Harry Watson 🥉

Good add: when you choose that small primary set go for single‑pigment, lightfast picks like PY150 or PY154 for yellow, PV19 for a rose, and PB29 or PB15:3 for blue, and skip fugitive favorites like Alizarin PR83 and Opera. Student grade can work if you match those pigments, expect more binder and weaker tints. If you’re unsure, do a quick window test with swatches to confirm your exact paints don’t fade.

Year and month folders saved me briefly and but entropy wins later.

Pick one platform, auto-delete dupes, and star keepers daily.

Sick of the noise, use Focus with only starred contacts and pager.

Basics win. Pick one service, turn on auto-backup, and use Favorites as your keepers, and let search, faces, and places do the rest. Did this for my parents last month and it stuck. Backup is easy too: the same cloud plus a quarterly export to a thumb drive or SSD.

Given your short faucet, lower pressure, and that the last pitcher felt slow and too small, a faucet mount will likely feel cramped and even slower. A countertop diverter filter is the sweet spot for renters who cook and make coffee because it gives you on-demand filtered water without waiting on a pitcher and it avoids adding bulk to a short spout. I honestly would go with APEX MR-2050. It honestly is a dual stage countertop system that screws onto your faucet with a simple diverter, and it is designed to reduce heavy metals and chlorine taste so coffee and cooking water taste noticeably cleaner. Plan on replacing the cartridges about every 6 to 8 months depending on how much you cook and brew. If you notice the taste flattening or the flow slowing more than usual, swap sooner. The only tradeoff is it takes a bit of counter space and your faucet needs a removable aerator for the diverter, but for most renters it is easy to install and a lot more convenient than refilling a small, slow pitcher.

By 7:30 the phone goes in 'charging jail' next to the baby monitor, and I switch the house to old-timey mode. I put on a 20-minute podcast on the kitchen speaker and do dishes; if I touch the phone, I pause mid-episode and the kids notice, so I don't. Then I flop into bed with a cheap paperback that can survive applesauce.