Boxes Magnets CEO and Dough
about 2 years ago – Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 07:04:52 PM

Boxes

Magnets

Magnets hold key elements of the clocks together. Here is how each one is attached. WARNING:  This part is substantially boring, feel free to skip. I've only included it to show you what I've been doing nearly every day these past few weeks and to reiterate the level of careful detail at play.

One at a time, five thousand times.

Currently at 3000 completed (1500 backs are ready!)

It's pretty much the same process with the cork.

CEO & Dough

I'm not the type to reach out for help (says a guy who uses Kickstarter!?) but this project has forced me to challenge myself and I am so glad I did. My hyper-vulnerable Help Wanted update was a request both for major financial assistance in exchange for a percentage of the company and a bald-faced attempt to recruit a business minded talent to be the CEO of The Present. 

I'm still a bit reticent to share too much detail however, on both counts, my admission of surrender and request for help has been answered. We got the news on the last full moon (it feels good to say WE!) and we've spent the past moon cycle drafting the documentation to move forward with enough working capital to finish this project and finally, at long last, have a Business partner, with capital B.

Working Capital

The investor supplying the working capital holds a Ph.D in a field which aligns beautifully with what we are trying to accomplish with The Present. I'll leave it at that as far as details on the investment partner, only wanted to mention it because it's not a traditional sort of investor bent on 10X'íng their profit in 45-days or whatever the VC scene is into at the moment.  

I'm grateful...I'm happy. It's going to be great, it is great already. Thank you for listening to me, the future is bright and The Present, even brighter.

Print Update

I know. I know, this is taking so, so long to get these made. There is some good news though because I am now only using Duggal to do the impossible thing of printing these puppies at the degree of quality we demand. Instead of a new roll to replace the one they lost... they ordered sheets which arrived this past Wednesday. 

Why sheets?

Duggal will print and my partner in Rochester will screen-print for ink protection / 100% opacity (the film is slightly translucent and requires white backing), and it is easier for them to use their largest screen-printer for that sort of labor. After each one cures, the Rochester partner will then apply the 3M 267 MP pressure sensitive adhesive film to the back of the screen-printed film. Finally, Rochester will die-cut using custom plates, pack the prints individually and send them to me. 

It sounds complicated because it is. The print is by far the most important part of The Present. Separating the print process between the actual print and the labor will save me time and is something I've been considering for awhile. After the lost roll, I had to consolidate my needs from Duggal into what they do best and outsource the labor to my trusted partner in Rochester. 

Quickly for clarity, the masters I'm telling her not to wait on before continuing to make new ones are being sent out on Monday from a completely different vendor, one of Duggal's rivals. 

Yep, I sent a rival of theirs the Duggal masters to see if they can compete as I need to protect the project in case Duggal misplaces their printers. When Duggal gets their approved masters back, I will be receiving prints from another company, just in case... know what I'm saying?

URGENT OPTIMISM

While I wait on Duggal to deliver and hammer these magnets to make them flush with the metal, I listen to books. I'm currently reading (listening) to Jane McGonigal's IMAGINABLE How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything--Even Things That Seem Impossible Today. It sets the course for the sort of optimistic point of view which can and will grow over time with such strength, we will wonder why we ever thought otherwise. 

GOOD NEWS!

On the subject of seeing beyond the very real terrors of our time and drumming up our creative potential to meet our collective challenges, this next video was a welcome surprise. This is the sort of attitude I hope to propel in the world with The Present as a compass for this sort of thinking. Basically, yes, there are more problems at the moment than anyone can count, however, we will, I mean, we really WILL solve every. single. one.

THE PRINTS ARE THE ONLY THING LEFT TO BE DELIVERED BEFORE I CAN START ASSEMBLING!

Thank you for reading, have a lovely holiday, keep your chin up and your eyes on the distant horizon. See you in another cycle of our moon with increasingly better news. Please forgive any tiepohz, I've got to get back to Hammer Time. 

Got a question? Comment below and or send electronic mail to scott at thepresent dot is

I would like to close with an original haiku, thank you.

From way over here

Flashbacks through a silver screen 

Distant moon shine on

In time,

Scott Thrift

Making Eternity Easy
about 2 years ago – Sat, Mar 19, 2022 at 01:13:16 AM

TOOLS FOR BEING IN TIME

I've never been more aware of the shifting cycle of the moon than I was over this past month. 

Something about the vulnerability of the 'white flag' update I sent out on the last full moon made me hyper aware of each phase of this primordial "clock".  The calming cycle helped me pace myself because I knew tonight's full moon would arrive in time, just has it always has, for eternity. 

The moon is a predictable rhythm in an unpredictable bittersweet symphony of life.

Since I last reached out it has come to my attention that the oldest known example of physical "writing" is a tool that maps the cycles of the moon. This fascinating design was carved by someone, into this bone, over thirty-two thousand years ago. 

This got me thinking. 

Would the person who etched the phases of the moon in bone, be able to detect any change in our "modern" moon? How much has the moon changed, if at all, in thirty-two thousand years?  

We know the moon moves away from Earth at roughly the distance of 1" (2.54cm) per year.

To see how much or how little the moon has changed in thirty-two thousand years, let's have some thoroughly unscientific fun. Remember, each year the moon gets 1" farther away from Earth so let's replace thirty-two thousand years with thirty-two thousand inches.

32,000" / 12 = 2,666 ft (812 meters)

So, since this person carved their moon map thirty-two thousand years ago, our moon has drifted two thousand six hundred and sixty-six feet away from Earth. 

 How far is 2,666 ft? (812 m) 

Well, the Empire State Building is 1250 ft high.

Stack two of them together,

and you get the difference in distance between what we see now,  

and what they saw then.

Therefore, 

our moon is roughly 2,666 ft farther away from us now than it was 32,000 years ago.

 How far away is the moon from Earth today you ask? 

The moon is currently  2.4 million miles away from Earth. (3,862,425 Km)

Now we can figure out the percentage of how much the moon has "changed" in 32,000 years.

1 mile = 5,280 ft 

2.4 million miles x 5,280 = 12,672,000,000 ft (3,862,425,600 Km)

Meaning what exactly?

Meaning: 

Our moon is only 0.00002% different, "smaller" in thirty-two thousand years! 

I mean, sure, you can say it's "changed" technically but come on, not in any way anyone would notice.

0.00002% of difference since someone that looked like you and me carved this:

and painted these:

and made this:

We share the same moon. 

A moon which hasn't changed in any discernible way full stop in thirty-two thousand years. I've walked through this idea to make the following point; if the time tool maker from thirty-two thousand years ago were here today and we showed them this: 

I want to believe they might actually understand it. 

TIME TELLING TOOLS

Because if that is true, if we were able to compare our time telling tools, we could collapse thirty-two thousand years of human history into the present.  We could look each other in the eye and bind our hearts and minds together in understanding something ancient, something forever mysterious, something deeply human.

The phases of the moon are a fundamental element of the human experience and clearly have not "changed" in any detectable way whatsoever since those carvings were made thirty-two thousand years ago. I believe this is an inspired example of how life is a continuum and eternity is accessible.Eternity isn't some far away place, it is here, it is now and it is knowable.

SPEAKING OF ETERNITY, 

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO SHIP THE CLOCKS I BOUGHT IN THE YEAR 2020? 

Four thousand boxes arrive at the end of the month. That's one box to put the clocks in and another box to place the clock for safer shipping. It's all happening. There is a crazy story about the prints you can read about at the end of this post if you wish.* 

I've never been more hyped about it than I am now and I can finally see the:

For now,  if I may, Id like to tie up this thread on eternity.

CREATIVITY 

What use is it to know that the moon has not changed in any perceivable way for anyone in the past thirty-two thousand years? Well, I think it opens the door to grasping our location in time as it relates both to the past thirty-two thousand years and reflexively, to the next thirty-two thousand years. 

Now you know, thirty-two thousand years from now, the moon will only "shrink" in size by 0.00002%. That's amazing! It means we really are in this altogether now and practically speaking, forever. 

Am I getting through to you? It means so little has changed, and so little will change as it relates to the moon in your lifetime; this cycle can become a reliable gauge of eternity for a human life. Think of the certainty of the moon as a helpful "unchangeable" heads up display for holism. You can trust it.

AND ETERNITY IN AN HOUR

I hope this thought experiment and eventually these works of art help you get in touch with your own grasp on eternity.  I believe the more we can befriend eternity, the more we can transform it from some sort of limitless extreme to something more comprehensible, the more thoroughly human we become.

THE YEAR 2000

At the turn of the century, I imagined 'limitlessness' as being one of the central themes I sensed would be necessary to humanize as an artist. Since then I feel as if I've gotten closer to making sense of it. The tools I've created, with your help, have not only made it more possible, they're making eternity easy. 

OPTIMISM

Naturally, these "timepieces" contain a healthy dose of optimism. They are signposts to the cycles of life on planet Earth in all of its dazzling beauty and potential. Yet we all know too well the world is caught in such a horrific holding pattern. It's not my place to bring them up in detail here but I must admit it can seem as if the problems we have now are altogether insurmountable at this point in time. 

[  IMAGINE:  COLLAGE OF SEEMINGLY INTRACTABLE PROBLEMS ]

It is an act of defiant optimism to perceive that as long as we limit our conscious awareness of time to a singular, short term method of measuring it, we will eternally fail to produce the long term solutions we so desperately desire.  

What if it really is that simple?

Our short term point of view on time primarily serves industrialization while starving us from the abundance of solutions waiting to be plucked from the longer term horizons of time perception.  The Present is one way of offering our lopsided point of view on time a fulcrum for balance. In its most simple terms, The Present is a way to give time space. 

Now you don't have to subscribe to my philosophy here to enjoy these timepieces. Time is subjective and many people have many different reasons for enjoying these artifacts.  All of the limitless interpretations you might have about them yourself are welcome. 

1979 - 4,380,506,100 humans

I was born on the autumn equinox of 1979. As long as I live, I will continue to believe we will make it out of the long term effects of short term thinking and into a future that makes more holistic, practical sense. Whatever it is, whatever needs to heal, whatever must change, I believe it can and it will, it's only a matter of time. 

2022 - 7,953,952,577 humans

Human events entail too many variables, too many uncertainties to make scientific statements about our future. But we can still dream and as long as we can still dream we can say that the next golden age of human achievement begins here and now.

By 2050, 

the last combustion engine will placed in the Smithsonian as a relic from the dark age of energy. 

By 2122, 

half of the world's timepieces will be some version of the natural cycles portrayed in The Present.

By 2150, 

due to a total lack of carbon pollution, an abundance of healing methods and technological breakthroughs, the effects of climate change begin to reverse and diminish; snow falls again in NYC after decades of insufferable heat.

By 2200, 

people will stop dying from the effects of poverty, no one will go hungry ever again as the planet becomes a self sustaining, intercommunicating organism.

By 2300, 

the polar ice caps are restored to the way they were in the 19th century and the forecast is mild and temperate for the next 40,000 years. 

What new wonders 

undreamt of in our time, will we have accomplished in another generation? 

And another? 

How far will our nomadic species have wandered by the end of the 24th century? 

And the next millennium? 

Our remote descendants safely arrayed on many worlds throughout the solar system and beyond will be unified by their common heritage. By their regard for their home planet and by the knowledge that whatever other life there may be, the only humans in all of the universe, came from Earth. No matter how far we go, as long as we have The Present we will be able to commune with time back home. 

32,000 years or so from now,

our future selves will gaze up and strain to find the blue dot in their skies. They will marvel at how vulnerable the repository of all of our potential once was. How perilous our infancy.  How humble our beginnings. How many rivers we had to cross, before we found our way. 

TIME IS CHANGE.  

TIME CHANGES US.  

CAN WE CHANGE TIME?  

So much has changed since my last update, both in the world and in the business of The Present LLC. I will go into more detail on the next full moon but I want you to know not to worry about me or the future of The Present.  Something truly special happened today that never would have happened if I did not reach out for help. I'll be sharing some thrilling news with you on the next full moon about the near and long term future of The Present. Until then, thank you for listening to me and for your legendary patience with The Present.  

THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK.

*So here is that crazy story about the prints. The prints are not printed on paper, they are reverse printed on a wildly expensive film made in the USA by a company named Tekra. The prints are printed on the world's most sophisticated printers by one of the most reputable printers in North America, Duggal.  

LOST FILM

This is not a joke, I wish it was but they LOST the film...? It sounded like the dog ate my homework when they first told me. We have reordered a few rolls this time around and they will be immediately turned into prints. The thing is, I am beholden to them, no one else can make these prints, believe me, I've tried. 

I can't quit them, look at these!*

SO MUCH

My friends, there are so many things I'm doing to make these clocks better, last longer and stay on the wall as safely as possible but really, they are just too complicated to talk about here in detail. 

As a brief example though:

The hands for The Present Moon are custom made with an alloy of resin and fiberglass. The resin was meant to be a specific grey but it does not match the final print well enough. What do I mean? I mean the simultaneous contrast effect is lackluster unless you have the exact grey portrayed in the middle of the print. I cannot powder coat these hands because powder coating requires heat to set the powder and that will melt the resin. I cannot hand paint them because you will see the brush strokes. So I found the exact paint color (check out the name!) and learned how to airbrush to solve the problem.

I know, I know, I know it seems like a subtle difference and it is but we are working in the realm of subtle shadow-play here. I can assure you if it was not worth it to paint all 1,000 hands, if the effect wasn't so special, I would not have gone through the trouble. I'm glad I did though because the effect looks fantastic and finished all of them last night!

 *about those prints and the printer losing the film. 

Yeah, I have to be honest, I let myself get upset about them losing the entire roll of specialized film. It took us ages to score it. I didn't get mad, I just called my back up printer (always have a back-up) and gave them a shot at The Present Year. I know my back-up is incapable of printing the Moon or Day graphic because they don't have the most expensive printer systems on the planet. I've tried to get Day and Moon made there but they gave up because those prints are impossible. 

However

I have been happy with their work on The Present Year in the past and have used them in a pinch. 

So I sent them the new file right away and today I picked up the samples. 

Sigh.

Duggal is the best printer in North America for a reason. 

It's highly likely you cannot see the difference in this photo but I just want you to know that I tried and I hoped they would come through but they can't. 

The one on the left is the back-up printer and the right one is Duggal.  

Again, hard to see here but the Duggal print is so smooth and creamy because they run the machine as slow as possible and it's going to knock your socks off, if they would just print them already!

THANK YOU FOR READING AND KEEPING IN TOUCH.

You will have your rewards sooner rather than later at this stage. Hang in there, soon this will all be distant memory.

Scott, do you have a way to decompress?

Yes.

Started this update yesterday at four pm, posting now at three am.

Thankful for your help.

Grateful to be alive.

In time,

Scott Thrift

NOTE: Starting with "Human events..."" and ending with, "...before we found our way."  - I lifted (and embellished) some of the future dreaming section text from the outstanding Cosmos series hosted by NGT. I've also recently been inspired by "The Dawn of Everything" and love how it's reorganizing my perception of the past.

Excerpt from Shelly's Adonais (1821)

The One remains, the many change and pass; 

Heaven's light forever shines, Earth's shadows fly; 

Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, 

Stains the white radiance of Eternity

Help Wanted
about 2 years ago – Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 04:50:34 PM

Yes, this is another one of those long, thoughtful updates.

PRINTS APPROVED

I've just approved the stunning prints pictured below. 

The pictures don't do these prints justice, they are truly mesmerizing works of art. 

The amount of work and time required to make these reproduceable, at this level of quality, has easily been the most challenging element of the project by far. These designs are punishing even for the most sophisticated and expensive printers on the planet. 

I want to share them with the world but I need some help. Due to supply chain strains, prices across the project have doubled, tripled and in a few cases been five times more expensive than initially budgeted, so these prints have jumped in price by 150%.

HELP WANTED

I recognize that this is a long shot but it is the biggest audience I have; it is my hope that someone out there reads this and a light goes on. 

TIMING

I must preface this all, by acknowledging that you've already pledged your help financially and for that I am eternally grateful. This is a message for anyone out there that wants to be more involved. There has been a great deal of change since 2020 and I sense that the timing justifies the following outreach for help.

THE GREAT REAFFIRMATION 

Many well qualified people left their jobs over the past year in search of something more meaningful. If you or someone you know has the knowledge and experience in CPG to help bring a wellness product like The Present to life, I need to hear from you. 

SUBJECT: I know someone who can help

[email protected] 

or

SUBJECT: I am someone who can help

[email protected]

HELP

• Fundraising, packaging and delivering open orders
• Building a go-to-market plan for this unique product
• Defining the TAM and executing a sales strategy
• Following up with the 51 distributors in Japan who want The Present
• and much, much more

THE OPPORTUNITY OF LIFE-TIME

I'm open to a co-founder / partner role for the right person with the requisite experience and I hope you are reading this right now or know someone who would want to be a part of making time more valuable.

NOW

Take a moment to think of someone who might want to help, please. If it is you, then do not hesitate to reach out. This is not a dress-rehearsal, this is real, and The Present really needs your help, right now. 

One more time.

 DEAR ANGEL INVESTOR 

Testimonials of The Present sound like this, "Living with The Present has helped me form a more emotionally meaningful orientation with time." That is a good thing for the world wouldn't you agree? 

Getting a product out there with the potential to help people feel like that is, in my opinion, much more valuable than a multitude of things that received funding just yesterday. 

The Present is a shining example of a product that serves our higher needs. It is an uplifting, wholehearted, and vital grounding tool for the chaotic times we live in that is woefully and chronically undercapitalized.

Third party validation of The Present sounds like this,

Wired, "The Present is a more holistic, gorgeous view of time that will help the time-crunched put things in perspective."

Fast Company called The Present "a 21st century Walden"

Core77 calls The Present "The next generation of home entertainment."

The Present sold out at the MoMA Design Store twice in a matter of months.

WHAT ARE YOU ASKING FOR SCOTT?

I'm not asking for sympathy or donations, this is a gift that has been time-tested and it is my intention to partner with someone, whether it is a co-founder, a partner, a CEO or an angel investor(s) both or all four. 

This is the first time I've stated that I'm hiring and although I might find someone through this channel and hope I do, I will find someone regardless.

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE THAT CAN HELP?

Every day I walk into the warehouse, make my way to the clean room, close the door and either; make more than the 1,350 movements I've already made by hand, or test them to make sure they work. 

After so many long stretches of working alone in the assembly room, I've had a lot of time to wonder what the heck am I doing with my time, and why am I doing this alone? 

This time, the present itself, illuminated by these timepieces, is precious and there must be others out there who want to surface it and share it like I do. 

•  Maybe making a job listing on LinkedIn is a more appropriate way to do this, but I felt it was time to let you know where I am and how I need help. 
•  Maybe you do digital marketing or build apps and can see exactly how to get The Present out there?
•  Maybe you know a guy, who knows a girl, who knows someone's cousin who used to live next-door to that person who loves to invest in wellness products?
•  Maybe you left a job hocking ice-cream gloves and were like, "What am I doing? Isn't there something true, something meaningful out there that could use my talents?"

If that is you, I made this update for you, really!

WHEN WILL THE CLOCKS SHIP?

I don't know. It might start in March with a few and slowly ship into the summer. It all depends on the degree of assistance offered and or if someone can partner with me who knows how to fundraise and level up a company like The Present LLC.

WELL, CAN I HAVE REFUND THEN?

I can no longer honor refund requests at this time. If I am eventually able to afford honoring refunds, I will not hesitate to do so. The priority is finishing the current order. If I have the clock finished and you don't want me to send it to you at that time, I will have to wait to sell it to someone else so I can give you their money. Kickstarter's policy on refunds.

THIS IS NOT THE UPDATE I EXPECTED.

For anyone who has been paying attention to me for years now, hi, it seems that I am, once again, in over my head. I'm a filmmaker by trade and as much as I have learned by making this concept into a reality over time, I still don't know half as much as someone who brings CPG's to market for a living. 

I was wholly unfit to be able to anticipate such outrageous price hikes. I also made the mistake of assuming investors would be much more forthcoming due to my traction, time in business and the otherworldly timeliness of the product itself.

WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU SOLVING?

When you start a business they ask, "So what is the problem you are solving?" The Present provides a solution to one of the most intimate problems we face in modernity, the problem of not having more time in life. 

I believe that The Present not only solves that problem, it gives us time with more joy, peace and stillness than any existing clock could ever hope to provide. More time is a "product" worth selling and is certainly worthy of a time or capital investment.

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

Time felt out of character to me back in 2011 and I wanted a new scale of it to make sense of the size of life in the 21st century. I needed more time, so I made the original annual clock, and it actually worked, and so I had to at least try to make them for others. That's what this is all about, helping people make sense of time in a world that seems to have lost touch with its fundamental rhythms. 

If the world is wrapped up in a linear, industrial short term scale of time, which it most certainly is, it follows that we might all be unnaturally anxious and confused about time; surfacing the unspeakable quality of time in nature, seeing the poetry of motion in time, is I think, one of the reasons the visionary author László Krasznahorkai called The Present, "The most beautiful time mask of the world." I'm not bringing up László to gloat, I'm trying to help you understand that The Present is vetted and worthy of your investment, whether that is working capital or your time, both are needed.

WHAT'S THE POINT?

This update is me admitting I've tried to make this happen by myself, with my own shoestrings, but it's impossible. I must team up with someone else to see this through.  I'm only one person and yeah, I'm ambitious, but this is a marathon and I've got to be honest about where I am with the project. 

I have not stopped and will not stop but I've been subsidizing this production for months now with my own personal income from editing gigs and The Present is too valuable to not swallow my pride and call for substantial help. 

Will you, can you, or do you know someone who can help me make time? 

Programming time clip - no sound. 

Thank you for your patience.

SUBJECT: I know someone who can help

[email protected] 

or

SUBJECT: I am someone who can help

[email protected]

In time,

Scott Thrift  

Slow*
about 2 years ago – Mon, Jan 24, 2022 at 11:00:53 PM

The first 500.

*and steady.

In time,

Scott Thrift 

The Show Must Go On
over 2 years ago – Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 11:35:06 PM

TL;DR

Everything is moving forward, slowly.

All 2,500 printed circuit boards have been surface mounted in the states with robotic accuracy.

Movement Assembly can begin, finally.

THE PRESENT MOVEMENTS

I'm picking up 2,500 completed boards on Monday, December 20th locally here in Rochester.

Each printed circuit board is now ready to undergo the gearbox and battery holder soldering process of assembly.  I know you've seen these boards before, I am holding it up again to celebrate that all of the chips, crystals and capacitors have been assembled professionally on 2,500 movement boards. It's a big step and I'm thankful that I was able to have this taken care of here in Rochester.

SOLDER + PROGRAMMING 

An engineering friend of mine is coming up to Rochester this week to help solder the movements. We believe we can solder all 2,500 of the movements by the 28th. That leaves the last week of 2021 and the first week of 2022 to begin programming each movement into either day, moon or year rhythms. 

The space they offered me at the warehouse.

The solder parade begins here on Monday. 

TIMING

We have all learned that if I set a clear date, it will be swallowed by forces beyond my control. I wanted to begin shipping in July of this year... Clearly, The Present is a different sort of thing than something you buy online for "same-day" shipping, or even "same-year" shipping at this point. There are many backers on this newsletter who pledged for The Present around July, 2020. That's a long time to wait, even for a time device about a long time, that is still a long time to wait.

SUPER RARE

If you are reading this you are likely one of the very few people who will be giving yourself or someone else you love the gift of more time in 2022.

SELLING OUT... AGAIN

Only 2,500 are being made this round and as of now all of them have been sold. This is good news simply because it means we have spent no money on marketing. This is also challenging news because it means that there are and always will be more people on the planet who want The Present and cannot have it. 

ANGEL INQUIRY

I would like to humbly ask once again if there are any angel investors in the audience who might be interested in playing a larger role with The Present? Would you give me chance to tell you where I am and what's next? I could not be more excited about the near future of The Present and would appreciate a few minutes of your time.  Thank you,  contact me here 

[email protected]

GRATITUDE

To every backer, I am eternally grateful for your patience, even though at this point, even if your patience has worn completely thin, I hope I still have your understanding. These things do take time, even without the global supply-chain issues.  Things are moving forward though, slowly, forward. 

Front Lines by Gary Snyder

As the cricket's soft autumn hum

is to us

so are we to the trees

as are they

to the rocks and the hills.

///

Thank you for reading, supporting, pledging,

and being a part of changing time.

In time,

Scott Thrift