39 Days of Christmas - Day 01

39 Things I’ve found handy in the last 39 Years. Accompanied by a random photograph from the last 39 Years.

Day one is, and mums everywhere (because so so many of you read my blog) will hate me for this, but one of the things I loved as a kid, growing up, was my mini-axe (hatchet) …I wish I still had the one from when I was a kid, alas, I don’t… But grab your kid one of these and take them camping, find a dead tree, let them cut some chunks out of it - they’ll remember it.

The Axe: https://amzn.to/3ggk3vb (It’s a Spear & Jackson, they’re not the worst and they’re not the best, but they do the job and can be re-sharpened (or, if you’re that helicopter type, just leave them blunt…whatever floats your boat)

And the photo? I couldn’t find a photo of me as a kid with my axe (Mum?) But here’s one my 12yo broke in the back yard…

This wasn’t a Spear & Jackson… it was a splinter and electrical tape.

Come back tomorrow. See you then.

Ho Ho Ho

Making things easy - Wood work for dummies?

I’m having a bit of fun with wood, I don’t have a whole lot of space… Like, no space really… So I wanted to share a list of smaller shop tools that make a big difference and don’t take up any room! The first one is a Bahco Cabinet Scraper …

“A card scraper or cabinet scraper is a woodworking shaping and finishing tool. It is used to manually remove small amounts of material and excels in tricky grain areas where hand planes would cause tear out. Card scrapers are most suitable for working with hardwoods, and can be used instead of sandpaper” - Wiki

This is the tool in question…

Best thing about this simple tool, you can sharpen and use it over and over again… Take a look below

You can get your own here on Amazon - https://amzn.to/3C719Q3

Have you ever deleted an app to stop your browsing?

alt title: A social (media) experiment - Part Two of ?

24 hours without somewhere to ‘story’ stupid stuff. 24 hours without somewhere to share incidents of appreciation for tools I use, to support stuff I like… 24 hours and I think there’s maybe 10 people I missed seeing the regular updates from.

Maybe there’s another way?

And for most regular people, with Instagram now allowing uploading from your desktop computer, or via apps like Later or Hootsuite, removing the app from your phone is a completely legit thing to do… That impulse to browse when you have 28 seconds spare is removed (after a while of not having the app on your phone)

But for me, that’s not possible… There are some things in social media land that you can only do via the app ( which I find utterly stupid in this day and age! just fully open up that api already)

So given the deadlock, where does that leave me?

…it leaves me painting the front gate! Another coat of natural white Dulux something-or-other on my crooked pickets (thanks, Lee)

A social (media) experiment

Last night I ‘turned off’ my Instagram account.

I manage social media accounts to pay the bills, I spend a lot of time online each day, part of that was managing my own social media. After some thought, there’s not really much point maintaining my own social media… I’m a 47 year old bloke that actively encourages his kids to stay well away from social media, lead by example, right?

The answer I’ve always given myself when I ask myself the question “Do you need to actively partake in your own social media to be an effective social media manager?” Is ‘Yes, absolutely’ but with social media management tools the way they are now, the ability to search content and be present without being present as myself has come a long way - I can effectively be online as my clients and not myself.

Well, that answer made sense in my head, so let’s see if it sticks.

I’m doing this to drag back some time for myself/my kids. My time is allocated in various sized chunks to my clients, that has never been a hard and fast line - it’s always been fluid and almost invariably much more than i’m contracted for… The management of content, looking for that content, looking for audience (with most social platforms putting the organic screws on so tight so they can sell advertising for mostly fake reach), looking for chatter and guiding that chatter… It all takes time. My time and my expertise at guiding those conversations is where my value is, but i’ve found it very hard to find the ‘off switch’ while doing that.

I guess working from home, well, not working from home as such, it’s not like I have anywhere else to work - my office is in my house, it’s a dedicated room. Working from home maybe means I’m not restricted by office-bound norms, e.g. it’s 10:32am and I’ve had one Zoom for a client’s bi-weekly round-up call, I’ve popped down and made myself breakfast just now, and I think I’ll grab a shower and perhaps try slot in a haircut… Those types of things aren’t conducive to a 9-5 environment, but that also means that if I need to, I just push my day out into the evening. I’m not really a sit and watch tv kind of guy, so I don’t mind shelving work during the day and getting it done at night - as long as it gets done. I’m rambling.

Long story short, I’m pulling back from the added distraction that is my personal social media, using that time elsewhere, focusing on client work when online and daydreaming about the small farm I want to buy…

Glad we had this chat, if you don’t see me online, that’s ok, I’ll be here and via email and likely Twitter…

Also, here’s a chopping board I’m working on, more on it later, but I’ll say this, some of the timber in this piece is from an interesting place - more soon.

What's so special about YOUR post?

Nothing, but…

View fullsize

So, I tweeted that I’m running two video doorbells right now, one a Ring and one a NEST, err, Google, err… Nest? Whatever… And a friend* (*I say friend, but really I don’t know Ruth, but since #avocadogate I deem her a friend!) asked why my deliveries were so special, and I know she was toying with me, but I thought I might take a minute to a. add some context and b. spend five minutes winding down, just me and my dog, and pen a largely not-important blog post.

P.S… The Ring is on with double-sided tape! don’t @ me with “it ain’t straight!”

Ring Doorbell Vs Google Nest Doorbell

Skip back a handful of years, I’d ordered a watch band for my oldest, he was maybe 8 or 9 at the time and had one of those tiny Garmin kids watches, anyways he’d destroyed the band and was excited to get the new band! “Dad, leave it in the mailbox so I can get it out!” sure thing kid… It arrived while he was at school, and I dutifully left it in the mailbox for him to take out when we arrived home… I have a large old steel mailbox, locks with a key, kinda tricky to get into unless you have the world’s slimmest hands, anyways, I’m gone maybe 25 minutes from when I left the package in the mailbox, to going to school, picking him up and heading home… In that time I’d told him “I think there’s a package in the mailbox for you!” he was SUPER EXCITED! (You can see where this is going, can’t you) Some scumbag had been down our street stealing mail at that very 25 minute time-slot! They had used a stick to wedge the package out. I was furious, not because it was an $11 watch band, but because of the lock on my boy’s face… I wanted blood (or at least an apology and the package back ya know) I actually went walking the streets looking for someone - I was quite cross.

Skip forward a day or two and the police had advised they could do zip, and fair play, they had nothing to go on - at all. But dear reader (Hi Ruth, you’ll likely be the only reader, but that’s just fine!) that’s not where the doorbell came from! That’s where my front and rear 4K Hikvision camera system came from! YOu know you see Crime Stoppers “Criminal Evidence Photos” and they look like a hand-drawn caricature of someone with no facial features? I wasn’t having that and had to put in a system that rendered each and every wrinkle.

That was great! Worked well, missed the people that hit my car AND my neighbour’s car, but did catch the guy that jumped the fence and smashed my elderly neighbour’s fence IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY (bright spark that bloke) The one thing it didn’t do though, as it’s mounted up quite high, is allow me to see who actually comes to the door.

This is the Hikvision 4K POE Security Camera - At night. Not awful.

Yeah, so in the example above, someone comes in the gate and then I’ve no idea where they go after that… Not ideal!

The first camera I purchased, the Google Doorbell (AKA The NEST Doorbell) *The irony, it doesn’t work with Google Business Suite and so I had to setup a whole new gmail account and shift all my existing smart devices across to that new email… Really not ideal, but it’s fine… whatever…

Then I had the chance to review the Ring Doorbell 4 for my friend Kevin’s website, DRN and THAT is how I have come to have TWO smart(ish) doorbells on my front door…

I will remove one of them in about two weeks, I’m not 100% sure which just yet… Watch this space, or don’t, that’s ok too.