Mushrooms at Forsyth

A spot in the park that seems to have the perfect combination of sun and shade and moisture for a half moon outcropping of mushrooms.

Plus craggy trees because I like the textures and shapes.

Why You Are Losing Design Proposals-Jeff Archibald

I thought this article was very accurate about what it takes to get a business proposal accepted and could apply to almost any situation where you are trying to get someone's business. The only thing I would disagree with is the idea that you could redo your exterior, floors and kitchen for only $35,000 :) 

Also someone in the comments said that this doesn't really apply to a remodel because there would be something tangible to touch and feel from the start, as opposed to a website. I can tell you from experience it would be just as applicable. If it isn't a finished project your client can not envision it regardless of samples and sketches or existing structures. Every project is a proposal whether it is an internal partner or external client and these steps will help you get buy-in and approval.

 

Fall Wreaths

I'm seeing what seems like an unusual amount of fall wreaths on the doors locally. I'm not sure if it's because I am noticing it more or if it is actually a growing trend. If decorating for fall is a trend I wonder if it is national or more local. Maybe people are just trying to recreate fall here because we never really see the leaves change.

New/Old Grains

I am studying gluten intolerance right now and heard mention of this article on the Gastropod podcast. It has hopeful possibilities for the future of grains as well as other plants. We have relied on wheat, corn, rice and barley for a long time and maybe they have run their course. Increased gluten intolerance might also push research like this along with the climate change issues. Click here to read the full article.

Customer Service Survey

Interesting little survey on Why Great Customer Service is Worth It

A couple of things that struck me about the survey results here.

1) I think it is fairly obvious that customer service greatly impacts how you feel about a company.  Note government and Comcast are mentioned as rating low, but they mostly don't have any competition so they don't feel they need to work on it I suppose.  But a warning to those companies that think they don't need to worry about it.  Some new technology or start up may come in (read Netflix and Hulu) and then you are left trying to play clean up after having a pretty solidly established terribly reputation.

2) I thought it was interesting that timeliness of response and personality came in 2 and 3 after ability to resolve problem.  I have definitely found that putting off what you know is going to be an unpleasant customer service phone call only makes people angrier.  Taking a very defensive attitude is also not going to help you.  6 times out of 10 I can't do anything about your problem or I'd have fixed it already but just calling quickly and listening is important.  Also looking into the problem and figuring out what went wrong and why and how it can be avoided in the future is crucial.  Sometimes this means having something remade or sending out a new part or different contractor to take care of this customer.  But more often than not it means looking at processes that led to this being a problem in the first place and trying to keep it from repeating.  That can often mean just setting better expectations so people aren't unpleasantly surprised because what is business as usual for you may be not at all what the customer expected.

3) Also I would much rather email someone myself as I'm pretty non confrontational and phone calls feel like a chore, getting through the tree, fending off sales pitches for additional services, waiting on hold, etc.  But I can see where it might not be as satisfactory for some as it feel less connected and you want to feel like you are being heard.

4) It was nice to see Home Depot on the list.  It is only a survey of 400 people so not that big of a sample but they are above Whole Foods and Target.

Museum Walk/Photoshop

Went to the three

Telfair Group properties, Telfair Museum, Jepson Center, Thomas-Owens House.  Also took a class on photoshop so spent some time playing around with the possibilities...

Originals left, revised right.  Some more successful than others.  I think the take away, especially with low res jpegs, is that less is more unless you are going for an artistic interpretation.

Before

After

fountain.jpg

Clip and Drain

Okay, this one was really an impulse buy and in no way a necessity.  We have a very nice freestanding colander.  We basically got this for two reasons both relating to our sink.

1) Our double bowl sink is pitifully shallow.  If you are cooking anything of any complexity the dishes mount up on both sides of the sink fast and then you have to clear out a spot to put the colander (not to mention fill a pot, but that's another issue).

2) Because of the aforementioned shallow sinks the big colander

compounds the previous dish congestion problem once it has been used and now needs washed.  Plus it is fairly difficult to wash with all it's little holes.  

Enter this little device.

Unfortunately this does not work on skillet with short or rounded edges so if you were hoping to drain meat or some such this is not the answer.  I tried it on my smallest and largest pots and it fit all of them except my small cast iron pot (which I use constantly so this is unfortunate).  Again the edge  on that one has a roll to it that is just a little too large.

However, it fits nicely on pots with straight sides at least the height of this clip (slightly under 2").  Even has a little cut out for the offset edge on lots of pots.  Solid piece of wide spring steel plus this silicon gripping pad gives it a solid hold.

Some reviewers thought the holes were too small and it took too long to drain.  Not sure if this is something that the manufacturer has changed since but I drained a medium sized pot of water in almost no more time than I would have if I were pouring it directly into the old strainer.  It is dishwasher safe so cleaning should be a breeze and also supposed to be BPA free.  I'll have to update once we see how useful/used this actually is...

Update 9/18: Have only used this once in the past week but discovered a few little hiccups when I did. If you have a recipe that calls for you to drain some pasta, then do something with a sauce in the same pot and then put the pasta back in this product is not ideal.  Also there is no way to really shake all the water off of shells that hold water without the shells jumping out into the sink.

Fruit Infusion

We got a little Amazon happy over the break and bought a couple of things we maybe didn't absolutely need but I think they will improve life so here are my thoughts on some of these things so far...

Root problem: Did not like the taste of the tap water even after filtering through faucet attached filter.

Initial solution: Even though we had almost entirely weened ourselves off of soda and fruit juice before we moved here, we started going back because we just didn't want to drink the water until we were going through liters a week of those invisible calories.  

Secondary Problems: Obviously the extra calories and I don't actually even like sugary drinks so I found myself just drinking less in general and in the summer in the south this is not advisable.  

Bottom line: We were thirsty but didn't like any of the available options and buying water just seems so wasteful and not environmentally friendly.

Solution: Hopefully this little gem.

 No instructions in the box, just what you see.  If it has a warranty it's not telling me about it.  I went by the reviews so hopefully this lasts.  If not, it wasn't a huge investment.  Also it does not say if it is dishwasher safe or not.  According to the internet it is not and this is where many of the cracks reviewers complained about came from.  They should really tell you this up front on the box...

I initially wanted the ball you can just through in your existing pitchers but none of the openings on my pitchers were wide enough.

Started with frozen strawberries and pineapples.  Finally tracked these down in the ice cream toppings section of the grocery store.  It holds a decent amount and fit nicely in my fridge.  The picture on the right is after I left it in the fridge overnight.  

After trying a glass I think I would pass on the pineapples next time but the strawberries are definitely nice.  Maybe I'll just change the proportions for more berry since they are sweeter.  It remains to be seen if this helps us drink more water.  I am also curious to see how long the fruit lasts. The box says 7-10 days but most reviews I saw said 5-7.  Will update...

Update 9/18: After nine days the strawberries started to disintegrate and little bits were dispersing into the water.  Not necessarily a problem but the taste was dissipating too so I started over again, this time with frozen strawberries and fresh (unfrozen) raspberries.  (I did add some raspberries about five days earlier so that may have extended the initial fruits' tastiness.)   

More importantly I am drinking quite a bit more water and I continue to enjoy the flavor.  We did not buy any soda or juice this week at the grocery store. The jury is still out on if that trend will continue as we are still working through a bottle of juice from the shopping trip before.

Smalls

Some interesting stuff, but it mostly falls into that category of stuff that was collectible but fell out of fashion and now just reminds you of your grandmother.  And probably nobody wanted at the estate sale.  See also baseball cards, ceramic figurines, most records and comic books, cookbooks and chinoiserie.  Fun fact though, the glowing green glass is made that way with uranium.

Funerary Markers

Yep, just listened to the SYSK podcast on headstones.  Happened to also be the first time I walked through this cemetery.  Walked around it a lot but not through.

Materials wise limestone and sandstone type materials do not last.  Marble is better vertically but will be completely illegible if left horizontal.  These barrel vaults last but not their markers are hard to read.  Hands down the best material is the dark gray ones which, after a little internet searching, I am pretty sure are slate.  Unfortunately the markers  often fall over, so even if it lasts it probably isn't in the original spot.  I'd recommend a wider base slate headstone or a combination of vault with slate faceplate.

Also weeping willows were the most popular imagery here although there was at least one hour glass and one I am interpreting as an eternal flame.  Pretty sure this eagle thing is from much later.

Process for Project 2

Initial Idea/Assignment

The assignment was to create a lamp using the woodshop tools.  Market research was provided.
The inspiration for the shape came from a brick wall. The idea was to create something that would create a wall of light with multiple light sources instead of one focal light. It should also be movable and have an element of customization.

The initial idea was to make a piece with ten columns of 10 units each which would be 60" tall and 42" long.  This would function as a light screen on a floor lamp depending on the configuration.  It quickly became clear that this was not going to be possible in the time available so we scaled it down to a desk lamp size. This initial drawing also shows an initial idea about wiring that was revised after the test piece.

 Test Piece


Initial test pieces for individual unit scale
Landed on a fairly traditional subway tile 6" long to 3" high ratio with a 2" depth.  This gave it a pleasing ratio with enough room to house the lights without being too bulky.


I initially tried to use pre-strung LED lights but did not find any with the spacing I required.  I used LED's because the lights were enclosed and I did not want heat to be a problem.  After doing some online research I purchased LED light tape with double the lights per inch of the typical light tape to maximize light output.  I also found the electrical cord, transformer and dimmer online.  After watching some videos I soldered together my own custom light strips.

I sourced wood from three different places and ended up going with 10/4 poplar because it was locally available and inexpensive from Total Fabrications.  They gave me a piece to test with and also recommended gel stain to obtain even coverage between end grain and edge grain.  I did try some oil based stain on the test pieces and was not happy with the coverage or dry time.  

Test pieces. The conclusion of the test pieces was that the initial acrylic was too clear,  the stain too dark, bevelled edges were beneficial as they cut down on the blocky feeling of the units and the units should be all one color to enhance the cohesiveness of the pieces instead of stained and unfinished contrasting pieces. I did come up with a feasible way of routing the wiring through vinyl tubing, but it was not sturdy enough so alternating aluminum tubing was added to the final plan.
Working with one of my teammates, Hongyi, on Rhino to show the scale and rotation.  


Working out the scale of overall the piece in wood and cardboard as well as computer models. I decided it would be 18" high by 26" at it's longest

Final Piece

I created the initial order of operations before making the test pieces.  This is the final revised order of operations as well as a bill of materials and an assembly diagram.  The assembly diagram shows the final wiring diagram and was a crucial visual for keeping all the different block configurations clear to everyone through production and assembly.
























We cleaned the 10/4 poplar to 2" x 3", routed out 1/2" by 1/2" channels in each corner and cut 36 two inch blocks.


 We routed out 1/8" channels for the acrylic windows and drilled the holes for the wire and tubing connections following the order of operations
 I soldered together three sets of 6 LED light strips with 6" wire in between and a 24" long piece of wire at the end to help us thread them through later

We used a gel stain in a slightly red toned cedar finish to counteract the greenish hue of the poplar.  My other teammate, Wanshan, did the initial staining of the insides of the units.
 After unit assembly, routing out the bevelled corners and sanding to 400 grit, they were ready for final staining.
 After they were stained and waxed we wired together three stacks of six alternating units with vinyl tubing connections, if I had this to do again I would have used aluminum here as well.
 Then we ran the long ends of the wire through connecting aluminum tubing and soldered the three sections together.  

















 Once all the lights were working we could insert the final pieces of laser cut white acrylic and glue in the last wood corner piece.  
 We used a clear acrylic rod with laser cut ring stoppers on the top to connect the ends when it is in a continuous shape.

The end result fits nicely on a desk or end table in a variety of configurations and can be dimmed from a task light to more of a mood light.