If it wasn't so sad it would be funny

[sundaymorningstaple]

The last car I rebuilt (restored) was a 66 Mini Cooper Mk I. here in Singapore. I still love getting grease under my finger nails and sawdust in my lungs. Although having said that, I do tend to wear a dust mast when doing woodworking. Guess you can take the boy off the farm but you cannot take the farm outta the boy!

[JR8]

^+1 @ SMS

A parallel point: If you grow up in a household where DIY is the norm, then you tend to witness it and learn from it. Same with cooking, fishing, hunting, and so on and so on ...

Well, my father built our first house from the foundations up, in what was a virgin meadow. Thereafter when young, we moved maybe every 4-5 years into some new 'fixer-upper' or other. So one relatively permanent feature of my earlier years, was the constant renovation/DIY going on around me, which by 12/13+ I was 'sort of expected' to help assist in.

The only things my dad might not DIY are gas/boilers, and major electrics (rewiring/fuse-boards etc), and it's no coincidence I'm sure, that those matters I'd decline to get involved in too. But similarly I expect it's no coincidence that I've got the confidence (and hopefully knowledge) to take care of most DIY basics myself...


- one of the last major jobs I did was painting a 2-bed London apartment throughout. It took about a week, at c12-14/hrs a day. All walls/ceilings (emulsion), all timber 4-pane sash windows, cupboard doors, skirting boards, bath panel, (eggshell or gloss) etc. All properly done. Materials were maybe £300, then my time (arguably free), for a thorough job. The best quote I'd had from a contractor was almost £3k.

It was a hell of a job to do in just a week, but it 'got done right', and saved a fortune. So yes, I'm very content in having been exposed to such skills at a young age, and inculcated with a 'you CAN do this yourself, it just takes a bit of willing...' belief.

[x9200]

I don't know if this is the farm boy thing. I have the same. If I had time I would buy an old motorbike or a car and restore it just for a pleasure of doing it and the end result. Also, I kind of feel, doing this kind of job is a great value in personal development even at my age. This is like getting to the root of the problems, learning the very basic, Lego blocks, what enables people to do many different things.

I constantly struggle with the computers to chose between the easy way to do some tasks or to do them on the rudimentary level. Should I just click a check box and have it done for me or edit the config file by myself. If I do the click I will save some time but lose the knowledge how the things are really handled. Am I the only one having this sort of dilemmas?

[JR8]

I don't know if this is the farm boy thing. I have the same. If I had time I would buy an old motorbike or a car and restore it just for a pleasure of doing it and the end result. Also, I kind of feel, doing this kind of job is a great value in personal development even at my age. This is like getting to the root of the problems, learning the very basic, Lego blocks, what enables people to do many different things.

I constantly struggle with the computers to chose between the easy way to do some tasks or to do them on the rudimentary level. Should I just click a check box and have it done for me or edit the config file by myself. If I do the click I will save some time but lose the knowledge how the things are really handled. Am I the only one having this sort of dilemmas?

I'm not a 'farm boy' as such, not literally, but was brought up in rural areas or small villages, and well, did spend a lot of time on farms I suppose. So not a 'town or city-boy' by upbringing. I do think that makes a difference to the expectations you grow up with. You are by nature more self-sufficient, more of a born improviser, because you have to be!

... I'd want to know how to 'edit the config file' too, I think it's just a facet of one's nature, and not a thing you can readily decide to alter.

A further example. That Snowden article I linked earlier. That took me maybe 4* longer to read than it did my wife. But when I read I want to have computed everything as I go along. Often I'll pause for a moment of reflection too. No such thing as skimming or speed reading to me I think that's why sometimes pieces like that make such an impression upon me, as I'm contemplating and fitting them into my whole life's 'ETD' (Experience-To-Date lol!) as I go along.