Jon Stewart has a rant against it that's on YouTube. He calls it a casserole and not a pizza. I guess that's somewhat accurate. But it has about an inch of melted mozzarella so he can stuff his New York pizza gate keeping while I choke on delicious cheese
Preoccupations Another 10 or so hubskiers showed up on the check-in since the original count. That was fun. By the time mk gets the Stripe payments platform fixed, steve and I will be able to donate about $200 to hubski. Edit Knowing who's out there makes me want to show up more. Poetry A friend of mine was diagnosed with esophagal cancer. She was working on a poetry book for a publisher - but it can take two years to go to press, so we're going to privately publish 100 copies and, I hope, have a small launch for her now rather than posthumously. We once had a small publishing company called "Pinking Shears Publications." We created it to publish anthologies for literary festivals that we ran together. The Pinking Shears account had $1000 in it, so we can use that money. I've been doing a close line edit and many of the poems are very powerful -- about the experience of getting this diagnosis. For example, sitting in a medical waiting room with a goldfish tank, she describes the orange fish, and then surrounding the tank. Purples, blues, greens, wine-dark red, khaki and black – but no orange. Their faces – our faces – blank as fish quiet as fish with occasional ripples of information, consternation, consolation, a glimpse, here and there, of despair, fear, or patience. A smile toward a fellow-traveller floating through this sea of possibility. I'm kind of preoccupied with that. I should be able to take it to a local publisher next week. Sigh. The quote I've been using at the bottom of my email is this: Speak now, kiss now Before the river freezes altogether (from "Spring Forward, Fall Back" by Troy Jollimore) Meanwhile, outside today it is -10 degrees C (or 14 degrees F for some of you). Speak now, kiss now, before the river freezes altogether! Patients dressed in all colours sit in chairs,
I’m sorry for her diagnosis. I think it’s badass that you two are publishing this. Consider me pre-ordered for one. I’d also be glad to share info re where/how to buy a copy with others, once you are ready. “Speak now, kiss now.” I can get behind that.
I’m sorry, lil. Anyone that ran, “years of poetry workshops,” is almost certainly an awesome person. I am sorry that she is going through this.
I'm not sure what in the hell to do with my spring break. It's coming up soon. March 15 ~ 24th. I could do a road trip to see friends in Boston, NYC, and Philly, some of whom I haven't seen in years. But spending three days driving, plus missing some obligations at home, nags at me. I'm considering taking up a coding bootcamp after graduation, seeing as how I have zero hard skills despite a shiny degree coming my way in May. (mk -- need any help with the site that someone with no experience but a working brain could help with?) Maybe I could spend spring break doing a trial run learning to code--practice what it's like working without supervision. Man, I hate this gray weather at home, though. Does anyone have any experience or heard stories about people with zero software development or data science skills taking up a bootcamp and becoming gainfully employed? -- Gymnastics is going frustratingly but well. There are six apparatuses or events for men, and I'm always eager to learn the next cool skill (double back tuck on floor, blind change on high bar, healy on parallel bars, etc.). But there is simply not enough time. With two 3-hour practices a week, I barely scratch the surface--I get on average less than an hour on each event, when considering the stretching, warmup, and conditioning I have to do. It's no wonder that gymnasts--even at age 11, which was when I last regularly competed gymnastics--train 16 or more hours a week. I've heard that the NCAA has a rule about their student-athletes practicing no more than 20 hours a week. For lots of sports, that's sufficient. For gymnastics, at the Elite or Olympic level, that's laughable. Every other country approaches 40 hour weeks. I can't imagine lots of Eastern European or Asian countries feeling the compunction towards putting their gymnasts to work obsessively. I believe Simone Biles only started college--an online college at that--at age 21. I want to continue training. Even though I'm 27, I don't feel like I'm limited at all by my joints or inflexibility.
As far as what to do with your spring break — I'm on spring break right now. I'm a lot younger than you are, and so probably have less disposable income (that's total speculation on my part), but I found that extremely low-cost vacations, at least by most people's standards, can be really rewarding. I found a really cheap plane ticket to Puerto Rico, and I've spent the last few days walking and hitchhiking around, hiking, and camping wherever I could find a spot to put my hammock. I've met a ton of really nice people, seen some beautiful places, and I've only spent around $15/day on average. Just a thought!
I might go to Puerto Rico. A disaster relief organization I've worked with in the past has an ongoing recovery project there. I might volunteer there for a few days. Thanks jl
Felling a little burnt out, thank god I have a day off with no exceptional obligations whatsoever, that hasn't happened in a long time. I suppose that it doesn't make any sense that exceptional obligations are the norm and that days with none are the exception. I do have to pull out the table saw and make three cuts for my sister in law but that's petty enough to not care about doing. My sister in law is still staying with us. She will have spent 1/4 of the year staying with us rent free and not working because she is "busy" travailing the U.S. this year and I guess that's how it goes. At least her converted sprinter van is out of the shop and she is sleeping there, I get my stereo room back. I'm going to play a video game for several uninterrupted hours now. I haven't done that in a while, hope it's fun and psychically releaving. Kenshi is almost done downloading.
I have the flu. I just spent half an hour giving myself a pep talk to get up, refill water, get medicine and a banana. And then I found out I ate all the bananas yesterday.
Work's dialled up a notch recently; with two of my colleagues on holiday and a bunch of huge new projects, it's been a tight squeeze. Managed to get pretty much everything done that was thrown my way - had to log time to 21 different projects last week. People sometimes wonder why I have a system for pretty much everything work-related. Weeks like this is exactly why - systems help deal with complexity, robust systems help with complexity even under pressure. Anyway, I'm off to Austria tomorrow. Our yearly company skiing trip is finally happening. I'm stoked, the skiing lessons I took have helped a ton in gaining confidence and actually teaching me how to ski properly. Gonna go to Austria by muthafuckin' high speed rail. Looking forward to hubski-ing at 350kph.
It’s been busy. I’ve been working ridiculously hard at my new job. We’re a startup lab set to open at the end of next week, and I’m the only senior staff member that has knowledge and control over the lab operations that form the basis of the business. The number of elements in that last sentence that are new territory for me can not be overstated. Two weeks ago I had been working 60 hours a week for the preceding month, and I’m not even a full time employee. After a month of that I decided to just cut off my work at the hours I signed up to do. It helped a lot because I was burnt out, unfocused and not efficient at that point. I’ve been offered to go full time already but I’d much rather just be working less. If I had ended up working 2x the hours I’d signed up for part time, would I still be working 2x the hours at full time? I don’t even want to find out. It also does not help that this is in downtown LA and commute is terrible. The original plan was to come on part time and work like that for 6ish months, giving me time to grow into the roll and relocate to a more commutable area. Basically that’s all changed and we’re full speed ahead and I think the extra stress from a move would destroy me. So I’m looking down the last 10ish day stretch and wondering if that’s really the end of “crunch time” or if there’s another month beyond that. Im spent. I’m about as spent as I’ve ever been. Wish me luck.
If your work is that critical, and you are that fundamental to the project, the company could pay for a real estate person to find a place for you and professional movers to do the work. If you really are that important to them, the $2-4k that would cost is a wise investment for them. (And a reasonable perk to expect.)
Something I Learned This Week: The Wishbone is found not only in birds, but also some dinosaurs. Books: I was attempting to read Punishment Without Crime, but put it down after about three or four chapters. It's not a bad book in the slightest, and I intend to finish it, but I'm just not really in the headspace for that kind of subject matter right now. Last week though, my wife randomly got me Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I have to admit, In was pretty skeptical as to whether or not I'd like it, but after four or five pages I can't put it down, I'm enjoying it so much. It's very well written and each chapter is a personal story of the author that covers themes such as community, family, neighborliness, motherhood, the impact of culture, the impact of education, on and on it goes. It's a very easy book to appreciate and I find myself wishing I could invite the author over to my house for a cup of coffee and an afternoon in the backyard. Wildfower Garden: It took a lot of looking things up, but I was able to narrow down my list of potential flowers to four. I sent an email to the horticulturalist, but have yet to hear back, which is fine. After all, they're probably quite busy being professors and that's a pretty big responsibility. There's two other garden outreach groups in this city that I can try and get a hold of, plus goobster pointed out a while class of bad asses called Master Gardeners for me to look into too. I gotta get moving though, cause spring will be here before we know it.
I’ve got a list of nurseries that carries North American native seeds that I got from a visiting professor so let me know and I will dump it on you. Wikipedia tells me it’s called a ”community garden” in North America, it’s basically a plot of land that has been subdivided into smaller plots for individuals to grow their own food for a small fee. It’s great if you live in a small apartment but still wish to do some gardening. The city provides water and a spot to dump garden refuse but everything else you might need like seeds etc you have to buy yourself, or barter from your neighbours. I got some strawberry seedlings last year in exchange for a wheelbarrow of horse manure from my Italian neighbour (I also got to borrow the wheelbarrow from him).
i feel empty about every day - i'm not saying that i never feel anything, but i'm saying that for some span of time in any given day i feel (1 of either) hopeless and lost / detached from sensory experience and my own thoughts. i can't find a good way to describe it that doesn't strike me as super pretentious but it's not cool my dudes i feel like the two biggest problems that have dogged me (lack of energy / self-hate) have not so much gone but changed in intensity and tenor and i think that explains why i feel stuck / progressless lately: my solutions aren't properly tuned to my problems, if that makes sense i think i need to take a break / make a break from the internet a little more than i have been - over the past 3 months or so i've been progressively cutting out websites from my life starting with the biggest tumors (reddit, 4chan, twitter) and moving through smaller/less harmful timesucks (steam, discord, various video games, etc) and i've come to the opinion that even hubski is a place that isn't helping me become the person that i want to be. i don't think my ideal self would foster habits that hinder me like that, or at least ones that don't actively help me become a better person i dunno y'all. i'm not particularly mentally literate - i just know that stuff feels wrong and i wanna meet this sucker head-on instead of getting washed away again n i'd rather look back on myself a couple years from now and regret being angsty and overcomplicated like a normal person instead of regretting living purposelessly like... other normal people do anyway, peace out y'all (and) good luck Q / Keegan
I tried fasting for 72 hours and ended up eating a cheeseburger. Today is the start of Lent for those religious folks, so I am going to try changing my diet during this time and seeing if I can make it stick. I didn't think it was possible to fall more in love, but it happens as the days go by. I'm worried about travelling without him and both of us doing our thing. But... I have nothing more to say. I don't even know what advice I need. Is this what being an adult feels like? I have no idea of what anything means anymore, my anxiety is through the roof and reading and writing helps for now.
Just flew in to NYC. Have a sports illustrated swimsuit cover model banking her stem cells tomorrow. Lol. Life is weird. Bought new noise cancelling headphones. Game changer on the plane. Have a listen to my cousins parody of “The Most Wonderful Time of The Year” Doesn’t she have a lovely voice?
Lowest level JBL’s from the airport. I’m sure they’re garbage. But... they’re soooo much better than ear buds.
Thanks for listening cgod. I would normally hate a parody song. Especially a Christmas parody. But I agree with you, it’s well executed. She’s a very talented person. She’s so talented that every act in Michigan enlists her signing and violin playing. Leaving little time for her own pursuits. But, I know she’s working on a solo album. I’ll share it when released.
Great memory. No, this is her sister. They’re both super talented. Awesome people. Should be hubskiers. I’m gonna work on that.
I'm a day late and $15k short. Or, I will be. Turns out that my 1962 "oil furnace" in my house actually just burns diesel, and I've been paying around $1900 a year for some fucking muppet in a truck to come fill my underground "oil" tank with the same thing you put in a semi tractor-trailer rig, but with a little red dye added. I'm burning diesel to keep my house warm in the winter... and it kinda sucks at even that basic job. So the contractor came out to spec a new system for my house that will run on nice Washington State green power (aka - electricity from our abundant hydroelectric and nuclear sources), and it's gonna cost me $15k. But, my wife's bedroom will finally be warm. And in the summer it'll blow cool air around, too. And I won't be burning diesel to heat my home. Every time you think you are finally on top, and there are no more home-ownership costs... there's another $15k thing that needs to be dealt with. Sheesh.
Hey, I have a very tedious issue that I would like some assistance with - if anyone has strong opinions about reasonable price points, I would love any help you've got. --------- So, a couple of days ago, I mentioned that I'm trying to get that Etsy cash a-rollin' by selling some 3D printed wall art: A new one I'm pretty pleased with (I prettied up the print a little after this photo to align the tractor beam) As of tomorrow, I'll have 50 individual units made, and by this sunday I'm hoping to have the shop opened. I've been working a little bit on logistics and packaging the past few days, and am just stuck on the question of price. Now, I have no fucking clue how much people will buy these things for, but I am guessing that the answer is somewhere around $10, with around a $2.50 over/under. This is based solely on me asking myself "what would I pay for one of these", and a teeny tiny modicum of market research. The cost of producing these in terms of resources is pretty negligible - the filament and energy consumed are about $.50 per unit. I have the design process pretty streamlined at this point, and a basic design takes maybe an hour to work up. They do take a decent amount of time to print, though, about 1.5 hours for each base, and 45 minutes for the art inlay. I have it set up so I print 12 hexes a day in batches of four, one when I go to work, one when I come back, one when I go to sleep. On weekends I just print the inlays all day if I'm around, and it about evens out, ending up with around 50 units, ignoring ones that turned out imperfect. The bases connect together, though I think for the most part people will buy just one of whatever design they want and call it a day. I also think that the grouped pieces - like the lunar phases or the cow thing - will sell reasonably well, though probably not as frequently as the individual ones. I'm intending to shoot for a bit of an artsier crowd with the grouped pieces (cow one not necessarily included...), and I plan on mostly designing around a bunch of video game/pop culture themes for the individual pieces. In my mind, I imagine someone looking at my designs, finding one or two individual pieces they like, and maybe getting another one or two pieces as gifts for friends who they know to like such-and-such game/movie. This being the case, I am thinking of pricing things as follows, which I hope will incentivize buying higher quantities. 1: $10 2: $20 3: $30 4. $37.50 5. $45 6: $52.50 7: $60 My initial pricing was just $7.50 for everything, which seemed very reasonable to me, but I also know I have a big tendency to undervalue my work, and $10 seemed nice and round for a single piece. The grouped pieces will mostly be either 4, 5, or 7 units, just because those are the most aesthetically appealing configurations of the bases for me personally. They'll be made of set colors, and will come pre-assembled, while the individual pieces can have a variety of colors and will come with the pieces to connect them together if one so desires. --------------- TL;DR: if you were in the buying mood, what would you pay for one of these little wall art pieces? They're about 3.75" by 3.25", and really solid - I used 40% infill and a pretty low layer height to ensure that they are pretty hefty. They'll be packaged in individually made little bags, and sent in a bubble wrap mailer. Additionally, any suggestions for video games/pop culture things that might be of interest to people? I have a dozen or so more designs that aren't pictured here, and am planning on making an Instagram and posting one new design a day once I have the Etsy shop open, and I'm definitely open to suggestions. (Sorry I tend to go away for 6 months at a time only to come back for shameless plugs) ( Also, lil, yours is mailing Saturday :) )
Looks like you got some good pricing info from applewood but I want to add another cost you haven't factored in: Parts for the 3D printer. You will need to replace nozzles and belts (or gears) and power supplies and arms and fans and all that kind of stuff if you start getting orders. Running the thing for 18 hours a day is WAY more wear and tear than running it a total of 18 hours over two weeks. You'll get into a week or two of printing, and shit will start failing. And nothing ever fails alone, because it puts more pressure on the thing before it and after it in the chain. So those things fail quickly after you replace the first part. Then yer gonna say "screw it!" and buy a second 3D printer, or upgrade to the more industrial one... but then little differences between the designs will start to manifest themselves, and you'll find parts made on one machine don't interlock with the parts made on the other one, and ... ... well, now you know why all* kickstarters fail: Making one is easy. Manufacturing is hard. So add $1 to every one you sell for "future upgrades". The future is much closer than it seems...
It’s very easy to change prices on listed items on Etsy. You could honestly test this live if you wanted to. I’d say start st $10 and if it’s not selling to your desires mess around with price. That being said I think a lot of success to Etsy selling is made more from people finding your stuff than having your stuff at the right price point.
Hey, I've looked into this kind of stuff myself recently. The take away that I've got is factor in how much you want to pay yourself per hour, divided by how many you can make in an hour. Then factor in your overhead and divide that by how many items you expect to sell in a month (sell yourself short here). Finally, factor in the cost per item to make. Once you add those up, multiply by three, and you have your asking price. So lets for example, you want to pay yourself $20 an hour and can make two an hour. Lets say your rent, permit fees, credit payments on equipment and supplies, and all other business expenses add up to $100 a month (if it something costs you anything, include it in this part of the equation) and you think you can move ten items a month. Then lastly, lets say it costs you $1 in materials each to make these. It would cost you $21 per piece to make, so your selling price should be about $65. Also . . . You should probably avoid selling stuff involving other company's IP, to protect yourself from any nasty lawsuits. Besides, you're a creative guy. I bet you could come up with tons of cool, original stuff.Additionally, any suggestions for video games/pop culture things that might be of interest to people?
Hey, thanks for the perspective, artist formerly known as rd95! Going to mull that formula over for a bit... I, uh, actually hadn't even thought of the legality of selling the video game stuff until now. I had this hazy memory saying "oh yeah, I've been to Cons before, people are selling fan art all the time. I guess this must be legal!" Needless to say, seems I was wrong! I'll still probably sell the video game stuff through word of mouth to my nerd friends and their people.
Glad to offer my perspective! There's a ton of conversations on this kind of stuff out there on arts and crafts forums. That said, I found this book in particular very helpful. It covers all sorts of stuff, but it's not exhaustive, so you might need to look at other sources, such as the local branch of The Small Business Administration, your local library will probably have model business plans available, and your state department of commerce will probably have resources on top of that. There's a LOT of stuff out their for entrepreneurs, and fortunately, a lot of it is easy to find.
Looks like a great read, thanks for the recommendation! There are a couple of small artist co-ops in town that I'm hoping to look into once I've been selling on etsy for a month or two, and I would wager lots of other local resources for teeny tiny business owners. Out of curiosity you thinking of selling your drawings/sketches, or something else?
Yes! Artist co-ops sound awesome! There's a few in my city, as well as various societies, guilds, and clubs. I haven't joined any, but I feel I need to just for the benefit of sharing experience and knowledge. Though, lately I've been thinking of turning to Hubski for that. There's a ton of really creative people on here, you included of course. As for selling stuff, I've really, really fallen in love with book binding. I think I made about forty or fifty journals last year just for the joy of making something. For a while I was thinking about starting a business so I could sell them, but eventually came to the conclusion that commodifying them and trying to build a business around them would rob me of that joy. Now I just make them for the pure pleasure of it and I give them as gifts to friends and family. Funny enough, some of the people I gave my first books to I turned around and later gave them some of my more recent books, just because my first few were so flawed I honestly felt bad about them being gifts.
That's awesome! Do you have any pictures of some favorites that you've made? Re: building a business vs. the joy of doing something, I think that a major reason that this is the first of my creative ventures that I am actually attempting to properly monetize is that 3D printing is virtually zero effort, as far as production is concerned. Sure, it takes some time to make good designs, but I can just press "go" on the printer and more or less leave it be for the next 6 hours, and once I have a design I like I can just keep printing it for as long as people keep buying it. The actual labor is pretty much front-loaded. I don't have to worry about a day where I don't have the energy to make a product to sell like I would with sewing, or even music. It's just a matter of making sure the machine works. It's funny, because with sewing or knitting I always enjoy the act of making things so much, but as soon as I have a deadline or a paying customer, it becomes torture and I wish I had a machine that could just do it all for me. And now I do (at least until it falls apart from overuse...)
Hmm. I think I might have one or two I've taken with my flip phone. This may sound weird, but the books I'm really proud of, I don't have anymore. As soon as I made one I really liked, I'd look at it and say "Oh! I bet so and so would love this." Next week though, I'll create a new imgur account and share some pictures of what I have sitting on my shelf and a few text blocks I've put together. There's a project I want to do, that I'll end up documenting to share on Hubski, and that's removing the cover of a paperback, reinforcing the spine using double fan binding with cord reinforcements, and then casing it in a hard cover. Sadly, I have to wait for warmer weather until I can do that though, because my craft room is not insulated and its too cold to work with glue at the moment. I know I've said this before, but I really enjoy your sewing. That quasi-military style jacket you made was super sharp. I love it.
Back at uni! Still feeling a tad tired, but it's manageable. This semester is the lightest I had so far, two and a half weekdays I planned to dedicate to LaTeXifying my theses are free; most of my current coursework comes from the chemistry department anyway. I had to take over TAing a class in the middle of it because my friend had to take care of some urgent matters. It was Physics IV, which is one of those odd combination courses that I hated where you mix intros to Classical Electrodynamics (mostly formal treatment of optics), Atomic Physics and Quantum Mechanics, and sincerely hope that students won't get too confused. I have no idea how well or bad it went, hopefully, it wasn't too apparent that it was a swap for someone with less than five minutes of prep. I don't think I blew my first class, which is somewhat successful on its own. Dunno if there's going to be any backlash for either of us, but it seems unlikely. That said, goodness gracious, it was stressful as all hell. At this point, I don't believe people ever truly get through their problems with public speaking. It simply becomes a bit easier to hide them each time you go out there. Also, my flatmate got some major brownie points from his boss for bringing up the holes in the code stuff I talked about last week. Good for him, at least someone gets to advance around here.
Literally overhauled my benchpress setup and added 10kg to my working weight in 14 days. Absurd how much technique comes into things after a while. 140kg bench is ever closer!! Then onto a 180kg squat and uhh, whatever the hell my back will let me deadlift.. Currently collecting data to make a small writing piece on if Touch Rugby's team composition, layout and tactics are sexist (in mixed grade). It's quite a bit of fun pondering something I'd never given a second thought before despite being essentially bathed in the sport since I was a child. I'm coming to the conclusion that it's not sexist, just simple competitive tactics, but it's been a fun experiment analysing everything. We're into March now and the heat is still being turned on, 30 degrees on Sunday, officially into Autumn but nobody told the Sun. Edit: oo The Eagles played in our city over the weekend - my parents drove up for it and I chauffered them to and from the concert. They were like little kids afterwards, so full of energy. They've really embraced life after the kids have grown up and it's so nice to see.