I recently started learning hand tool woodworking and won’t shut up about it haha. I found a few books and channels that are helpful and feel real. The more I do it, the more it’s apparent to me that many things around me are just distractions. It’s really nice to unplug from everything and make some things or practice using/sharpening my tools. Those little moments when something clicks feel weirdly fulfilling.
What do you all enjoy doing? Have you found any new passions? What do you like about it?
Hiking barefoot. I’ve enjoyed hiking for a long time, but recently started doing so shoeless. I find the enhanced situational awareness to be thrilling, and am excited to see how far I can push my feet. I think hiking has always been a way for me to connect with nature, and doing so barefoot adds to that immensely.
That sounds like a unique experience. When I had a running coach for a short while, he said I should curl my toe down as I pull my leg back. The lack of exercising that bottom foot muscle often contributes to flat-footedness. This wasn’t probably an issue when people walked barefoot because we naturally dug into the earth for traction.
Do your feet ever get sore?
They would get pretty sore when I started. Sometimes I’ll get some foot cramps at night if I push it too hard. And gravel, miles on gravel trails will leave my feet tender the next day, even after over a year of toughening up my soles
I really enjoy reading dense hard science fiction that I don’t fully understand. I only really capable of reading when my ADHD med kicks in, so this is kind of an issue since there are many other things that require my medicated attention. But reading sci-fi when my brain is properly tune is a source of great pleasure to me. A lot of what I read is about characters that are somewhat deranged and post human. I imagine that a lot of people find those characters unsettling, but I feel cozy around them since I’m not conventionally human myself.
I’m talking about authors such as Greg Egan, Greg Bear, Peter Watts, and some things by Robert Heinlein, Asimov, and Philip K. Dick.
I love working on servers. My home lab is the one thing that I can sit down and actually work on for hours on end. I never really got into software development, probably in-part because my brain is mush, but deploying and maintaining systems is something that I love and am grateful to be able to do as a hobby and a career.
I also enjoy reading and writing, but recently I’ve had a lot of trouble staying still long enough to get anything done in that department. (I’m jealous of Alyaza’s incredible ability to churn through reading material.)
I hope you don’t mind my asking, but could you give some examples of systems that you are deploying and maintaining on your home lab? I’m interested in doing a deeper dive into this at some point and I am looking for inspiration.
A home media server is a good start (jellyfin, for instance.) I also think nextcloud is a swiss army knife, and spinning up the nextcloud AIO would get you’re feet wet with relatively little effort to how much stuff nextcloud can do (all the differents apps you can install from the web interface. I use news, cookbook, bookmarks, frequently.)
I’ve started to tinker with home server and self hosting recently, I was just wondering if the feeling of ‘everything is held together by a thin wire that could snap at any point’ ever goes away? Thanks 😁
Feels like there’s alway some issue that requires a special unique workaround that could stop working at any point
Dancing! Both socially and performatively. It’s very fulfilling to me and is an easy way to raise my mood. there are very rarely any times where I come in and out with a foul mood.
Do you have an arts center or a class that you go to? Cause mine is working events, I grew up going to a performing arts center and while I’m not dancing inclined I do love acting, instruments and singing but I also LOVE all the tech to make a performance run.
All the hustle and bustle of generally happy and excited people, setting up the bits and pieces, running the shows. Ahh…
My least favorite part must be the paperwork involved but it is evils necessity!
I regularly go to classes for (non-ballroom) latin dance and occasionally dip my toes in a swing event. I used to professionally perform classical music and burned out real hard some years ago; It’s nice to have started something from the ground up. Enjoyment and mastery at my own pace.
It makes me happy to see techie enjoy the job rather. It makes the whole thing feel more human and connecting as everyone wants to be there showcasing their craft.
That’s awesome! The teams I’ve always been part of are usually artists as well, but there’s a lot of tech focused people too. Without you all we wouldn’t have such fun work! My favorite performances are always running dance shows, easily the most diverse and unique performances! And it’s always so dynamic setting up for preshow to help the vision come to life with stage lighting. I’ve done quite a few, salsa/Mexican Son, modern and hip hop, contemporary and ballet, capoeira and ariel dance! All of them are just so different from every facet of it, it’s really incredible! I can’t even pick a favorite!
Man, I actually miss working dance shows - so much less paperwork, events are usually much more focused and require less space setup and more show setup, and rehearsals are just getting a QLab set made… Theater sets are fun but oh so large, and I’m oh so small lmao.
I’ve been getting into woodworking too! Feel free to share the books and videos you found useful!
Oh man, I have many many written down. I quickly found out that there are many schools of thought for approaching woodworking, so it’s helpful to think about what you want to make and what you like or dislike as you try different things. I decided I wanted to go the sharpening route, as opposed to continually buying electro-hardened blades, and I wanted to use as simple as tools as I can learn how. This ends up being axes, chisels, saws, and I did get a hand-crank grinder from 1910 for those heavy grinding situations.
I almost always have the Mortise and Tenon podcast on as I’m doing things. Joshua and Mike’s discussions really resonate with me and the philosophical elements really prompt some introspection. Joshua has two books that I’ll probably get soon. Otherwise, I bought Sharpen This and the Anarchists’ Toolkit; anything from Lost Art Press is probably worth the money.
As far as channels, Matt Estlea has many great videos for the essentials of sharpening and good form for chiseling and sawing. He also has other videos that I would consider “optional” but I did end up making his sharpening block stop, because it makes sharpening quicker. I may try to do free hand honing though, since the heavy cambre is difficult with a honing guide.
Paul Sellers has so many great videos. I especially loved him making a bench without having a bench. So many people show you how to make things already having many other tools and setups.
James Wright (Wood by Wright) has some really good videos and offers honest opinions. Beavercraft has some nice simple ones for getting started with carving. I haven’t explored one for tool restoration yet; if you have any that you suggest, I’d be happy to hear them. I eventually want to just make my own wooden planes.
Your mom etc etc obligatory
Honestly though, learning, obsessing, diving deep into a fictional world. I love learning all things whether it be my academic studies (physics), random subjects that will never influence my life like why chlorophyll is green which is way more interesting than I expected, and political theory. I love obsessing over subjects such as those for months at a time and learning everything I can fit into that incredibly short period. I love diving so deep into a fictional universe that I end up with nothing left, I want to know every intricacy, every detail until eventually there is nothing left except my own personal theories. A great example of this is The Magnus Archives, it’s such a fantastically constructed world of horror and mystery where I can find a missed detail with every listen. I’ve listened to the entire series including the q&as 3 times now and I loved every second. My favorite feeling though, what I love most, is not knowing. I crave the hunt for information, I crave the onset of obsession, the manic desire to do nothing but absorb every minute detail.
I remember as a kid reading late into the night, as late as 4am at the age of maybe 10 possibly less. Then I’d go to school and read some more. I’d plow through book after book at a rate I still can’t match and at one rivaled by few of my peers. we had a wall of reading scores based on short quizzes you’d take about a book you read, I was never less than top 10 even including the grades above mine at the time. Looking back I think it was escapism but I don’t regret it. It fostered in me a wonder, though much more dim, is still yet to fizzle out. Sometimes I do worry that I’d be much more satisfied with the mundanity of our reality had I not consumed so much escapist fiction as a child. However, I don’t think there’s much use in dwelling on what may or may not have been.
I hope my love for discovery was evident in my rambling, it’s 6 am and I haven’t slept again so it might not be all that coherent.
I can relate with the passion for learning. I think that is so invigorating. Since you like physics and reading, if you haven’t already, I would highly recommend Project Hail Mary and Artemis, each by Andy Weir. He is an astrophysicist, so his works occur how they would likely physically happen as we understand physics currently. Super neat but different plots for each.
I’m glad you’ve found the hobby, working with wood is incredibly satisfying. Our brains are wired for working with natural materials and it’s awesome you’ve tapped into that.
I love to sing, I’ll do it all day. I work from home now which makes it easier (less socially awkward) to do but it’s all the time. Sing in the shower, sing in the garden, sing to the animals… I’ll even invent and sing harmonies to movie scores (we don’t go out to the movies so it’s okay). There is often some dancing accompanying the singing.
I also really enjoy gardening and interacting with the wildlife that becomes more present as our gardens mature and diversify. The wild birds have gotten used to me working, singing, and dancing within 5-10 feet of them and I’m hoping this is the year I can get some of them to eat from my hand (even if it means I have to stop singing sometimes).
Thank you. I wholeheartedly agree, learning to work with nature such as wood, instead of imposing our will on it definitely gives me perspective on considering our connection with nature. In the modern era, much of how we connect with nature is removed or sterilized.
I’m really glad to hear you sing. There are so many ways music and rhythm weave through our lives. I expect a follow up post if you Snow White like 20 birds onto your arms!
I like adapting after finding out I made a mistake or contradiction
it’s still a bit painful/cringy when I realize I fucked up but it’s slowly becoming like a cathartic powerwashing routine when I can get rid of some personal bad habits/traits
A friend of mine’s father likes to say “Sadness and regret when we make mistakes is our brain’s way of making sure the lesson sticks. The worse you feel, the more important it is to grow from it.” It’s helped me to frame my negative reactions with positive meaning and see them as another tool for personal growth, and I hope it does something similar for you.
