DIY Diary - Entry 1 - Thu 25 Apr 2024
 So, I like to think of myself as something of a handyman and do a lot of home repair/improvements myself--I really want to thank my dad for involving in this sort of task when I was growing up. For those of you who read my Catastrophe Strikes posting, you know I built a greenhouse on the south side of the house that wind damn near destroyed--I still haven't got it completely rebuilt and will post when I do. Having pretty serious ADHD, even though I'm well medicated, I have a tendency to start a new project even though I have another project in progress--not finishing the greenhouse rebuild before starting kitchen island isn't completely my fault; to finish the greenhouse, I need good weather and Junell's help, and for the last several weekends, I've one or the other but not both. This weekend, Sat 27 - Sun 28 Apr 2024, Junell will be available but the weather is likely to be rainy. We'll have to see.
My latest DIY project was building an island for our kitchen--I decided the existing countertops were entirely too crowded with kitchen items we use only infrequently and there was all this unused space in the center of kitchen. Why not build an island to make this empty space useful?
I called the people who sold us the house and asked if they remembered the name of the company that installed the countertops, they did, and it turned out that Granite Tops here in Pocatello ID had some of the same countertop material, a little thicker than the original but otherwise the same, and was willing to do the manufacturing and sell me it to me for just $250! Here are twelve pictures of the kitchen island project in various stages:
1 / 12: The kitchen before the island
2 / 12: The east countertop--note all of the clutter
3 / 12: The north countertop--note all of the clutter
4 / 12: The island frame--making sure it's not too large
5 / 12: The stained island with all wood shelves--the wood tabletop is temporary
6 / 12: The island, all in wood, populated
7 / 12: The island without the backsplash that will go along the short end farthest from the camera
8 / 12: The island with everything on it except clay pots for flour and other powdered baking materials
9 / 12: The island with the backsplash
10 / 12: The island with everything on it.
11 / 12: East counter, uncluttered
10 / 12: The island with everything on it.
11 / 12: East counter, uncluttered
12 / 12: North counter, uncluttered
<
>
There are 12 pictures--use the < and > in the middle right and left of the pictures to cycle through them.
Writing time: 0:43 hours
Powers & Glory - Responses to "Powers & Glory - More Help Needed!" - Wed 13 Mar 2024
So, I wrote this blog posting way back on Thu 12 Aug 2021--over TWO AND HALF YEARS AGO!--and just discovered that I never posted it. Vat an eediot I am. Especially as 12 people gave some time to reading some excerpts of Powers & Glory and answering 5 questions based on these excerpts. Back on Sun 25 Jun 2021, I posted Powers & Glory- More Help Needed!. No one replied, so I made about 20 individualized requests for help via Facebook Messenger, and 12 people replied--not a bad ROI; thanks to Jason Evans for the suggestion that I do so. I think I replied to everyone who took the time to answer my 5 questions--if I didn't reply, I sincerely apologize!
I'd like to thank everyone who did help me out with this (in order that s/he replied): Jason Evans, Brent Baldwin, ZJ Czupor, Rea Abaniel, Brad Guymon, Davi Armanino, Jeff Smith, Quincy J Allen, Anthony Durante, Mindy McIntyre, Becky Dowty, and Kerry Gleason. (I've done what I could to google y'all for your webpages--if you want me to change your webpage, use Contact James to tell me what you'd like your webpage to be and I'll update it. For those of you without webpages, I'd be happy to help you build one--just Contact James.) If you mouse-over the column headings, the question, as I asked it, will be displayed.
Powers' Secret - Data Summary (12 responses)
|
Power's SecretWhat do you think Powers' secret is?
|
Be ExplicitGiven what you think Powers' secret is, do you think I should "spell it out" in William's and Power's discussion?
|
ConfusingHaving read the two excerpts, do you think they're just plain confusing, as both reviewers claim?
|
Multiple ReadingsYou can read a script as many times as you want--did you have to read the excerpts more than once to answer Question 1?
|
Watching There's reading a script and watching the episode--if you can imagine what it would be like to watch this episode, do you think you'd be able answer Question 1 in one viewing or do you think you'd be confused?
|
He's an angel. =
His sexuality. =
He's supernatural in some way. =
I've no idea. =
|
yes =
no =
|
yes =
no =
|
yes =
no =
|
yes =
no =
|
Given these responses:
- Exactly half of you were right in concluding that Powers is an angel.
- A majority of you thought I needn't be explicit about Powers' secret.
- By a 2 to 1 margin, y'all didn't find the excerpts confusing.
- Only 3 of y'all felt it necessary to the read the excerpts more than once to figure out what was going on.
- I'm little bothered that it was 50/50 that y'all thought you'd be confused if you just watched the episode, but...
I feel pretty good about the script as currently written.
Note: As I write above, I wrote this posting over 2.5 years ago and the time, I was on draft 10 of Powers & Glory; I am currently working on draft 25! So, while it was true that I felt pretty good about the script, there's still room to make it better.
Writing Time: Originally--no idea, probably around 0:45 hours
Writing Time: Additional Text--0:18 hours
Writing Time: PHP and JavaScript to populate the table--1:43 hours
Writing Time: Total--~3:00 hours
2024 Humanitas New Voices Fellowship - THANK YOU! - Tue 27 Feb 2024
And to those seven people:
Z Ali
Debra Lewis
Cathy Norris
Junell Norris
Peter Norris
Melissa Norton
Jeff Smith
I would like to say:
In one way or another, every one of you helped--some by just giving me reassurance and some by suggesting changes to one or more of the application materials. For those of you did the latter, let me assure you that I made some changes based on notes each and every one of you gave me!
But to make my thanks concrete, I'd like to donate $5.00 to the charity of each of your choices--click here to send me an email to tell me you'd like me to make a donation in your name and don't forget to let me know what the charity is! And if you have 20 - 30 minutes and would like to read Project Ωmega, click here--it only occurred to me just now that I should have offered this "opportunity" in my request for notes on the submission materials; vat an eediot I am! Please note: the above "here" email links above only work if you're using an email client like Apple's Mail, MS Outlook, or Thunderbird; if you use web-based email readers like gmail or yahoo, not so much. Sorry!
In any case, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your time and notes!
And if you're interested, Humanitas will make announcements regarding placement:
Semifinalists - Mon 26 Jun 2024
Finalists - Tue 23 Jul 2024
(As this is just before my birthday, making it into the Finals would be a wonderful birthday present!)
Fellows - Mon 5 Aug 2024
I'll be sure to keep y'all apprised to Project Ωmega's progress in the competition.
Writing Time: 0:27 hours (0:10 hours researching how to include line-breaks in "here" mailto links.)
Humanitas - One Last, Desperate Plea - Sun 25 Feb 2024
 There will be, by the time I finish typing out this Blog post, less than 24 hours before I will have needed to have received anyone's notes on my Humanitas application materials. So, I'm making one last, desperate plea for your notes if you haven't already posted them.
I have only three questions, and answering them, even with reading the application materials (a one-page Biography, a two-page resume, and a one-page Artist's Statement):
- Do you have comments about my Bio?
- I worry that Humanitas will think I'm bragging and pressuring them to award Project Ωmega a placement in their contest by listing its past awards in my Resume--what do you think?
- Am I too honest or come across as too presumptuous or too anything in my Artist Statement?
ought not take more than 15 - 30 minutes of your time.
So, please, PLEASE, PUH-LEASE, click here and give me the benefit or your wisdom and insight, won't you please? Writing Time: 0:14 hours
|
|
|
|
Posting Title
(alphabetized)
|
|
|
So, this is not the blog posting I was going to put up today, but catastrophe struck the greenhouse I built on the south side of the house three years ago sometime between 8:00p MST Thu 29 Feb 2024 and yesterday 2:00p MST Sat 2 Mar 2024. It's hard to understand how this happened as the National Weather Service says we haven't had winds above 30 miles per hour in the last 72 hours, and the greenhouse has withstood much higher velocity winds than that in the past.
