Workshop demo, Kitchenette framing, fence

"Yeah, those aren't necessary", says Bruce as he cuts them out. (He's the one who put them there in the first place. :-)



After duct and electrical rearrangements, leaving only the pipe to be re-routed.



Having two excellent professional carpenters around sure boosts the productivity. We began the morning by demolishing part of the chase that is adjacent to the workshop wall where we are opening space for a new set of tool drawers and storage. This required moving around a few supports, ducts, and eletrical boxes (my job). There's a big sewage pipe in the middle of this which will be re-routed when the plumber comes on Thursday. Then Bruce and Kurt framed out the wall where the kitchette will go and we went over to a discount appliance store and purchased the microwave/vent hood, half-size dishwasher, and gas cook top which look pretty nice for a pretty reasonable price of about $1100. Then I worked for a few hours on revisions to Andy's paper and then after a 1 hour gym, I managed to get 4 of the 6 stringers up on the back fence.

Fence line, Bed spreads, Screening, Sophia Collier, and a paper for the Royal Society

Today was an oddly productive day. In the morning I dug post holes for a last bit of fence line that will separate my utility yard from my back yard. Then Bruce came over for measurement on the screening that for the upstairs porch. Then Amberlee came over and we had a little Christmas where we opened all the packages that she had ordered for me -- a new bed headboard, douvet, sheets, and pillows! For lunch I had a marvelous time meeting with Sophia Collier who was introduced to me by my attorney. Sophia and I were apparently born with the same mutant genes; we both left school (I in 11th and she in 12th) and we went off to various other endeavors (although hers have been generally more profitable than mine!) After a career in such things as soda and mutual fund management, she's now into CNC artwork. She has a CNC mill, 3D software, and a lot of fun ideas. We geeked out for hours on art and science projects of all kinds and she gave me much valuable feedback with regards to my various forthcoming enterprises. After lunch I set the fence posts and poured the footer concrete and then started on the rewrite of the paper I've been writing with Andy Ellington for the Royal Society journal Interface which came back with deservedly so-so reviews and which as a result (as seems to often be the case with peer-reviewed journals) is forcing a rewrite that will no doubt result in a better paper.

Utility yard steps

This afternoon I built three steps along the utility yard that will be back-filled with pea-gravel forming a series of stepped terraces using the bricks my neighbors gave me.

Plants

I attached my custom tiles to the front of the planter my friend Scott Thurmon came over with dirt and plants so the front planter is now complete (except that the irrigation still needs to be connected). In a year or so the red yucca in the middle should grow up to be more proportional to the mass of the planter.

Acid washing

Today I acid washed the back wall. What a difference the acid makes. Compare to the earlier pictures. I started playing with tiles on the front steps. I haven't made my final decision on that yet. Some of my friends hate it and others love it. Amusingly, so far it seems to break down roughly between those who have lived/traveled in Spain or Latin America and those who haven't.

The destructive power of Wikipedia

Today I find myself defeated in a manner that often occurs to me -- I'll be excited by some idea and in the processes of experimenting with it, I'll end up on Wikipedia where my enthusiasm will be defeated by the overwhelming amount of knowledge instantly available.

I often have ill-formed ideas that need developing; I'll begin by jotting down any aspect of the fuzzy ideas that I can get into words with the hope that somehow it will become evident how to formalize as I go along. Then, in the middle of this exercise, I'll think "this part has been done before" and I'll go to Google. Within seconds I'll be bogged down in a Wikipedia page with a sense of "Look at all the stuff I don't know! 'Everybody' else understands this but me." Within a few minutes I find my creativity defeated by the overload of information -- a sense of "If I don't understand all this, then I'm just repeating existing work." Hours worth of creative enthusiasm can be deflated by this process in mere seconds; I find it very discouraging and creatively unhealthy.

I submit that in regards to creativity, Google, Wikipedia, etc. are dual-edged swords. On the one hand, the instant access to reference material supports experiments. But on the other hand, the instant connection to all knowledge easily overwhelms one's spirit for exploration with a sense of "everything is known already". I don't know how to balance these effects and today I am squarely on the defeated side.

Finished back wall masonry

I finished the last of the back wall masonry this morning. It's been mocking me for 2 weeks so nice to have it done. Acid washing is next.