Back from the workshop

Posted on 10/09/2011 by Andrew Reynolds

SInce my last post it feels like I haven’t stop moving until now.  It’s been good motion but now it is time to give a little report on what I’ve been up to.

I went to the marquetry workshop and I am happy to report that there were no injuries – mine or anyone else’s.  It was a five hour drive to get there and there were eight of us total – six students, our teacher and his helper.  They started us right away on the lathe and I spent all Friday afternoon learning to use the lathe and turning tools.  First lesson was to round a stick and cut a profile into it.  Then we went on to learning how to create a bowl and after a dinner break we worked into the evening finishing up the bowl.

The amazing thing about wood turning is how easy it was.  Yes it is a little scary having a block of wood spinning inches from your figures but the thought of what could happen keeps your mind focused and fingers safely out of the way.  The guys teaching the class have something like a million years wood turning experience and really worked hard to make sure we knew what we were doing before we touched tool to wood.  It was great to have someone there to help you figure out what to do and more importantly how to fix the inevitable mistakes.  And that is the real key to good woodworking – knowing how to fix the mistake that will naturally be made.

We worked hard for the three days, working late Friday night and getting up early Saturday and Sunday.  We did go have nice meals Friday and Saturday evenings which  were a great time to socialize and to get to know everyone better.  I came home with a plate with marquetry inlaid in the bottom and an almost finished goblet with marquetry around the rim (one of my classmates has offered to help me finish the piece in his shop).

We ended the workshop about 3:00 pm on Sunday and I did the five hour drive home and packed my flight bag.

Yup – the next morning at 5:00 am my wife and I got on a plane to Hawaii to celebrate our  tenth wedding anniversary.  I wouldn’t have made the flight if Heather hadn’t be a good sport about the whole thing and did the work of packing both our bags and getting everything ready to go while I was enjoying my workshop.

We spent eight wonderful nights in paradise – four on the big island over on the Kona coast and then we hopped over to Kauai for four nights on the garden island.  It was a great trip – relaxing and all around the most wonderful way to celebrate ten years.

Tuesday night we returned from tropical sun to California rain – that was bit of a let down (er downpour).  Wednesday was spent cleaning up, watching the rain and wishing we were back in Kauai.  I’ll say it out loud – so far I have to say Kauai is my favorite Hawaiian island.

Thursday it was back to work for me.  There were about 1,000 emails to sort through, projects to get updated on and generally getting reconnected with work. Friday was just as crazy and it looks like work is going to be crazy until the Christmas buying season is over.

Since Wednesday my mind has been shifting to future plans and thinking about the kind of art, woodworking, church work, house projects and work projects I’d like to do.  I am feeling the need to be more creative in my life and to spend more time working with my hands.  I haven’t sorted it all out yet but soon I will.

That’s all I have time for now.  I’ll post more details and pictures of the marquetry this week. Also I’ll post more details about the next marquetry piece I am starting.

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Marquetry and Fear

Posted on 09/22/2011 by Andrew Reynolds

Tonight I packed for a weekend workshop.  I’ll be traveling a few hours north to take a class in marquetry on wood turnings.  The question is how is this going to turn out?  Part of me is very excited to be going and the other part is full of fear.  I am really just a beginner to the world of marquetry and have never used a lathe in my life.  Most of my wood working has been cabinetry or simple carpentry.  I’ve got some skills but the people I am taking the class with are – well, they really know what they’re doing and have produced some really fine work.

Me.  I’ve got one piece done and have bought all the right tools.

But I don’t have the skill or artistic eye that some of my fellow marquetarains have.  I suppose that statement is just self doubt.  At the last meeting a couple of the guys said that they can’t draw but still have produced stuff I am envious of.

What really has me worried is the wood turning thing.  When the class was announced they said that you didn’t need to have experience with turning.  They did add an extra session for an basic turning class so guys like me could get a little lesson and a head start on the project.  For awhile I was afraid that I’d be the only one that needed to learn how to use the lathe.  I was happy to learn that one other person is joining me in turning 101 but a bit intimidated to learn that some of my classmates have been turning wood for decades.

I could delve into my own inner psychology and emotional failings but let’s just leave it as, “afraid of failure.”  And personal injury – on the surface poking sharp tools at a big spinning machine doesn’t seem like the safest thing to be doing.  But how different is it from running wood through a spinning saw blade or climbing a ladder or that white water rafting I used to do.

Also I am basically an introvert and do most of my wood working alone where no one can see what I am doing (and I can throw out my mistakes before anyone sees them).  This weekend I’ll be working in a shop run by an expert and surrounded by people who really know their stuff.  I’ll be doing my cuts and making my mistakes in the same shop with them.
Which is part of the point of this weekend’s exercise – to get outside myself, push my limits and try doing something new.

I’ll be pushing a number of limits in the next three days.

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A Story from the Office – Labeled to Death

Posted on 09/08/2011 by Andrew Reynolds

Normally I don’t blog about my work.  I often work at where I am under a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) so I am limited on what I can say publicly and frankly there aren’t that many people on this planet that understand what I do.  I think there are about 300 people who might understand what I do and only about 10 of those would really what to read about it.

So what do I do?  I am a SCM engineer.  SCM stands for, “Software Configuration Management” and “Source Code Management.”  I do both SCM and SCM.  I also often get involved in release and build engineering.  If you’re in the business you’re likely saying, “Sorry to hear that.”  If you’re not in the business you’re say, “You do what?”

The easiest way to explain what I do the non-software engineer is this: Does you’re computer down load software updates from time to time?  Okay, I am that guy.  I am the one that built that package and put it up on the server to annoy you with the immortal question, “Install Update?”

One of the tools I use is Perforce (www.perforce.com) and recently I wrote a guest blog for them on the theme, “from the trenches” telling one of my many work “war stories.”

Well I am very happy to report that Perforce has posted it today.  I enjoyed writing it and am hoping that there are 3 people on the planet who will read it.  You can read the post here: http://blog.perforce.com/blog/?p=6701

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Too Busy to Post Today – A Whine

Posted on 08/29/2011 by Andrew Reynolds

Life has been so busy lately that I just can’t figure out what’s been happening. Let’s see – grandkids showed up, messed up all my Lego boxes (they had 1×4 grays in with the 2×4 reds and robot parts in the people parts) and then they sadly went home – just as I was getting use to the joyous chaos . Heather and I took a week camping to recover then got the house ready (transplanting shrubs, moving heavy furniture, going to the dump) for the construction crew who installed new windows in the kitchen – well it started out as replacing windows and ended up rebuilding walls. Then we painted after the crew left and I dug out two ex-planters that are going to get cemented over to create a larger patio space.  We just finished putting back the big pieces of furniture but I am sure I’ve forgotten to do something.

 
And somewhere in all that I started a new job and saw my finical adviser to find out when and if I ever get to retire (I’ve got a report but am afraid to read it). The new job has a different medical plan than my old job so I switched doctors – to a doctor I had before, who I really like. Then the doctor sent me to this physical therapy class for my shoulder after I complained about pain in my elbow – yeah I’m still trying to figure that out (weird but it’s working).  Then she, my doctor, sent me up for all these blood tests and asked a lot of questions about my prostate that I’d rather not repeat. I can’t be completely sure but I believe I went to the dentist for a cleaning and check up – well I do remember a comment from a dental like person about being ‘long in the tooth’ – apparently there’s a tooth paste for that.  The eye doctor finally convinced me to buy the prescription sunglasses he’s been after me for, just before telling me that my eye pressure increased this time so we’ve got to start checking for glaucoma every 12 months.  My grandmother had glaucoma but seems like I told the eye doctor that already or maybe he treated my grandmother – I don’t remember.

 
And my church committee had coffee host duty this month – I get a barely pass there as I forgot to get a crew for one Sunday (good thing I’ve got a great team that is willing to cover my butt from time to time) and one Sunday I screwed up the schedule cause it turned out that I was liturgist and the guy making coffee on the same Sunday – Heather helped me cover that one up.  The only good news is that I am on the verge of convincing the church council that I shouldn’t be  in charge of ‘hospitality hour.’ Then there’s a new pastor dude at church, Jim I think.  Yes, now I am sure of it – he’s new and his name is Jim.  I had breakfast with him last month? I think, yes, I did – he didn’t get the coffee cake but he had coffee.

 
I keep thinking that I need to write a new blog post but that keeps slipping into ‘tomorrow.’  It’s been tomorrow for about six weeks now.  I keep checking the status on this blog and am surprised to find that my most popular post is the one about my table saw stand closely followed by the unfinished posts on the Murphy bed.  I will take some pride in my Memorial day posts as they were my highest single day activity but on a day to day basis people seem more interested in Murphy beds and table saw stands than they are about our veterans. I’d like to do some really good posts but just about the time I think of a good one something new and better has happened so I start thinking out a blog post for that.  Never seem to get one written.  I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve opened my editor only to close it two days later without ever having written anything.

 
Well tonight my brain has kind of exploded.  This post started out as a tweet but then I ran over the 140 character limit so I moved on to a Facebook status update.  But then I went over that limit and FB suggested I do a note.  Somewhere around 400 words I cut and pasted the whole thing into the editor window I opened last Saturday and I rewrote all of this. At some level I feel I should apologize for the whiny tone of this post but at another level it just feels good to have a nice whine.

 
A wise man would delete the whole thing and just go to bed but I can’t be accused of being wise…

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