Tuesday mentor meeting

Tuesday I met with my mentor and discussed my potential project switch. Guess what? He has played the banjo for years! Who would have thought. He said I should do some research and potentially he could lend me a banjo if I decide to go that direction. I also love the sound of the mandolin and it turns out there is a shop in Rochester having some sort of a special month for mandolins during march ( sweet alliteration, right?) We also talked about recording/ doing some very basic mixing using garage band which would be awesome because then I could also play piano and sing on a track. I already have some base knowledge about garage band so that would be great!

What would my project switch be?

Thinking back to the first days of project brainstorming, I remember Ms. Gergely saying that your wise project should be that thing that you can't stop googling when you should be doing your homework. So I thought to myself... What is that for me? Well exotic vacations and traveling the world are out of the question, so the next thing that consumes my time is music. I taught myself piano and guitar and i love to sing even when my family doesn't want to hear me. I was initially deterred from doing something music related for my project jut because I am already active in music but then I thought why not! If its something I love, why shouldn't I do it? So then the first thing that came to mind was learning the banjo or mandolin. And the scheming begins...

Potential Project Switch

Carpentry is pretty cool, I will admit that. I have found, however; that it is not as much fun as I thought it would be. There are definitely some good life skills involved in woodworking, starting with the ability to fix basic things for yourself. Even though I know this very well I still find myself having incredible trouble getting motivated to do anything with my project because, lets face it, I'm just not that passionate about it. I am going back and fourth with this idea because I am not really that interested in my project but I have trouble just deciding to quit without pushing myself further. I then think about how WISE is so much shorter than it seems and if I want to switch my project it's probably now or never. The next step is to talk to my mentor and get his input.

WISE class on Monday

This Monday in WISE we talked a bit about how our respective projects are going and introduced the narrative assignment which will be due after break. I think this is really good timing as far as my project goes because I am in a bit of a rut that is teaching me a lot. Speaking of a rut, we also looked at the "Out of the Rut" journal activity. We are to complete this and then read a partner's (my partner is Emma Denman). This activity includes lists for planning, recording, and reflecting.

Ketchup

Here is my confession to the wise blog community: as Ms Gergely's email reminded me, I have not posted in 8 days. :O! The reason for this being that I am in a bit of a transition time with my project right now and I am still figuring out some details. I will now, however; continue to do some catch up journal entries. Ready set go!

XDXP GG

Gleaning Reflection

1. I really liked how my unnamed person, we'll call her Boquisha, used a lot of detail in her thinking process in we entries. She also had a good description of herself growing as she learned how to balance her work and overcome challenges.

2. Boquisha sometimes used language that was too casual in her entries. I think she also could have added more research about already created duct tape art.

3. I would really like to borrow her use of lists. Obviously we already talked about it in class but she had some good examples of lists with a lot of content and meaning. I would also like to use Boquisha's honest description of her thoughts and how she grew as a person. I think sometimes I can sound a bit like the diary of a cat.

XDXP GG

How stuff works

The website "How Stuff Works" is a dream come true for the curious. It's a website answering questions of how some basic things work that you never quite wondered about until you see it there. I have been noticing a bit of the same phenomenon around me with all sorts of furniture. This project has made me think a lot more about how this chair I'm sitting in stays up with only 2 screws and how that table has finish on it that has lasted since 1960. Just some food for thought: bookshelves are so much more complex than one might think.

XDXP GG

Rabbet joints

Part of a box is using a rabbet joint to fit the pieces together, pictured below. For this, I had to put on a different saw blade and measure to the correct width and depth. Unfortunately, that's much harder than it sounds. There are a couple places on the box that are a couple millimeters off, but you can't sweat the small stuff when you're staring those sharp saw blades in the face and appreciating each finger more and more as the days progress.

XDXP GG

My dad is just the best

After research and practice I was finally ready to cut into the good, expensive wood for my project. My dad was very adamant on helping me and showing me what to do. There was a part of me that wanted to say "Dad... This is my project, I have to do it my way" which is my usual tendency (unfortunately). What really surprised me enough to confess this personality flaw of mine was that I realized even after my preparation, I would be clueless without him there guiding me. So I decided to think of it as me being his apprentice for a little while until I get the hang of it all. WISE lesson of the day: accept help even when you want to march to your own drum because you never realize your drum is broken until you start banging on it. Clever metaphor, or one that makes no sense? That's for you to sleep on folks.

XDXP GG

Approaching a task

I had a conversation with my aunt who is a Life Coach via the Martha Beck life coach training program. We were discussing my project and she told me about a seminar she attended on different approaches to tasks. She is going to send me the link to read more about it, but the basic types of approaches are fact finder, process oriented, quick start, and a couple others that I can't remember but will read up on when I get the link. She asked me a couple questions and concluded without question that I am a QuickStart learner, meaning I don't want to do research or have instruction, I just want to figure it out myself and use my own knowledge to learn by doing and making mistakes. I couldn't agree with this more. I think that's why the research component of wise is really difficult for me I would much rather start sawing away than read up on how to do it effectively. Unfortunately, that's not really a productive use of materials and isn't really practical in this sense, so I do have to so a lot of research. Oh well, it's interesting to think about and understand myself a little better anyway.

XDXP GG

Mentor Meeting

A little late on actually posting this, but I had a great meeting with my mentor last week. We talked about some possible project ideas after he boxes and also a little bit about meeting the blog entry requirements. We had a great discussion on how I can now look at the way things are constructed differently and see how much work goes into them, and also ow I can write a blog post on something as simple as that.

XDXP GG

Who thought a box would be this hard...

Well, it's Tuesday and I have yet to make a box. I have been doing research and practicing some skills while I got my materials in place, but the long and short of it is that it's taking a lot longer than expected to get all my ducks in a row. I went to visit West Virginia University last week (woohoo!) so I was away from my project for a little while. On the up side, while I was away, my flat of wood it delivered! Hot digity. Now I'm working on a technical sketch of the dimensions of the box before I cut the very valuable wood.
On that note, my project is proving to be more expensive than intended, as common with most things in life. Good old Papa Jorge to the rescue though! (That's my dad, his name is actually George). The two of us have been working on putting in insulation in our cabin, and soon drywall. He agreed to pay for some parts of my project as long as I continue to insulate and drywall the cabin! A good deal if you ask me because those are skills that are also related to carpentry so I really am just working on my wise project.

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Last week's mentor meeting

When my mentor and I met last week we briefly discussed some community resources. He gave me his sister's number because she has done some carpentry and worked with habitat for humanity, which is really cool because that's something I would love to do! He also let me know of a possible opportunity to make some Dropbox type structures for an organization in the community! It is not official yet but I may be able to make the boxes for them and my wise project would be displayed in the community. Pretty rad opportunity if you ask me.

XDXPGG

WISE Class

Yesterday WISE met and we basically discussed some challenges and also successes that we all were having in our projects. I've been reading through my Gleaning assignment and finding it really interesting to see what the finished product looks like and how the process comes together.
We also discussed just some general expectations that some of us were lacking an understanding of in our journals and blogs and went over some helpful practices to keep up with blogging.

XDXPGG

Barnsong

Last week in WISE we watched Barnsong, which was a wise project on a wise project basically. Someone filmed another person building a barn and set it up as a documentary, complete with student created music in the background. It was really interesting to see the guy who was building the barn be interviewed because some of his struggles are exactly what I am feeling in my project. It was also pretty inspiring to see because he had such a big project and succeeded in the end. It's also really interesting to see all of the resources we have in our community for pretty much any project. Go Ithaca!

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Semi successful Lowes Visit

I went to Lowes and was able to find the hinges, knob, nails, and brads that I need. Surprisingly enough though, it is QUITE difficult to find 1/2 inch plywood that's good in both sides that's not expensive cabinet wood. The people at Lowes were really not top sympathetic that they didn't have a simple thing. Simplicity is not their money maker, I suppose. It all worked out because my dad knows a guy who has his own lumber yard and was able to get what we want and deliver it so we didn't have to struggle with it on the roof of the rav 4 (they're quite large boards). So it all worked out, but one thing I learned is that when working from a "recipe" from an old book from the high school library, a lot of things are outdated and really hard to find.

XDXP GG

An Update from the Saw

So I've been working on using the table saw, one of the best power tools out there. This first picture is of a desk that my dad and I had to alter to fit in this corner, consequentially sawing the bejesus out of it. We had some chunks of the top left over. At first I was going to use them as a lid for my box because its really nice finished wood, but it turns out it is too thick and would involve a lot more work to sand the edges into a trim than it was worth. The weight distribution would also be very awkward and no one wants that, so instead I just sawed it up for the fun of it. Isn't this the best wise project ever!? Sawing for fun. Who would have thought. But anyway it was also really beneficial because I of course am not perfect with the table saw and so I was able to make mistakes without consequences to my beloved modular cube project. The second picture is one of the cleaner cuts I was able to make on said chunks of wood.

XDXP GG

Only the "Hinge Experts" Could tell me What a Butt Hinge is

Hinges are hinges right? Wrong. There are too many to count. Fortunately, the hinge experts of SoCal have a website. Who would have thought? Here is where I found information and example pricing for small brass butt hinges. Although I'm not going to purchase my supplies from these websites, it's a good price reference so I'm prepared for what everything is going to cost.

The Exciting Life of a Phillips Head

Since there are approximately 70 billion types of screws ( don't quote me on that one, I have a tendency to exaggerate) I figured I should do a little research on the type I'm using. I found a website which sells all sorts of building supplies and was able to give me a product catalog of wood screws. Below is all of the wood screws, and then the Phillips head, which is what I will use.