Fiddly Bits

Most chefs oversalt their food, when what it really needs is more acid. Vinegar. Lemon. Tomato.

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:13:18 -0400

Most chefs oversalt their food, when what it really needs is more acid. Vinegar. Lemon. Tomato.

Symptoms of a weak designer

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:37:23 -0400

Every now and then, I’ll hear a design student or novice designer express disdain or opposition to a typeface (like Comic Sans, Fajita, etc.) I’ve even known teachers to hate a certain color. A shame.

A designer should not hate any color (or typeface, or shape). There are appropriate uses for any element. There is a design problem that needs the typeface Comic Sans because it works well in that situation. Designers decide when any specific element is appropriate - that’s their job. Hatred and extreme bias cloud one’s objectivity to make valid, appropriate, and rational design decisions.

Model T vs Jeep Wrangler

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:32:00 -0400

On the subject of MPG, the Model T got upto 22 MPG, where as the 2003 Jeep Wrangler gets 17 MPG at its highest.

It took 80 years of technological advances to get -5 MPG.

GtD Two Minute Rule

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:34:00 -0400

Cannonical GTD has the Two Minute Rule (TMR): If action takes less than two minutes, then do it.

My “mTMR” replaces this with the idea:

If Tracking Overhead > Estimated Action Time then

do action without inserting the action into a tracking system

else

insert action into the tracking system

First, I showed her the “secret” to making the lacquer finish perfectly smooth to the touch – a...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:24:51 -0400

First, I showed her the “secret” to making the lacquer finish perfectly smooth to the touch – a folded up brown paper bag. We rubbed all the surfaces vigorously, which knocked down any surface imperfections without cutting through the film finish. Katy did the shelves; I did the uprights.

“Cool,” she said. “It works!”

"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is..."

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:06:22 -0400

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”

- Emily Dickinson

"By all means read what the experts have to say. Just don’t let it get in the way of your..."

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:35:38 -0400

“By all means read what the experts have to say. Just don’t let it get in the way of your woodworking.”

- John Brown, Welsh stick chairmaker (1932-2008)

"It’s not just about making beautiful furniture, but how do you get rid of it?"

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:33:26 -0400

“It’s not just about making beautiful furniture, but how do you get rid of it?”

- Tage Frid, quoted in an article by Jonathan Binzen in Fine Woodworking.

Flavorful French Onion Soup

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:42:00 -0400

I prefer a more traditional and flavorful French onion soup

take about 5 lbs of yellow onions
cut in half lengthwise
peel
slice thin
take a heavy pot
add a touch of salt to the bottom
heat til smoking
drop in your onions
cook until well carmelized
add about 6 ounces of cream sherry
cook just a minute
add light chicken stock to cover
add cracked pepper to taste

fill crockery bowls with soup
leaving 1 inch head space
top with croutons made from multigrain bread
which is lightly toasted
top with blue cheese and provolone
broil till cheese is brown and bubbly
serve with an aperitif of cream sherry

DIY Starbucks-style Frappé

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:30:00 -0400

It took my cousin Pablo to mention the frappé method with Nescafé to send me hurtling to my cupboards to hunt down the cocktail shaker I received as a wedding present and never used (I´m a basic elemental gin and tonic girl, you see).

The pricey and not-really remotely good iced latte of Starbucks can be done at home with minumum fuss and maximum fun.

Just put 2 oz. milk, 3 oz. water (Euro meassures would be 50 ml and 75 ml), ice cubes, a spoonful of Nescafé and sugar as you like, inside a cocktail shaker or a glass jar with a trusty lid.

Shake the hell out of it, dancing to Carmen Miranda, or not, as you will, and pour the icy milky coffee with its creamy beige frothy head into a big glass.

This is a small quantity, but the shaking is such fun that I´d rather make two small ones than one big.

The Impossible Possibility

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:50:00 -0400

And Jesus said unto them, “And whom do you say that I am?”

They replied,

“You are the totaliter aliter, the vestigious trinitatum who speaks to us in the modality of Christo-monism.”

“You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and existential estrangement; you are he who speaks of the theonomous viewpoint of the analogia entis, the analogy of our being and the ground of all possibilities.”

“You are the impossible possibility who brings to us, your children of light and children of darkness, the overwhelming roughness in the midst of our fraught condition of estrangement and brokenness in the contiguity and existential anxieties of our ontological relationships.”

“You are my Oppressed One, my soul’s shalom, the One who was, who is, and who shall be, who has never left us alone in the struggle, the event of liberation in the lives of the oppressed struggling for freedom, and whose blackness is both literal and symbolic.”

And Jesus replied, “Huh?”

Jasper Johns on Creativity

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:45:00 -0400

The American artist Jasper Johns was once asked what was involved in the creative process: “It’s simple,” he replied. “You just take something, and then you do something to it, and then you do something else to it. Keep doing this and pretty soon you’ve got something.”

Buñuel Themes

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:42:00 -0400

Luis Buñuel, the man whom Alfred Hitchcock called the “greatest director ever,” draws you right into his stories. And once you’re there, almost anything can happen—he’s constantly surprising you with his imagination.

Three main themes in his work appealed to me:

Life is paradoxical: something can mean one thing, and it can also mean another.
Life is mysterious: unexpected and unpredictable things happen.
The spiritual takes different forms: it’s important to be open to it.

Preventing Glue Squeeze Out

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:44:00 -0400

A proven and simple technique for keeping glue from marring your project with Bob Van Dyke

The director of the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking has devised a nearly foolproof way to prevent glue squeeze out. In this exclusive video, he demonstrates his technique on a typical mortise-and-tenon joint.

For one, he uses a fairly small amount of glue, carefully brushing it onto the cheeks of the mortise and tenon. Then, as the video shows, he pauses briefly during the glue-up process to eliminate the excess.

See the video at Taunton’s Finewoodworking site.

Peteran on art

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:49:00 -0400

I recently read a speech by Gord Peteran in the current issue of Turning Points that seemed relevant as well - he says that in art, “cerebral gymnastics have eclipsed the desire for more classically lovely forms and there’s a new kind of beauty about.”

This is true, but there’s something about craft and the exploration of a material or specific tool like the lathe that brings in a lovely set of conceptual explorations, and I’m not trying to suggest that Gord Peteran would feel any differently about this than I do.

When the composer George Benjamin first learned of Degas’s observation that a work of art calls for...

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:30:00 -0400

When the composer George Benjamin first learned of Degas’s observation that a work of art calls for as much cunning as the commission of a crime, it immediately rang true for him, because, he explained, writing music is a complex endeavor with “all sorts of subtle things going on.”

Tips for getting your home organised

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:25:00 -0400

Living room:

Clear all end tables, coffee tables, bookcases, shelving units, cabinets of any clutter.
Toss old newspapers and magazines and keep current ones in a basket or in a magazine holder.
Have only those items on display that are useful or make you happy.
Add in some new plants or fresh flowers.

Dining room:

Organise your china cabinet so that it holds only those dishes, glasses, serving dishes, silverware, linens and other dining accessories that you use when you eat in the dining room.
If you never eat in the dining room, consider turning this area into an office, playroom or hobby room instead.

Kitchen:

Stow away any appliances that you seldom use such as your blender, indoor grill, mixer, food processor, or bread maker. These take up valuable space on the kitchen counter.
Refresh your tea towels and pot holders.
Invest in some fresh herb plants for your window sill.

Bathrooms:

Discard any expired medications, old cosmetics, personal care products or containers or anything you no longer use.
Return only the essentials, keeping similar items together.
Buy some colourful new towels, a new bath mat and perhaps a new shower curtain.
Treat yourself to some pretty scented soaps, gels or bath oils for a moment of indulgence.

Bedrooms:

Clear out and organise your closets, under your bed, on top or your bedside tables or your dresser and inside your drawers.
Dress back in your favourite music, fragrances books and imagery.

Children’s rooms:

Install wall shelves or cabinets for storage instead of deep toy boxes. Be sure most are at heights that your child can actually reach.
Contain smaller toys in baskets or clear plastic containers before storing them on the shelves.

Family room:

Organise your media collection on bookshelves or on shelves you attach to the walls.
Keep all DVDs together, all CDs together. Organise first by genre and then by title (movie) or artist (music).

Home office:

Weed out your filing cabinet. Get rid of anything that is outdated or no longer necessary to keep.
Keep your shredder nearby to shred any paperwork that contains personal information such as social security numbers or bank account numbers.
Clear out your computer desktop and files as well. Make sure the systems you have in place are still suitable for your work load. If not, revise them.

How to Work Better

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:51:00 -0400

do one thing at a time
know the problem
learn to listen
learn to ask questions
distinguish sense from nonsense
accept change as inevitable
admit mistakes
say it simple
be calm
smile

PF&DW 1991

Easter Hymn (excerpt)

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:46:00 -0400

by A. E. Houseman

XVI

How clear, how lovely bright,
How beautiful to sight
Those beams of morning play;
How heaven laughs out with glee
Where, like a bird set free,
Up from the eastern sea
Soars the delightful day.

To-day I shall be strong,
No more shall yield to wrong,
Shall squander life no more;
Days lost, I know not how,
I shall retrieve them now;
Now I shall keep the vow I never kept before.

Ensanguining the skies
How heavily it dies
Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound
Not further to be found,
How hopeless under ground
Falls the remorseful day.

Bit Set Based on FWW Article

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:25:00 -0400

by Thomas McKenna

5/1/2007

SUMMARY REVIEW Infinity Cutting Tools is selling a set of router bits based on the “Ten Essential Router Bits” described in an article by Gary Rogowski featured in Fine Woodworking #186.

As described in that article, the 10-bit set accommodates the most common tasks a woodworker will encounter when using a router or router table, from joinery to template work to creating profiles. All of the bits in the kit have 1/2-in. shanks, except for the 1/4-in. straight bit. The $200-kit contains

a rabbeting bit with seven bearings to handle a range of sizes,
a 1/2-in. flush-trimming bit for template routing,
a 1/4-in. solid-carbide straight bit,
a 1/2-in. straight bit,
a dovetail bit,
a three-wing slot cutter,
a chamfer bit,
a 3/8-in. radius cove bit,
a 1/4-in. radius roundover bit,
and a 3/8-in. solid-carbide spiral bit.