The Darkest Hour

The darkest hour is not a time of day. It is a matter of
perspective. We all have our own dark hours in our lives.
These dark hours are the times when we look at our lives
and feel all is lost. Hope is what keeps these times at
bay. Hope for a brighter tomorrow or a second chance.

Hope is the one thing you should always keep with you. Without
hope there is no life. There is an old maxim among survivalist;
The rule of threes. It states you can't live three seconds without
thinking, three minutes without breathing, three hours without
shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food, and
three months without hope.

No matter how well trained you are, no matter how much equipment
you have at your disposal, if you give up you die. Every situation
is different but all have that common thread. Take the time to
fully access the situation and look at all possible outcomes. It
is all too easy to let yourself become fixated on the worst case
scenario. I am not saying that you should purposely ignore the
worst case, what I am saying is that if you focus on the worst
outcome, you can do yourself more harm than thirst, hunger, injury,
or exposure can by leaving yourself open to unneeded mental anguish.

It is easy to take this attitude when sitting in comfort and safety
at home. You don't have to deal with listening to your stomach
growling while you are hunting, fishing, or foraging for something
to eat. Or think your tongue is three sizes too big because you
are out of water and really want a drink. That is why they call it
survival. You may be saying to yourself, Well, gee, that was real
encouraging! It wasn't meant to be encouraging, it was meant to
make you stop and consider what gives you hope in better circumstances.

So ask yourself, What gives me hope in my day to day life? A better
job, seeing your children succeed in their own lives, seeing a
wrong righted? These are the things you should focus on when it
looks like everything has gone straight to Hell. They can act as a
distraction from whatever a situation has thrown at you. I recall
reading a story once about a man that had found himself in the
middle of the desert with minimal supplies and little water. He
managed to walk out of the desert not because he was a Rambo-esque
survivalist. He walked out of the desert because at the time he
was going through a rather nasty divorce and told himself quite
firmly that he'd be damned if he was going to die there and let
his soon to be Ex get everything without a fight!

Whether it's happy thoughts that give you hope or something that
makes you want to eat barbed wire and spit thumb tacks that gives
you hope, use it. The ultimate rule to surviving is never give up
and never let yourself lose hope.

A few (random) thoughts on the current economy...

I remember reading and hearing many times about the state of
affairs during The Great Depression. Mostly what comes to mind is
that people frequently comment that in regards to money it's that it
would buy a lot but that practically no one had any.

I look at our current situation and have to admit that people were
actually in a better position generally than their descendants are
now. Back then, a relatively small amount of money would buy quite
a lot. There was once an older gentleman I spoke to while working
a job at a little park. He told me that he was one of the lucky ones
as he managed to find a job that paid five dollars a week, with the
added bonus of a pint jar of homebrew on Fridays. lol And I realize
just how much the nature of our money has changed since he had that
job. Now though, a little money won't buy much and no one seems to
have any and the few that do have any are hanging onto it for the
most part.

Our situation has been made worse by large corporations that allowed
their greed to cloud their judgment when it came to the concept of
outsourcing work. It is my belief that if there had been few or no
jobs sent overseas many of our current problems would not exist.
Some people may remember TV commercials from the eighties featuring
Bob Hope in the "Made in the U.S.A." campaign they had for several
years. This was back when seeing Chinese and other foreign made
goods was just becoming an all too common thing.



Now though it is hard to actually find US made goods and if you do
find them, you tend to pay dearly for them.

I am not going to lay blame on any one company or individual. It
seems to have become the general mindset of too many people that
excess greed is a good thing. Look at the record profits the big
oil companies have reported the last few years as a prime example.
The fact one of their executives sat in front of a TV camera and
claimed that 80 billion dollars wasn't really that much money
should give us all pause.

Promoting your site of forums

Forums are a great way to meet new people that might
be interested in what you do or that have interests that
you want to learn more about. They also make a great
way to promote your site.

However, there are some, often unwritten, rules to
promoting your site on forums.

In no particular order...

If the forum allows you to add your site's URL to your
profile, do it. This is a perfectly acceptable way to
let other members know about your site.

If the forum allows you to have a signature add a text
link to your site. Just remember to keep it simple and
concise. People, forum Admins in particular, tend to
take a dim view of someone that has huge billboard
like ad for their site in their signature line.

A side note:
Myself, I will usually use two links in my signature on
forums. One to the main site and one to a joke page
I made sometime ago just to let them know I am not
some stiff. ;-)

Post content from your site. This has to be done
within a certain level of reason though. If you have
a forum of your own, most people consider it rude
to post part of a forum post with a link to the thread
at your own forum. However, if you have a blog or
write articles on any given topic that people might
find entertaining or useful, feel free to post it with
a link back to the original. You are not required to
post the full article but a lot of forum Admins do
generally prefer it. About half of the article and a
link to the original is generally enough. If people
found the part you posted interesting enough they
will visit your site for the rest. On the other side of
that is, if you choose to post the full article, some
people will click your link to see the original anyway.

Another side note:
Remember to keep it on topic. If the forum covers
everything under the sun, feel free to post whatever
you want. However, if the forum is focused on one
topic stay on that topic. Example: If the forum is
about hot rods don't post an article about how
to prune a rubber plant. Your topic will likely be
deleted and anyone who sees it will think you have
lost your last marble.

If you register an account at a forum, for pity's sake,
take the time to discuss things. Don't go there with
the sole intention of promoting your site. If every
post you make is a promotion for your site, people
will class you as either a spammer or a spam bot.
If the Admin has to take a hand in the matter, you
could well find yourself banned and any posts you
made deleted or edited to the point of being little
better than a blank page.

If you own an online store, don't make ever post an
offer for the goods you sell. This relates to the last
paragraph. If, on the other hand, someone mentions
that they are looking for something you sell, mention
that you have such an item for sale and send them
a personal message. Just don't be crass about it. No
one likes a hard sell in their forum PM inbox.

A fancy theme vs quality content

I've noticed over the years that a lot of webmasters can
become obsessed with themes, CSS, and the overall
appearance of their web sites. Sometimes they become
so obsessed with their site's aesthetics and neglect it's
most important aspect, the content.

I won't say that a really cool theme doesn't help a site.
However, no matter how cool the theme is a theme adds
nothing that your visitors are really interested in. Look at
the search hits you get everyday. Ever seen one that
says, "websites about Alice in Wonder with a really cool
theme"?

No, of course not.

People look for things they are interested in. I won't say that
you shouldn't spend time trying to make you site look good
for your users. However, I will point out that if your site is
about making jewelry, focus on posting content about
making jewelry. If your site is legible and easy to navigate
no one will notice or care that you are using a default theme.

How to make simple antler beads

Simple antlers beads are easy to make and can be used for primitive
and mountain man style jewelry and accessories.

Tools needed:

A fine toothed saw, a coping saw will work just fine.

A drill, an electric drill is ideal but an old fashioned hand drill
will work.

Drill bits, Depending on what you plan to string the beads on,
1/16" to 1/8" are the best sizes.

A belt sander, This will make rounding the ends of the beads go
faster but if you don't have one, you can use a variety of sand
papers and a bit of patience.

A power buffer, If you want to polish the beads to a high shine one
of these is ideal but if you don't have one you can use fine steel
wool.

A sturdy table vise, You will need on to hold the antler while
cutting and drilling the beads. If need be you can clamp the antler
to a sturdy table top with C clamps but make sure the antler is
locked down before you start working.


The first step is to clamp your antler into your vise, it is
advisable to pad the vise with some soft non-marring material like
a piece of suede or rubber inserts. You will want to decide how
long the beads will be before you begin so you can maintain a
consistent size. Anywhere from 1/2" to no more than 1-1/2" in
length should be about right for most beads. You may want to
use a Sharpie to mark off your beads so you have a visual
reference.

After you have cut as many beads as you want you will now be ready
to drill them for stringing. With antler beads you have quite a few
options for how to string them. Most commonly you will probably
want a hole drilled through the longest part of the bead but you
can also drill a hole through one end if you want the bead to
dangle. Just take you time and decide what you want to do with
them. Pad your vise as you did for cutting the beads to avoid
marring the surface of the antler and mount your bead so it is at
a comfortable angle for drilling. Try to drill your holes as close
to the center as possible.


An inch and a half is about as long as you will want to make a dangling bead.


A smaller dangling bead about 3/4" long.

Now that you have drilled your beads you will want to sand the ends
where you cut them and the ends will likely be rough and in many
cases have sharp points that need to be removed for both looks and
the comfort of the person wearing the beads. This is where that
belt sander and sand paper will come in handy. Depending on your
personal tastes you can simply round the edges or you can round the
entire end of the bead.


Note the ends of this bead are flat with just the edges rounded


The ends of this bead are rounded off

Finally we get to the polishing, if you are using a power buffer I
would recommend using a soft loose cotton buffing wheel with Brown
Tripoli as your buffing compound as it is well suited for natural
materials like antler and wood. You won't need to use much pressure
on the antler but try to maintain a solid grip on the beads to
avoid the buff snatching the beads out of your fingers. The ends of
the beads will be where you will want to focus most of your
attention since you will want to maintain the antlers natural
appearance as much as possible. depending on want kind of look
you are going for you can either give them a light buffing to give
them a gentle shine or can polish them to a high glossy finish.

If you don't have a power buffer you can use fine steel wool to
buff the beads with as well. It will take a little longer but you
can achieve a very fine polish with steel wool. One thing you may
need to look for when using steel wool, some brands of steel wool
use a silicon coating to prevent the steel wool from rusting, this
will sometimes make what you are working on look a lot shiner that
it really is so you will need to wipe the beads with a soft cloth
to remove the silicon residue. You'll know when it has silicon on
it, you're fingers will get a light oily film on them.

Now you are ready to string them!

~Fin~