I’m learning to use a new CAD software, OnShape. This is the third CAD system I’ve tried to learn, and so far I like it a lot.
The first one I used was SketchUp. I first used it many years ago, maybe around 2005, to create designs for woodworking projects. Then when I got a 3D printer in 2014 I used SketchUp to design parts to print. SketchUp is pretty easy and intuitive to use, but it is pretty limited in its features and sometimes it would do unexpected things which I had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to work around.
Three or four years ago I tried learning Fusion 360. It is vastly more feature-rich than SketchUp, but has a steep learning curve. I spent several weeks working with it pretty intensively, but never got to the point where I was comfortable with it, or where I could reliably translate a mental model into an actual design. Like SketchUp, it would sometimes do unexpected things and I just couldn’t figure out how to make it do what I want.
OnShape is, so far, very different. It has all the features of Fusion 360 and more, but it is very easy to see what is doing, why it is doing it, and to make changes without accidentally screwing up something in an unexpected way that can’t be undone. I’ve created some test designs and they went very smoothly. I’m looking forward to using it for real projects soon.
Tai Chi. I tried engaging with online classes when Covid lockdown coincided with my retirement, but I suspect I really need some a lot more in-person guidance and encouragement.
That’s something that I’ve wanted to do since Covid.
I don’t drink alcohol, so the whole oenology thing is lost on me. But during the lockdowns, I started buying some quality coffee in a specialized shop and realized that there are countless varieties of coffee and that got me thinking. Perhaps, there’s some some sort of training where you can learn the subtleties of coffee drinking.
what “triggered” me was the fact that roasted coffee is best consumed 1-6 weeks after roasting - which is also the reason to never purchase coffee in a supermarket.
That has some (undesired) consequences:
Roasted Coffee (RC) does not store well (goes stale rather soon; again 1-6 weeks)
Hence I purchase smaller quantities
Hence I pay a pretty stiff premium (250g is way more than 4 time the price of 1kg)
BUT… “green” coffee beans do not get stale and can be stored for 1-2 years …
green coffee beans are also way cheapter than roasted coffee
so my gameplan was/is to purchase bulk green beans (5kg) and roast them as I need them - having done so, my specialty coffee price is now basically 1/10th of that before doing my own roasting (and I always have the “freshest” coffee possible).
There is a lot of info on home-roasting in var. fora and reddit … the “gold-standard” for a ghetto inexpensive outfit (w/out dedicated and pricey roasters) seems to be a heatgun and the proverbial unused Covid-breadmachine. Since I had both in house, no investment had to be made.
It’s not too difficult to do (but best done outdoors), is slightly messy (chaff flying around) and is real fun to “dial” in the coffee you want …
Vector-based animation. I have long wanted to create animated scenes to use in my videos, or to be able to properly animate diagrams, or make short cartoons.
I keep getting put off by either:
The learning curve (a lot of the best software for doing the kind of thing I want to do is just really hard at the start - I have tried multiple times to figure out how to use Synfig (a really capable open-source animation suite that is capable of film-quality output), but given up in frustration.
The cost for something like Adobe Animate - which is a solution that does look like it has an easier learning curve, but also, I kind of never want to give money to Adobe (but also don’t want to pirate their software either).
Just recently, my searches turned up an open-source motion graphics program called Friction 2D and although it lacks some of the ease-of-use features of animation suites (like inverse kinematics), it appears to do everything I need. I downloaded it and for once, everything just clicked and made sense, so it looks like I am off to a good start with that.
It may be that breaking the learning curve on this software will make it easier to graduate and transfer skills to a full-blown animation solution later (although I’m really not sure what the problem was with Synfig - I already understand the concepts of timelines, keyframes, etc - I just couldn’t get it to work). If not, Friction 2D probably already does everything I will ever need.
I’m planning to finally get smart about AI (and LLMs). I’ve registered for some courses, I need to take a deep breath and check out ChatGPT (etc.), and my company recently activated an internal AI that we can play with.
