If I’m being honest here, there are several things I wish I had done when I was younger. I didn’t do as many physical activities as I could have, and therefore didn’t build any solid habits for maintaining my physical health. I wasn’t very forward romantically, which means I didn’t have hardly any relationships, so I didn’t develop a lot of social experience in that aspect of life. I didn’t put a lot of effort into learning to eat healthier. Those are the top things that come to mind.
Looking at those kinds of things, I think, even though I’m content being single nowadays, I would wish I had been more socially forward about my romantic interests, both in high school and college. Making friends as an adult is tough enough, but dating in today’s world is even more so.
On a professional level, the thing I’m working on right now that I would like to develop myself further in is data analytics and processing. I already do a bunch of that kind of stuff and tinker with Power BI but I’d like to really focus and get a better grip on things. I feel really inefficient or like I’m missing something that I could be doing to make the work better or smoother.
Who knows, depending on finances maybe I’ll even invest in myself and try for certifications. That is, of course, assuming the country doesn’t fall apart before I get to that point.
I feel like my initial instinct is to say “yes” because “think of all the things I could get done!”
Kind of like that episode of American Dad! Where Stan gets those pills or whatever and finally finds time to write his memoirs or something.
In that regard, at first blush, it sounds like a solid idea. However, sleep plays an important role. Sure, the prompt says no negative consequences from sleep deprivation, but sleep deprivation and the forming of new memories aren’t exactly the same.
Maybe if I learned to properly meditate or something. Then it might be okay.
Spend three solid weeks getting stuff done, and then a day of meditation? I could live with that.
I’ve been struggling for years with the mental hurdle of “I’m not going to do it if I can’t do it perfectly the first time.”
Recently, I had to escape that mental trap while working on one of those DIY “book nook” dioramas that have become popular in the last few years. I had assembled one before and really enjoyed the experience even though I knew that one was far from perfect. That’s because that particular book nook was designed similar to those wooden “puzzles” that are basically just a kind of advanced LEGOs where you need to snap the pieces together. It also had most of the scenery pieces pre-painted, so to speak.
But none of that was true of the second one.
Here’s the deal with the second one. It was a delivery mistake, and I hadn’t actually ordered one of them for myself. I had ordered a handful of different DIY book nooks as Christmas gifts for my siblings, each one lovingly picked out to match something they enjoyed. One sister was magic, the other was photography. My older brother got one themed after a Sherlock Holmes-esque detective agency. My younger brother, with whom I share a lot of personal tastes in hobbies (more so than my other siblings) got one that was supposed to be cyberpunk themed.
Well, imagine my surprise and delight when I eventually received TWO of those cyberpunk themed ones! I’m guessing there was an error in the inventory system that caused the company to ship me two identical items. My original order, which had been split based on where inventory was available, was sent from two different warehouses.
Since I hadn’t ordered a book nook for myself (I ordered and assembled something else that actually WAS the snap together kind) I did the right thing first and contacted the company to let them know of the error. They were very kind about it, and, since it was around the holidays, they told me to keep it as an extra gift. Now, I will freely admit that this was the result I was hoping for, but I totally would have shipped it back had they requested it.
I had ordered all these items closer to Thanksgiving, so we’re going to fast forward to about a week and a half ago when I discovered some problems. Those problems being what I’ve been hinting at so far.
So, I’m sitting down in my newly cleaned and reorganized hobby space, and I crack open the box for the kit. I pulled out several bags of different sizes, all filled with various kinds and sizes of wood pieces and random stuff, the instructions, and these huge sheets of paper that had all kinds of decals on them. My heart sank a little at the last parts because I started having flashbacks to cutting out things for the first book nook. Mild regret setting in, I decided to look through the instructions and make sure I had everything that they said I would need.
Imagine my dismay when the instructions (which had a section at the very beginning that details out EACH piece that should come in the kit) say I should have some glue in one of the plastic zip bags AND THERE’S NO GLUE TO BE FOUND.
That’s okay, I’ve been collecting hobby tools and adhesives for other projects, I should be fine.
After that initial investigation, I put everything away and decided to start over the weekend.
I should have looked closer at the instructions, because I completely glossed over the fact that I didn’t see the little nibs and holes on pieces that indicate they just snap together.
So, come the weekend, I get started and that’s when I realized what the glue referenced in the instructions was ACTUALLY for. Glueing together hundreds of little tiny wood pieces AND the paper decals that covered most of them. (Okay, maybe not hundreds, but there was definitely more than one hundred.)
Regardless, I had already resolved to work on it, so I dove in.
I cannot tell you how many times throughout this project that I had to stop and remind myself that it’s not going to be perfect and THAT IS OKAY. I also had to stop myself from giving up and just throwing it all away a couple times, but that’s partly because one of my roommates cats snuck into my hobby space while I was at work and made a snack out of some of the tiny electrical components that came with the kit.
Ultimately, I powered through the irrational feelings and finished the book nook, and even though it isn’t perfect I’m actually happy with the result. Making it through those kinds of difficulties also gave me a chance to learn something new about the experiences people go through when they custom build cool art things like these from scratch. If I ever get another one of these DIY kits, or something similar, I’ll have a better appreciation and understanding for them.
So many kinds of foods are better when homemade, but certain things are only better store bought because of convenience and consistency. Like sandwich bread. You can make your own at home and it’ll turn out great but you really have to know what you’re getting into, so a lot of people just buy it.
Complex culinary dishes, on the other hand, are typically amazing when homemade because you usually can’t just go to the store and pick it up. Plus, lots of times the recipes can actually be fairly simple and the dish whipped in short order, with practice.
Speaking of cooking, I should go make myself dinner.
You run into a friend 3 years from now. When asked how you are doing, you say, “this has been the best 3 years of my life”. What happened in those 3 years?
I can see what this prompt is trying to accomplish. It’s trying to reframe how you perceive personal goals to try and motivate you toward completing them.
At least, that’s my take on it.
What could I even say to make this a reality?
I got in shape and made a consistent habit of a good diet and exercise? I got a house? I made a romantic connection? Maybe I won the fucking lottery?! Okay, sorry, that last one I got excited about but that one is a statistically impossible event because the only way to win is by playing and the cost to play versus any potential returns is astronomically out of balance in favor of the lottery organization.
Still, I don’t know how the next three years are going to play out because right now we’re in very tumultuous times here in the (not so great) United States.
Well, the simple answer to the first part is to keep writing daily, but what am I going to “leave behind” in January? I’m not entirely sure. I think some apprehension about my current efforts for using social media might be left behind, but I’m not going to simply change that overnight (because for me, February is in about 80 minutes as I’m typing this up.)
We’ll see where things go, and if this kind of prompt is a consistent thing to expect at the end of each month, then I’ll probably plan ahead for the next time.
I’d like to think that I’m fairly consistent and comprehensive about my hygiene habits, but I’ll be honest, there ARE some I struggle with.
I’m a typical dude that doesn’t wash his face with three different cleaners and I don’t use lotions. Well, except in winter when my knuckles dry and crack. I lotion those up when I catch them just starting to crack or right before. Bloody winter knuckles suck.
I woke up this morning and felt like I slept on my back wrong somehow. Getting old sucks.
My week: Productive.
I got my combined gaming and hobby space cleaned up and reorganized enough to get my new gaming PC in place and get ready for the future.
My month: Good.
I’ve been able to help friends and family with various things, as well as spend quality time with some of them as well. (In particular, a friend from out of state is in the area for a while and we’ve been able to hang out and catch up numerous times.)
I don’t know that I could definitively say there is a favorite among all the content creators that I’ve started to follow, but I can certainly pick out one to talk about because they occupy a unique space in all of the variety of content I consume regularly. That would be Alec Steele.
Blacksmithing is one of the many things I wish I could get into for the fun of it was spurred on by medieval fantasy stories, and while I’ve never prioritized it highly enough to watch a lot of blacksmithing content (like the show ForgedIn Fire), Alec’s content just hits differently. I think part of it is the interesting concepts and ideas he tries to run with, like making a QR code in Damascus steel, and also his creative problem solving as he tries to achieve quality Damascus titanium. The energy and excitement he puts into all his work really draws you in, and the way he presents everything makes it easy to maintain fascination with the art of modern fabrication and blacksmithing.
The Dragon's Grove 