jeremyrandall / blog /

I pulled out the sewing machine the other day and stitched up a tear on the inside of the duvet cover.

I hate to admit it but I haven’t had the sewing machine out of the box for a couple years.

I bought it more than three years ago because I feel like every household should have a sewing machine. And they’re, like, the coolest thing ever invented. I don’t quite understand how the thread in the bobbin intertwines with the thread in the needle to do its magic. I’ve taken it apart and looked at the diagrams, but I’m still rather amazed to see the stitches that come out. Everything is so perfect, so rhythmic, so well spaced; the machine hums out it’s steady song as the needle hops back and forth and the threads get tied, mysteriously, together.

I’m not particularly good at sewing. I got a job at a sail loft once and did my best to stitch together huge pieces of white Dacron that would be used to harness the power of the wind and pull boats through the water. I messed up a lot and the owners were nice to me and didn’t tell me how bad it was. I’d take apart my errant stitches with a seam-ripper and do them again. It hurt a lot when I’d jab the seam ripper into my thumb.

They never told me, but I could tell when I’d come in the next morning that they had re-sewn some of my sails. It was a lot of work for them to take apart a long stitch then run the whole thing through the machine again. They were kind and didn’t criticize me as I made little improvement.

Those machines were big and industrial and powerful and scary. Picture a farm tractor with a big needle on the end. I had trouble keeping things from going out of control when they got up to full speed. I did manage to put together one sail pretty well and I actually saw the boat sailing out of the harbor under the power of the sail I had just made.

My machine is a basic model. It’s white and has a light, a reverse lever, a foot pedal. It can sew through lots of fabrics; it can sew denim. I think it can sew leather if it’s not too thick. It does straight stitches and zig zags and button holes and a bunch of other things selected with dials.

I figured when I bought it that there’s so much fabric around a typical home, surely I could use my machine to make practical things like cushions and pillows and maybe even curtains. The curtains wouldn’t have to be too fancy, after all.

I have a plastic bin with some fabric scraps. I have a pincushion, pins and some kind of chalk pencil to mark the fabric. I made a cushion. Some bags. Some simple repairs of torn fabric items. But I have to admit I just haven’t done much more than that. I found myself intrigued the other day to see my machine running like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I quit the job at the sail loft job after a few weeks. I just didn’t think I was good enough and I was afraid to see if I could get better. I tended to give up back then. If I had stayed there I would probably be really good at sewing now. At running my little machine and at running those big monsters with all that horsepower and the huge spools of thick white thread piercing giant swaths of heavy fabric.

I’m pretty pleased to have the rip inside the duvet cover fixed. The sewing machine is still out of its box, back to its place of honor on my shelf. I may see if I can piece together another simple bag or pillow soon. I like that I’m picking it up again, knowing that I can learn whatever I want, I just have to sit down and do it. Make the effort. Read the manual. Have some patience. The bobbin is wound, the needle is threaded and the sewing machine is still, like, the coolest invention ever.

I love hardware stores. I find it kind of amazing that they have so many fun, interesting, cool and unexpected items; that I can buy a single bolt or enough wiring and pipes to do up an entire house. There are three hardware stores near my apartment — four if you count the one that is on the next hill over. I like going to them and looking for project ideas. Sometimes it’s just hooks or picture hangers, sometimes it’s shelves or organizers, sometimes it’s a new idea for lighting or electrical projects and sometimes it’s coming up with a creative way to make toys and inventions out of common household items. I really like coming up with ways to store and organize things, clean, decorate, try new lighting or just manage the recycling and trash better. I like to do things that enhance my apartment without adding clutter, of course.

Last week I went to the hardware store and found a bunch of fastening gear for a home project I was finishing up. It usually takes me a couple trips since I tend to figure some of it as I go. That’s why the hardware store two blocks from my place is a good starting point. Of course it’s certainly no burden to walk another five or seven blocks to see if I can find the right items at one of the other two nearby stores (the fourth hardware store is eleven or twelve blocks away, which is still along a regular walking route, but doesn’t have the same “in my neighborhood” feel).

There are coffee shops and restaurants, a movie theater that plays indie flicks and a Good Vibes near my house and my hardware stores. Plus an odd grocery store that has fancy individual cakes (which I get once in a blue moon for a treat to share). Almost all of them are local businesses, not chains. I love my neighborhood.

This morning we went to the hardware stores and found hooks and tape, light bulb sensor switches, chains and ropes and odds and ends to finish up the projects we started from the bag of items we bought a couple weeks ago. Rubber dipping proved to be an interesting way to add a handle to an existing item. Arts and crafts day for grownups, with a nap thrown in for good measure. It was a gorgeous sunny day, just like yesterday when we walked along the Wharf and rode the cable car back up the hill. I never rode the cable cars before I started living near them with a monthly Muni pass; they get the tourists to pay five dollars one-way, no transfers.

I love August in the Bay Area. The weather is great, there’s lots to do and the sun comes up early and goes down late. It’s my favorite month.

We took the ferry out Angel Island a couple weeks ago to go hiking. I had done the perimeter road in the past, but this was the first time I had climbed to the top. I’m usually an urban hiker, but there are trees and dirt trails just a boat ride away. We plowed up the hill like billy goats; the view was gorgeous at the top. We sat and ate our energy bars and drank our protein drinks, then headed down the other side and back to the ferry boat. Walker, hiker, urban foot-transit enthusiast. I chuckle when I see the Segway groups near Aquatic Park; do we really need vehicles that mimic walking?

It’s slowing down here. The crowds at the Wharf and Union Square are thinning out. I guess the kids are back in school or something. September and October are greats months here too, especially for the locals. I’m done with today’s chores, cleaning my apartment, screwing in hooks, taking things out and adding things in. Until the next hike to the hardware stores, of course.

Plus some New Year’s resolutions…

Technology

When I bought my primary Mac a while back, I decided that I was going to treat it as a sort of “home production server,” meaning I wouldn’t use it to try beta software, I wouldn’t repartition the disk, I wouldn’t do things to mess it up and, thus, I wouldn’t need to reinstall the OS after some unnecessary technological debacle (I have other computers that I use for testing, experimenting and messing things up). But over time this computer started to degrade as some applications came and went and various parts saw incremental upgrades, and one not-so-incremental upgrade; for the sake of convenience I did an in-place upgrade to 10.5 instead of doing a clean install. Sure, all my stuff was intact, but performance and overall reliability went down, of course.

Last night I decided to bite the bullet and do a clean install. I run backups every night, so I made sure the backup data was valid, then started formatting. Everything went great and the machine was running perfectly after installing the OS and various universal binaries of the applications I use. Then I realized that I didn’t have any of the iLife apps that came preinstalled originally (iPhoto being the only one that is particularly important to me). I did some searching around and found that I could install the older iLife apps from the OS disc that originally came with the machine. I fired up that installation and everything was fine until it crashed unexpectedly. And brought the whole system down with it. The internal hard drive was totally corrupted! I booted from the CD and ran Disk Utility. It took three tries and then it claimed the massive amounts of corruption had been fixed. I went to start up the machine and, well, it’s not coming up at all. Here we go again.

The positive things: my backups are solid (as expected, using a shell script created before Time Machine was an option), it was pretty painless to import my database backups back into MySQL and it was a snap to configure apache2 for the webapps I use locally. I get to run through this whole routine again, which is good practice. And once I get this rig done up again, I expect performance and reliability to be back on track.

Update: I did another full rebuild, reinstalled all my apps and copied all of my data back, only to have the machine freeze up and refuse to boot again. Time to try TechTool and then go to a diagnostics appointment; the machine is still under AppleCare.

On another note, my boss bought me one of the new thin aluminum Apple Keyboards to use at work (I thought he was just being nice; turns out I was typing really loud on the old clackety keyboard); I liked it so much I bought one for myself to use at home. Excellent keyboard.

Travel

I did a small amount of travel over the holidays, both by train and by plane. I like train trips since I don’t have to deal with the airport, I can move around freely while en route and, most importantly, I can bring a laptop and write. Life has been so busy lately that having a day riding the rails meant I had a day to write and reflect. I wrote over 5,000 words on the train, examining my year and my accomplishments, looking at patterns I have been repeating and working out the things I’d like to keep doing and the things I need to change or stop doing. There are some hard decisions there, but that’s what taking an objective look at myself is all about. I was also able to see some amazing scenery and see how the train winds its way down a particularly tall mountain pass.

The plane ride was pleasant; I chatted the entire time with an interesting couple sitting next to me. We had a remarkably broad conversation for three people who had just met.

The silly moment was before the flight, at the security check, when they pulled my bags for a secondary search. I hadn’t even thought that my tube of toothpaste would be a problem, but it was more than the three ounce limit. I think that limit is ridiculous (as is removing our shoes), but I also know that it’s just not worth arguing about. I just quietly said, “okay, you can keep the toothpaste.” The security woman looked at me with compassion and asked if I’d like her to squeeze some of the toothpaste into a plastic ziplock bag so I could have a little with me to brush my teeth later. I thought that was nice of her, though it occurred to me later that since she believed it was actually toothpaste, and was willing to give some back, then why not let me keep all of it? I figure we were both doing our parts to act sane, within the confines of the insanity imposed around us.

Transit

I got a chance last week to ride the double decker bus that Muni is testing out. It’s nice and clean, and the view from upstairs is interesting. The ceiling on the top level is pretty low, so heads will be bumped. The bus itself felt responsive and didn’t seem to strain under the load. I did notice that it has double axles at the back; I’m assuming that is to carry what must be much more weight than a regular bus carries. I’m curious how these buses compare, weight-wise and fuel efficiency-wise, to the long articulated buses that are used on many of the routes.

I think that an electric trolley-bus version of the double decker would be needed here in SF; we should be lessening the amount of diesel burned here, not increasing it.

Weather

Someone recently said, snarkily, that I “just write about the weather” here. I disagree. The weather is a handy way to mark changes, and the changes in the weather often remind me of the passage of time and prompt me to write a little something here. But the weather is in the background, helping me set a tone for the limited writing I do in this space. I’d like to think that someone who thinks I just write about the weather is someone who is not really paying much attention to what I’m saying. That being said, it’s 45 degrees Fahrenheit right now. To me that is really cold! I am so grateful for the double-paned windows, the radiator and the new boiler down in the basement, firing with half the gas consumption of the old one.

Work

I have some interesting projects underway at work. The big ongoing project has been rebuilding the core network, moving everything to new equipment, renumbering the network with new subnets and moving machines around. All without the folks using those systems noticing. It’s sort of like the way Caltrans is rebuilding the bay bridge and approaches; they build around the old and then move the traffic back and forth, all without shutting down the roads. Caltrans has closed the bridge a couple times, but I’ve avoided any prolonged outages. We’ve migrated from one firewall to another and moved the core switching to a new “layer 3 switch” (layer 3 switching is still so cool). There was about 30 seconds of downtime when we switched traffic over to the new firewall. I’ve been joking that we scheduled it for when the CEO was in his car for the ten-minute drive between the office and his house. It did take some time to migrate some IPSec tunnels to the new firewall, but those tunnels are for specific traffic, not general access.

Design

I’m rooting through my list of art and design projects, looking to pick out a couple small projects I can fit in here and there, scoping some medium projects to make them more manageable and doing some preliminary planning for a larger remodel-type project that may get underway later in the year.

Social

I already have plans into the first couple weeks of the new year. Community, seeing friends, helping folks when I can, enjoying people and being enjoyed; that’s what it’s all about.

I’ve been posting short status updates fairly regularly on Facebook; if you know me in person, please add me to your friends list there.

I’ll be attending the usual events and look forward to seeing folks and catching up.

New Year’s resolutions

I actually have New Year’s resolutions to exercise more, eat more vegetables, lower my fat intake, rest more and pay more attention to healthy choices, physically and emotionally. Delightfully outrageous, indeed.

I’m totally happy to be making some real progress on decluttering and organizing. Not that my place is some packrat hovel to start with, but it’s amazing how much stuff can pile up over even a small amount of time.

I’ve been reading Apartment Therapy and have embarked on one of the first projects recommended in that book: creating a landing strip. The idea is to have a system in the entryway to deal with coats and bags, to sort mail and to put away things like keys and cell phones. Basically, none of the carry-in items should continue into the living space.

My entryway is small, so I needed to come up with ways to fit things in, with a goal of leaving the entryway open with nothing on the floor. After some searching, sketching and playing with ideas, I decided to (a) use the back of the door for coats and bags, (b) sort mail on the side of the shelving unit next to the door and (c) store shoes on or at the inside wall across from the door.

I found the first pieces to make this plan work at the Container Store. I installed two of their brushed metal coat racks on the back of the door, one at the top and one midway. Now I can hang a bunch of coats, sweatshirts, bags and outgoing laundry (headed to the cleaners) on the door. Nothing on the floor.

I found a solution to the mail sorting problem, as well as a place for keys, phone, etc., at the Container Store as well. They sell a “Fabric Wall-Mounted Magazine Organizer” that has four pockets. I adapted it to mount on the side of the bookshelf next to the door, with the first pocket holding keys and phone (plugged into its charger), the second pocket for personal and social mail, the third pocket for bills and financial mail and the fourth pocket for magazines, catalogs and entertainment mail. Items in the fourth pocket cycle into the recycle bin, sometimes directly.

When I came home the first evening after setting this all up, I was amazed how everything did, in fact, have a place to go and nothing followed me in further. Everything is in a known place to be dealt with and recycled out as needed. It’s sweet.

The last part of the entryway is dealing with shoes. Right now they all sit across from the door; I am still deciding whether to put a regular shoe rack there or install one of the wall-mounted “TRONES” systems from IKEA.

On the decluttering front, I made a pass through my books and pulled out about 25 of them, which I then gave away via Craigslist, and another 20 or so that went from the bookshelves to the storage room downstairs (tech/work books that I’m not using now, but may need again in the future). Letting go of that first batch is making it easier to make additional passes and remove more. It feels really liberating.

I did a pass through the kitchen as well, moving things that were on top of the fridge, or on the counters, in to the lower cabinets. Now the whole kitchen is clear and looks even tidier than before.

Finally, another tip from Apartment Therapy: each week I am buying fresh flowers to liven up my apartment and treat it well and with respect. The flowers add a splash of organic texture, color and scent which adds even more life to my living space!

Here are a couple cool items from DWR, both of which are thin, vertical and unique:

Image: Design Within Reach

The bookshelf holds books horizontally on thin shelves; once it’s full the shelves basically disappear and it looks like a huge freestanding stack. I like the coat rack’s design which seems both clean and complicated to me. I’m thinking the bookshelf may fit by the closet and the coat rack could, of course, go by the front door.

My place is feeling very cozy with the new love seat; I chose a bold color and it works quite well. Some of my walls are a fairly bold color as well, which seems to change throughout the day as the outside light changes. I keep looking for new pieces that might work, but then I have to remember that this space is basically filled now. A new and more attractive ceiling fan would be great to replace the existing one. And the old-school track lights in the kitchen are ready to be updated.

I’m on the lookout for some wall shelves that will fill this weird “nook” in the corner of my kitchen. It’s 24 inches wide by 16 inches deep in a back corner, and is basically wasted space right now. Since it’s not visible from the rest of the room, I am going to shelve it all the way to the ceiling to create a pantry and storage area. I’d like to cook more and I need a more accessible pantry-type space. I think I’ll have the specifics figured out soon.

I’ve had a nice weekend. I had time to rest and do chores during the day on Saturday. I went to an adult-themed party with some friends Saturday night, where I met a lot of wonderful new folks and had a great time. This morning one of my sisters was in town with a friend, so we all met up for brunch and catching up. Then more chores, some exercise, more rest and getting ready for the week ahead. Once this last load of laundry is done, I’ll be all set and can go to sleep. I have a busy week ahead, working by day and being social by evening. It’s a nice balance, as long as I get enough sleep!

Update: I ordered the book Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure for more design ideas. I suspect my philosophies on space, flow and lack of clutter will mesh with the book’s philosophy, “how to create a home that works for you — physically, emotionally and spiritually.” The Apartment Therapy site/blog has been a great source of ideas and examples of others’ designs.

Image: Amazon / Apartment Therapy

Something very exciting happened yesterday: the new IKEA catalog landed in my mailbox. Say what you will about IKEA furniture — it’s cheap, it’s “dorm like,” whatever — I love the stuff. Some of Most of Nearly all of my furniture is from IKEA and I like that it’s light and contemporary. They have so much stuff it’s easy to find things that work even if you’re an “armchair designer” like me. And IKEA, as a company, professes to be environmentally responsible.

Now my apartment is rather small, so I don’t really buy new furniture much, but changing things up, adding little lamps and things really helps keep me from getting bored in my little space. I go through the IKEA catalog, the DWR catalog, the Pottery Barn catalog, Apartment Therapy’s site and similar catalogs and publications, looking for ideas, subtle things I can change, artsy projects that I can embark upon. My goal is always to avoid adding clutter and keep things tasteful and interesting, with a little whimsy thrown in. Yes, I said whimsy; whimsy is important.

This morning I heard some banging downstairs; I had heard that the unit downstairs was going to be renovated, and sure enough, painting and tiling was in full swing. I had never seen the unit below and it was interesting to compare. We have the same exterior wall layout, but that’s about it. The unit downstairs has walls separating the kitchen, living area and the closet and bathroom areas, whereas mine had those walls removed at some point and it’s a fairly open space. The built-in cabinetry and moldings downstairs are lovely and seeing them made me feel sad that my place no longer has those charms. But I much prefer a light open space to smaller individual rooms. When I lived in one of those “railroad” apartments, where all the rooms were off a long main hallway, things felt constricted. I would like to reinstall molding and re-tile my bathroom someday; the molding in particular would add back some of the missing architectural detail.

The building I live in is interesting, in and of itself. It was built in 1913 and has the standard San Francisco facade with bay windows and fire escapes. The elevator is an open-cage Otis and, from what I’ve found on the web, it’s of an even earlier vintage. I suppose they found it used and resuscitated it when the building was under construction. I think this whole block was built then, part of the rebirth after the 1906 earthquake. We have steam heat and old-fashioned radiators, which are now powered by a brand new gas-fired steam boiler in the basement; it replaced the cast iron monstrosity that finally wore out this year.

Update: Okay, well, I went to IKEA and bought an Ektorp loveseat; it’s the one that is comfortable to sit on and the covers can be switched off for different colors and patterns. So, one of the old chairs has been mothballed to the basement.

I painted the small wall near my front door with chalkboard paint awhile ago; it’s fun to be able to draw and write on a wall. It looked pretty stark at first, but once some chalk dust got rubbed in the color grayed a bit and faded to a nice look:

A friend posted pictures on her LiveJournal of her shower; she has used “bathtub crayons” to write on the tiles. I’m on the lookout for them as I’d like to try it.

There’s something appealing to me about doing art on walls, without actually “tagging” my home.

I’ve done a bit of rearranging of my web site. This blog is in the same location, but it’s no longer serving as the main page. That has been moved to the wiki, with appropriate redirects and auto-refreshes leading there. It occurs to me that this overall site has been in existence for quite awhile now; it’s like a house that I just keep adding new wings on to and changing where the front door is. Not to mention all of the rooms that are hidden away at the end of long hallways, and the stored files and trinkets from years ago neatly cataloged in the basement. Is the analogy making sense?

April was a busy, fun, active, scary and difficult month. I’ve been working quite a bit, ejoying many social activities and feeling vaguely guilty that I’ve barely been sailing this year. April includes an anniversary of a family member’s death, for which I take some time off and do something meaningful to mark the occasion and remember that person.

Geez, it’s already halfway through May. Wow.

So I have been TV-free since ~April 23rd. And I am, in fact, finding that that prompts me to go out and do more things in the evenings. I basically plan or find something to do each night after work. On nights when I do just come right home, I listen to music (I bought a ton of new music), read, clean my place, rearrange things and generally be more productive than I would be with a television. So it has all worked out the way I wanted it to. I did watch The Office at a friend’s house the other day; I do miss that show.

Losing TV is just part of an ongoing self-improvement tack. I gave up diet soda to reduce my sodium intake; since I’m not a coffee drinker, I went ahead and gave up caffeine as well. I didn’t realize just how much caffeine I had been taking in; the first three days without it I could barely stay awake. I was literally sitting in my cube at work trying not to nod off. Once I got past that, it has been fine. I’ve been drinking a lot more water and I can feel the difference.

I have been thinking for quite awhile about giving up television. I don’t even consider myself to be a hardcore TV watcher; I never watch in the morning and there are only a few shows that I really follow. Wow, that sounds really convincing, huh?

Unfortunately I do flip on the TV more than I’d like too, especially when I’m tired or just bored.

I’ve lived without TV before. I’ve read more. I’ve listened to music and the radio more. I may have even exercised more. It’s the reading that I really like and want. I have stacks and stacks of books, many of which looked interesting when I bought them but remain unread.

I already use a good deal of my free time going out, spending time with people I know, meeting new people, walking around The City, volunteering with some progressive organizations and looking for new activities of interest. What could I do without that luminescent screen facing prominently into my living room, drawing me in just because it’s there?

I know I would read more and listen to music more. I’d probably spend more time online reading about news and politics and history. Would I go out more? Meet more people? Tend to my job more (I can work just as well from home as I can from my office)? Meditate more? Exercise more? Go on walking tours or take classes or volunteer more? Draw, paint, think, create? It’s intriguing and I think it’s worth exploring.

Tonight my faithful boxy old CRT will move down to the basement storage room and my living room will be rearranged to better accomodate the computer, music gear and more books. I’m going easy on myself, knowing that it’s still there, ready to be hauled back upstairs to give me a fix if necessary. I’ll just take it one day at a time.

I need to start taking pcitures again and posting them here to pep this place up some.

I didn’t have a proper camera when I was wandering around Russian Hill this morning, but I snapped a couple shots from my phone. They’re not great, but I liked the mood conveyed of a chilly, crisp clear day above The City.

I just finished watching the entire first Tales of The City series on DVD. I think the last time I watched it was something like eight years ago. It totally reminded me, again, of my own sense of awe when I first moved to SF and how naive I was. Mary Ann Singleton is a character that resonates. I keep meaning to track down Macondray Lane, the street that was the model for Barbary Lane, but haven’t done so yet.

I’ve also been meaning to take another walk around the steps on Telegraph Hill since I finally watched The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.

There’s something about wandering SF on a weekday, away from work and the crowds, that I find particularly relaxing. Since I’ve moved to Nob Hill I’ve found myself exploring Russian Hill and North Beach more than I ever have before.

Another topic, of much excitement (to me at least), is the “new to me” steam radiator installed in my apartment. The previous one was an unusual “baseboard” configuration and didn’t work right. This one is a regular old cast-iron vertical unit that looks cool and actually works. Everything old becomes new, right? I’ve learned way more than I ever expected to about single pipe steam heating systems.