2015 Projects
...I don't have any. At least not any big or elaborate ones. Lots of little things, though.
Over the years I've come to accept that I'm mentally wired to be happiest when I'm driven by Big Projects. Maybe it's the idea of "something to look forwards to," or maybe it's just a way to keep my mind organized. Whatever the reason, if I don't have some kind of goal or event to work my way towards I start using up my free-time with unhealthy fillers: binge-playing video games, eating too much, shopping online too much, or hollow hours-and-hours of pointless internet research. To avoid this fate I am starting to add new routines to eat up more time: Regular bicycle riding. Regular workouts. Cook at home more often. Maintain gear. Host more dinners/outings. But while these are all nice and help curb the bad habits, I still can feel this big hole in my daily life if there are no projects to work towards.
~~~~~
This year I really thought I'd be going to BurningMan. BurningMan has always been a Grand Project that fans out into all kinds of related things, to the point that the prep and leadup to it have always been more long-term memorable than the event itself. This is why I've gone so many times. This year, though, it's not to be. I set aside the fundage, got all my "burner profile" stuff done, set alarms for the ticket sale dates and joined the online sale less than 2 seconds after it started. One hour and 20 minutes of waiting later, sorry Charlie, the tickets are all sold out. So unless I rapidly score a set during from STEP in two weeks (highly, highly doubtful) it's out for this year. Dammit.
Instead of projects, there's also just Change. In this case, one of my long-term roommates is moving out, for the best of reasons -- he's starting his new life with his partner in their own place. This could be as soon as the first of April, as late as two months later, but either way by this summer we'll be back down to two people in a four-bedroom house for the first time in over a decade. We have no real desire to pick up a replacement roomie, but if the right situation presents itself we're always open to it. Meanwhile this will be a great excuse to do a mass purge of junk and redecorate. One room will get turned into a projects/workshop area, hopefully freeing up a big chunk of the garage. The other free room will become a guest room, since I enjoy having visitors over a few times a year. This will be a welcome change (though I'll miss said roomie terribly), but is more something to be dealt with than a project to plan for.
The motorcycle-riding thing is a weekend occupation that will continue, but not a big goal or big project in and of itself. With my current mobility issues I can't really see me trying to take on some life-goal Adventure Motorcycling trip like crossing Australia or riding through Central America, as I used to dream about. Instead it'll just be fun to get around the Western states and take some pretty pictures. The Valkyrie is proving to be quite a capable and comfy bike for just such a use, and I'm really looking forwards to a long and fun spring/summer/fall of riding. Still, not a "project" to plan a year around.
The shop is gone and I've no desire to get it back until I own a house. Even then, it'll probably be an outbuilding and not a commercial rental space, and it'll probably be just for my roommate, one or two friends and myself, instead of the "invite all the friends and fandom to just come hang". Since the getting-a-house bit isn't going to happen for another 12-18 months I don't want to start re-investing in tools and toys for a shop just yet. Since pulling back from fandom things I've also not quite decided what drives to indulge should a new shop happen. Not photography, not printing, not trinkets-for-fandom fabrication... but definitely some kind of building/creating. Something that can be shared and would benefit friends and family. I need to devote a lot of thinking to this before it can happen.
I did make a bit of a return to videography, and it's peeking out into public view here and there with my motorcycle ride videos and travel recordings. In truth this was about helping a few friends who were putting together videos, so I could make use of my old college training (yes, one of my degrees I was pursuing was Television and Video Production, if you'll believe it) and re-build a nice video acquisition and edit infrastructure. That part didn't pan out, though, as the friends who wanted this so bad have jumped ship into other hobbies or activities before we could even get started. I'll keep at it, but it's less fun as a solo affair. It also means it'll stay a bit of a background activity and not a main motivation.
~~~~~
End result -- I'm doing a lot of pacing back and forth, trying to find something New, Interesting and Helpful (to others and to myself) to deep-dive into and try out as a 2015 Project(tm). It has to be something I'm capable of doing (the mobility issues are far more limiting than I like to admit), something new or unusual for me to keep from being boring or BTDT, and in at least some way share-able with others. The ideas that have been coming up so far aren't ones that feel in-character for me, but that's probably a good thing.
Here's one you might not have expected: suburban chicken farming. No, really. My sister does it, though for her it's mostly about her kid (my niece) having pets. The drive for me would be the sustainability aspect, which goes right along with my love for alternative energy, EV cars and self-reliance skills like gardening. The idea is to take the dirt-half of my back yard, fence it off, build a proper coop, automate as much of the routine tasks as I safely can, and raise the maximum-6-chickens you can have without a permit in surburban San Jose. Treat them well, enjoy them as the pets that chickens can be, but benefit from both their eggs and their meat when their laying days are over. This has some personal precedent already: from grades 3 to 6 I lived in Missouri on a farm that raised chickens as part of how we survived. I remember both the cute-caring-for-chicks parts, and the machete-and-plucking-duties parts. That was large numbers, though; not the more personal half-dozen you can have in a suburban lot. But they'd make interesting pets, the eggs would benefit me, my neighbors and my friends, and boy do I love both BBQing and roasting fresh chicken.
(I realize that this may offend a few folks on my list who have chickens-as-pets-only; the idea of raising chickens for meat could seem cruel or heartless. I apologize for this if so. Having grown up on a chicken farm, though, I've seen firsthand that you can enjoy them as pets, be protective of them, take care of them excellently, and still go through with 'harvesting' when the time is right; it's part of life, and can be done very humanely. Far more humanely than chickens one would have bought from the grocery store instead. Please feel free to talk with me about this if you have strong feelings on the subject; it's a discussion I'd value.)
So to that end, I've been doing research locally into the suppliers, equipment and rules/regs involved. I've also been informed my roommate has less-than-zero interesting in such things, so if I got a small flock I'd be tending it rather on my own. :) The amount of activity/effort required is right on the edge of what I should responsibly accept vs. my mobility limitations, which is the main part giving me pause. I wouldn't want to treat a flock poorly because I couldn't muck out the coop regularly enough or keep up with yard and bird maintenance enough to keep them healthy. I also wouldn't want to saddle my roommate or friends with any of those tasks should I not be able to maintain them myself. That's what's stopping me so far... but only barely. I'll know in the next few weeks if I'm going to go down this road.
One of the nice parts is that due to the aforementioned "BBQ aspect", raising chickens can be a one-season thing if it turns out to be too much a challenge vs. what I'm capable of physically doing... or it can be turned into an ongoing thing with regular flock turnover if the routine ends up working out well for me. Even though it's a weird 'hobby' for a Tech Worker in the Silicon Valley to consider.
What do you think? Any advice to offer? Done it yourself and have stories to share? And if you're local and I do this, might you want eggs if they make more than I can responsibly use by myself? :)
Over the years I've come to accept that I'm mentally wired to be happiest when I'm driven by Big Projects. Maybe it's the idea of "something to look forwards to," or maybe it's just a way to keep my mind organized. Whatever the reason, if I don't have some kind of goal or event to work my way towards I start using up my free-time with unhealthy fillers: binge-playing video games, eating too much, shopping online too much, or hollow hours-and-hours of pointless internet research. To avoid this fate I am starting to add new routines to eat up more time: Regular bicycle riding. Regular workouts. Cook at home more often. Maintain gear. Host more dinners/outings. But while these are all nice and help curb the bad habits, I still can feel this big hole in my daily life if there are no projects to work towards.
~~~~~
This year I really thought I'd be going to BurningMan. BurningMan has always been a Grand Project that fans out into all kinds of related things, to the point that the prep and leadup to it have always been more long-term memorable than the event itself. This is why I've gone so many times. This year, though, it's not to be. I set aside the fundage, got all my "burner profile" stuff done, set alarms for the ticket sale dates and joined the online sale less than 2 seconds after it started. One hour and 20 minutes of waiting later, sorry Charlie, the tickets are all sold out. So unless I rapidly score a set during from STEP in two weeks (highly, highly doubtful) it's out for this year. Dammit.
Instead of projects, there's also just Change. In this case, one of my long-term roommates is moving out, for the best of reasons -- he's starting his new life with his partner in their own place. This could be as soon as the first of April, as late as two months later, but either way by this summer we'll be back down to two people in a four-bedroom house for the first time in over a decade. We have no real desire to pick up a replacement roomie, but if the right situation presents itself we're always open to it. Meanwhile this will be a great excuse to do a mass purge of junk and redecorate. One room will get turned into a projects/workshop area, hopefully freeing up a big chunk of the garage. The other free room will become a guest room, since I enjoy having visitors over a few times a year. This will be a welcome change (though I'll miss said roomie terribly), but is more something to be dealt with than a project to plan for.
The motorcycle-riding thing is a weekend occupation that will continue, but not a big goal or big project in and of itself. With my current mobility issues I can't really see me trying to take on some life-goal Adventure Motorcycling trip like crossing Australia or riding through Central America, as I used to dream about. Instead it'll just be fun to get around the Western states and take some pretty pictures. The Valkyrie is proving to be quite a capable and comfy bike for just such a use, and I'm really looking forwards to a long and fun spring/summer/fall of riding. Still, not a "project" to plan a year around.
The shop is gone and I've no desire to get it back until I own a house. Even then, it'll probably be an outbuilding and not a commercial rental space, and it'll probably be just for my roommate, one or two friends and myself, instead of the "invite all the friends and fandom to just come hang". Since the getting-a-house bit isn't going to happen for another 12-18 months I don't want to start re-investing in tools and toys for a shop just yet. Since pulling back from fandom things I've also not quite decided what drives to indulge should a new shop happen. Not photography, not printing, not trinkets-for-fandom fabrication... but definitely some kind of building/creating. Something that can be shared and would benefit friends and family. I need to devote a lot of thinking to this before it can happen.
I did make a bit of a return to videography, and it's peeking out into public view here and there with my motorcycle ride videos and travel recordings. In truth this was about helping a few friends who were putting together videos, so I could make use of my old college training (yes, one of my degrees I was pursuing was Television and Video Production, if you'll believe it) and re-build a nice video acquisition and edit infrastructure. That part didn't pan out, though, as the friends who wanted this so bad have jumped ship into other hobbies or activities before we could even get started. I'll keep at it, but it's less fun as a solo affair. It also means it'll stay a bit of a background activity and not a main motivation.
~~~~~
End result -- I'm doing a lot of pacing back and forth, trying to find something New, Interesting and Helpful (to others and to myself) to deep-dive into and try out as a 2015 Project(tm). It has to be something I'm capable of doing (the mobility issues are far more limiting than I like to admit), something new or unusual for me to keep from being boring or BTDT, and in at least some way share-able with others. The ideas that have been coming up so far aren't ones that feel in-character for me, but that's probably a good thing.
Here's one you might not have expected: suburban chicken farming. No, really. My sister does it, though for her it's mostly about her kid (my niece) having pets. The drive for me would be the sustainability aspect, which goes right along with my love for alternative energy, EV cars and self-reliance skills like gardening. The idea is to take the dirt-half of my back yard, fence it off, build a proper coop, automate as much of the routine tasks as I safely can, and raise the maximum-6-chickens you can have without a permit in surburban San Jose. Treat them well, enjoy them as the pets that chickens can be, but benefit from both their eggs and their meat when their laying days are over. This has some personal precedent already: from grades 3 to 6 I lived in Missouri on a farm that raised chickens as part of how we survived. I remember both the cute-caring-for-chicks parts, and the machete-and-plucking-duties parts. That was large numbers, though; not the more personal half-dozen you can have in a suburban lot. But they'd make interesting pets, the eggs would benefit me, my neighbors and my friends, and boy do I love both BBQing and roasting fresh chicken.
(I realize that this may offend a few folks on my list who have chickens-as-pets-only; the idea of raising chickens for meat could seem cruel or heartless. I apologize for this if so. Having grown up on a chicken farm, though, I've seen firsthand that you can enjoy them as pets, be protective of them, take care of them excellently, and still go through with 'harvesting' when the time is right; it's part of life, and can be done very humanely. Far more humanely than chickens one would have bought from the grocery store instead. Please feel free to talk with me about this if you have strong feelings on the subject; it's a discussion I'd value.)
So to that end, I've been doing research locally into the suppliers, equipment and rules/regs involved. I've also been informed my roommate has less-than-zero interesting in such things, so if I got a small flock I'd be tending it rather on my own. :) The amount of activity/effort required is right on the edge of what I should responsibly accept vs. my mobility limitations, which is the main part giving me pause. I wouldn't want to treat a flock poorly because I couldn't muck out the coop regularly enough or keep up with yard and bird maintenance enough to keep them healthy. I also wouldn't want to saddle my roommate or friends with any of those tasks should I not be able to maintain them myself. That's what's stopping me so far... but only barely. I'll know in the next few weeks if I'm going to go down this road.
One of the nice parts is that due to the aforementioned "BBQ aspect", raising chickens can be a one-season thing if it turns out to be too much a challenge vs. what I'm capable of physically doing... or it can be turned into an ongoing thing with regular flock turnover if the routine ends up working out well for me. Even though it's a weird 'hobby' for a Tech Worker in the Silicon Valley to consider.
What do you think? Any advice to offer? Done it yourself and have stories to share? And if you're local and I do this, might you want eggs if they make more than I can responsibly use by myself? :)