The whitish one took two days. The pinkish ones took two half-days total, and are pinkish because I ommitted a layer of white. they are a paint-by-number for a class I took online. Part of the fun was 3dprinting a buck to more efficiently form the cloisons. Cloisonne is actually hella fun, and is a trade largely practiced by perimenopausal women whose tastes do not align well with the median watch buyer. They have many skills, tips and tricks, and are one of the most welcoming communities I have ever been a part of. I am reminded, yet again, that women are generally better humans than men.

This is a Kern 10/16. It eventually became the MMT, the machine that Kern made their reputation as one of the most, if not the most, accurate CNC machines in the world. Kern USA sold one recently for $65k or so; they were very cagey. I have reached final negotiations to buy one for about as much as a Tormach 440. The Tormach will theoretically hold 50 microns on a good day if the wind is right. The Kern will hold one. I am not in the habit of buying machine tools across an ocean so this has been an edgy and disconcerting process but should it go through I will have a machine capable of milling real materials to real tolerances for a little over double the price of a well-equipped Sherline.

Four appointments later and it has been established that I am (A) without ground-glass occlusions (B) do not have an enlarged heart (C) have Pfizer round 1. My mother-in-law brought over sloppy joes yesterday and judged me harshly for getting a COVID shot in the next county over. After all, they signed up for a list and they will wait until their turn like good Lutherans or some shit and anyone who doesn't do that is a traitor to humanity. I asked my wife why the fuck I was being judged for getting a vaccine through proper channels at the express beseechment of the state Department of Health and was told "she judges everyone."

We got a letter last week saying "yeah so thanks for supporting Medicaid patients, there's this money? And distributing it is a bitch? So we're going to toss some random amount in your account, be sure to spend it on, uhh, stuff you need." Poof. Twelve thousand dollars. I think that's the American pandemic response in a nutshell: "no, citizen, we can't cut you a two thousand dollar check! You might crash the economy! And besides, then we couldn't mail thousands of unneeded dollars to businesses!" Note that we didn't even apply for 2nd round PPP because we don't have a hope in hell of demonstrating any need. We didn't even have an option to turn this money down. Between unemployment and grants I made my family about three times as much money as I usually do working for a living. Corporations aren't just citizens in the US, they're VIPs. So our retirement plan rolls out tomorrow or the next day, but even with the largesse we're getting we still can't afford to give our people healthcare. It's so fucked.

The press is full of stories about GameStop and /r/WallStreetBets because the WRONG people are getting rich. Let that sink in.