Midnight Pub

About me

~stargazer

Good morning, just sat down with my first cup of coffee of the day. Since I am new here, thought maybe I would tell you all a little about myself. In my professional life I am a sysadmin (Windows/Linux) and programmer fluent in many languages for a medium sized construction company. As to my personal life I have many hobbies including ham radio, DIY electronics, budget audiophile (mostly vinyl stuff), paranormal investigating, astronomy, hunting, camping, off-roading (Jeep), geocaching, bicycling and home machining. I tend to cycle from one hobby to the next as budget, wife and mental capacity allow. I have two adult step children, one still at home, and a grandson who is 4 years old. We live in rural southern Michigan with a few acres and a pleasant view of the woods. Sometimes in the morning there are dozens of deer, song birds and wild turkeys visible from the dinning room table. It is so nice to not have to fight the traffic and noise of city life. Well, by now you guys are probably running low on coffee from reading all of my ramblings... so good day to all and I hope whatever is causing troubles in your life takes one small step toward getting better!


sojourner
It is so nice to not have to fight the traffic and noise of city life.

Exactly.

This cyclic nature of hobbies you're talking about is someting that we share then. To me they're like gentle waves that wash over my feet once every few months. I can take a step towards them every time this happens, so the next wave can reach higher up my body and closer to my heart. It's a slow process, but I trust in its recurrence. I'm hoping that some day I will be able to fully lean into one and not care about the modern rush. Wind my mind down and just create something beautiful out in the woods.

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stargazer

You must be an author or writer, your words are eloquent. The woods are one of my favorite places to enjoy quiet.

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sojourner

Thank you! To be honest, I'm mostly writing poetry in my native language (Polish), and my output volume is modest to say the least. A few impressionistic poems a year. I'm struggling to keep even this low level lately. I have a growing suspicion that it may be due to creeping burnout and overall mental fatigue. I've taken up writing a short story in an effort to wrestle with this problem, to see if I can make myself produce something relatively complete and digestible.

I'm actually not feeling very comfortable writing (let alone talking) in English, because I'm constantly worried if it sounds natural and not pretentious. So it takes me ages to compose something longer than two sentences and I'm rarely pleased with the outcome. Maybe it's just a sign of my insecurity/perfectionism combo and lack of experience in actively speaking English. I'm a "reading and listening" type of person, and where I live there are barely any native speakers to talk to. Your kind words make me feel a bit better about my skill. Thanks once again and sorry for being such a downer!

Isn't it ironic that even though I'm dreaming of living simply in the woods, I'm stuck in a city grinding my days away, hopelessy racing against rising prices and taxes to save up for a remote fistful of soil to call my own? But I'm not giving up this dream. Nature and tranquility are what we really need.

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tffb

Hey, good morning! Love budget audiophile stuff myself :) What kind of music are you into? Also, ham radio has always interested me, but I haven't tried out the hobby, yet. Hope you're doing good stargazer.

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stargazer

I listen to all genres of music except hardcore rap and elevator music. You should definitely try out ham radio, I have been licensed since 1995 and it has been a very rewarding hobby.

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tskaalgard

Hey, welcome! It sounds like you've got a pretty nice little existence eked out for yourself! Good job!

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