A Changing From Ethereal To Physical

So I've decided to make a change in my hobby pursuits. Over the years I've tinkered with a lot of things: music, programming, fan clubs, et cetera. All of them were focused on electronics. Everything I generated was electronic bits. Not that this is a Bad Thing.

Computing and electronics, and specifically the Internet have been good to me. I've travelled around the US thanks to it. I've written code that has done Good Things for people professionally, publicly, and privately. I've created and cooperatively improved code that is present on almost 70% of the Internet. I've learned from and shared knowledge with people of all aspects of my professional and private life. I've met musicians whose music I've enjoyed over the years. I've had late-night pints and great conversation with musical genius. I've reduced my degrees of separation to numerous music and art circles. I've made friends from around the world online. I've dated some of those people I've met online. I MARRIED one of those people I met online. I've helped high-level, globe-spanning enterprises keep their business running, customers happy, and income flowing in. I've gotten jobs thanks to the internet. I've lost jobs in which I probably would've been miserable, again, thanks to the Internet. I've generated TONS of data both private and public.

And all of it (minus the memories, and the in-person stuff, oh and my wife), can be deleted in the blink of an eye.

It has been somewhat sobering coming to that realization. That the sum total of my life's efforts are a collections of ones and zeros on a selection of storage devices around the globe...some of them mine...some of them not. That my input into keeping this world operational (trying in my own way to make it better while doing so), can be lost with a simple delete command.

So I've decided to make a change in my life. From now on, I'm going to dedicate one part of my life to creating something durable. Something lasting. No, not a child...not yet. No, not a legacy of world peace...not yet. I'm going to take on a hobby based on a craft, train myself in it, and try my best to create something that will remain after I die. Not out of some existential crisis or a desire to live forever. Not out of fear that I will be entirely forgotten, since I'm fine with being entirely forgotten someday. But out of a desire to leave something positive behind me for someone else to enjoy, something more durable than electronic ones and zeros.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and have finally settled on stained-glass. My grandfather had the same hobby, pursuing it for a number of years. In fact I learned the basics of it from him, even working on some small projects of my own decades ago. My grandfather passed away a number of years ago while I was still in college. I was destroyed with grief. Over the years since, I've come into owning three lampshades he had made during those years. Two are in my library, and the third is in my kitchen. All three in some way connect me to him on a daily basis. Not that I would ever forget him, but now some small part of my world is supported and made prettier on a daily basis by the fruits of his labor. THAT is what I'd like to achieve.

Secondarily, if I become good enough at it, it may serve as a second or retirement career. Something to assist me in getting out of this insane corporate culture that is getting worse and worse in this country day by day. Maybe someday I'll be able to leave this insanity behind and work with glass all day long. Who knows? In the meantime, I'm going to do my best to liquidate all the useless crap I have stowed away in my house to fund the initial purchase of equipment necessary to pursue this dream. If I ever get good enough, maybe you dear reader can request a piece from me someday.