A beginner’s woodcarving journey – Part 1

Whittling, Woodcarving

The squid from the Nintendo game Splatoon, my first carving

I chose balsa instead of basswood because I didn’t want to struggle with my first carving. I figured it would be hard enough to try to carve a three dimensional figure, I didn’t want to struggle with cutting into the wood. I know you may be thinking basswood is a relatively soft wood, but it’s still hard to a beginner carver.

Before starting to carve the squid I looked up videos on the basic cuts and how to make them. Here is the video of the four Basic Cuts to master. I also had a model to work from, this helped a lot and I would recommend it. I could twist and turn the model and see it from all different directions. I’m not sure I can remember a lesson I learned from this carving, but I was blown away when I cut entirely through the wood. It was the spot between the legs, when it went completely through the wood, blew my mind. In the end, I wouldn’t recommend balsa wood for carving, but it did help me to get a feel for the carving process without strugging with the wood.

Below is a photo from when I first cut entirely through the wood

Holey S*#! did you know what the DOE does?

Politics

When Trump got elected I panicked. I stayed up late that night and couldn’t stop my heart from racing when I found out he had been elected. I had always known he would be bad for the country. Just how bad I didn’t know until today. I read an article about the DOE. Department of Energy. The name alone is so mundane and snore inducing it could be mumbled at night to help me fall asleep.

The article explained what the DOE is, and what it does. Ignorance it bliss. Willful ignorance by the current administration will become crimes against humanity. I won’t get into what it does, but you should be scared not to know. You should also know this administration has vowed to cut funding for DOE.

The sad thing is that what DOE does, prevents and funds is infinitely interesting. People argue that free markets can handle and solved the worlds problems, and after reading this article. This is clearly not the case.

The DOE suffers from an image problem. I certainly didn’t know what it does. The name alone makes it sound like it’s not needed. Rick Perry didn’t know a single thing about it, but proclaimed it needed to be eliminated. I proclaim it should be renamed to help with this issue. The new name should be, The department of making sure nukes don’t fall into the wrong hands and fuck up everything. The department of making sure the energy grid that charges your iPhone, heats your house and keeps your refrigerator running doesn’t get sabotaged. The department of making sure the water you drink doesn’t make you glow in the dark (because of radiation). The department of managing all of the highly HIGLY toxic stuff that was left over from an age when we created nuclear weapons, doesn’t end up in your fish, or the dirt your kids eat (or blow up and poison cities). The department of making fucking sure that other countries have a really hard time getting their hands on a nuclear weapon, or the radioactive stuff to make one. The department of investing in innovative technologies that (the free market is terrified of) that makes life better and safer for all Americans.

Okay, I just broke half a dozen online acronym generators. This is your new name DOE, TNTPTMTHIGLYTTA. I like how it just kinda rolls off the tongue.

What makes me so angry is that the shortsighted children running this country are doing what children do. Running around and only concerned with what benefits them. They are children because to be an adult you have to start taking responsibility. This administration has not even taken the time to understand what the DOE is or does, and how it has benefited and protected our country.

This is gross incompetence. Historic level willful incompetence. Hard working, intelligent people like my wife put in the time, effort and care to make places like the DOE so successful. These people are adults, they know and understand the risks, the facts, and if they didn’t they were smart enough to ask questions.  I say were because we are loosing the most talented at the DOE. (My wife doesn’t work for the DOE, she’s and adult, and I just love her work ethic)

In short what I’m trying to say is, read this Vanity Fair article. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-lewis