I’ve never been accused of being in the right place, at the right time all the time. In most examples pulled from my life, a casual observer might say that I have routinely missed the boat. (I simply love that idiom). But that said, I think the value in any one of those examples is found in what you do after missing the proverbial boat. What actions do you take? How do you respond? Take a CBD gummy and chill, or get to work on whatever opportunity you may have missed?

Do I toss my life jacket in the dumpster and steer clear of water passages for the rest of my life?

Shall I swear an oath to the canoe gods to never tough a paddle again?

Should I remain on shore while my bride sets sail on that Alaskan cruise ship alone?

Will I please move on from this story killing word salad? Yes. Point well taken.

Keep me honest, will you? I tend to ramble.

And so, like a needle pulling thread, (an obscure “Sound of Music” reference), I decided to pull a woodworking idea forward even though I missed the boat on making this project in time for the recent holiday season.

The idea all started with a review of my YouTube channel stats. I don’t really ever get featured by YouTube when I publish a new video even if I have a killer thumbnail and a great title. I get it, I understand the business model and my content is for niche viewers anyway. However, if I wait a few months, Google and other websites tend to find my content and recommend it in their search lists. Views grow organically no thanks to YouTube, and some of the best performing videos in the last 2 years have been based on my kinetic motion sculptures. My best examples have been the spinning flower wheel and nautilus gear video, my egg shaped garden windmill and my totally frivolous but insanely cool marble machine.

Aside from a few projects planned in the next couple months, I think I’m going to dive into another kinetic folk art project and tackle some engineering I’ve never tried before. Specifically an automata.

I’ve been fascinated by these small motion sculptures, mostly because they look to be relatively simple in design but are complex to develop. Still, they show a humorous scene involving people, animals and life. Many automata are driven by simple hand crank mechanisms and tell a story about a fable or one of life’s simple mishaps. In all examples, the goal of an automata is to try and mimic the natural motion of people and animals with other props included in the mechanical story. Launch a query about “automata” and have a ball watching these wicked cool little machines.

Back to missing the boat. Sometimes the best ideas are accidentally formed when casually strolling through the normal banal events of a Wednesday.

5:30 am I made breakfast; scrambled eggs, sausage gravy and biscuits. Freaking yummy.

6:30 am Log in, check mail, open my website and YouTube dashboards.

7:00 am Upload a new Bad AI video for release next week.

8:00 am Check my video feed – a couple cool automata videos pop up.

9:00 am Wife starts to pack away Christmas ornaments from the tree.

9:30 am I hear faint sounds of Christmas music in the background.

10:00 am The Vince Guaraldi Trio plays the Charlie Brown Christmas song.

That’s all it took. I immediately searched for that video of a “Charlie Brown Christmas” and the scene where Schroeder plays the piano on stage while the kids all dance. That scene. Perfect. I thought I might be able to create dance motion in small hand made, carved characters. I hoped I could figure out the mechanics of mimicking some of that human body motion. I wasn’t sure how it all would work, especially creating the kinetic parts of the project. But, this is exactly where I started with all my other kinetic projects too. I had no idea, and I mean NO idea how all the pieces and parts would need to be made in order for the whole piece to actually work. This is how I roll. No idea how to solve the problem, but willing to dive heads first into the muck and only then, figure a way out.

Except. Except that I missed the whole holiday project window. Who cares about a Christmas themed automata in February or March or whenever I get this thing to work? I missed the boat, again.

That’s okay. I still want to do this thing. I get excited over projects that aren’t so well defined and absolute. Make another box or coffee table? No thanks. Been there, done that. Done that. Done that again.

Today I started making some rudimentary drawings about how some of the pieces could be assembled, and some other ideas about what hand crank mechanisms need to be in place to duplicate some of the motion I want to get out of these hand carved characters. I took a morning hike to search for a small pine branch, something akin to the sad little tree Charlie Brown thought needed some love. I glued up some clear pine in preparation for turning on the lathe. I started to think about paint colors I might need to add some authentic color to the characters and their clothing. I went to LoweNards Depot to see if I could find some thin brass tubing and dowels to help with some of the motion mechanics. I can hardly contain myself.

So while I missed the boat in terms of project timing, I do know that if I take my time and create something that looks great and performs well, the video will eventually get hits. I’m back to the realization and the acceptance that my niche video content isn’t going to garner the same interest as Mr. Beast shooting tank rounds at a Lamborghini, but I like producing these videos all the same.

I’m off to the wood shop as I think my pine blank glue is dry and ready for un-clamping. In the mean time, stay tuned. Stay sassy… smurf. Stay classy… San Diego. Stay frosty… the snowman, or just insert any other obscure movie or TV reference you might like that instructs you to be the cool person you already are!

I’ll catch you later.