The Climb and Rebuild

New location. New house. New roommates.

In the last three months, I have moved all my junk 500 miles from Charlottesville to Nashville. It has been difficult designing and building my dream workspaces while working fulltime. At my old place I designed and prototyped all my projects on the single table in the middle of my bedroom. Now that I know I will be renting the same house for 5 years I decided to build more permanent spaces. My marble and steel desk tips the scale at just over 600 pounds and is going nowhere anytime soon. For my workspaces, division of labor was my primary goal. When I am working on a circuit board I want all the necessary tools and components within reach. Unless I am failing miserably I probably won’t need a hammer, which, if present, would just take up space. On the other hand, whenever I am doing any type of mechanical work I am often convincing two pieces to mate with my hammer. Therefore, I decided to build two additional desks: one for electronics and one for mechanical work. I am hoping these dedicated workspaces will keep me organized and more productive.

Speaking of productivity, you may have noticed that my YouTube channel has not been very productive the past couple of months. What gives? My team of three has been downsized to a team of one: me. As mentioned in my previous post, Elise and Jeff are both successfully pursuing their dreams far away. I was hoping that my new roommates would show some interest in creating content for YouTube but that does not seem to be the case. My current roommates and I are pursuing the same profession, so it is understandable that they would not have time for large hobbies like YouTube. I am still very passionate about my channel, but DIY projects from scratch will take much longer for me to put together, film and edit. DIY projects are my passion but to keep my channel from going stagnant I need a new and quicker source of content. I have identified this source as Workshop Wars (WW). WW is my new segment showcasing more than just the average computer desk. WW will feature any space that you are proud of, including but not limited to garages, makerspaces, and machine shops. Ideally, WW will help the viewer decide what tools and machines he or she wants to add to their collection.

On a more personal level, the past four months have been so hectic that I had very little time to work out, or at least I felt that I did not have any time. As more days passed with only minimal physical exertion my life was sluggish and stressful. It took me a while to realize the cause of my lower quality of life. After returning to the gym, specifically the rock climbing gym, I have much more energy and confidence. The first couple of weeks were embarrassing and disheartening as I had lost a significant amount of muscle mass, but after pushing through the pain I felt my strength coming back. If you are ever looking for an outlet for physical activity I highly recommend rock climbing. Indoor rock climbing routes are based on a rating system, so the results of training are visible with being able to climb harder routes. Rock climbers are stereotypically hipster, so it is also a great environment to meet nice, down to earth people.

Thanks for listening,

David Florian