Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Reduced Writing

It’s been almost six months since I stopped holding myself to the “one post per week day” that I had been doing for 15 years. It has been working out well for me and the natural cadence has been around 3 posts per week.

I’ve been thinking about what led to the decrease in desire to write posts and a major reason finally occurred to me: Instagram. I love Instagram. It’s such a happy place and it takes very little time to catch up on what my friends are doing and what’s happening in communities that I’m interested by (woodworking, skiing, hiking, etc.) I post there quite a bit and I think those pictures have taken the place of a lot of the posts that I would have made on this site. So if I was to make each Instagram post be a post on this site, then I feel like my volume would be similar. The bonus is that if you’re interested in consuming all of it, it takes a lot less of your time to consume the Instagram posts.

In conjunction with this change, I’ve also cut way back on Facebook. I go there a couple times a week to quickly flip through the news feed that I’ve trimmed way down with the Facebook Purity plugin. In contrast to Instagram’s happy environment, a lot of Facebook content feels angry, frivolous or both. I’ve found that the best way to consume Facebook is to not follow very many people, but instead, just go visit various pages every once in a while and catch up in bulk. It reduces some of the Skinner Box response associated with checking your newsfeed every 5 minutes.

I’m sure that the Instagram model will break at some point, but for now, feel free to follow me on my personal account @benwmartens and my woodworking account @martenswoodworks.

benmartens November 7, 2017 Commentary

Fantasy Football – Week 8

If you take away Russell Wilson’s 30 yards of rushing, the Seahawks had 3 yards of rushing on 17 attempts. The defense allowed 544 yards of offense and gave up 38 points. Wilson also had an interception. And yet, somehow the Seahawks still got the win. The offense had some great long plays and the three picks by the defense helped as well. That game was the definition of a shootout and it was fun to see them win a nerve wracking game, but the game left me with a lot of “uh oh” feelings. A lot of stuff went wrong. Hopefully it can be corrected. Seattle has a good schedule for the next few weeks so we’ll see what they can do against some weaker/average teams.

It was painful watching the Seahawks game and knowing that while I picked up Deshaun Watson, I had him on my bench. He outscored my starting QB by 33 points, but I still picked up the win. In a much more important game, Luke defeated Dad and now has sole possession of first place. Looking at total points scored this season, Luke and Logan are far ahead of the pack. Dad, Austin and I are kind of the next clump. That’s 5 teams and there are only five spots so we’ll see how it shakes out. The other three guys could still make a run for it as well. We have six games left until the playoff roster is set. Next week’s primetime matchup is Luke (#1) vs Logan (#2).

Power rankings for week 9:

1. Luke (+2)
2. Logan (-1)
3. Dad (+1)
4. Austin (-2)

On to the weekly awards…

This Week This Season All-Time
Highest Team Score Luke had 142.86 Luke had 161.89 (Week 3) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Andy had 62.06 Dad had 61.50 (Week 1) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Luke beat Dad by 54.57 Luke beat Jim by 74.22 (Week 3) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Ben beat Tim by 23.03 Andy beat Jim by 2.96 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Russell Wilson had 43.08 for Jim. Tom Brady had 45.72 for Luke. (Week 3) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Ben and Luke have 2 game winning streaks. Logan had a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Logan has a 3 game losing streak. Tim had a 5 game losing streak. (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens November 1, 2017 Fantasy Sports

500th Reformation Anniversary

Today is a church holiday called Reformation. It commemorates the work of the reformers, specifically Martin Luther, to try and bring the Catholic church back to a sound doctrinal position. He was a strong supporter of the church but did not support the places where they were deviating from scripture. His work to repair the problems in the Catholic church were ultimately unsuccessful, but the “protestants” did break off from the Catholic church to try and form churches that held to the teachings of the Bible.

As with all things human and sinful, some of those protestant groups also succumbed to falsehoods and inaccuracies over the years. It takes constant vigilance to keep the devil from eroding the basic truths of the Bible. That vigilance is what the church (or at least our church?) is really celebrating at Reformation. We’re not worshiping Martin Luther. We’re reminding ourselves to continue to test everything we are taught against the unerring Bible. We can sum it up in three phrases (often heard in Latin): sola scriptura, sola fide and sola gratia. Scripture alone reveals the saving work in Christ. Faith in that saving work of Christ is the only path to heaven. And grace, God’s undeserved love for us, is the only way we receive that saving work. If we hear teaching that involves non-Biblical “revelations from God”, requiring good works to get to heaven, or any part of the plan of salvation that requires our own input, those teachings are contrary to what God wrote for us in the Bible.

1 John 4:1-6

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Want to learn more? Our church body, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, has a lot of resources available.

benmartens October 31, 2017 Commentary

Learn Quick With Mike Boyd

One of my favorite new channels on YouTube (where “new” means “I just learned about it) is Learn Quick With Mike Boyd. Mike is a Scottish YouTuber who picks a skill and videos his attempts to learn it. And when I say he learns it, I mean that he works incessantly on the new skill until he hits an impressive milestone. For example, how about riding a wheelie for 50 meters or doing a 5x5x5 Rubik’s Cube in under 10 minutes? I’m plowing through the entire catalog of his YouTube channel.

It’s infectious. Think of all the skills you’ve been impressed by but have never taken the time to learn. The really amazing part of his channel is that it generally only takes me five or six hours to pick up these incredible skills! He goes from zero to impressive in the time it takes to watch a couple movies. I think we’ve all wasted five or six hours in the last month, or maybe even the last week. I can’t help but feel motivated when I watch this stuff.

benmartens October 31, 2017 Links

New Jointer Blades

The jointer in my shop is a 6″ benchtop model that was made 10 years ago. I’m guessing that I’m the fourth person to own it and I have a suspicion that the blades have never been changed. It has been working fine for me and I didn’t know any better.

However, during the storage closet cabinet project, I ran the painted doors over the jointer to try and trim them down just a bit so they would close better. That put a HUGE dull spot/divot in my blades.

A quick visit to Amazon revealed that I could get new blades for $15. Sold!

I watched a few videos about jointer blade installation using various gizmos (or eyeballing it, etc) so I was a little nervous that I was about to embark on a soul-sucking endeavor. Thankfully it only took me an hour and I could probably do it in half that next time. I just followed the instructions in the manual and purposely didn’t use a dial indicator or any other precise measurement tool. Instead I went with the “If it looks straight, it is straight” approach. Why? Well before I took out the old blades, I checked to see how well they were adjusted. They were terrible and I had never noticed. The new blades were calibrated way better than that so I was already at a net gain for something I didn’t know I needed.

Comparing the old blades to the new blades is like comparing a butter knife to a steak knife. I should have done this long ago. The jointer feels like it has so much more power now and boards glide over the blades much easier.

benmartens October 27, 2017 Woodworking

Fantasy Football – Week 7

Why couldn’t the Seahawks have started the season this way? The defense definitely leads the way but the offense finally showed up to play, at least part way through the game.

Here’s the shocker from our league: Logan has the longest active losing streak. He’s still well out in front of everyone and his team is very strong so I don’t foresee any problems with him making the playoffs. There are now three teams tied for first (Logan, Luke and Dad.) Andy is coming up strong through the ranks with his three game winning streak. Next week’s featured matchup is Dad vs Luke. They’re both part of the three way tie for first right now.

Power rankings for week 8:

1. Logan (+2)
2. Austin
3. Luke (-2)
4. Dad (+2)

On to the weekly awards…

This Week This Season All-Time
Highest Team Score Dad had 151.58 Luke had 161.89 (Week 3) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Jim had 63.29 Dad had 61.50 (Week 1) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Ben beat Jim by 53.40 Luke beat Jim by 74.22 (Week 3) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Andy beat Tim by 9.41 Andy beat Jim by 2.96 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Ezekiel Elliott had 40.40 for Luke. Tom Brady had 45.72 for Luke. (Week 3) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Andy has a 3 game winning streak. Logan had a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Logan has a 2 game losing streak. Tim had a 5 game losing streak. (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens October 25, 2017 Fantasy Sports

Best of YouTube

One of my new favorite YouTube channels is from Mike Boyd. He picks an interesting skill and goes all-in until he figures it out. His recent video about stacking dice is a great example:

Destin traveled with his kids to see a US world record domino fall. If you like this video, check out the other behind-the-scenes video that he mentions.

Peter Brown is a magician when it comes to epoxy. In this latest one, he experiments with adding fluorescing pigment to the epoxy. The video starts a big abruptly but just stick with it. The end result is really neat.

benmartens October 24, 2017 Links

Calvary Trunk or Treat

Last year our church/school hosted its first ever Trunk or Treat. It was a big success so we decided to try it again. The weather was gorgeous last year but this year, there was a lot of rain in the forecast so the event was moved inside and it became “Table or Treat.”

The turnout was great again and I don’t think having it indoors spoiled it too much. I was asked to snap a bunch of photos. You can find the full set on the Calvary Facebook page, but I’ve included a few below as well. Our little man is Tigger this year.

benmartens October 23, 2017 Family

Fantasy Football – Week 6

The Seahawks had a bye week last week, but there wasn’t any shortage of NFL news including a broken clavicle for Aaron Rodgers. Fake SportsCenter had a great suggestion for a replacement QB.

In our league, Logan posted the third highest score but lost to the top score so his perfect streak is over. I consider this a bit of karma payback for his win last week with the second lowest league score. In fact, the top three teams all lost … and retained their top three positions. Things are a little tighter though with Austin and Andy tied for 4th and only one game behind Luke and Dad who are tied for second. Next week the top four teams all play each other so we’ll see how that shakes out. Please make sure you stay on top of your rosters with all the injuries and bye weeks.

Power rankings for week 7:

1. Luke (+1)
2. Austin (+2)
3. Logan (-2)
4. Jim (+3)

On to the weekly awards…

This Week This Season All-Time
Highest Team Score Austin had 154.42 Luke had 161.89 (Week 3) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Ben had 68.29 Dad had 61.50 (Week 1) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Austin beat Logan by 32.35 Luke beat Jim by 74.22 (Week 3) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Jim beat Dad by 18.31 Andy beat Jim by 2.96 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Kirk Cousins had 31.80 for Dad. Tom Brady had 45.72 for Luke. (Week 3) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Andy has a 2 game winning streak Logan has a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Ben has a 4 game losing streak Tim has a 5 game losing streak. (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens October 18, 2017 Fantasy Sports

Forza Motorsport 7 Review

I don’t spend much time playing video games anymore, but I always make time for Forza games when they come out. Racing simulators are my favorite and this is one of the best. I also know a couple people who work on the game so it’s fun to see what they’ve been up to.

Forza 7 is gorgeous and the driving experience is wonderful. This version adds night racing and dynamic weather conditions. You might start in the day time or dry weather but you could end in night time or rain. Other than that, though, it’s another series of races to enjoy. If you liked the previous ones, you’ll like this, but if you’re hoping that this version adds an epic story line, look elsewhere.

One thing that I’m unhappy with in this version is the lack of incentive to make the game more realistic. For example, there’s no incentive to turn on realistic car damage. You don’t pay for any of the damage after the race or suffer ill effects during the race. Just smash your way up to the front. Sure, you can change this setting, but it doesn’t give you any more money or lead to faster lap times so how many people will really do this? I’d like to see a cash bonus if you run with damage enabled or maybe a penalty after the race for how much damage you did to your car.

In general, I’m still waiting for two things in a racing simulator:

  1. Let me play Forza with virtual reality goggles on. I’d probably puke after 20-30 minutes of it, but I still want it.
  2. We have all this great real world map data available. Let me plug in an address and drop my car there. I don’t even care how real the graphics are. Just get the turns and the elevation changes to match the real world and I’d be thrilled. How fast could I make it to work on empty streets with a Ferrari? I want to know!
benmartens October 17, 2017 Gaming