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Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

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Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#621

Post by woolcap »

For a few years I've been learning about woodworking. I'm particularly interested in hand-tool woodworking (planes and chisels and mallets and hand-saws and such). I've enjoyed restoring old tools that are rusty and roached out, and bringing them into working order again to give them a new life. Nothing like using a well-tuned 100-year-old Stanley #5 to get a glass-like surface on a piece of wood. Also love woodturning, mostly making bowls. Turning a chunk of wood into a beautiful, useful object is deeply satisfying.

I recently took some small-craft sailing lessons. The balance and flow of wind in the sail, tension on the sheet, sitting on the thwart, with one hand on the tiller, and gliding over the water with the setting sun turning the sky golden, was an amazing experience.

So now I'm looking to combine the two interests, and have plans to build and sail my own small wooden boat.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#622

Post by trykondev »

I'm passionate about two things: game development and writing!

For several years I've been working as an evenings-and-weekends indie game developer. I love it -- it's such a joyful mix of technical and creative tasks. It's stimulating and challenging and expressive, and makes my heart feel so full when I've finally finished something that another person can play. If I could ever reach a point where I could properly fund it, I could spend every day for the rest of my life making games. I launched my first game in 2018, a challenging puzzle game called Omnicube [0], and am having a blast working on a few new projects now.

On the writing side of things, I've been writing stories since I was a kid in one capacity or another. I think it scratches the same creative itch as game development, just though a different medium. I'm actually in the final stages of publishing my first book -- a memoir about my experiences playing competitive chess [1].

[0] trykon.itch.io/omnicube

[1] mychessmemoir.com

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#623

Post by tobbob »

I'm a night owl, always have been, always will be, but we live in an early bird world, and fitting in with that is worth a lot.

So at the moment I'm passionate about fixing my daily routine to finally get enough sleep, and get to work early, leave early, and hopefully have energy to do things in the evening.

I've changed all my clocks back one hour so that psychologically it's easier to stomach. I have a light set on a timer to turn on in the morning, and strict bed time.

I can work flexible hours, but somehow showing up at 9:30 I always felt like I was "late" and felt rushed, and then having to keep working until 17:30 felt hard too. Doing the exact same hours but arriving 6:30 to 7:00 means I now feel like I'm ahead of the game each day, and I get to leave early, and there's still daylight when I leave work which is a huge motivator.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#624

Post by Paradigm2020 »

cobbaut wrote: post #559

I work as a volunteer for blind people and own a 3D printer. This opens a world to me and to the blind. To me, because I vastly underestimated the possibilities of a 3D printer. To the blind people I volunteer for, because they have a map of our city for the first time in their life. There is so little available for blind people, yes they have books and podcasts and an iPhone, which is endlessly better than 20 years…

Amazing. Keep up the good work. :). Is it as part of an organization?

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#625

Post by mckirk »

To everyone who commented on here:

Thank you so much! Never would I have expected this to work so well, but it has, and it still blows my mind. Seeing how people have used this thread to share glimpses of their life and how people have connected with others honestly makes me so happy. I posted this thread really late last night before going to bed, then woke up and was floored by the response. The internet can still be beautiful, and it's absolutely made my day.

At this point we are at over 600 comments, so I guess it'll be down to luck whether this response here will still manage to bubble up... but that's a very good problem to have I think :) I also wish I could respond to everyone who took the time to comment and show my appreciation directly, but I think I'd need a transformer-model clone of myself if I wanted to achieve that in any reasonable span of time ;)

Anyway, I'm happy if I could improve your day a bit with this. As someone in the comments here rightfully pointed out, a post like this can only work once in a blue moon, and I'm glad that this apparently was the right time for it.

So long! <3

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#626

Post by trykondev »

eslaught wrote: post #51

I spent my morning working on a science fiction novel. (I won't post more here, but you can find it through my profile if you're interested.) Are there any other writers in the house? On a completely unrelated topic, one of my earliest "internet" memories was wandering into open source communities and trying to figure out this CVS thing and connecting it to GNU Savannah so that I could download some code. Those were…

Incredibly cool, looking forward to digging in more on your projects. I love the mix of technical projects alongside the creative ones. Signed up for your email letter. Also -- I love your website, so simple and clean.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#627

Post by Paradigm2020 »

lee wrote: post #552

I'm pursuing my passion to climb mountains. I grew up in Alberta and my favorite childhood memories are of camping trips in the mountains. I always dreamed of climbing peaks. I never had the opportunity financially to pursue that as my family was poor, and once done university I got a job and raised my own family. Now that my kids are a little older I have the opportunity to chase that dream before I get too old to d…

Good luck.

Intermittent fasting (16/8, personally I skip breakfast) and cutting out soda (replaced with diet/zero) was a great help/start for me personally.

Main thing is to not do crazy stuff but be consistent & rely on good old compound interest.

August is definitely realistic, and as you progress over the weeks and months you'll feel more and more motivated.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#628

Post by TaylorAlexander »

matsemann wrote: post #477
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #31

I converted my mountain bike to an ebike and I’m having a blast with it! I just moved to Oakland and there’s pretty good bike infrastructure here, so I can use the bike for transportation even for relatively large distances. I’ve been using it to get groceries, run to the bike shop, and see friends. For the nerds, I added a Bafang BBSHD mid drive motor and EM3EV 52v 20.5AH pack to my Norco Fluid HT bike. I added a re…

My passion is also bicycling. Started mostly as the typical lycra-cled bicyclist on a semi-expensive bike doing long Sunday rides. Bike to work here in Norway year-around, no matter the conditions. Then lately I've started to think: Why don't more people use bikes? Cars in my city are noisy, the big and fast roads makes it more miserable to walk around etc. At the same time StrongTowns, NotJustBikes, r/fuckcars etc h…

Oh yes I’m 100% in support of better bike infrastructure! I still love how fast the bike is, because it means I can go long distance trips quickly, so even when I don’t have an afternoon for a ride I can go somewhere 10 miles / 16 kilometers away and back in a relativity short amount of time, even with big hills!

Powered assistance has a lot of value, and using electric power on a bicycle is orders of magnitude more energy efficient than anything in a car. I think there’s a lot more people interested in cycling now that e-bikes are more popular, and this means more support for that improved bike infrastructure and more people willing to travel by ultra low emissions means.

So yes, better safety is absolutely important. But I still think e-bikes and in particular 1500 watt e-bikes have a lot of value.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#629

Post by nunez »

heynowheynow wrote: post #357
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use the lock recommended by the Lockpicking Lawyer [1]. You can buy them at Tip Top Bike Shop in Temescal (no affiliation but support your local bike shop!). The guys at that bike shop said that for example if I want to ride to Lake Merritt and walk around for a while, I could lock it near the boat house and leave it for a couple hours as long as it’s daytime. They said don’t leave it overnight which I would never…

A friend of mine got his $5k bike stolen in the middle of downtown Mountain View in plain sight. If you don't use something like an ABUS 37/80 + 14KS, your shit is going to get jacked in Oakland because of zillions of thieves with portable angle grinders in backpacks and teams riding around in vans looking for easy marks. Don't leave anything valuable outside in Oakland unless you want it to disappear because people…

Get bike insurance, for this exact reason! Your renter's insurance might also cover bike theft.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#630

Post by jventura »

berniedurfee wrote: post #506

Oooh, a chance to promote my passion work! I’m in the process of producing my second album. It’s a full-length concept album in the spirit of the 70s music I grew up listening to. I have 2 singles out now that 2 or 3 actual people listen to occasionally, I think. I’ve been spamming social media trying to find 2 or 3 more people on the planet that might enjoy it. Social media is an insane place. All the major sites ar…

Tried to find your albums, but there’s nothing on your profile or comments. Do you have anything online we could listen to? I’m curious about the type of music you’re doing.. All the best!
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