I'm a Cowboy...

Somehow this song just crawled into my head when I was reading the "Back in the Saddle" post from the other day.

I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

So I have finished the first week back from Spring Break and it's raining... again.

I wanted to work on the back yard during the break but it rained so much that my back yard was little more than a quagmire of mud. I needed to put in some additional drainage around the edge around foundation of the car port. It didn't exactly work out as I had planned.

I hoped, foolishly, that this weekend would be dry enough for me to try something constructive. Well, it seems that it's going to be mud soup once more.

For some reason, a common element in my thoughts of late has been the 'Drifter'; a Cowboy, a Gypsy, etc. This would suggest that I'm not really comfortable with what I'm doing right now. It's an accurate assessment of things to be honest. Life isn't bad right now, per say, but it's not really giving me what I want out of life.

At one time, I had an image of myself on a motorcycle or a jeep and just traveling across country with a camera to explore all the Forgotten Places. The image is perhaps a bit stereotypical; the adventurous wanderer. The mysterious wanderer with a heart of gold and a dark secret. Cliche' of course, but it's something that I identified with very early on. Short of inheriting some serious money or figuring out how to travel on the cheap (not with today's gas prices), the "Wise Wanderer" moment will be on hold for a while.

However, I'm getting a case of itchy-feet. I just don't know where I want to go.

Well, correct that, I do know where I'd like to visit, but I can't afford a trip to Japan right now.

Though I would wish to be alone as I explored the various gardens and shrines, it would be nice to be able to share the trip over and back with someone. Such moments are best when you can experience them without distraction and allow yourself to take the time needed to fully appreciate them.

Discovery is made
when the mind is unclouded.

Anyway...

This post has deviated somewhat from my original notes (yes, I made notes for a blog entry while in my office this afternoon), so I should draw it to a close.

Always the Quest,
-Tom

Back in the saddle...

Today was my first day back after our spring break...

Or as I would like to call it, "The mostly rainy, somewhat cold, but thankfully no snow" Break.

Psychology, in the morning, was fairly slow; they weren't very eager to get back into the saddle for the second half of the semester. Sociology, in the afternoon, was lively as always - quick to crack a joke and enjoy the stories passed around of someone's spring break. Criminology, late-afternoon, was a test so it was a fairly quick class.

One of my worst students is in Criminology. I say that he's one of my worst students because he 1) Doesn't come to class. 2) doesn't take notes. 3) Doesn't participate. 4) Doesn't do the reading. 5) Hasn't scored above a 40% on either of the first two exams and 6) Wrote a paper on solar eclipses that was devoid of punctuation or any sense of grammatical logic - and the topic was on Lunar influences on crime.

He is, honestly, someone that I feel should not be in school. His answer to any question probing him about why he is at Shawnee?

"I ain't got nuttin else better to do."

It's quite aggrivating.

Tomorrow is already forming into a "laundry and papers" day. I grab someplace quiet while I'm doing laundry and start to read all of the essays that I'm grading by hand. I usually try and find someplace quiet so I will not be tempted to start spewing obscenities about how my students can't write or can't hold a logical thought on paper for more than a sentence.

Ugh.

It's times like these - when I am facing the students who seriously just don't want to be in School, but also don't want to have to find a 'real' job - that I think it would be better to go off and do something else.

Like go be a cowboy...

... with a notebook.

-Me

Hobbit Homes

From: A Low Impact Woodland Home's Site

The Welsh are at it again!

Take one baby, a toddler and a building site. Mix well with a generous helping of mud, combine with 6 weeks of solid welsh rain whilst living under canvas. Do this in candle light without a bathroom or electricity for three months. Chuck in living with your father for good measure. Top with an assortment of large slugs. The result a hand crafted home of beauty, warmth and health for about £3,000.

There is also a plan underway to create an entire low impact village called "Lammas".

Bookbinding: Poor Man's Double-Fold

I'm always looking for new ways to experiment with bookbinding. One of the ideas that occurred to me was to make a double-fold book that could be made with readily available supplies; like composition notebooks.

When I was younger, composition notebooks were worth their weight in silver. They were handy for just about everything. About two years ago, I found that a dollar-store near me was selling these pocket-sized composition notebooks and I picked up a few dozen to play with.

This project involves turning two of these small, comp. books into a double-fold book. I've made several full-sized, double-folds for friends over the years and this is just an easier, quick version. Double-folds are handy because it allows you to have two separate books within the same cover. I have used the double-fold design for things like bibles, diaries, and scrapbooks. It's a handy design because you can take a finished book (in the case of a bible) and add a notebook to it for your own research or reference. I didn't like cutting the cover of the bible (I'm a devout follower of "The Book" - aka bibliophile), but the friend I was making the piece for didn't mind as it was one of the free copies of the Book of Mormon.

STEP 1:

Stand book 2 (your secondary book) up on its edge and trace it against the inside cover of book 1 (the main book you'll be writing in most of the time). Trace the width of Book 2 and give it a little bit of wiggle room. You DON'T want it too tight.

I use a clip to hold the second book upright for the picture, but you won't need anything like that. Just use a pencil or a pen to trace the width.

(* Book 1 is the book that you will constantly be referencing or writing in. In the case of the Double-Fold Bible, I put the bible there since I knew that my friend would be reading it a lot. Book 2 would be where he would write his questions and comments.

STEP 2:

With a sturdy ruler and an razor-knife, cut Book 1 at the line you just traced. I used a small cutting board under the book since I didn't want my desk marked up.

It's very important to leave plenty of room on this cut.

If you plan on adding pictures to Book 1 (for a travel-journal or perhaps a scrapbook), you will want to add half the width that you measured so that when the pages bulk up it won't strain the spine that you're creating.



When you place the two books together, there should be a little bit of an over-hang of Book 1's cut cover.













STEP 3:
To connect Book 1 and Book 2 you need a flexible binder. I used the Handy Man's Secret Weapon: Duct Tape. You could use cloth tape (aka: athletic tape) if you wanted a different look on the spine.

Scotch Tape, Masking Tape or anything that's cellophane-based won't work as its flexibility will eventually wear out.









Step 4:

Cut the strip of Duct-Tape in half (by width) and apply it to connect the back cover of book 2 and the cut cover of book 1. However, you want to leave a little "wiggle" room here as well so the books open smoothly.














COMPLETE:
Once you have taped the two books together it should look something like this.

The spine of Book 2 should line up with the edges of the pages of Book 1. If you wanted, you could attach some kind of closure mechanism (elastic or a tie) to hold the two books closed if you want.

For the purposes of this project I didn't add any closure as the books are so small they'll not need any. For a full-scale double-fold, I would recommend an elastic band around the middle or on the edge (like a Moleskine)

If you don't like what the inside of the newly bound double-fold looks like, I would recommend that you add a decorative end-page that would stretch from the last page of Book 2 to the first page of Book 1.

For the purposes of this project I didn't bother with covering the composition books. If I were finishing the project completely, I would grab construction or scrapbooking paper to cover it.

For more information on how to recover a notebook, see my earlier post.

Edit (6/20/09): The concept of the double-fold notebook can be used for a number of different functions. Double-fold books are a few-hundred years old by design. They were originally created to enclose both a journal and reference book under one cover. The most commonly found example is that of a medical journal.

So let's say that you have two books in one: the book on the left (often folded up against the one on the right) is not accessed as often. In medical journals of the time, it was where the physician (or other scientist) would record their proven formulas or concoctions that were effectual against given symptoms. The book on the right, more commonly accessed because of the design, would be a series of running entries about what medical cases they came across; essentially a "chart" for all of their clients as they were seen.

If you were using it for research, the left book could be used to record all of your formula or other established tools for your work and the other could be used to record your progress.

Good luck.

Four Easy Steps

So about that Ritalin

Last night, around midnight, I was surprised by a big flash of lightning. The rain began to pour and assumed that we would have to miss out on the snow that everyone else was getting. Then, as I was getting ready for bed, I realized that the rain sounded different; almost metallic.

I poked my head out of the front door and realized that it was the ting-ting of freezing rain that I was hearing. So I crawled into bed with the idea that we would probably have some icy patches but that was about it.

And then, when I woke up, my roommate said four words:

"You got your wish."

I ran to the front of the house and tore open the door like a 'Night Before Christmas'. The street was coated with snow; choked with the White-Death. I realized, while I was in bed waking up this morning, that the lack of sound that seemed a bit eerie; no cars, no rain, nothing.

So after I got myself together, I threw on a coat and grabbed my shovel and did that very domestic chore of clearing the driveway. Within a stroke or two of the blade, I realized that I was standing on about an inch of compacted slush as well as a few inches of snow. Oh, this was going to be a Good Snow. By the time I got out to the front steps, I ended up having to scrap the ice away rather than shovel it.

I'm sure my neighbors were pleased hearing the sound of plastic against concrete at 10 a.m. on a snowy Saturday.

Who knows how long it will last.

-Tom

Mother Nature Needs Ritalin...

Ok, maybe not but she definitely needs to make up her mind.

Today the temperature had climbed into the 60's and I had to get out into it for a while. So I grabbed my camera and went out to the lake.

The lake was pregnant with all of the run off from the past week's snow and rain and I tried to get some video clips of it from a different point of view.

The vid above is from the main stream and small pool and the other is of a small creek that leads off into the hills.