Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Not So Briefly, I Discuss Fun

As it's getting late and I have little time to get a post in today, I'm going to be brief.

A few hours ago I was thinking about topics. What am I going to be writing about? Should I try to keep this blog purely about the development of our family website and the goings on behind the scenes, or should I let it be whatever it wants to be and let topics sort themselves out.

I elected to do the latter. On making that decision it was clear that I should explain a bit about my free time. What things do I do for entertainment? That will give context to the list of projects, and eventually the "Project" that led me to start this blog. Hopefully by letting the readers know what it is I do for fun, you'll understand whether a given discussion is a "have to do" or a "want to do".

Since I just got back from one of my pastimes, I should start there. I play Ingress. Resistance. If you don't know what Ingress is I'll give a brief explanation: Ingress is an augmented reality game where you travel to physical locations registered as "portals". There are two teams that fight for control of these portals using an app downloaded to smart phones or tablets. You interact with the virtual world of Ingress through this app (or scanner as it's called in-game).

There are many complexities and specifics that are necessary to fully explain the game, but for the uninterested, that's about all you need to know. That and not everyone you see staring into their phone at some statue or memorial is reading a text. Some of them are trying to save humanity.

Beyond Ingress, I have a number of pursuits that I like to do.  I play disc golf. Usually Sunday afternoon on the Kansas State University campus course.  The course is unofficial, but it predates my college days and any attempts to run it off have failed for decades.

I have a collection of pics I've taken over the years of strange goings on at the course. There is also a written history by the guy that introduced me to the sport. I'll see if I can get permission to post that sometime. It's the key to many rituals and inside jokes told on the links.

The other thing I do is write. I do a bit of that professionally, but much of it is pre-professional. I have ideas for novels and short stories that just need the time and focus to really work them out and make them worthy of submission, and hopefully a small paycheck. In total I've made less than $5000 writing. I hope to be good enough to make double that in a month. I have a ways to go.

Everything else I do for fun I haven't been able to do lately. There are a lot of projects that sit in the garage waiting for my return, and even more wait inside my head, looking for a way out into the physical world.  It is these projects that I will attempt to outline later and fish for things that people find interesting, unique or otherwise blog worthy.

Part of my reevaluation of my life will be looking at these projects. Some are going to have to go.  I don't think I have enough hours left in my life to finish all of it.  I'm going to need to prioritize and cull the things that don't give me enough joy for the time involved.

There you have it. A brief introduction to the fun side of my life.  Of course this doesn't include activities with my family. These are my more personal and solo activities. I do occasionally take a kid to play disc golf with me. And the kids are often drug along as I take a few portals on Saturday mornings. One of the considerations I will make is whether a project I have can include kids.  Those that do will certainly end up higher on the list than those that don't.

The question of age and appropriateness of the activity will be there too. Some projects may have to wait a few years before the kids can participate. Depending on the costs of keeping the project around compared to the benefit of doing the project later with the kids, I may have to forego the project.

I hope to have time tomorrow to generate something of a list to post. Just to illustrate the depth of madness that is my garage and the projects within.

Until then. . .

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