21/01/2021
I've been avoiding spending the time to write here again since not a soul has viewed any of my posts since December. Let alone read one them. I'm an impatient bastard and I want to see someone look at the fruits of my labour.
What I've got today is some observations on some interesting packaging and a new take (I have only just started thinking about) on relationships. I will also write briefly on starting back at University of Dundee Mechanical Engineering.
Uni first to get it out the way. I'm getting on quite well with managing my work flow. It seems that entering semester everyone pretty much knows what to expect. I've been managing my work load well (although it is only week one). I'm back to getting up at 6.30am; because I'm nearly 20 and still have a paper round. Getting up early would be great in the holidays if I could just motivate myself to do it. I've made two effort in self improvement this week, one of which has worked incredibly well at motivating me, and making sure I utilise all the time in the day. I have to give credit to this most recent step in my self improvement to a video by Tom Sachs. I was put onto this video years ago by AvE on YouTube, and it's just been on the back burner since. The title of the video, 'Ten Bullets', is incredibly catchy. It's sort of a code or dictum for working in Mr Sachs' studio. All the points can be applied to everyday living and the point that I've taken most seriously is the creation of exhausting lists. Always have a list and you are nearly always busy, and nearly always productive. It turns everything in life into a series of checking boxes and I find it to be very motivating. I actually have two kinds lists now. Last semester I used to-do lists to lay out all of my essential tasks, I also laid out project ideas on these lists. The problem with this is that the concise 'to-do' list does not convey any urgency. It makes it very easy to live in the future rather than in the present. I would often ignore these lists because they were overwhelming and I could do the essentials later. By having one list that displays long term project ideas, and another that I carry at all times showing me what I have to do soon, I never find myself wasting time on YouTube and I spend much less time on social media. If I'm working on something and my mind starts to wander, I write it on my list and won't engage the idea until I have finished the current task. If I find myself burnt out from work I can take a break by doing one of the small things on my list, usually looking up the thing my mind happened to wander to. I would previously take breaks by looking at my phone, but now I will satisfy the itch I had earlier; and it's all the more rewarding when you have to wait. I made a pocket a book for the lists. It was obvious that a folded piece of paper would not survive. Below is a picture and some basic instructions on creating a pocket book. At the bottom of the page is a link to Ten Bullets by Tom Sachs.
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A pocket book made from a5 paper (cut from a4) folded in half
and card cover recycled from a beer box. |
These types of book are very easy to create, although there are some things you may not have considered. The first is how many pages you wish to have. The more pages you add the harder it is the close the book. The pages will also start to slope at the edges. The sloping can be resolved with a sturdy pair of scissors. I recommend using 8-15 sheets of suitably sized paper. This will give you between 32-60 pages. The cover can really be anything. If you regularly wear a jacket with a breast pocket or carry a bag a paper cover would be sufficient. But for jean/trouser pockets card is required. Beer boxes are an excellent source of card since they are thick. If you were crafty you could use anything that folds; I'm thinking something like plastic from a milk carton. The material can be ironed so that it stays in a folded form, just don't use too much steam or the paper will wrinkle. To hold the cover and pages together you should use thread. Stapes are really not that great since they are less flexible and cause the cover to rip. They are also more likely to fall out. If you look at a well made book it will be thread bound. For a book of this size only two loops are required. I make the holes using an awl on my swiss army knife, but it would be entirely possible to create the holes with a pointy kitchen knife or a drawing pin. The holes really only need to be big enough to pass a sewing needle through. All that's then required is to pass the needle through the two holes at each end with a thread attached to it. I usually tie the thread at the beginning to itself, and at the end I loop it around itself to create a knot of sorts. This has never came un-done for me, but you could tape the ends if you are of a paranoid disposition.
I said I would write about some interesting packaging so I better get on with it. The packaging was for a set of bicycle pedals I bought to replace a pair that had well-and-truly disintegrated. I'm saving them for my photography project on disintegration (use, abuse, and neglect) since they are a nice example or something crumbling just from normal use. For those curious what kind of pedals they were, I will write another post on Chinese bike parts and these pedals will feature. For now just know that they weren't expensive.
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| A scan of the box in question |
I have to say that I really like the effect scanning the box has given. The flatness coupled with the front light makes it look almost computer generated; the aesthetic quality of the image is beside the point however. The point is the text. For this set of pedals there are nine separate safety warnings. All of the warnings are complete common sense. Which leads me to think one thing: Every warning corresponds to a lawsuit that was won by some jackass who did something stupid and then pointed the finger. 'The land of the free' more like 'The land of the free to be sued'. The one about riding at night is possibly the only point that could hold some weight; but they don't actually make it clear what part makes the product unsafe for riding at night. This is almost definitely related to the pedals not coming with those crappy orange reflectors on them: The ones that usually fall off and make not a single bit of difference to how close a car passes you when you have a proper set of lights fitted. The rest of the of the warnings are just silly. I just can't imagine being satisfied with a justice system where you can sue (and win) a company that made a bike, because you did something stupid and broke your back. It just seems so backwards. I bet the people suing are the same people who are all ' I hate big government', ye maybe when it suits you. That last part is just speculation however.
Poor component manufactures is all I can say. Allowing this sort of exploitation of justice to go on will just grind innovation to a halt. I'll list just some of the ridiculous USA bicycle features that came about as a result of stupid law suits. The bottoms bracket (where the crank attaches) is stupidly high off the ground to stop morons who try to pedal whilst leaning into a corner from smacking into the ground. The fork is also super raked forward to stop the same idiots from hitting their foot into the front wheel. This has the effect of making road bike steer like a chopper. Bikes also have to come with a sticker making sure to tell you that cycling could result in death. You don't see them selling their sub-machine-guns with warning labels like this?
All just food for thought, but I think that box is a good microcosm (I say that word too often) of the United States legal system.
Last thing, which won't take long since it's a fresh idea, is my new thoughts on relationships/love. I was listening to Suzanne by Leonard Cohen and I reached the conclusion that platonic love ticks most of the boxes in terms of what I'm looking for in a relationship. To me, sex is still something that is appealing, but it certainly isn't the thing I'm after. I would much rather meet someone who can see me eye to eye and in a sense we could serve to better each other in the mind. Maybe girls would be more interested if I made this clear from the outset that I wanted things to begin in an entirely platonic fashion. I would imagine that they would be more tired of sexual advances than men. -- I just noticed I refer to males as 'men' and females as 'girls'. feels weird saying woman, but I guess the type of person I'm after would be, on an emotional level anyway, a woman. -- There is the part that even halfway attractive ladies have not much difficulty catching some tail, but that rant is for another day. My view on sex is, that it's something that should be kept for a relationship so as not to remove the intimacy of the act. I would be worried that doing it on the fly (pump and dump style) could be emotionally damaging. I got really bored of wanking if that's any good evidence? I you differ in opinion, I'm keen to hear it.
To end I'll share my philosophy on attractiveness. I've held this view for years, and my friends (drinking buddies) still don't get it. 'The degree of physical attractiveness of many people I often find is directly proportional to the beauty of their mind. Someone who's mind is in the right place for me, will often take care of themselves or at least make an effort to present themselves in a manner I find attractive. If I know someone is on my wavelength, any physical imperfections, especially those out with their own control, do not really catch my attention. Conversely, --this is actually where this idea originated from-- if someone is an unsavoury character, but is generally viewed by all of my peers to be a babe, I cannot see them as attractive. I do not find it possible to be attracted to someone who is fundamentally a horrible person. Some of the 'fit' girls from high school I hold in this regard.'
Much longer than I expected. I now understand what Bukowski was talking about when he described the bliss of writing. Thanks for reading. x
