Being an inventist!

when I saw these shoes, my heart said "Love!", and my head said, "No way! Even on eBay, they're $200!"Being the positive entrepreneurial DIYer that I am, I am determined to find a way! I've considered getting regular brown strappy sandals, spray painting them and pounding rivets and studs into the straps to get the look I want.
Pretty ingenious, right?
Well, what if I try to be even more self sustaining? I know how to make moccasins. If the Romans really made sandals like this, then they're no reason why someone as modern as me can't figure out how to make them too. Besides, I've had enough store bought clothes rip to know that what I make and sew myself usually lasts 10 times longer!
The first thing I thought of was paint. I found a couple of recipes. I'll be testing them out in the next couple of days to find out which one works best on leather...which I will also have to find.
If it all works out, I might even start this as a business! People are always going to need sandals, and the Roman design was good enough to last this long!

Paint Recipe
1 Dry Milk
1 Water

Die, food coloring, berry juice

Step1

Mix Milk and Water until it is the consistency of paint.

Step2

Blend in color to make the desired hue.

Step3

Brush on as you would any other paint. Let the first coat dry for at least twenty-four hours before adding a second coat. Let the second dry for three days.

Step4

This paint is extremely durable. To strip milk paint, apply ammonia, allow it to dry for about four days, then apply bleach. Make sure you are stripping the paint in a well-ventilated area.

Oil Paint

1 Tbs oil

30 g pigment

Paint
8 tbsp. powdered paint
1 tsp. white glue
2 tbsp. liquid starch
3 drops oil of cloves (obtainable from any drug store)

George Wythe College mentors me.
Comanity funds me.

Talking with the Authors...only at GWC

Platonic Dialogue between me and Condoleezza Rice
This is what happens when you go to George Wythe College. You end up having long arguments with the authors of every piece of writing you see in your head as you're reading. I usually have lots of questions too. Those questions could be expanded into an entire essay on their own!

Quote from Rethinking the National Interest: American Realism for a New World

Condoleezza Rice, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008

“What has changed is, most broadly, how we view the relationship between the dynamics within states and the distribution of power among them. Or the interplay between them. As globalization strengthens some states, it exposes and exacerbates the failings of many others what if globalisation purposely targets and uses theories meant to weaken or strengthen different countries? Oxygen good for humans, carbon dioxide good for plants. Purposely using plants to create a certain environment and consequences become pronounced. -- those too weak or poorly governed to address challenges within their borders and prevent them from spilling out and destabilizing the international order.some things can’t be kept in. what are they? How is international order so destabilized? In this strategic environment, it is vital to our national security that states be willing and able to meet the full range of their sovereign responsibilities, both beyond their borders and within them. You don’t act like they’re responsible. If they can’t handle something on their own, you don’t make them do it. You make them turn responsiblilty over to someone more capable. Like an international alliance that takes their sovereignty. This new reality has led us to some significant changes in our policy. We recognize that democratic state building is now an urgent component of our national interest. Who is the real audience here? Are you truly concerned for the world, or just yourselves? If a good principle is good for us, it should be good for others too. And in the broader Middle East, we recognize that freedom and democracy are the only ideas that can, over time, lead to just and lasting stability, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Lots of things like monarchy, tyrnanny, communalism, and dictators can lead to stability. Only a few ideas lead to freedom and democracy. Is stability our real end goal? If so, many paths will lead us there, and I suspect we’re on one of them.

God don't bless America

For the longest time, I've always gotten mad at the words to the song God Bless America. To me, the song was a dark mockery of patriotism. The irony of it all was that upstanding Americans sing about the freedoms they have while freedom is stolen away in the very same night. Americans watch celebratory fireworks imitate the explosions of a war that blind them to War's real repercussions. Hence, the song pricked my heart with frustration and despair.

Not anymore.

I celebrated Independence Day on the 3rd of July in Lander, WY this year. I enjoyed a dance of actors, music, stories from the Founders and fireworks in the most comforting and hopeful 4th of July program I've ever seen. Listening to the voices of Jefferson, Adams, Washington and Wythe pressed upon me the depth of sacrifice that was made to give us the legacy of our country. Their voices pressed upon me the depth of sacrifice we must be prepared to give to keep it alive.

In the future, we may be poor. We may be cold. We may be hungry. We may weaken to despair. But we must be strong enough to make it through.

Even now in the luxury of comfort, that seems a hard task to ask. Our lives now seem like we are running down a road with only a cliffhanger ending. At some point, you will be flying through the air facing a harsh death. But despite one road, there are many endings to this thriller.

An artist will imagine many. You can die of a heart attack before you hit the ground. You can be sucked into the cliff and roll to a rocky death. You might put out your hand to grab the side and slide down slowly. Or you can spread your arms and fly…

It doesn’t matter when you start trying to fly. You might be rolling on the side of the cliff or just now jumping from the road. There are hundreds of possible tools you might be using. There are hundreds of possible endings for one cliff jumper. Some will be measured as failures. Some as successes. Others will remember to measure themselves against no one but their own better selves.

This is how we can be strong enough to make it through. Forget that! We will be invincible and undefeatable in our glorious lives. Our stories will be told for millennia. With the faith to create, Glory never dies.

I don’t know yet what sacrifices I will be asked to give. Maybe you do. Chances are you already have the tools to do the tasks that will be asked. Use them. Practice them. Create with them. In the coming years and coming days, the world will seem blacker than any night. Then, when there are none others, We will be the Stars.

T. Paine

George Wythe College mentors me...www.gwc.edu
Comanity funds me...www.comanity.com