Published on 12, July, 2020
Anyone else have a series of obsessions that seem to come and go in rotation?
When I get into a hobby, I throw myself into it fully and pursue it with passion whilst I'm learning at a decent rate. Then when the learning slows down because of the plateau that inevitably comes, I lose interest and move on to something else, often an old hobby.
Because I value efficiency, I'll often sell all of the hobby equipment - sometimes regretting it shortly afterwards.
I've been through astronomy, photography, shortwave radio, ham radio, electronics, hifi, religion, piano playing, guitar playing, motorcycling, advanced motorcycling (to the point where I was qualified to teach this). On the odd occasion that I find myself without a passion I get into a hell of a mess with addictive behaviours too.
I have lots of complex passtimes that come & go. I clear the decks too - but I sell at a profit the things I can replace again - which funds the next hobby. I'm currently doing large model boats - the one I'm building right now only owes me £60 and will sell for hundreds.
Before that, it was electro music - still got all that gear but I paid practically nothing for any of it - and it's worth lots when I sell it.
I've reached a level in hi-fi where I paid practically nothing for what I have and to better it would cost thousands - so that's static right now.
I've done many, many cars over the years but I don't do any miles any more so an expensive one is just a waste - old banger is fine at the moment.
I used to do electronics - I went right to the top - I'm a CEng - and I've done it for so long that I'm bored with it. And anything I might want I can buy for a fraction of what it would cost me to build.
I've done diving but there's nowhere local to dive that isn't filthy or freezing cold - so that's all gone.
I often regret selling stuff too - but then when I replace it, I soon remember why I sold it - only to regret it again and so buy another - rinse & repeat.
I've had 4x Yamaha DJX, 4x Vauxhall Omegas, 4x Roland XP10 etc, etc.
I fancy getting a bike licence - might do a direct access thing.
I didn't ever get my CEng but did get a PhD and did engineering as a career. But always on the periphery, coming up with novel ways of doing things - sometimes saving the company months of effort, sometimes spending it :-).
I get / got bored with electronics too because you can buy stuff cheaper - and I remember reading Everyday Electronics back in the 70s &80s and noticing that they had a set of almost pointless projects used in rotation; a 12v-240v inverter so you could have an electric shave in your car, a "lights on" reminder for the car, and usually some kind of audio project or musical doorbell :-).
As you and I have discussed before, sometimes I get bored of *everything* :-). Hey ho, at least spring is on the way..........
I loved E&MM back in the day. I eventually got a job and had enough spare cash for a Trancendent 2000 or the E&MM Spectrum - exactly coinciding with thme dropping them from the range. I ended up buying an Octave Kitten instead.
Back in the day, I built my own studio gear when that stuff used to be crazy expensive. I built loads of those Maplin 75W (later 150W) amplifiers. Now it's all peanuts.
I just got a digital effects rack-mount for £12 and a rack-mount EMU sampler for £40 - both in immaculate condition.