Restart

I've been considering what to do with my online presence. I imagine grandiose plans and have become paralyzed by this process. One thing is proceeded by another and I can't seem to get to the base or first thing to do. So I give up and I'll live with what I am. I'm:

• Struggling woodworker, struggling to improve my craftsmanship
• Practicing Zen student, always broken
• In a loving relationship, Mary is a super human
• Disabled, trying to except new level of health
• A reader, discovering metacognition

I'm probably other things I'm not aware of. But but, stay calm and chive on.

Cooked

I'm cooked! Michael Pollan's newest book "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation" is so subtly full of metaphors and subversion that my head is still spinning. He put forth three ideas using four methods of cooking. Barbecue, braising, bread baking, and fermentation. He makes the perfect argument for his ideas, get in the kitchen and learning about food,  that we are co-evolving with the microscopic organisms around us, and connecting socially with family and friends to share meals is a process worth rekindling.

Mary and I participate with a local CSA (Affinity Farms). It is such a rich and rewarding experience. Here is picture of an early box (week 4). Mostly greens, some turnips and green garlic. It filled our fridge and we will "suffer" and "struggle" to plan our weeks meals around the bounty. Having Russell and Kelly farm for us is a way that we can stay "intellectual incompetent" in the area of the details of gardening. Our lifestyle and living location makes it hard to have a garden. Something I sadly admit I have never had. Mary used to do the whole gardening/canning/food storage thing when she lived in Pennsylvania.

There is a lack of understanding of how our food is prepared. I'm not sure I understand all the implications. This "lack of understanding" is prevalent in many areas of live, technology, our health, interlay of the environment and our activities, the material world we live in. But food, we have be hood-winked in a group think through advertising that "they", the industrial food machine, can produce food better, safer, and more convenient than we can. Their motive, profits, not health and social well being. This is pervasive type of "intellectual incompetence" we have all fallen for in one way or another. Michael Pollan's book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation is in a way a subversive text, rallying us to overthrow the industrial food machine and take back cooking. Little by little, slowly, where it makes sense.

What the food industry can not produce is the feeling of satisfaction you get from preparing a meal from raw or near raw ingredients and sharing it together with family and friends. Learning new skills in the area of food give confidence to learn new skills in the other area where corporations have tried to influence us into being asleep sheep.

Cooking is a subversive act. You agree?

"The Chocolate Cake Sutra, ingerdeients for a sweet life" by Geri Larkin

I want to be happy. I choose happiness. This may sound childish and self centered but I want you to choose happiness too. Finished reading "The Chocolate Cake Sutra, ingerdeients for a sweet life" by Geri Larkin and what a good book it was. It was about behaviors. Giving joy, ethical behavior, tolerance, the capacity to keep going, clearheadedness, crazy wisdom, and being adventurous. Behaviors I aspire to.

In "The Chocolate Cake Sutra" Geri Larkin, an ordained Zen priest, writes about her trial and tribulations using them as a 'finger pointing to the moon' to illustrate and wake us up to the wonder that is all around us. She helps us by writing about the tools for seeing and interacting with this wonder. Not always straight laced, in fact a self proclaimed potty mouth, she shares her adventures and is absorbed by the ordinary. A excellent read.

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks

 

I'm nervous. Publicly announcing a challenge I made to myself. Today I want to share my plan to "Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks". I got this wild (no so weird) idea from Justin Miller and a post he did over at Lifehack called "How to Save Yourself $21,000 and Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks". I'm not sure about the money but the knowledge and understand can't hurt me. Using Evernote to keep track and I am a little ahead of my schedule. 7 books in 4 weeks so far. Book 7 was The Fault in Our Stars.

I'm not sure what to say about The Fault in Our Stars. Funny and sad about teenagers with cancer. Fictional. Snarky, well written, full of life had me crying, seriously.

This challenge is going to get harder as the weeks progress. Currently I'm reading without a focus on specific genres. That may come.

Would you care to join me in this challenge? Do you have any experience with 52 books in 52 weeks? Book recommendations?

Cherry and Walnut tables

Just finished these two tables. Walnut legs and Cherry tops. The cherry is really figures and a nice ripple pattern in it. Learned a lot making these including I should keep my mouth shut about the mistakes I made. Nobody sees them and nobody but me cares. The came out wonderful. I plan on making more if I can only sell these. They have 18" X 12" tops and are 26" tall.

Better Together

 

"Better Together"

There is no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard

No song that I could sing, but I can try for your heart

Our dreams, and they are made out of real things

Like a, shoebox of photographs

With sepia-toned loving

Love is the answer,

At least for most of the questions in my heart

Like why are we here? And where do we go?

And how come it's so hard?

It's not always easy and

Sometimes life can be deceiving

I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together

I believe in memories

They look so, so pretty when I sleep

Hey now, and when I wake up,

You look so pretty sleeping next to me

But there is not enough time,

And there is no, no song I could sing

And there is no combination of words I could say

But I will still tell you one thing

We're better together.

Thanks Jack Johnson for the song and the reminder that indeed Mary and I are better together. The picture is from Dec 30. There is no snow now. I remember this time as a happy time, snowshoeing on our favorite track, Boykan, the brown dog is somewhere. Warm and tired.

Why we are woodworkers

Listened to Shop Talk Live 29: Secrets for Sharp Blades and Perfect Plane Irons this morning and Asa and Matt 'waxed poetically' about what motivates them in the shop.

Asa was articulate in talked about how when one simple skill is learned and repeated, a sort of forgetting of the steps, a flow of the repetition, the noticing of little refining steps, all lead to an experience of flow or do I dare say rapture? It is the small things that bring us to the shop. Progress slowly and gaining confidence little by little focusing on little tasks.

Matt seemed to be most excited to be in the (his) shop when everything is setup correctly. The example he used was resawing with a properly tuned jointer and bandsaw. This is a skill learned after much trial an error. Now that a system is in place with upgrade tools and skills, it just added power, creativity, and expected results to resawing. The tools and techniques become invisible and background to creativity.

Will, adding my 2 cents worth to this conversation. I couldn't agree more with Asa and Matt. They bring up great points about learning to the point of automation, in a good way freeing us up for higher tasks like creativity and safety. For me there is a strong sense of "flow" when I'm in the shop. I didn't see that in my professional life and not nearly as much as I wanted in my social life. It doesn't seem to matter what I am working on, I love going into the shop. I like to start the day with swiping the floor, it gets my mind in a place to be receptive to the thought processes for the projects ahead. In some areas of woodworking I am skilled and other I'm a beginner. In the former areas, I see and refine my skills, in the latter, I am learning backs skills known to other for 100's of years.