No Box Letterbox

I like experimenting with getting the smallest possible letterbox. Can I get a log and stamp into a locket? Sort of. A pill box? yes! The key to this box is that it is indoors in a dry area, so it doesn't need an external container. The other key is magnets. I noticed that the metal that lockers are folded from has a little vertical space on both sides that is totally invisible. A letterbox for this space could be any length, and 3/4" wide. I designed a plesiosaur stamp with those dimensions in mind. I know there are lockers at the National Museum of Nature and Science, which has the (a?) futabasaurus reconstruction on display. I hope the lockers have this same gap. It should be pretty discreet to pull this out while appearing to arrange your things in the locker.

It's not really proper to post spoilers of letterboxes online, but I am pleased with how this one turned out and there are only 13 letterboxes in Japan so I doubt anyone at all will find this one.

Calling Bullshit on that Cute Starbucks Video

I want this little video to be true. I want there to be reasons for things!

Starting with letters from my grandparents addressed to "Kaitlyn" I have been desensitized to misspellings of my name. I spell it for people once or twice and then I let it go, including when it is pretty important.

Work, insurance, contracts... if someone else has to input my name, especially over the phone, but including when they have it in front of them on paper, it is likely to be messed up. 

I emailed my boss about this once and then washed my hands of it. 

 Whoops! That's my misspelled state issued ID. I've been in to remedy this one several times. The last time I went in the DMV person said that it was corrected in their system and my next card would have the correct spelling. But then I went to their website to handle something and it had me listed as Caitlin. I just bring my (correctly spelled) passport when accuracy is important.

Recently someone made a big deal out of getting the spelling right (which is normal) and then actually spelled it right (which is not) and I was so touched. My laptop broke and I had to phone Lenovo to get them to handle it. It was a bad connection so we used the NATO alphabet and yet the case ended up under C. Sandery. Two weeks later the laptop was mailed back and I had to retrieve it from FedEx. They checked my ID and I'd rehearsed what I would say about the name discrepancy but the person was completely indifferent. Fair enough. Even if it's more an annoyance than an obstacle, it just seems sloppy to have all of these misspellings around that I have to try to remember, so I resolved to be more proactive and less indifferent.

And then I went to the doctor and 100% forgot to take a look at my prescription before I left. 

Fall Projects

I am so glad there are seasons and glad that it is fall. The weather change is so energizing.

I've arranged my schedule opposite public school hours so I can take substitute teaching shifts. This means that until everything gets okayed by the CTC my weekdays are gloriously open. My planner pages for august looks like a hypergraphic fever dream so this lull is so welcome. I'm spending my days making prints, learning to use my tablet for everything (efficient! The laptop is in the shop and i am planning to leave it at home for my upcoming vacation), and cooking vegetarian meals to freeze.

Gym Bag Issues

I do a lot of activities at my gym/workplace. Lots of it uses overlapping gear, but some of that gear has to come home to get washed. I want a really lightweight bag since I bike to work in good weather and I can't just tote everything around. Right now my system is to panic before every shift, pull out the contents of the canvas tote I use as a gym bag, search for whatever part is missing to do my job, and try to put as much of the rest of the gear on as possible so I won't have to bring street clothes as well.

I have some first steps in mind. I think I will heavily use my assigned locker to store things that don't need to be washed that often, like my guard sweatshirt. I am going to streamline my toiletries- right now I use a glass hand cream jar that is rusting to store my shampoo, and the same jar but newer and not rusting to store my lotion.

OPD Physical Ability Test

I am seriously looking into working for the Oakland Police Department, just because I think they are a really good one. They have you take a couple of exams before the interview. One of the tests is to check whether you are likely to be able to complete the Academy physical training. It's not meant to be difficult, but for me it was.

In it, you have to wear a weighted vest and do a timed obstacle course with a fence, serpentine cones, and a dummy drag (165 lb sandbag man that you have to drag 50 feet). I did complete the practice course, but at 8 seconds over the cutoff time. (35 seconds under the cutoff time is considered a very good score for a woman.) The officer who told me I didn't pass told me that if I ran for a half hour every day until the actual exam, I could probably get my time down. I had never run a half hour, but I gave it a shot once, and a couple of days and massages later I could walk around upright again.

On the morning of my exam I felt pretty confident for no reason. I had really started off slow during the practice, conserving everything for the dummy drag, and since I had managed that I thought maybe if I ran faster the rest of the time, I would do better. The entire morning was spent shivering under an overpass waiting in line after line. As I got to the head of the final line, I reviewed my strategy and found it nonexistent, so I just tried my best.

I was too spent when I finished to understand whether 2 minutes and 31 seconds was more or less than the qualifying time of 2 minutes and 35 seconds, but the attendants helped me figure it out by saying "Congratulations" and giving me a paper that said the same thing.

So I am presently just barely in baseline shape for OPD purposes, but the interviews are two months out and luckily I am guarding at a gym, so I have access to a track and weights, not just a pool.

Moving Home

On trips, everything seems so special and exciting. Taking a trip to my old hometown mixed that excitement with nostalgia and now I am itching to move back. The trip was for an interview, so moving back was already on my radar, but oh! The tiny dumpsters, the tiny libraries, and the friendly strangers were all wonderful. I had a nice time being a tourist in Oakland, it was just so vibrant.

 I was trying to sketch this tower at Ghirardelli Square so I took this photo to help me frame it. I felt like the height of the streetlamp was really interesting but ultimately didn't finish the sketch.

I am familiar with the idea that graffiti is undesirable, but I feel the hypergraphic urge when I am in overly sterile environments.., seeing evidence that other people feel the same way makes me feel at ease. My high school had a "graffiti table" where we could write our feelings, to keep the school building cleaner, and then someone put swastikas on it and we got to have a school wide meeting about that. And everyone cried. I don't tag things but I do install microsculptures and of course there's the car.  

This is a parking meter. I am charmed that I will have a couple of 35 cent purchases on my bank statement. 

The lifeguard interview went badly-- HR didn't tell anyone to meet me for it so I had to wait around, which is a really bad sign, the practical portion was perfect until I was supposed to perform CPR and couldn't remember how--but I will keep looking because I feel so strongly drawn back to Oakland. 

Wax your car with beeswax, maybe.

After years and years I picked a name for the submobile. It's the Knotilus, in the punny tradition of boat names, because I think it's funny that it's a fifteen year old car but is faster than a top of the line military sub. It goes top-of-the-line-military-sub-speeds in third gear. (In case mariner stuff isn't your forte, I'll mention that knots are like miles per hour, except nautical miles per hour.) I tried to lay out the lettering myself, but it was a disaster, so Dad did it for me. Sign painting is really its own specialty, and my drawing and painting skills were no help.

I intended to letter it with enamel, but there was none at the craft store. Instead I chose a permanent paint pen. The paint pens were in a locked cabinet, so I asked for help opening it, and the woman I asked didn't have clearance so she went to get someone else. While I was waiting I figured out how to open the case, but I didn't do it because I didn't want to be rude. I selected a color called Brilliant Blue, which looked like it would match my rims. On my way up to the counter, though, I noticed that it was marked "flourescent" and that wouldn't do. So I got to break into the marker case after all, to swap it for black.

I don't know if it's clear in this photo, but the lock shank is so long that if you turn it sideways it lets the plexiglass doors swing out. 

I'd started to refer to the car as "my eyesore" since the coat of paint from 2011 got really dull and wouldn't take a second coat without flaking. It was so dull that the doors had fingermarks from where I closed them with lotioned hands. That gave me the idea to coat it in linseed oil, but before I had a chance I found an old chunk of beeswax and on a hot day started buffing it onto the car (before and after, above). I am really pleased with the initial results. Right now it is coated with pollen, I think I can preserve the surface by washing it when it's cold out, then parking it in the sun once it dries off.