Athens

I am on vacation in Europe right now and I have been in Athens for a few days. I have been learning so much about ancient Greek civilisation. The beliefs, lives, and art of the people who lived here 2000 to 3000 years ago. I have been to the Acropolis, the Agora, several museums and seen many ruins spread about the city. Ancient periods lay on top and next to each other so that sometimes its hard to tell what is from when. I have made a point to read whatever plaques that I can and learn as much about what I am seeing as I can. My head is buzzing with all the new things that I have put into it.

The trip is less than half over and I still have several countries to visit and I have already seen so much and learned so much. I would love to write more but there is more city to explore and I can't bring myself to sit here on the computer for very long.

Pasadena Castle

Education

In my search for a new job, I have come to question a decision that I had made about my education. When I finished with high school I went to a local community college. I did this mostly because college is what you do after high school.  I was not sure for a long time about what kind of a career I wanted and what kind of education that I needed to achieve that. I finally became interested in video production and with that to focus on, I finished an associates degree.

I then found a job installing professional video gear and worked there for years. That job has come to an end and I am left wondering what I am going to do next. I have written out a resume and applied for a few jobs but we are in a recession and there are few jobs to be had. Now that I am sifting through job postings I am coming to the realization that my lack of a four year degree is limiting me.

Now I am second guessing myself. Should I try and go back to school? What kind of jobs are open to me and which are closed? At this juncture it is not difficult for me to go back to school, but it would mean dropping work for a few years. I don't want to do that, I don't think there is much for me at school; any degree I would earn would only be a trophy to show others and not a real representation of accomplishment. I seem to have the ability to learn things for myself or from books, and when I want to know something I look into it and figure it out.

The goal seems to be to make money. I have met a few self made millionaires in my life. The common thread is not education, but proper management of money. I do want to make a pile of money  not for the sake of pure opulence but to be able to pursue the arts and crafts that interest me. I am just not sure what path is the right one for me to take to that goal. I am going to have to do some serious out of the box thinking

local Carnival

Shopsmith Repair

I was able to repair my Shopsmith today. My father hunted down a replacement part for me on ebay, I picked it up yesterday, and installed it today. This means that I am up and running again on my wood turning. I guess that this means that my next craft endeavor has been decided for me. The problem here is that the olive wood that I had looked forward to turning seems to be all cracked beyond use. I have now attempted three goblets (one today and two a few months ago) and given up shortly after roughing them to round because of too many deep cracks. Perhaps the climate here is too dry and I should have put them in plastic bags to slow the drying process. It seems that sealing the ends with wax was simply not enough.

Today I worked on one piece of olive wood and the piece of purple-heart that I damaged the lathe with. I finished the outside of the Purpleheart bowl and stopped to consider the inside. I  can see a lot of hairline cracks on the surface of the bowl and now I am worried about the bowl exploding when I carve out the inside. I think I will give it a try while wearing a full face shield and making sure to keep out of the plane of rotation. I have been making an effort to be safer on the lathe lately. I don't want to learn to be safe the hard way and this time I wore safety glasses the whole time and a dust mask while sanding. These failures leave me with a dismal record of success on the lathe, and I am starting to get disheartened.

I really need to get a job so that I can afford to build a raku kiln and buy the stuff to do lost wax casting. What ever happened to the days where you could make a living as an artisan?

Craft Confusion

I am caught once again by the dizzying array of projects that I am interested in. I want to build a raku kiln and learn lost wax casting and carve a pimp-cane for a friend (but I lost my drawknife) and write stories and learn oil painting and so many more. It gets to the point where all the choices just serve to paralyze me and I do nothing. What should I make next?

Dunes

Mead Batch 6 Failure

I went to bottle mead batch 6 this morning and found out that it is a failure. I am not sure whether it is the inconsistent temperature or the time I let the fermentation lock run too dry, or if it was when I moved back home during the process, but it was so bad that I poured it down the drain. I was so disappointed that I forgot to take a specific gravity reading before dumping it so I have learned almost nothing from this batch. next time I need to find a temperature controlled place to store it and I need to not move while I am making a batch.

What shall I do for my next batch?