I was thinking about this recently, but a couple of years ago, I thought that I should do my part and support YouTube channels that practiced proper safety protocols in woodworking and I almost immediately realized that if I did that, 95%+ of them would have to go away. Hardly anyone uses blade guards on YouTube. Half the channels don’t use pushsticks. I’ve seen channels that purposely removed the guards from their jointers, which is one of the stupidest things ever because if you touch that, you don’t just lose a finger that can be reattached, you produce hamburger, which can’t.
Why are people so stupid? I don’t know!
The cycle continues, sadly. Once it became clear that I wasn’t going to get the miter saw that I wanted, since they are out of stock at every store within a 100+ mile radius, I started looking for other options. I know what I need. I need a 12″ saw, I need a short-throw sliding mechanism so it can be pushed against the wall in my existing miter saw station and I know I want either a laser or an LED shadow. Three simple things. What could be easier?
So let me tell you a story. Way back when I was about 7, this is more than 50 years ago, I started collecting U.S. stamps. It wasn’t really a conscious choice, more one of availability. I lived where there were tons of U.S. stamps, so I collected what was readily available. Most people start that way.
This has to do with woodworking, although it can certainly apply to lots of other things. Someone posted on Reddit, complaining that whenever he uploads a project, people will criticize him. He even admits his faults, his joints are loose, his boards have gaps, etc. No, what he wants people to do is be less critical.
Over the past week or so, I’ve been out in the shop, trying to get it back together. I haven’t had time to do much woodworking in quite some time and now, I want to. That’s meant sweeping up, tuning machines and deciding what I want to do.
This has come up before, but recently, a new thread showed up on a stamp forum, I’ll link to it below if you want to read it, wondering why stamp catalog values are so far off what the actual sale prices are. There are a lot of arguments on both sides, including from me, but there just isn’t room in a place like that to really dig into it, so I’m going to do it here.
The new one arrived, not long after my replacement copy of the last one, since my puppy decided to shred it and the APS was nice enough to send me a replacement for free. Thanks to Scott English for getting it done. Great guy.
Just got the new issue and there were two letters that I wanted to comment on, one more than the other. The first, that I’m mostly going to mention in passing, was by Scott Zimmer, who said that “Many collectors view stamp investing as taboo”, which is true and, IMO, should be. It’s not taboo to invest in anything that you want, but you leave the realm of collecting and enter the realm of investing if you do that.
There was an article in the latest issue of American Philatelist, called “The Faux Philatelist” which I agree with almost entirely. In it, Barry White says that he is a stamp collector, not a philatelist.