--- ## ## Inappropriate Comments 260601 Workplaces are forever complicated and expose individuals from different backgrounds to each other. This can create friction as social norms are not always the same across different demographic groups. To me, this is why the workplace mandates, at least in part, what is and isn't allowed to be spoken about. Extremely critical to consider is the small talk that will occur in any given environment. People are required to be polite, and want to be nice, but one person's nice is another's criticism. The "it was meant as a compliment" has been used as a defense of foul misogynistic comments towards women for decades, and has even made its way into training materials. The [counter](https://matchamakes.net/blogposts/timesincecounter.html) is specifically a way for me to log how long it's been since someone has made an inappropriate comment about my body. Since struggling with mental and physical [health for almost all of my life](https://matchamakes.net/blogposts/unwritten.html), I understand I'm more sensitive to this than most, but it still creates an unwelcome environment. I'm not finding fault with the individual offenders, as they are just cogs in the proverbial capitalist machine, but it does get annoying and brings my mood down significantly. I'll stand by my '[wisdom](https://matchamakes.net/blogposts/mywisdom.html)' that commenting on anyone's physical appearance in the workplace is never acceptable. ## Coopered Oilpot 260526 ### Preamble In the [Fine Woodworking](https://www.finewoodworking.com/) Discord, user George said on April 24th, "How does everyone feel about doing a build challenge for May? Something coopered?" At the time, I had just read [The Essential Oilpot](https://covingtonandsons.com/2019/05/09/the-essential-oilpot/), and was lamenting my inability to access bamboo. ### What happened? After rewatching this [video on YouTube of a master cooper](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRIOu2dG1Yo), half a dozen times, trying to glean all I could, I decided that 8 sides would be a reasonable number for my first attempt. At the beginning I thought I would use copper or brass as the binding to hold the staves under any sort of expansion. In the end I used some jute cord from the dollar store. Needing to plane things to 22.5 degrees was a bit of a challenge, and my mind immediately went to 3D Printing a jig. However I am still [Printless](https://matchamakes.net/blogposts/printless), so that was out of the question. With no jig, I broke out my angle finder and marked the angle on the end grain and then followed the line down the sides to connect the ends and give me a reference point. Then I just planed to my line, checking my progress periodically. To my surprise, all the joints went together with only a few miniscule gaps. I decided to try out a new finish to me, charring to a black color. Almost all of my projects end up some sort of black, by either paint or stain. It was a treat to try this alternative method. It only caught on fire a little bit, and I'll be adding this finish to my considerations moving forward. Overall I'm very happy with this project and its one of my favorite things [Made in 2026](https://matchamakes.net/blogposts/unwritten).  #making #woodworking --- ## Starting Mediums While I do enjoy Mastodon, and post there on average 1.1 times a day, I'd like to use this site for more than just long blog posts, and digital gardening. I'd like a place to keep my medium thoughts. Perhaps more professional than my [favorite joke ever](https://mastodon.social/@matcha06/116608778857225395), but not long enough to warrant it's own url. --- ## Ease of knowing you can always get an answer #### 260522 Some people know they can call comeone and get an answer which is a luxury many don't have. Having the audacity to think you can interrupt people on your time, but not worrying about it because you have some sort of major sway in their lives. This comes from me having to answer many phone calls from individuals at work, and its obnoxious. Phone calls in general are awful since they are an immediate form of communication, which means it's great for emergencies. It also means that every potential call could be an emergency and it is integral to keep that line open. The thought of my spouse dying because I was on the phone for a supposedly important call haunts me every time I see an unknown number, or a particularly lengthy conversationalist pop up on caller ID. Individuals who abuse this immediate and high bandwidth channel are in short, rude, self indulgent, and inconsiderate. Expecting to be able to interrupt someone else, for the novelty of a phone call I hope dies out as we get further and further from the invention of the telephone. #blog #rant ---