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My beloved leather jacket becomes a bag

In 1987, I was bartending in New York and saved tip money until I had enough to buy this leather motorcycle jacket at a store in Greenwich Village. This jacket and I had many crazy adventures together, but I haven’t worn the jacket regularly in ten years. Eventually I got the notion that I could turn it into a bag.

But not without help! Enter Maker Faire, and Swap-o-rama-rama, an event where you bring a bag of clothing to donate, then get a chance to rummage through the piles to choose and modify what you find. I donated the clothing, but checked first and got the ok to bring my jacket and a cool skull scarf to do this special mod.

Scatha Allison of Miss Velvet Cream Atelier (and author of Jean Therapy: Denim Deconstruction for the Conscientious Crafter) did the heavy lifting, helping to create my new fabulous bag. We had the help of an amazing industrial-strength sewing machine designed by Ken Gresham of Ray’s Sewing Machine Center.

Click on the thumbnails below to navigate through this set of photos showing how the transformation took place:

This was great fun. I’m really grateful to Scatha for seeing me through this project! It made me want to learn more about sewing so I could take something like this on myself! And I loved that I could re-use something I loved once…but would no longer wear…by turning it into something brand new!

Posted in Life, Consumerism | No Comments »

Pollan Hits Another Homerun: Why Bother?

I didn’t see Michael Pollan’s article from last Sunday’s New York Times, Why Bother?, until tonight when I read about it on Stephen Bodio’s blog.

Pollan asks the same kind of question I was trying to ask in my ramble, The Scarcity Mentality. If climate change is inevitable anyway….if changing our own happens feels like a drop in the bucket because others don’t…if we’re not even confident in what choices are the best…well then, why bother? And has he so eloquently puts it:

“A sense of personal virtue, you might suggest, somewhat sheepishly. But what good is that when virtue itself is quickly becoming a term of derision? And not just on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal or on the lips of the vice president, who famously dismissed energy conservation as a “sign of personal virtue.” No, even in the pages of The New York Times and The New Yorker, it seems the epithet “virtuous,” when applied to an act of personal environmental responsibility, may be used only ironically. Tell me: How did it come to pass that virtue — a quality that for most of history has generally been deemed, well, a virtue — became a mark of liberal softheadedness? How peculiar, that doing the right thing by the environment — buying the hybrid, eating like a locavore — should now set you up for the Ed Begley Jr. treatment.”

Pollan does more than give a succinct description of the problem. He offers some good advice:

“But the act I want to talk about is growing some — even just a little — of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t — if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade — look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.”

This resonates so strongly with me! We’ve been doing more of this, by getting some of the garden in (more to come!) and raising chickens for eggs, even composting. I find it immensely satisfying, to have this connection to the cycle of life.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in our kitchen and ate two eggs, from our hens, with toast from bread I made myself…a simple meal, yet honestly one of the best I’ve ever had. There was so much more to that food than I expected. I wanted to share that experience with others. But I don’t think I could sit someone down and just give them that experience…it’s not only about making the food; it’s not about the molecules of taste or the brain chemistry of attentiveness…it’s something wonderful and I had to go down a long road to reach it.

Part of that road was inspired, in fact, by Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals….highly recommended! And I’ve got some more reading to do myself…Pollan’s article has me interested in Wendell Berry…and I think I’ll start with Berry’s article in this month’s Harper’s, Faustian economics: Hell hath no limits.

Whether it’s with gardening, raising chickens, or something else, honoring the interconnectedness, with each other and with the earth itself, is the solution out of the scarcity mentality.

Posted in Green, Consumerism, Food | No Comments »

Mini Vacation to Death Valley and Pinnacles

We’ve visited Death Valley several times…it’s one of our favorite places. In fact, we were married there in April 2001. So it’s not unusual for us to get the bug to return in April. Of course, it’s not all that unusual at all, given that everyone is doing it these days. Damned bloggers, giving away our best spots. <smile>

We combined two nights at Death Valley with a night at Pinnacles National Monument, keen to see the California Condors who inhabit the area. It was a spectacular trip…there’s nothing better that California in the springtime! But, as Uncle Steve reminds me, “Really, the wildflowers are crap and the animals will bite and kill you. It’s best if you stay out of Death Valley, readers!”

And we even saw the condors at Pinnacles. Here’s my photos from the trip:

You can also browse Steve’s photos.

This trip was made possible by Therm-a-rest. We decided to spend the money we might have used on a hotel room in Death Valley on new Therm-a-Rest DreamTime sleeping pads, which have renewed my interest in camping. I also had trouble sitting in one position for a long car ride, and the Therm-a-Rest Lite Seat came to the rescue there. Kids, listen to Aunt T and get out there to enjoy the days when you can sleep or sit anywhere, before your bones get old and creaky like mine!

Posted in Photos and Videos, Outdoors, Travel | 3 Comments »

The Scarcity Mentality

I’ve been watching a lot of good documentaries recently…The End of Suburbia, The Corporation, Blue Vinyl. They aren’t exactly uplifting. Each makes the point that our culture has been pushing forward without considering the real consequences of the decisions we’ve made…or decisions we’ve allowed others to make for us.

If there’s a goal to these films, I think it’s to get people to change their ways. There aren’t enough resources to continue living the way the majority of Americans live. We’re fouling our own water, food, and air and it’s literally killing us. The point is clear.

But I notice that they’ve also had another affect on me. While my awareness has changed, and day-to-day decisions are different, I’m concerned about what I’ve noticed as my own selfishness, my own disregard for consequences.

We just took a lovely three-night road trip through California…something I’m not going to pretend to regret. But there is some irony in burning up a bunch of fossil fuel to go visit the National Parks. The Furnace Creek campground in Death Valley, in this state of mind, seems utterly ridiculous. It’s surreal to pass the RVs trundling along to the dump station, gaze over at a bright green golf course, and enjoy the air conditioning and limitless ice of the restaurant (not to mention flush toilets in the campground). My mind kept going back to the questions…where is the water coming from? Where is the waste going to? That I’m not driving an RV or playing golf isn’t the point. Clearly, what’s happening there is not sustainable in any sense of the word.

My reaction? That I’d better get to Death Valley and enjoy it as much as possible before it all ends. I love visiting Death Valley. I don’t regret going in the least. I feel sorrow when I realize that our way of life might be changing in ways that will make it all but impossible to go in the future. Better go now. Use the gasoline, enjoy the ice. Now. Before it’s gone.

It’s this scarcity mentality within myself that bothers me the most. It’s the The Tragedy of the Commons. I think of travel I’d like to do, and worry that I’d better do it now before oil prices make it prohibitive. For the last few weeks I’ve considered buying a 25 pound bag of organic brown rice at the Laguna Farm store…it’s exceptionally delicious rice, but I decided we don’t eat enough of it to warrant the big bag. This week, after reading about rising food costs, I kick myself because the rice at the farm is all gone. The scarcity…the notion that I won’t be able to get it later…makes me want it all the more. And that’s ridiculous.

An aside: I first wrote this before being aware of the recent media circus around food costs in general and rice in particular…Sterling’s got a good take on it.

I thought about sending some of these documentaries to others, to those who don’t live in the culture of the Bay Area, in a town where the city council is made up of Green Party members, and where thinking about these issues is a way of life. But what effect would these have on them? Will they look for ways to stockpile their own rice, gasoline, water? (Yes. before I can even post this, that question gets answered, even for the Bay Area.) And it begs the question…if the resources are running out, regardless, does it make any sense to try to conserve them? Or shall we use them all up and move along to dealing with the inevitable consequences? After all, if I don’t use the oil now, someone else will anyway. Do I, a single person, make any difference?

With apocalypse, there is also excitement. I notice that in myself; I hear it in the tone of those interviewed in the documentaries. Bring it on! Maybe we look forward to the time when, with no resources, we’re freed from the guilt of our own consumption. Or maybe we think we’re smarter, and that smarter will mean a nicer survival, because our brains and our consciousness will bring the world around to our own nirvana of home gardens and chickens and bicycles. But the truth is, I don’t trust my culture to make the right decisions any more. If there’s an overriding theme to these documentaries, it’s that the rich will use their power simply to go grow richer, and as they do, their power grows. Like Steve said after watching The Corporation, “Makes you wanna go hide under a rock.” And he’s right, it does. It feels like there’s precious little chance that an enlightened movement will arise, one of of living closer to nature, of being connected to the food that connects us to the web of life and to each other. And I’m as susceptible to the scarcity mentality as anyone. What is my role in it?

Posted in Consumerism | No Comments »

LA Freeway…on Bicycles

There’s something about this that looks a little Blade Runner-esque…I love it!

Yes, I know, but safety isn’t the point here.

Posted in Green | 1 Comment »

Recently posted to other sites

I’ve been doing more posting elsewhere this week:

• Eagle Dreams: Searching for Legends in Wild Mongolia - a book review, and some dreaming of my own.
• Anger, Unleashed - a rant after Laika was attacked by an unleashed dog on a local trail.
• Short-tailed Weasel - a short movie about my encounter with a weasel at Point Reyes. See also my Flickr photos from that day.
• Searching for Bees: The Great Sunflower Project - a new citizen science project.
• Photos of Ben and Maddie - from our visit to them on Sunday
• Grinning Jaguar - my new domain name. On Tuesday I filed papers for a fictitious business name and business license for my new freelancing lifestyle.

In general, I’m trying to spend lots of time offline, with varying degrees of success.

Posted in From other sites, Life | 1 Comment »

Building a Dual-bin Composter

My project for the past few days (on and off): a compost bin with two sections for our back yard. I needed something that would keep the dog and other critters out of the garbage (although I probably won’t put a top on it except maybe a tarp during the height of the rainy season). You can browse the photos here or jump directly to the photo set on flickr:

I wanted to try a two section structure so I could have one side full, yet go in and turn it over regularly to keep it composting. Then the other section can serve as a collection area for the next batch of compost. I’m hoping that one section will be completely done around the time the other one gets full.

I want to make good use of our chicken coop bedding and manure!

I don’t really know what I’m doing, so this is an experiment. The design is loosely based on a single bin shown in the book Organic Gardening The lumber is reclaimed fence boards and 2×4’s from the dump, with some 1×2’s I had in the garage. I started by drawing, measuring out and building the three sides of the “shell”, and then figuring out the front after I had that done.

I really enjoyed building this!

Posted in Permaculture | 2 Comments »

Permaculture at Commonweal Garden and Regenerative Design Institute

Yesterday I was excited to finally attend an open house given by the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) in Bolinas. I’ve been intrigued by their programs for some time now, but the Commonweal Garden site is also a residence, so it’s only open to the public on a limited basis.

I was really affected by the place and the people here, as I expected to be. I love that their programs address not only the physical nature of permaculture work, but also integrate more nature awareness (including tracking) and healing of the spirit. But I was wary also. One might expect an organization like that to be a little flaky…would I hear about crystal vibrations as pest control or Luddite anti-technology rants?

It was exhilarating to find how down-to-earth this program is, with a healthy respect for science, and a considered use of modern technology with a view towards the long-term affects of any decisions or use of resources. They combine a concern for the serious and depressing problems facing our culture with enthusiasm and optimism for being part of the solution…truly they see these problems as an opportunity. The tour was lead by founders James Stark and Penny Livingston-Stark….these are people who operate on a level I describe as “It’s important. I know it’s important. It’s what I do.”

Here’s a slide show of the photos I took, and the rough notes I jotted down during my visit.

• Permaculture means learning the systems and principles of nature and living things and learning how to apply those same principles.
• James told us a couple of times…I might used the term “warned us”…that there is a big emotional response to the programs at RDI. It is very common that people experience an new awareness of a huge grief over the the separation of their modern lives from nature. They feel that psychological counseling is an important part of their programs.
• Wood chips are their biggest import…they listen for the sound of woodchippers in Bolinas and make friends with the tree companies to get as much as they can.
• There are some fish in the pond now that control mosquitoes; they plan to put in catfish and maybe a small species of perch in the near future; they’ll harvest those for food. The pond is unlined…it uses the natural clay of the soil, which was also used to construct a large bench overlooking the pond. When they arrived, the pond was an unhealthy bog.
• Penny talked about wanting to do an ecological study of the farm. (Overall I was impressed by the respect for the principles of science here…sometimes these kind of organizations seem almost anti-science, and this one is not).
• The sheep are Navajo-Churro, an endangered breed. They’re very hardy and disease-resistant, and their meat is considered to be far superior to most other sheep meat (more like lamb than mutton). Their wool will be used to make blankets to be used at RDI.
• They eat very well. Descriptions of cheesecake made from goat cheese and lemons, pizzas and bread from the wood-fired ovens, and all manners of fresh produce and herbs left our mouths watering. Animal food products come from chickens, goats, sheep, and probably something I’m forgetting. They do some minimal gopher trapping but report that they “haven’t gotten into that as a main dish yet.” I also liked that they have a very sharp and witty sense of humor.
• They’re planning to rehab a barn and build a workshop. In addition to agriculture for food, they want to do furniture building, blanket making (with weaving and spinning), and even pottery from the local clay.
• They showcase and teach a variety of building techniques, including cob building, straw bale, and Wattle and Daub. James pointed out that many people start out construction with the idea that they’re going to build a straw bale house or make a cob house, but in many cases a combination of techniques is the right choice. A north-facing wall might benefit from a technique with greater insulation than a south-facing wall. They also use as many reclaimed components as possible…doors, windows, floor, lumber, etc. Building here is complicated by being in a earthquake zone, so they have to consider this at every step.
• A primary concept here is living in concert with the wildlife. Bobcats and foxes are regular visitors, and they know their habits. They’ve even had a mountain lion staying on the property (they noticed agitation among the livestock and had their nature awareness and tracking experts investigate). They plan for a 25% loss of anything they raise to the local wildlife. This integration with nature study and tracking is also very attractive to me; Jon Young is an instructor at RDI. They preserve a riparian zone for the wildlife to move through. No dogs or cats are allowed on the property due to the affects their presence would have on the wildlife; I didn’t see any birdfeeders, either…there are challenges here to my ideas of having a life with animals.
• There is a lot of iron in their water supply; they filter and the iron collects as a sort of scum on the top of the sand filter. They take this iron oxide and use it as a coloring agent in their building materials, creating a beautiful reddish brown hue.
• They have large groups stay here for classes. One overly large group of over 150 people caused them concern about their water supply; they brought in another storage tank and asked people to treat water as gold. At the end of the gathering they were shocked to find that people had averaged only three gallons of water per day per person…less than the amount used for a typical single toilet flush.
• Composting toilets have separate seats and containers for urine and solid waste. Urine is used directly as a plant fertilizer, unless they have groups visiting. Then the urine has to also be composted because of prescription drugs that are excreted. Compost from the toilets is buried on the land (not applied to the garden areas).
• The greenhouse is used for a nice classroom out of the elements during cold, wind, or rain. With an additional tarp, it can seat up to 180 people.
• This fall they’re starting an arts program with plants. People will learn to tend the plants and what they’re used for, they’ll make dyes, then they’ll create artwork. The art will be photographed and then used as sheet mulch around other plants to complete the cycle. Well…maybe some artwork will be saved if people are really attached to it.
• They are trying to create ways for people to reconnect with living systems. Humans have a unique ability to foster and create life on the planet. They are rooted in a belief that it’s inner healing that is going to help heal the planet.
• Horsetail or Equisetum is a native plant that they’re experimenting with. It has exceptionally long roots that draw water up. They found that a patch that had been mowed created saucer-shaped damp depresssions from water that continued to be brought up by the roots, so they theorize that they could use these as an irrigation method by planting them among other plants and snapping them off.
• The reality: there isn’t enough natural material on earth to build housing for eight billion people. We need to embrace solutions using recycled and man made materials. They feel fortunate to be so naturally resource-rich. But clearly our current levels of consumption are not sustainable and we need to plan for a future that is very different. They are excited about helping to show the way for sustainability.
• The eucalyptus grove is a drawback from the park service’s perspective because it is an invasive non-native. But RDI is managing the grove as a source of wood. They call it their “home depot”.
• There were a lot of good quotes I jotted down. James, “HOw good can you feel in a shopping mall? How radiant can you be in there?”
• They do fence to prevent deer damage because the deer lack enough natural predators. Deer frequently enter anyhow. They have actually run deer down…chasing them. As sprinters, deer will tire and simply collapse. Then five people (one on each leg, one on the head) can carry the deer outside of the fence and release it.
• They make things visually interesting to attract photographers and garner publicity. For example, as in the home they had in Point Reyes Station: they might make a trade-off in how a roof is constructed, shaping it in a more visually interesting way that creates more scrap that they have to figure out how to use.
• Someone asked what they used for insect control. They said “nothing”, but the answer is really “everything”. They see insect problems as a symptom of unhealthy soil and plants.
• James stressed that you need to have fun with these activities. That they need to be done as a celebration of life. Can’t be serious all the time. Critical to heal ourselves from the injuries of our past so we can move forward…our bodies have limited energy, and if we don’t do that healing, that energy will be spent on the past instead of the present.
• They see their work, particularly with their education and leadership programs, as a way of inoculating contemporary culture with tools that have been with humanity for eons.

The visit reinforced my idea of taking an two-week intensive permaculture course here. It’s a little unnerving…the place makes me feel very emotionally vulnerable in ways I don’t fully understand, and I don’t think I can take this step without coming out of the program profoundly changed. Even good change can be scary.

Posted in Permaculture | No Comments »

Confessions of a Chart Maker

When I need to figure something out, I want to push words and images around so I can think about them and, more importantly, see and play with the connections and relationships between them. There’s something fundamentally satisfying about putting my thoughts onto paper in a non-linear way. If I can physically move them around, so much the better.

I was startled to realize recently that not everyone does this kind of thing.

I find that I’ve been creating lots of these charts and graphs over the past few months; they’re evidence of an active inner life of feelings and thinking; of changes. Sometimes they’re a misguided attempt to put a rational framework around something in my life that isn’t rational.

Here’s a couple from several months ago. They’re dry, rigid table charts:

The printout is from an excel file; I was grappling with setting priorities about things I wanted to do. This is evidence of a real struggle going on in myself…I had to create two columns, one for “practical priority”, and one for “happiness”. I wasn’t able to give things that simply made me happy a high priority, so I had to create another column to express that. It wasn’t until someone else questioned why being happy couldn’t be a high priority all on it’s own that I was able to see how imposing this rational structure wasn’t really working.

The other “chart” in the photo is just a list of different classes I was interested in taking, and an attempt to categorize them by subject area. After I dumped everything out onto the page, I numbered the categories in order of which they went onto the page (it doesn’t happen top-to-bottom, left-to-right). You can see the same sort of struggle here, because I started starring the things that sounded more fun or exciting. There’s some things on here that are less interesting, but seemed more like things I “should” do.

It’s worth pointing out that these charts are never “done”. I always think of things later to add to them, but rarely go back and do that. I’m off making a new chart.

Here’s a couple from a little later…

What’s not to like about a Venn diagram?! The big circle collage was an attempt to figure out how I could make the different interests and pieces of my life coalesce into something better. I thought that if I could see where the intersections occurred, I might find a unique set of interests that would point to a new career path. It’s another attempt to impose rational structure. There’s so many things wrong about this representation that I don’t even know where to start. If I keep these scrawlings to look back on later, I can see how they’re a representation of my mind at just one given point in time. There’s a big vulnerability in even showing them to other people, because sometimes they become less about what I am and more about what I am not. And sometimes they are a way of trying on another “self”.

The other one here is sort of a plan for a location, a drawing of a place I envisioned, with scrawling notes in random places on it. It’s not terribly satisfying, because the vision is so much more rich than a line drawing. But getting it out of my head and onto paper in some form makes it easier for me to even think of expressing it more fully. I’ve made a few of these; lots go into the trash.

It’s been almost two weeks since I left my job, and my brain has been full of ideas and possiblities. That’s lead to the next exercise, the index cards:

This is a 43Folders geek’s delight…color-coded index cards held in a nice little recycled tin. It draws heavily on GTD and the Hipster PDA (I carry some cards with me to capture ideas as they come up). It ranges from random thoughts about mundane tasks I should get done (white cards) to bigger projects and goals. I don’t really know where this is going, but it’s supremely satisfying to spread them out on the table and move them around and think about them. I’m hoping that eventually I’ll feel “done” with the idea collection aspect of it and be able to use them to make some decisions. Already I’m seeing the cracks in this particular project, again the imposition of a rational system on a non-rational life. Still, it’s quite useful in that it clears my brain…I don’t have to worry about keeping track of all these ideas once I’ve got them written down to refer to later, and it creates space in my head for new ideas to come up.

You can see how the nature of the visualizations has been changing over time. From a the black-and-white straight lines and borders of the excel charts, to hand-drawn scribbles and freeing of the words to move around without borders. As that happens, I see it starting to intersect with other projects that I tend to think more as leaning towards “art”:

The large collage is a an assignment from a class I took, Introduction to Career Development. The assignment was to create a collage of “the things you’d like to invite into your life in the next 5-10 years”. It was an interesting excercise in itself…I don’t want to write too much about it here because I’d like to encourage Steve to do his own and then we can get all verbal about it. But suffice to say that almost item on the collage is symbolic of multiple things (and of course there are things left off). It’s a good exercise; try it and you’ll find that there is much more than meets the eye.

Most of the collages in class were rectangular, on a sheet of posterboard, but I chose to do mine within a circular shape because of my emerging interest in mandalas as self expression. You can see my first attempt at a mandala behind the collage there. I’m not sure I want to just put the full thing out there…I’m not ready to write that confessional yet!

These expressions of what goes on in my head are intensely personal. I’ll probably think about deleting this post and the photos a zillion times after they go live. I feel that they’re almost repulsive to others, as if they’re looking at pornography. And at times I’ve often been frustrated by trying to really understand others…I want to thrust a marker and a piece of paper into their hands…just show me, please! Make a chart!

When I look at this propensity for chart and graph making, I see how it’s threaded through my life time after time. My favorite part of science fairs in high school was creating the display of the information I was trying to convey. Later, as a bar manager, I was charting beer sales against the academic and sports calendar at Ohio State, trying to dial in the perfect inventory to have on hand for any given week. At WordStar I made excel capable of drawing beautiful detailed schedules for tech support phone coverage (schedules that never worked in the realm of the real world and real people who weren’t automatons!) The bliss of sitting in an Edward Tufte class. And I’m sure at O’Reilly people often mystified by the white board scrawlings I’d insist on making, sometimes unable to verbally communicate anything without that crutch or at least the chance to slink away to my desk to think things through on a sloppy deskpad with indecipherable collections of almost random words.

But what does it all mean for my future? I have no idea!

I’d imagine that other people do other things…some more verbally inclined might need to talk. Others might write, without making visual pictures with the words. Yet others might use pictures alone. I’m sure there are habits and preferences that I can’t even imagine. So tell me in the comments….what techniques do you have have for thinking about big ideas and questions about your life? And tell me, are those preferences and techniques reflected in the kind of work that you do?

Posted in Work, Art | 5 Comments »

The Printer Dilemma (tired of buying crap)

An Epson Stylus CX 6000 “multifunction” printer sits on my desk as it has for months, its functionality reduced to scanning only. It worked well on its initial set of cartridges; when they started running out, I replaced them with cartridges from the same third-party manufacturer I’d used with my last Epson. They failed; I tried cartridge after cartridge to no avail. Frustrated, I finally contacted the cartridge manufacturer and asked for my money back. They took back the cartridges without a problem, and I ordered from another vendor that Steve uses…the printer still wouldn’t print with those.

The printer itself was shot, already?! I tore into it, thinking I could fix it, voiding the warranty that had probably already been voided by using the third-party cartridges. But it only got worse. After only a couple of months of use, my new printer was just an oversized scanner. A new record.

Now I need a printer, and I’m dreading the experience. I’m considering a multi-function black-and-white laser printer…the Samsung SCX-4200 gets good reviews, and for less than $150, it seems like a good value. I can live without fax capabilities, since I can fax from my Mac and receive faxes via a free eFax account.

But I’d miss the ability to do color occasionally. While browsing Copperfields the other day, I saw an interesting book by Nick Bantock, Urgent 2nd Class: Creating Curious Collage, Dubious Documents, and Other Art from Ephemera. Now I’ve got the bug to do some interesting Bantock-style experiments:

Of course, now I think I NEED a color printer. And I dread the horrorshow of more ink cartridges, more messed up printers returned to be recycled. Recycling is nice and all, but what about just making stuff that lasts? Everybody knows that using your own refillable water bottle is a zillion times more eco-friendly than recycling a bunch of disposables, but the printer manufacturers think we’re content to keep going through printers and cartridges like they’re…well, water. They think we’re stupid.

I was glad to see Kevin Kelly’s post on the HP OfficeJet Pro K5400 Printer, a printer he recommends for its economy. It’s increasingly difficult to slog through printer reviews, and long-term cost comparisons (not to mention info about environmental impacts) is even more difficult to find. In typical Cool Tools fashion, this is a great help.

Sadly, the OfficeJet K5400 does one thing…print. It’s true that for less than three hundred dollars, I could get the OfficeJet for color printing and the Samsung laserjet for everything else. Maybe I should look at spending more on a network-ready color laser all-in-one for Steve and I to share? The amount of research one has to do to find the right choice of price vs. economy is daunting. And the more time I have to spend on it, the angrier I get.

Why is it even legal to make crappy devices that cost a bundle to refill, that break at the earliest opportunity, are completely unrepairable, and create more harmful waste? I believe in the Maker’s Manifesto and “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it”, and I want a consumer’s version. If I can’t repair it, or have it repaired, I don’t want to buy it. If I can’t resupply the consumables from whatever source I want, forget it. If you can’t make something that lasts, if you have to hide behind a “recycling” policy that’s nothing but more greenwashing, I don’t want to buy the damned crap you’re selling. Someone told me that refrigerators are now made to last only a few years…it’s appalling.

A printer is a tool, and I want tools that last. With my creative juices running, I want to get a sewing machine and a stand mixer. I’ll get vintage appliances that even I could open and maintain, or at least have repaired by a specialist who can do more than tell me the entire thing needs to be “recycled”. I miss my sturdy, dependable HP IIIP, but sadly, vintage printers just aren’t good option…I can only imagine the nightmare of connectors, drivers, and additional scanning and copying equipment that would entail. A good vintage tool should trend towards simplicity, not complexity. The value of a vintage tool is in the ability to just use it without doing too much research on it. Vintage computer printers would involve maddening complexity, and that’s not for me. I want simple. Dependable. Something to foster creativity.

Hmmm…Justin’s description was so intriguing…maybe I should check out that Letterpress class. Here’s one of his photos from his experience…aren’t these beautiful?

I’m a sucker for the romance of old tools!

Oh, I’ll buy a printer eventually, but I wish there was a choice that didn’t make me feel dirty.

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