Studio711.com – Ben Martens

2018 Year In Review

It’s time to stop opening these annual posts by talking about how short the year was because I feel like I just wrote that a few days ago… see what I did there? Let’s dive right into some of the highlights:

Dad and Mom have been out here for a few Easters in a row and this last one was no exception. During their trip, we got to go sailing with Larry from our church. Tyla and I have been out with him once before but this was a first for Dad, Mom and Elijah. The weather was cool but much nicer than should be expected for early April.

Disneyland! (And here’ a link to our trip video.) Tyla and I have talked about this since before we were married and this finally felt like the right year to do it. Being a bit of a tightwad on this stuff, I spent a lot of time researching and in the end I felt like every minute of that time was worthwhile. We felt relaxed going through the parks but I feel like we got to do more during that time than most people and the one day break in the middle of the two park days was perfect. Elijah was amazing and hardly complained at all. We spent the entire day in the park on both of our park days. It exceeded my wildest dreams for how smoothly the trip could go!

In June we headed to the shore with Tyla’s family. Since we were in Washington, that still meant that we were wearing winter coats, but the sun was shining. When people talk about Washington they often comment on how few mosquitoes there are. On that trip, we learned that this isn’t quite true. Washington has as many mosquitoes as other states. The difference is that in Washington, all of the mosquitoes congregate on the hike that we took. I’ve never seen anything like it.

We were supposed to go camping with Tyla’s family this summer, but since Don ended up being out of town for much of the year, we canceled it and replaced it with a day trip to San Juan Island. That ferry ride is always gorgeous and it was fun to go on a couple very short hikes and have lunch at San Juan Island Brewery.

Aside from Disneyland, the biggest thing I’ll remember about 2018 was our massive home improvement project. We had the siding and windows completely replaced and obviously got a new coat of paint when it was done. We were happy with the quality and had a good relationship with the contractors, but man, it took a long time! The original estimate was that it would start the first week of April and be done by mid-May. Yada yada yada, it didn’t wrap up until August. That made a huge different in the shape of our summer, but thankfully, it’s over now. It feels good to have that huge expense behind us.

Elijah was too big for the hiking backpack so it was up to him to use his own two feet. I picked Twin Falls for his first hike and that was a big success. It was awesome to see the look of accomplishment on his face! I did one hike with Logan to beautiful Lake 22, a hike to Independence and Coal Lakes with Tyla, Elijah and Logan (that one had an awesome road to the trailhead), and then a hike around Crystal with Elijah and Tyla’s whole family. When Elijah was in the right mindset, he could do some impressive distances. I hope we can do a lot more next year! There are no shortages of amazing sights to see and I feel like part of my daddy duty is getting him off the concrete and carpet.

Speaking of Elijah, he had some big spills on his bike and scooter. The first was on his first attempt to ride down a hill at a skate park on his scooter. That one tore my heart because he was so excited to try and tried so hard to not cry in front of the big boys. The next accident was less than 48 hours before our trip to Disneyland. That thankfully didn’t require a doctor visit before the trip, but the second one was much more severe. He wiped out going around a slippery corner. He was riding behind me so I didn’t see it but I heard it and immediately knew it was bad. I got to him in a flash but his shirt was already covered in blood. Bad sign. To make a long story short, we ended up in the hospital to deal with a big split in his chin. They patched that up with fancy super glue and after about a week and a half he was back to normal (where “normal” now means “full face helmet”.)

Tyla and I had our first full weekend away from Elijah too. Mom stayed with Elijah at our house while Tyla and I headed to Hood River for a marriage retreat put on by our group of churches. What an awesome weekend! We missed Elijah but it was a great chance to strengthen our relationship and get a big block of time together. The retreat happens every two years and I think we’d book the next one now if we could.

Like the guy in Monty Python, my blog is saying, “But I’m not dead yet!” I have continued to sustain the trickle of posts every week. I’m happy I gave up on the “blog post every day” pace I was at before, but I do still feel like this is slipping away from me. Maybe it’s just a function of getting older, but when I have something to share, I find myself wanting to do an Instagram post instead of a blog post. Our family has a bunch of accounts that you can follow: benwmartens, tylammartens, elijahmartens, martenswoodworks, and elijahmakes. I have no plans to stop this site, but I can see the posts continuing to slow down. We’ll see how it goes.

For seven of the last eight years, I’ve been a trustee at church. (That basically means I’m a property manager.) This will be the last year for a while as next year I start a three year term as elder (someone who helps with church nurturing, growth and discipline). I expect it will take similar amounts of time but it will be a change of pace and maybe it will mean that I’ll trade extra trips to church for a little more time spent at home working on the computer and the phone.

I stopped all woodworking projects in early April in preparation for the siding project. The windows were getting stored in the garage so that meant a bunch of other stuff ended up in my shop area. As that dragged on longer than expected, I was happy to see the last window finally disappear from the garage in July and I jumped back on the woodworking train. So a quarter of my year was lost, but I still managed to make some fun projects: side tables for the theater room, a walnut box to hold a Retro Pie, robot art with Elijah, a curly maple box, a cross made out of a tree I cut down, a wooden pixel Mario, a name puzzle, a wooden skid steer toy, built-in cabinets for the shop, and a plaque for Don’s Navy clock. The big addition to the shop was a CNC machine. That was in brand new so stay tuned for some early thoughts coming soon.

Looking ahead to 2019, the biggest thing on my mind is Elijah going into first grade. He’s at our church preschool and kindergarten this year, but the school stops with kindergarten. So whether we choose the public school or a private school, it’s going to be a huge change for our family. It’s comforting to know that God already has it planned out so I just need to keep my ears open and make sure I follow down that path.

Previous Year In Review Posts: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Security Questions

Many sites still use “security” questions to help you retrieve your account. When you first create an account, they ask you things like “What was the name of your first pet?” and “What color was your first car?” Even if you’re doing well and using a long, random, unique password for that site, you probably just destroyed your security by answering those questions. I’m pretty sure I could answer most of those questions for some of my friends. This is a common route for hackers too, especially with all the information available on social media sites.

Pro-tip: you can lie. It’s ok. I already use Last Pass to create and store random, unique, strong passwords for every single account so I just generate more random characters for these security questions. In Last Pass, there’s a notes field for every account that you store so I drop the questions and answers right in that note field so I have them for later if I need to retrieve my account via the security questions.

Yes, I changed these after taking the screenshot.

Fantasy Football – Week 16

If you told me two weeks ago that the Seahawks would lose to the 49ers and beat the Chiefs, I would have thought you were crazy, but boy did the Seahawks look good against the Chiefs! All pieces of the game seemed to come together. A consistently good running game coupled with crazy good catches from Lockett and Baldwin propelled them to an exciting victory. That makes them a lock for the wildcard spot and the chance to rest some players in Week 17. Say it with me: “No injuries!”

Week 16 brings our season to a close with coming out on top. Andy saved his biggest game of the season for the championship and dropped the mic with a score of 173.04 to take first place. Congrats! Here are the final standings:

  1. Andy
  2. Tyler
  3. Logan
  4. Ben
  5. Nick
  6. Luke
  7. Dad
  8. Tim

Thanks to everyone for a great season! Tyler and Nick, you were great additions to the league. I really appreciate everyone starting a full roster each week. That makes such a big difference in our small league. I hope you’ll all be back next year!

On to the weekly records for the last time:

This Week This Season All Time
Highest Team Score Andy had 173.04 Tyler had 191.89 (Week 8) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Tim had 71.25 Was: Tim had 72.47 (Week 10) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Andy Beat Tyler by 54.54 Tyler beat Dad by 90.22 (Week 8) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Logan beat Ben by 3.87 Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (Week 12) Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018)
Highest Scoring Player Aaron Rodgers had 46.88 for Andy. Mitchell Trubisky had 55.46 as a free agent (Week 4) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Nick and Andy have 2 game winning streaks Andy, Logan and Tyler had 5 game winning streaks. Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks
Longest Active Losing Streak Ben and Tim have 2 game losing streaks Tim has a 6 game losing streak (Week 13) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)

Merry Christmas

LUKE 2
THE BIRTH OF JESUS

1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Christmas Card

Another Christmas, another round of cards. Our budget always ends before our list of people to send to is empty. So whether this is your first time seeing our card or your second, Merry Christmas!

Fantasy Football – Week 15

Well that Seahawks game was embarrassing. it’s like the 49ers watched some tape and a light bulb went on over their heads. They had their way with the Seahawks defense. It was a night and day difference from the last game. The Seahawks destroyed themselves with penalties totaling almost 150 yards including 4 15-yard penalties on ONE DRIVE. Instead of clinching a spot in the playoffs, the Seahawks are now left hoping to win a very difficult game against the Chiefs. If that falls through then they have to win their last game of the season against the Cardinals. At least that one should be easy… right?

Our league was absurd. It was the lowest total score by a mile. Let’s start at the top with #1 seed Logan playing #4 seed Tyler. Looking back through the season, they were pretty evenly matched, but this time Tyler pulled out a win even though Logan would have beat anyone else in the league. In the other championship bracket game, Andy and I wheezed our way to the two lowest scores of the league. That was my lowest score of the season by over 30 points! To add insult to injury, I lost by 0.65 points. Ouch. But this means that we’ll be crowning a new champion this year. Will it be Tyler or Andy?

There was drama in the consolation bracket as well with Nick beating Tim by less than 2 points. Nick and Luke will battle for 5th while Tim and Dad battle for “not last”.

One more crazy stat from our league: everyone who won in week 14 lost in week 15 (and vice versa)!

Andy has fallen down near the bottom of the power rankings so the algorithm thinks that Tyler will be winning the league. Let’s see how this plays out!

1. Logan (Goat Roapers)
2. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) +1
3. Tim (Beer-me) +1
4. Ben (Kool Aid Kid) -2

On to the weekly records:

This Week This Season All Time
Highest Team Score Tyler had 134.49 Tyler had 191.89 (Week 8) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Ben had 81.88 Tim had 72.47 (Week 10) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Luke beat Dad by 15.80 Tyler beat Dad by 90.22 (Week 8) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Andy beat Ben by 0.65 Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (Week 12) Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018)
Highest Scoring Player DeAndre Hopkins had 34.00 for Nick Mitchell Trubisky had 55.46 as a free agent (Week 4) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Nobody has more than a 1 game streak! Andy, Logan and Tyler had 5 game winning streaks. Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks
Longest Active Losing Streak Nobody has more than a 1 game streak! Tim has a 6 game losing streak (Week 13) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)

Hi Alexa

We’ve had an Amazon Echo in our house for a couple months now. I’ve resisted these types of devices for a long time because of the privacy implications. What changed? Basically I gave up. Privacy feels like a hopeless game because I’m not willing to live the hermit life required to have a chance at privacy. And aside from the “the sky is falling” reasons, maybe I trust these bigger companies a bit because if they’re going to put so much of their business into a product, imagine what would happen if there was a big privacy snafu. That’s probably naive.

My bar for electronics is “If it broke, how much would I want to replace it?” So far the Echo is pretty low on that list. I probably wouldn’t replace it, but I don’t mind having it around. The two main reasons I got it were to be a source of entertainment for Elijah and to play music from our Spotify account.

Elijah does enjoy it quite a bit. There’s an app called Amazon Story Time that reads free ~5 minute stories to him. He loves audio books and he gobbles up these stories. That’s a big hit.

The Spotify integration, on the other hand, is disappointing. While I can easily tell it to play one of the playlists on our account, the fatal flaw is that the Spotify Connect protocol only grabs the first 100 songs from the playlist. We have some very nice (long) playlists that blow past the 100 song limit. 100 song sounds like a lot until you listen to it for a few days. Fail. I blame Spotify more than Amazon for that one, but the end result is the same. The workaround is connecting to the Echo via Bluetooth and playing from my phone but that’s not nearly as convenient and I have other devices that can do that.

Spottily was giving away free Google Home Minis to members with a family plan account so I snagged one of those too. It has been sitting in a box for a few weeks. I haven’t even unpacked it. I’ll probably do that at some point but I figure my results are going to be similar but with a lower quality speaker.

For our use case, the Echo feels more like a party trick than a useful home appliance. I’d rate it a solid “Meh”.

Fantasy Football – Week 14

The Seahawks game was … interesting. Russell Wilson ended the game 10 for 20 with 72 yards, 0 TD and 1 INT for a passer rating of 38.9. And it’s not like they had that much better luck rushing the ball. Thankfully the defense looked as good as they did a few years ago with multiple critical stops and takeaways. The Seahawks have charged to 8-5 so unless something goes drastically wrong in the next 3 games, they’ll blow past my curmudgeon 8-8 prediction for the season. Who knows, maybe they’ll even win their wildcard playoff game but I don’t think they’ll go much beyond that.

This was another mostly unimportant week in our league as we positioned ourselves for the playoffs. The top four teams played the bottom four teams and two of those were upsets with Tim and Dad knocking off Tyler and Andy. My win, couple with Tyler’s loss meant that it came down to a tiebreaker to decide third seed and I scored 35.05 more than Tyler to beat him by about 8 points in the final total season score. That all means that next week we’ll have Logan playing Tyler and I’ll play Andy. Looking at the entire season, if Logan played Tyler every week, Logan would have won 9 of 14 weeks. If I played Andy every week, I too would have won 9 of 14 weeks. We’ll see how week 1 of the playoffs actually plays out. Our scores have been wild enough that anything could happen.

Let’s so who the power rankings think has the best chance:

1. Logan (Goat Roapers)
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck)
4. Tim (Beer-me) +2

On to the weekly records:

This Week This Season All Time
Highest Team Score Tim had 158.61 Tyler had 191.89 (Week 8) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Tyler had 88.99 Tim had 72.47 (Week 10) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Tim beat Tyler by 69.62 Tyler beat Dad by 90.22 (Week 8) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Dad beat Andy by 11.13 Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (Week 12) Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018)
Highest Scoring Player Derrick Henry had 47.80 as a free agent Mitchell Trubisky had 55.46 as a free agent (Week 4) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Dad has a 2 game winning streak Andy, Logan and Tyler had 5 game winning streaks. Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks
Longest Active Losing Streak Luke has a 2 game losing streak Tim has a 6 game losing streak (Week 13) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)

Wooden Skid Steer

I’ve made a project in the woodshop every year of Elijah’s life. That’s kind of a hard trend to break. The first year was a table and chairs and ever since then, I’ve made something from the Wood Magazine construction sets (end loader, dump truck, semi lowboy and dump trailer). I stuck with that theme this year and made the skid steer. I was crunched for time and it was a small project so it seemed like a good fit. Thanks to Tim for giving me some scrap maple so I didn’t have to make a run to the lumber store. Follow him on Instagram under the @woodscreekwoodworks account.

The project went pretty smoothly, but, again, I felt like the instructions could have been better. There was too much precise cutting and hoping that stuff lined up later. Why not just leave it all a little long and then flush it up later? I need to get better at building stuff in my head to recognize these opportunities.

I bought the kit that provided all the hardware and wheels and it came together pretty quickly. With these toys, I’ve learned to mill up lots of extra wood so that I can have another crack at it when things go wrong and that skill proved useful here.

Some day I won’t be able to post this stuff early, but for now, Elijah doesn’t read my blog so I can show you a picture early. Merry Christmas!

Milling Wood

Years ago, I didn’t understand how wood got milled to the right dimensions. When I planned out Tyla’s jewelry box,I spent an unreasonable number of hours trying to figure out how to get wood that was the right thickness. Fast forward a few years and I’m now much more comfortable with buying any sized chunk of wood and getting it to the right thickness, width and length.

There are four tools generally involved in the way that I do it:

  1. First I use the jointer to get two flat and 90 degree faces on the board. These give me good (and safe) reference points to use other tools.
  2. If the wood is much thicker than I need, I’ll use the bandsaw next. This lets me slice down the length of the board to make two thinner boards.It’s less wasteful than turning all the extra thickness into sawdust.
  3. The bandsaw isn’t incredibly precise and it leaves some saw marks, so the next step is the planer. I use the jointed face on the bottom as a reference and then make the top face parallel and get the board to exactly the right thickness.
  4. The final step is the last edge and that can be easily trimmed up on the table saw.

When I started building Elijah’s Christmas present, I took a video of that process of milling one board. It was only about 1″ thick and I need a 1 1/2″ thick board so I milled it down to 3/4″, cut it in half and glued the two halves together.