Monetizing one's hobby

 92nd day sober. Up at 3, watched more weird movies and these movie recap things where an AI voice but not too bad of one, goes through (important) scene-by-scene of movies, which is pretty neat. It's better than the Wikipedia plots, and naturally not as expensive as seeing the actual movie. Sort of like when I was a kid and would get Mom to buy me MAD Magazine for 40c cheap, because it always had two movie spoofs, which I could read and get an idea of what recent movies were about, plus have some funny things to say about them and thus not feel so out of the loop. 

I didn't practice last night because, well, I was tired. I set up the mouse trap in the same place in case there was more than one, but there wasn't so I put it back up in the loft where there might be one who knows. 

I read a ton of Reddit (probably should stop that) and again there's the old trope about how monetizing your hobby makes it no fun any more. I can see how this might ruin something like fishing, but when I'm out playing for the public it *is* like fishing, with the tips being the fish of course. And it's really boring to just practice at home. 

So maybe, say, your hobby is sitting quietly at home painting flowers on rocks or something, and going out and setting up on the sidewalk selling the things would be a "necessary evil" at best, that you really don't like because you don't like interacting with the public. That would kill the hobby all right. 

But if your hobby actually *is* selling, or performing, that would sure not kill the hobby. I honestly think that to some "star" salesmen, for instance, it's a big game and fun for them. Things maybe only become un-fun when, as is so encouraged in American culture, they spend a ton on things they really can't afford and now they're on a financial treadmill. 

I packed up an oscilloscope I wanted to get over to FedEx today, and took it up there, found some packing stuff on the way back and saw a big stack of wooden crates with those twist-and-lock latches on them, like are used to ship big pieces of medical or scientific equipment, and thought Tom might be interested. 

So next I went over to Tom's and told him about them. He had a helper, Roy, a guy who lives in his van and works for Tom for some kind of shitty pay, and they wrapped up what they were doing and Roy drove off in the minivan he lives in, and Tom and I went over where the crates are and Tom loaded them into his truck. 

We went back over to Tom's to hang out and talk, and I gave walnuts to the crow that hangs around, which was fun to watch because once the crow had eaten some he started stashing the walnut pieces here and there for later. 

We talked about a lot of things, one of them being money, of which Tom has none saved, which surprised me. We talked about food and different restaurants, but being around Tom is good for saving money because with him not having any, I wasn't able to go and get us curry or something. Eventually the sun went down and I rode back here. 

I had some banana chips I'd bought on my way out to FedEx, and had boiled some eggs so I made an egg salad a while later.