“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”
? Oscar Wilde
I believe that emotions are stored in jars. These jars empty out from time to time, but the day’s events add to or take away from them. When the jar overflows, an emotion can overpower the rest of you. It doesn’t matter what emotion it is: anger, sadness, happiness, guilt, loss. The list goes on, and we exist as a collection of these jars. Sometimes they can mix to create new emotions, and that’s an exciting time. Sometimes, you can pour out an entire jar and start fresh. If it’s a happy emotion, that can feel like a loss. If it’s an unhappy emotion, it can feel like a reset. It’s the time between these extremes that we usually live.
Something extreme may fill your jar to the brim. And while that jar may still be inside your acceptable limit, small things can push it across the flood threshold. If your happy jar is nearly full, then a comedy show may bring you to a giddy delight. Laughing endlessly. If your sad jar is nearly full, then a sappy TV show may bring you to tears. Weeping uncontrollably. When your angry jar is sloshing at the top, that broken zipper can send you into a tailspin. Punching the air and gnashing your teeth. (Ok, maybe that last one is just me.)
The point is that we are a collection of our past experiences, and those pasts build on one another. The alchemy of our souls exists as a mixing chamber and how you react to the same situation will depend on what your jars look like today.
Help those around you to manage their jars. And remember that under the surface, we are all sometimes nearing our brims.
July 29th, 2021
Posted by
Nic |
Uncategorized |
no comments
In the face of that which you cannot change, why should you get upset?
Nic
Do you ever have a curveball thrown your way at the end of a wonderful day? Something that you knew (just KNEW) would turn out a specific way only to have fate have different ideas. This outcome is nothing you can change. You’re powerless. There’s no one you can appeal to. No judge to seek arbitration from. The decision exists in a vacuum all its own and you’re just along for the ride.
When faced with this situation, you really have two basic options in how you react. You’re shaken, caught off guard, maybe even devastated. You can either turn inward or outward. Lash out or accept. Destroy or rebuild.
Choosing the high road may feel like the right choice at first. You can’t bring yourself to inflict further harm on someone who obviously made the right choice. But your own psyche will suffer if you don’t acknowledge your own interests. You have needs. You have expectations. You have feelings. It’s alright to feel those. (Granted, being vague as fuck to strangers on the internet likely isn’t helping anyone. But you acknowledge that and move past it anyway. The words are cathartic and maybe they’re helping you. That’s to be determined.)
But maybe that’s why you should get upset from the get go. Talk to that person about how you feel. Acknowledge your own feelings in the matter. It may not, and probably shouldn’t, change the outcome, but burying them definitely isn’t any better. Life isn’t a zero sum game. Your own experiences don’t change someone else’s experiences. But together, you can both grown from the knowledge that something isn’t right. Or it is right and you have to figure out a way through the darkness. Or that maybe there’s loss on both sides. Support one another as you deal with the outcome. Being a pillar of strength for others doesn’t mean that you have to also be strong for yourself. Otherwise you may end up breaking down in the middle of a Popeye’s dining room while everyone stares at you. Hypothetically, that is. Completely hypothetically.
In the end, you find yourself rocking through a 9-pack of beers that was frozen 8 hours ago and are now slightly below room temp. As with everything on the day, only the future will tell us if anything good comes from THAT decision.
Life moves on. Sometimes when you’d rather it not. But that’s how we grow. We learn more about ourselves every time we experience hardship. Some have learned a whole lot more than I have, so I guess I can be happy in that ignorance for a little while.
July 25th, 2021
Posted by
Nic |
Uncategorized |
no comments
“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”
–Benjamin Disraeli
So we’re nearly a full day into the new year and already I’ve been fairly productive. I spent a fair amount of time in the new shop since creating new things in the new year seemed like a fitting use of time. I’ve recently been on a kick to actually start using some of the green wood I’ve been picking up. I’ve noticed that I wasn’t fast enough with some of it and it’s already ruined, so that just means I need to be even faster with the rest of what I’ve got. Most of them are being turned into bowls since they’re relatively easy and are pretty fun. Since the wood is new you have to rough turn it first and then let it dry. So as it is, I’ve got about 8 bowls roughed out and sitting on a shelf in the basement. They’ll spend about 6-8 months like that, so I guess I know what my summer is going to look like now.
Speaking of letting things sit in the basement for a while, I’ve also got some interesting news regarding wood slabs. A few months ago the town of Middleton cut down a bunch of trees (mostly due to disease and/or rot) and I got permission from them to go harvest what I wanted. Since we actually had some decent weather recently, I headed out with some buddies and we slabbed up two ginormous logs. They were each about 38″ wide at the base and tapered to around 24-28″. They’re going to need about 2 years to dry out properly, which means I’ve just got a full-blown wood drying party in my basement. There’s a lot of waiting going on, but I’m excited to see what all of this comes out as in the end.
And since we’re talking about drying wood in the basement, I’m reminded that I should check in on the walnut that went down there early last year. It’s gotta be coming up on its anniversary of slumber in a few months. (I just checked, it was April that it went down so it’s been less time than I though, it seems.) But some of that walnut was not slabbed and might be good candidates for bowls, so that’s still worth checking in on.
January 1st, 2020
Posted by
Nic |
Uncategorized |
no comments
“Miniature golf, like billiards, is a game of angles. And, like billiards, most of the fun is in pretending you know what the hell you’re doing. The worse you do, the more you have to laugh.”
–Victor LaValle
I have to admit, I sorta forgot that I wanted to post in here more often. Until earlier this week when I got a phone call from someone at work and was told about how he overheard someone in line for coffee that morning talking about how this has gone dormant. I didn’t even know I had people who still read this, so I guess that’s fun. So, to those 3 of you still following along, I’m sorry for the hiatus. I would say that I’ll work on being better, but we all know that’s mostly a lie.
As for current events, I guess a lot has happened since we last spoke. Umm, let’s see… I bought a chainsaw this summer and have been choppin’ trees wherever I can find. I’m spending a bunch of time at a buddy’s house helping him with maintenance work on the trees he has at the new place. I even brought the chainsaw with me to Thanksgiving this week so I’m spending time down in the woods tomorrow after shopping to see if I can slab up a few freshly fallen trees. I’m not at all certain what I’m going to be able to do, but it’s going to be fun no matter what. I walked through the woods this afternoon just to see what was out there and there’s a HUGE Ash tree that fell and would be amazing to get some pieces from it. Half way through planing out the cuts I remembered that we have a tractor here so I can move it around a bit, as needed. That is SOOO much easier than just having to cut it where it lies and hope you don’t kill yourself. You know, those small details in life that are kind of important.
The title lead-in was a subtle hint to another event: I joined a pool league this year. I found my old cues from when I last played in Fort Wayne (over a decade ago) and they were still in pretty decent shape. I didn’t really like them as much anymore, though, so I bought new playing and break cues. They’re alright, not wonderful, so maybe they will get replaced in another decade. Haha. Amazingly, even though it’s been a decade since I played regularly, I feel like I’m getting back into the swing of it pretty well. I’m not doing super wonderfully, but I’m averaging fairly alright.
The basement workshop is nearing completion. (Can a woodworker’s workshop ever really be complete?). All the walls are up and covered, the ceiling is done, the door is in (though not quite perfect), and dust collection is being plumbed on the ceiling. I’m at the stage now where I need to build my workbench and some more shelves/storage solutions. Turns out, a plain box of a room isn’t the ideal place to store your tools. You gotta have CUBBIES! Or at least, some shelves under tables. I have the plans done, so now it’s just a matter of getting a bunch of material and going to town. Part of my hesitation is that I think I want to change the design a little bit in a way that requires a jointer. And I don’t have a jointer, so that means I would have to buy one. And if I’m going to buy one, I should get a nice one that I’m going to like. So now I’m spending a ton of free time trying to find the perfect jointer when I could just be building “good enough” and moving on. ….. But I *DO* like me some new tools. So we all know what I’m going to do now.
November 28th, 2019
Posted by
Nic |
Uncategorized |
no comments
“Aspire to greatness. But remember that no one ever assassinated a refrigerator repairman.”
–Bird Waring
I haven’t been a huge believer in New Year’s Resolutions, pretty much at any time in my life. However, this year I had an idea for one that I am going to try hard to hold myself to. It didn’t come to me until halfway through January, so who knows if you can even really tie it to the New Year (but it looks like we’re sure trying).
Over the last few years I have been wanting to spend some time expanding my inventory of (completed) projects, so a semi-good way to do that is to “launch” a at least one new product each month. And I’m not talking about a new variation on an existing thing I’m making, but a new category or substantial modification to something existing. The definition is a bit hazy, but I feel like the spirit of it will keep me honest enough.
I’m calling a product launched when it is listed in my Etsy store. I had a half-hearted attempt at listing my aluminum art pieces on there a while back and mostly just left it to whither away on its own. I haven’t decided if I’m going to remove those listings or just keep them there as a reminder that I need to actively *DO* something with the store. For now, they stay.
The first new product
is one that was actually made at the end of last year. I debated long
and hard about actually listing this since the design isn’t actually
mine. It was a collaboration with my friend Rob and is actually the
trial piece we made to prove out techniques and practice for the “real”
ones we were making for him. Even with that, this one turned out great
and I’m excited to share it with the world. I’ve also taken the
techniques learned with those to create my own line of rings.
I’m planning to offer options with the rings: size (obviously), width, wood color/type, inlay (or not), and inlay type (copper or silver). Because of the technique for the inlay I can’t think of a great way to offer colored inlay options, but I’m working on a new technique that might have some promise. I have some supplies to pre-make a few, but due to sizing and preferences, I’m expecting that most of them will have to be custom items
The January listing was technically posted at like 11:30pm on the 31st, but I’m calling it a win for the January product regardless. I have some thoughts on February’s product, so hopefully I can get it posted earlier in the month.
February 1st, 2019
Posted by
Nic |
Uncategorized |
no comments
“Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known.”
–Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
As a child, I remember clearly stepping into a room in one of my cousins’ homes. Contained within were several computers set up around the room. It was my first introduction to the word “guru” and the Sun computing system. (I still, to this day, count their logo among one of my favorites in the technological world. Or maybe even just “the world”.) On this machine, they taught me of an online game called MUD. The game itself isn’t important, but the concept of a computer system connected to others definitely is. You could say that this particular moment would inform the rest of my life in a way that I never imagined.
I had a flash back to that particular room as I’m seated in a room within my own house tonight (probably very nearly the same size), itself containing several computers that are connected to many others the world over (via the Internet, if you will). I’m not crawling through a metaphorical, virtual dungeon on these computers, but nothing says I couldn’t do just that. Instead, I’m surrounded by buttons and displays that let me interact with servers that hold many kinds of stories. This particular server I’m staring into holds the ramblings of some idiot in Wisconsin who likes talking about nothing. The computer to my right is connected to another server just 12 miles away and is busy parsing data for display in a graph format to show that some OTHER server is having a bad day (that’s kind of my job description now). When said plainly like this, the weirdness factor increases nearly exponentially with each piece of computing hardware in this room. (And we’re not even going to broach the topic of the cloud-connected, remotely controlled *LASER* sitting behind me! Ok, I guess we did.)
I don’t know that I had a point this this at all. I just poked at some buttons to my left and flashed back to learning about what a computer could do. I couldn’t even tell you how old I was at the time, but you would be hard pressed to tell me that it didn’t leave a mark. I was given an unknown and made it a known. Somewhere in there, I guess the terror began. But that’s the real adventure, right?
July 18th, 2018
Posted by
Nic |
Uncategorized |
no comments
