blankAs I was driving in today, I was thinking about the future, and projects which I wish to pursue. I have a lot of maintenance crap going on right now-- like cleaning and repairing the house-- that I have distinctly less time than I would like to pursue creative projects.
This week is pretty much focused on cleaning & repair. Issues mainly due to the city housing inspector who is being way too invasive and demanding for my tastes. They will be inside the house soon. Essentially it means that this week is completely filled with non-creative time from 5:00 A.M. until 10:00 P.M. through the weekend. Bah.
I came home to find yet more crap piled in the studio. It's not so much a studio anymore as a toxic waste dump for every bit of crap that needs to get moved out of somewhere else. Barb knows that I am not happy about that, as the last time she moved something into the studio "temporarily", it never left. I have learned that there is no "temporarily". So it is up to me to create a space for the stuff and move it there.
If it sounds like I'm complaining, I am. However, it is not unappreciated that Barb did a lot of work on cleaning the house this weekend while I was out at social functions. And really I'm not angry so much as resigned.
So I have this list of projects that I want to pursue. And most of the list is projects that I haven't started. And there is another list of projects that I have to do, like fix the porch roof and build a new back deck and a fence. And I realize that many of those want-to-do projects will probably never get started. And that makes me sad, because they're really cool projects.
On the other hand, if I haven't started them, I haven't really lost anything to them other than the time spent contemplating them.
I like learning new things.
I've been thinking about Java. It keeps coming up as a skill that would be good to have as a :software guy: for a number of reasons. I've been resisting because there are a number of portability issues that have been flailing about in the aether, but the writing is on the wall now. Microsoft has dropped support for their VM, and no longer supports visual J++.
Surprise, surprise.
Java also has a GUI component, called "Swing". It means that you can now have full GUI applications that are truly multiplatform straight out of the box. There are still issues with media apps, and for real-time embedded systems there are timing issues, but for the most part it's a done deal.
And I need to learn it.
And there's other stuff, too. Keeping technology-savvy is horrendous these days.