Monday, August 31, 2009

08-31-2009 Did You Write?

08-31-2009 Did You Write?

It is the end of a week, and is also the end of the month. This is the time and place to brag about your accomplishment, cry about your failures, and to otherwise tell about what is going on in your life.
Many of us won't write regularly without some prodding. We will write for a while, then get onto other things, going weeks, or even months without writing, then picking it up again.
The concept of this note is to give myself, and you, a weekly prompt to get to write something, anything, during the week and th en report how much or little you did. The hope is that you will also report that you did not write, so you have an incentive to get to work.
We all know this is coming each Monday, so the hope is that you will get yourself to open one of your works in progress just so you can report you did not drag society down to such low depths by not being productive again (that is how I feel when I post this without any production. Think of it, If I wrote as much in my works in progress as I put into this note each week, I would be doing really good).

WE always get questions about what is writing and what is not. Any of your projects, even if it is not your main project, counts. You wrote. That is what counts.
Anything new we write, is writing. We all can agree with that. Also, any editing we do counts as writing, even if it is the work of someone else. We cannot write a new piece perfectly, so we all have to edit. Editing is really more about writing than the original draft.
I also include poetry, technical articles, blogging, school writing assignments as writing. Character development and world building is writing, but I prefer to require that something get on paper. I have been known to plot out a story in detail, then realize I was just daydreaming since the first words changes the story.
E-mails can be writing too, as long as they are wordy and pertain to writing or a story. Other items can be writing or some of these might not be writing. It all depends on how you set your own definitions.

AS for me. I did write. I have worked on expanding and improving my Waxy Birth Story. I swapped several of my scenes around, in a plot change my writing partner pointed me to. That requires a lot more writing to be done. I am also fleshing out scenes I just touched on. That did some expansion. This week, I took the story from page 28 to page 31, in heavy editing.
I zapped a lot of text in the process of building it up. I added almost six hundred words to the story with all that I zapped. I have no idea how much I zapped, but could have easily have written half again those words this week.
What I have to do is to add whole sections of actions and scenery in the next parts of the story. I am now looking at fifty or sixty pages when done.
One thing I am doing is setting up the rest of the 60+ stories I already have written. A lot that is suggested in the later stories are pointed to directly here. I am also fixing many of the rules the later stories needed to work.


I finished this month's story ideas tonight. I posted 31 story ideas, one for each day, and ended on Page 49, with a total of 29,992 words.
I have 39 story ideas in my concept compost pile right now. I seam to get as many story ideas I need, keeping the depth of the compost pile about the same level. There is something about gaining a deeper compost pile that is kind of satisfying. It shows that my mind is working faster than the keyboard.
Usually, the un-post-able concepts don't grow fast, mainly because I am posting the concepts rapidly. what might not seam usable right now, may spark my fancy today. The concept I posted tonight, was something I got from a discussion while visiting my writing partner back in July. Today, It just sounded like the right concept to post and it got written.
There are two things I can say about my story ideas. One, if I put all this effort into one piece, I could write several novel rough drafts in a year.
The other is that in many ways, this is more fun. I get to come up with a brilliant concept, get the excitement of starting a new project, and receive the satisfaction of finishing it, all within a couple hours of writing. What is more, is that I don't have to edit the piece unless I choose to turn it into a finished piece, which I have done over the years. The Waxy Dragon story I am rewriting, was once a story idea.

I am in the process of reorganizing my office. I have learned and forgotten in the past, that any time you start moving furniture around, little storage spaces are disrupted and that stuff gets piled up in boxes and on the floor to get them out of the way.
I have most of the papers of every story Idea I have written since I started. Right now, they are in coffee single boxes. I figured out that if I flatten the papers, instead of having them balled up like many are in the boxes, I can save a tremendous amount of space. I have between 120 and 150 boxes of idea, each one is a month of posted concepts, laying around. I need to condense them to save some room and get them out of the way, but that takes time that could better be used on the computer work such as writing. Decisions, decisions.
Actually, I really should toss them. They can be tossed at any time the need arises, so holding off is a better decision at this second. The moment they are tossed, they can never be retrieved. If the decision is wrong, it could bring up a lot of regret.
I almost have my third computer set up. It is a 486/33 that can run some key programs my more modern computers don't like at all. It can also read disks that are not available in anything else around. I had lost a lot of files that are on the disks I cannot read now.
The big thing I did with my rearrangement is to give myself more room with the furniture I had. Just turning a hutch around gave me a new computer station.

For a story idea based on moving things around, She received a couple pieces of furniture. She was told that they were spelled to be useful. She simply shrugged.
she set it up in her room. A bit later, she decides to change it. As she is moving them, she finds there are pieces she did not notice before. By swinging the new pieces out, she has more furniture, a bigger desk.
Later, she moves her furniture and finds there was a hutch there. She was positive it was not there before. She sets that up and it is nice.
Over time, she has to pack the furniture up for a move. she carefully places each piece back where she got it, wondering how they are going to be moved. the furniture is picked up as the original pieces she had, and placed into the new home. When she unpacks the furniture, they have doubled from what she had at the old place.
Eventually, the house has that furniture all through the house and little else. That is when she realizes what was meant that it was spelled to be useful. It grows and shrinks with each move, depending on how she arranges things in her house. .

As to the question of the week, I can say

YES, I DID WRITE.


DID YOU WRITE?

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Woodworking Weekend. 08-29-09

year 9, Week 33, Day One (week 503)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-29-09 Saturday

87 degrees and no wind, high humidity in the morning, then 95 degrees, light breeze, dry air in the afternoon. Blue sky with lots of puffs all day long. Late in the afternoon, some tower clouds started rising to the south. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The cat was in a bad mood in the morning, which is sweet and cuddly compared to what he was like this time last year. In the afternoon, he really wanted attention and company. He got some but not as much as he wanted.
For those who don’t know or remember, The cat, Beggar, was born in Mom’s yard In June of 2003. The mother cat sort of belonged to the neighbor. He was the second litter she had in Mom’s yard. Even as a little kitten, he had an attitude. You picked him up and he would fight you. The others of the litter were loving. The neighbor eventually found homes for the mother cat and the kittens, but Kept Beggar. We called him Beggar because he would come over and beg food from Kitty Kat, who had adopted mom at the same time as the momma’s first litter, but was of a different mother. Beggar would beg for food and later, pushed Kitty Kat away and eat his food.
Beggar later adopted Mom’s yard. He still was a wild creature. In October two years ago, I was the only one who could really handle Beggar. I would give him some food and he would let me pet him six times before he swatted at me. I could pick him up and he did not bite me just tried to push away from me. I got the idea to feed him a few grains of food, pet him his six times, then wait for him to calm down, then pet him again. After a time, he found he liked being petted. Last year, Mom started petting his tail when he wrapped it around her leg. Soon she was petting him. Together, we have worked on him, increasing how we handle him and he has found he loved the attention.
Right now, He is like a good cat, in a really bad mood. He does not strike with a claw, but will wave a paw in the air if you push your luck. Usually though, he now just gets up or just looks at us to get us to stop what we were doing at that moment.

Today, I had two main projects I wanted to work on. One of them, a beer stein I want to make, was left at home so I could not work on that. I had thought I left it at Mom’s house.
The other project was a bird bowl I started last week. More on that later.

A couple weeks ago, I had tried to make a three armed candlestick and messed up on my mounting system. I decided to glue a block on the end of the board and added thin boards to the side to reinforce it. I was to make a new tenon for the chuck to grab onto.
The chuck is a fitting on the lathe that opens and closes something like a chuck on a drill, but is about four inches in diameter and can grab around two inches small. The tenon on the wood is where wood is cut to a size that the chuck can grab onto, with the face of the jaws against a shoulder to reduce wobble.
One rule of wood is that when you grab the wood, one can think of a hand full of straws. When you grab them by the end, they are not going anywhere and can be held quite strong. If you grab them by the side though, they will come apart easy. Wood is made up of fibers that run up and down through the trunk. If you grab the wood from the end, it will resist breaking. One has to use more care to grab them by the side, where the bond between the fibers is weak.
Not thinking, I glued the block onto my work piece sideways. What happened was that when I started working on the piece of wood at the opposite end, the block broke, popping cleanly off because of the side grain. It happened to me twice, then I decided to work on a different project.
I will go to “Plan C” tomorrow, I think.

My bird bowls are decorative bowls made from the side of the wood so that the edge looks something like a saddle. I leave a “saucer” on the bottom, part of which I carve away to make the feet. I then carve a head, depending on what kind of bird, and sometimes a tail too.
In the case of the bird bowl I am making now, I decided to make it a duck. My dad had carved a duck head long ago to go on a cane but never did anything with it. I got the duck head and use it as a pattern for my duck heads. Since this bowl is a bit small, I shrunk the head a little. I made the mistake of not making the bill quite long enough, but it still looks pretty good.
The hardest part is fitting the base of the head to the bowl so they meet well. I have never gotten it exactly right. What I did, though, was to place sandpaper onto the bowl surface and slide the head back and forth over the surface, so it will somewhat follow the curve. I also used a strip grinder to hollow out the inside of the mating surface so the main contact is the outside edges.
What makes it difficult is that the bowl has a curve around the circumference, and it also has a curve from top to bottom. You really need to get the piece in the right position when one is sanding so the exact top to bottom curve is matched, and keep it square and straight so the exact side to side curve is matched. If I had a lot of wood, I would turn another piece to the same diameter and then place sandpaper over the surface and sand the base of the head to match in a few minutes. I don’t have that much wood, and don’t have that much time, and don’t have the gumption to even try that. I also might not fit the curve right.
Anyway, I have it closer than on most heads I have done.
Tomorrow, I will sand the bowl more to clear up bad workmanship when I made it, and sand the head so it is nice and smooth. I will then attach the head to the bowl so I can start the finishing project.
I got some buttons that are black on the outside, has a dark grey ring, then brown on the inside. They are quite passable eyes for my birds. I am going to set these eyes in while I am at it. I have to decide whether I will use the natural wood color for the head, or paint it to look like something different. I will see.

We went out for lunch at around one, and did some running around. We got back home near four, which was time to clean up and pack up. We had gone shopping while we were out. We stopped at a dollar store and they had the gloves I use for carving protection, at a dollar a pair. These have the cloth tops and leather palm and finger. The gloves won’t stop a knife, but what cuts get through will be a bloody nick, rather than a split tendon. I wear a cotton gardening glove inside for additional protection and for comfort. Dollar a piece is not bad. I also got a two dollar pipe that I want to carve for fun. It is cheap enough to destroy.

The bird bowl is my main project, but I may work on other projects too.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.



year 9, Week 33, Day Two (week 503)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-30-09 Sunday

95 degrees, blue sky with tall puffs, light breeze, sun in the morning, the clouds blocked the sun later in the afternoon. Some grey towers to the south.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department of Tourism.

I got to Mom's house later in the morning than I planned. I petted the cat and then settled down with all my equipment around me. I shaped the mating surface for the head onto the bowl a lot more. This is the best I have done, and it is not up to a quality I had hoped it would be. I did not feel like I had the time to make it perfect.
I then sanded heavily on the bowl and on the head, trying to make it as good as I can for the time I had to work. I got rid of a number of things that would bother me later.

When I had the head the way I wanted it, I drilled the holes larger for the buttons I am using as eyes. It took a lot of fitting and measuring. When I had them right, I glued them in place, then glued the head onto the bowl. I have some clean up work form the gluing, but the bowl looks pretty good. I have hours of finishing to do and have to decide whether to paint the head or use it the natural color.

I looked at other projects I could work on, but decided I would spend my time on this duck.
I worked a bit after lunch, but closed up quite early.

I am not sure what I will be working on next week. I will go to visit the antique shop on Friday and see how things are going there. I have had some of my work on display since December. I have not sold anything, and doubt I actually will sell anything, but my chances of selling something is better in the shop than in my closet.
I don't know what else I will work on. One project is to make a hobby horse (stick with a horse head on it) for my grand nephew from a horse had my brother started making a rocking horse from, but he has gotten too big for it.
I do want to do some wood turning and might try another bird bowl from the other piece of wood that this duck is from. I would like to do a WOOD-DUCK with the crest on the head. The bowl does not matter, The bowl becomes what I choose to make it. I need to locate some pictures of a wood duck, print it up, so I can copy it into wood.
I rearranged my office and might be able to get a printer operating now. Will have to see.

I will see what happens over the next week
and what I actually do next weekend.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

where these pictures are found
http://www.goldcoastwoodturners.org/
Which is the Gold Coast Woodturning club.

Other pictures of previous month club meetings, can be found in NEWSLETTERS and MEMBERS GALLERY on the web site

The club meeting has a demonstration, of some trick or technique. The members bring their work in for what amounts to a Show-And-Tell, called the Instant Gallery. Their pieces are set out in display and members can handle and examine the pieces, up close and personal. Then, during the meeting, the members tell about the piece such as what wood it is made from, any special techniques they did, and what finishes they did.

For this meeting we also had a photo set up so members could get pictures of their best pieces for the club gallery on the web site.

Periodically, we do what are called challenges. Their purpose is to get people to make something they don't normally make.
This month we had a candlestick challenge, where we were to make a candlestick.

This month, I had a brilliant idea on how to make a candle stick designed to hold three candles.
I made one, shown in the pictures, was my first attempt, created mainly to explore the concept and see where the problems are in the project.
I tried to make another one and because of the nature of how I was making it, I broke it. My third attempt ran into technical problems caused by my miscalculation.
Having nothing to show for the attempts, I brought my experiment to the club just to show off. Hopefully someone got a great idea out of my attempt.



This is the side view, on the left, of my candle stick.

This, in front, is the front view of my candle stick. see how much lower quality it is compared to the candle sticks around it. It was the only one of this design which is some thing to say for it.

AS you can see, I had some problems with this candle stick. I really messed up the platforms for the candles so I glued on some new platforms I made.
I understand the process to make it, but will have to see if I have the skills, tools and knowledge to make it actually work. If I make one right, you will see pictures of it later.
I will say that I am proud that this attempt worked as well as it did.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Did you write? August 24, 2009

Did you write? August 24, 2009

It is that time of week where you are faced with a small but important deadline. Did you write at any time during the past week? This is the place to report your accomplishments, cry about your failures, and otherwise tell about what is going on in your life.
The hope is that you see this note coming up and you get yourself to write something, whether it is something new, an edit, a poem, an article, a blog, a writing assignment, and even world or character creation as long as something gets on paper. The idea is to be involved in writing in some way, preferably productively. This note is to prompt one to write just so you can report you actually write. Of course, life tends to get in the way.

I did write this week. Several sessions of rewriting my Waxy Dragon birth story. I added only two pages and 1661 words, I cut some, but really added content. I am about to the point where the plot changes from the original version of the story. I am swapping scenes around so I can spice up the story and develop the characters and their interactions better.

At the time of this writing, I am one idea behind for the month for this date. I have till next Monday to catch up and unless something goes wrong, It should be quite easy to get caught up on my ideas.

AS to the question of the week,
Yes, I can say I did write.

Did you write?

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Woodworking weekend. 08-22 & 23, 2009

year 9, Week 32, Day One (week 502)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-22-09 Saturday


90 degrees, lots of heavy puffs of clouds, very light breeze, not too much sun later in the day. A dark cloud expanded out to something large in the afternoon, allowing mom to skip another day of watering her plants. That stopped me from working after lunch.

We had a turning club meeting Thursday. Wood turning is where you spin the wood on a machine, scraping and cutting wood off as it spins around until you have vases, bowls, plates, candle sticks, and other items that are rounded.
We had a candlestick challenge this month. A challenge is designed to get people to make things they might not normally make. Some people make only bowls, some only make vases, some make only pens or pepper grinders. The challenge is to make something new. The club then uses tickets to randomly select three people who get gift cards. There is no judging.
This month, I had tried to make a three armed candlestick. My first attempt failed, but not miserably. I was able to make it look like something. I made that one to figure out the process to make one for real. I broke my second attempt and my third one ran into other kinds of problems, mainly due to operator error and not having developed technologies and techniques to pull off the project I was doing.
They also had a photo tent there so members can get pictures of their pieces on the club web site http://www.goldcoastwoodturners.org/ in their member's gallery.
I did not have anything to show so I did not get any pictures taken.
One guy goes into the dumpsters of furniture company and brings to the club choice wood he finds. They are free to the club members. Another guy had taken pieces of a tree that was cut down. He was going to have a wood raffle, where the money goes to the club. I was good for once and did not come home with any more wood. I have plenty.

Today, I got a bit of a late start. We went to a yard sale and mom picked up a plastic rocking chair and a wooden glider rocker bench. The glider was old and the wood was not in optimal condition. I ended up cracking the arm, and then repairing it. I did have a problem that my batteries for my drill were all dead. I charged them up and was able to finish driving in the screws.

I decided I am making owls as one of my Christmas ornaments. I make blanks on the lathe to save on carving time and effort. These owls have horns, and a beak, wings, feet and tail. I use the lathe to remove the wood between these features, adding some of the shape. I remove the corners of the square stick that don't fit the shape of the owl. Two corners that remain on the top become the horns. I leave one corner for the beak, one corner for the tail, and one corner for the feet. The rest is shaping with the carving knife.

The cat was quite sweet today. He only showed his displeasure of what I was doing to him once. Last year, he would swat with one claw bared. Now he will wave his paw in the air to tell us to stop. He has learned to love to be petted and likes our company. He has changed a lot over the past three years, going from swatting after six pets while eating, to enjoying being petted even when there is no food around.

I went in to cool down and got involved with Mom's digging through watches. It started out when I could not get the band on a watch when I was swapping bands. What we figured out was that the pins were for a wider watch than we were using.
Mom ended up going through nearly a dozen watches that were once my dad's watches. She found two wind up watches that seam to work and gave them to me to use. I also have a self winding watch that usually works pretty good. It does not store the motion long enough though.
Anyway, we spent a couple hours going through the watches.

When I went for lunch, I saw a small grey cloud to the south west. After lunch, I decided to go out since we heard thunder. I had left my lathe out and shed doors open. It was sprinkling lightly with large drops. We got everything put away before the sky opened up. It was worse to the west of us, and to the south. That ended my woodworking day.

Tomorrow, I need to get to work fairly early and make something more substantial I have not done any serious wood turning since June when I made several platters. I have loads of projects I want to do. I just have to decide which one to do. My first projects is to find a fitting piece of wood for whatever project I choose.

Will see what I actually do tomorrow.


year 9, Week 32, Day two (week 502)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-22-09 Sunday


95 degrees, lots of patchy clouds, periodic sun, some breeze, a dribble from the sky that was quite ignorable, but used as an excuse for a break. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.

I came to Mom's house with an intention to make sawdust. I was going to make a bird bowl. I was thinking of using a piece of Norfolk Island Pine, I have, but was open to using a different type of wood.
After petting the kitty cat, I went out to the shed. There was a piece of Florida Mahogany that I have had for a while. I decided it would do the job. I sliced a chunk off the wood with the band saw. I should have made it longer, but it would do for this project.

When starting with a log, one can choose to spin it on the center of a log, as it was growing, or one can spin it sideways, as a branch grows out of it. Each way has different effects on the final product. Bigger in diameter the piece is, the more opportunities one can have on the final results.
The piece I was working with was about five inches in diameter. It was a bit egg shaped in diameter and I used the added size in my design.
I measured the wide part and found the center, then went to the "point" of the wood and located the center of that. I ran a line through the points I located and that was the center line of the wood I was working from. I did that on both ends and then ran a line through the length of the wood which was about six inches long.
I measured along both lines and located the center of the wood that way. That gave me where my drive center and my tail stock would stick into the wood.
I spun the wood, the ends whipping around like a propeller. I first leveled the part that would be the bottom of the bowl. I had to sharpen my bowl gouge as it was bouncing off the wood. I got it nice and sharp and the gouge ate the wood so nicely.
Learning to sharpen tools is very important. dull tools are dangerous, can do serious damage. Improperly sharpened tools can be totally useless.
REMEMBERING to sharpen tools is also important. It is a habit I never got out of. I tend to want to get to work right now. I don't want to stop and sharpen tools, Just get the job done. Many times, I can be my worst enemy.

My bird bowls have was can be described as a saucer as part of the base, which becomes the feet of the bird bowl. I shaped that first, then rough shaped the outside.
I tend to rough shape the outside of the bowls because I am rather rough and my work tends to go off center and run into all sorts of problems. I used to fine finish the outside first, then I would mess up on the inside and have to refinish the outside again so it was center to the inside. I need to get my skills better on that count.

Spinning a log sideways has an interesting effect if you leave the edge natural. the edge of the bowl becomes saddle shaped, dipping deep on the sides and rising high on the ends. I use this shape for an effect with my bird bowls. They are unusual a shape. The head, and if necessarily, a tail, goes on the high parts of the bowl.

Very unusual for me, I finished the bowl with little problems. I do have lots of sanding to do to get it to a finish surface. Because I am working outside, I tend to be quick and sloppy, and then have to correct that manually.

Next week I hope to do more turning and have several projects that need to be finished up including this bird bowl and a beer stein, and a vase.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Friday, August 21, 2009

WHAT STAMPS ARE YOU WATCHING?

For the stamp collectors in the audience...

Soon the United States Post Office will be issuing a set of 20 stamps honoring what has been called "The Golden Age of Television".
Priced at the current mailing rate of 44 cents, the series will be commemorating the following shows:
*The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (The Nelsons)
*Alfred Hitchcock Presents
*The Dinah Shore Show
*Dragnet
*The Ed Sullivan Show
*George Burns and Gracie Allen
*The Honeymooners
*Hopalong Cassidy (western hero)
*The Howdy Doody Show
*I Love Lucy
*Kulka, Fran, and Ollie
*Lassie
*The Lone Ranger (and Tonto)
*Perry Mason
*The Phil Silvers Show (aka: Sgt. Bilko and/or You'll Never Get Rich)
*The Red Skelton Show
*The Texaco Star Theater (with host "Uncle" Milton Berle)
*The Tonight Show (with originating host Steve Allen)
*The Twilight Zone (with creator Rod Serling), and
*You Bet Your Life (with host Groucho Marx)

The 20 stamps are to be issued in black and white to mimic the original broadcast medium.For more information on this or any other postal service or product, just go to http://www.usps.com

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: FANTASTIC FOUR #569

To preface the following, I am a very avid reader. And one of the many things I read (and I do stress the R word) is comic books. My very first was Action Comics #434, May 1974 from what was then National Periodical Publications, now more commonly known as DC Comics (named for one of their earliest titles, Detective Comics). The following is a review of a book I recently read.

Now, on one hand, the outcome of the current Fantastic Four storyline "Doom's Master", had a couple of predictable conclusions
1. The person believed dead in the title turned out to still be alive.
2. The big event that the subplot had been building towards in the last few issues (the wedding of Ben Grimm, aka The Thing) didn't happen after all.

I am not surprised by these results, for this was Mark Millar's last issue as writer and the one thing he could not do was shake up the series' status quo for too long.
However, there were a couple of surprises along the way.
1. How the presumed deceased actually survived.
2. Why the big event in the subplot never happened.

Yet while overall this issue was an enjoyable read, I do have one major quibble:
WHERE WAS FRANKLIN RICHARDS?
If Millar wanted to focus on Valeria and develop the character during his tenure, no problem. But Franklin was absent without leave (or story explanation) for most of the last two issues, and nobody either within the story or on the editorial side of the page seemed to have noticed! Don't you think that despite everything going on, the parents (Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic and his wife Sue, aka the Invisible Woman) would have noticed the absence of their oldest child?
Hopefully the new creative team that takes over with issue 570 will be more alert about their cast.

The above is just my opinion folks. Would you like to see more (comic) book reviews? Just leave a comment either way.

08-17-09 Did You write?

I post these did you write notes each week on several bulletin boards as a prompt to get myself to write something during the week and hope others use it as an excuse to get into writing too.

This was last week's post.


08-17-09 Did You write?

I hope you were able to find some time to write. I hope this note gave you the impetus to actually write when you were not intending to otherwise. This is a place to brag about your accomplishments or cry about your failures.

As to what is writing, is up to opinion. Writing something new is writing, but editing is also writing. Poetry, articles, writing assignments, blogging, are also writing. Character creating and world building are also writing, if one gets something on paper. E-mails can also be considered writing if they are very wordy and pertain to writing. Some of these definitions might not be writing to you, and some others not listed might be. If you think you wrote, say that you wrote.

As for me, I did write. I am editing, rewriting, My Waxy Dragon Birth story. I just noticed I don't have a title. I guess I will now be a Baron... sorry, could not help the funny. I had almost finished the story, and decided to go to the beginning and make the changes I really wanted to make. I am expanding the piece by adding descriptions and details I never add to my writing.
This week, I went from 15959 words to 17217 words. That is only 1258 words, two pages. I zapped a lot of what I had and did it differently. I think most of the words was in adding a new scene. All that work has been in rewriting the first six pages. I have a lot of pages to go on this.
One thing I am doing, is taking all the stuff I learned from all the sixty plus stories written about Waxy, and long hours of discussions with my writing partners. I am making this story with the overall universal consistency we worked out. I am also trying to give detailed definition of a character who is barely seen in most of the stories. I am character building, but as I write, not plotting it out.
I am trying to spend an hour a night to write on this, but that time does not always show up.


On the story ideas, I am still generally on schedule. I will have a little falling behind, but can catch up easily if I put my mind to it, as last month showed. I am still coming up with new concepts to add to my compost pile and post. It has slowed down a little, but keeping up anyway.
My compost pile, including tonight's story idea, is at 41 concepts.
I write most of my concepts on five by five pieces of paper and each new one on top the stack. They tend to also be the first ones I post. The less desirable a concept is, the deeper it sinks into the stack. I will dig into the stack for something usable, and just take out the better ones and put them on top the stack. In this process, like a compost pile, the poor concepts slowly sink to the bottom, eventually to decay into nothing. I have a baggy filled with 170 story ideas that might never see the computer screen. Of course, I should dig through them and see if there are any that catch my fancy... Not now though.

I am comfortable in my new computer now. I have some data transfers to do but no rush right now. I have a third computer to set up, an old 486/33. I have some programs I want to run and windows 90 or 2000 don't like the programs.
In my digging into a spare bedroom that has a permanent model railroad layout and is used for storage, I found out that I have a total of eleven computer monitors. I had ten, but this weekend, got a 19 inch monitor at a yard sale for five bucks. A button on the front is mashed in, but it is great. I accumulated the monitors one at a time, for various reasons, but have decided I need to make room. They will be donated after I pick out the best three of them.
The other week, I searched and searched for monitor extension cords or switch boxes, having to buy a new one. When I was in the storage room for something else, I found I had two extension cables, two switch boxes, one of which I had in my hand and thought it was for mice. dumb. I am going to empty out the room a little and see exactly what I have, consolidate it and get it into a better order. I have it, I just cannot find it.

for a possible story idea, you have someone who keeps anything that is still useable. It slowly accumulates over time. He used to be able to put his hands on everything, but now cannot find anything.
He was sort of stuck on the moon, never making enough to get a ticket off. that meant he could not get a ship of his own. He simply worked for a living and for fun, repairing machinery, and for fun, seeing things work that was not supposed to work.
One day, he needs to fix a piece of machinery and knows for a fact he has the parts somewhere. He goes into his storage room. He never finds the part he needs and has to go and buy it.
he starts digging out his parts seriously. He empties the room and starts sorting. Looking at what he has, he starts to assemble devices based on the parts he has. They are all old devices, but quite serviceable. Some mechanical, some electronic, some are sensors. He finds he has just a few pieces of machinery that need parts.
He goes out to his barn where he has parts for larger machinery. He goes through there the same way, assembling parts and machinery.
He realizes that most of this equipment can be used in a space ship. Out of curiosity, he lays out the equipment, which includes a nearly complete drive system. Most of the ship is there.
he then looks and finds he has most of the structural members and sheeting a ship would need.
The economy of the moon drops so he has little work coming in. He can spend time on his space ship project. What he does not know is h0w much he would need to buy.
Two years go by. He has the ship sitting there with all the equipment in place. He has even powered up the systems to see what he is missing. Digging through the remains of his parts, he finds he can make most of what is missing.
The economy has gotten worse. He receives word he is going to lose his house and business. He loads up his ship with all his belongings. He has it fueled up, which was hard as he kept purchasing canisters of fuel so no one would know what he was doing.
he has to buy a new space suit, all prepared for him. He gets into the suit, and takes the ship out and flies off, making all the traffic controllers and local officials angry at him, shouting charges against him over communications.
He gets into space and escape his old life forever.

AS to the question of the week,

YES I DID WRITE!!!

DID YOU WRITE?

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Crochet Nights...

One thing I like to do in the evening is crochet. After dinner, which Lee and I usually have late and in front of the TV on tray tables, I will drag out the latest project and get to work. After the baby afghan I finished early last month (pics forthcoming) I had several weeks hiatus before I thought of another project. I have yarn stashes all over the place, one is in plastic baskets stacked right next to my recliner. I have hooks and all sorts of supplies sitting nearby just waiting to be taken up. That's the best way to make sure you actually do something with the stuff. Of course it adds to the clutter, but that never bothered me before.

I had a ball of flea market aqua sweater/sport weight acrylic blend yarn that had been annoying me for a while. My bathroom upstairs is supposed to be aqua like the hallway, though one of the guys who did the painting was colorblind and used the green from the office. We'll repaint someday, it's good enough for now. The tub surround tile is soft aqua and white swirl and that was similar to the flooring. Anyway, I need a bag holder because we use plastic shopping bags in the small wastebaskets throughout the upstairs, and to clean the cat litter pan, and while waiting to be used they tend to accumulate in the bathroom in an untidy pile. I decided that was what I was doing with the aqua and started a round tube with a BOYE aluminum F hook. The tube end is several rows (I think 5) of single crochet for sturdiness, and then I picked up every other stitch with double crochet in a mesh stitch pattern of *1 DC, chain 1 and skip a stitch* all the way around. Where it joins I have been slip stitching and reversing direction to keep the seam in one spot. When you start a new row, turn and chain 4, the last chain on top becomes the spacer between the three chain placeholder and the next DC, and when you come back around you slip stitch to the second chain down. That turn after every join makes it easier to hide the seam in the back, though it honestly does not look all that bad.



The tube started to look pretty tiny, and I wanted to pull it out and start over, but this yarn is a bit fuzzy and resists frogging. Soooo, I increased and made the tube bigger, hence the sudden trumpet shape. Can you tell I am making this one up as I go along? LOL

I want to continue this one up to a sort of rounded top with a reasonably-sized opening to wad the bags into, and then make a good strong hanging loop for it. I don't know how good it is going to work pulling bags through it with that long skinny tube on the bottom end, but it is a fun and mindless sort of project. Perfect for watching a baseball game. *s*


Woodworking

Back in 2000, I realized my father was in his 80s. I decided I did not want one of those "I wish I had said, I wish I had done" kind of situations. My dad learned carving years ago, and was trying to get me involved. I started learning to carve, simply by doing it, and avoiding the mistakes he made as he was learning.
Since then, I learned how to do wood turning - making bowls, vases, platters, decorative pieces on a lathe. He died at the age of 89, and I have continued the hobby he created for me.
Since 2000, I posted notes on my woodworking activities every week, usually daily. The following are the two posts I did this weekend.
Note, A pencil head is a carved head I attach to the end of a pencil as a decorative item.


year 9, Week 24, Day One (week 494)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-27-09 Saturday

94 degrees, lots of thick puffs, some thunder heads around the horizon, nice breeze. Some wet roads outside our area. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I did no woodworking today. I had to fix Mom's computer and that took all day.

The past two weeks, three weekends, I have been out of town. It was a good vacation, but we all forgot much of what happened until we went through our notes and records, plus our pictures. It turned out that we had a really full couple weeks.
I brought up the Pratt and Whitney plaque up to the husband of my writing friend up there. Many people where he worked, loved the plaque. He was pretty proud of it too. I gave a few carvings and turnings as gifts.
Several days into the week, we were working in the garden. I went with her husband to cut some grass to use as mulch in the garden. The friend who's grass we were cutting, has started doing woodworking. I had a tour of his shop and he showed what he was up to. I showed him some things about his lathe that he did not know. He says he needs more room but I would love to have the shop he has already. He has three more table saws and wants to be able to set them up so he does not have to reset his table saw for different stages of projects. He does a couple dozen of each thing he makes.

I was given a couple sticks of wood and I carved a pixy. It came out pretty good, but needs to be painted. I gave it to my writing friend for her collection of my woodworking. In the second week, I started carving a ball and chain, and broke half a link off. I decide to make a human head of the ball, then decided to have a snake body. A couple days later, I changed the human head to a snake head and that really set it off. My friend kept the snake, cutting it off the stick, then is carving a spirit man out of the rest of the piece of wood.
I looked over her carving tools and showed her how to sharpen her tools. She had done pretty good so far, including with the knife I made and gave her. I confirmed how to sharpen her chisels so she was happy.

They are just now getting some chain stores in her area. Lowes, Home Depot, We visited the Harbor Freight and wood crafts that is just outside her area. These chain stores are pretty much the same in layout, supplies and prices.

We went to a couple swap shops. One is all outside. I could have picked out about two hundred dollars worth of stuff I wanted to have, if I had a way to ship it. These are all yard-sale type people. The ground is not level, up and down some slight hills. My feet held out really good, but I was puffing for most of the third quarter of the place. It was good. I really wanted a set of blacksmith tongs, but only took pictures. I left with a set of three dividers.
The second swap meet we went to was indoors, except for a few hearty souls outside. I saw a few things I wanted, but was not about to ship. If I was living up there, I would have gone crazy. AS it was, NO room in my luggage so I walked out without spending any money.

We visited a school chum of my friend. She showed me how a spinning wheel works to make thread. She has a pair of sheep she cares for and is using the sheep to take down some tall weeds they love to eat. She gave me a piece of black walnut. I don't have room for it in my luggage so it will be shipped down to me later.

This was a working vacation, full of fun activities for a sedate kind of person. We are thinking I will go up in the fall next year, during a period where a big fair and a renaissance fair overlap.

I have no idea what I will work on tomorrow, but will see if I actually get something done.



year 9, Week 24, Day One (week 494)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-28-09 Sunday.

85 when I checked the temp at around ten, 90 when I went in due to a light shower. Very light breeze, little or no blue sky. Storm cells surrounded us all day. When I ended my day due to weather, I was finishing up a book I had so it did not matter. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.

I started the day a bit later than planned. I went out and petted the kitty, giving him some food. I after a bit, I got to work at taking out my "stick pile", where I store two by twos and branches, along with other long wood. I knew some of the wood was not usable any more and wanted to see what I had. I pulled all the wood out down to some large boards I was satisfied was all right. I laid the pieces out for about an hour. I then picked through the removed stack. I have some large wood and some special wood that was separated out, then I put them back in the stack.
I then picked out my Norfolk Island Pine Branches. These were all knocked down by Hurricane Wilma and were bigger than normal branches of the tree. I originally had the bark on them and was carving Pixies using the bark as part of the design. I went on to other projects and the branches just sat. The bugs found the bark inviting and wood borers got inside too. last year, I removed all the bark and put the branches back, making them uninteresting to the bugs.
I looked over the wood very carefully. The pieces which were in pretty good condition, especially in the large sections, got put back. I cut up some of the smaller pieces with bad worm holes in them. the pieces could well be used as they were, but I did not want to bother with that. I have more than enough wood.

My brother showed up between jobs. We talked quite a bit. I got a set of dividers up north and showed them to him. He said they were very good. One of them could have been better, but no one will complain about that. WE talked a bit but did not have too much time.

I also considered emptying the shed to get things in there rearranged and see what I have in there, but was not really in a mood to do much more so that will be a project for another day.

I have no idea what-so-ever as to what I will work on next weekend. It will be dependant on my moods and ideas.
So, I wills ee what I do next week.

Welcome!

This is our craft and hobby blog. Roger, Lee and I have many interests and we are all pretty creative folks. Here we hope to host our various forays into art, crafts, and hobbies as well as collections and obsessions. Should be a pretty lively place!

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