This one is certainly not my own. I ran across a post on Instructables about making your own bookmarks from scrap wood.
Lacking the appropriate scrap wood, I picked up some 2×2 lengths of hard wood, oak and alder perhaps? Probably $7 in wood. Then I cut my own blanks, cutting the stock to 6 inches and setting the fence to shave off 1/8″.
This is where I learned that a feather board would have been useful since I had some variability in the width of my results. Also, if I didn’t keep a steady push of the wood through the blade, I did end up with some spots that burned rather than cut.
But, it was good enough to start.
The first batch I made was me trying designs, some original, some not as original (if the Keith Haring estate sees one of these below, please let them know I love Keith’s work!).
The next batch was me trying some shapes with the bandsaw and no pen work.
In the end, a fun project and it was fun to let the family pick their favorites.
Note on the shapes: My daughter wanted one of the “spoons”. It’s supposed to be a stylized exclamation point. Somewhere between the physical necessity of connecting the dot at the bottom and the top I appear to have lost the distinction. Or my typography bites. Either is possible.
This is an even older one, but still one of my favorites.
Clear back in 1998, I wanted to build something and the something I came up with was a plan for an Adirondack chair.
At the time, I didn’t have many woodworking tools, so it had to have pretty low hardware requirements. Also, I didn’t want to put lots of money in to it, so something that I could build with reasonably priced wood was a big plus.
Enter Jake’s Chair. Interestingly, if you Google the term, you will find my site in the top 10. But it’s linked more elsewhere.
Basically, it’s a straight forward plan that can be done by a novice. But, that’s what I needed (and still need).
Back when I did this in 1998 (page here), I did it with cheap pine and I had to buy a router. When I decided to do the project again here a couple of years ago, I upgraded to clear cedar, which I stained.
One of the best things about this project, aside from the sense of accomplishment, is if something happens, like one of the slats in the seat or stool breaks because of a knot in the cheap pine or a dog chews the armrest on one of the chairs, I can fix it and not have to replace the chair. And, yes, I’ve had to do both.
The original chair has since been painted, but is still holding up well. The most recent pair are doing well.
Due to the cost of wood, or at least in these areas if you have to go to your local suburban home improvement store or lumber store, the lumber can be expensive.
If I recall, the last pair and a stool cost me something like $250 in wood, hardware and stain. And my time, of course. So, it’s likely cheaper to just buy one when you see one you like. But, there really is something to be said for the knowledge that you *made* what you’re sitting in on a warm summer evening. And, that if something happens, you can fix it.
I’d love to make six or eight of them to give as gifts, but not enough to pay the money for material and/or the multiple weekends I have to spend on the project. Then delivery to the various friends and family. So, for now, I have the only three that I’ve built.
Here’s pics of the latest pair after completion. This is before staining and sealing.
At the time I saw the article, I was looking for a Christmas gift project and this seemed like a good fit.
The original article used some tracing paper and glass frosting spray to achieve the effect, but I thought that might not hold up well, so I wanted to try something else.
Additionally, I couldn’t find the Ikea jars mentioned.
My start was a trip over to my home products store to see if I could find a comparable jar. I did find one that I thought would suit, but could only find a couple at that store and I knew my goal was a dozen for gifts.
A total of three stores and some gas later I had my dozen jars.
Jars
Next step was to head off to my local home improvement store in search of solar outdoor lights. I traveled with jar in hand because I had to figure out if the light, when modified, would fit in the lid of the jar.
I ended up with a couple sets of lights that looked like they’d do the trick
Lights
Since I was only interested in the solar part: the panels, the rechargeable battery and light, much of the rest of the light was unnecessary to the project.
Parts!
Next step was to take them home and “modify” them to fit my jars. This was done thought the wonders of a Dremel tool.
A word of warning here: I’m not convinced, in retrospect, that this was the brightest or most effective way to go, but it worked. There was a lot of bits of cut black plastic all over after I was done. Cleanup took a while. But the result looked like it was going to fit just fine in the jar.
The next step was to try and figure out how to frost the glass in the way I imagined. I looked in to the spray but didn’t like the look on the glass.
I also thought about the paper route, but was ultimately unsure it would hold up or last.
In the end I went over to my local craft store and purchased a nasty chemical concoction whose sole purpose it to etch the glass.
While this worked, it’s a pretty caustic mix, being mostly acid and some grit. The effect, though, was more or less what I wanted so I went with it.
The final interesting challenge was how to attach the modified lights to the lid in the jar. While it fit pretty well, I needed something to seal it. My initial attempt was simply electricians tape. It looked fine and I figured the close fit would be sufficient.
After a few more hours work, I had completed the project and was very happy with the results.
Final Sun Jar
Update: It’s been two years since this project and I have more insight in to how the end result holds up.
Two things I’ve learned:
1. The jars don’t like to be jostled and knocked about, like if they are left on a porch or dropped off a porch railing. The batteries are likely to pop out and require taking the jar apart to fix.
2. The second thing I learned is that after a winter outside, electricians tape really gets kind of gross and loses it’s effectiveness. Note, this may be limited to cheap tape, I’m not sure. Ditto duct tape. Next I tried clear silicone. It stays less rigid, but doesn’t hold things together that well. My latest attempt was automotive gasket sealer and while that worked pretty well, it’s still subject to some wear.
3. The jars are also not sealed since the jar seal had to come out to get things to fit. This can result in condensations and/or water getting in the jar. Nice effect, perhaps, but not the intended presentation.
That’s it. After two years, I’m still pretty happy with the results of this project.
My nephew asked me recently to look at a story he’s writing and give some feedback and asked if I had any advice about writing.
While by no means what I consider to be a writer, I had a few things to share that I thought worthy.
The first question was what makes a writer.
I don’t recall where I ran across this or if it was phrased this way (a bit of googling failed to turn up a quick answer), but here’s my favorite definition:
Writers write.
It’s short. It’s two words! But, it’s also a true thing. Writers write. You are a writer if you write. You write, therefore you are a writer.
If you want to add all sort of qualifications, you can. Things like “professional” or “paying” or “talented” can always be placed before “writer” as achievements or judgements or justification or decoration, but none of them alter the basic truth: Writers write.
Same, of course, can be said of most creative endeavors: Writers write. Painters paint. Potters pot (not entirely sure that’s a viable verb here - ah, yes, m-w.com agrees that it’s a decent enough verb).
This is my own observation: The distinction between where you are today and where you could be in the future is mostly hard work, with a strong dash of good luck.
I recently ran across a set of YouTube videos by Ira Glass (This American Life) on story telling and, more generally, how to improve your craft, be it story telling, writing, painting or nearly any creative endeavor.
For those who don’t know Mr. Glass, he, along with a number of very talented contributors, does radio stories. Definitely worth listening to. He has also recently branched out to a video version of the same idea on Showtime. At the end of the day, though, he’s telling stories.
Go to you tube, search for “Ira Glass on Storytelling”. There are four of them. About 20 minutes total. Watch them, pay attention to them, listen like someone is handing you free gold, because that’s what it is.
[Note: Linked below]
The third section has a critical lesson: Being good at something takes time and practice. Don’t give up! Keep producing, preferably on a deadline.
Gordon, a good friend of mine, states is slightly differently: We get better at the things we practice.
Obvious, perhaps, but still an important realization. Talent will give some people a head start, but the reality is, the vast majority of us can get far, far better than we are at whatever we set our minds to if we practice.
My daughter is doing some videos on YouTube. Mostly for friends, but obviously anyone can watch them.
They’re not all good, but some of them are. She’s also getting better the more she does, whether we’re talking editing or presentation. But, regardless, she is creating. And practicing. With time, if she keeps doing it, she’ll get better. Or, as Ira Glass talks about in the third video, she’ll begin to close the game between what she envisions and what she can create.
That last is a really powerful idea and it’s one that is worth reiterating. Lots of people have ideas. Not all good, but ideas. They want to write something, make something, dance, sing. What keeps many people from doing that is that they picture the end result and they look at where they are now and they don’t know how to close the gap.
The short answer is: practice. Like most things in life, there aren’t shortcuts, only hard work.
Much of writing (or painting or singing or dancing) is mechanical. The rules, the structures, plotting, dialog. Those are all things that can be learned and can be improved.
Does that mean you will end up as a top selling author/artist/singer/dancer? Perhaps not, but if you could get 90% there on hard work, I think many of us, perhaps most of us, would be pretty happy and would be able to create what we see in our heads, or at least come close and enjoy the process!
Testing how well one can write and post from a tiny (virtual) keyboard.
It ain’t quick, but if someone had something to say, they could get it done.
I loves me some gadgets!
You’d think that after three days of dragging the Daughter around San Francisco and her fighting a cold, I’d take pity on her and just take it easy for the last day. But, no. Really, what’s the fun in that!
Since our flight didn’t leave till 5pm and we probably didn’t need to drop off the car till 3pm and even leaving an hour from San Francisco to the Oakland airport (since I don’t know the traffic), that still gave us a few hours to fill.
So, after packing and checking out, it was off to the Exploratorium!
In Portland, we have OMSI, which I love. This was a super-sized collection of all the things I love best in a science museum. The architecture and location are great. Very picturesque. The inside is filled with lots of great displays, both interactive (lots of them!) and not. Heck, I even got to play an original Lunar Lander video game. This thing had great controls. You could rotate the capsule, but it had a big, honking crossbar handle that you pulled to increase the engine power. I loved the feel of it when I was a kid and I stilled loved it as an adult! ‘Course, I had to wait behind a small kid who didn’t get that you actually had to land softly to get any credit. And, when I offered to show him, he looked at me like the Stranger I probably appeared and chose to beat a hasty retreat to another part of the museum, leaving me to recall that while landing on the 1x and 2x landing pads was pretty easy, those 5x pads are tough!
The theme of the exhibit were the senses, so stuff about touch and sight and hearing. There were some great displays. I really loved the display that showed you could build a car with square wheels and it would roll smoothly, so long as the road was a series of appropriately shaped curves. If that’s hard to imagine, you can read more about it here.
If there were one thing I could change, it’d probably be to add a bar that says “You must be this high to enter the Exploratorium”. And put it at about six feet!
Too many kids! What the heck were they doing there on a school day mid-day? Learning or something?
In any case, we had a great time killing another couple hours.
From there, it was pretty mundane as we made out way back across the bridge to Oakland, lose the rental car and get to the airport and our gate with an hour or so to spare before loading up on the plane.
An easy ride home and we made our way back to PDX where, wait for it, it was raining… Yeah, a real shocker if you’re from the area.
I had a great time on the trip and I believe the Daughter did as well. It was definitely a busy vacation, but I like that on occasion. And I can’t think of a city better suited to being busy for three or four days while not requiring a car and having a variety of things to do.
The plan for the day was to include The Museum of Modern Art, SFMOMA. I had a great time there the last time I was in town. Back then there was a Keith Haring exhibit, as well as some really amazing art painted on acrylic involving alien abduction and inappropriate alien to human touching. Very cool.
This time it wasn’t quite as much fun, though always worth the trip. This time the most memorable exhibit was a Lee Friedlander retrospective. I wasn’t familiar with his work, so it was a good exhibit for me. Yes, to those of you very familiar with his work, I am a troglodyte when it comes to my art education. I’m lucky to be able to tell the difference between a Warhol and a Matisse. They were contemporaries, weren’t they? See what I mean?
The Daughter was feeling pretty run down fighting a cold, so I headed off on my own to the museum. Since both the hotel and SFMOMA were on major bus line (the number 30), I saved some money and took the bus. Very packed, especially through China Town. Standing room only, so I gave my seat over to someone who could use it more than me pretty quickly.
After the museum trip, the Daughter was feeling better, so I took the bus back to the hotel to pick her up and head back out for another trip to China Town.
This time we took the cable car, which was only a block or so from our hotel, back to near China Town. This time the Daughter chose to ride on the outside for that San Francisco experience. But, being the true child of the new millenium, she was texting someone up until the cable car took off. She didn’t fall off or lose her cell phone, but I certainly imagined it happening.
Just some more wandering around, along with some souvenir buying (tea). It’s clear that my knowledge of tea is right up there with my knowledge of wine. With wine, I know red and white, bottle and boxed, dry and … wet?
Tea appears to be much the same in that those who understand and appreciate it can tell much more about it than I can. They talk about it in much the same terms as oenophiles (didn’t think I’d know that one, did you?) talk about wine: Essence of blackberry, hints of oakiness. That kind of thing. Me, I could smell sweet and grassy, that was about it. But, I have four tastebuds, so I’m probably the wrong person to be anything other than jealous of people who can sense the world in ways that are closed off to me.
In any case, we purchased tea from a nice shop, based on recommendations and went on our way again.
We had lunch up in the Empress of China, on the top floor of a building on the northeast corner of China Town. I recommend it without reservation. Yum. Spendy, but a great view and the food was good. Worth a bit of extra money for the experience.
To really fill our day, we caught the cablecar back and got to the hotel at 3:45. I wanted to pack more stuff in so we rushed off to Pier 39 (for the third time, I think) to catch the Blue and Gray Cruise in the Bay. Out and under the Golden Gate Bridge, back behind Alcatraz and back to the pier in a hour. I had a great time, though the boat was filled. The Daughter was back to feeling low energy, so spent most of the trip inside watching stuff go by.
That was enough for that night, so we decided to call it good for Day Three.
On our second day, we started by walking down the street to a local cafe where I had an omelet which was cooked in a waffle maker. Seemed to work just fine, so no complaints here.
One of the primary goals for the day was to go miniature golfing. That’s what the Daughter wanted to do, so she was going to miniature golf!
On Google Maps, I found a place up in Marin County, so we headed out over the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped at the vista point on the other side of the bridge to take some pictures and look around. Very nice and a beautiful day for pictures and sight seeing.
We found the golf place without incident and golfed our 18 holes and had a good time. It was a pretty area and a fun drive.
On the way back we decided to look for something to drink and followed signs randomly (this is “Adventure Time”). We ended up finding the Marin County Farmer’s Market. Lots of good food to choose from, arts, crafts, fruits, vegetables. Your basic Farmer’s Market, albeit a bit more upscale and expensive for the arts and/or crafts.
We opted for heading back to the hotel to crash for a while and get some downtime.
The plan for the evening was something I heard about only recently: Bring Your Own Big Wheel. This is the eight running of the event. Previous years had run anything with wheels down Lombard “The crookedest street in America”. You can find video on the web. Apparently, though, the organizers were not able to get permission to run on Lombard, so they moved to Vermont Street “Even crookeder than Lombard”, or so claim the organizers.
We made our way to the site of the event and found hundreds of people already there, lining the sides of the street, the nearby park and pretty much in the course itself. Not to mention the probably 100 participants. They were dressed in all manner of costumes from bunny suites to Mr. T to a guy in bubble wrap. They were riding pretty much anything with plastic (not rubber!) wheels. Including a wheeled garbage can!
We managed to get a meager view from the park along the side of the run and missed the first run, though I managed to take some pics by raising my camera above the crowds. Then, after the first run, the people in front of us moved and we managed to get a better view for subsequent runs.
I have no idea how much “organization” there was to this thing. Lots of people went down the course. Then lots of people watching wandered on to the course while participants carried their vehicles back up to the top (or what was left of them - the running of the course appeared to be hard on the toys, er, racing equipment. Then the course would empty out for at some unseen signal and then people would again come flying down the track.
There were some very impressive crashes, both between participants and with the audience. I saw one guy go flying in to the audience, then come bouncing to his feet, clearly apologetic while helping the bowled over audience members to their feet and helping them collect their tipped beverages, then hopped back on his vehicle and took off again.
We watched this for a half hour or forty five minutes until we decided it was unlikely to get more interesting and decided to call an end to that event.
We drove back to our hotel and then walked a bit later down to Pier 39 again where I had the required (for the trip) bowl of chowder in a sourdough bowl. Yum.
This year I decided to take the Daughter to San Francisco. In past years I’ve taken my kids on a few trips for Spring Break and I figure it’s not going to be very much longer before she is making her own plans for Spring Break, so I thought I’d make the most of the opportunity.
We travelled down San Francisco on a Saturday on a flight scheduled to leave around 11:20. When we got there we checked our luggage and picked up our boarding passes. While I had a seat, the Daughter’s pass said “See Gate Agent”. We got there with more than 90 minutes to spare. I tried to ask a Gate Agent for help but was told that not any Gate Agent could help us, only “our” gate agent and that person would be there an hour before we left.
Well, an hour before came and went and no one was there to help. At a half hour before, they started boarding and we still didn’t have seats for both of us. Fifteen minutes before, they were asking for volunteers to give up seats for a later flight. It looked at first like it’d be the next day, so I didn’t want to go home and try again the next day, even for a pair of tickets to wherever. Flight time arrives and they’re busy upping the offer, throwing in first class tickets to San Fran leaving at 8pm that evening plus free tickets. I probably should have considered that, but I wanted to get there and start the vacation, so I let someone else pony up their seat. We were the last people on the flight.
The weather in San Francisco is beautiful. Blue skies, good weather, temperature around 60 degrees, light wind.
When I tried to rent our car, I was told that Priceline had rented us a car (and charged us) for one more day than we would be there. And if we wanted to get the over-charge back, we’d have to address that with Priceline. Whee.
We left the airport in Oakland and headed for San Francisco. I had the family GPS unit, so it was nice to have that as a backup and resource.
We came across the bridge from Oakland to San Francisco to find the traffic coming together for a toll road. Whoops. I had no cash. Crap!
I hit the Daughter up for whatever she had, which consisted of $2 in change. How much was the toll? We couldn’t tell. We inched forward with me wondering what I was going to do if it was more.
Sure enough, the toll was $4. Double Crap! We pulled up and I explained the situation to the toll taker. Nice lady. I explained that I had a debit card or $2 and she told me neither of those would do the job. Then she threw me a bone and said that I could pass through now and they’d bill me. Yeah! Let’s do that. But she pointed out they’d charge me more. I can afford a couple bucks. How much more? $27 total. What the heck! Yup, $27 to get through the toll booth if you don’t have cash. Dejected I told her that I guess I didn’t have a choice. She asked me if it was the first time across this bridge and I told her we had just arrived in town. Being a wonderful person, she waved me on. Yay!
The GPS took us right to the hotel via the Embarcadero. Slow, but a nice view as we looked at things along the waterfront.
When we got to the hotel, located conveniently near Fisherman’s Wharf, we went in to register and discovered the second surprise from Priceline: apparently when you book via Priceline, you get a room with a single Queen bed. Yeah, not going to work. How much to get a different room? Oh, they’re happy to help me. They’ve got a suite for just $90 a night more. What the hell, again! Yeah, I don’t think Priceline is gonna happen again. After a bit of complaining and negotiating, the lady at the front desk was nice enough to drop it to $50 a night. *Sigh*
After dropping our stuff off in the room (nice, but not spectacular for a suite), we decided to head out. First stop Pier 39! Must do touristy things!
Nothing spectacular, but it was fun to see the Sea Lions, look at touristy stuff and all the entertainment along the waterfront.
After that, we headed out to the North Bedach area and a nice Pizza place on the corner of Union Street and Grant. A nice walk from Pier 39. Great pizza.
The Daughter is a vegetarian and so we did a half and half pizza. Simple pepperoni for me, she chose olives and *shudder* pineapple.
Time for the pineapple (and coconut) aside.
Pineapples and coconuts are not meant to be eaten by man. I have proof of this, at least if you believe in God. Follow my logic: God put pineapples and coconuts on islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. About as bloody far out in the middle of nowhere as he could put them and still invent them. Clear signs of someone trying to fill an ecosystem or possibly just tired saying: Oh, well, no one will eat *this*. In the case of pineapples, he surrounded them in an impervious shell like a pine cone. The things has armor! In the case of coconuts, he placed them up in trees that shouldn’t be climbed, clearly, because they have no limbs and have to be shimmied up by people in great physical shape. Then, once they come down, they’re a nut! A hard, nasty shell covers the coconut. You have to bust it open with tools. What more indication, short of the having the international symbol for “not food” emblazoned on the outside do you need!? And, if you don’t believe in God, then you’ll have to take my word for it: Pineapple and coconut are nasty.
Back from aside.
So she ate olives and pineapple on her pizza. She said it was good, but she’s a teenager, so her word can’t be trusted because her forebrain hasn’t fully developed.
After that, we walked to Chinatown to look around for a while. Chinatown is always fun.
From there we walked up to California and Powell to catch the cable car back to the hotel (or nearby). I hung on the outside, because that’s just fun, while the Daughter sat on a seat and said perhaps she’d hang on the outside next time.
Lots of walking, lots of interesting things seen. That’s why I didn’t want to give up the day for a free ticket.
We got back to our room around 9pm and I crashed (hard) by 10pm. A full day, but a good day!
