Any of my Hobbies could be Someone’s Career

As indicated by my Blog, I have a ton of hobbies, and I pick up new ones all the time (Fountain pens, Every Day Carry, and Lock picking for example). And as I move from hobby to hobby (not entirely from, I maintain several that the same time) I can’t help but think about some of the people I’m getting information from about these hobbies, and how for many of them it is a much more central part of their life.

I do do things for years, and I still enjoy many of my older hobbies as much as the new ones. But it is just something I can’t imagine doing to continue with only one hobby, developing skill set, or collection for as many years as I have been with all of my various collections, skill sets, and hobbies. But I am in debt to the people who do and provide me with such a wealth of information. I would never have learned as much about fountain pens, action figures (Jurassic Park, Star Wars, GI Joe, etc), knives, lock picking, and Chinese chess without these people.

I’m certainly the picture of the jack of all trades, and they are much closer to the master of one (I’m sure they have other hobbies and maybe jobs as well assuming they don’t do that for a living) and I certainly can’t say one is better than the other with how much they have helped me. I’ve considered stopping and concentrating on one thing for years but it just isn’t really in my personality. But many people have, and I could, make a career out of one of my many hobbies, and maybe I will yet.

So I’d like to thank everyone who both dedicates themselves to any one task in order to master it and share their knowledge online, and those others like me who absorb information from all over and can precipitate it throughout their social “networks”.

Review – Fiskars Cutting Mat (12×18)

If one is cutting things for hobby purposes for much time and one doesn’t have a table which would deal well with sharp objects, a cutting mat is really a no-brainer. But how well do the more common ones really work?

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Fiskars cutting mats are easy to find in many places. The particular one I use is 12×18 inches, but has a border of about a half-inch, extending the dimensions to about 13×19 but with rounded corners. Each edge is marked with a ruler that is accurate and the mat is divided into inch squares.  A couple of angles are also laid out in one corner. Most of the information on the mat is printed on a sticker on one of the sides (it’s double sided).

Being made of a fairly slick plastic, the mat can clean up easily after things like paint and plaster, but it has a texture that prevents the items being cut from sliding around. The mat is self-healing, but that really only applies to small nicks, anything larger might get a bit better, but will obviously never go away. Most things of this nature don’t inhibit the use of the mat. And it can take quite some beating from blades. If one is using this for hobby projects it will easily hold up to almost anything that is thrown at it (or rather cut on it). Obviously it has an upper limit, as it was cut into shape in the first place, but for normal personal (not industrial) use, it’ll work for a long time.

It does its job, I don’t know what else to say. Placing this on top of a table before cutting something for hobby, personal, or artistic use will almost ensure the safety of the tabletop. It works, and you can buy them from Wal-Mart.

Speak Your Mind 120 #596-600

QUESTIONS

1. Do you ever read Dear Abby?

2. Do you have a hobby?

3. Which month of the year do you like best?

4. Which would you rather buy: a Firebird or a Fiat?

5. How do ou think it feels to have a teacher call on you when you do not know the answer?

ANSWERS By: Austin Smith

1. No, I never have, I don’t see why I should.

2. I have many hobbies, collecting, painting, building, filming, blogging, etc.

3. I don’t usually play favorites and the month is no exception.

4. Neither, I would save the money. But if I had to choose it would be a Firebird.

5. It is not fun at all.

 

If You Can’t Write… Don’t.

Articles are hard, just sayin’ that. Depending on the definition of article being used they can be even harder. What exactly makes an article is really up to either the author or the publisher. The same thing applies to when a short story becomes a novella, a novella a novel, and so on. But other than that they’re just plain hard. Writing is hard, every writer is the first to admit that (every high school “artist” wouldn’t in a “million” years). And contrary to popular belief, writing is becoming harder. While anyone can now become a writer, attention spans are becoming shorter. People who “write” write very little. Bloggers even have to force themselves to come up with interesting content. At least the interesting ones do. How many times have you come across a dead Blog with a promising start, that just disappeared. Or, more realistically, just sucked and piddled out. Everyone has a Blog, everyone posts words, or videos or something on the internet. However most just wither and die. Most “writers” don’t have the attention span or the drive to continue writing. Even people who are attentive to their Blogs fail because they can’t push themselves to continue creating content. Eventually preconceived ideas drain and nothing new comes. It seems cliche now to say that every writer finds it hard to write and most have to force themselves to start, but it is true. The difference is that most people say that to encourage people to write. I am not trying to encourage you: writing is hard, really hard and time consuming. But I don’t mean to discourage you either, if you write well then write, if you can force yourself to. Just because writing on a computer is easy, doesn’t mean you have great ideas, just because you have great ideas, doesn’t mean you can force yourself to write them, or that when you do it will be good.

Most writers that continually create content write as either their job or as a major hobby, and it works like any other hobby. Just like how the movie buff spends most of his free time watching movies, or that model collector you know spends his putting together little plastic pieces and painting them, writers spend theirs writing. It takes time and dedication to do, and if that is not applied, it is crap. And as much as the writer in me wants to say it’s hard because you’re continually being attacked by dinosaurs, going to parties, flying pigs around Mount Everest, and communing with the soul of William S. Burroughs, that is simply not the case. Any writer able to continue creating deserves commendation, but those unable to should not be concerned. The ubiquity of the Blog is unnecessary. Not everyone needs to be a writer. There are other ways a voice can be heard, or maybe it won’t even be your voice but your actions. Writers may be able to write more and arguably better then you, but you can do better than them at something. And if you are a writer continue to be so, the amount of dead Blogs grows every day from forgotten passwords to lack of content, don’t let yours fall into the same hole. But my intent is mainly a caution: do what you do, and not what the internet does.