Time machine not in the traditional sense, but in my control of it. I feel I have none. Monday to Thursday, 4:30 am to 5:15pm is spent dealing with a job I am not necessarily happy with.

4:30 am-ish.. get up. brush teeth. get dressed. eat. make lunch.

5:00 am drive to work

6:00 am begin work.

9:30 am 15 minute break that took 5 hours to get to.

Noon eat lunch

2:30 pm 15 minute break that took 5 hours to get to.

4:30 pm Start drive home

5:15 pm-ish Arrive home. Eat. Neglect dog. Neglect family. Check email for responses to sent resumes. Check Craigslist for new options. Try to remember name. Try to connect with family. Try to connect with dog. Shower.

8:00 pm Hear bed calling and hopefully will make it there soon.

Rinse and repeat.

Even looking at other options, be it working for another person/company, how soon before the bitterness sets in? I have been thinking about starting a business, but as I think about it I now it would be more time to get it all up and going.

I have figured out I am a set-up guy. Get a project up and going to run it over to be used by some one else. Sure the business could follow that modicum, after say the first six months, if not a year.

The Peter Gibbons Factor

I have also figured out that if I am not mentally on-board with a project I find it hard to care… there I said it. I want to care, and maybe it has been my past projects and environments. I know I did care for awhile at the beginning. This line may get deleted as my job search continues and concern that potential employers may see this.

I know that reading about ROWE (Results Oriented Work Environment) didn’t really help the psyche last year. Hell it ain’t helping now.

Inspire me. Inspire me and I am your greatest champion. Your greatest work horse. Your greatest salesman.

The reason I don’t win the Lottery is because I don’t play, and I would use the money in a truly useful manner. I would work on projects of my liking.  I would salary my friends to complete projects they wanted. I would not shy away from work, just shy away from crappy work I don’t feel invested in. Oh and while I know I wouldn’t always be able to control my schedule, I know the dog and family would be happier.

Simplicity

What is it? It can be different things at different times.

Right now I want it to be a job I love.  I do like timberframing. There a few things I don’t like and they are beyond my power to change. I need to adapt where I am, what I am doing and how I am doing it. This has meant a job search, what I was doing this time last year. With doing this job search there is always a little soul search in the process. What I want, what is important, what the ideal job would be. I want to care deeply about my work. I want to have fun with it. I want there to be an exchange of ideas. I want it to be stimulating to be there. I know I have had the Steve Martin moment where I realized “I get paid for doing this”, but it has not lasted.

I’m not sure what is next.

The complete project

It is done. The course and the building. Well of course there are things to done on the building, but the super-structure with the balcony are complete. That is what I wanted to see. Anything above and beyond that would have been gravy.
47 floor joists
24 rafters
4 sills
2 summer beams
14 posts
4 wall plates
4 top plates
2 ridge beams
29 braces
6 deck beams
===============
136 timbers
272 points of joinery
13 weeks
10 yahoos
and 1 Swiss guy

some yahoos

Almost there. Some rafters and then the hanging deck and stairs and the structure is complete. And what a beautiful day to work today, even though it was minus 15 C this morning. double it and add 32.

92 percent

We also had our graduation ceremony today. I guess the end is near. back to responsibility.

For only the second time in the 90 days I’ve been here it snowed.
Today raising took on a more rushed, attitude. Good or bad, a good chunk of the frame is raised now.

Raising Day 2

Pre-lunch snowfall

It’s going to be sometime before this old dog is comfortable walking upright on a snow covered frame…

Today we finished placing the floor joists and were able to get the first wall up.

First wall

It has begun.

1st floor

This is the beginning of the first floor. We have more floor joists to put in but the hard ones are done.
We begin raising the building in earnest on Monday. Hopefully I will have more pics available then.

In the meantime I have been working on animating the pics from the semester.
Here is a trailer like clip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monahan/3069397558/

In the time that has passed since my last post, we have gotten 98% of the timbers cut for our project. The roof rafters remain as the biggest job yet to do. I expect us to burn the bottom of the sills, literally burn them, to prevent rot, and at that time we will assemble the sills on the concrete pads we have for a foundation.

Just under 2 weeks to go.

And I will leave you with this: What to do next after reading this article?

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/richricher/124339

Yeah I know, I’ve been a slacker in regards to the updates. Sorry.

Spent 3 days learning a second 3D program called Deitrich’s. Just as expensive, but more user friendly. More but not entirely friendly. It was enough so that I purchased the student version. With this purchase I have been working on our class project and am thinking about the deck for the house.

IN the shop we have been laying out all the timbers. Our first cuts have been making scarf joints.

Scarf Joint

Over the weekend I began to hand hew another log for practice. It goes slow and has been quite a learning process, but well worth it. Maybe I can get back on it this weekend.

Less than a month left. It will be nice to get home and see everybody. It will be nice to get back to a normal routine… or to set one up…..It’s been a busy unsettled year. Starting to prep the house for sale in March, moving, changing jobs and then coming to Cranbrook.

I have been doing graphic design related stuff for 12 plus years now and I think I understand what makes a good user experience. Cadwork, not to be confuesd with Cadworks, is terrible for user experience. Nothing about how one navigates space and uses tools is easy to use. Elwin, who has been workign with software for 25 years creating things for the Canadian Armed Forces feels the same way. I guess we both share the Ass Hole crown for this part of the course. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things that Cadwork does that are extremely powerful and useful, naming timbers, putting dimensions on drawings and a few others. The usability has got to improve. Oh and it is $12,900…. for one license, AND you have to pay $1200 every year to “renew” and get teh upgrades and fixes…. Not sold.

After much venting and frustration I did manage to get a structure built. Here it is:

Cadwork version of the Electricians Project

Monday we start 3 days using Deitrich’s Cad software for timberframing….. hopefully things work better….