i like to make stuff

So, I started my new desk..

In a whirlwind trip to the store and a couple of hours, I made the bones that will be my new workspace.

It’s not finished, it’s not pretty, it’s a little too tall and it’s not square. But it’s a start.

It was really interesting to do in such a short amount of time. (4 hours, including a trip to the store, and dinner) because I was kind of making it up as I went, adjusting and thinking on the fly. I was trying to keep in my mind, “Build quickly, and iterate”.  So, this is the first “version” of my desk.  It will get more refined, more detailed, and more “finished” over time.  But, one of the caveats of “Agile” development, is that nothing is really ever finished, it just gets better. (There’s a life lesson in there, but that’s for another time.)

As I built the bones for the desk, my mind was flooded with more refinements that could be added later, but instead of stopping to think them through, and try to plan for them, I just pushed on. I put those ideas in my brain cabinet for later so that they wouldn’t get in the way of MAKING. And it worked

So now, I’ve got a skeleton, and a box of ideas..   I’ll keep you posted, if you’re interested.

So here’s two things about me.

I love to make stuff, and I love to make stuff well.  To make stuff well, I have to (usually) plan them well.

This is where my problem arises. Planning.

Some people have problems planning, they have trouble sitting down, getting the resources/needs together and focusing long enough to get their plan in place. That’s not me. I’ve almost always got the full need in my head, the resources available.. but I plan too long.

For example, I want to build a new desk.  I work from home, and my office is also my music studio, and my work shop, and several other things.  My desk has been a simple desk that I had in college, but now it’s completely cluttered and cramped with computers, drives, audio equipment (and junk)

So, I want to build a new desk… a nice BIG desk.  (Here’s where I spin my wheels)

and it could have an ipad stand routed into the surface, with a charger coming up through the surface..

and it could have a built in light table

and it could have under lighting built in

and it could have a microcontroller that told the desk to light up when I get an email, or IM

and it’s surface could be old motherboards, infused with blinking LEDs, covered in glass

and I could draw on the glass like a whiteboard

it goes on, and on.. (I’ve been planning for about a month now)

but I still don’t have a desk.

So, I’m going to give in to my first desire, to make stuff, and try to integrate the agile approach to furniture. Build quickly, and iterate.  I’m going to try to build the desk in a way that I can swap out the surface later (in case I want glass) and build it thick enough to house old motherboards, in case I ever do that, etc.

That’s it.. nothing profound, I just needed to write it down.  Thanks to my good friend Josh for inspiring me to do that.

So, a good friend of mine, Josh, has started a blog. Yes, there are thousands, upon thousands of blogs. But..

Josh is the kind of guy that you immediately become best friends with.. the guy who is as excited about what YOU are doing, as anything in the world.. and it’s genuine. He’s all about collaboration, and innovation.. and lots of other cool “ations”..
I won’t spoil his plans for his site by telling you what little I know, but I suggest that you follow it closely, and interact when you can.. He’s got some great stuff to say.

My 3rd child, Hawk was born on 10/11/10 an he’s totally awesome

After 3 1/2 years at BFG I’ve decided to move on to something else…  It’s been a great opportunity, and I wish them all the best as they continue to push the marketing industry!

For my next adventure, I’ll be taking the role of Senior Software Engineer, UI at Kace, and I couldn’t be more excited!  They’ve got a great set of products and some even better stuff in the pipeline.

Also, it was announced today that Dell has purchased Kace!  So, ACTUALLY, I’ll be taking a job at Dell, which is really cool as well!

here’s a play kitchen I built for my kids for Christmas..

it’s been a while since I’d gotten to do any woodworking.. and who better to do it for than my favorite people in the world.

“a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.”

I’ve been watching the daily videos at TED, lately.. gather all sorts of bits of motivation, encouragement and wisdom from simply listening to people talk about the things they’re passionate about, and their methods for pursuing those passions.  I heard Parkinson’s first law in todays talk, and immediately realized that it sums up one of my biggest productivity blocks.  Now that I’m aware of it, I plan on removing that block

Hopefully it’ll help you too, and I suggest you watch some of the talks at TED, they’re motivating, and often pretty funny.

So, my wife, a fantastic jewelry artist (among other things) has started working from home, since we’ve had our first child, but up until we moved into our new home, she never had a space to call her own, it was always working on the dining room table, until we needed the space.

So now, we’ve got a guest bedroom with a good amount of space, so she asked me to build her a big workstation which would house all of her jewelry supplies and tools, along with her sewing machine and supplies (which includes a CRAZY amount of yarn) as well as books and a scrapbooking/letterwriting area.

The room has 2 walls covered with wallpaper (2 layers in fact) as well as a border all the way around the room.

For future reference, if you have to take down wallpaper, don’t bother with the chemicals…  just rent a steamer for $30 a day from your home improvement store and do it that way..  MUCH BETTER, TRUST ME.

So I spent 3 full days (seriously) taking down wallpaper, 2 more days patching, sanding and painting the walls and updating electrical outlets and switches.. but the room looks like inew construction, so it was worth it.

Luckily, we had a good size space to work with.

She and I differ on approaches to decorating/building things, but this one is FOR HER, so I’m just building what she wants and trying not to force my own ideas in so that the space is really HERS.

So anyway, I made the 139″ desk out of a sheet of MDF, stripped down to a 24″ panel, attached end to end. It’s setting on a 2×4 that is mounted across the wall and 2 sets of shelves that I also build from MDF.

I used MDF because she wanted the whole thing painted, so it’s a very cheap solution for that amount of wood.

So, he’s the desk part installed..

since the photo, it has been primed and we got a good deal on some simple laminated cabinets to hang above it.  There will be a 31″ space inbetween the cabinets, so I’ll build more MDF shelves to fill the gap.

We’re planning on putting up a combination of cork panels, and pegboard on the back wall between the desk and cabinets, as well as mounting a good deal of lighting to downlight the space.

More pics as I progress (which will hopefully be tomorrow)

Well, after years of using my own hack of a blog tool, I’ve decided to move over to WordPress..
Looks cool so far, and hopefully it’ll inspire me to blog more about the stuff I’m doing (which will HOPEFULLY in turn inspire me to actually DO more)

I realized that I’d never posted this video that some friends and I made a while back..

It’s silly, but it was a good way to waste an evening..