Grandma
On November 17, 2020, 1,553 Americans died of complications resulting from COVID-19. One of them was my grandmother Charlotte. She was...
top of page
A FAILED HISTORIAN TRIES TO MAKE THINGS
Home: Welcome
A FAILED HISTORIAN TRIES TO MAKE THINGS
My name is Jim. I spent 10 years in college and in 2013 I completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in American History at a top-20 university. I loved being a scholar and I love history. For a long time, it was the core of my identity. Things...didn't work out.
In 2019 I took a job as an entry-level cabinetmaker in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, instead of research and teaching, I make things out of wood. My journey in California has been "eventful" in much the same sense as was the journey of the Donner Party. It's been a bit of a shit-show.
This space is an attempt to hold on to part of my old love: writing.
Home: Text
Search
Wood is History
I don’t think I realized it before I started messing with wood but wood and history have a lot in common. I’ve developed a sort of...
Two Dummies Went to Europe
I haven’t posted in a very long time. This is for two reasons. One is that I genuinely have so little free time that whenever I get a...
A job hunt in two worlds; Or, how to find gainful employment just by having a panic attack (Part 1)
I am bad at job interviews. I know I am. I try too hard. I hedge too much. Ask me casually about something I know well and care about and...
Who Am I
If someone were to ask you, “Who are you?” how would you respond? What defines you as a person? If you had just a few sentences to...
Why Am I Here?
I sanded my fingertip off. I felt the machine nibble at it, and then it bit me. First it grabbed my finger. Then it carried my hand...
Home: Blog2
bottom of page