The Little Things

A YouTuber I watch did a series where he talked about all the things he was doing by separating it all into little, medium and big things. When I looked at this website the other day, I realised the entire about me section was blank. What was I thinking when making this website? There's no better way to kick off this blog than to tall you a bit about myself. Here's what I'm up to at the moment, starting with the Little Things.

Photography

With everything else going on in my life, photography has taken a back seat this year. I dabbled in event photography for a few years with some success, but the intensity of my studies and internships  has relegated this side hustle to the Little Things. I still take photos though, and if you need a photographer for your next event, or anything else really, just hit me up (shameless plug).

Dungeons & Dragons

Some friends got me into D&D about five years ago and we would get together most weeks to play it. That group sort of faded away last year as we moved onto new things, but it hasn't stopped me playing.

A few months ago a buddy of mine started hosting a D&D campaign over Skype from Iceland, where we have people calling in from Singapore, Melbourne and the US. It's sometimes difficult managing all those time zones, but when we do get together, it's such a great time. The challenge, adventure and socialising are a really great mix.

I've never been good at explaining what D&D is to people who aren't familiar with it, but this explains it really well. I might write up the next session on this blog to give you an idea of what it's like too.

My good old iPhone 4, seen after the tragic accident at a tram stop

Phone Repairs

I have broken every phone I've ever owned, except the one I currently use (but that's only a matter of time). When I smashed my iPhone 4 at a tram stop in 2012, I decided to teach myself how to repair it. With a little know how and several hours of patient work I figured it out and won myself a good as new phone.

Over the next two years I offered repair services to anyone who would pay me to fix their phone, eventually branching out into iPads. After phone repair shops started popping up everywhere and slashing their prices I just couldn't compete. Parts suppliers began dropping their standards and that resulted in problems with reliability. Eventually I packed it in, the headaches it caused me obliterated any enjoyment it gave me. 

I still repair the occasional phone for friends and family and enjoy this little hobby so much more now. 

Snowboarding

I've put this in the Little Things category, but I really want to start hitting the slopes more often. I went to Mt Hotham for school camp years ago and loved it. Last year I revisited the snow and getting back on the board was just like riding a bike, though the video I made didn't look that way. 

I'm not very sporty so it's nice to have a physical activity that I enjoy. The ski resorts in Australia aren't much by world standards, but it's pretty good for a country that's 70% desert. Maybe someday I'll snowboard overseas, but for now I'll settle for a three hour drive to Mt Buller.

Reading

For most of high school I refused to read anything. Call it a rebellion against my intellectual side or something... school wasn't easy growing up a geek in a backwater town. In my first year of uni that began to change, and in the last few years I've developed an insatiable appetite for reading.

I read a ton of books during my gap year in 2016, but with less disposable time on my hands this year reading has been relegated to the Little Things just like photography. Even so, I've been pushing myself to read at least one book each week, a goal I've somehow kept up with among everything else.

So that's the little things, all the stuff I use to fill spare time. In the next post I'll go through the Medium Things, all the stuff that are more than just hobbies.