So I have this thing where every once in a while I need a new hobby. I say its about every 6 to 12 months, but my friend says its every three days. When I get on a kick and find something interesting I research the shit out of it and then if its easy enough to get into (meaning I can throw money at it and get a good way into it) I will start it up and go for it. Usually that means after about 2 thousand dollars and a new basket of specialized tools. Then I make or do the thing for about 3 months and get bored with it then drop it.
Here are some examples of what I have done: (every example comes with tons of bookmarked websites and possibly hard copy books and/or videos)
Airbrush painting. I have a compressor, and 2 1/2 paint guns. Tons of paints in various states of drying out.
Sculpting. Mostly with clays and such. I love the idea of making miniatures from scratch and/or action figures. sometimes when I read a comic I want to make a statue of the scene in the book. You may remember the pendants I made for ARX fooxwoods meetup.
Papercraft. You all should have seen the ALTTABME papercraft I made from scratch HERE. I have also done some models ripped from WoW, and various generic papercraft models you can find around the internet.
Origami. This predates the papercraft, but I was big into dollar bill origami when I was in my early 20s and would always give tips to waitresses/bartenders folded into things like animals, or rings, or playboy bunny emblems. I also did traditional origami where you make animals and roses and stuff. In fact I made my girlfriend a dozen blue roses for Christmas about 3 years ago stems and all in a glass vase that made her cry. We still have it sitting in the bedroom.
World of Warcraft. I know its not the same, but it was a hobby that I stuck with for 7ish years that kept me going and entertained. It actually kept me from having to switch out to other things as often and I kept being challenged. I have only ever finished 1 game in my life and it was a game-boy game, but WoW kept me going for-ev-er.
Electronics. I picked up an arduino (small scale circuit board and chips to program into about anything you want) and wires and circuit boards and l.e.d.'s and all kinds of tools so I could make stuff that lit up and stuff that moved and crap like that. I also have one of those radio shack playsets that teach you about transistors and motors and stuff you can wire up and power up.
Websites and S.E.O. Everythreedays.com and Server5th.blogspot.com were my forays into online blogging and website optimization. I studdied for a bit but lost interest after I found out it was more work than fun. Notice the name of the first site is based on this very subject of this rant.
Re-learning French. I took 2 years of french in high school and then 20 years later decided to try to brush up on it with rosetta stone. That stupid thing pissed me off and I gave up on it.
Leatherworking. I have a whole set of tools which I also used on the ARX foxwoods pendants. I also have a few bookmarks (for real books not websites) and wallets I made that are crap.
Warhammer Miniatures. I have painted, played, modified, and sculpted various bits and pieces in the warhammer fantasy game.
Some things I would like to get into:
Blacksmithing. Actual forging and hammering of metal to make armor and weapons.
Phone app / video game making. I kinda think I would like to do the creative designing behind it more than the actual down in the trenches code work. I put down some ideas for an mmo HERE.
Flying a plane. I would love to learn to pilot a plane.
Making cosplay type costumes. Like an ironman or voltron suit. Or steampunk. Or leather replica of my character's order of whispers leather outfit.
Building things with resins and plastics. gadgets and housings for electronics and generaly learning how to work next generation building materials for everyday stuff. I would SOOO love a 3d printer.
Write a book. I have starting ideas for about 3 different fantasy type world settings that I can write a whole series in if I ever sat down and/or was motivated enough to follow through with writing a book. I have read tons of books and know I could write better than some of the crappier ones I have read and they got published.
Write a movie and/or TV review blog. I watch a ton of tv and movies right now and am very opinionated about them. I could so be one of those guys on the internet.
Now this also bleeds over to my professional life. From age 18 to 28 I worked at 16 different places. I intentionally moved on from all but one (got fired) because I would learn to do the job and get bored then go looking for a completely different field of work.
I have waited tables, bar-tended, built computers, hung drywall, done roadside assistance (flat tires, battery jumps, car locksmithing), worked at a reptile pet store doing both sales and working in the breeding facility on both the reptile side and the feeder rodent side, tech help call center for ups, and security guard. Probably some more I forgot.
That was just the first 10 years of my working life. after that I decided I would find a job that I would stick with until it cost me money to work there; Meaning I would still do things I wanted to on the side and if I could monetize them to the point where spending time at work took away from making more money at them I would quit my day job. I found a great job as an airline mechanic. Even doing that I have something different to work on every day and its not the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and blow my brains out over again.
So now I'm getting restless again. More and more I am feeling like I want to just drop everything that I am doing and go pick up something else. I have this craving for learning new stuff. I always have and the joy of that is part of what drives me. I have this urge to lock up my computer in a drawer for a month and see what I end up occupying my time with. Having this entertainment box available to me 24/7 really gives me an easy outlet to procrastinate and be lazy. I think I get a lot of this from my grandfathers. Both of them were tinkerers. My father's father had a shed that was wall to wall tools and boxes of parts. If anything broke he could fix it or make a part to fix it.
I have some adult responsibilities coming up soon so I may not have the chance to really throw myself into anything for about a 2 year period. I am getting my credit back in shape and hope to be able to look at buying a house in the summer. I am going to A&P school which is a 18 month program so I can be more secure in my job in case the shit hits the fan with this AA / US Air merger. The A&P will mean about 1500 people below me in seniority instead of about 300 in case there is layoffs.
I think the prospect of a 2 year block of free time being planned out is kinda freaking me out and making me want to procrastinate or do something different. Kinda like the kid in me screaming "I don't want to eat my vegetables, I want ICE CREAM!". I know its not the rational thing and I am adult enough (barely) to make the right decision.
What I would love more than anything in the world is to be rich enough so I don't have to work a regular job and could pick up hobbies all the time. Its not that I don't like to work, its that I want to fill my time with learning and doing new things all the time. I only have a job because the alternative is worse. I wish there was a job where I could come up with cool ideas for stuff and then have a team of people who turn it into a product or service. Then I would get a portion of the profits off all my ideas turned businesses.
So ya, I'm getting restless again.
Here are some examples of what I have done: (every example comes with tons of bookmarked websites and possibly hard copy books and/or videos)
Airbrush painting. I have a compressor, and 2 1/2 paint guns. Tons of paints in various states of drying out.
Sculpting. Mostly with clays and such. I love the idea of making miniatures from scratch and/or action figures. sometimes when I read a comic I want to make a statue of the scene in the book. You may remember the pendants I made for ARX fooxwoods meetup.
Papercraft. You all should have seen the ALTTABME papercraft I made from scratch HERE. I have also done some models ripped from WoW, and various generic papercraft models you can find around the internet.
Origami. This predates the papercraft, but I was big into dollar bill origami when I was in my early 20s and would always give tips to waitresses/bartenders folded into things like animals, or rings, or playboy bunny emblems. I also did traditional origami where you make animals and roses and stuff. In fact I made my girlfriend a dozen blue roses for Christmas about 3 years ago stems and all in a glass vase that made her cry. We still have it sitting in the bedroom.
World of Warcraft. I know its not the same, but it was a hobby that I stuck with for 7ish years that kept me going and entertained. It actually kept me from having to switch out to other things as often and I kept being challenged. I have only ever finished 1 game in my life and it was a game-boy game, but WoW kept me going for-ev-er.
Electronics. I picked up an arduino (small scale circuit board and chips to program into about anything you want) and wires and circuit boards and l.e.d.'s and all kinds of tools so I could make stuff that lit up and stuff that moved and crap like that. I also have one of those radio shack playsets that teach you about transistors and motors and stuff you can wire up and power up.
Websites and S.E.O. Everythreedays.com and Server5th.blogspot.com were my forays into online blogging and website optimization. I studdied for a bit but lost interest after I found out it was more work than fun. Notice the name of the first site is based on this very subject of this rant.
Re-learning French. I took 2 years of french in high school and then 20 years later decided to try to brush up on it with rosetta stone. That stupid thing pissed me off and I gave up on it.
Leatherworking. I have a whole set of tools which I also used on the ARX foxwoods pendants. I also have a few bookmarks (for real books not websites) and wallets I made that are crap.
Warhammer Miniatures. I have painted, played, modified, and sculpted various bits and pieces in the warhammer fantasy game.
Some things I would like to get into:
Blacksmithing. Actual forging and hammering of metal to make armor and weapons.
Phone app / video game making. I kinda think I would like to do the creative designing behind it more than the actual down in the trenches code work. I put down some ideas for an mmo HERE.
Flying a plane. I would love to learn to pilot a plane.
Making cosplay type costumes. Like an ironman or voltron suit. Or steampunk. Or leather replica of my character's order of whispers leather outfit.
Building things with resins and plastics. gadgets and housings for electronics and generaly learning how to work next generation building materials for everyday stuff. I would SOOO love a 3d printer.
Write a book. I have starting ideas for about 3 different fantasy type world settings that I can write a whole series in if I ever sat down and/or was motivated enough to follow through with writing a book. I have read tons of books and know I could write better than some of the crappier ones I have read and they got published.
Write a movie and/or TV review blog. I watch a ton of tv and movies right now and am very opinionated about them. I could so be one of those guys on the internet.
Now this also bleeds over to my professional life. From age 18 to 28 I worked at 16 different places. I intentionally moved on from all but one (got fired) because I would learn to do the job and get bored then go looking for a completely different field of work.
I have waited tables, bar-tended, built computers, hung drywall, done roadside assistance (flat tires, battery jumps, car locksmithing), worked at a reptile pet store doing both sales and working in the breeding facility on both the reptile side and the feeder rodent side, tech help call center for ups, and security guard. Probably some more I forgot.
That was just the first 10 years of my working life. after that I decided I would find a job that I would stick with until it cost me money to work there; Meaning I would still do things I wanted to on the side and if I could monetize them to the point where spending time at work took away from making more money at them I would quit my day job. I found a great job as an airline mechanic. Even doing that I have something different to work on every day and its not the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and blow my brains out over again.
So now I'm getting restless again. More and more I am feeling like I want to just drop everything that I am doing and go pick up something else. I have this craving for learning new stuff. I always have and the joy of that is part of what drives me. I have this urge to lock up my computer in a drawer for a month and see what I end up occupying my time with. Having this entertainment box available to me 24/7 really gives me an easy outlet to procrastinate and be lazy. I think I get a lot of this from my grandfathers. Both of them were tinkerers. My father's father had a shed that was wall to wall tools and boxes of parts. If anything broke he could fix it or make a part to fix it.
I have some adult responsibilities coming up soon so I may not have the chance to really throw myself into anything for about a 2 year period. I am getting my credit back in shape and hope to be able to look at buying a house in the summer. I am going to A&P school which is a 18 month program so I can be more secure in my job in case the shit hits the fan with this AA / US Air merger. The A&P will mean about 1500 people below me in seniority instead of about 300 in case there is layoffs.
I think the prospect of a 2 year block of free time being planned out is kinda freaking me out and making me want to procrastinate or do something different. Kinda like the kid in me screaming "I don't want to eat my vegetables, I want ICE CREAM!". I know its not the rational thing and I am adult enough (barely) to make the right decision.
What I would love more than anything in the world is to be rich enough so I don't have to work a regular job and could pick up hobbies all the time. Its not that I don't like to work, its that I want to fill my time with learning and doing new things all the time. I only have a job because the alternative is worse. I wish there was a job where I could come up with cool ideas for stuff and then have a team of people who turn it into a product or service. Then I would get a portion of the profits off all my ideas turned businesses.
So ya, I'm getting restless again.
