Now for something different.

While we were out shopping for Christmas, we left the outlet mall in Edinburgh and went to the fantastic  antique mall down the street.  There, I saw this little stool and wanted it, but sadly it was almost Christmas, and there was nothing in my budget for me to spend on myself.

That's ok, because the one there was larger than I wanted, I really liked the leg layout and the lines spoke to me, but I wanted something for under my desk to rest my feet on.  (Please note the chapstick is there to provide scaling).

So I cut my 1X10X6  from Lowe's into three parts, the two legs, and the top.

then I cut out the design on the legs that I wanted and cut (not very squarely) my setbacks for the rails. Then I cleaned up the mess with a chisel a bit.

Being of firm redneck extraction, if one nail will do, two would be better.

Top glued and nailed onto the rails, not the legs.  My belief being that this will help prevent splitting due to seasonal movement.  I was thinking of putting a center rail in to help keep the legs square and support the top, but the original didn't have one.

Man of the Year?

The New Yorker is reporting that Time Magazine is planning to announce their man of the year award this Wednesday.  Curiously I agree with the New Yorker's assessment of who the winner deserves to be, our friend Mr Edward Snowden.   In fact the Guardian actually already voted Mr Snowden their Man of the Year.  The only reason the President hasn't been impeached for his many crimes are the actions of the willing press, and his adoring party controlling the senate.

Now someday, someone, will actually read this and say "Crane, you are cracked, Snowden released no evidence of the President actually violating the law!  This is all his underlings and the bureaucracy taking control and reaching out gain more power!"  To a point you may be right, but the president has certainly played the ignorance card.  If he was a CEO of a corporation he would have been called to Congress to explain what was going on.  If it continued, he would be held responsible.  However, in the highest office of the land it's clear that isn't going to happen. This president is responsible for nothing, knows nothing, and tries to look good while he is doing it.  This president is the essence of the modern media president, given to you by those that have lots of time and attention to pay to the media.  All style and no substance, all expectation and no delivery, all talk and no game.

A friend of mine on Facebook made a comment that I thought was rather telling.  ADK said

Seriously, 12 months ago, if you told people that the government was intrusive, overbearing, had hijacked the internet, and was using drones and satellites to spy on Americans, they would have said "you're nuts."If you'd told them that the government had used the revenue service to suppress political dissent furthering the theft of a presidential election, and had illegally stolen that information to use against political adversaries, they would have said "you're nuts."

If you'd told them that the government would circumvent the first and fourth amendments, and accuse journalists of terrorism and weapons charges to invade their houses with military teams to seize material information about government sources that blew the whistle on corruption, they would have said "you're nuts."
Now, if you aren't pissed off about it, you really are nuts.

If you'd told them that the government would circumvent the first and fourth amendments, and accuse journalists of terrorism and weapons charges to invade their houses with military teams to seize material information about government sources that blew the whistle on corruption, they would have said "you're nuts."Now, if you aren't pissed off about it, you really are nuts.

At this point, if you aren't pissed off with this government and the way things are going you are nuts!

This president is terrible, the country continues to suffer and the modern press does nothing to illustrate what is going on.  If there was no other proof of the myth of the objective press, this is it!

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/12/no-contest-edward-snowden-is-person-of-the-year.html