Kevin's Watch

Hey, let's post ideas for projects here... whether they're ones:
* You're hoping to do sometime soon (and you want encouragement!)
* You think would be great but you probably won't do
* You hope to do in the distant future

Here are some that come to mind for me:

Hope to do soon-ish:
Make a costume for the main character of "The Hunger Games" before the movie comes out!! (late this month)
(I made a pretty thrown-together one for Halloween, and it could use serious re-vamping.)

Probably won't do:
Build a little wooden frame that can attach to a chair and provide a space for a little kid to put his/her feet on...
(I'm starting to think that one reason kids don't sit still reliably on chairs is that they don't have a place to put their feet.)

I'm actually in the middle of three projects. It's converting my media over to a newer source. So I have pretty much finished my record project of converting all my old LPs to CD. Now I'm recording off my cassettes and burning those off, and it is going quickly. Next will be converting my VHS tapes (those I want to retain anyway) to DVD. I haven't even started that one yet, and I worry about it.

Knitting projects:
* One jacket in process (back and right front are done; left front is about 12 rows from being done; still need to knit the sleeves and collar and then sew 'em all together) Here's a picture of one somebody finished. Mine will be purple.
* One pullover sweater -- with any luck, when it's done, it'll look like this, except in blue.
* One batch of yarn with which I someday intend to make an Aran pullover for myself

I'd like to get the first one, and maybe even a chunk of the second one, done within the next four or five weeks, because that's when the next Metro Yarn Crawl is and I'll probably want to buy more yarn then. (The third one will take awhile to make, as I want to try designing my own Aran. ) I've also got enough sock yarn for either 3 pairs of socks or 3 hats, or some combination thereof. Oh, and I keep meaning to make myself a pair of fingerless gloves to keep at work, for when they crank the a/c over the summer.

The writing projects are more complicated. Book #1 in the new series is very nearly done, and I'm writing the first draft of the second book. (I've gotta tell ya, tho -- overlapping projects = ) I've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen in the third book. After that, it's kind of nebulous -- there will either be one or two more, depending on whether I can come up with two more plots or only one.

Linna Heartlistener wrote: Build a little wooden frame that can attach to a chair and provide a space for a little kid to put his/her feet on...
(I'm starting to think that one reason kids don't sit still reliably on chairs is that they don't have a place to put their feet.)

Hmmm...this one might actually be worth putting some time and thought into, and expanding upon/finding a simple general and not for kids only solution/invention...cuz it took an amazing amount of time, traveling, and sitting to find a couch that my wife could sit on with her back on the back and her feet on the floor at the same time.

as for projects, currently writing my butt off [at least by page/word count] and yet somehow not getting anywhere...so my goal is to get somewhere, preferably an ending of some kind.

make my little boxes of cereal project work.

build the apothocary cabinet.

build the book shelf.

write the time travel story.

build the time travel machine.

build the apothocary cabinet.

ooooooooooh!


I'm currently investigating how to set up a business

sgt.null wrote:make my little boxes of cereal project work.

build the apothocary cabinet.

build the book shelf.

write the time travel story.

build the time travel machine.

It might help if you do the last one first.

Stonemaybe wrote:I'm currently investigating how to set up a business

Nice one, Stone. What type of business?

sgt.null wrote:make my little boxes of cereal project work.

build the apothocary cabinet.

build the book shelf.

write the time travel story.

build the time travel machine.

I am still waiting to see the lapel pin project which I proudly contributed to.

lorin wrote:

sgt.null wrote:make my little boxes of cereal project work.

build the apothocary cabinet.

build the book shelf.

write the time travel story.

build the time travel machine.

I am still waiting to see the lapel pin project which I proudly contributed to.

thought i posted a pic - we won a best in catagory at the fair.

will investigate that.

the time machine came to me in a dream...

So apparently I am here in my role as "the person who starts a conversation, and then several people say something and then she just leaves the conversation."
...
And then there's an awkward silence!
[/metaconversation]

cags- is it bad if I thought "leave it to the dad of small children to have a really boring project"?
on the plus side... that's gonna save a TON of space, huh? I need to be more willing to do the "boring" projects that are actually useful!

aliantha wrote:Book #1 in the new series is very nearly done, and I'm writing the first draft of the second book. (I've gotta tell ya, tho -- overlapping projects = ) I've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen in the third book. After that, it's kind of nebulous -- there will either be one or two more, depending on whether I can come up with two more plots or only one.

mmmm, this is the one you started the 'Greed' thread to toss around ideas for?

vraith- is that the inter-disciplinary non-fiction book you mentioned elsewhere? (The Close)
I hate putting together all the nuts and bolts on a project... I'd imagine that whole "not seeing a conclusion in sight" part would be annoying/discouraging...

and about the chair thing... hmmm. Maybe I'll mention it to a friend of mine... she apparently keeps thinking of things she would like to invent, and then finding that they've already been invented. (but apparently lately she comes up with ones that have been invented more recently) Not that this one is utterly original..

Linna Heartlistener wrote:

aliantha wrote:Book #1 in the new series is very nearly done, and I'm writing the first draft of the second book. (I've gotta tell ya, tho -- overlapping projects = ) I've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen in the third book. After that, it's kind of nebulous -- there will either be one or two more, depending on whether I can come up with two more plots or only one.

mmmm, this is the one you started the 'Greed' thread to toss around ideas for?

Yup, that's the one. Turned out I didn't use a lot of that discussion, but I'm mentioning it in the Author's Note in the back of the book anyhow. With any luck (and if I ever actually get busy editing it today...), it'll be published Tuesday.

ali- nice. I am really interested in that one. Tuesday! ...nice.

Guess what I just realized today... if I teamed up with a friend who can actually SEW and made Hunger Games costumes before the movie came out... we could sell 'em on Etsy and make a fortune off of teenagers.

(Well, there's always Halloween! and the next 2 or 3 Hunger Games movies!)

I have my work cut out for me. After 5 years in Kindergarten, I am switching to teaching High School next year. And the curriculum for the Bible courses is a mess. Luckily, I have the experience of having piloted and built up the Kindergarten program from nothing, so I'm familiar with having to kill myself writing and planning out lessons and putting courses together from scraps (Africa not being exactly rich in resources, even the books available are very limited). So that will be my main project for the next few months. I will also be teaching some other classes-- I told them anything but math, science, or P.E.

My husband is obsessed right now with plans for a house we may build in the next few years. We don't even officially own the land yet, and I thought it would be a nice long-term project but he's breathing down my neck and if I don't get my wishes in now he'll have it all planned out and I'll have to live with it.... maybe that's not such a bad idea, though....

I also sew, and have several new songs to learn on guitar, and set lists to generate for the Praise Team (the high school Christian rock band thing I'm in charge of).