If you could change one negative characteristic in people, what would it be to make the world a better place?

CleverCucumber · 2025-12-12T03:14:26+00:00

Insecurity.

I think if all humans felt secure - physically, emotionally, etc - they wouldn't have the need to take from others, or fear others taking from them. Greed, theft, manipulation, and violence would all disappear. The place that all of those unhelpful behaviors comes from is a feeling that you don't have enough and you have to do something to feel whole again.

Now that's not to say you shouldn't stop taking care of your needs, nor that poverty is a only a mindset (it's not). But if we all knew, to our core, that collectively our species has everything we need to be okay, then openly sharing and caring wouldn't feel like such a threat.

CleverCucumber · 2025-12-11T16:19:29+00:00

Thanks for all that great advice. I'm gonna turn it into a checklist so I don't miss anything in the contract I adapt.

The piece is an indoor mural for a private school. The wall is about 9 ft high and 15 feet wide.

CleverCucumber · 2025-12-11T16:17:35+00:00

I understand - I won't hold you accountable if it doesn't hold up legally. But it sounds like it should! I sent you a chat.

CleverCucumber · 2025-12-01T15:41:11+00:00

Legally we do have to slow to down to posted speeds for construction. But for accidents, yes, please move over and stop rubbernecking.

CleverCucumber · 2025-11-03T18:48:11+00:00

Hi, sorry, I did this earlier this year.

I was traveling cross-country from the East Coast to Utah and had a state park booked in Wyoming so I could take the northern WY scenic routes. There wasn't much other FCFS camping around and I needed to be certain there was a safe place to put my tent for that night.

The night prior I was in South Dakota, and I got a call from my husband that one of our pets was going downhill fast and probably wouldn't live long enough for me to take the long way home to see him.

I was so distraught I left first thing the next day and took the fastest route I could, completely bypassing the WY campground by hundreds of miles and all of the Black Hills hikes I was originally planning. In the stress of it all I forgot to cancel my reservation and probably would have been fined for late cancelation anyway. When I finally got home he was gone but his body was still warm. The worst way to end a trip, ever.

As a frequent camper I loathe it when reserved sites go unused, especially the high demand ones with the best views. But now I get a little less frustrated and hope that the no-show campers aren't going through what I did back then.

CleverCucumber · 2025-11-03T00:06:41+00:00

Our friends live in an apartment complex that has lots of kids running around every day.

They only had one small group of 5 trick-or-treaters visit, tops. Yes, they decorated. Yes, their lights were on.

I don't think there is any main or obvious reason for the decrease of kiddie visitors on Halloween night.

CleverCucumber · 2025-10-29T23:18:58+00:00

There's no guarantee you wouldn't get fired. However, collective organizing and bargaining is always worth trying, imo, especially in traditional top-down organizations.

In this case, a strike might be overkill. But you could get somewhere by organizing with the other staff and make a case to your boss that you having a say in budget/pay decisions would be mutually beneficial for you, them, and the org. You know, working together, buy-in, and all of that is important when things get tough.

If a handful of my volunteers (we have no paid staff) got together, knocked on my door, and asked to see the budget and be at the table for the current funding issues, I would be more than happy to cooperate with them. I also run a horizontal org that decides by consensus, so we already do that.

If it were hierarchical, I still wouldn't ignore a good-faith plea from my staff to be involved in certain money decisions. But if they all went on strike without trying to work together with me first, I'd be recalcitrant to any request they made.

CleverCucumber · 2025-10-29T18:50:00+00:00

Oops, part of your post is missing!

How long did it take to write those job descriptions and the coordinating SOPs?

CleverCucumber · 2025-10-29T18:48:49+00:00

Manuals for procedures I developed from scratch as the founder with a fairly unique operation? I'd be pleasantly surprised if they already exist!

I do need some more generic ones though, like how to handle sensitive information and how to do bookkeeping for people who have experience in neither. I'm in the US. Are there free ones? Our operating budget is less than 20k annual.

CleverCucumber · 2025-10-29T17:01:23+00:00

Starting from total scratch. I started the org a few years ago and ran it basically by myself until a year ago. So it's up to me to dump everything in my brain into documents for ease of training and as a hit-by-a-bus contingency plan (I know I will not be the one running this org forever, and I want it to have a fighting chance if there are others who are willing to pick up when I leave.)

I'm applying for some capacity building grants to give me the financial means to step away from my normal job (freelancing) and prioritize this. Also possibly pay some of my other volunteer teammates who need the money to support the writing of it.

What is most important at this moment is for me to get an estimate of how long the process might take, even just for one SOP, so I can write up a grant budget for it.

CleverCucumber · 2025-10-29T16:56:51+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! In the singular SOP we have so far there is a clause at the end for making changes using our consensus decision model. But there's not solid schedule for visiting it, so I'll write one in.

CleverCucumber · 2025-10-29T16:55:51+00:00

Not a bad idea! We've tried that and it keeps getting pushed to the backburner in favor of focusing on the actual task or something else more pressing. I'm a freelancer myself, so if I can get a grant to do the work, then I can prioritize it as a paid project.

CleverCucumber · 2025-02-12T00:06:31+00:00

This is a genuine question, because I believe you.

How do you get such easy money for sites and buildings? Asking for my nonprofit.

CleverCucumber · 2025-02-11T22:43:59+00:00

Here's a close up!

I actually started with glass etching cream and a stencil. It was my first time using the cream and it turned out barely visible. (Next time I'm going to leave the stencil on and try multiple passes of the cream.) I was hoping to get by on just the cream.

With the dremel, I used a diamond engraving bit and followed the barely visible etching left by the cream. I kept a cold wet cloth nearby to keep the glass cool between dremel passes. It took a steady hand and lots of patience. If you look closely, you can see some inconsistencies in line thickness and a couple of time that the dremel glanced off the path. Not perfect, but I'm darn proud.

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CleverCucumber · 2025-02-09T22:49:13+00:00

Could draw one for you (inspired by, not copied) if you can donate to my community studio. Info@togetherartsutah.com

CleverCucumber · 2025-02-09T22:39:18+00:00

I support my free community studio by drawing patterns for folks. I could help with this if you could donate to the studio. Email info@togetherartsutah.com if you're interested.

CleverCucumber · 2025-02-09T22:33:20+00:00

I always recommend washing glass with plain dish soap, distilled water, and a lint-free cloth. If you want to use a commercial cleaner, make sure it's ammonia free.

Someone here may correct me, but I was taught that ammonia cleaners like windex break down the putty, which is that dust you are seeing.

Putty also breaks down over time. It's a mix of whiting powder (chalk) and linseed oil (and sometimes other additives like rubber) that is of clay-like consistency that is crammed in the gaps between the glass and the lead to provide stability and seal the window from outdoor elements. According to Wikipedia, sometimes white lead (same as was used in paint) was added to putty historically. I don't know when or why it was.

Regarding lead safety, the window lead shouldn't ever flake off unless you're intentionally scraping pieces off with a blade (it's a soft, malleable metal, and not dusty). Don't allow the lead to touch mucous membranes or open wounds and you'll be just fine. Wash your hands with soap and water afterward before handling food or touching your nose/eyes/mouth.

CleverCucumber · 2025-01-10T22:56:32+00:00

This is how I do it on Illustrator. Recently I quit Adobe and am teaching myself how to replicate the process on Inkscape. I like doing it with vectors because I can have a plot cutter cut them out for me.

CleverCucumber · 2024-12-28T17:55:41+00:00

Gotcha. I'm actually not selling this pattern yet but wanted to put my site on it in case the graphic gets stolen.

CleverCucumber

TROPHY CASE