Sad times / not bothered

[nick d]

                Before I start building any more pedals , I should finish painting and lettering the others , but to be honest , I just can't be arsed .
                 
                  Its a Northern thing !

[Gurner]

[Galego]

My enthusiasm comes and goes. Eventually i'll find something i want to build. Or maybe try to develop something new and complicated that will keep me busy for a while.

I think i exchanged the thrill of building each pedal with the calmness of doing it a bit at a time, i no longer rush it like i did in the past. Keeps me for getting saturated and turning a pleasurable hobby into a 2nd job. That's why i also keep myself from doing a lot of work for other people. Having people wanting to buy my pedals is good though, as they allow me to build pedals i want to build but don't want to keep.

I have had falling outs with hobbies in the past, and i usually when i got money for doing them. This one has survived that, so i think i'm going to keep doing it for a while.

[markeebee]

Well, someone had to.  And, apparently, it was always going to be me that did it anyway.

[newfish]

  ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Can be arsed.

Resistance is futile...

To be honest, not built much recently - and then made a couple of Beavis Huminators and a Sparkleboost in the past 24 hours.

[george]

I'd rather not do anything at all rather than make a half-arsed attempt ... 

[Tony Forestiere]

Well, someone had to.  And, apparently, it was always going to be me that did it anyway.

Nicely played. We would expect nothing less.  Would that be a Scarlett (Burst Box) "arse"?

[markeebee]

Ha! Yep, it's from the opening scene of Lost in Translation. One of the great moments in cinematic history.

[ayayay!]

I can't remember my last build, sadly.  I'm truly sad that I cannot build/modify things lately, but I'm not depressed.  My whole thing right now is that I'm truly dug into a trench called life.  My kids come first, plain and simple.  It's hard to put my passions aside for a while, but I still think about building every day.  I haven't even been on this forum since the summer, other than an occasional lurk.  I know I'll be back, this is just my season right now.

I've got 4 kids aged 2 - 8, and one of them is autistic.  I spend a solid hour with him EVERY night doing homework, and lecturing him on social things like why it's not cool to correct every little thing his sister says.  That plus a little guy who just hit 2 and has the best damn form and arm since Troy Aikman...  (I'm optimistic he'll buy his Momma and I a nice house someday...)  He manages to shoot those balls right onto the hot stove every time!  That's my boy!

It's just where I'm at.  Luckily the sex is still free and I don't have to order (many) parts for that! 

I hope to be back in the near future, but unless I get a new job that pays about $15k more I won't be doing much for another year or two. 

[DougH]

[trad3mark]

what are they? mystery pills? SOUNDS GOOD!

[ayayay!]

Oh man was I that depressing?  I'm not depressed, I just miss building...  I'm happy!

[Cardboard Tube Samurai]

Since "not arsed" (or even the presumed American equivalent "not assed") is not a term in use where I live, I'm curious if it's one of those phrases which has only a negative version.

In other words, if you were totally excited to make pancakes for example, would you say "I am arsed to make pancakes!" or would that be ridiculous, like saying "I am rather gruntled this morning," "RG is quite ept with electronics," "these examples are particularly ane."

(disgruntled, inept, inane)

This reminds me of a point I often make to people: nobody is ever just "whelmed". They're always over or under.

[Güero]

I've noticed a rather unpleasant thing lately.

I seem to have completely lost the drive/ambition to make pedals. It's not that I don't enjoy it, believe me, that feeling of a completed build is awesome, and it's not that i don't have the parts or anything. It's as if the drive to go and make a pedal is gone. I've 3 unfinished projects I would like to finish out, but it's as if i'm just not arsed. I don't seem to take pride in it anymore. I'm not sure where this came from, but it is a sad state of affairs. I'm just curious, has anyone else come across this before? Is this writers block but for effects?

Times are bad.

I think this guy could help you.

[brett]

Hi all
Why do we build pedals?  I was chasing some sort of holy grail of tone.  Also, I LOVE fiddly, repititious work (I'm Brett, and I'm a geek, and it's been two days since I last soldered  ).  I was always unhappy with my sound.  After a while, serious musicians were asking for my pedals.  So I lived with a soldering iron in my hand and belted out a couple of hundred pedals in a year or two.  Sometimes a couple in a night.  Plus a few amps. Great fun!

Fast forward 5 years.  Now I'm happier with my sound, and I build a pedal a year and I'm selling amps and clearing out pedals and playing much more acoustc.  Maybe I'll go back to pedals and maybe I won't.  Pedals were a way of satisfying an itch.  Now that I'm not itching, there's no use scratching. 

For those "down" times, there's noobs on the forum that want a hand.  Or learn stuff on the web and in the library.  Or learn to surf. 

cheers

[Skruffyhound]

     Yeah, I very often wonder why I'm doing this. There's no business end in it, yet I automatically tooled up like I was going into production.
     It fulfilled a need to learn something new when I was unable to play because my twins were taking most of my time, but at some point I understood that I would only be a good technician and didn't have the head of steam up that would be required to acquire a deep understanding of electronics.
     I've never posted a completed build in the pic thread, at first because I thought they were too shoddy, and then because for the last eight months I've been chasing the holy grail of etching, a new technique that I now simply must get to work because I've thrown so much time and money at it that I need closure (enclosure ). After that I still need to work on artwork/design and making my own layouts, before I'll be happy.
     All of which is pretty far away from making music, which bothers me. It's like I need to be able to do this well, then I can move on. Much like many of the old members here.
     On the bright side, the forum amuses me, and it's the first real online community that has meant anything to me. Plus I have learned a great deal here which I can and do apply in general life and at work. 

[DougH]

Like any hobby, my enthusiasm for this comes and goes. It's no big deal. Life is a flow. Get in the flow and in your spare time do what makes you happy. "What makes me happy" changes a lot, so I don't worry about it. If you're in a rut and feel like you're going through the motions, stop and do something else for a while. Or never build another pedal again if you don't feel like it. You're still part of this community. You can hang out and help others, or just tell jokes in the lounge, it doesn't matter. It's not a contest or a race. There's no prize that "you must be present to win" at the end when you've built your quota of stuff. Just do what you enjoy, and don't what you don't enjoy - that's the only rule.

[jefe]

One of the reasons I stay interested in building pedals is that I don't do it all that much. For me, it's a cold weather hobby. In the summer, I'm busy with gardening, picnics, vacation, etc. Now that the cold weather is here (first frost finally killed my garden night before last), I'm itching to build. I still need to set up my new workshop & stuff, but I'm almost there.

[jable1066]

                Before I start building any more pedals , I should finish painting and lettering the others , but to be honest , I just can't be arsed .
                 
                  Its a Northern thing !

Northern England? Where abouts are you from?

I guess dragging this thread up I should at least input - take a break, get out the house and don't worry about it! It's only a hobby, don't make it like work and just do it when you can be arsed.

Sorry to drag up an old thread by the way.

[nick d]

                               I'm in North Staffs , about 25 miles from the Capital City ( Manchester ! ) - I like to go there
                               now and then - when I can be arsed !!