As I mentioned in the video everything arrived in Rochester the same day I did. I spent two days counting everything and inspecting the parts. I will return for the entire month of December to finally begin assembly.
Since the assembly firm is also the distribution hub it is likely that I will also be able to ship a few hundred out next month but please, don't hold your breath. If you intended for The Present to be an actual present for the holidays, reach out to me, because if you would like, I can make a personalized video for your giftee explaining why I'm making these, and why they take so long to make if you think that would help you in any way.
I am not kidding when I say that this edition of The Present will run until at least 2042 before you even need to check the batteries and it is possible that they may run much longer than that. There has never been a clock like that before and you will not only be the first to own one, you helped make it happen.
Custom Glass
The half of it.
The most significant thing that happened was that I was able to drop off our most precious cargo, the crystals, microchips, capacitors and buttons for The Present Movement to a trusted firm in Rochester. Inside the boxes below, there are 3,000 chips that Sony or any car company out there would buy from us at a ridiculous margin. So instead of cars and PS5's, these chips are going to power the longest lasting clock movements ever made.
Got a bit emotional leaving these behind.
The firm in Rochester will use robots to pick and place those elements on our custom gold-plated boards in a process called surface mounting, like this:
I'm grateful for the donations that came through recently. It was a total of $472 which allowed me to pay the surface mount tooling costs, thank you.
DEAR ANGEL INVESTOR (yes you!)
I am still hoping to connect with an angel investor who can see the value in The Present and step forward, sooner rather than later, to exchange working capital for a percentage of owning The Present.
If you are that person, please, now is the time to reach out. If you are not that person but you know someone who might be interested, please put me in touch with an intro email.
For your support and at this stage, especially your patience. I know this has been a tough one. Supply-chain woes, outrageously high shipping and material costs not withstanding, we will make it through to the other side together.
In time,
Scott Thrift
ps. For all of the people who want to add the steel and glass details to their wall clocks, hang in there. You will have theoption to make that change when I confirm addresses a few weeks prior to your item shipping.
The Present is a gift.
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 04:29:59 AM
Full
INTERMISSION
What problem does The Present solve?
We don't have time for life.
We measure our entire lifetimes with work time and wonder why we cannot achieve work/life balance.
Getting closer.
We can give life its own place in time. We can and will de-couple time from work and make time for life.
We already have clocks for work time.
What we are missing are clocks for life time.
With help from The Present we can solve the problem not having time for life.
The opportunity of life time.
Still waiting right here with the rest of you. First round of cork is out of customs and at the assembly firm in Rochester. No confirmation yet from UPS about shipment. Deeply grateful for everyone who reached out to help assembly run as smooth as possible by purchasing clocks to give as gifts and donating directly to the project.
From a backer in Vermont, the moon setting in the west this morning.
I recognize that with these full moon updates, I essentially committed to sending you a reminder every month that you don't have the thing you pledged to help create over a year ago now. I sense that many of you may have grown weary; I want you to know that is okay and understandable. Maybe some of you never wanted to know how much goes into making a few thousand of these things. It sure is a heck of lot and incredibly tedious.
I suspect that there are also many of you who are enjoying the journey, even this part where we don't know if $128,000 of clock parts is at the bottom of the ocean or pulling into New York Harbor. Will probably get an update tomorrow morning that everything arrived safely so best not stress over something one has no control over whatsoever.
At any rate, this is it, this is where the project is right now, in the present.
In time,
Scott Thrift
Ten Years Ago Yesterday
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 12:12:49 PM
Artfully engineered with 99.9% pure gold plated circuits.
The longest-lasting wall clock movement ever made.
Choppy waters ahead
Batten Down The Hatches
The Present, separated into tens of thousands of smaller components and packed into container ships, is on its way to New York Harbor.
The first round of cork is arriving from Portugal this week and will soon begin its crawl through an understaffed, heavily congested customs office stateside. I have no way of knowing how long that will be and I want you to know that I am at peace with that now. I hope you are as well. Knowing I have no control over what happens out at sea, helps me participate in the process of letting go.
The Process of Letting Go
Part of letting go was making the conscious choice to not finish the update on my birthday, the 22nd, and instead, be present for the group of friends I was in the company of and have had the great fortune to know and love. Thank you for your patience as we get this ship safely into the harbor.
Harvest Moon Rise
TRACKING NUMBERS
They gave me these UPS Tracking numbers and I've been hitting refresh every other day or so waiting, and now you can too... it's probably more fun to watch paint dry though.
1Z81R6080392403052
1Z81R6080394708916
1Z81R6080394768594
1Z81R6080392361688
1Z593Y5F0339702785
You can Copy/Paste/Search any of the numbers — we're all looking for a delivery date to pop up. And when the components do land, we get to wait together peacefully as everything shuffles its way through customs in a world waking up to the long-term effects of short-term thinking.
I hope this update helps you understand
where we are and what to expect, even if what we are expecting is a bit more of the grey unknown.
What I do know for sure is that
2,400 clocks will be assembled and shipped as soon as it is possible.
And that
Because of the skyrocketing shipping, labor, and materials costs, everything is about to get expensive.
What I want to now prevent is bottlenecking due to a lack of working capital later. The Present has been in business since the summer of 2012 and I have been approved for a small business loan. The approved amount was 1/10th of what would be appropriate working capital given the scale of production at play. I have submitted an increased request and hope to hear back within the next 3-weeks I am told. Cross your finger with me in three, two, one — cross!
In the meantime
I am genuinely asking for your help. Help to cover the rising costs, hire a proper staff, to rapidly find solutions to the inevitable "unknown-unknowns" and professionally manage this most critical part of the operation. One of the best ways to help is of course through:
2,013 of 2,400 units have already been reserved by you and the gang.
The remaining 387 are now available for the first time to you, the backers who have made all of this joy and frustration, and dedication possible. Buying time for yourself or someone else you love has never been easier with The Present.
POST—PRODUCTION
I've just completed editing a feature film about a new territory in the field of performance art. We finished the film on the Full Moon and it premiered last Tuesday projected live to a masked audience of one hundred patrons in this outsized hayloft.
Red Barn
I mention it to help clarify that what we are doing with The Present is not so different from making a film.
We are now moving into the post-production phase of producing The Present. Get comfy, remain calm, stay hydrated, breathe deeply, get outside for some fresh air, and whatever you do, do not edit past 4:44am or you will start writing lyrics to the musical theater piece in your mind.
Life is not a race or a marathon.
Yet every one of us holds the baton.
There is no finish line.
This isn't the end of time.
This is process.
This is beginning.
This is brand new.
"The Next Generation of Home Entertainment" — CORE77 (Design Aggregate)
The Present is a slow-moving, thought-provoking philosophical entertainment piece that gives life more time.
Not an either/or The Present is a yes, and...
If the decade long tenacity of this story is resonating with you and you want to help expand The Present now and throughout the '2020s, then it is my honor, on behalf of The Present LLC, to humbly ask you to consider a macro or micro-donation to help us sail through the inevitable turbulence of assembling and shipping a project of this size.*
Scott Thrift: Yes I did, I know first hand what happens when you have to make every clock yourself to make ends meet and it's nothing but starving yourselves in the face of abundance.
Reader: But your dignity? Are you not ashamed to so bluntly ask for monetary help?
Scott Thrift: All I have to do is focus on the joy those funds will enable.
Reader: What about the discount for existing backers?
Scott Thrift: Yes of course her it is — DISCOUNT CODE:
1/2020
Reduces the overall cost of clocks to inspire the act of giving ThePresent as a gift.
Reader: Got it thanks!
Scott Thrift: Curious if there are other ways you might be able to help? The Present isn't a start-up it's a keep going. We would love to send you our fancy deck** and term sheet that will help you understand why The Present is the opportunity of life time.***
In time,
Scott Thrift
* While I have consciously dedicated a span of my life to crafting a refreshing new brand of time for 2042 and beyond, I feel the need to be super clear that I sustain my life in NYC (and soon to be in the much less expensive city of Tilburg, NL) through the magic of editing film. Do you know someone who needs an uncommonly talented editor for their feature project? I'm on fire right now, let me know — I love all things timing-related, editing, the recording arts, comedy, and knowing precisely when an idea's time has come. With The Present, that time is now, all of the time.
**
TL;DR - The Present Plan
*** The grammatical error is intentional, to pull focus on the phrase "life time" so that one can more easily imagine "life time" as a necessary contrast to work time. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, however, more importantly, both exist. Clearly, we are collectively focused, as species, on an inherently short-term, fragmented perception of life that does wonders for catching the train on time and nothing for what it means to be in time.
The Present is an opportunity to have the time of your life.
Thanks for letting me share it with you dear reader.
Email me anything or book some free time with me soon if you want to connect.
The Same Page
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Sep 01, 2021 at 06:46:04 PM
Hello,
I hope this graphic helps you understand where we are in this process overall.
The Same Page
We are waiting on the completed components to arrive in NY for assembly to begin in September.
The Same Page
Now that we are on the same page, I want to thank you for taking a chance on this idea. Making things at this scale can be tedious and frustrating so it means a lot that you've honored your pledge this whole way through. From where I'm standing it's thrilling to know how close we are to the joys of assembly, which I mean wholeheartedly.
The Present Movement
While we wait, we finally have everything we need to begin crafting and programming our own original movements in-house.
We Made This
I know I've focused on this backplate a lot recently and it's for that reason I think you might enjoy seeing the finished version.
This is not a production sample, it's what every single one of these looks like now and forever.
I hope you are able to connect and share in the accomplishment of seeing this thing through. This is only one component of many which I eagerly anticipate sharing with you soon. Good to be on the same page with you finally on the second Blue Moon of this project.
Thank you for your pledge and your patience.
In time,
Scott Thrift
Back to The Present
almost 3 years ago
– Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 09:58:30 PM
The back of The Present.
No clocks were harmed during this photoshoot.
Identified Flying Object
Well, here we have it, the full reveal of the back of The Present. This is the first cork body made from our custom mold in Portugal. The best news is that all of the critical measurements that hold the new movement in place align beautifully, just as we had hoped.
Back Cover
Back in action; the magnetic attachment method for the back cover also worked out nicely. It's pretty exciting to see things coming together, thank you for helping me make it happen. Wherever you are, I hope you are in good spirits and have the chance to see a bright full moon tonight.
