The shop that was...

So once upon a time Maura was snooping around in her shop and spotted something suspicious. She took an old rotisserie skewer and began poking around the walls and she found...a subterranean disappointment.

As far as I can tell the building has no foundation and the sill plates are rotten.

 

(Insert trombone wa, wa, wa, sound here) 

So what happens next?  The building must come down.  With a bad or no foundation there is no use in adding weight to what is there; between roof, insulation, drywall, wiring, etc, there is a lot of new weight and it will only drive the walls further into the ground let alone the fact that you have to raise the walls in order to replace the sill plates (bottom 2 x 4 in a wall)

My soon to be leaving spouse has offered to buy me a portable building to replace the should have been a shop.

The chosen building is 14 feet by 20 feet with a 7 foot 8 inch ceiling.  Now as mentioned in the video I do loose some floor space (exactly 155 square feet) but overall this is actually going to save time and no worry about permit issues.  I'll have to pull a permit for the wiring but that really isn't a big deal to me as I would need one anyway.

So what's the cost?  Actually less than I was going to spend on the other building; multiple thousands less actually.

Column "F" are Home Depot stock numbers. With "tools" HF is Harbor Freight, Grizzly is Grizzly industrial tools.  All numbers are given so you can see I am not hiding things.

Looks like I inadvertently cut off the total total but we can do that here.

Shop less cost of building = $4115.58 plus 10% tax so $4527.14

Now with needed tooling I don't have we get $7562.98

At the moment donations sit at $365

So yeah, considerably cheaper, but money has a ways to go.

I will be reworking my Go Fund Me to reflect the now lower needs, and to see if I can rewrite it and maybe attract more funding.

If you are new or unaware, I do every bit of this work by myself.  I hand laid out my logo using drafting tools and French curves--my daughter did digitize it for me, I film all my video, I edit my videos, I created my own intro and outro for my videos between libre office and Open shot video editor, I select my internal video music from YouTube's extensive royalty free library, I write my blog, I also write for Ordinary-Times Magazine as an opinion writer, I also am working on multiple novels.  None of this actually pays any money yet--see my last post for YouTube stats.

I try to keep this stuff in the open for several reasons, to help others to see it is NOT easy hustling this way, to be transparent on where donations are being spent, and honestly to vent a bit.

Thanks for any help you can give even if it is just copy pasting my Go Fund Me link into other social media platforms.

--Maura

 

Link to matching YouTube video https://youtu.be/Ln9lYz-t_CI 

Donate/support Maura via:
My site https://www.mauraalwyen.com/help-support-maura
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=65718033&fan_landing=true
Go Fund Me https://gofund.me/db6020de
Red Bubble RedBubble.com/people/MauraAlwyen

Find me at:
Twitter.com/mauraalwyen
Mauraalwyen.com
mauraalwyen.blogspot.com

ordinary-times.com/author/maura-alwyen/

Look for my logo to know it is genuine Alwyen!

12/20/2021 Updates

Yes my posting schedule has gotten a bit off of late.

My house still resembles a surrealist work inside as random dishes, books, off season clothes, and personal items of my spouse migrate to boxes stacked in my living room.  Move out date is yet to be set but there is a date at which they have to be in the new location by or the company won't pay for the move.  Let's just say before Summer 2022 the house will be a lot less full of boxes.

Next up how is the funding going for the shop?

Go Fund Me assigned a representative to my case and all issues have been resolved!  The page is official and I have already recieved a $25 donation!  That brings total cash in hand to $350 or 0.0175% of goal...yep I've got a ways to go.  (link at bottom of page)

The borrowed tractor is a go but as noted in the last update I have to pay to have it transported from two hours away.  Won't cost anymore though than paying for a local rental to be delivered so I save a $1225 in equipment rental fees.  The savings will offset the cost of everything I need to put in a wood-stove to code.  Seeing as I currently have four cords--and growing--of stacked up firewood this is a viable heat source.

Patreon I am working on, lots to learn.

Tooling

As mentioned previously, I have a lead on some higher end woodworking equipment.  Sadly the lead has gone rather quiet, but the person has a very busy job this time of year so it is still out there.

Miscellaneous

Arthrites 

With the holidays I am holding the job search until right after January 1st as no one will be responding anyways.

The arthritis is acting up lately and is making the search for a "real" job kind of scary.  As I have noted before I'm not bad enough to be classed as disabled but in the HVAC world special accommodations are a bit tricky to get an employer to acknowledge.

As you can see in the pictures my fingers when straight aren't very, not all the knuckles will unbend all the way anymore, and when making a fist some fingers no longer fold in right.  This is with medicine!  Now add one shoulder is worse than the other, one wonky hip, and one messed up knee, and this begins to add up.  Depending on the weather depends on what my hands will hold and for how long, if I limp, if I can get something off the top shelf at the store, or the ever popular will Maura get off the floor...seeing where those special accommodations come in yet?  Air conditioners are typically set on the ground or on a roof and to work on them requires kneeling or sitting on the ground--did I mention that the hip is quite literally a pain in the ass for sitting on the ground/floor?  Furnaces aren't much different as they are not installed for repair convenience but to take up the least amount of space possible.

These are the reasons I am wanting to get the shop up and YouTube profitable.  So I don't have to put myself and my aging shell through the pain and misery of constantly pushing myself to exceed what my body is telling me are its hard limits.

New profile pic!

 

Yep this is me, and it is a selfie.  i have also been informed it is "80s AF" *laughter* I really didn't realize until after I shot it but it looks good so I'll deep it for a while :-)

YouTube

At the time of writing this I have one video that has 1,689 views, 19 likes, and two comments.  I think it is safe to say it has been aggregated into the algorithm.  If you would like to see it too click here.  I have my guesses as to why it went through the roof but no solid facts.

The next highest video is at 43 views and that was my peach cake.

Now here's the analytical breakdown: the average view time is only 1 minute 27 seconds, 25% of people make it to about the 4 minute mark, and only 5% actually watch the entire video.  So roughly 84 people have watched the whole thing.  honestly I'm not sure if that is normal or not, but it appears that 75% of viewers drop off at the one minute mark.  Thinking needs done on this for sure.  It has had 12 returning viewers--probably my mom.

Over all it appears the channel has had 1,709 unique views but we are stuck at 19 subscribers ( I need 1,000 subscribers for revenue sharing)

We are at 50.7 total view hours out of the 4,000 view hours that I need for revenue sharing so 1.3%!

Copper roses

Despite the arthritis the roses are moving along and I should begin soldering petals into place today.  They will be offered as a gift for donations exceeding $160 (this covers shipping too) or more toward my shop roof when they are done--more details on how to acquire them once I have the batch finished.  I am considering including a certificate of original purchase with them, not sure if that will help long term or not but if I get known for my jewelry it might.  Serial number 01-21 is already owned and delivered, number 02-21 goes to my grand-daughter,and 03-21 may be spoken for.  Total run is a baker's dozen so 04-21 through 13-21 will be up for grabs.

We had our first casualty yesterday in the petal cutting process as the next to last of 52 different petals had an oops.

Fortunately I have enough plate left to replace our fallen comrade and still make the leaves for the stem.

Beyond this batch of roses I have had a request for a bracelet in the same general concept, I have been kicking this around in my head for a couple of weeks now and may have an idea in mind--stay tuned for updates.

My soon to be ex has said I may want to focus more on my jewelry production and in ways I am inclined to agree as I find it fun to do, but I find creating in the shop fun in general. 

Next article?

I am working on a deep dive into the forbidden end of the diving pool for my next article at Ordinary-Times, but it may not see the light of day until sometime in January.  The article is currently being researched and the current point is reading 321 PDF pages of U.N. bureaucratese and getting my fingers to type.

Book??

Yes I have a book nearly complete and one that is in the editing process!  I just have to find time to get into the last little bit and we may see two books out in 2022!  Sadly books do not generate a lot of income so I've kind of let it sit on the back burner a bit too long.

Close out on this

Well I started this at 07:39 and it is now 09:33

I'm off to work on roses for now.

-Maura

Donate/support Maura via:
My site https://www.mauraalwyen.com/help-support-maura
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=65718033&fan_landing=true
Go Fund Me https://gofund.me/db6020de
Red Bubble RedBubble.com/people/MauraAlwyen

Find me at:
Twitter.com/mauraalwyen
Mauraalwyen.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEdbWJ3jLw05zUjmHUq5O8Q

Look for my logo to know it is genuine Alwyen!

A brief update on me 12-8-2021

I get that it is currently the Holiday Season, and people are zipping around between work, mandatory "Holiday Parties," shopping before what good stuff is out there is gone, etc.  Everyone is busy.  I'm busy cutting brush, burning what can be burnt, recording video, editing, and writing.  I also have the fact that my living room is a flurry of boxes, some flat, some box shaped, some packed and ready to move seven or so hours away to my soon to be ex's apartment.  The split is amicable to the point of "who's keeping..." and responses being along the line of "I just assumed..."  So I have that as an upside to all of this.  My house is very sureal right now, as if Salvadore Dahli wrote the current script we are following.

Go Fund Me is appearing to be a bit of a mess.  "Do this and that and no problems with non-matching names."  Uh huh, I call bologna.  I have now uploaded documents twice and I am supposed to hear from a represenative in 2 to 3 business days. 🙄  On top of that its balance is still $0.00 so is it even worth using?  They keep sending me "share this on Facebook, useres who do gain more donations," again I call bolagna.  I don't have one, I trust that company less than I trust a politician who says "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

Patreon the friend of YouTubers everywhere,  nothing acquired there, but I'm not sure completely how it works yet.  From what it appears it will take a bit of time to see results on that one.

My own donation page has been my best source so far, but I'm holding at $325 between Cash App and Venmo.  So I guess that's what I need to promote.  The upside is 100% of the funds make it to me, and until I hit the $20,000 mark everything goes straight into the shop.

I have secured a tractor to use!  I have to pay to get it here is all but that's way cheaper than a rental.

I have a lead on some older woodworking tools, but nothing definitive yet--stay tuned for updates!

To get going I need $4,000, that gets me the roll off dumpsters and a new roof from the walls up.  It does not get me anything else just those.

I am still actively looking for a "normal" job I've had one place tell me I'm too old, and two others "oh, you're from long-term care" conversations ended soon after.

What does the shop mean to me?

Well for starters I've had to refuse three seperate comissions this Summer as I had no space to build them.  Between them I could have kept my bills paid for three or four months.

The shop is a new life for me.  To be my own boss.  I won't have to worry about being slow on a bad arthrites day.  If I'm moving a bit slow in a morning I can't be late.  I have more flex to work on my writing--I have several novels in states of incompletion--and on my cooking videos too.  I will need several pieces of furniture, and I can make them from the shop and my 100 year old Singer in the living room.

Basically like most people who dream of working from home the shop and channel means freedom.  For me it has one added bonus that I can be me and not have to reup the act of being a guy and dieing inside a little more each day.

https://www.mauraalwyen.com/help-support-maura

Rant against the machine

Rant from Maura incoming!

Here in the United States we have some massive employment issues and they start at High School level.

When I was in high school we still had shop classes, wood, metal, machine, drafting. At the same time the school was pushing "take these classes to get into college" and "college won't be like here." So shop classes were already on the chopping block as two years later they were gone.

I mostly took shop classes.  I won't deep dive my personal life here but I went on to higher ed.  The intent was to become an Architectural Engineer...family happened.  I was qualified to become an apprentice machinist, cool they make good money...wrong!  This was the point when Computer Numeric Controlled Machining was really catching on, guess what you needed a certification from a trade school to run one!

Government safety net?  HAHAHAHAHA...NO.

If you are a white passing, assigned male at birth person with feminine mannerisms there is no safety net.

 

I found a job as a cooks assistant and utility (cleaning appliances) I attained the title Chef in that job bestowed upon me by another classically trained Chef. 

I moved to maintenance for a big pay increase & was soon Assistant Building Superintendent. Now both jobs sound great but you notice I didn't change employers?  I was working in a "long term care facility." Once you have worked health care there are few chances of escape.

So I was apprentice trained in HVAC/R by dad.  My Chef title was bestowed.  I have no papers from a school saying I can do either job.  A lot of Millennials are in this boat or in the I have a degree but no experience boat.

Hiring managers need held accountable!  This joint issue has only gotten worse.  Which do you want experience, or a degree?  You can't choose both!

We need something along the lines of a GED for skilled labor that circumvents the degree issue for those of us who can do the work but didn't wrack up $30k+ in student debt.  Hiring managers require the degree but then won't hire fresh graduates?  We also need to fix the gaping holes in the safety net so all people can get training and be able to care for themselves or raise a family.

-Maura

Deadnames

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?

—William Shakespeare

So what is a “deadname”? According to Merriam-Webster

“the name that a trans gender person was given at birth and no longer uses upon transitioning. Many trans people will go to great lengths to prevent people from finding out their deadnames, destroying irreplaceable photos and documents in an effort to ensure that who they really are is the only identity most will remember.”

Now the definition is kind of narrow in my opinion, focusing on strictly trans persons. Basically anyone who changes their name has the new name and a deadname. Two famous examples:

• Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. better know as Muhammad Ali

• Marion Robert Morrison better known as John Wayne

Some people will ask what’s the deal why change your name?

• For trans people it is to take a name that better reflects who they are a trans man won’t get along very well in our society named Sue, nor will a trans woman get along very well named Frank.

• Domestic violence survivors will occasionally change there name to further distance themselves from an abuser and to make it harder for the abuser to find them again.

• Maybe you were named after a parent who turned out to be a famous megalomaniac and people are constantly “must be hard to live with that name” or “are you related to?”

• Maybe you don’t want to be called fifteen anymore because you are Samuele Robert Applebaum the 15^th.

• How about witness protection?

My point is the reasons are as numerous as the people who go through the legal proceedings to do it. Some states make the process rather simple fill in this form, pay a fee, wait, done, and others require hundreds if not thousands of dollars in legal fees and court costs. Now let’s not forget these same people also have to change every identifying document—including their birth certificate—all of their bills, car titles, deeds, bank accounts, credit cards, etc.

Now that you’ve made it this far, why am I here on this topic? For starters we are in the holiday season, families have the hardest times with deadnames and continuing to use them. Honestly I can cut families some slack here as long as the slips are accidental. When the use is intentional to anger or upset someone though? That is not acceptable.

The other issue is for some people they think knowing a person’s dead name gives them some sort of power over the person who changed their name, and in some cases it does. A deadname can elicit some very weird responses in some people and violence in others. The reactions are what the user wants though because it makes them feel bigger, more sure of them self, or proves some point they have made up in their head. The big thing constantly using a deadname does is make the user seem like a jerk.

So this holiday season remember don’t be a jerk just because you know someones “Secret name,” use the new name, if someone is presenting as a woman they are a “she” and presenting as a man they are a “he”—I won’t get more in depth than that as I’m not real sure what some of the other pronouns even mean. The big takeaway here is be nice, be human, be better, regardless of your personal beliefs friends, family, and co-workers, are not gathering to hear you belittle someone or to make a scene.

Don’t end up on Santa’s Naughty List because you weren’t nice.