SamWatson.us
I heard someone say once that they were the kid that when they got a new VCR pressed every button and figured out what they all did. That really resonated with me since I was that same kid.
It’s that love of finding out how things work that led me to learn about computers as a kid, to my time in 3D modeling and animation, and my current career.
When I was young, I lived with my grandparents in a rural town’s municipal airport. It seems incredibly interesting to me now, we had miles of nature to explore around us as well as an airplane hanger full of all kinds of tools and gadgets, spare parts and junk. Oh, and a pool table.
Many years ago I purchased a tuxedo t-shirt for myself and a friend. We wore them for a joke since we never dressed up and we were doing a parody of dressing up. Later on, I thought it would be even funnier to cut the sleeves off and dress it down even further.
This was around the time that Pokemon Go came out and, like many people, I was hittin’ the streets trying to catch ’em all.
A while ago my wife and I decided its time to sell our house. Wanting to get top dollar, we have been renovating what we can and hiring out the rest.
Over the years, we have personally tackled roofing, plumbing, running new electrical lines, installing windows, baseboards, repairing sheetrock, painting, laying tile… it has been pretty intense.
Yesterday I missed blogging due to having to work on electrical in my bathroom before these guys started texturing the walls. It was crazy I got home around 4 pm and worked steady until 12:30. There were crazy splices in the walls and the wire went from 14 to 12 guage so I had to redo that. I turned to my son after finding an electrical box buried in the wall and said, “When you find things wrong you just have to fix them, even if it would be easier not to.”
Yesterday I got back from visiting my family in Costa Rica. My mom and I were going to go together last year, but the trip was canceled when everything was locked down due to COVID.
When she told me she bought a plane ticket, I figured I would go before we get locked down again.
It was a fun trip that I hope to post more about later. We went horseback riding, and walked up and down the mountain, enjoyed all my grandma’s cooking, did some reading, and made a badass Google Sheet for Rancho Naturalista, the family business.
But what I wanted to talk about most, was a lesson we could all learn from my grandpa.
Shortly after paying off my house my boss looked at me with what I thought of as newfound respect. Then he told me I should be dumping money into stocks specifically Facebook.
This was in 2015.
Earlier this week I read a story about a man arrested for intentionally leaving out the COVID vaccine essentially destroying them. While reading, I noticed that he was a self-proclaimed conspiracy theorist. His wife was leaving him and feared for her safety due to his erratic behavior.
Today I watched as Trump supporters broke into Capitol Hill because they believed that there had been tampering with the election.
Throughout history, there have been Crusades and Jihads, witch trials, and the Red Scare. The thing that all of these have in common is that mobs of people get together and their shared beliefs divide them against their fellow man.
The image above was provided by my co-worker Miguel (@MAGNUSDIV) who taught me everything I learned this year about photography.
Lately, we have been playing a lot of games. Skip-Bo, Uno Flip, Phase 10, Spades. For Christmas, I was given a Connect 4 type game which is my all-time favorite. During Christmas with my in-laws, I played my niece in Connect 4 and she was pretty good. Usually, when my nephew comes over we immediately whip out the game and start playing.
Recently my brother stayed at my house for a few months. He is an early riser like me, so we took to walking around the neighborhood in the wee hours before the sun rose.
On our journeys, we would discuss many things, but one thing that really resonated with me was the theme of resentment. My brother’s life might seem a little out of control at times, but the one thing I think he has totally nailed is his ability to forgive and let go.