Sam Wilson's Journal

Fine Woodworking on Treenails: Squaring a drilled hole. Begin by drilling through the leg and tenon with a bit just smaller than the width of the peg. Make sure you don't drill through the other side of the leg. Use a 1/8" chisel to square up the first third of the hole. Maki…
It's Okay (I Guess).: I have begun dressing the ash, but am quite disheartened today; I don't want to be doing it. I feel like my work is not 'good enough', too rough, or ugly... Why this society, myself included, is so hung up on the smooth, square, fair, straight, eve…
The Afternoon: I got some lunch on the way back to the workshop, and sat in my corner feeling a bit sad about not wanting to work. It took only a bit of food in my stomach for this mood to pass and I got back to it: more dressing of the ash door jamb for this litt…
Assesment: This morning was my final assessment for the Diploma. I was getting pretty nervous beforehand, didn't sleep much last night (for a host of other reasons, not just the assessment) and had had little to eat. As I moved my work downstairs ready to bum…
Keepin' It Local: I'm so excited!! Last night I couldn't sleep for the thrill of what I'm planning on doing. I'm feeling excited about facing the utter enormity of global manufacture from a standpoint of low-tech and beautiful dumpster diving! Take that door jamb f…
A Catalogue, I Think?: I have not posted for ages, and I didn't really think I would be again until next year. But here I am, and very inspired about woodwork, uni and all that is going on: hooray (and what a relief)! I have much to report from the last couple of weeks b…
Untitled: I awoke this morning with a very sore back, but got up, breakfasted, read for an hour and was out of the house by eight. I had no wish to go back to the workshop, nor to make anything; all I wanted to do was read. There is so much that I want to re…
Yet again, the Great Divide: Often, when I'm sitting in a lecture about concurrency, say, or sketching a possible design for some program, I actively love the fountain pen that I'm using at these times. Engaging with I.T., I find such great comfort in using such an old and 'out…
Procrastination: I'm lost today, lost in a dull quagmire of concurrency, Ada and the oppresive weight of too much stuff. I have an assignment to do and I understand very little of it. I suspect that I could figure it out, but I can't be bothered. If I could see cl…
Nothing to say: (So why am I saying this?) I am looking forward to the day when I will again have something worth writing about (and I'm thinking here of woodwork: one of the happiest times of wood/tech union was back in 2003 when I was working at the art school wo…
Kerrie Tucker's revamped site: During the last few days I've been working with Margo Kingstong and Kate Tucker on porting Kerrie Tucker's website to Wordpress. I've also set up the new ACT Greens online merchandise shop, Green Shop. So I've probably had about enough of sitting a…
Fake World DOES Contain Humans: All has gone well, since my last post, with my intra-office carlessness. My announcement ("I don't go in cars; don't ask me to.") has been met with near universal acceptance (or silence), to my great relief. I had wondered whether the conversations…
Turning Over an Old Leaf: So here I am, back in the office, and bored again. I have spent the morning trawling the Arts Full Text database; from the 'Notebooks' category, to 'Reading and Books', and thence to things about binding, I've been remembering that thrill of quiet…