Obligatory start of year post

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Carl Joseph

I’m not one for new year’s resolutions, but not wanting to feel left out, here are my current goals for the time ahead. Yes, alright, well these are “goals” as such and they don’t fit that S.M.A.R.T. method crap, but they are things which are in my head at the moment, so take them as they come …

New Year Resolutions

Language learning

I am aiming to reach a conversational level of proficiency with both Czech and Italian.

Over the years of listening to Italian (and speaking small amounts of it) I have acquired that intrinsic feel for the grammar and structure. Improving my Italian will be a matter of “becoming comfortable” with it and learning more vocabulary, rather than learning any formal rules and the like. The most difficult part for me will be to better understand and separate the various dialectical differences spoken amongst my older family members.

My learning of the Czech language will take a slightly different course. I still need to become more comfortable with the sound and rhythm of the language. Much more vocabulary and significantly more real life conversational practice is required. I also intend to watch more Czech films this year which should be fun.

Woodworking

James Krenov at work

I have already done a small number of commissions but I don’t want to take on too many of them. There are just so many other styles and things I would like to explore at the same time. I do intend to make a few pieces of “fine furniture” and sell them. Either smaller things like boxes, picture frames and lamps, or larger things like hall tables and cabinets.

There are three things I do want to build this year:

Brain food

A couple of months ago, I finally found a Masters Degree I was keen to undertake. My interests are a little esoteric so finding a degree which is broad enough to hold my interest has been a challenge. The Masters in Organisational Dynamics seems to cover a number of aspects I am interested in as well as provide enough flexibility to keep it interesting for me. Cognition, psychology, identity of self, learning theory and meditation are all part of it.

Unfortunately they have cancelled the degree for 2011 and will be recommencing it in 2012 under a new banner.

The National Institute of Organisation Dynamics Australia (NIODA) is a spin off of the Organisational Dynamics department at RMIT. They kick off the new degree in 2012 so I need to find something to study and keep my brain going this year. I’ve been toying with the idea of a Psychology (diploma or certificate) so I will see where that takes me in the meantime.

Citizenship

I was born an Australian citizen and have Italian heritage. One day I would like to move to Europe and even live in Italy for a while. To do this easily, I will need to get my Italian citizenship.

Italian passport Now, for those of you against the whole “dual-citizenship” caper, let me tell you these two things:

I believe every naturally born Australian should partake in an Australian Oath of Citizenship, or at least have an option to affirm their allegiance when they turn 18.
I am an Italian citizen and have always been one since I took that first breath after birth.

Italy is one of the few nations who bestow citizenship jure sanguinis (right of blood). So as long as one of my parents was still an Italian citizen (i.e. didn’t renounce their citizenship) when I was born, then I am automatically an Italian citizen. It doesn’t matter than I was born in Australia.

So, I just have to fill in the requisite paperwork and then apply for my EU passport. Easy!

Other stuff

All the other stuff which is currently occupying my thoughts and will hopefully lead somewhere soon …

Get bike riding again
Commence and publish online a family history (i.e. of my own family and ancestry)
Build a deck, pergola, garden beds and tidy up the backyard overall
Meditate more and meditate regularly

Book cabinet part II: Door frames

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Carl Joseph

This is part of 2 in the series Book cabinet

With this being the first door frames I had ever made, I did a fair amount of research and looking at photographs before starting. I decided that this piece will have two narrow glass doors. The intention here is to make the cabinet appear taller and narrower than it really is. Cutting up some pieces of plywood helped me to decide the proportions of the frame. I’m quite glad I did this as it really helped to give me a sense of the piece before cutting up precious real wood.

Using plywood to test various proportions for the door frame.

The top rail of the door frame will feature a slight curve (to match the side panels). I built a template from plywood and then used this to route the curve onto the mahogany. Once I was happy with it, I cut the curve into two (one for each door) by cutting away the centre portion. This “missing piece” will be replaced by the vertical parts of the door frame.

The top door rail ready to be routed against a plywood template I made earlier.

I had intended to hand cut the mortise and tenons for the door frame. Before I realised however, I had already cut the parts to size and didn’t leave any additional wood for the tenons. So I had to resort to my Festool Domino to make the joints. I was a little disappointed by this but the end result should be almost the same.

The frame needed a little planing to ensure it fit snuggly within the carcass. At this stage I’m not too fussed about getting a perfect fit as I haven’t purchased hinges or glued up the carcass yet.

I intentionally made the doors a little wider so that I could plane them down to fit perfectly.

After some initial planing, it was time to stand back and look at how things are evolving so far.

Book cabinet part I: Building the carcass

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Carl Joseph

This is part of 2 in the series Book cabinet

I recently started building a small cabinet to hold a number of recipe books we have. The cabinet will hang on the wall next to the kitchen bench. I started by sketching out some basic designs. However, as is normal for me, I prefer to figure things out as I go along so things started taking shape as I built it.

I began with a large piece of Eastern Mahogany which I had lying around in the workshop waiting for the right project to come along. The face was already quite flat so I started by planing the edge with one of my new HNT Gordon planes.

Once I had a nice square edge to reference from, I cut this piece up to make the sides, top, bottom and shelf. With the sides placed flat on my table, I used my router to cut a few grooves to hold the top/bottom and shelf in place.

Since this piece will have two doors, the middle shelf needs to sit back from the front edge. Therefore I had to make sure the groove didn’t go all the way to the front as that would leave a nice hole next to each door frame.

A little tweaking of the joints and we have a simple carcass of a cabinet.

The carcass as it currently is feels quite “boxy”. Before finishing up for the day, I put a curve on the top of the two sides. To draw the curve I held a pencil at the end of a long piece of string. I pinned the other end of the string down to the bench and then used it as a large compass. After making a template for the curve I used my router and a template bit to cut the sides. The result is quite nice. I was actually quite surprised the impact such a small detail has had on the piece already.

Shop-vac … the musical

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Carl Joseph

Well, not quite a musical but it is a song with a very awesome video now created for it. The video uses a technique called Kinetic Typography and I must say, it’s pretty darned awesome.

If you get the chance, check out some of Jonathan Coulton‘s other music. It’s actually pretty good and cleverly humorous.

please install flash

Some of the lyrics for you below. This is pretty true of my life right now and probably for most woodworkers out there.

If you need me
I’ll be downstairs
With the shop vac
You can call but I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on

But you’ll be OK
Cause you’ll be upstairs
With the TV
You can cry and I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on

Hudson dining table project – completed

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Carl Joseph

This is part 2 of 3 in the series Hudson dining table

It’s been a while since I wrote about this dining table commission. That’s because I’ve been too busy building it to write, but now it is finally finished. Here’s the process I went through …

Putting together the top

First step was to cut all the table top pieces to size and put an angled taper on them. That way, when they came together they would form the overall triangle shape. I had one of these taper jigs which has been great for smaller work. So based on that model I made myself a very long one for this job.
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The spectacle behind the spectacle …

Posted on August 1, 2010 by Carl Joseph

A few times now I have witnessed quite a humorous sight. The mechanics of the Pražský Orloj (Astronomical Clock) are to be admired especially for the period in which it was made. The clock mechanism itself is amazingly complex and quite beautiful. There is even an iphone app for that which gives you a good feel for what the clock actually communicates (aside from the time of day!)

The little dance the figurines do every hour however is something else entirely …

The most spectacular thing about witnessing this hourly display is by far the crowd. In the evenings as people are out for dinner (or beginning night tours), crowds of literally hundreds of people all look up through their cameras at the clock.

Crowd watching the Orloj

The bells ding, dads grab their children and rush them into prime viewing position, the little figurines do their little figurine dance and the golden chicken pokes its head out of a little doorway.

Then out of the sound of ringing bells comes … (now this is the part I like most) … a spontaneous cheer and round of applause from the crowd. Hoorah! The golden chicken lives another hour! Hoorah!

The golden chicken content with its reception retires into its room, the little doorway closes and the place is deserted once again.

It’s the spectacle of the crowd which keeps drawing me back to this place and not the hourly jiggling of ancient mechanical puppets. If you’re interested, there is an online version of the clock which gives you a sense of all the parts – except of course for those cute figurines and the captivating crowd. For that, you really need to visit Praha in person.

My little language test – Do gestures make a difference?

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Carl Joseph

I always knew that body language made up a huge part of communication. So today I tried a little experiment to see how important it is when speaking in a language you only know a little about.

At my hotel in Boskovice, I had a great, but short, conversation with the receptionist. It was partly in Czech and partly in English but I forced myself to use as much Czech as possible. We spoke about music and I learnt that she was studying multi-media at university and had a 5 year old daughter named Ann. On saying goodbye (once my lift arrived) Lucie lamented that the conversation was too short.

Church in Boskovice

So, here began my experiment. This morning I decided to call the hotel on the phone with the pretence that I was thinking of visiting again in a week. I figured since I knew we could have a conversation in person, having one over the phone would remove the visual aspects and truly test my language skills.

This phone conversation was close to a disaster. It was full of “sorrys” and much nervous laughter from both sides. At one point I was speaking broken English, as if that would help. To at least rescue the situation and finish things up nicely I resorted to using Google translator.

One nights sleep and a successful conversation turns into mud.

The inability to use facial expressions and hand gestures really did make things very difficult. Whilst not a true scientific experiment, I realise now first hand that whilst learning more vocabulary might be good, it isn’t the complete picture. You can fill many gaps in your limited language knowledge by being confident, animated and by using hand gestures.

Luckily for me I’m Italian so this comes naturally!

Driving on pavements in the Czechlands

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Carl Joseph

When in the taxi who drove me between hotels this morning, it felt like he was driving on pavements. This is probably because of the cobbled bluestone streets. Although, when my cab driver proceeded to drive up what was clearly a small set of stairs … well, let’s just say I got to my second hotel safely (and quickly!)

I’ve moved on from Nové Město (New Town) to Staré Město (Old Town). It’s much nicer than the Wenceslas Square area if only because of the small back alley roadways which tends to hide the huge volume of tourists around. Having to wait until 2pm to check into my hotel forced me to get out and walk about town.

Karlův Most in the background

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The Czechlands and female police officers

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Carl Joseph

I’m finally arrived in the Czech Republic and am spending some time in tourist overloaded Prague to begin with. So far I’m spending my time around Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square) and Nové Město (New Town). So … here are a few brief observations so far…

A change of style in Prague over the last decade or so. Today I did a tour of the Prague Castle which is quite an amazing place. The restoration works the are doing are truly extraordinary and very sympathetic to the original build. During communist reign the old historic buildings were all left to crumble in the elements. The “fashion” was for large bland apartment buildings and communal living. Since the end of communism the old buildings have picked up favour again and they are insanely expensive. Like, really, really, truly, insanely expensive.

View from Prague Castle

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What does English sound like to foreigners?

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Carl Joseph

If someone doesn’t understand you, you just speak slower and louder and they’ll get it right? Well unfortunately (or fortunately), not everyone understands English.

So what does English sound like to non-English speakers? It’s something I’ve wondered about in the past. Now there’s a fun and entertaining way to experience what it’s like to hear English and not understand a single word.

In 1972, an Italian guy, Adriano Celentano, composed and performed “Prisencolinensinainciusol.” This song uses typical English phonemes which makes it sound like English but is in-fact complete gibberish. The dancing is also pretty awesome.

Some words of warning, don’t listen to it too much or you may become addicted to it, like me!

please install flash

via BoingBoing – Gibberish rock song written by Italian composer to sound like English
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