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9/30/2021

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Looking ahead, next week school only meets on Monday and

Tuesday. In theory, I could go back into my workshop to

get back to my stalled pump drill project, but in light of

how much I have to do, that is probably a bad idea.

=>gopher://sdf.org/0/users/candide/pumpdrill.txt (pump drill project)

It's just as well. I have found that during the school

year I feel like writing. It is some combination of

several things. For one, I am physically beat up from

moving around so much -- I wouldn't say I "chase around"

the age of kids I teach, but rather I have to move toward

them to check on some things and prevent some others, so

you do get a decent amount of steps in. For another, I

work with such bad tools and they trap me in a kind of

fake creativity [1]. Being a man of letters lets me stack

everything I need during the school year: some time laying

around and the opportunity for creation to move at the

speed of thought and at a grown up level (humor me on

that one).

On the other hand, during the summer I really enjoy getting

out into the shop and work with my hands. This is because

I have too much sitting around time. After a bit, all the

reading and writing leaves me feeling lethargic and empty.

I would imagine this means I will be writing quite a bit

for the foreseeable future [2]. I want to get a gift pump

drill (for fire starting) by Christmas because I am, after

all a great cheap skate. But after that, I might not do

much Making (tm) until the summer.

[1] Credit to Paul Graham for introducing me to the idea of

worrying about the problem of being fooled by fake -- fake

investment, fake work, etc. His essay is years older than

"fake news," so it should not be discounted for that reason.

=>http://www.paulgraham.com/selfindulgence.html (Paul Graham, web)

I have seen far too many good people waste their lives with

fake work.

[2] There is the added benefit of feeling like I am

contributing to the worthy project of creating a real

alternative to the business-as-usual internet.

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I'd love to hear from people. My email is the handle minus

"net" (so, a work by Voltaire that starts with "c"), at

sdf.org.

While we're adding boiler plate: this work is in the public

domain. Do what you want with it.