A Few Favorite Quotes

"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

     -Theodore Roosevelt

"It is a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions of people have ceased to use their hands as hands. Nature has bestowed upon us this great gift which is our hands. If the craze for machinery methods continues, it is highly likely that a time will come when we shall be so incapacitated and weak that we shall begin to curse ourselves for having forgotten the use of the living machines given to us by God."
     -Mahathma Ghandi


"Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
     -Bruce Lee


"Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will none the less get something that looks remarkably like it."
"The three great things are: GOOD HEALTH; WORK; and a PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. I may add, nay, must add, a fourth—SINCERITY. Without this, the other three are without avail; with it you may cleave to greatness and sit among the giants."
     -Jack London


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
     -Marianne Williamson 


"At one point in your life, you'll either have the thing you want or the reason why you don't."
     -Andy Roddick


"There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers on our progress except those we ourselves erect."
     -Ronald Reagan


"All our words from loose using have lost their edge."
     -Ernest Hemingway


"The fearless are merely fearless. People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave."
     -James A. LaFond-Lewis

At one point in your life, you'll have the thing you want or the reasons why you don't.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_roddick.html#2daVqTe7jFusbhBC.99

At one point in your life, you'll have the thing you want or the reasons why you don't.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_roddick.html#2daVqTe7jFusbhBC.99

At one point in your life, you'll have the thing you want or the reasons why you don't.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_roddick.html#2daVqTe7jFusbhBC.99

"I ask your forgiveness for my lack of faithfulness in asking your forgiveness."

Patience is a beautiful art.

To all the ladies...

I would like to speak to just the women out there for a moment:

Recently I have met a few incredibly nice young ladies (many of whom were from other parts of the world). In addition, I have had quite a few conversations with friends of mine and my sister which have inspired me to write a little advisory piece.

Now, I have never really effectively pursued a woman in what I would like to consider the proper fashion. However, I feel like I have something to offer in the way of advice to girls from a man's perspective when dealing with the realm of courtship.
Traditionally, it is the burden of the man in the relationship to be the initiator and put forth effort at the onset. I fully support and endorse this. However, I feel like this is often taken to a one-sided extreme.
Girls, as the ones being pursued, you are not absolved of responsibility. Guys must display courage by approaching you and presenting the prospect of beginning a dating relationship. You, in turn, must show courage and respect by being decisive, honest, and upfront in whether or not you wish to enter in to a romantic relationship. Remember that guys have feelings too, and are most likely nervous. Make it as easy as possible on them.
A man who is putting his heart on the line in order to win yours is just as easily led on as anyone. Make sure that you treat others with the respect that you would appreciate in return.
I've heard it said time and again that "all guys are just jerks". This simply is not true. There are a ton of great guys out there. Unfortunately, most are much less likely to be the type to approach you directly (which is something that this generation of men need to correct).
Here are some hints:
-Watch out for guys who only communicate through text messages or over facebook. Any worthwhile guy will respect you enough to try and talk to you face-to-face or have a good telephone conversation.
-Believe it or not, not every guy is Joe Cool around a girl that he has feelings for. If a guy is a smooth talker, there is usually a reason for that.
-If a guy is a scumbag, treat him as such. It will either: a)teach him that being a scumbag is wrong and an ineffective way to win people over, or b) cause him to be alone in his scumbaginess. Don't keep making concessions for guys who don't treat you with the respect that you deserve.
-A man being overly insensitive is not a good thing. However, sometimes a man being overly sensitive can be an even worse thing. Appreciate the differences between men and women. Let a man be a man.
-Expect more from men (and people in general). Expect a guy to treat you well. Don't be blown away when they open a door for you.  If you expect more out of others, they will usually find that they can live up to the standard, and, in turn, respect you and expect more out of you. Everyone wins.
-Don't read/watch Twilight. I don't know anything about it, but I do know that:
1) Vampires and werewolve are not real, and if they were it would be awful,
2) Girls' perceptions of actual love and realistic courtship are being ruined by these kinds of series, and
3) I've heard the books are poorly written.
-Don't overthink a situation or cause it to be more than it is. If you are curious about something or think it might become an issue, just ask. Most guys are actually incredibly straight forward if you just ask rather than trying to figure out what is going on behind the scenes. There usually is no behind the scenes, and open communication is always a great thing.

Hope this helps a bit.

I thought I would post some of the things that I've been making/working on recently:

My friend gave me a slab of rough cut oak, so I decided to make a corner table out of it.
Sanding and cleaning up the edges took a good chunk of time, but the wood was really pretty.










The legs attached are definitely a temporary situation, but making them detachable was the easiest means of transporting the table between moves.

My roommate and I found some scrap wood behind the industrial design building, so I made a shelf for his desk to give him some extra storage room. The shelves were red cedar scraps, so they smelled awesome.
Recently, I've combined the two to make a pretty handy little entertainment center.

My buddy, Shane, would take me out to work at his blacksmith shop last winter. This letter opener was one of the last things I got to make before he moved off to New Hampshire.

Used cold-rolled steel roundbar (1/4 inch, I believe).

Justin King - After the Harvest

"Being realistic is for people with boring jobs who can't fish."

And reconnect me to the beauty that I'm missin'

I recently discovered Grooveshark, and made a sharable playlist:
http://grooveshark.com/#/playlist/Bkmusic/57438162
^It's a lot of electronic stuff, but good for working on the computer.
I'll be making another playlist soon for driving or sitting on the back porch. Also, regular updates should be expected.

______________________________________________________________________________
Have you ever been hit by the reality of how beautiful existence is? Not any particular or isolated aspect, but the pure harmony of existence?

This happened to me this afternoon. I was driving back from Virginia with a friend of mine and something in our conversation caused me to close my eyes for a moment and allow myself to be struck by how incredible my life has been up until this point. I have had such unbelievable opportunity and experiences. I think that, far too often, people get so caught up in the task at hand or the necessities of their current pursuit that they remove any inessential distractions. Unfortunately, this often includes the details of life.
I realized that I was as guilty of this as anyone.
On my way home, I stopped off in Boone, NC to walk around the Appalachian State University campus. It was the first time that I had been able to do that since graduating. I took time to look at things that I had walked right by on a daily basis for four years. I made a point to keep my eyes and ears as open as they could be.
I was captivated by what I saw around me.
I had to stop to sit and watch the critters crawl around the flowers more than once. I tried to feel every gust when a breeze blew by and pick out the individual bird songs.
This all sounds very whimsical and un-masculine, I know. But if I could bottle that feeling and sell it, I guarantee you that I would be a very rich man.
Take the time to appreciate the purity of Creation once in a while. It can be quite humbling.

The reason that we had traveled to Virginia was to be in the wedding of a good friend of ours. The trip was much more than we expected. All us out-of-towners were put up in a bed-and-breakfast that had a pool with a waterfall. It was the nicest place that I have ever been to. Definitely eye-opening.
I realize how much there is out in the world to experience, and how limited my scope is.
If there is one thing that I pulled from the weekend (and not due to any direct happening, but more by incidental pondering), it is that I need to be more appreciative of how great my life has been so far. In addition, I need to make things happen. It sounds simple, but I understand that the only thing separating what I am capable of from what I am actually doing is my own laziness and apprehension of making the wrong decision.
Live your life fully. Do what you love and do it well. Help others along the way. Make a difference.




Additionally, and just as an aside, I'm evidently still a little shaky with my confidence around a pretty girl.