Picked up a sheet of .75″ plywood today. When’s the last time you felt how heavy those things are? Dayam.
Moving through the sequence. Tonight we cut a piece of the plywood to fit over the joists we put in the other night, which now allows me to finish the test layout without the obstruction of the wall heater hole. Notice the 1 5/8″ gutter on either side of the tiles right now. It’s because I pulled out that additional strip.
The real purpose of this layout is to go through and mark which tiles need to be cut, and where. Along with the cutting of tiles, we’re gonna take some of the old wood strips I pulled and rip two twenty-five foot lengths of 1 5/8″ borders, one with a tongue, the other with the groove, with both borders being cut square on the inside of the piece. Every other tile within the two outer rows adjacent to said borders will need one tongue cut off in order to rest flush against the border. Deck glue will be going under the tiles during the setting, with toenails going before the sanding and finish.
Despite the sawdust and the semi-sticky ebony tiles, the piece now finally exists in three-dimensional space. It’s real! I just stood on it for a while, staring at it beneath my feet. A few alternative mathematical perspectives occurred to me that I hadn’t noticed before. And yet they make perfect sense. Tickles the logic bone.
At first glance, Albert Einstein is apparent. Now move a few feet away (or if you’re as lazy as I am today, just squint) and you’ll see Marilyn Monroe appear, with her smile replacing Einstein’s mustache.
This hybrid image is one of many similar experiments conducted in order to better understand how the human brain processes visual information. The credit for this one goes to neuroscientist Aude Oliva.
I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks…let’s make lots of money…
(Source: Internet)
With the ebony tiles drowned in stain twice, I grabbed a bunch of them from the driveway and did a quick partial test layout. For now, I worked around the rectangular patch where the wall heater was. Pics from this morning:
I’m really digging the way the first row of tiles (the ones column) leads to the checkered floor in the kitchen. Like it was meant to be.
As I blog this, the room is a much different place than it was a few hours ago. Sawdust everywhere. Hector came over with his saw and we framed a few 2×6 joists where that rectangular patch is, to be covered by a custom .75″ thick rectangle of plywood, flush with the floorboards. We’ll continue tomorrow night.
Also not seen in the pics above is one additional 2.25″ strip pulled out on the soffit side of the piece. We’re gonna need that extra couple inches in order to get the tiles in. Using the pulled floorboards, we’ll be splitting the gap difference (gap width minus width of five tiles) and ripping a thin pinstripe border (just over about 1.25″) on either side of the piece. It just occurred to me that it can be thought of as an elaborate version of what has gradually become the trademark extended equals sign (=) of this site. Cool. I’m starting to think about that finishing touch now. Maybe a metallic gold paint. Hmmm…
Best guess is about 1979, give or take a couple years, with the clue being the Lightning Bolt logo. I was obsessed with that thing in my formative years, incorporating variations of it into every doodle I ever did at the time. I even had the Bolt necklace. Silver.
Looking at it now, I suspect the Bolt logo was likely a shaping force in my dominant taste for sharp angles and straight geometric lines to this day. (In my freehand sketches, I’ve always found myself favoring straight lines to curves. Same with logos.) It’s also unsurprisingly trippy to see that the cover of this card boasts two ambigrams: the Bolt logo is a rotational ambigram reading the same right-side-up and upside-down; the “MOM” is a reflective ambigram reading the same forward and backward. My affection for ambigrams and symmetry has obviously always been there.
But enough about me. Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy!
While sitting here pounding my Saturday morning espresso bomb, I spent a few minutes taking a personality test on Facebook called MyType. The series of True/False questions, based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), determines which of the sixteen personality types you fall under.
Turns out I’m the INTJ (Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging) type, or what the system labels as “The Free-Thinker”.
According to Wikipedia, notable INTJs (both fictional and real) include Aristotle, Ayn Rand, Isaac Newton, Sherlock Holmes, and — how cool is this? — J.R.R. Tolkien and his alter-ego, Gandalf.
INTJ
INTJs are strong individualists who seek new angles or novel ways of looking at things. They enjoy coming to new understandings. They are insightful and mentally quick; however, this mental quickness may not always be outwardly apparent to others since they keep a great deal to themselves. They are very determined people who trust their vision of the possibilities, regardless of what others think. They may even be considered the most independent of all of the sixteen personality types. INTJs are at their best in quietly and firmly developing their ideas, theories, and principles.
Living
The independent and individualistic INTJ manner appears early in life. As children, INTJs are often inwardly focused on their thoughts of the way the world is or ought to be; they enjoy day dreaming. They can be quite stubborn when information relayed to them by authorities, such as parents and teachers, contradicts what they believe. They are sure of their own belief system. INTJs are compelled to establish their own rules, boundaries, standards, and style.
Often at an early age, INTJs make a commitment to furthering their education. The life of the mind is very important to them. Examples abound of INTJs from economically or intellectually impoverished circumstances setting goals for themselves to continue in education, often earning the highest degree possible.
INTJ teenagers may be seen as serious and reserved young people who are labeled as bookworms by others. They set internal standards of achievement for themselves and often do well academically. Being sociable is a standard that they rarely think is worth their time and energy.
As adults, INTJs are focused on attaining their inner goals and standards. They set a particular course based on their theory of what ought to be. They work extremely diligently to accomplish what they feel is important. They enjoy what they do and see it as a challenge. They are not easily dissuaded and may regard others’ needs and wants as an impediment to attaining their objectives.
Learning and Working
INTJs learn best when they can design their own approach and when they are able to absorb themselves in an area that interests them. They tend to focus on systems, theories, and constructs relating to universal truths and principles. They prefer challenging teachers, ones who meet their standards. High grade-point averages and test scores tend to characterize INTJs, who like rigorous academic work. Learning needs to be a creative process. Rote memory can be dull and boring for the INTJ.
INTJs are diligent in pursuing new ideas and thoughts, and they exert effort to master a given subject. This makes INTJs particularly adept in most school situations. Because of their resourcefulness, thirst for knowledge, and inner needs, INTJs tend to find ways of acquiring knowledge. They gravitate toward libraries, public lectures, courses, and other learners and teachers – sources that offer them information and direction.
At work, INTJs use their conceptual strengths to analyze situations and then develop models to understand and anticipate through relentlessly to reach their goals. They will continue on with their plans, even in the face of adversity and data that might suggest to other more practical types that their goals are no longer feasible. By nature, INTJs are independent individualists. They see their visions so clearly that they are often surprised when others do not see things the same way. INTJs are strong at critiquing and as a result tend to notice the negatives. To them, a job well done should be reward enough in itself. They may neglect to comment favorably on others’ contributions.
INTJs tend to seek occupations that allow them to change the status quo and to design models to express their vision creatively. They desire autonomy and room for growth. They prefer to work in a place in which the future can be planned and where they can work for change in an organized manner.
Some occupations seem to be especially attractive to INTJs: computer systems analyst, electrical engineer, judge, lawyer, photographer, psychologist, research department manager, researcher, scientist, university instructor, and other occupations in which long-range vision is essential.
Loving
For INTJs, love means including someone in their vision of the world. INTJ men tend to be attracted to partners who enjoy living their lives with and outward vitality and zest. Perhaps it is to compensate for their internal, visionary focus that they often find partners who are more outgoing and may even run interference to help the INTJ deal with the day-to-day world. INTJ women, however, may seek someone more like themselves.
INTJs tend to have a model in mind of how their relationship ought to be. This is less a romantic vision than it is an idea that relates to how the relationship functions in a unique or special way. They tend to withhold their deep feelings and affections from the public and sometimes even from the object of their affections. They can be intensely loyal and caring, even though this is not always expressed in words. INTJs can be generous with their gifts if the gift fits their vision of what ought to be appreciated by their partner.
When scorned, INTJs retreat to their own world and may share none of their feelings with others. They may assume that there is a right way for a relationship to end and look for that. They act on the outside as if nothing has happened to them when indeed much has. They may lash out with criticisms of their former loved ones. It may take them a while to recover.
On a convenient whim, I took up my neighbor Roy’s offer to tag along with him and Mare up to the Rush gig at the Nokia Theatre last night. The Nokia’s a great place to see a show, and I figured the Rush/Nokia combination would be one I’d regret missing. I saw Tool there a few months ago.
Glad I did. Within about fifteen seconds of parting ways with Roy and Mare for the evening out in the Nokia courtyard, a guy who was upgrading to the box offered me a single ticket down in the thirteenth row on Alex’s side. Face value was $154.50. He took forty bucks with a smile and and a gracious knuckletap, wishing me a happy show. Score.
I got into Orchestra section and found my way down to a few empty seats in Row D, fourth row. The band opened with Limelight, and we were off. A few minutes later a couple enthusiastic dudes without tickets came rushing down, sneaking into Row D with me. They were standing there bouncing up and down, cheering the band on, particularly Neil Peart. It wasn’t entirely surprising to notice these two dudes were Chad Smith and Taylor Hawkins.
Great show. The band went on at about 8PM, playing until 11:20 with an intermission. What I found inspiring was how you could tell that the reason these guys are touring right now is because of the simple reason that they want to jam. It was all for the love of the game, not out of obligation. They’re players. It’s who they are. It’s what they are. Playing is what they must do, even if they’re in their mid-fifties.
Rush. A drummer’s band. I ended up running into B-Load and Jerrence while I was in there, who each were on solo missions and stuck in Loge. With the help of Roy’s stub during the intermission, we all ended up down near the front. A couple good shots from B-Load. Click each for a larger version:
Three lame shots from my cell:
And speaking of Taylor Hawkins and Rush:
A killer collection of commercial parodies via nerve.com, with the majority of them obviously coming from Saturday Night Live. I’m glad to see one of my all-time favorites make #7.
“We can handle those types of requests. Usually the same day.”
