My random thoughts of the day.
It is pretty cool seeing Whistler mapped by Google Street View. The runs looks quite difference in street view than when I am skiing on it. I guess when I am skiing, I was too focus on not falling down. I didn’t take a good look at the scenery on both side of the run.
x
The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games is only 8 days away. I don’t feel particularly exciting about the Olympic although I am living in the hosting city. Here are my top ten reasons why I don’t like Vancouver hosting the Olympic.
and most important of all,
I wish wood working is like writing software, there is a undo button to undo my mistakes. I make a very silly mistake today in my wood working class. I cut two pieces of wood one inch too short. Here is how it happened. The end of the tape measure, the metal piece, is not accurate, so we are told to make the measure starting from the 1″ mark. The problem is that I forgot to add an extra inch when I am reading the number. After I made the cut, I wonder how come my wood seems short, but it’s already too late. If I didn’t cut enough, it is very easy to trim off a little bit more. However if I cut too much, I have to throw away the wood and start from scratch. Luckily I bought some extra wood, so I can make a spare. I just have to work faster next class to catch up.
The instructor already told us the rule of thumb in wood working in the first class, “measure twice, cut once.” I didn’t read the measure again after I mark the cut line, and I had learned my lesson. I think I can turn this lesson into a chicken soup story if I spicy it up a little bit. Working with wood is like life, there is no undo button to fix a mistake. The moral of the story is always “measure twice, cut once” or “think twice, act once”.
Today is the second class of my wood working class. I bought three pieces of birch wood last Sunday to make a small table. I learn how to cut the a rough wood into the required shape in today’s class. The cutting steps are pretty simple.
1. Use a miter saw cut 2-3″ from the edge to get rid of cracks or defects.
2. Cut the wood into rough length (the real length plus 1″)
3. Take the wood to the jointer and trim one edge straight. It is easier to trim the edge curving outward.
4. Take the wood to table saw and cut it into rough width. (real width plus 1/4″)
5. Take the wood back to the jointer and trim one face flat. Now the wood has a right angle edge.
6. Take the wood to planner and plane it to the final width and thickness.
I am kinda slow today, so I didn’t get to step 6 today. Now I have all the pieces of my small table cut in rough size. After cutting 20 over pieces, I am quite good at using the jointer. The key is to apply pressure on the front, not on the back when the wood pass through the blade. I can feel when the blade is trimming a layer off the wood. I made many cuts using the table saw too, but it is still quite scary. It is the only piece of tool in the workshop have an uncovered rotating blade. Keep your fingers away from moving blades and always use a push stick.
We spent the first hour listening to instruction and watching demonstration. That left me two hours to work on my own. The clock seems running much faster when I concentrate in cutting the wood. The class is over sooner before I finish cutting all my pieces. At the end of the class, I have saw dust all over my clothes. I guess I have to wash my clothes after each class. Too bad that I forgot to bring my camera. However, it seems kinda silly taking pictures in the workshop. No one is taking any pictures.
This Youtube video illustrates the difference between all forms of governments and try to correct many people’s misunderstand on democracy. The form of government is scaled from absolute power on the left to no power on the right. They are dictatorship, oligarchy, democracy, republic and anarchy.
There is not true dictatorship. No government can be ruled by one man. The dictator is just the face of a group of rulers. There is no true anarchy, since it is not a stable form of government. It is merely a transition to oligarchy. Oligarchy is ruled by a group of people. Democracy means majority rules. Republic is rules of law. Democracy is only a transition between oligarchy and republic. I wonder when HK people petition for democracy, do they really understand what they are asking for? I think HK need a republic government, democracy is not the end goal, it is just a begining.