Time test part two

Posting this 2030 in the evening, Monday 31 Jan. Intheory, should come up same day as part one earlier today. Let's see what the result was....

Time test part one

Posting this 0542 in the morning, Monday 31 January to see how it gets time stamped on the server. Not sure if Blogger automatically converts and shows local device time, server time or timezone in settings time. Fingers crossed I remember to do part two this evening!

Completed projects

Overall, not a bad weekend. Didn't do as much as I would have liked (still spending way too much time on my phone - need to work on that), but I did get two projects finished.

One was replacing the cigarette socket in the car. The old one had a plastic shroud on it which had decayed and caused the old one to fall out. Needed to make a new blanking plate as the new cigarette socket was smaller than the old hole. Managed to do that with the Dremel - the gift that keeps on giving. <3

The other was my current cross stitch project. The stitching is now complete, need to frame it and get it ready for display.  Can't say too much about this one yet, might be able to share some photos soon.

No progress on any other fronts, trying not to start any other projects yet until I can get a few others finished.

Guess what, it's "next year"

 Here we are in 2022! Still scattered around, still planning loads of things, still not getting things done. Dang. I still have that puppet idea rolling around in my head. Probably because it'd be relatively easy to do - up to a point. And then we hit a wall - what's the point? Having a puppet would make video creation easier - just record in real time. Much easier than digital animation, and way less effort than stop motion animation (trying to do stop-mo in a house with cats [plural] is an exercise in masochism). But there isn't much reason to be creating video content if I don't have something to say.

That might be the biggest holdback on some of my creative endeavors. I tried writing, drawing, animation and a video production over the years and the biggest issue I have is that I'm trying to create content for the sake of creating content. Not because I am trying to say something, or because I'm passionate about it. Most of "the greats" in the various art forms became great because they were both passionate and had something they wanted to say. There are many people who have fantastic technical skills on different art forms but who's projects are very "meh" because they're just ticking boxes.

I'd like to avoid ending up in that camp.

"I'll do that next year..."

 And so we roll around to the 31st of December again, end of a year, about to start a new year again. :)

I do tend to procrastinate on some things, but saying "I'll do that next year" is less of a cop-out when next year is tomorrow morning!

Not sure what 2022 will bring, but here's hoping things get better overall.

More options

 Following on from the most recent project (the laptop stand, which has now been painted blue) my awesome wife gifted me a Dremel set for Christmas. This opens up a lot of new options not only with wood, but also with glass and stone. Admittedly stone would put a lot more wear and tear on the bits and the motor, and glass always has the option of shattering... so the primary focus will be wood.

It's what the device is intended for, I have some wood on hand, and I should be able to get scraps to work on relatively cheap. Should be interesting to see what projects I can come up with to make.

Laptop stand

 Made little laptop stand for my laptop.

I wanted one that was a fair bit taller than the standard ones you can get, plus I wanted to use up some leftover wood and paint that I had from older projects. I made all the measurements (except one!) and made a paper template to cut out the sides. Four screws, and it was assembled. I sealed it with some varnish prior to painting but didn't do the multiple coats with lots of sanding to make it all super smooth. Mainly I was looking at putting something together and using up the materials, and it effectively cost me zero dollars.

Can't beat free! Plus I got to make something.