Well, we have been tasting solid foods for about two weeks. There was apricot jam, toast, apple juice, carrots, apple, Moriah’s halla bread. So tonight we start with cucumber and avacado. She is well coordinated in getting the spoon into her mouth on her own though it seems that she is more interested in chewing on the spoon as teething relief than for its food content. 
One metric to determine how moved I am is when I have set up my server. I have two servers and two Reel-to-Reel machines. Generally my office set-up includes both of these. I basically took them down the week of June 9th when we bought our house in Eugene. Now 244 days later, I was able to turn my MacMini server back on. It has been a while. Hello MacMini - Now just to get you up and running with the latest software...
Sanctity of life Sunday is a Sunday where the Christian church in the United States takes a day to remember, highlight, and acknowledge a cultural option in the United States for women to have abortions. Each church which celebrates sanctity of life Sunday will do it in their own way.
As I sit and think and respond to the things said at my Church, I have a few responses.
I have been struggling for the last few months with an addiction... an IKEA addiction. An addition that I am not sure I was completely responsible for creating, but more on that later.
It is a habit which, I really had to learn the hard way, that I needed to kick. Here is my problem: Their product line has a really powerful draw. Their products all look like they fit together (with each other). This gives the impression of harmony. Meanwhile many of their products look like they are minimalistic in design. That is, they are smooth and sexy and and visually simplistic. I say look minimalistic, because most of the products from IKEA have a well designed (short) life span. That is, the products simply do not last beyond the first intended use - and this is by design. The way I understand the product is that in the IKEA business model, the products are not what create the business money, rather it is the service of distributing the products which is viewed as the money maker. So, the business metrics are set up as: "How many products do I distribute?", not "How products do I sell?". While both metics are important, The first puts an importance on the distribution, the second puts an emphasis on the monetary value of the sale, or the value of a lasting product (value presented to the customer). This is why I suggest that the IKEA product's life cycle is also designed. I have had to learn that the hard way. I like the look, but beyond that "IKEA life" seems to be designed to bring the customer into a consumer relationship with IKEA, such that the customer must buy multiple products due to short life spans. Consider the difference between the IKEA Expedit series and their KALLAX series (several differences are exposited well by Peter Robinson). Expedit was a series with solid construction and a production run of several decades. However, The Expedit product had a fantastic secondary market because they lasted and were hearty. The Expedit series was replaced by KALLAX. A less hearty, physically lighter product series.
Consider the following review from YouTube.
From a management perspective, IKEA has applied design principles not only to the product but also to the acquisition process and to the life cycle of the product. They have put new design requirements on the life span, causing a redesign of the product. In a way, this de-emphasizes the product and elevates the need for service mechanism of delivering the product - The service has been assessed and re-designed. For a good book about applying these principals to your business read: Service Design Thinking. Or for a quick check Service Design look at Wikipedia.
My distain for IKEA rivals my distain for Facebook. They also have an interesting product, but one is never sure where the platform is going. This makes the product life span (as a user understands it) quite susceptible to uncertainty. Apple products could also be similarly considered to have gone through this design phase. Consider when Apple started soldering RAM to the motherboard (because their secondary market has been limited by making certain parts "non-upgradable").
I have been plotting my escape from life drainers. This means that I need to be able to find solutions elsewhere with other products. I think I found my solution to the IKEA wormhole on a DIY site or two: http://www.ana-white.com , and http://designsbystudioc.com.
There are several projects I have been looking at doing. One is a shoe rack for my front door area. These sites were a good place to get ideas and example plans - to see how things go together. Another project in progress is a coffee table on casters for my living room.
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/01/shoe-dresser
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/06/shoe-organizer
http://www.ana-white.com/2015/08/free_plans/grandy-sliding-door-console
http://www.ana-white.com/2015/02/free_plans/wall-cubby-crate-shelves
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/03/entry-shoe-bench
http://www.ana-white.com/2012/07/big-crate-shoe-box-test-bri-wax
http://fixthisbuildthat.com/adjustable-shoe-storage-bench/
http://www.ana-white.com/2013/04/shoe-bench
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/08/shoe-cabinet-aka-my-kitchens-best-friend
http://designsbystudioc.com/diy-plans-build-westport-coffee-table/
http://www.ana-white.com/2013/01/plans/chalkboard-produce-crate
http://www.ana-white.com/2010/09/vintage-crate-carts.html
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/08/shoe-crates
http://www.ana-white.com/2010/03/plans-simple-spa-bench-inpsired-by.html
http://www.ana-white.com/2015/07/free_plans/2x4-truss-benches-alaska-lake-cabin
http://www.ana-white.com/2015/07/free_plans/2x4-truss-table-alaska-lake-cabin
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/01/sausha%E2%80%99s-washerdryer-pedestals
http://www.ana-white.com/2015/12/free_plans/diy-apothecary-style-kitchen-cabinets
http://fixthisbuildthat.com/diy-wooden-drink-coasters-plans/
Some interesting links about Apple and design:
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/apples_products_are.html
http://www.idgconnect.com/abstract/10261/design-guru-don-norman-slams-apple-ease-disservice
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/16/9743996/apple-designer-interview-bruce-tog-tognazzini-don-norman
These are here because I talk about Apple designing the life cycle of their products. I don't link to them because they are not a major thrust of this post.
Several years ago my brother Jed and I started playing Carcassonne and decided to go all out and add as many expansions as we could to create a "total game". Along the way we encountered several vague explanations of rules... of course it was only us two and the rule book, so our comprehension of the rules could be faulty as well. So we made a list of questions we had in how game play was supposed to proceed. More recently, with different siblings in town Carcassonne came back out of the box and more questions were asked about set combinations. This time, out came the internet and several resources presented themselves.
Note that most of these rules have been cleared up with a good reading of the Fan Based rules (linked to below).
Finally, one of the most exciting things was tuck box templates for tiles.
I would like to make a home made CNC.
What things have I seen? Who else has done this?
Findings:
http://www.homofaciens.de/technics-machines-cnc-v2_en_navion.htm
Build your own mini-CNC artbot for $70
When we bought our house in June of 2015, we knew there were several thing which needed to be done to make the place livable. One of those was to fix the leak around the chimney into the fireplace area in the living room. The leak was bad enough to cause discoloration, mold and mushrooms to grow. It required pulling down some 50 year old Douglas Fir paneling and finding a replacement. Here are some photos with dates to show how the project proceeded.
This week Becky and I started looking for projector. Here are the requirements we found​
Some of the models we looked at are:
For the un informed (like I was), there was some good reading at the following websites:
I wonder if I should become a pollen station reporter...
I was looking here at pollen stations:
http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stations/become-a-counter.aspx
http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stations.aspx
http://pollen.aaaai.org/nab/index.cfm?p=allergenreport&stationid=1&datecount=10%2F14%2F2015
http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stations/start-a-station.aspx
So here is a list of things I am learning about house building:
Window Putty is not caulk.
Cinderblock is not solid. Mounting fireplace mantels as a floating shelf to cinderblock is a challenge.
All things considered Jerry's is a better hardware store than Home Depot or Lowes. Platt Eletric is often cheaper than Home Depot.
Oscillating Multi-Tools are pretty much awesome.
Not all 3-way or 4-way switches are wired the same. (http://www.buildmyowncabin.com/electrical/how-to-wire-4-way-switch-diagram.pdf)
Old circuits might contain two power cables and a single return... as a black and a red and a white.
© 2005-2026 Hugh Paterson III All Rights Reserved.
By submitting a comment here you grant this site a perpetual license to reproduce your Words, Name & Website URL in attribution.
Details of your viewing experience maybe retained and used. -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright