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Juggular

Off the routine

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I've taken a 2 week vacation--which was the longest I've taken.  When I got back, I found myself disengaged from RC just because I haven't seen RC cars for a while.  I'm sure I'll be back to it soon enough.  But this made me wonder if all hobbies depend on the environment?  

Anybody else had out of body... I mean out of RC experience?  

 

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I find my interest depends on my frame of mind at a particular time. My renewed interest in building and running RC kits coincided with some particularly dark days in my life a couple of years ago and I was was trying to find a reason for spending my time shut away building stuff (mainly as a way of switching off and avoiding the problems) It was basically like a therapy session although probably more expensive than a phsychiatrist.

At the beginning of 2019 the dark days had started to slowly lighten thankfully and my interest has waned slightly only in that I will look to do other things instead where I dont need to feel I have to hide away. But basically now im just building the stock pile of kits I frantically bought in 2016 to 2017 at a much more leisurly and enjoyable pace.

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Oh sure, there have been plenty of times I've drifted away and done other things for a while. RIght now I'm largely off RC cars for the winter, for the most part, and concentrating on static models and my 1:1 MG.

I think it's healthy to step back once in a while. You don't want to get burned out on a hobby, or else it stops being fun. It's one of the reasons why I never wanted to earn a living from something that I do recreationally - it stops being "I want to" and turns into "I have to," and that's the death of motivation, at least for me. I'd rather be slogging my way through something I don't really care that much about, and daydreaming of my hobbies, than end hating that used to be fun because I'm suddenly forced to do it.

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An out of RC experience?  Yes, and recently.

  • Started a new job last September, so it's taken 3-4 months to learn how to do things in the new company environment.  Many days I came home exhausted fighting an uphill battle to gain access to something or get something accomplished.
  • Had a conflict with a grown child who stepped away from our family's values last summer.  The decisions this person made and way my wife and I were treated along the way put us under tremendous emotional stress, so there were a lot of sleepless nights, lots of time lost in self-reflection, questioning what's the point of being a parent, etc.
  • The father-in-law is in his mid-80s and his health is becoming more of a challenge.  As a result, my wife will get random calls that he's in the hospital and she suddenly disappears for weeks at a time trying to help him get back on track.  I pick up the homemaker duties while she's gone in addition to the regular job.  I don't fault her; it's just the unpredictability and the way he's regressing back into a child that is stressful.
  • My daily driver car has needed some repairs for some time, but I kept putting it off.  Finally it came to a head at Thanksgiving and I had to start rebuilding a turbocharger and replace all the struts and shocks in my garage.  Unfortunately, just as the car was in pieces and on jack stands my wife had to split and take care of her father, so she took the other car.  I had to figure out some carpooling arrangements for about two weeks while I chipped away at all this service work.
  • All the other stresses really made the holidays feel more like work than anything this year.  Decorations, cards, gifts, parties -- all we really wanted was some down time.

Meanwhile, there was a pile of RC projects sitting on a table just collecting dust.  It felt like an obligation to keep making some progress, and I just wasn't "feeling it."

The good news is the new job is getting easier, our feelings about our child are stabilizing, the father-in-law is healthy currently, the car is repaired, and the holidays are done.  Plus, the pile of projects, tools, supplies, etc. have all been sorted and organized, and there's some sense of order, inspiration, and sequence to this now.

I don't know what to say except that my "environment" was stressful for about half of last year and it's only now I'm thinking about painting some bodies and finishing some chassis.  I made one exception for a Christmas competition entry, but that's it.

I apologize to the guys who posted some entries in the TC speed run thread; I was a little abrupt in my final post in that thread last year.  I couldn't edit the first post in the thread to update the list of fastest cars, and it seemed like there was no solution coming from the forum software side, so I just threw up my hands and gave up trying.  There were more important things to worry about.  I'd still like to see that thread continue some day, but until the forum software is fixed maintaining the list is messy.

So, yeah, :mellow:

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One of the main reasons I got so heavily in R/C was after an argument with my ex wife I realized I needed a hobby I could do at home. My bicycle racing took a lot of time away from my family. So for about 14 year I built tons of cars. Bought and sold parts. Did little businesses ventures to make money on the side to support my hobby habit. 

Then my divorce happened. She logged my collection as an asset which precluded me from selling any of it help with my $22k in lawyer fees. I had to give her my real car to keep my toy cars. I was so disgusted I did’nt even open my garage for a year. 

I came back to the hobby but I’m not as actively building vehicles like I used to be. Too many other distractions now.  Riding my motorcycles, and working on my 1:1 Cars. I got to finally buy a Porsche 911 that the Ex would never allow. I’ve been going to all sorts of different places with my girlfriend which takes up a lot of my free time now.  Eventually I’ll get to my projects

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I go through phases, sometimes I do almost nothing else but RC in my spare time. Other times they sit there and get dusty. My Bruiser clone for example is currently sitting on my table in bits, waiting for me to go over there and put it back together.

And Speedy Beans, mate, lifes more important things come before any hobby or forum, so don't worry I'm sure no one in here would fault you.

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I feel the linking with this hobby as a part of my life, today I continue to see myself as the young gun that felt in love with the 959 pictured in the 1986 or 1987 Tamiya catalogue.
Despite this I've been far from this hobby (that is the only one I consider my hobby for life) for almost 15 years without realizing why. My attention have been distracted from the hobby and from my few cars (that I've neglected) by several things: for first an hard phase of my family life (and I wasn't ready, I'm alone without brothers... I've felt big responsabilities), the tentative to became prone to a more social life, different hobbies (fishing, 4wheeling) but that 15 years have been fade away when I've grabbed the screwdriver for a build in the early 2000s.
Today I'm 45yo and I've realized that the only one thing that I had to do in the dark moments was not quiting but keeping my passion alive and to take care of my cars because IMHO passions (not obsessions) are a safety net... this is what I repeat, often, to my wife to encourage her to continue to deepen the study of japanese and to continue to cook... it's our way to take our life easy, to face impacts.

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15 hours ago, Juggular said:

Anybody else had out of body... I mean out of RC experience? 

Not fully. I'm not neurotypical so its probably not the best of examples. My "special interest" of 1:1 cars really jacked up the paths I took in life. When it dropped away after a full 38 years of obsession, I was somewhat terrified. After all, I had built my life around them and now the "light" was burnt out. I was lost...except for Tamiya. The problem is, I see the end of my collection coming relatively soon, which means other than dusting the shelfers, and maintaining the runners , I'll be out of things to do. Several hard hits this holiday season including, no Christmas bonus, significant raises in the company's health insurance (passed onto the workers, plus raising the ceiling for any possible quarterly bonuses, we have over an $8500 deductible BTW before it covers ANYTHING outside of a yearly physical), the slow deterioration and eventual death on Christmas day of my grandmother have led to some long hard depressive periods. There was no Christmas for my wife and I and I know we're not alone.

Still, I have RC to fall back on. I've been aimless of late with three projects unfinished on the bench, a Team Car resto, an IRS Lunch Box project and a Stealth conversion for my Monster Racer. Gotta get some focus. Its killing me waiting for spring to paint the billion bodies I need to polish off the collection, lol. 

BTW, I've noted how the Tamiyaclub kinda feeds on itself in some cases. Being with like-minded people on here leads to shared enthusiasm and greater excitement. If one takes a break from it, some of that may fade.  

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Phases for me. Some weeks will be RC every day/night... then a break, generally whilst waiting for spares to arrive... then back in it.

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My interest has never really faded, but sometimes I put my time into other things.

I've been collecting / tinkering for the past 15 years non-stop, although sometimes I buy more and sometimes I buy less, depending on spare cash and what else is happening in my life.  I've never really got my spending down to an "acceptable" level but at least right now I'm holding steady on funds in the bank, and not constantly running on empty.  But at my stage in live (mortgage, young family, middle age rapidly approaching) I should probably be putting more aside for later and spending less on toys.

Anyway, I digress...

Sometimes all I want to do is tinker in the workshop and build custom things.  In those times, I feel I have the physical and mental energy to spend several hours at a time cutting parts from alu sheet, trimming plastics, and generally finding creative ways to solve problems or make cool things.  But that energy comes and goes and sometimes the thought of just soldering up a few wires fills me with dread.

Sometimes all I want to do is build new kits.  This tends to occur when I'm at my lowest phases.  Building kits requires very little energy but keeps my fingers and mind occupied for a long time.  Unfortunately those low phases are often brought on by worries about money or time, so I can't buy the kit, or I can't build it, or I do but I feel guilty about it.  Sometimes it's nice to stack up a selection of NIBs that I can look forward to building during those rainy days.  And sometimes I actively look forward to a rainy day so I can take the time to sit and build without feeling guilty.

Sometimes I want to go racing, although my love for racing can go off very quickly.  I went back to indoor club racing last year but only managed a few sessions before I tired of it.  I really want to enjoy racing because I want to get better - I really enjoy the Iconic season of vintage touring and buggy racing, but because I don't race regularly I'm pretty bad at it and that can hamper my enjoyment.  Time is a big problem though, so if what I really need is some social interaction I'll go racing, if I really need time in the studio or workshop then I'll stay home.

Sometimes I want to drive my big rigs, or my crawlers, or I want to go bashing.  Sometimes I'm just desperate to get away from the house for a weekend.

And sometimes I'm happy to let it all sit untouched for one, two, three weeks at a time because I have other things to do.

Up until recently I would say my main hobbies (indeed, my main sense of self identity) were writing sci-fi novels and electronic music.  But having a family, my brain seems to have shrunk and I just don't have the creative energy or attention span for it any more.  Every now and then it'll come back and I'll write for a couple of weeks or work on some old tunes, but it feels like it's dying off and that's really upsetting, because I have identified as a writer/musician for so long.  RC has taken over as my main passion and I probably spend a lot more of my spare time on RC in one way or another than all of my other interests put together.

Part of me wonders if I should take a hiatus from RC to see if I get more energy back for other things, but that's a big step for me to take.

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12 hours ago, Saito2 said:

BTW, I've noted how the Tamiyaclub kinda feeds on itself in some cases. Being with like-minded people on here leads to shared enthusiasm and greater excitement. If one takes a break from it, some of that may fade.  

I totally agree with you. I fell away from here for about three years, for various reasons, and decided one day in May 2018 to have a look again. I replied to @JennyMo's Tamater thread once it was complete and I haven't stopped logging on at least every few days since. 

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It's normal. In recent years life gets too bust/tired/distracted/removed/spacepoor to do much with RC all year & it all winds down only at end of year for a few weeks, so I pop in here to see what you great folks have been up to :) 

Still playing catchup with the 1001 chores that've been similarly pushed aside all year, before I can get back to RCing... maybe finish up some 1/2 built kits... or those resto projects... or sort out those FDM bits that've been printed... maybe!

But first before I start lemme read some TC... :D 

 

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All my life as a child of about 10 to this present day I've always had rc in my life 95% tamiya even when I had to join the human race (real job, mortgage, family life) rc has always been their in the background, at times its my escapism like the guys above the hobby has been my saviour on some incredibly bad times but now my life is as stable as it's ever been children not children anymore and have flown the nest I'm in the twilight of my working years thinking of my pensionable years ahead with my wife, my rc will be in that mix somewhere somehow but at the moment I don't tend to do much building but the hobby still brings a smile to my face when I'm at work thinking about what rc can I tinker with at the weekend!:D

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