I pick out one, think about it a little and then second guess myself.
I don’t know that I can personally pick one that I VALUE the most. So I’ll pick the one I think I LIKE the most, even if it’s not 100% always the most valuable.
Personally, I think I’m fairly creative and clever, and I like that the most. It makes life more interesting. I can solve problems, easy or difficult, and sometimes do it in a way other people won’t pick up on right away. I can randomly pick up on some words or phrases in conversation with friends and create random, funny portmanteaus.
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
My first assumption about this question is more an observation about how people would perceive this concept. If money didn’t matter, and people still chose to work, then people would likely choose jobs that are, in the current economic climate of the United States, low paying and unable to provide a sustainable living wage.
My second assumption is based on the money aspect. If money didn’t matter, then it’s possible that proper equipment could be acquired to perform the jobs in question without hindering the pursuit of said jobs.
Keeping those things in mind, I would probably pick at least one artistic/creative job and a couple productive ones. Here are my three:
Farming: not sure what exactly I would farm, but I know that it’s a MASSIVE investment to farm at a large scale, and it takes a lot of work for very little return. Sure, some operations look glamorous because of the new equipment and fancy homes, but those aren’t as common as you might think and oftentimes farmers are actually burdened with a huge amount of debt. That being said, I think it would feel extremely rewarding to be able to produce things that people need and not have to worry about how to make ends meet. (Lots of this is anecdotal to most of you, but it’s based on what I’ve seen having lived in farm country for the better part of the last 20 years.)
Welding or construction of some kind: I like to work with my hands, and building/assembling things with people for people just feels like it would be rewarding. Plus I could learn a lot that I can apply to personal projects.
On the artistic and creative side – miniature painting: I’ve really grown to love painting miniatures. It’s taken time to gather tools, learn basic/intermediate techniques, and understand how colors work together. I am for sure still learning, and likely will be for years to come, but I know that some games require painted miniatures and people will pay for them to be really well done (making it a job, so it’s okay to include in this list) but it takes time. Time that can be spent on various other things I enjoy. So, if money didn’t matter, I could take up this job to replace what I’m currently doing and not have too much of a negative impact on the rest of the things I enjoy in life. (Naturally, I would include 3D printing in this because its amazing to print a custom figure/sculpture and paint it.)
Truly, it would be an amazing opportunity to be able to choose what you do for a living if money didn’t hold you back.
What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
For the most part, I know where my family comes from. One side is mostly Hungarian/German/Eastern European, and the other is English/Scottish/Welsh/etc. but my family doesn’t identify itself in ways that can be distinctly tied to any one of those backgrounds.
In that regard, I’m disconnected from any sort of cultural heritage outside of the United States, and even here I don’t recognize any “culture” that my family would be associated with here.
Culture is meant to be something that brings people together, something that they share and can rally around that helps distinguish them from other cultures. Music. Food. Art. Those kinds of things that make them stand out. My family doesn’t really have anything like that. For all intents and purposes, I’m just another “white dude in America” and I take no pride in the way things have been going in this country for the last couple decades. So much hate, intolerance, violence, and regression.
So, truly, I feel disconnected from the idea of “cultural heritage” because I don’t want to be associated with the things that my country, as a whole, have become predominantly known for to the rest of the world.
Last I checked, I don’t really “associate” with any brands.
I say that, because, technically, brand association means people would use my name in the same sentence as the name of that brand, or I would actively be bringing them up in conversation. You know, something along the lines of “hey, have you tried [random brand]? I think they’re great.”
If you’ve caught the reference in some of my previous posts, you’ll notice that I refer to one of my previous employers by poorly describing their logo. That’s because I don’t want to call them out by name, and thereby be directly associated with them and their brand.
Sure, sometimes I make reference to other brands by name, but it’s moreso because of the situational requirement to be specific. In those cases I’m not associating with their brand because I’m not using their product or providing some kind of subjective opinion (although, if I have previously, I’m probably still trying to be productive and objective.)
So, again, I don’t really associate with any brands.
There are a few things I can throw out quickly to answer this question.
From a personal well-being standpoint, I could do more healthy/mindful eating, cooking at home, taking walks, and hitting the gym.
From a non-essential hobby standpoint, I could do more painting of the miniatures I already have (I have tons) and more reading (the backlog of books exploded last year).
I was recently asked how my streaming was going, to which I answered that it really wasn’t. I have streamed just once this year. I definitely could do more streaming, but I also told them that it takes a lot of work (because it really does, if you want to do it well).
I had really supplemented my social life by streaming up until the last couple of years, so I suppose I could do more getting out of the house and going to social functions. Meet new people, expand my horizons, or maybe even meet that special someone.
Regardless, there are tons of things I could do more of. It just takes time and prioritizing.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I’ve received so many different pieces of advice in my life that I don’t remember most of them, or at least the exact phrasing, but I still recall much of how they made me feel or think.
As for what’s the BEST one, I couldn’t really say. Advice is often situational, and less “one-size-fits-all”.
I think the one that comes to mind right now, not word for word but as close as I can recall, is that “[life/the world] keeps moving with or without you” because you can infer different things. Like the fact that other people have lives, too. The world keeps moving even if you’re not doing anything, so don’t just sit around waiting, because nobody else is going to wait for you forever. Sit around doing nothing and you should expect nothing in return.
So many different ways to phrase it, and all of them more or less mean the same thing.
There few things in life that, even when I’m feeling kind of blah, will perk me up and get me going. Oddly enough, they don’t actually focus on me.
Where the rest of the things I do in life (the things that I normally enjoy) typically require determination, drive, and motivation, these things that energize me are more spontaneous and externally driven.
Taking care of and helping people, like family and friends. It doesn’t usually matter what it is, but as long as it is something that I can help with then that’s all that matters. For example, if it requires planning and I know that my friends struggle with that kind of thing then I can step in and do something about it.
Sometimes it’s as simple as cooking or baking for them. Maybe it’s just giving them my time, lending them an ear while we play games together. All that matters is helping and taking care of others, because that just grabs me and gets me going.
I think the only appropriate way to answer this question requires me to clarify something. In the era of streaming music, most people don’t focus on whole albums anymore, even though bands and musical artists still compile and release music in albums.
So, I don’t necessarily have a favorite album from anything in the last decade or so.
Also, I think for an album to specifically be labeled as a favorite, you need to enjoy a majority of the songs on it.
This has only happened a few times for me.
The ones that come to mind are Weezer (Blue Album) by Weezer, The E.N.D. by Black Eyed Peas, and Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
At the time that I was listening to these albums, back in college, I listened to each one from beginning to end multiple times on my drives to and from campus. (To be clear, the periods of each album for me never overlapped.)
Thinking about this, I kind of want to go listen to them again. It’s been too long.
Which topics would you like to be more informed about?
There are so many things out there that I’ve found fascinating but never delved into. I don’t really know where to start!
All kinds of engineering fields come to mind, but probably because of the idea that I might be able to apply that knowledge in some way if we ever ended up in some strange post-apocalyptic society. Aerospace and chemical engineering, in particular, would be neat to be really well informed about and potentially educated on.
Metallurgy is another topic that I’ve previously found fascinating that I wish I could be better informed about, but alas, we only have so much time. (Differing kinds of smithing would be tagged onto this as well, for various post-apocalyptic reasons )
Of course, I would also like to be more informed about the arts. Art history, modern art, music, the works!
So, today’s daily writing prompt is actually one I already did about a year ago. Instead, I’m going to share something I’ve been slowly working on since April.
San from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke riding a wolf
I shared this over on my Instagram yesterday, and while I’m overall happy with the end result, I fully recognize I can do better with the painting of eyes.
Something I didn’t share over there is the backstory of how I got to the end result you see above. (If you want a TL;DR of the lessons learned from this little project, I’ll put those at the end.)
It started back in April, maybe even a little before that (technically, if you count when the first discussion with my sister-in-law was had) and there were some “speed bumps” along the way. (And unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of some things at the time, so you’ll only see the outcomes.)
See, I had actually attempted to 3D print and assemble this figurine before the final one I shared. It didn’t go well. Mistakes were made. Attempts to correct those mistakes were made, which ultimately failed and yielded very poor results.
I had originally used a translucent green resin (because it was what I had plenty of at the time while working on another project) which actually turned out to be beneficial in the long run. That one particular detail may have saved me more headaches later on.
The first attempted print, assembled as best I could
If you look closely you can probably see one of the mistakes, even if you can’t quite tell why it’s a mistake in the first place.
San’s left arm is rotated 90° the wrong way
One of the things I failed to do was properly double check the original image to confirm the position of her left arm. (Something I would go on to VERY carefully check in the second attempt.) So, yeah. The bottom half of her spear is making contact with the body of the wolf and forcing it to bend.
I had a similar mistake with mounting the wolf to the base plate.
That back leg should be MUCH closer to the rock
What I had done, for both San and the wolf, was assemble their respective pieces together without checking on their contact points with each other, and the mounting points of the wolf to the base. What was SUPPOSED to happen was the one hind leg and front leg, each having a square-like protrusion, setting into slots that would hold them in place. What ended up happening? Well, the front leg fit just fine, but the hind leg was angled wrong. The square-like protrusion (or peg, or whatever you want to call it) was probably a centimeter off being able to correctly sit in the slot on the rock.
Observing my mistake and fiddling with the angles, I sat there scratching my head at how I fucked it up.
Well, I decided that I could try to fix it. How? By taking a jewelers saw and cutting a chunk off the top of the rock and “rebuilding” the resin up underneath the foot to properly support it.
Obviously, that didn’t turn out so well.
Regardless, I gave it my best effort, and then I made the mistake with San’s arm. With everything mounted and connected I looked over everything and decided to start from the beginning.
I remembered to take a picture this time. Look at the wolf with its purple leg and tail!
It took me about five months to work up the nerve/energy to try again, but for the second attempt I used some new resin I had ordered that was supposed to be water washable (it did well enough in that department). I did make one mistake in the printing process, but it wasn’t catastrophic. I just wasn’t paying attention to object placement in the slicer software.
The slicer software shifted things around when it generated supports. Oops.
Thankfully it was just the one leg and the tail. Those were easy enough to set up in a new sliced file and reprint, but unfortunately I had run out of the black resin, or at least didn’t have enough left to feel comfortable with the attempt. (I really didn’t want a repeat of the printing process from the first attempt that ran low and failed to print the base.) That’s why I ended up using purple resin, as you can see by the replacements I used above.
Once I had the new print pieces done and was happy with them, I made sure to check all the different connection points. The only one that ultimately failed in the second attempt is San’s right hand that is supposed to be on the back of the wolf. It doesn’t even touch, and no matter how I tried to get pieces aligned, it wasn’t going to sit in a satisfactory way, so I just shrugged it off and moved forward. Her feet fit correctly on the wolf and that was enough.
All in all, fun experience and plenty of lessons learned.
Oh, and before I forget, a bonus from what I mentioned earlier about the benefit of using the translucent green resin the first time.
I had the slicer software create infill scaffolding so the body wouldn’t be solid. I had to drain a lot of excess resin.
Here’s the TL;DR Lessons Learned:
If using Unsupported 3D objects in a slicer software: after using the “generate supports” feature, check the layout and positioning of your objects to make sure they don’t overlap. You don’t want fused pieces that need reprinting.
Something that should be noted before even hitting “print” is making sure your machine is level. If resin runs low enough in the vat, objects will not print correctly.
Adding on to the previous point, keep an eye on the level of resin in your vat so you know when to add more, just in case.
Printing a large object: if you choose to hollow it out in the slicer software, be prepared for excess resin being trapped inside. You’ll want to drain it.
When draining that excess resin: drill two holes, preferably on opposite ends of the object. Resin is viscous and extra air flow speeds up draining.
Drilling holes in an object: drill in spots that can be hidden. (I hid them in the tail slot and one leg spot.)
If you want to seal the holes: use more resin and an ultraviolet light source. (I ended up buying a strong UV flashlight for this project.)
Assembly time: check each individual piece that has connections. Check each connection and make sure they fit right before gluing/securing. This may mean holding several pieces together by hand and awkwardly fidgeting them around to see where things need to sit.
Gluing/securing resin prints: super glue works just fine if you have time and want to wait. Or you can use more resin and the UV flashlight.
Tip/advice: you can buy syringes and blunt needle tips in varying gauges. I used both straight and angled needle tips.
Lesson learned for the syringes: I ordered tubes that were supposed to provide UV protection. The UV light still got through a little bit. Keep that syringe away from the UV light sources as much as possible.
The Dragon's Grove 