The Time Paradox

As of yesterday, I am officially receiving a salary again. I've been working for three weeks at my new job and it's nice to know I'm getting paid for that effort. It's also nice to have some established responsibilities again. The life of the househusband certainly has its perks, but it also reinforced something I've long suspected about myself: I don't do very well as my own boss. I have tons of great ideas, but I need external pressure to focus on them. Or a time crunch. The other lesson, or perhaps an extension of the same lesson: I'll take as much time to complete a project as I'm offered. If someone else sets a deadline, well, the project gets done by that deadline. On the other hand, when, as say an unemployed househusband, I find myself with theoretically infinite time, I allow myself to use all of it. You probably get the point, but I'm still going to use my dictatorial power as sole author of this blog to force a few examples on you:

Here is a list of the "projects" I've set for myself during my long hiatus from a salaried job:

• Write another book
• Revise and submit the book I did finish (while working my first full-time job, I should add)
• Build my brother's birthday present from 2008
• Create a new webpage for the B&B party
• Keep a blog (you already know how well that one turned out)
• Learn Visual Basic

The list goes on. Most of those items have been on that list since before I left my LAST job in 2006. The school year didn't help much with timing (the occasional "40 hour day" creates the opposite problem I described above), but it did offer several summers of part-time work when I couldn't say I was busy. And ALL of those items have been on the list since I left school in 2009.

So, with that in mind, here is a list of my "accomplishments" since graduation:

• Watched 2 seasons of Dexter, 4 seasons of Bones, as many episodes of CSI, NCIS, Psych, NCIS:LA, and Leverage as I could find available on-demand or on Netflix "Watch Instantly" at any given time.
• Earned roughly 7000 gamer points for achievements on my Xbox 360 (for reference: Bruce, Pennock, and Lockard are the only people on my friends list who have 7000 points at all, let alone within a 15-month period)
• Read something like a million books (including lots of WWII histories -an interest kindled after watching the full set of Band of Brothers)

Notice there's not a whole lot of overlap between the two lists. (I don't really want to think about the time-investment that second list represents). Oh, and I helped plan a wedding in there, so that counts for something, but otherwise not the set of accomplishments for which I hoped to use my downtime.

I am learning though. The solution to my "infinite time" dilemma is two-fold:
(1) Create a time shortage
Perfect example, I started a new job three weeks ago and suddenly you're getting your first blog entry in six months (and that one barely counts). Even an artificial shortage helps. Restricting my time on a personal project to specific hours forced me to actually do the work during those hours rather than telling myself I'd have time later and that, in the meantime, it was fine to seek out another secret achievement on my Batman game.
(2) Create external pressure
Part of the reason I returned to the blog instead of retiring it (as I'd been contemplating) is that my Dad asked about it which, for those of you who remember when these columns existed in email form way-back-when, is precisely why I started sharing these thoughts with others to begin with. A more successful example is The League of Extraordinary Writers. I recently assembled a few writer/critic friends into a writer's group where, among other things, we serve as motivation for each other to actually sit down and write something. I respond well to homework, and by gathering others who would expect me to contribute something on a regular basis I've made more progress on my book this summer than in the past three years combined (which is especially sad given how little progress that is BUT, thanks to the group, it IS accelerating and I'm really excited about that).

Do I have my project completion issues completely resolved now? Probably not, but I am at least working on most of these actions again. I've already begun to tackle that project list again and, at the very least, the list of "accomplishments" above certainly contains several noteworthy opportunities for review-style blog entries. Maybe I'll actually get around to writing some of them now that I don't have the time.

Look What I Made (episode 2)

The semester is drawing to a close (thus the return to blogging). I thought I'd take the opportunity to share with you what I've been doing in my secret lair.

This studio, in contrast to the last one, was essentially one big full class project. We actually had a client this semester, which is a very different experience than designing for an abstract academic principle. We've tried to set such a thing up on previous semesters, but ran into conflicts over who owned the rights to our work. This time, with this client, the school was able to reach an agreement, so in February (a bit later than originally intended) we got started working for ACS, in particular the division that builds equipment for airport parking ticketing operations. Most of you have seen their handiwork at Atlanta, Dulles, Reagan, and other major airports. They're the top supplier for the top airports in the nation and were looking to improve their product for a variety of reasons.

We spent the semester on the problem and eventually developed three potential solutions. We all worked on the background development and early concept work. When it came time to work on the final solutions, I had a more direct hand in shaping two of them: Monolith and Organic. Ask me about them sometime and I'll be happy to tell you more. Hopefully we will be seeing one of these coming to a major airport within a year or two.




My Interaction Design class is the only other class that worked towards a physical product this semester. There were seven of us in this class and together we produced three pieces for an end-of-year exhibition titled "Play." This exhibition was focused on using the principles of interaction to modify and expand upon the experience of iconic American toys. My group (there were three of us) used the concept of "affordance" to develop a giant Simon game. Instead of pushing buttons, players jump on them. With an eight foot diameter, this version of Simon encouraged 4 (and sometimes more) people to play together. The exhibition was a success and the Simon (once we worked out a double-press problem in the software) gathered lots of players.

So that's two years down and one to go. This next one is the thesis year and it should be an interesting experience. I'll keep you informed.

UPDATE: And here's a video of the Simon in action one of my teammates just posted. We're into the double digits at this point, so there's little actual jumping anymore... We eventually made it to 17 before losing interest.

Look What I Made

In the ID program we make a lot of stuff. In an effort to broaden my repertoire of skills, and also to continue a path my Dad started me on when I was little, I took a class last semester called Wood Products and Processes. It began with basic woodworking skills and then progressed on to the use of some of the fancier machines. The place where I took this class is called the Advanced Wood Products Laboratory (AWPL). I always thought the name was sort of entertaining, largely because I associate wood products with craft fairs and that’s hardly advanced. Then I saw the equipment they get to play with.

AWPL is a full research facility and, along with machines to test the strength of various wood products, they have a full suite of production level woodworking machines. One small corner is devoted to things like tablesaws, bandsaws, planers, jointers, and the like. The rest of the shop is a little more complex. The AWPL has a deal with a machine company that works essentially like this: the company stores their new zillion dollar machines at AWPL and lets AWPL use them whenever and however they want; AWPL personnel, in return, train the company’s clients on how to use the machines. The actual machines at the AWPL change over time as existing machines are sold to the customers and new ones come in from the company. There is always at least one computer controlled router, at least one double-sided belt sander wide enough for whole sheets of plywood (not that you’d use it on plywood), and a host of other miscellaneous machines.

Our first project for the class used none of the big stuff. Indeed, I did much of my work at the architecture shop that had the twin conveniences of being next to my studio and open on weekends. The goal was to make a splined box with veneer tops and in the process learn about
jointing, planing, miters, dados, splines, veneering, basic finishes, and general assembly. Alan, our instructor, also used this as an opportunity to teach us one of his fundamental principles of wood work: “If you don’t think you’ll be able to hide it, make it stand out.” The splines on my box are deliberately obvious for this reason. If you try to hide it (very difficult) and fail, it will look like a mistake. If you emphasize it, it will look like a deliberate feature. We’ll call this The Alan Principle because I’m going to refer to it again.

The sides are poplar, the top and bottom are veneered with walnut, and the splines are made from aromatic cedar. The whole piece is finished with several layers of tung oil (three, I think, but I’m not sure). I designed it with my mother in mind and gave it to her for Christmas.

The next project made use of the computer-numeric-controlled routers (cnc). It was an attempt to familiarize us with the cnc so we were not allowed to do any other kind of machining. The entire piece had to be tab-in-slot or slot-in-slot construction, no screws, bolts, or any other addons, and needed to come from a single 2 foot by 4 foot sheet of wood. I made a cord-hider to deal with the rat nests under my computer and behind my entertainment setup. It’s made of half-inch birch plywood, again finished with several coats of tung oil.

The final project was a full piece of furniture, meant to be a flatpack, knockdown piece. In other words, it needs to be able to ship flat (the actual requirements were “fit flat in the trunk of a car”) and to be easy for the customer to assemble and disassemble. Ikea is the prime example of this, but much higher quality furniture is possible. I made this as a gift for Sarah and worked with her (with some inspiration from Jo) to come up with the basic design. After which, I kicked her out of the design process so there would be at least some surprise.

I used walnut plywood for the sides and top, and poplar plywood for all the horizontal surfaces and the inlays. The top opening is for glasses. You cannot see it in the pictures, but there are channels built into the top piece to hang stemware. It’s also tall enough for pints or other glasses to stand upright in the opening. The second opening contains a series of grooves that will each hold a wine bottle. They’re subtle but secure. The cabinet portion is tall enough to hold a variety of other bottles.

For the finish, I was getting a bit tired of tung oil. I made about twenty four samples of possible finishes using various dyes, stains, and topcoat layers. I showed them to Sarah and she picked… the tung oil. This time, though, there’s also a few layers of high-durability polyurethane on top of that to protect the wood from spills (alcohol does terrible things to most wood finishes) and other damage. There are blue highlights around the edges of the inlays, inside the wine bottle grooves, and inside the stemware channels. The inlays are deliberately raised away from the face, another application of the Alan Principle.

I also used the lasercutter to add two personal inscriptions inside the doors: one for myself,

and one for Sarah

(I only wish this had occurred to me earlier so I could have done the same with Mom’s card box).

For more creations by my classmates, check out the AWPL Gallery Page. I did pretty well in this class, but some of my classmates were amazing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class and definitely got a lot out of it. Not the least of which is access to the cnc router and the rest of the AWPL equipment any time I need it. If you've got a project for me, let me know.

My Other Life

This is one of the projects that has absorbed my attention this month (and which, you should infer, are preventing any serious blogging):



It's for my 3D Computer Modeling class. I made everything you see in there and then added and modified skins as necessary. I still have a few to go (the book covers to the right, for instance, aren't supposed to look like cardboard) and some general tweaking to get the look right.

Here is the other:



It's a heads-up-display built into a pair of safety glasses to assist the homeowner with repairs and upgrades.

This one is actually the bigger of the two projects. It looks less impressive here because most of the work is going into the physical model. Also, I need to work on designing the interface and creating the presentation to go along with it.

I did get a chance to play with the laser-cutter today when making the goggles depicted above. Now that is an impressive piece of equipment. It was my first experience with a machine that is NOT from the project-ruining family (or at least hides its connections very well). I loved every minute of it. Having that victory early in the day helped me get through my actual encounter with real project-ruining machines later (the bandsaw version claimed at least two models today and would have claimed my third if I hadn't realigned my intentions to more closely match what I actually produced).

EDIT:
This is the final version of the desk scene.

(Bruce you might recognize that top book...)

The Project-Ruining Machine

We have a number of fascinating and useful machines in our shop. Today I wish to talk about a personal favorite: the project-ruining machine. This particular machine performs a variety of tasks but its chief purpose is to completely ruin your project at exactly the wrong time. Actually, it’s not a very difficult job. Sometimes you can even get it taken care of without a machine, but the machine adds a certain finesse. There’s something elegant and efficient about the way the project-ruining machine can turn a simple twitch of the hand into complete devastation.

When I was first introduced to the project-ruining machine, I thought “That looks remarkably like a belt sander.” I was, however, assured by my professor that while it could function as a belt sander from time to time, it was in fact a project-ruining machine. It has a remarkably intuitive interface: simply apply your project to the sander at the wrong angle (easy to do since there are so many wrong angles compared to correct angles), or fidget on your approach, or press a little too hard on one side. The only way to cause the machine to malfunction such that it fails to ruin your project is to approach it at just the right angle, without jitters, and with even pressure. Fortunately, even if you do mess things up and fail to ruin your project the first time, the project-ruining machine generally gives you plenty of chances and really, it only needs to succeed once.

If the belt sander version isn’t what you’re looking for, the project-ruining machine actually comes in a wide array of shapes. For instance, our shop has project-ruining machines that look like table saws, band saws, chop saws, orbital sanders, jig saws, milling machines, drill presses, lathes, and of course several varieties of belt sander. Once I knew what to look for I discovered that the project-ruining machine is pretty much the only machine our shop offers – one machine, nearly infinite varieties.

I have not quite got the knack of it yet. So far I have (mostly) failed to ruin my models, but I look forward to the day when I, too, get to hear that minor change in pitch, sense that brief twitch, and experience that tremendous sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I realize I have successfully used one of the project-ruining machines to nullify more than thirty hours of work in a single instant. What an impressive machine.

The Phrase of the Day: High-speed Delamination

Yes, this really is the sort of thing one has to worry about in shop, specifically on the lathe. If you have prepared well it shouldn't be an issue. But a phrase like that sticks with you. It's the sort of thing that pops into your head as you turn on the lathe and make your first approach, "If I'm not careful, my project could undergo high speed delamination, and that would be bad." "High-speed delamination" is just one way to explain the event in question. Others include "coming apart explosively and flying about the room" or, for those pressed for time, a string of expletives will also do.