My Own Private Project Panama

I’m continuing to buy issues of Comics Buyer’s Guide lethargically whenever a really cheap lot shows up on ebay. (It’s just a strange category of magazine — it really has no discernible value, so it’s not worth the work (for sellers) of putting them up for sale. So you almost only see people who are er somewhat misguided putting up some lots for $$$, and then the listings stay up for years because nobody buys them.)

Anyway, I got a nice cheap lot of newer issues (i.e., post-2000 when they shrank the format) today, so I thought I’d try a new methodology: Just cut the spines off with my spiffy new paper cutter thing and use my spiffy new cut-sheet feeder (both sitting on my spiffy new workbench) and see whether that works.

I wasn’t sure whether this would work (because the paper is so thin and some of these issues are two hundred pages long), but the Brother seems to handle them very well. Of course it helps that the paper cutter does such a good job, too…

Before you go “BUT *GASP* HOW HORRIBLE”, I would have put the magazines into the recycling anyway after scanning, so tant pis. But I have to admit that snipping the first few felt very, very odd. *gulp*

When I scan manually on my A3 scanner, I do two pages at once. This scanner uses about ten seconds a page, so I’m able to scan things faster manually… but I think I was getting RSI at the end there of the previous batch.

And, of course, I don’t have to sit there looking at it while scanning, so it takes a whole lot less time anyway.

Anyway — you can send me magazines to scan if you want. After scanning, I’m uploading to The Internet Archive and kwakk.info. Which I guess Anthropic aren’t doing after they scan books. So there! I’m better!

You’ve Got Mail

I read with interest about the new EU packaging directive the other week — among other things, there’s stuff in there about using as little packaging as possible. That is, the box you ship stuff in shouldn’t be bigger than necessary, which I think most of us will like — I think we’ve all (at some point or another) received a 60x60x20cm box containing a 0.5×0.5x4cm USB stick, right?

Anyway, today I was rudely awoken by a UPS guy who gave me the box above. It’s about the same height as I am.

Guess what it contains.

Yes, exactly — a few yards of fabric.

But I mean — I do appreciate that there are no folds or anything, so I’m probably whining unwarrantedly. I read a German article about the directive (can’t find it now) about how the directive was going to ruin all smaller businesses who didn’t have the requisite machines to pack things minimally…

OK, I don’t have a point here. Sorry!

Amigo Workbench 1.0

I’ve always had a dream of having a proper workbench — a place where all the tools are in a handy drawer right next to me, and the bench being totally solid and not wobbly at all, and not having to be careful about the surfaces, and being able to just have a place to let half-finished projects just sit there and not having to be tidied away.

It’s a beautiful dream.

But I’d never thought I had room for something like this. Until I realised that I don’t really use my home office any more — I do all my computing on a laptop now. Which meant that I could put a workbench into the home office half of the guest room! No more crawling around on the floor when I’m woodworking and stuff! Whoho!

Reader, it was no whoho.

After deciding to do this, it took me a year and a half to get the bench.

First of all, almost all the companies that sell professional benches — the ones that are impractically big and heavy and solid — only sell to companies, because there is no market for this sort of thing. Second of all, I live on the upper floors of a building with no elevator, so even when I found a company that would sell to me, they said it was impossible to get somebody to carry it up the stairs.

Finally I found a company that would 1) sell one to me and 2) organise a moving company to take the bench from their manufacturing unit to my apartment, and then install it here.

Then, of course, that company lost the bench plate.

After three weeks of prodding them, they found it again, and now I have a workbench! It’s so solid! It’s so heavy! I can’t move it a millimetre even though I probably should move it lots of millimetres to the right! Whatever! I NOW HAVE A WORKBENCH

Behold! Organisation! Deeep drawers!

No longer are all the tools spread over four different cupboards!

But… it does look slightly more industrial than I’d like? Seen from this angle. So I wondered whether I could cover it with something…

How to vinyl wrap a cabinet door - step by step tutorial!

Hm…

And I’ve got this nice painting by Gary Panter…

Tada! I scanned the li’l painting and got a vinyl wrap company to print it. Is that against the law or something?

Well, that’s better. But, hm… aren’t the colours kinda more tealish than they were in the painting?

The colours are definitely not the same — Panter’s cats are green, while the vinyl wraps are teal. Or something. Is that my fault? It rather looks like they forgot to print one channel or something.

Yup, the scan is definitely green.

Oh, well.

I used Myposter… so I guess I can’t recommend them? But except for the bad colours, the printing seems nice, and the turnover time was one day or something.

Anyway.

September Music

Music I’ve bought in September.

I almost didn’t buy anything this month (after the bumper crop last month).

Let’s see…

Team Dresch - Growing Underground (Official Video)

The biggest news is, of course, that Team Dresch have a new album out! Almost 30 years after the previous one! And it’s good!

Charli xcx - No One Lasts Forever | Charli xcx at the BBC

And I finally got around to buying the new Charli XCX album. And… I love it? Yes. It’s both very funny and very touching at the same time. And it’s got a great flow — it just reminds me so much of the feeling (more than the music) of post punk albums from like 1982. And it’s so short that you just have to play it again after listening to it.

Chat Pile - PEN I S MALL (Official Music Video)

The new Chat Pile album is good, and it sounds very much like Chat Pile. But after a few listens, I don’t think it has a clear stand-out like Why, so I’m a bit disappointed.

Dean Blunt, Joanne Robertson - 6

And people were tweeting about Cross Bones Style (the Cat Power track from the 80s) saying that it sounds so much like Dean Blunt (twenty years later), and then somebody pointed specifically to this album, which I’d totally missed. Because it was only released as a zip file on Soundclound or something.

Sempra - Wicked N Ruff (UYA011)

Oh, and there’s another nice EP from Up Ya Archives. Drum’n’bass 4 Ever.

What would you guess the name of this fabric sample is?

Yes, exactly — it’s “Green Birds”!

Ordering this fabric sample has really helped me with my decision as to whether to buy this fabric to use as curtains here, Svenskt tenn. Thanks! A lot!

(This is what the fabric looks like if you’re not only interested in the birds’ legs. Perhaps they assumed that I was a bird leg man.)

I’m also impressed with the “protect textiles from direct sunlight” warning here… super reassuring when we’re talking about a textile meant to be used as curtains.

Besides that, no notes.