inflection for non-idiots
every language has patterns of vocal tone. some (mandarin, cantonese) are explicit. others (korean, french) are minimalist. english has patterns and they’re unwritten. but they’re very simple and can be almost-completely summarized by the two-word lyric from the 70s — get down. sentences in english are pitch-neutral with falling inflection at the ends. this is the basic rule and if you learned modern english in school you’ll already know that.…
matters of black wood
sometimes you just want things to be dark. and i don’t mean the middle of the night. we’re talking about wood —which we often do here. whether that means midnight-black or vague gray or something between, most wood doesn’t do neutral black tones straight off the tree and wood almost universally ages to medium-brown. of course, you can always paint the surface. but what fun would that be? (plenty, i…
fearlessly pointy
when it comes to sharpening, woodworkers fall loosely into two groups — those who aren’t getting sharp and those who spend an inordinate amount of time getting sharp far beyond what is necessary to do excellent work. let’s talk about this. it’s not woodworking’s dirty little secret. it’s its massive open truth and either can ruin the experience for beginners and frustrate or exhaust even experienced craftspeople. i’m a buddhist.…
socrates (history of philosophy 2)
having left the pre-socratics, we come to the obvious next step — socrates. you probably already know three things about socrates. he was an ancient greek philosopher. he had an awesome beard. he was sentenced to death for his philosophy by drinking hemlock. while those are a good start, i think we can do a little better than that and look at his philosophy — perhaps more importantly we can…
