The New Year

Ahhhhhhh.... I always think of the New Year as kind of a blank slate .... I know it's just another day/week/year coming up, but I like to think I can start anew and correct little things in my personality that irk me. Hasn't happened in the past; probably won't happen this year either. I did, actually, even though everyone else had a paid holiday, spend some time today organizing my office and getting my job list on my whiteboard, but, why is my bench always such a mess .... Where is that thing I had in my hand not TWO seconds ago? Why oh why oh why do I hate Quickbooks Pro 2010 sooooo much? Why don't I have a proper tool cabinet of my own after 35 years of doing this when everyone else in the shop is so orderly? This is starting to look like a list of new year's resolutions and maybe it is ... We'll see ... My wife Kit is finally getting a real bureau as we speak, after about 5 years of me talking about it, so there is hope, maybe .... I leave you to ponder the above with me and also you can ponder the stuff below I scraped off my bulletin board recently ... Enjoy ... Don't go too deep with it ... It's light stuff ... Click the images to enlarge them ....
I had a wonderful conversation the other day with an old friend about the current vagaries of the custom work business ... the slow pay .. the almost order that takes as long and is as complicated as the real order, the lack of choice caused by the lack of demand, and it all boiled down to cash flow. Things do seem to be picking up though recently, (dare I even say it????) The above quote from Paul Downs, a Philadelphia furniture maker who was interviewed a few years ago by, I think, Woodshop News is a true thing. His quote above resonated with me as it has been the back story of my 31 years in business ... So true ... We like the 'craftsmanship', but we also need to do the money stuff. ... almost everyday ...
Error and Trial .... We often say we work from one recovery to the next ... No mistakes, no progress.
'We don't know' .... in some ways, another part of the story of my life ... listening for inner voices .. I'd like to write some this year about 'creativity'. Where do ideas/designs/processes come from? Can you teach other people to 'have' ideas? I'm interested in your thoughts ... Comments?
Failure to failure, one recovery to the next ... obstacles into opportunities .. variations on a theme ....
More on having ideas above... We do know,however, that every idea is not a good idea ... Then there are a few humorous ones ...


I love Roz Chast ... she often has her finger on the pulse of the thoughts in the back of my mind.How can you not buy that painting after a good ad like that ... ?
A little Zen .... I guess this means that hings are just as they are, regardless ... 'Who can tell how events will be transformed?' Indeed ... I love this story .. It's from the reference section of the Steven Mitchell translation of the tao te ching. It also, along with the one below, has the most thumbtack holes in it and I now can retell it almost verbatim ...
Tom Peters gave me this one one day when I was complaining about teenagers (Will, I think) ... Nature? Nurture? Coincidence? All Of The Above? Who knows?
Good thing ...
The Moby Dick guy .... Hand lettered and posted by the time clock for about a year by yours truly .. Everyone should memorize this one ...
Jim Harrison ... another favorite ... 'ready and attentive' .... love the concept ...
And, I would have written you a shorter blog post too ...