I Never Make it Past Season One
When it comes to television shows (do we call them something else now?), I have picked up a few that I consistently hear positive reviews from people I know. Generally if a lot of people are talking about it and multiple people recommend it to me, it’s doing something right. I’ll never have enough time to consume everything on every streaming service that I have been cornered into subscribing to (thanks kids).
Record & Speaker Stand Project
Now that I’ve committed to owning a record player, I needed a place to put it. This project had to be prioritized behind the ongoing kitchen refresh, but I was able to sneak it in here and there. Record players are new to me, so I did end up doing research on what makes for a good quality record player stand and speaker stand. It turns out the heavier and less prone to vibration, the better.
Systems That Work, Now
I tend to systematize things. I like a process to be clear and decided in my brain so I can feel a sense of control in a chaotic world. This can be how I plan my goals, projects, and todo’s. This can also be things like an exercise plan for the week. When I should meditate. How much I want to read. I like to commit to a plan and that will generally help me move forward on goals.
Thinking Visually
The Spirited Man, also known as Van Neistat, posted a video last week on thinking visually that resonated with me. I don’t do well with the word stuff or hearing spoken instructions. I am definitely a visual thinker and learner.
Why Only Some of Us Think in Pictures
Trees are Rad
Where do all of the digital photos go when you die?
Photos aren’t like they used to be. No envelopes of printed 4x6’s. No sleeves of negatives to sort through. No albums to pull off the shelves and flip through with their sticky plastic protector pages. Today there is no barrier to pulling out your phone and taking a single or a hundred recorded images. They all get stored and backed up to the cloud like some limitless recording of your life.
Why I am into Vinyl Records
Though I’m late to the party, I credit my son for getting me into vinyl records. It was timed well with my general frustration over where we are going as a society with all of this digital madness. I spent considerable time contemplating and researching if this was to be a positive new hobby for me and if so, what was the right setup to buy. During an unfortunate case of Covid in early January, I had read the book Analog by Robert Hasson and in my isolated recovery with full “covid brain fog” decided to just go for it.
Don't be a good man, be good at being a man.
I don’t remember where I had heard this over the past month, but this resonates with me as I am both trying to be a better human and am curious what it means to be a man - which is a topic we’ll save for another time. I think what I like most about this is it orients one towards being excellent and deemphasizes needing external validation by being “good”. Being good at being a man implies character and principles where as being good towards the person in front of you implies doing whatever it takes to meet their needs.
Finishing Maple with Tung Oil
I have a project that I’ll share next time, but it required finishing some maple. Though I like the way the wood looked raw, I figured it would be a good idea to give it some protection so it wears well over time. This lead me on a research quest to find which finish would compliment my project the best. After reading a few articles and watching some videos, I decided on Tung Oil as it does very well with maple, highlighting the grain and not discoloring the wood or yellowing over time.
Garden Engineering
For Mother’s day, I decided to build fences for the three gardens we have. It used to be one garden, but last mother’s day it became three. These are standard 10 x 2’s in eight foot runs so that by cutting one in half, you end up with a garden area of 8 x 4. Given the wildlife we have in the neighborhood (squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, foxes, occasional coyote, and a variety of birds), it always is smart to put up some chicken wire around the perimeter of the garden.