Woodturning - mistakes, blunders, blame the lathe

There have, I know, been some rumblings of criticism over the fact that nothing new has appeared on this site for over two months.
But, as I am not under any contractual obligation, and I foresee no fiscal benefit attached to my ramblings, I am not at all repentant.

The steady reduction of the world's supply of timber continues, as I reduce perfectly good lumps of wood to shavings and dust.

Wood-turning really is very wasteful, though not as bad as printing newspapers.
I've recently been making pens - you know, things to write with when you don't have a computer. The word "make" in this instance is a bit misleading, as I buy all but the outer shell, then turn a piece of wood down to a very fine cylinder, into which the "works" of the pen are fitted. My guess is that 83% of the timber ends up on the ground, and the remainder forms the pen. But I comfort myself that what I start with would, for anyone but a woodturner, be rubbish to start with. Very small bits of wood are involved!

I've also recently been working on a crib board. A round crib board, obviouslyl, what other shape would a turner be making?
This involved bigger lumps of wood than for the pens, but still waste timber to the professional workshop that had thrown them on the junk pile.
Unfortunately, things didn't go entirely to plan. I managed to split off a large chunk, while turning. In fact, this happened twice. So I glued it back together, and modified the design to hide the bungle. Succesful? We will see - in due course - in the fulness of time.

Unfortunately, I suspect that it wasn't just a bungle by a ham fisted amateur. the lathe is developing noises it never had before. I suspect the bearings are wearing out, causing the drive shaft to move around a bit.
On the other hand, it might just be me.
.
I'll probably never be a really good turner - started too late in life. But I have a theory - a motto if you prefer. You've probably heard the proverb - "if a things worth doing, it's worth doing well".

I don't necessarily disagree with that, but I have an alternative - "the proof of whether a thing is worth doing, is if it's worth doing badly".
Working with wood, whether I do it well or badly, is worth doing for me.