My Journey in Writing, Ranting, and Woodworking

I have been thinking a lot about the brain today.  My brain has several modes.  There is the day dream mode, where it wonders off into a fanciful world.  In this world, of late, it is 2014, the previous year I had come into money, and decided to spend much of it on golf instructions.  This leads to uncovering an almost zen like ability, hidden deep within me, and before I know it, I am a scratch golfer.  It takes only about two tenths of a second to get through this first bit of the daydream, which lands me in the first round of the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

Being a qualifier, and an amateur, I am in the first group, starting just after the sun has come up.  The day is perfectly still, the greens are still bathed with a slight misting of dew.  I am fortunate, as the first three holes find me on the green in regulation, just inside my playing partner’s ball.  This means I get to watch his putt.  All three of his first puts are very close, and it allows me to drain my first three, and start the day three under.  I am a golfer who yesterday shot 10 over par on a relatively easy course.  So to say that this daydream is  silly beyond compare, is understating the point by a mile.

It is fun to daydream, and today’s outing at Pinehurst took place in my head as I was driving to the  practice facilities at Finkbine in Iowa City.  This is the University of Iowa course, and a great place to go and work on one’s game.  Yesterday’s golf made it painfully apparent that I needed to work on my chipping and putting.  It is about 30 miles to the course, so after I got done winning the U.S. Open, which took about 15 daydream minutes, I started to think about focus.  Another mode for my brain.

Last night I used ‘Stumbledupon’ to find a fun site that helps one learn to speed read.  (http://www.spreeder.com/app.php)  I have been curious about speed reading since my early 20′s.  I even took a couple of classes, but didn’t stick with it.  So I decided to play with their tool.  They explained that most people read at 200 words per minute, because this is the rate at which they speak.  They went on to say that it is common for a person to start the tool at 300 wpm and still be able to comprehend the article.  The tool flashes the article to the reader, one word at a time.

So I gave it a go.  It was just as they said, the 300 words per minute was easy to follow.  My father is a voracious reader and reads at a blistering pace, though he isn’t a ‘speed reader’ per se, he just reads a bunch, and has become quick at it.  I am not a quick as Dad, but I feel I do alright.  So when they suggested that the next step was to double the rate to 600, that seemed fun.  The instructions explained that it is likely I wouldn’t be able to follow the article, but would catch some of the words.  I cut and pasted an article from CNN, put it on 600, and hit the ‘spreed’ button.  At 600, the article was not yet beyond my ability to comprehend it.   One is supposed to find a baseline, and from that, double the speed for practice.  The theory is that with time and use of the tool, one will be able to increase their ability.  I determined my baseline was 600, as 1200 was too speedy.

What I found interesting is how focused I was as the articles were flashing, one word a a time, in front of my eyes.  As I was sitting at a red light, near the course, I tried to focus on one spot on the horizon, and have the same focus from the night before.  I noticed all sorts of things that would have not registered.  I remember 3 pieces of garbage blowing across the road, a red car, a blue suv, a red suv, a silver hatch back, all turned in front of me.  The sky was full of incredibly fluffy clouds, and I even remember the spot on the horizon that was just blue sky.  It was 6 hours ago, when I turned on the focus, yet that moment is still very clear in my mind.

At the practice green, I again narrowed my focus to the task at hand, and found that the repeatability of the shots, improved greatly.  So when I got home, ready to work on my woodworking, did I turn on my brain to see if it would improve my performance with my hand planes?  No, I did not.  In fact, I was working away, trying to flatten the other side of the board, and eventually got it flat.  This seems like a win, but it was not.  I had created a board with two flat sides, but the width at each end was not even close to the same.  I had created a wedge.  I didn’t want a wedge.

As I held my wedge and turned it around, somewhat amazed at how I got to this point, it occurred to me that had I been focusing more closely, I might not have ‘wedged’ my board.  It seemed like all I was going to get from this practice session was a valuable lesson on the need to focus.  Then I read a comment from rtb, where he pointed out that I had planned to make a table from my walnut.  He wrote that making a table from walnut was a good idea, but making a table that was then going to be used to cut matte board, and likely get scratched, seemed like a bad idea.  He was right!  Though I do use a piece of foam core, beneath the matte board, before I cut it, the truth of the matter is that I should probably use ODF.

It was another one of those ‘focus’ moments.  I hadn’t really thought my project through.  I wanted to build something with my walnut.  I wanted to build a table for cutting matte board.  That was the extent of my analysis.  My brain hadn’t done a very good job with that one.

I have learned three things today.  One, when woodworking, being careful and safe are important, but they are not enough.  It is a must to turn the brain into hyper ‘Focus’ mode, especially when one is learning something new.  Two, when one is writing a blog, being in ‘creative’ or ‘daydream’ mode, is probably best.  Three, it is possible to improves one’s focus, when it comes to reading.

It seems reasonable that if I can become more focused and increase the words per minute I am able to read, it will ultimately help my woodworking.  I will be able to consume many more articles and books on woodworking.  It may also help my overall focus, which seems like this would lead to greater accuracy, and better results.

Oh, there is one more important thing I learned today, while running my No. 5 over the walnut for an hour.  Using hand planes is great a great cardio workout.

The End (This was en lieu of a concluding paragraph, which I don’t seem to be able to think of.  It appears I have lost focus.)

p.s.  When I said ‘The End’, obviously I was just fooling around.  I have more to say.  Yesterday’s post yielded another very helpful comment from Swirt, with a great link to an article on making lumber flat and square.  When I was doing the aforementioned planing, I had not read it yet. There was also a great set of tips from CanadianChips on Lumberjocks.  I responded to CanadianChips that his method seems very sound, but alas he has a few more planes at his disposal, than I do. I only have a Stanley 110, 220, 4 1/2, 5, and a shoulder plane made by the guy who sold me the 4 1/2 and 5.  I can assure you that they are not my last plane purchases. The scrub plane is the next on my wish list.

I just wanted to say thanks to Larry Marshall, who not only left a great comment on yesterday’s post, but went one step further.  He wrote a very lengthy email to me with a ton more tips, and actually does this fairly frequently.

Learning woodworking is vastly easier with the tips and encouragement.  Thanks everyone who has helped me continue to progress.  I really do appreciate it.

The End Again