they took a water and snack. So HA. I've also been giving thumbs up for delivery feedback on amazon and clicking all the driver compliments. Sounds like some places give out bonuses for that, or at least it cancels out a negative. The world is so madhouse bonkers right now, if I can do something like leave out a cold water in case someone needs it, why not? It's good karma.

- The stuff in Minnesota is having some impact on spouse's work. They prepared in advance for the Derek Chauvin trial, but sounds they are shifting sooner than anticipated which means spouse is working some overtime. It could mean travel. Back when the George Floyd protests started they called him up in the morning and had him on an afternoon flight to Minneapolis, and he was there a week. Surreal. Spouse volunteers for stuff like that because we don't have kids and it's much easier for him to pick up and go than it is for coworkers with families. I was way more concerned about the Jan 6th event or inauguration as far as potential for him to be in any interesting situations. But it is weird to have an event hundreds of miles away impact your routine. On the one hand, I was enjoying the relative calm and "normalcy" now that Trump is out of office. Being able to tune out of the news somewhat is a luxury. On the other hand, there's a lot of people who are still living with extreme fear and that hasn't changed. They don't get to relax.

So it's like, how do you keep pushing for action realistically as an ordinary unimportant person while maintaining balance with all the normal life tasks and demands. What can you do that isn't just useless virtue signaling? I wouldn't put up a Black Lives Matter sign personally, just because that's like giving yourself backpats for the obvious. But if it's not easy to find a way to help with real action, do ordinary people just put up signs because they don't know what else they can do? Like, I'm not exactly a daddy warbucks. I've got poor transportation access and can't donate cash, and those are probably the two most useful qualities in a volunteer. What do you do when you want the world to be better, but you're up against a giant machine with almost no resources? Seems like we're all so busy trying to play catchup on our own treadmills that it's hard to spare a thought for our neighbor.

- The blank items I ordered are all here, except for one straggler that is lost in Schrodinger's inventory. Some are plain brushed stainless, some are matte powder coated with a gradient. I am working with Simple Modern water bottles for color options. Seems like the products are quality, they have different lids and accessories available, their logo is small and unobtrusive, they give 10% of profit to charity. Ticks all the boxes for my purposes. I also got one of the Liberty Bottleworks (made in USA) bottles to test to see how their painted aluminum bottles perform. I do really want to use those bottles, but $28 a pop is steep. They will end up being an expensive purchase for the customer, so they better perform awesome. Simple Modern has steel bottles, less expensive, interesting gradient colors. I was getting anxious about what if I've made a terrible mistake, what if these aren't as cool as I think, and then I did a stemless wine tumbler with a powder coated finish in pink-to-red. I put a cherry blossom branch design on it that wraps seamlessly around the cup. I used a double cut bit that actually does minimize drift from the spin of the tool compared to the single cuts I was having issues with. It came out gorgeous. The bit cuts through the powder coat layer like wax, leaving the shiny steel exposed. My line quality was good - no weird wobbles or misfires. Yes, these are good. Someone will pay money for this.

I figured out how to do perfectly straight band lines. I bought a small hobby vise that has two articulation points ("toolsmith third hand vise" on amazon). It swivels at the base, and it has a double ended jaw that can also be turned 360deg on the vertical axis. I have an accessory that allows the rotary tool to be held fixed in a vise jaw. So I set up the vise in such a way that it is held fixed at one angle, but by leaving the jaw swivel loose, I can manipulate the engraving point up or down. Then I set up a jig to hold the cup. So with my left hand I can turn the cup resting in the jig cradle, and with my right I can lower/raise the cutting bit. Voila, straight band lines. Unfortunately, in the process of figuring out how to do this I dicked up the cup I wanted to fix. I have now learned how to polish out a mistake scratch with sandpaper. Look at all the things I am learning!!

Today I am very excited because I got a water bottle with a glittery blue-purple coating and I am going to put a cicada design on it. Cicadas have such beautiful wings, probably the most perfectly shaped/veined in the bug world. Stereotypical fairy wings. I have some cool designs lined up and this means I am in the "fun part" where I can focus on the actual work. I won't have as many pieces done for this event as I'd like, but whatever, I'm not going to stress. The primary point is to practice my skills and do what I think is fun. The secondary point is to get out of the apartment and interact with people in the real world. The tertiary point is to make back the money I have invested. My ultimate hope is after we move and I have to check out tattoo shops and hopefully find somewhere to work, I can leverage my engraved cups as a portfolio addition and an interesting talking point. They show line quality, they show suitability of art. I know from working in a shop that most people who wander in asking to apprentice/work are woefully unprepared. Most of them didn't even bring a portfolio, which is a gross faux pas. Of the few with a portfolio, only one guy had real genuine talent. He lasted about six months before he couldn't take working with mentor anymore. (That was a hilarious and predicable slow slide. At first mentor is up my butt because I'm not doing stuff like the new guy - "Ben does this, Ben does that, why aren't you more like Ben" - and then mentor proceeds to micromanage Ben into the fucking ground, until one day Ben came into the shop when he knew mentor would be out, grabbed his stuff and flat bolted. I liked Ben; his art was cool.) Ugh, I just really want to find a home with serious artists who don't have hard drug problems and aren't crazy abusive. Please, god. That calibre of shop will only take me in if my work shows I'm worth the risk. Engraved stuff might be just the edge I need.

I just want to be a real person again.

Anyway. I have a ton of work lined up today. Got cicada, got a "duck duck goose" trio of wine tumblers, got chicks on wine tumblers and a matching wine growler with a hen that says "motherclucker", got a weird baroque design, got a peacock feather, etc. Busy busy.