Rob Johnstone
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Exciting New Woodworking Schools
As some of our long-time eZine subscribers may know, from our very first issue of the eZine we have provided our readers with a serious list of woodworking schools. These schools are varied in their size, location and curriculum. If you want to learn how to build a canoe, we’ve got you covered. Build a guitar … no problem. Basic cabinetry? It is a piece of cake. Organized by location (looking for a school in Nova Scotia? Look no farther. ), the listings provide contact information, a brief description and a link to the school’s web site.
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Looking at the Big Picture
For many of us, especially those of us who have passed the half-century mark, small images have become the hobgoblins of annoying web sites. For some time now, I have been receiving e-mail requests for bigger images in the eZine (so readers can see what the heck the story is talking about) or, if not bigger images on the web page, for that groovy web site option of the expanding picture. (Click on an image and boom … it gets bigger!)
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Heading South
By the time you read this missive, I will be wandering through the primeval forests of central Arkansas (with a bona-fide forest ranger) — looking for the much-coveted bobwhite quail. (Who, by the way, convene in coveys.) From there, I will mosey on down to Texas, where according to my friends from the Lone Star State, “we’ll be fixin’ to shoot some birds.” Although to my Yankee ears it sounds a bit more like “burrrds”. My bird dog, who for the last month or so has either been freezing outdoors in twenty-below temperatures or lounging on the sofa, is in for a big and a pleasant surprise. She will go to sleep in a dog box in the back of my Blazer, with dreams of snowdrifts and wind-chill, and wake up in big woods and sunshine.
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A Bump-Up for BeadLOCK
When it comes to a low-cost and super-easy way create floating tenon joints, the BeadLOCK joinery system has long been the hands-down winner.
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FREE Plan Bonanza!
OK, this might be one of those “good news”/ bad news” situations. The good news is that we have featured not one, not two, but three high quality, four-color woodworking plans in our regular free plans department. These are the style of plan that we put in the Premium section of the eZine each issue. They are, of course, more expensive and complicated to produce … but they are much prettier to look at. Download these PDFs to your hard drive, and they are yours forever — electronically speaking. The bad news is that this is a one-time event.
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Cheers For the New Year
Recently it occurred to me that life is a lot like driving in a Minnesota ice storm: the road is indeed treacherous, but some folks will get through just fine. Others will slide off — but with a bit of help they’ll get back on track, moving forward with more determination and increased caution. And of course some will spin-out and take others with them, while a few will simply not make it.
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Important Confession
In considering recent events, and in the interest of allowing overworked former Senators to have a clear calendar during the holiday season, I have a confession to make. I have used and continue to use a performance enhancing substance while producing this eZine. (And yes, wise guys, I understand that the terms performance and enhanced are applied in their broadest possible usages in my case.)
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Woodworking Inspiration
One question that I often ask fellow woodworkers is “How do you choose your next project?” The most common answer I get is that a home-improvement project has shouldered its way into their workshop. And if it is not home-improvement per se, it is often a piece of furniture or a project that will improve their home life in some fashion or the home life of someone they care about.
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Innovatively Yours
On Thursday night, November 1st, you, faithful reader, became a winner of a prestigious award. On that evening, Woodworker’s Journal was selected from a very competitive group of magazines and awarded the MMPA’s Innovation Award. We were primarily recognized for our online efforts, from our Online Survey Group, to our Resource Digest Online, travel blogs … but specifically noted as one of our successful and innovative products was the eZine and its new sister, the Premium eZine pages.
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Here We Go!
It’s possible you may remember that, in the early days of the eZine, I would come up with random contests, most of them at least tangentially related to the world of woodworking. We had the messiest shop contest — that one actually frightened me. The weirdest project contest was an eye-opener. We had the woodworking poetry contest: I laughed, I cried … I was perplexed. (But I loved the poems, I still have many of them on my computer.)
