Lockdown fidgeting
Well, perhaps I’ve succumbed to lockdown fidgeting.
For a while now, I’ve held a vague belief that one’s mind and body needs to be occupied with something in order to be mildly satisfied. A person that spends most of their working life doing manual tasks should probably balance that with something that intrigues the mind. Conversely, a person that spends most of their time thinking, should probably go and do something with their hands, something physical. And I think this is especially true for creative pursuits.
Perhaps this is why many people take to the gym or sports, or hobbies unrelated to their work. When we have too much of one, and not the other, we “fidget” and become restless or burn-out.
The terrible events of the Covid-19 epidemic has thrust a lot of us to work from home, and has shifted this balance of mind vs body. I am a software engineer, so I spent the first few months of the lockdown staring idly at the computer screen, slowly coming to the realisation that I needed to do something with my hands, something creative.
I’m no artist (didn’t inherit the gene from my mum), no musician (but I have a doppelganger), already built a PC, and no other creative physical outlet. Which had me pondering.
Here’s my start.
Reclaiming the Physical
I had thought about, but not really deeply, about the physical diversions I could start, to take my mind off the lockdown mania, and to counterbalance work. It would have been easy to dive into IT projects, but that felt like I would have far too much screen time – something I struggle with.
I had browsed Amazon for inspiration, something I could buy and then make, build, paint, decorate. I had ideas:
- Airfix models of airplanes or tanks. I was playing a tank PC game, this seemed like a great idea.
- DIY electronics kits from Amazon, just need to solder them
- MIDI musical keyboard – learn to play
- Drawing / sketching – unrealistic wishful thinking
None really seemed like they could be worthwhile, except perhaps learning to play an electronic keyboard.
After much thinking, something made me settle for a DIY audio amplifier. I was going to make a proper audio amplifier. And finish the project. And finally I was going to actually use the amplifier, not put it on a shelf to be forgotten.
There, at that point, started my lockdown project.
