Neighborhood lions, carved in limestone.
Make your own toothpaste: 4 tbsp melted coconut oil, 3 tbsp baking soda, 3 tbsp bentonite clay, 10-20 drops peppermint essential oil. Reduces plastic use when compared to standard toothpaste. And fewer chemicals, if that’s a concern.
Pan, an ongoing collection of sources
Keeping everything in one spot. Will be updated over time. Wikipedia article. Useful as links to other sources. Plutarch’s report of the death of Pan. In some Christian tellings, connected to/occurred at the death of Jesus. Pan and the Nightmare by James Hillman. The first half by Hillman is excellent. The second half by Roscher was less interesting for me. Elizabeth Barret Browning: “A Musical Instrument” “The Dead Pan”, in which EBB rejoices in the death of Pan and the superiority of Christianity.
I’m more proud of this carrot than I have any right to be
Touring the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering today. Maybe I’ll get to meet the AI that will eventually take my job…
My mom told me about a creepy guy who came to her door and I want to say, “Why are you answering your door?” I never go to the door at some random knock. If you want me to open the door, text me first. Rachel and I are always quoting Moss on this subject.
Asha Amemiya, in The Abundance of Less by Andy Couturier:
“So, why do you think so many people get caught up in this [drive for convenience]?”
“I really don’t know,” she says, laughing, although perhaps somewhat bitterly. “I wonder why it is? Maybe it’s just that humans are that kind of animal; they don’t really want to move toward satisfaction.”
”Humans are that kind of animal.” I have a theory that’s something like this.
The Christian creation/fall story says that the sense of wrongness in the world is due to the sin of Adam and Eve. Because of their disobedience to God’s command, humanity is cursed—and the rest of the cosmos with them.
I also feel that sense of wrongness (“this is not how it’s supposed to be”) that lies at the root of the Adam and Eve story. It would seem that many other people in many other cultures also feel it, given that something like a fall story exists in other cultures around the world.
In my theory, I take the sense of wrongness as a given but I am not convinced that it exists beyond humanity. In other words, humanity has a problem but the cosmos does not. What if humans just are that kind of animal? What if humanity evolved in some way that was reproductively beneficial but broke humanity relative to the rest of the cosmos? What if the incorrigibility of humanity gave us a temporary advantage (we’ve taken over the world, after all) but is, in the long run, an evolutionary dead end and will lead to our extinction?
If this is true then it’s not (as in the revivalist hymn) that this world is not our home; it’s that we have forgotten who our family is.
Plans for my next woodworking project:
Get one of my hand planes in working order- Build Rex Krueger’s low workbench out of salvaged 2x4 studs.
- Build a desk. I plan to make the top from the lovely old trim I salvaged recently, which I’ll then attach to some black metal legs.
I love vinyl records too, but you know what’s cheap and plentiful for the person who wants to own their music? CDs. My local record store had a huge selection but half price books and thrift stores have just as many with even lower prices. And CD players are cheaper than record players right now.
Inspired by this video from Rex Krueger, I decided my best way into hand planing would be to go cheap and put some work into making them better. Coincidentally, I won a Target gift card in a contest at work, which I used on the two inexpensive Stanley planes on the ends. Then I went to an auction and got the three in the middle for a few dollars. So now I’ll be following Rex’s instructions on getting them set up and sharpened.
