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Friends In Your Head | Forums → Off Topic → What are you excited about?
What is getting the lion's share of your enthusiasm lately? Could be an idea, or something you're learning, or an item of philosophy, or something you're working on, or whatever. Could be something that's two days old, or two minutes old, or life-long.
One caveat to this — post as many things as you want, as many times as you want, but none of them can be an item of pop culture.
I'm gearing up to film my girls' dance recital this weekend. 2 shows, ~10 cameras. If it's worth doing it's worth over-doing. Then the next few months will be editing and disc mastering. I may turn a profit on it this year, but we'll see; I made about $1.50 an hour last year.
+1
Literally, every day with my two boys gets me mad hyped. We forget at that age how every single day is new ground gained in their understanding of the world. There's so many things about my time with them that's awesome, but I'll share my favorite new thing.
I'm pretty conscious of the level of tech and media that surrounds my kids lives these days, so as much as I can I try to engage their imagination and have as much play as possible center around make believe. Grayson and I play this game where we lie down on the ground or my bed, and Grayson will say, "Daddy! Look out! The biggest monster is coming!" I then ask him questions on what it looks like. How many teeth, what color hair, gender, number of elbows, etc. The combinations alone are pretty hilarious (33 arms but 2 elbows is my favorite so far). Then once he's described what it looks like, I look through my imaginary Monster Compendium and identify it, ("Oh, that appears to be Plonkirk, The Monster!") Then, I describe how Grayson must defeat him. Sometimes it's with jumping punches, and sometimes the monster is just sad and needs a high five or a hug. I try to keep that part even. We can, and have, played this game for hours. And it's the god damned best.
+7
I'm taking the first steps on the road to an MBA. I've hit the point in my career where in order to earn more and be more involved in strategy I need some qualifications behind me and a more robust understanding of all the working parts. 
+1
Getting back into seriously playing piano after two years of just noodling around with pop covers. Feels bloody wonderful, although that's mingled with my embarrassment at how rusty I am.
Kind of a small thing, but this weekend I get to hang out with a friend of mine. The road to friendship was a long one from younger me being a disrespectful self-absorbed asshole to current me learning to shut up and listen occasionally. My friend has been super patient but knowing that they actually enjoy spending time with me now is just really cool.
HANNIBAL SEASON 3
I know there's a "no pop culture" rule but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't my #1 item of enthusiasm. I'll also be covering it weekly for one of the sites I write for. Never done something like that before. Does that count?
oh, and I'm interning at my local library this summer, which is super cool.
The final chapter of my latest book is being edited. I'm eager to see if readers love it or hate it. Either one will be interesting 
On Wednesday I'm taking my 11 year old niece to her first rock concert. We're seeing RUSH. I gave her a live album so she can "study", as she'd only heard one of their albums before, and apparently she's now super excited. Can't wait to see her do the first pump during 2112.
My YouTube channel. I released (at least) a video a day last month to help get some new subscribers (almost all gained in the last day thanks to you YouTuber I know), and though I've dialed back to a normal update rate I still enjoy creating stuff on a regular schedule, to the point where I want to update more days a week but know I can't keep up such an aggressive schedule currently.
I've been aggressively exhausted for the past 3 weeks, and obsessively checking my email to see if any of my job applications have gotten back to me.
Does that count?
Origami. About 3 years ago I did this really obsessively and I just kinda decided I wanna get back into it now. Dusted off the cobwebs, gonna spend a couple of weeks practicing, and then I think, this time, I'll try designing some models of my own.
Writing for my own science fiction universe.
A lot of the concepts and the outline of the whole book are coming together in weird, random ways, and I'm finally having the chance to write it down. It is exciting to take a lot of things that I have learned and put it all together.
Also, my eldest daughter just turned 6 and got her first bucket of Legos. Already excited to build things with her.
Ahhh sci-fi world building. I have one that I created a few years ago, wrote a couple of stories in and created an RPG system in, haven't touched it in a bit though. Very fun to do.
How have i never heard of Secret Cinema?? Holy mackerel!
I'm still deep into digitizing old family photos and filling out my family tree. Every box of old photos i get from my parents' cousins leads to a new understanding of the lives of people who lived more than a century ago. Some even wrote reminiscences of their childhoods as pioneers. Some were involved in nefarious activity or terrible accidents.
For me, this stuff is like crack: it's research, photography, documentation, puzzles, story-telling... Everything that gets my motor going intellectually. And it's given me reasons to spend time and have quality conversations with my aging parents as well as cousins i hadn't seen in many years (and some i'd never met).
I've got a few:
1. I just accepted my first full-time job offer! I start in September, developing mobile apps (iOS, Android) in Baltimore. I already do this as an intern, but now they have to pay me more money and give me benefits. Woohoo!
2. I'm currently working on a DIY 3-axis motorized camera slider (pan, tilt, slide) for motion time lapse projects. It'll be run with a Raspberry Pi and controlled with a custom iOS app via Bluetooth LE. It's a pretty hefty project for me, involving math, computer science, mechanics, and electronics. Needless to say, I'm learning a ton! I'll probably make a post about it in the 'Creations' section when I'm closer to being finished.
3. I'm headed out West this week with my Dad. Haven't been to CA since I was 7 and we're gonna hit as many places as we can. So, a day in Vegas, then we hit the road to San Fran, driving through Death Valley and Yosemite on the way. I'm gonna try to catch a session or two at AltConf on Friday morning, and we're seeing a Giants game that night. Then we'll drive down the coast to LA and look around, maybe meet up with some cousins in Irvine. It'll be a packed trip and I'm looking forward to it! If anyone has any suggestions for restaurants or cool stuff to do in LA, feel free to mention them!
+1
Got a couple of code projects nearing fruition that I've been working on for a long time. Looking forward to getting it done and putting it online so I can move on to something else.
Ran in a 10k race last weekend which was much more fun than I thought it would be (apart from getting up at 6am on Sunday). Looking at maybe doing a half-marathon in October.
Also, just got a new electric guitar and Rocksmith for the first time yesterday. Got the first minute or so of Bat Country down on 100% difficulty. Actually a pretty fun way to practice guitar.
Friends In Your Head | Forums → Off Topic → What are you excited about?
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