Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Home Projects

It's been awhile since I posted on home projects. But this morning my mom sent me a link to this U-Tube video in which this man named Wally Wallington lifts and manipulates Stonehenge-sized stones in his back yard, using just wood, himself, and levers.



I've been having fun reading people's summations of this video: A college commenter suggested the main point is that you shouldn't go off to Florida and play shuffleboard for retirement. Not a few others have concluded that aliens, alas, may not have created the pyramids. Mood-killers have agreed, enmasse, that Wally's "rediscovery" of ancient building techniques is a reminder of the numerous amounts of information and abilities humans have lost in the shuffle of more modern "progress". I like how it smashes common expectations/stereotypes about hard laborers -- he's a retired construction worker who is clearly ingeniuous, thoughful, resourceful, and not only interested in the way things work, but motivated and curious enough to follow his own observations to their incredible ends. And of course, I don't think it prudent to leave unspoken the obvious possiblity that Wally is, in fact, an alien.

Any summations I missed? Or, what I really want to know: what home projects do YOU have going on?

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