Dandelions are my lawn-nemesis! Their only redeeming quality is that they make pretty colors when they burn and my wife left me without adult supervision after letting me drink more than a little rose in the afternoon sun. This is what happened.
Tag: YouTube
Film Friday – Double Feature: Attic and Bath Remodel Status
I spent two FULL days, with a little help from my wife, instaling the baseboard, door, skylight, stair, and window trim in the new attic space. This video includes a few tips and tricks along the way. As this will be my wife’s studio space, she put in some sweat equity filling nail holes, doing a little sanding, and she chose the paint scheme. I will be painting next and will document that whole process as well.
This is Part 1 of our basement bathroom build/finish. We decided to add a basement bathroom when we replumbed the house a couple of years ago. 6 months of chaos insued and we took a two year break before diving back into the bathroom build. This time has been SO much better. We went with white subway tile for the walls, black and while hex tiles for the floor, and charcoal grout. The next step is trim, paint and fixture install.
Jeep Re-Build Update Video
I got the Jeep back from paint months ago and it has been sitting on the lift in the garage – letting the paint cure as we have had work done at the house (Attic and Basement). I am not 100% happy with the paint, but that is another video. I have been collecting small cardboard boxes full of goodies since last October for the after-paint re-fit. That installation process has begun with the mounting of lights, fender flares, a new bumper, etc… I am giddy with anticipation to get it out in the Seattle summer sun.
Film Friday – Attic Remodel: Week 4
Week 4 brings us views, natural light, and modern wiring! We had a 4’X4′ venting skylight installed that gives us sliver views of Puget Sound, The Seattle Skyline, The Olympic Mountains, and the Cascades. ALL the knob & tube wiring has been replaced, we added some lights and plugs on the main level, are ready for the windows to go in on Monday, and for the last part of the rough carpentry to happen next week as well.
Film Friday – Week 2 of the Attic Rebuild
I know… I have been posting a bunch of videos lately and not a lot of travel, Jeep, Puppy, garden, music, building, or other normal posts. That will change with the coming of Spring and the completion of our attic remodel/rebuild. In that vain, below is the short video documenting week 2 of the process. It looks like it will be a 5-part series.
Film Friday – 3D Printing Projects
I have been doing some medium-serious designing, borrowing, appropriating, and just plain stealing some 3D designs and printing useful stuff this winter in between shop time, my J-O-B, building projects, and remodel projects. The video below details the printing and use of a couple of safety razor cases, SD card holders, and GoPro Session4 case.
President’s Day 2018
President’s Day is here and it is time to prune the fruit trees, roses, and lavender. Or at least that was my plan for yesterday. Instead, I spent WAY TOO MUCH time on Twitter – ranting about sensible gun laws and the current US administration. I also spent a couple of hours cleaning the house, washing dishes, working on 2 videos, walking the puppies, and working in the shop. So the entire day was not wasted on-line.
In the shop, I am building a Screen Printers Workbench for a local artist, Amy M. Douglas. She does some pretty amazing prints and oil/acrylic work. We are trading my time for art, so it is a win/win for both of us. Below are a couple of shots taken during the build and I will have a whole YouTube video about the build in a week or so.
I will spend an afternoon this coming weekend pruning, re-stacking firewood, and cleaning the yard – I see a dump run in my future.
3/4/2018 Update:
The bench is done and delivered.
Film Friday – An Update and a Little Ranting
A quick update about why I have not posted here on my blog or been on YouTube for a few weeks and how I have been spending my time: Roadtrippin’, some slight ranting, obscene gestures, naughty words, snowboarding, beer, some boats, a little 3D printing, and a sneak peak at the Jeep’s homecoming after 12 weeks in the body shop are all to follow.
YouTube Partnership Program Rule Change Rant
So, I am going to rant for just a bit, bear with me…
-Mounts Soapbox –
“Ahem… I set a goal to be a better filmmaker, content provider, and maker five months ago. Part of that goal was to reach the 10,000 view threshold to monetize my YouTube account. I did not plan to quit my J-O-B, or be internet famous, I just wanted to use it as a milestone for progress toward the goal and I nailed it on January 4th! 10,000 views!! I was so stoked that I woke my wife up way too late one night to tell her. My account was under review for 2 weeks and I was finally officially monetized for two days – two WHOLE days – before BAM!! I was demonetized with a huge group of small and smaller content providers. Son of a…
While this was a while in coming, it looks like the process/decision was sped up when a guy with 15+ million subscribers named Logan Paul posted a video of a suicide victim. 1st, what a fucking privileged asshat. WTF is wrong with people?! He should be forever ashamed, and spend a great deal of his YouTube revenue on suicide prevention and advocacy. What should’ve happened following the public and advertiser outrage was YouTube suspending or deleting his channel, but that dude generates SERIOUS ad revenue, so… What happened instead was that YouTube took him off the top-tier ad group and YouTube punished the SHIT out of the small folks by demonetizing channels with less than 4000 hours of watch-time AND less than1000 subscribers to ‘protect their core values’? Makes zero sense and this guy will continue to post and earn $$$ even at the lower tier.
OK, fine, fuck’em. I was not doing this for some mythical pot of gold. This setback is just going to make me dig deeper. I am 10% to the new threshold and I will keep slogging on. Keep making and doing. Post better and better content. This will make me leaner, stronger, bigger, better, more… A better speaker, better filmmaker, I will get lighting and sound for my videos dialed, have awesome content, and be a better person from it all. Success doesn’t teach half as much as adversity.
To all effected by the YouTube demonetization BS: Don’t quit! Keep slogging on. Keep making and doing. You too will be all the better for it. Send me your channel and I will follow you and help with the watch hour threshold. As I said, I had just hit the monetization before all of this and we will get there again. It will take some hard work but, we can all help each other out.”
– Dismount Soapbox –
Film Friday – Another Hammer Re-Work/Repair
I had a tired, old, home-made, second-hand chipping hammer that was broken and had been so for years. So, I MIG-welded the busted joint, ground the transition, and added a reclaimed hickory handle, which came from a hatchet rebuild shown in a previous video that I posted on YouTube. With the re-weld and addition of copper handle rivets, it should last a few decades now.
Film Friday – Home Garage Car Lift Details
The short film below is part on my on-going series on YouTube discussing and showing my garage/shop build process. It details my experience of having a 2-post Rotary Revolution RTP10 vehicle lift, why I went with the type/brand/style that I did, thoughts after using it for 9 months, and what I might do differently if I could go back in time.
As Always, likes are really appreciated on my YouTube Channel!
Film Friday – The Garage Sidewalk Pour
Below is a short film documenting all the steps taken in pouring a walkway between our existing patio and my garage/shop, as also discussed in less detail in a previous post. I MAY have overbuilt it… a little… maybe…
Film Friday – Snowboarding Prep and Blooper
Winter is coming and Washington is supposed to get lots of snow. Consequently, I spent 30 minutes the other day waxing my board and finding all my errant gear. I also made a little video documenting my last pre-hip-surgery ride and the bloopers that ensued from riding when I should not have been.
Film Friday – Jeep Paint Prep
…And so begins my plan for interweb domination… This is the 1st in a series of videos detailing my Jeep re-painting project. I am doing the prep work and getting ready for my 1986 CJ-7 to go into the shop for a little cosmetic make-over. It was painted black at the factory in Toledo, has been black ever since, and will stay black until they make something darker. I also give a little bit of an update to what I have been up to of late, some projects that are in the works, and a quick pan view of part of a dirty, disorganized, and cluttered shop.
Film Friday – 41st Annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Fest 2017
Below is a short film documenting my visit to this year’s Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. I lived up to my promise to Stamps-With-Foot again this year and did not buy a wooden sailboat, but there was 2-3 in my price range (and about 100 waaayyy out of it…) that made me drool.
One year plan…
So, I have a One Year Plan to make my site and web content better and at the very least self-supporting. I have had this site for 16 years and it is not free. I would like for it to at least generate enough income to pay for the software updates, registration fees, equipment, and hosting costs. A Great Leap Forward without the Maoist philosophy, mass-starvation, mass-migration, and such. It is multi-pronged and here it is:
Shop:
- Stop eschewing progress for perfection.
- Get it set and start working and building and doing!
- Finish current Jeep projects
Website:
- More regular updates
- Split my personal BLOG/website and my “commercial” one
- More video content for this site and commercial site (trying REALLY hard to buy Matt of Many Trades from its current owner – see blurb below)
- Use as a funnel to increase my YouTube traffic
YouTube:
- Monetize Account
- Branding
- Change the page name
- Focus on specific content – craft and making stuff
- Split art, travel, family, cycling and kayaking videos onto second YouTube channel
- Become a better filmmaker
- Spend time in front of the camera
- Use better tools
- Lenses
- Lighting!
- Microphones
- Drones/software
- Camera Mounts
- Make better videos
- Make some of my own music for videos
To kick this off right and so to as not to make plans without follow through, I have now re-branded my YouTube Channel from “matt talley” to “Matt of Many Trades” to match my Instagram User Name. I have used the name for about 25 years and even considered it for a company name (I was building decks, doing some trim carpentry, concrete forming, wiring HVAC systems, residential electrical, welding on red steel, and doing some light remodeling) while in college to pay tuition/groceries/rent. I even have an OLD shirt I had silk screened with a hammer and cutting torch crossed with the name in an arch above. It is about accurate branding and I do/make/build/fix/break a bunch of random crap 🙂 and it is time to embrace accurate branding.
Film Friday – Sailing Video Adventures
I follow the YouTube feed/adventures of three around the world sailors. Thought I would share: