In the interest of making the summer useful, a couple of things are under way around here.
Since three of us who live here are big fans of the graphic novel form (actually all of us have read and enjoyed them but only three of us seek them out), I kicked off the idea of making one of our own. I doubt much will come of it but some sketches and some story ideas are all I really want. Trouble is, when you read monstrously good works like Castle Waiting or Bone it’s a lot of work to even contemplate. Inspiring, yes, but daunting at the same time. So I am just trying to get characters drawn and plot/story ideas. At present, everything looks to be, um, heavily influenced by the works cited above. Ahem.
I may have finally settled on a way to convert a stack of cigar boxes I picked up a while back into small portable guitar amplifiers. I’m very slow at figuring these things out, but I learned that a long time ago so I’m no longer disappointed. Now to find a good place to get electronic parts that isn’t Radio Shack®. I’ll probably use the Little Gem design from Runoff Groove. Hmm, looks like there is a new variant on this, called the Ruby. And it seems to be more extensible as well. Decisions, decisions.
And my status as America’s Worst Gardener (word to the wise: do your gardening in a public garden, not at your own house, if you’re not all the proficient) is solid. Short season gardening is hard to get used to. I really need a calendar/timeline of what needs to be done when in the early going, or I stay behind for the whole season.
And there’s summer baseball and summer swim league and boating and fruit picking . . . .
So what are you doing this summer?
I really need a calendar/timeline of what needs to be done when in the early going
Do you have a copy of Seattle Tilth’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide? I don’t know how I got along without it.
Sounds like a lot of fulfilling work! I’d love to hear more about the guitar amplifier. I’m slowly starting to delve into the land of electronics, and would love to learn more by building something I can actually put to use.
I plan to get through the basics of playing piano, reduce power consumption in the apartment, launch yet another web application, and build a small 4×4 gardening box for the tiny spot of land behind my apartment. I suppose I can’t put it to use right now, but I can at least ensure that it’s ready to go by next season.
Cam: yes, I do have that (somewhere). I guess a. I forgot I had it and/because b. I didn’t understand it at the time.
Need to dig it out.
Michael: you could do worse that building that tiny crackerbox amp (the link is in the post) as a proof of concept.
Err, just found the Garden Guide. Now to see if I can pick it up mid-year with despairing too much about what I have made a mess of so far ;-)