putting out the fire with styrofoam
Mar. 2nd, 2003 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkToday has spun along slowly, as I fantasized about becoming an optometrist, which was my poll answer for what I would study to be if I started all over again. Someday when we can get everything done by distance learning, perhaps we'll all find our escapes in constant re-education. I think it would be fun to be an optometrist, because it would be so much more nurturing than what I am now. I think I'd have to go to Houston for it, though, which is a bit far to commute :).
After we ate a charming lunch at Mimi's coffee shop, I moved on to artistic things. I assembled my new styrofoam cutter. It's a very "complex" device. It has two D batteries in a paper tube. These connect to a conduct material on the end of the tube. When the connection switch is thrown "on", then an electrical connection is formed to heat piece of wire, strung from a little metal "v". Voila! Instant styro burn! When I put the heated wire against styrofoam, it melts like butter. I feel like a real tyro of pyro wizardry, with my styro wand slicing aimlessly.
So far, I've carved three pawns, a rook, 2 knights, and a bishop out of styrofoam, although all but the pawns look like kinda carved blobs. I lettered them to ensure that less imaginative minds than mine can see their true nature. I am still working out the problem of coloration. How will I create the black pieces? Does one paint styrofoam? I have this mental image that one dips styrofoam in sprinkles, or rubs it in a dust-like substance, but this may be my imagination run wild. It has not escaped my notice that a styrofoam chess set will be much less expensive to ship to Belgium than a soap chess set.
I'm pleased to see so many poll responses in general, and in particular those setting forth things to do with ninety six billion dollars other than armed conflict. I think education is the one constant. I tend to be skeptical of both parties on social issues. I'd love to see a time in which every child does get a chance, though, and not just unfunded lip service.
I've now posted twelve entries ingurdondark, and am on a pace which suggests to me that I will reach the defined 100 posts in about six months. Now it's about time for me to set up the literary journal that I've thought of for a few months now. The best part of my creative efforts, of course, is finding the idea about the title. Gurdonarts? Gurdonarte? Gurdon's Ark? Hmmm.....I feel a long free verse poem/novel coming on, but it may transmogrify into a vast comic essay instead. There really isn't much difference, when I write them, other than indentation. I'll have to think of a theme. In recent years, I've thought of the Brooks-Baxter War, a particularly silly (if fatal) brush fire revolution in Arkansas during Reconstruction, the meaning of life, and an entire chess tournament as potential themes. I'm not sure that theme matters, though, so much as just getting the words down on the page. My writing is not really plot-driven, but driven by a sense of individual whimsy made into words.
Reading all the potential career choices also makes me wish to start an LJ on "cool careers and how to quickly train to do them".
I think that career counseling in this country is still in a primitive state. So many new careers now exist which are "hot", but for which too few people train, particularly in the "allied health" fields. I'd love to put up post after post of potential cool careers, and how to get there from here, from the easiest to achieve to the most arcane. So many daydreams, so little time.
Ms. Baker Eddy's biography has some rather disturbing passages, when she determined that she and hers were the victims of "malicious animal magnetism". This, apparently, involves the use of mental powers by rival mind-giants to directly affect life and sanity. I must admit that this form of "malicious animal magnetism" does not work for me as a life's credo, although I can readily agree that I have through personal observation noted that certain attractive young men have seemed to work a power over certain thoughtful young women to whom I was attracted, in what I can only describe as a form of "animal magnetism".
My sore throat is nearly gone, and I'm feeling almost chipper. I plan to work on many of my "things I've been meaning to get done" list. I'm pleased that the sitemeter.com counter works so well. It hits the spot--it doesn't invade anyone's privacy, but it does give me a good idea about readership. The "details" render ISP/server level, but not individual identifier level, info as to who visits. It's always curious to me when I see a Russian one or one from a place I know of no LJ friends. I suspect these are just journal entries that hit google, causing someone to stop by. Now I must add the digic am and the web hosting service to my tool sets--it's almost time that I started posting photos on my LJ. I don't have much to show, as I don't have much to say, but it would be fun to show it.
In the next day or two, I will post the Bizarro April 1 LJ announcement post, describing an LJ event in which all who participate will post a "bizarro" post opposite of their true selves, following up on an ideamarstokyo had some weeks ago. I also will launch my Mail Poetry call, soliciting worthless words from friend and stranger alike! I notice that in February I got a lot of work done, but also a lot of hobby done.
Let's see if March can really roll.
After we ate a charming lunch at Mimi's coffee shop, I moved on to artistic things. I assembled my new styrofoam cutter. It's a very "complex" device. It has two D batteries in a paper tube. These connect to a conduct material on the end of the tube. When the connection switch is thrown "on", then an electrical connection is formed to heat piece of wire, strung from a little metal "v". Voila! Instant styro burn! When I put the heated wire against styrofoam, it melts like butter. I feel like a real tyro of pyro wizardry, with my styro wand slicing aimlessly.
So far, I've carved three pawns, a rook, 2 knights, and a bishop out of styrofoam, although all but the pawns look like kinda carved blobs. I lettered them to ensure that less imaginative minds than mine can see their true nature. I am still working out the problem of coloration. How will I create the black pieces? Does one paint styrofoam? I have this mental image that one dips styrofoam in sprinkles, or rubs it in a dust-like substance, but this may be my imagination run wild. It has not escaped my notice that a styrofoam chess set will be much less expensive to ship to Belgium than a soap chess set.
I'm pleased to see so many poll responses in general, and in particular those setting forth things to do with ninety six billion dollars other than armed conflict. I think education is the one constant. I tend to be skeptical of both parties on social issues. I'd love to see a time in which every child does get a chance, though, and not just unfunded lip service.
I've now posted twelve entries in
gurdondark, and am on a pace which suggests to me that I will reach the defined 100 posts in about six months. Now it's about time for me to set up the literary journal that I've thought of for a few months now. The best part of my creative efforts, of course, is finding the idea about the title. Gurdonarts? Gurdonarte? Gurdon's Ark? Hmmm.....I feel a long free verse poem/novel coming on, but it may transmogrify into a vast comic essay instead. There really isn't much difference, when I write them, other than indentation. I'll have to think of a theme. In recent years, I've thought of the Brooks-Baxter War, a particularly silly (if fatal) brush fire revolution in Arkansas during Reconstruction, the meaning of life, and an entire chess tournament as potential themes. I'm not sure that theme matters, though, so much as just getting the words down on the page. My writing is not really plot-driven, but driven by a sense of individual whimsy made into words.Reading all the potential career choices also makes me wish to start an LJ on "cool careers and how to quickly train to do them".
I think that career counseling in this country is still in a primitive state. So many new careers now exist which are "hot", but for which too few people train, particularly in the "allied health" fields. I'd love to put up post after post of potential cool careers, and how to get there from here, from the easiest to achieve to the most arcane. So many daydreams, so little time.
Ms. Baker Eddy's biography has some rather disturbing passages, when she determined that she and hers were the victims of "malicious animal magnetism". This, apparently, involves the use of mental powers by rival mind-giants to directly affect life and sanity. I must admit that this form of "malicious animal magnetism" does not work for me as a life's credo, although I can readily agree that I have through personal observation noted that certain attractive young men have seemed to work a power over certain thoughtful young women to whom I was attracted, in what I can only describe as a form of "animal magnetism".
My sore throat is nearly gone, and I'm feeling almost chipper. I plan to work on many of my "things I've been meaning to get done" list. I'm pleased that the sitemeter.com counter works so well. It hits the spot--it doesn't invade anyone's privacy, but it does give me a good idea about readership. The "details" render ISP/server level, but not individual identifier level, info as to who visits. It's always curious to me when I see a Russian one or one from a place I know of no LJ friends. I suspect these are just journal entries that hit google, causing someone to stop by. Now I must add the digic am and the web hosting service to my tool sets--it's almost time that I started posting photos on my LJ. I don't have much to show, as I don't have much to say, but it would be fun to show it.
In the next day or two, I will post the Bizarro April 1 LJ announcement post, describing an LJ event in which all who participate will post a "bizarro" post opposite of their true selves, following up on an idea
marstokyo had some weeks ago. I also will launch my Mail Poetry call, soliciting worthless words from friend and stranger alike! I notice that in February I got a lot of work done, but also a lot of hobby done.Let's see if March can really roll.
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jobs
Date: 2003-03-02 02:17 pm (UTC)Sometimes it easy to loose perspective on 'work'. A year or so ago, some electricians were doing some work on one of our experiments. One of our guys was talking to him while the circuits were getting tested...'so howdya like working here'? 'yeah, its great....not working out doors in the winter is great'
I guess the acid test of one job is to ask 'would I do this if I didn't get paid?'
I'm lucky....a lot of my work is stuff I would do for 'fun' even if I won the lottery.
Re: jobs
Date: 2003-03-02 02:24 pm (UTC)I'm reminded of the simplicity expert I met who had eschewed all the trappings of complexity, to find a kinder, gentler, greener way to live. The problem, of course, was money. It was very hard to actually live on the salaries which she could earn while eschewing all the tasks for which people pay salaries.
I tend to think that one chooses from an array of jobs which the market will fund, because I was raised to believe that starvation was not a noble thing, no matter how artistic one's soul might be.
I also find a lot of people speaking disparagingly of crafts and working people, when skilled tradespeople can have very good lives indeed.
The main problem I encountered when I was college age was sheer ignorance of the rich diversity of jobs that existed. I was always taught that one could be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, preacher, or, much lesser, an engineer or businessperson. I've made it a point of personal agenda since to point out how many things there are one can do in life, and how wide a market it truly is out there.
Re: jobs
Date: 2003-03-02 03:56 pm (UTC)Nowadays, if I have visitors staying who are more on the 'craft' spectrum of jobs, they are shocked that I will answer work e-mails at night and at the weekends.
Why? Do you get paid?
Anyway, I guess the bottom line is that people from the 'craft' side tend to have more emphasis on getting fulfillment in the non-work hours in the day. I realise now, that I probably can't get that, and currently, I need to have a job where I'm 'challenged'.
Re: jobs
Date: 2003-03-02 04:09 pm (UTC)I think it's cool on some level, though, to answer work e mails and evening e mails one after the other, a sort of juxtaposition.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-02 02:36 pm (UTC)Someday when we can get everything done by distance learning, perhaps we'll all find our escapes in constant re-education.
Especially if, as some predict, we all start living to 100. ;0
no subject
Date: 2003-03-02 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-02 04:01 pm (UTC)In a single afternoon, I finished 32 chess pieces. Now all I need is to find an old lunchbox at goodwill or something, and ship it off to the mail art call for chess sets in Belgium. I am so proud that I completed this, and I converted on soap chess set queen into a bit of art I can send off as well, to fulfill an old nervousness exchange I'd neglected :).
Re:
Date: 2003-03-02 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-02 04:23 pm (UTC)Today I made 32 chess pieces out of styrofoam. The cutter is just a heated wire, so any soft thing that responds to heat can be cut with it. I'm sure a few things would be a mistake to cut. I could make the pieces differentiable without pipe cleaners, because the medium was so easy to use. Now I have a complete set, ready to mail, once I get a box.
Re:
Date: 2003-03-02 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-02 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-02 05:08 pm (UTC)I like the idea of a styro box...gotta check into that.
Re:
Date: 2003-03-02 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-02 10:11 pm (UTC)Make sure you cut the foam in a really well ventilated place......the fumes are REALLY toxic (carcinogenic).
no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 05:20 am (UTC)