Happy New Year everyone!
Well, let's do some expectations management here : let's wish for this year to be just slightly better than the previous one, that'd be a great improvement.

Spoiler alert, real life being ahead of my articles published here (which is a nice way of saying I'm late on my articles) : the '59 beetle is back on the road! The picture above was shot a couple of days ago while cruising around the cape of Antibes.
I'm currently finalizing an article about the engine installation and first start, but it takes time to write, translate, etc... You'll just have to wait a bit longer!

Another article to come soon is the putting the Thing (181) back on the road (again), which has been quite a rabbit hole... Brace yourselves for a lengthy article there.

Finally, Santa Claus has been kind enough to give me a 360° camera, so I'm experimenting... And I'll leave you with two videos shot the past couple of weeks. Have a good trip!

Yeah, I know, it's been two years since I last posted here... But for those who wondered, ShamWerks is not dead!

Those past two years have ben pretty heavy, and I did not have the opportunity to tighten a single nut at the garage. A new and very stressful job, the little one growing up fast, the death of my grand-mother, of my cat, moving places, a bit of an health issue, and still no electricity at the garage... Yep, life hasn't exactly been relaxed.

But I didn't stand still though! As I had mentioned in my last post, I indeed ended up buying that house, and after almost a year of pointless discussions with the architectural review board (bloody Architecte des Bâtiments de France), I finally managed to get the authorization to renovate the workshop in my new backyard!

TL;DR : building is underway, and ShamWerks will soon have a new playground! I'm not telling you any more right now, but bear with me, it'll change in a couple of months! Let's face it, the web has changed a lot since I launched this blog, a bit over 21 years ago (first version launched in October 1998... Feel old yet?).
The type of content I provide is not of interest to a lot of people, especially due to it's redactionnal aspect, when everyone and their mother's on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok (well there are a few exceptions fortunately, like Rascals Cats, Olivier Relic...).

But ShamWerks will stand its grounds, with more detailed posts in the future. And maybe a couple of videos, who knows...

Happy New Year 2020 everyone!
Take care of your loved ones, be safe on the road, and see you back here soon(ish)!

As tradition goes, now's the time to wish y'all a Fantastic New Year 2018! (better late than never hmm?)
So, as usual, may you be healthy, happy, wealthy, oh-but-you-know,as-long-as-you're-healthy, etc.

And as per the tradition as well, it's time to do a short review of the year past, and of the projects to come in the future, reminding us that time goes by...

You may have noticed that ShamWerks has been a bit slow on updates recently. Well, it's kind of a transition period for me, there's a lot going on backstage...

Baby

As expected, and without an ounce of surprise, raising a lil' baby is a pretty time-consuming endeavor!

As a result, I have less spare time to tinker around. But alledgedly, it should get better a few months from now!

And to be honest, how could you not melt in front of this smile?

(Whaaaaaaaaat? My son is the most beautiful baby in the world, I'm just stating an obvious, scientific fact)

Jack has hit the road...

My father, Jacques, passed away on November 17^th, aged 90.

He died peacefully, in his sleep, at home, while keeping his wits about him until the last day (and also while chainsmoking a pack a day...) : in the end, not the worst way to go.

Our relationship was complicated, and as he was bed-ridden for the past few years following a stroke, I had a lot to deal with taking care of him...

In any case, he leaves a big void behind him, and not only because he was 1.94m tall. (that's 6ft 4" for you yankees).
He returned to the sea he loved so much... With his departure, I'm turning over a new leaf, and it's not an easy one to turn.

Good bye "le Père", have a safe journey...

Black-out

Direct consequence of the previous information : my garages were electrically powered through my father's apartment, since he lived in the same building.
With his passing, the lighting in my workshop is no more... And I'm too old to tinker around with a headlamp.

I could go through the administrative procedure to get a proper power outlet installed, but it's a lot of paperwork (and a good chunck of money, too!).
There's a new law in France, which favours access to power outlets for electric vehicles, but it's still a hassle to set up...

Long story short, all projects in the shop are at a dead stop until further notice.
But all this could change thanks to...

A real estate project!

I plan to buy a house, which boasts a really nice worshop!

Nothing final yet, and it'll take some time to sort out.

If it doesn't work out, I'll go back to the "garage power outlet installation" option.

But if it does, you can expect a whole lot of "workshop" articles for sure!

Job swap

Yeah, why not... Let's change all the things, amirite??

So I'm changing jobs : new challenges, new exciting context, some travelling to be expected... Hoping I've made the right decision!

It's gonna take a lot of work and energy, but I'll keep moving forward! #keepHustling

In Conclusion

The first thing is that unfortunately, in the short term, updates on ShamWerks will probably be thin on the ground.

But the positive counterpart is that if everything goes as planned, 2018 could be the starting point of many new articles! (including a collaboration... More on that later)


Anyway, that's it for now! Let's begin a new trip around the sun on our little rock, have a safe trip everyone!

One glance to the odometer :
Half a million visitors came ome this website! Champagne!!
In July 2000 we celebrated the 5000^th visitor... Damn, we did ride a long way since then!

One glance in the rear view mirror :
ShamWerks as of today, it's 19 years of online presence, 317 posts, 95% of which translated to english, over 450 comments by visitors, and over 5000 pictures!

Both hands on the steering wheel :
Even though probably no one noticed, there's been quite a lot of evolutions on the site, to make it faster, and up-to-date with the technical state-of-the-art. In particular, ShamWerks is now mobile-friendly (say "responsive" if you wanna look fancy), so you can read it on your smartphone or tablet! (I had to go through over 300 posts to make sure it was bulletproof...).

Eyes on the road :
Right now, I have over 20 articles being written, and quite a lot of ideas for future projects. Well, let's be honest, probably way more projets than I have spare time for... But anyway, expect some heavy stuff soon!

In July 1999, we barely reached the 2000^th visitor ; it took 17 years to reach this half million milestone... But if I follow the current trend, see you in Summer 2024 for the 1.000.000^th visitor party!
As usual, thanks to all of you for your interest, I know many of you are long time followers. Have a good trip!

Crédit photo : Sherif Mokbel

Precisely one month ago, on June 20^th at 9:00PM, arrived Enoha, the new intern in the ShamWerks team.

Let's face it : my new fatherly activities will certainly slow down the current projects in the works... But you just wait till I can give him a 13mm wrench!

Happy Monthversary lil'Baaaaaaby!

OK, simply put, I for one will not miss 2016 a bit, it's been a tough year for many reasons. Good riddance!
In the other hand, 2017 will be a great year, full of changes, at least for me! (edit 20170720 : told ya! )

I wish you all a very Happy New Year, Health-Money-Happiness-Oh-But-You-Know-As-Long-As-You're-Healthy blah blah blah.

Be safe on the road!

Ten years ago to the day, I was officially launching ShamWerks!

It was then a complete redesign of the previous version, namely "Da Sham's Webpage", after 8 years online. I already had an online presence since '96, but it was only a single Geocities page, not an actual site...

Along the last 10 years, it's over 180 articles that I have published on ShamWerks. Quite a slow pace compared to other blogs, but I always give priority to actual content over a quick picture without context ; and that takes time!
Speaking of which, the average length of my articles keeps getting bigger, it's now have tripled since '08!

Recently, ShamWerks has evolved again to adapt to new medias : you can now browse the site from your mobile or tablet! The logo, too, got a bit of a dust-off... It was the perfect occasion to indulge myself to a small present to celebrate :

As usual, many thanks for your renewed fidelity, your messages, your help... Be safe on the road, see you soon!

Une victoire historique!

Les baleiniers japonais, qui chaque année partent chasser les cétacés dans l'océan Antarctique, ont fini par abandonner face au harcèlement de l'organisation écologiste Sea Shepherd! Pour cette saison au moins, les baleines sont tranquilles dans le sanctuaire de l'océan austral, l'opération "No Compromise" est un succès!

Dans cette zone, définie en 1994 par la commission baleinière internationale, toute pêche commerciale à la baleine est interdite ; les japonais enfreignent chaque année cette interdiction, en prétendant pêcher "à des fins de recherches" (sic)...
Bien entendu, aucune recherche n'est menée, jamais aucun papier scientifique n'a été publié par l'ICR (Institute of Cetacean Research, l'organisme japonais qui sert de couverture à ces activités) : ils ont un quota (auto attribué!) de près de 1000 cétacés à pêcher, dont la viande se retrouve sur les marchés nippons, vendue à prix d'or... Toutes les espèces chassées sont inscrites au CITES, la liste des espèces menacées.

Ainsi, depuis 7 ans, chaque année, les Sea Shepherd harcèlent les baleiniers, n'hésitant pas à aller au contact, à coup de bouteilles d'acide butyrique, de fumigènes, de câbles lancés dans les hélices, etc... Ils ont d'ailleurs perdu l'un de leurs navires dans la bataille l'année passée, l'Ady Gil, éperonné par un des bateaux japonnais (vidéos ici et là).

"Agressive mais non violente", la méthode est peut-être discutable, mais les résultats sont là : les japonais ont officiellement annoncé ce vendredi l'abandon de la pêche cette année, avec un mois d'avance sur le calendrier!

Le ministre japonais des affaires étrangères a convoqué les ambassadeurs de l'Australie, de la Nouvelle Zélande et des Pays Bas (les ports d'attache et pavillons des navires de Sea Shepherd), pour leur demander de prendre des dispositions pour arrêter les activités des "bergers de la mer", qu'il qualifie de "terroristes" ; croisons les doigts pour qu'ils résistent à la pression diplomatique, Sea Shepherd a déjà été obligé de changer le pavillon de ses navires à plusieurs reprises dans le passé, "lâché" par le pays les hébergeant...

Les chiffres officiels n'ont pas encore été annoncés, mais on estime que les baleiniers ne rentrent au Japon qu'avec moins de 20% de leur quota dans leurs cales, ce qui fait de cette campagne la plus efficace menée par Sea Shepherd.
La pression internationale, la prise de conscience et la désaffection de la viande de baleine par les japonais (dont la consommation est dangereuse pour sa concentration en métaux lourds), sont autant d'éléments qui pourraient à court terme sonner la fin définitive de ce massacre!

Voila, pour moi, c'est une nouvelle qui me donne le sourire, et un peu d'espoir que mes futurs gamins auront l'occasion de voir des baleines ailleurs que dans des musées sous forme de squelettes. Je soutiens Sea Shepherd depuis des années, et j'avoue, parfois, je doutais de la faisabilité de la chose... C'est une étape historique qui vient d'être franchie, bravo à eux!

Sea Shepherd

L'organisation a été fondée en 1977 par Paul Watson, l'un des fondateurs de Greenpeace, mis à l'écart pour ses vues trop "extrémistes" : il estimait qu'il fallait agir sur le terrain, faire appliquer la loi, et pas se contenter de prendre des photos pour témoigner.

Sea Shepherd revendique ainsi une dizaine de navires baleiniers coulés depuis 1977!

Leur combat ne se limite pas aux baleines, ils travaillent aussi à défendre les requins contre la pêche aux ailerons (shark fining), le thon rouge en Méditerrannée, les globicéphales massacrés aux îles Féroé, les dauphins en baie de Taiji, les phoques, les tortues...
"Whale Wars", une série-documentaire, diffusée sur la chaine Animal Planet (chaine du groupe Discovery), est tirée de leur combat en antarctique. Je vous recommande chaudement d'y jeter un œil!

90.000 visitors!

It's a bit late that I finally post the ritual pin-up for the 10K milestone, once again one from Gil Elvgren...
90.000? Wow, the next one will be a big step!


As usual, thanks to all of you for your visits, ShamWerks is very far from the hit scores of the majors blogs, but anyway, it has its used customers!

As usual again, sorry for the lack of updates on this site...

And as usual once more, I'll tell you I prefer write complete, useful, documented articles, instead of a single picture stolen from an other web site, without even a small comment... That's the way I do it, sorry for those who do not appreciate.


Talking about article, get ready for some wood working on ShamWerks in the next few weeks... Some botanics as well, as well as some Japanese culture... I won't tell you more, I have a bunch of pictures of recent realizations I'm preparing backstage.


Thanks again for your visits, support messages, donations on my bank account in Switzerland, comments... Thanks to all of you guys, I do appreciate!