Jack's Guide (the Renaissance Person's Guide to Survival in a Shaky Economy)

Take my advice......

To complete the title of today's post: "Take my advice- I'm certainly not using it."  That would be my advice about having a semblance of a routine, and sticking to it.  And today, having let myself sleep in, I missed attending my regular Saturday morning assemblage of like-minded guys.  That's faux-pas number one.  Number two is the fact that I have not posted here for several days, a shortcoming which I vowed to myself to not succumb to.  We do what we can.  I trust everyone (including myself) will get over it.  My reason for this delinquency: I have work!  And I'm talking paying work!  It appears I will be occupied for most, if not all, of the summer working on an airport wayfinding project, and, as often happens, the primary architects on the job have neglected this aspect of the project until the last minute.  This usually results in a mad flurry of activity on the part of me and my client, and brings to mind another aphorism:  "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."  Unfortunately, this rarely proves true. 

So forgive my absence, whilst I take the easy way out and fill up this space with a couple of creative design links, as is not an unusual (and expedient) thing for me to do.

For those aficionados of urban living, you may enjoy this Broadway (as in NYC) penthouse, by architect Joel Sanders:

I like design with a sense of humor.  Like this coat check chair.

Yes, those are coat hangers. 

Happy Boxer Shorts Day, Tillandsias

That's right- ditch those whitey tighties, dudes (and dudettes- this is a non-sexist blog) and break out the boxer shorts. There's nothing at all like the freedom of.... on second thought, I don't know that such a level of detail is really necessary here.  The only info I could uncover regarding Boxer Shorts Day was that it exists, presumably for the sole purpose of promoting and perpetuating sales of boxer shorts. Celebrate! Celebrate!  Dance to the muu-uu-sic!

Circumstance dictates that I keep today's blog post brief- I have multiple tasks to complete on this last day of my research trip to NC.  Today I am rounding up my cousin Rick (who remains the functional care-taker of the mineral springs for which Connelly Springs is named- see previous posts, please), and my aunt Helen (who still lives near the site of the old hotel). We are heading over to Hiddenite, the site of the competing family hotel, which predates the Mineral Springs Hotel as far as concerns my family history.  Apparently there was a falling out between my great-grandfather and his brother over the recreational benefits available to the visitors.  William Jeff Davis, my mom's dad's daddy, felt that patrons should be allowed to participate in un-Christian activities, such as the heinous practices of playing cards, dancing, and listening to music.  So the freres parted ways and great granddaddy went off to purchase his own hotel, down the tracks a ways, where unabashed sinning surely ensued.  I was delighted to find that my part of the family came down on the fun side of the fence.

I found the following link on the apparent latest hot thing in house plants.  I have kept various air plants and bromeliads before, but didn't really have a clue how to properly care for them, and they consequently perished in short order, turning into dried-up twigs, that I was convinced could be revived with copious amounts of misting.  Wrong. When they're dead, they are dead.  However, I am finding that judicious application of googling turns up generous quantities of resource info on how to properly care for them.  If you share my admiration for unusual house plants, check out this link to airplants.com, where they can be purchased by "snail mail".

Crushing cans, composting, gardening, urban oases

Happy Crush a Can Day!  Lord knows where that one came from.... My guess would be that some dirt-lovin' tree-huggin' liberal (for which I do qualify) on a save-the-planet kick (again, me) initiated this faux holiday a few years back.  Either that or Hallmark has gone off the deep end... 

I have a buddy who insists that "Gore-bal warming" (as he calls it) is completely manufactured, and that the current trend in climate change is simply part of a natural cycle.  As far as I can tell, not being a scientist or climatologist, and unable to collect my own evidence first-hand, he may be right.  I think it is entirely possible that our little planet may undergo such cycles of warming and cooling.  I also believe, as logic dictates, that there is only a limited amount of planet available to us- only a given quantity of natural resources (including atmosphere) to go around, and that we'd be better off at least considering the possibility that we may be using it up faster than it can replace itself-  unless, of course, a whole bunch of us get killed off by one of those natural cycles my friends professes to believe in..   And for that reason alone, I am able to justify adopting a green attitude and lifestyle.  (The attitude I got, the lifestyle I continue to develop.  I am still having to drive a big old gas-guzzling Jeep Grand Cherokee, having had to part with my other vehicle, a little Z3 Roadster (25-27 mpg), which I used for most of my driving.  But the insurance was too expensive, and it was a little hard to haul compost and musical equipment in it, so of the two, the Beamer had to go.)

So, now that we have embarked on a somewhat green theme, let me say a few words about composting.... When I purchased my building in downtown Atlanta, it was occupied by a "storefront urban evangelical church", and landscaping had NOT been an ecclesiastical priority with those folks.   The building was completely surrounded by a paved concrete pad, which, as it turned out, I was obliged to leave intact.  My immediate neighbor to the right  (notice the cinderblock wall in photo number 1 below) has a floor slab that is around 18 inches below the level of my parking slab, so any areas I took out adjacent to his building would certainly have leaked rainwater into his building.  Consequently, all of the planters you see in the photos are built up on the surface of my parking area.  In the process of renovating the building, I scraped all of the existing roofing off (dried tar and gravel) into a big pile in the corner of what became the big planted area you see to the right (again photo #1).  That stuff became the bottom layer in all the planters-  it drains quite well.  To build up the planters I initially purchased some planting medium and bagged compost, although I feel like a fool paying good money for dirt.  Thus I became a serious composter, and have for twelve years now relied on my compost bin to produce high-quality dirt, while cutting down on the amount of stuff I contribute to the local landfills.  I keep a small compost bin in my kitchen, into which I deposit extraneous vegetative matter and tons of coffee grounds (nasty, for sure, but worms love 'em), to be transferred when full to the big green outdoor compost bin I got at Home Depot for under a hundred bucks.  I also keep a bale of wheat straw next to the bin, adding a handful every time I empty the kitchen leavings.  It provides me with abundant quantities of rich wormy brown stuff that I am not required to purchase or haul anywhere (except across the compound).  You can build your own bin, too, out of chicken wire and scrap lumber or busted-up furniture, if you're desperate and don't have a neighbor's fence you can tear down.  I'd post another website about composting, but I'm sure you can find your own.  If you still feel helpless, I have previously posted a couple of sites under Construction/Remodeling in the right-hand sidebar, which should serve to enlighten you.

Below are a few photos of the lush little compound I have been able to fashion where there was previously not a stick of green to be seen.  Please excuse the clutter in the pix- I have been so focused on this blog that I'm afraid I have been neglecting the garden.  I do hope you appreciate the sacrifice.

 

 

 
 

Routine vs. Rut, Loft Living

As much talking as I do about productivity and ways to be creative, and as much advice as I give about it, one would think I'd know how to live by my own counsel.  So often it turns out like the old one-liner, "Take my advice, I'm not using it."  Henny Youngman, maybe? (A funny man from long age, for you youngsters...)  One of the things I encourage people to do is to spend more time connecting with each other, but I have scarcely a half dozen lunch engagements to report, over the past year or so.   Two have been in the past week, and both were fruitful (not to mention immensely enjoyable) in multiple ways, not the least of which being fodder for this blog.  Lunch, anyone?

My friend Joe came over to my place for lunch yesterday (both of us being too cheap to spring for a sandwich in a restaurant).  He brought home-made salmon salad and I provided bread, beverages and my own freshly made chicken soup.  I think I can say we had better fare than Subway would have afforded.  Joe is a former colleague and fellow environmental graphic designer/wayfinding consultant who is, like me, currently struggling to find work.  He has resorted to re-training himself as a network engineer, for which I salute his wisdom and initiative.  We swapped lies and waxed philosophical over our soup and sandwiches, and attempted to poke fun at our respective situations.  One thing that Joe said in the course of our conversation was this: "I always believed that the root word for routine must be rut."  (Not what animals do when in heat, but rather rut as in"finding oneself in a rut".)

I have posted previously about the value of some kind of structure in my life (see posting from 8/28/2010), but I understood immediately where Joe was coming from.  If I let a routine become a mundane standard for continued behavior, I  am turning what has the potential to be a stable foundation for creativity and productivity,  into a rut- an excuse to continue with the status quo regardless of the benefits of doing so, or the lack thereof.  Good point, Joe.  Thanks, and best of luck with the network thing.

We also got on the topic of blogging, and specifically about this new endeavor of mine.  At this point I seem to be steering a lot of my conversations in that direction, and I do hope that my friends and associates will excercise some patience with me in that respect.   I  recognize that my current direction with this blog is rather broad in scope, but from what I read (mostly on blogs about blogging), this is okay for the newly initiated blogger.  Many successful bloggers speak of spending a while getting accustomed the the venue, so to speak, before focusing, in more topical blogs, on specific subjects.  So for now, at least, I vow to be consistent in my postings to this blog; espousing loudly on subjects I know a bit about, but about which I may not be considered "expert".  I may add categories from time to time, about which I may eventually decide to dedicate a topical blog.  One of the categories, being added today, as a matter of fact, is "Recycling the Urban Environment", suggested by the aforementioned Joe.  The building in which I live and work out of was a small engine repair facility located between Five Points in downtown Atlanta and Inman Park (Atlanta's first "suburb", today a part of the intown fabric), on Edgewood Avenue, a former light industrial strip which included the trolley line many of the Inman Park commuters used.  I intend on writing more about the process of renovating the building to its current use, and to devote future posts to my and others' experiences in undertaking similar projects.  Here's a couple photos of my place:

 

And here's a link to a gardening site- an article about winter squash- another wonderfood:

http://gardening.about.com/b/2010/09/24/a-winter-squash-for-everyone.htm

Equinox, etc. Yard Art

At last!  You certainly can't tell it by the climate here in Hotlanta, but today signals the official start of Fall- my favorite time of year, when frost falls, trees get gaudy, and footballs are flung.  From this point on, until the Spring equivalent thereof, the nights are longer than the days and the earth casts off that heavy and sodden atmospheric blanket.  Wahooo!  And as if that weren't enough to celebrate, some folks also commemorate this date as Neptune Day, too.  I'm not really clear whether this purported holiday has to do with the Roman god of the sea (and of earthquakes, by the way), the Planet, or the beach in Florida.  And there's some controversy about the actual date, so, in keeping with my policy of avoiding conflict, I am hereby defering further discussion of the subject.  Suffice to say, "Happy Autumnal Equinox!"

Speaking of Fall, and within the context of being creative in the garden,  it is about this time each year when things start to dry up and otherwise look a bit ragged in my little slice of paradise.  Some of it is due to the inevitable periods of drought that lately plague us, and some is just the nauture of the perennials that are more showy in the Spring.  I have for some time thought to supplement the greenery in my garden areas with objets de yard art, if you will- stuff I can enjoy when the foliage is on the wane.   My own collection is quite eclectic, and pretty modest, at that, but I have fun searching out interesting stuff to add to it.  The website to which I've posted the link below has a wealth of interesting and unique ideas.  It does look, to my unpracticed eye, to be somewhat pricey, but I sometimes like to study sites like this for ideas I might myself undertake.  I particularly like the stacked stone pieces (one shown below).

http://www.squidoo.com/garden-artists

Happy World Gratitude Day/Gardening/Landscaping

Do check these (and more) out on the Dan Rodriguez/Mary Frances Ellison site posted in the sidebar:

 

I was  so distressed to discover that I had overlooked Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th) that I became determined to apply myself diligently to the  research of obscure and admittedly weird holidays, so as not to miss another important commemorative day.  (More evidence, I know, that I may have too much time on my hands....)  We'll address Talk Like a Pirate Day when it comes around next September, but for now I'd like to wish everyone a very happy World Gratitude Day.  (You can expect me to be celebrating many more unheard-of and perhaps irreverent holidays in postings to come, especially if I find myself otherwise dispossesed of anything to write about, but today's celebration, I think, deserves a bit of gravity- without going overboard, of course.)  

 I have no idea when it started or who got the ball rolling on World Gratitude Day, and I'm sure there will be many to exclaim that the idea was purloined from the good ole USA's Thanksgiving Day.  I don't know, and it's not my intent to come up with all those gritty details.  Consider it food for thought, and google it yourself if you're that interested.  My point is, I don't think we can overdo that whole gratitude thing- speaking strictly for myself, I need to be constantly aware of the stuff I do have, rather than obsessing over what I wish I had.  I can get myself well-wrapped around the axle going after new stuff, forgetting to celebrate the good I already have in my life.  This site is purported (by me, of course) to be about creativity and productivity, and I always find that my ability to produce is enhanced whenever I take time to count my blessings.  And as for the creative part?  There are more than enough days when, dragging myself out of my own pity-party, I must invoke every ounce of my creative abilities to come up with reasons to be grateful.  But I find it's worth the effort.

I continue to try and manufacture productive assignments for myself, relying less on my professional training and more on skills developed because I enjoy doing stuff.  I have always been able to entertain myself with gardening and landscaping projects, and have an appreciation for the demanding tasks sometimes associated with those chores.   It's occured to me that perhaps there's a way to solicit work from other folks who may need help, and consequently, I am using my so-called internet skills to contact garden clubs in the area, in hopes of being able to post my resume as an experienced garden handy-person.   I'm not giving out hints beyond that one, as you and I may be in competition for the same work.  But take that idea and run with it if you so choose, dudes and dudettes.  

FYI, Planet Green.com, which is part of the Discovery Channel Network, has a good resource link- see the sidebar.
 

What this is all about- I think.......

This blog's not by or about a guy named Jack- my name is Steve (Ellison, if you're asking), and I have decided to go by the display name of Stevie B, a long-time moniker of mine, which was hung on me by a bald-headed chicken-plucking guitarist I used to play music with.  (If you're out there, Mike, you know who you are).  The label was intended to be shorthand for Stevie Bottoms, assigned to me by virtue of my responsibility in the band of holding down the bottom register- (read as playing the bass guitar).   More about that later.

I decided to start this blog after having experienced eight months of self-unemployment- (not literally, but damn close to it), and on realizing that the more I spread myself around, the better are my chances of connecting with viable and productive (i.e., paying) work.  Making no pretenses to the contrary, I do not claim to be anything remotely like blog-savvy;  I'm not sure I've ever perused one- but having read Blogging For Dummies, I nevertheless am embarking on this strange new endeavor.  So if I seem totally ignorant of how to proceed, it is likely because I am.

Having made that disclaimer, let me digress briefly regarding the general direction of this effort.  The name Jack was chosen in honor of the legendary one (he of all trades and master of none), the original Renaissance Man.  I was once described as one of these by a to-be supervisor in an architectural firm with which I was endeavoring to become employed, and I thought that was pretty cool.  (I came to find out later that most architects not only feel themselves to be Jacks of all (or at least, multitudes of) trades, but masters of many, as well, so the description bestowed upon me by the interviewer was intended merely to indicate that I might be suitably ego-absorbed for the job.) - Okay, I think I have now digressed from my digression, so back now to the title......

Over the years, I have come to pride myself on having firmly embedded my fingers in a host of pies-  it's been entertaining, if not optimally financially rewarding.  As I find myself commiserating with lots of folks who are wondering how to make ends meet in such a challenging economic environment, I feel that one key to survival, perhaps the most critical one for someone harboring more than a few areas of potentially productive activity, is to endeavor to put ALL those diverse talents to work.  The second critical key, I believe, is to remain flexible, and open to new ideas, however alien they may be.

And so, when you come back, you can expect to find (eventually, that is- this may take some time) a potpourri of resources, ideas, suggestions, commentary, experience, strength and hope regarding (for the most part) various creative ways of making a living.  I am hopeful that some sympathetic few of you will take pity on me as a newbie to this venue and give me some guidance thereto.  In return, I promise to do my best to turn this into a dialog that will benefit as many of us know-it-all, do-it-alls, as possible.

Stevie B