I tried blogging daily for a while. I was on a roll about the Metaphysics of Quality till I realized that I did not really understand it entirely. So I stopped writing what I thought I knew and started reading the two books by Pirsig back to back. This time I marked pages and wrote in the margins. I feel closer to understanding MOQ than I have been.

Reading Pirsig always sends me off on a pursuit of sorts like riding a motorcycle in familiar yet unfamiliar country. The curves of the road and the sights after turns seem familiar, but are they?

I have put woodworking aside since I paused it before my wedding a year ago. My youtube channel gets comments asking when I will post new videos. I thank them and tell them I don’t know. Two videos a week was hard. That channel became about video making which I love. Woodworking lost the focus which I want to love.

Over the years I have picked up several major hobbies: bicycle commuting and advocacy, photography, videography and woodworking. To be honest, these are amateur-apprenticeships, not just hobbies. I was serious about them and I invested my time and money into them.

The simple fact is it is hard to nurture several amateur-apprenticeships if you want to make deep and meaningful progress.

To make it worse, I switch from one to another.

And every time I make a switch, I feel guilty and sad about the last amateur-apprenticeship I have left behind. These days, I am making a focused effort of doing street photography and street portraiture, something I have naturally been drawn to anytime I have been out photographing. I want to spend a day a week photographing people on the street. Maybe start woodworking on the weekends.

It feels like a ride on a familiar yet unfamiliar road again.