Restructuring
Its the start of another new year, and its the time of the year where everyone makes all manner of resolutions that they will have forgotten by the first of February. I’ve never been fond of resolutions as they always end too lofty and vague to actually keep going. Not to mention that my needs and goals tend to shift throughout the year anyways. Rather than making resolutions for things I’d “like” to do this year, I decided to sit down and restructure some things and actually make some changes right now. I look at this as an evolutionary process. This will probably change as the year progresses, so I’ll make every effort to update this as things change. For now, this is how I’ve structured things.
In search of: Welder for the garage.
This is a little late, but it figures into some things that I’m going to be doing here on the site, so I’m going to go ahead and pop back in time a little and delve into my welder and how it came to be. 
I had been wanting to add a welder to the tool collection in the garage for a while. I had projects piling up that I was not working on because they needed welding here and there and I couldn’t do it myself. It was easier to just put them off and not work on them.  It ended up being much easier to do something else than coordinate with someone else to come weld the various projects up for me. Last year I figured I might want to go ahead and seriously look into getting a welder so I could tackle some of those projects on my own. I figured I was expanding the capabilities of the garage, as well as expanding my skills. Maybe welding was a logical next step.
So I started looking around for info. When I started doing research around the web in early 2007 to try to figure out which welding machine I wanted to add to the tools in the garage, I was confronted with a massive amount of information. Some relevant, some not. And as I expected, everyone had their own opinions on brands and models and most of those folks are pretty strong in their opinions. Those pages got tossed right away, I can form my own opinions. And brand isn’t really critical to me as long as the tool will do the job I wanted it to do. I tried to then sort through all of the rest of the info out there to distill it down to facts that were useful to me, rather than deal with all the marketing hype and opinions. Now during all of that looking I noticed ONE constant thing. It seems that all of the guys on the welding boards and the car boards all had the same basic bias. Small 110V welders stink. Period. End of discussion. Don’t even bother. To hear these people tell it, anything that plugs into a normal house plug is totally worthless and a waste of space and money. This I just couldn’t understand as that market segment reaches from a $79.00 unit at Harbor Freight, to big name machines that are almost $1000. If they sucked so bad, and they didn’t really work, why did everyone (Including the major players) waste their time making them? I’ve worked with professional companies that had high end gear that just did not make anything for the entry level. I wondered why that the big boys would waste their time with a product that wasn’t apparently worth the effort. With that in the back of my mind, I figured I needed to define what I was going to use the machine for. Figuring that may help me narrow down the options a little.
Trellis roof panel finished.
Its ALIVE!
Actually its not, but that’s much more impressive sounding than the other options. At any rate, the roof section of the trellis is now complete. The design is done and all of the welds have been finished and dressed. All that is left on the roof panel is welding the brackets on to connect it to the other pieces, and that cannot be done quite yet as the other pieces arent finished yet. Brackets are the last thing on the list before its all painted and installed. Now I’m on to working on the front upright panels. When I get some progress on those, I’ll post photos of those as well.
For now, I present the finished roof panel.
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- trellis3
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- trellis4
What a grind, part 2.
In and amongst all of the other little projects, I’m still plugging away at the trellis. Having been occupied with other things since we last posted, I decided it was time to get back out there and make some sparks. The last time I was out working I managed to mangle the saw I was using to trim the steel to length, so late last week I stopped while I was out and picked up an inexpensive chop saw. And while its not a highly precise saw, its alot more accurate than freehand with a jig saw.
So I made my way out to the barn and started on the large 2/3 of the roof section. As I mentioned before, the design is inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This particular piece is roughly divided into thirds. The panel I worked on last time is a self contained panel. The remaining two thirds are grouped together into a larger panel, which is divide into offset quarters. Which in plain english means ALOT of measuring and re-measuring. After several hours out there today, this is where we stand. I Have the lower 2 quadrants of the design done. Which are visible on the left of this photo. You can see the two upper sections are still empty. The design in those is more dense as the sections are smaller. All told they both have 3 more large sections of tube and 3 thin strips of flat stock to go. That will be either later in the week or sometime next week, depending on schedules. Once the design is finished then I get to move on to the front panels, which will hopefully work up a little faster. They are smaller, so I’m hopeful.
Trellis progress, 11/8/08
Hot Glue for Metal.
About a year ago I picked up a welder for the shop. I figured it would be handy to have for the various automotive things that I seem to be doing more of.  Since I got it, it has been pretty handy for automotive related things.  I recently decided to see what I could do that was a little more artistic. We are in need of a trellis in the back yard to support a rose bush that is getting out of hand, so I figured I could whip something up that would work and look decent in the process. As these things tend to do, the project ended up balooning into a much larger undertaking than I had planned. The trellis is going to have 3 main panels and plain posts in the back to support the roof. I have 2 7′ x 3′ panels for the front for the rose to climb, and then the roof panel which is 6′ x 10′. We elected to continue the front panel design over to the roof so it would be visible from the ground. So the roof panel is decorative as well. The design is loosely based on the Frank Lloyd Wright style. Angular and squared panels, without obvious symmetry.
This is the first third of the roof panel. I’ll add more photos here as I progress. For my first major project like this, its coming along nicely.
Roof section - Trellis
WGA Strike. What YOU can do.
The WGA strike is still going strong because the major media companies don’t want to play fair. They want the writers to go back to work before there is a contract in place. And the media companies have actually said they will not return to the bargaining table until the writers DO go back to work. Hello?? Would You go back to work without a contract in an attempt to get your boss back to the bargaining table? I think not. Kinda sounds like extortion to me. The networks are the ones that left the table to begin with. The writers want to work. The writers alway would like to be able to pay for food and keep up with their house payments. The networks don’t want to pay them fairly.
The major media companies seem to think that as TV viewers, we are like little sheep and we will watch and like whatever they spew at us. Which will most likely be more reality TV. Just think, without writers, we can look forward to episodes of “Survivor: Newark”, and “House full of Nutballs 8″ and “I’m a vapid Twit”. All stunning shows I’m sure. But not exactly what I’m interested in. Alot of folks have suggested that as viewers we all boycott shows and do not watch certain things on certain days. Which really only helps if you are a Nielson Family. Writers get paid for shows that run on TV, so not watching TV isnt helping the writers at all. We need to hit the networks in other areas
I’ve decided to take a multi pronged approach.
1. I am not watching anything online. Writers are not currently paid for shows that are shown online. Even though the networks are selling advertising for those online shows. Someone is making money online. Just not the folks that actually do the work.
2. I’m taking every opportunity to E-Mail major sponsors and let them know that if they support the networks position, I will not purchase their products. If we as TV viewers can prove to the advertisers that they are paying for NOTHING, then they are going to want some of those piles of cash back that they paid the networks. The only way to get the attention of the networks is to hit them where it hurts. In the profit column.
http://www.petitiononline.com/WGA/petition.html
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003674078
3. I’m also sending pencils to the heads of all of the major networks. Its mostly a symbolic gesture. But it does tend to create a large problem for them. Where do they put massive deliveries of pencils? If every TV viewer sent ONE box of pencils to the studio heads, there would be so many boxes of pencils I’m thinking they’d be a little more eager to negotiate with the writers if for no other reason than to stop the pencils from arriving. It only costs a Dollar a box, and you can do it all through PayPal. They are purchasing the pencils in bulk and having them delivered on pallets.
For more info please check here: http://www.pencils2mediamoguls.com/
If you can only send $1. Please do. If you can send more, by all means do it. Lets send these networks a message. We DO support the folks that write the shows we enjoy, and its only fair that those people are paid for their work.
WGA Strike
If you haven’t heard… as of November 5, the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike. The WGA is striking the major production companies of TV/film for a new contract which would cover the writer’s residuals on DVD sales as well as residuals from internet/other media distribution forms.
Did you know that every time you buy a DVD for $19.99 the writer only receives $.04?! Imagine, if ONLY 1000 copies were sold the production company would make $19,990 on content that has already made them money via advertising during its initial run. The writers would only be entitled to around $40 for that same 1000 DVD’s Sold. Currently, anything that runs on the internet is classified as “promotional” by the studios and the writers are paid $0 for that content, even though the studios are selling ad space both on their websites, and interspersed within the TV shows being shown on the internet. This includes special “webisodes” that have been ordered by the studios to be specifically written and filmed for the internet. Currently writers are receiving NO payment at all for those internet “webisodes”. How many of us would be willing to work for free while our bosses raked in money for our work product?
The writers of our favorite TV shows and movies deserve our support! It is anticipated that by the beginning of January all scripted TV shows will be in re-runs. Basically, when all of the pre-strike episodes air, TV shows will be forced to go into re-runs until the strike is over and the writers return. Which could be up to four or more months if the studios continue to insist that they “aren’t sure if the internet is a viable revenue stream”. If its not a viable way to make money, then why are the studios fighting so hard to keep internet revenues all to themselves? Why is it even an issue giving the writers a percentage of the revenue for their work product? Do writers not deserve to be paid for their work? If the internet truly doesn’t make any money for the studios, then giving the WGA the percentage they are asking for shouldn’t be an issue. If there really is no money to be made on the internet, then give the WGA the 2.5% they deserve. Studios cant lose money if its not there to start with. Which we all know is not the case at all. Which is why the studios are fighting so hard to not give the WGA anything.
Networks are already preparing for this backlash by lining up unscripted shows and reality TV shows. Just what we need….more reality TV!
Here’s how YOU can make a difference. You can boycott the internet distribution of your favorite shows, and you can spread the word to the people that you know what the real issues are. The “media” is not handling coverage of this strike fairly, which makes sense as most news outlets are owned by the same folks that own the studios that are trying to screw the WGA to begin with. Lets send the studios a message. As TV viewers, we DO care about our favorite shows. We would not want to work for free, and its unreasonable to expect the writers to. This is not about multimillionaires, this is about folks trying to make a living. The Multimillionaires are on the studio side of the negotiating table here. So until the strike is resolved, do not watch your favorite shows on the internet, do not download them from iTunes, or watch them on company websites. The writers are being paid for the episodes that you watch on TV. They make nothing on content downloaded from iTunes, other download services, or watching your shows on the studio websites. where the studios are making profits from advertising. The only way the studios will listen is if we cut into the profits that they are trying so hard to keep all to themselves. The bottom line is, without the writers, there is no content.
If you want more factual information you can visit one of the following websites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk
http://community.livejournal.com/wga_supporters/
Thanks for your support!
Vocabulary for today.
There are just odd moments every now and again when the current limitations of the language are painfully obvious. Those uncomfortable pauses when there just isn’t a word to really sum up your feelings at that specific moment. So, As a public service, I have chosen to share some of my submissions for new additions to the common vocabulary. Feel free to add these terms to your daily conversations with friends and coworkers. And when these show up in Websters in a few years, you can sleep well at night safe in the knowledge that you knew about them first.