Woodturning is great

I was e-mailing Old Roomate, in response to one of his comments on my "lathe work" item on my "To Do" list, about how I really like lathe work.

Wood turning is  similar to mowing the lawn after it's starting to get shaggy, in that the sense of progress is obvious, through the contrast of what you've cut off, versus what's left behind.  

And unlike throwing pots (on a potter's wheel) -- which tends to be limited to liquid-holding or food-holding items (cups, jugs, bowls), due to clay's waterproof but not terribly strong nature -- wood-turning lets you make all sorts of useful things:  chair legs, ends of stair rails, cylinders, cones....

After a few minutes, the ground is covered with shavings -- and the chunk of wood that you had  loaded into the lathe has now become a recognizable "thing" -- a tool handle, perhaps.

 

Anyhow:  I like it.  :) 

 

Which means:  I should do more of it.

--GG

Secret to happiness

In my 30s I was somewhat into board games -- inspired, in part, by a friend from high school who finds board games at good prices at garage sales and thrift stores, then sells them at higher prices on "game collector" websites and uses the profits to fund additional game purchases for himself.  (He could totally afford to just buy the games that he wants -- but making the process self-sustaining is far more interesting.)

I e-mailed him to ask if he was sufficiently interested in a semi-collectable board game that I should "suitcase" it back to Seattle for him -- post-pandemic (!!!) -- or whether I should just give it to my (adult) niece, or my wife's co-worker, here in Australia?  He said I should just dispose of it here. 

As part of this conversation, I mentioned that I'm planning on going through my various games and getting rid of most of them:  I've now realized -- self-aware middle-aged guy that I am -- that spending 1-5 hours playing a game is not how I want to spend my time.  So -- I'm only going to keep a few.  And then I proceeded to -- off the top of my head -- list my "keepers".

It turns out that I ended up with twenty-seven (and thought of two more after I'd sent the e-mail).  So that's probably more than "non-game" people would have.

I asked my friend about that -- but he says that he's not a good reference point, as he has over a thousand.  So: clearly he's into games.  ;)

This reminded me of one of my "middle aged guy wisdom" insights:  the secret to happiness is to figure out what you like doing -- and then maximizing your time doing that (as long as it isn't harmful to yourself or others).  So:  I'm glad he's still doing "the game thing".  :)

Related to this:  I'm always charmed and intrigued by people who have interests, and then set up little work-shops or "zones" to accom-modate their interest (e.g. a "jewelry-making station").  I know he has an extensive system of shelves, down in his basement, for game storage:  so I'd like to think that he also has a  secondhand diner booth nearby -- with proper lighting -- so that he can play games at a moment's notice, leave half-finished games set up, and etcetara.

He actually doesn't, as it turns out:  but he likes the idea...  :)

 

--GG

Vacation ambitions

In Australia a lot of office workers get the week between Christmas and New Year's off.  In addition to this, I took a few weeks off afterwards. 

As usual, I have a whole list of things -- about 85 -- that I'd like to get done during my vacation.  Clearly, I won't get all of them done -- so unlike my usual vacations where I don't make a list, or I only make a vague list, I've done a "brain dump" of various tasks that have been hanging around; I then put them into a spreadsheet (which I've added to as I think of new items), and classified them in terms of priority, whether it's for me or for the family/household, whether it's for fun or a duty/responsibility, whether doing the task frees up a bottleneck for other tasks, whether this task has any dependencies (i.e. I need to do something else on the list before I tackle this item), approximately how many days the item will take (ranging from "0.1" to "6 days"), and whether it needs pre-planning because it has many "stopping points" (e.g. need to let glue, or paint, dry overnight) and thus I can't crank it out on my final day of vacation.

I also noted which of these are best suited to a few weeks of vacation, rather than being a "weekend" project:  these would be things that require momentum, and/or where I tear something apart and it's totally in the way -- and then I put it back together the right way.

And then, as my vacation progresses, I can filter on un-completed tasks, as well as other characteristics (e.g. priority; how long they will take).

I've included some "easy wins" (e.g. "trim my beard!"), so that I can rack up accomplishments during my vacation:  inevitably I end up disappointed at the end of a vacation because I haven't accomplished all the things I wanted to -- so this is a way of recognizing all the things I did manage to do.

In no particular order...

1. Mow yard (fairly completely)
2. Clean up fallen shelves area
3. Cut coardboard for Harry Belefonte LP
4. Gmpa T audio
5. Test and install UPS (power supply box)
6. Tidy the music rack behind the door
7. Test SM58 for resistance to wind
8. Repair cables (mine; church’s)
9. Test USB drawing pad
10. Go through porch boxes
11. Catch up on laundry
12. Book electrician for solar panel
13. B/U HD’s (incl. One at M&D’s)
14. Other clothing repairs
15. Clean out work bag
16. Tidy neckties
17. Clean off bench end of porch
18. Visit D. Bretz
19. Edit blue timestreams video (incl. Color correcting and audio track)
20. Exercise
21. Edit park bench hat-adjust video
22. Finish adze knob
23. Put chopping block on legs
24. Make axe handle for re-rusted axe head
25. De-rust misc. tools
26. Bat signal
27. Roald Dahl instrument
28. De-rust small ball pien hammer
29. Lathe the vampire stakes
30. Lathe tool rack/box
31. Repair wooden chair leg
32. Repair wooden table leg
33. Suitcase drum kit
34. Adze handle for addt’l adze
35. Finish drainfield box
36. Write and record Max dancing song
37. Healer woman song
38. Build lathe shed
39. Suggest getting windjammer/dead cat for SM57 (but first test SM58 wind resistance)
40. Contact Rob on Gumtree for old PC parts (ask if he’d take CRT monitors) (also the giant tower)
41. Clean out (and re-stock) back of car/car boot
42. Sorry, buddy Timmy video
43. PVC frame
44. Repair M&D bench
45. Bretz steps
46. Finish prepping the wood in the water-filled wheelie bin (to make a chair)
47. Uncover drainfield hatch near wattle roots
48. Lay out boundary line
49. Clear off kitchen table (and floor)
50. Edit Max dancing video
51. Healer woman video
52. Lathe those angels
53. Lay tiles around the garden edge
54. Set up recording area
55. Build lumber shed
56. Repair fallen shelves
57. Instructional video for PVC frame
58. Ronin video
59. Make chair from wood
60. Test anti-feedback EQ
61. Test Inkel mixer
62. Drop off used books
63. Give old computer stuff to the hobby guy
64. Go through addt’l used books
65. Log items
66. Bottle recycling
67. Repair soft toys
68. Video chat w/ D #1
69. Video chat w/ D #2
70. Transplant plants to down lower
71. Clean out misc. plant area
72. Get BroDave firewood for black plastic sheet - DONE
    
73. Hand-mow dog yard - DONE
    
74. Finish cleaning out CB’s office (incl. Stationary cupboard)
75. Clean out kitchen
76. Learn my camera
77. Trim beard - TONIGHT
    
78. Repair/change brake light bulbs in white car
79. Finish small two-peg coat peg
80. Slab four pieces of wood from blue bucket
81. Sharpen long ripsaw
82. Sharpen regular ripsaw
83. De-rust and repair mattock

A lot of these are 0.1-day or 0.2-day items -- i.e. it'll take me a half hour or an hour.  Others are modular, such as "Going through the boxes on the porch", where even if I don't finish the entire task, I'll still have made quantifiable progress.

Another consideration is that I need to decide whether to accomplish one or two of my larger-scale projects (which would take a week or a week and a half) -- or rather to stick to small and mid-sized tasks (i.e. 2-3 days max).  One consideration is that it's summer, here in Australia -- so the longer tasks tend to be labor-intensive yardwork (e.g. building a stand-alone shed for my extra wood) is better suited for a cooler season.

--GG

Musician's living trailer

I like this YouTube video of the music set-up of this touring musician who lives in a converted cargo trailer. 

Start at 6:20; goes to 7:20 (he then says that the cupboards above his desk has guitar strings, etc.).

Also 8:50-9:10 -- guitar storage, plus addt'l storage where he has some mics, etc.

 

 

--GG