No fooling, there I was

I was having an email exchange with a friend yesterday. This is someone I've actually met in person a couple of times, however, he's only ever seen my Japanese work in photos posted to forums or on my website. Apropos of a discussion of a particular piece of music, I sent him one of my one-take-wonders, as it happened to be the song in question.  In response, he wrote: "So what can't you do?"

Aside from the rather thorny matter that singing currently remains something I feel I ought to be able to do but have no desire for, quite a lot, actually. I can't read Japanese or speak more than a rudimentary phrases of the language. I can't drive stick shift. I can't do calculus. I can't ride a motorcycle. 

Or can I? I know how to write. I know how to think. I have a decent grasp of spatial relationships. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. Just about every SCA-related skill I have is something I more or less figured out on my own. While I cannot discount genetics, music in the house I grew up with and piano lessons, I managed to teach myself to play several instruments.  I taught myself to sew by pushing needles through fabric, and turning modern clothing inside out and looking at how it went together.  Woodworking? Get some tools, get some wood. Make stuff. Make cool stuff.

Including mistakes. Nothing blows a misconception out of the water like having the physical evidence in your hands that your genius idea does not work. That you measured incorrectly. That your design has merit, but the materials you tried to use won't work. That you can get away with a pair of cuticle scissors and a manilla folder, but an X-acto knife and a plastic stencil blank will give you a better result. And so on.

The other reason I've been mulling this is that two people posted armor projects to the Tousando this week. One of them is a really nice looking kit, complete with some fiddly decorative work. (I think - but cannot be certain - that it's the second dou he's built.) The other is at the opposite end of the spectrum and I suspect it's a first try at armor building.

There are some things I can't do because I don't have a talent for them. There are some things I can't do because I don't need to be able to do them. On the other hand, I'm usually willing to take a crack at something I've never done if it interests me and I don't usually let the fact I've never done it slow me down.

As I told Tony, "Ambition level 10, skill level 2." That's where I start. Raise that bar high enough to crash into, baby. It's how The Curmudgeon rolls.

Chopsticks!

Sometimes the genius idea does work!

I've been meaning to replace the wimpy interfacing in four kosode collars with heavier interfacing for ages. I'm tired of sloppy collars.  So I opened up a six inch section of the stitching inside the collar near the center back seam. I slid a steel yardstick down inside and used my 12" ruler to push the interfacing down inside the collar against the yardstick. Four kosode re-interfaced, plus a couple of other repairs and all before dinner.