{"id":2401,"date":"2018-06-30T01:31:48","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T01:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2401"},"modified":"2018-06-30T01:31:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-30T01:31:48","slug":"by-its-covers-resin-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/30\/by-its-covers-resin-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"by its covers, resin failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a sucker for a good book gimmick. \u00a0A fancy cover, sure, but if the fonts are weird or if there\u2019s a sweet map on the inside cover – well, I\u2019m in. \u00a0I picked up a book recently that was two books in one. The first in a sequel on one side and then you flip it over and there\u2019s the second book. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cool!<\/span><\/p>\n

I read the blurb on the inside cover for each of the books and was a little wary. \u00a0The narrator is a poet working on the introduction for an anthology of poems – hence the title of the book \u201cThe Anthologist\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, the covers had me hooked and I dove in.<\/span><\/p>\n

And\u2026 seriously?\u00a0 \u00a0It was terrible.<\/span><\/p>\n

The guy – Paul Chowder – has writer\u2019s block. \u00a0That\u2019s pretty much the premise. His girlfriend moves out because he\u2019s too pathetic and he spends most of his time not writing the introduction and instead tells us his arrogant version of the history of poetry.<\/span><\/p>\n

I managed to drag myself to page 101 where I found this gem:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s try again. \u00a0The history of poetry began, quite possibly, in the year 1883. \u00a0Let me write that date for you with my Sharpie, so you can have it for your convenience. 1883. \u00a0That\u2019s when it all began. Or maybe not. Could be any year. The year doesn\u2019t matter. Forget the year! \u00a0The important thing is that there\u2019s something called the nineteenth century\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like some kind of stream of consciousness by an idiot. \u00a0I got to that drivel and hit the brakes and went back to the front cover. \u00a0Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award? \u201cStartlingly perceptive and ardent…Chowder is possibly the most appealing narrator Baker has invented.\u201d The New York Times Book Review.<\/span><\/p>\n

I kept at it for as long as I did for two reason:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I\u2019ve been inflicting my own poetry on other people recently with my Haiku tweets and felt it was a kind of penance. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. I hoped, somehow, that it would get better. \u00a0Maybe he\u2019d write a poem that could raise the dead. \u00a0Or his dog is a communist. Or his ex-girlfriend invented the chicken sandwich.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But, I couldn\u2019t see myself getting another hundred pages into this and still having him not accomplish anything. At all.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    So, I bailed. \u00a0And the book is going into my Half-Priced Books pile in the hope that someone else – perhaps with lower standards or expectations – will enjoy it.<\/span><\/p>\n

    ————————<\/span><\/p>\n

    Youtube has figured out that I\u2019m a crafty sort and has lately started to suggest some resin projects. \u00a0I found some two-part resin on the cheap and decided to give it a whirl. I had two things I wanted to try – using a mold and something called \u201csecret wood\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    I had a silicone mold from a Sculpey project that I hoped would work for the project and the secret wood just needed a broken piece of narrow wood. <\/span><\/p>\n

    I followed the instructions carefully for the two-part resin and added some dye to give it a little color. \u00a0I poured – and waited.<\/span><\/p>\n

    And mostly failed.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I had used packing tape to make a framework for the secret wood and it didn\u2019t seal well – about half leaked out onto my protected work surface. \u00a0The molds did a little better, but I hadn\u2019t been able to get all the clay out and some got stuck in the resin. And the resin itself turned out to be a shade of green that matched mouthwash.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But, I learned a lot. \u00a0I\u2019ve got new ideas for preparing the wood and building a better frame around it. \u00a0And the molds are now clean so the next attempt will be clean as well. And I know that the colors work and can do a better job of getting the shade right.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Time to trim more wood and mix up more resin. \u00a0I don\u2019t recall the last time I was this excited about things going wrong – it was a good learning experience.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I\u2019m a sucker for a good book gimmick. \u00a0A fancy cover, sure, but if the fonts are weird or if there\u2019s a sweet map on the inside cover – well, I\u2019m in. \u00a0I picked up a book recently that was two books in one. The first in a sequel on one side and then you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions\/2402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}