A new era now that i'm 40

So I recently turned 40.  Ya, big number.  Milestones.  All that jazz.  With that though comes an evolution of my life, hobbies, friends, family, etc and it's helped me realize that i've fallen into a "fit the mold" procrastinating life.  

So begins a new era for me.  Time to break the cycle, get up, pitter patter and get at'er.  That is what this evolution is all about.  It's not about scrapping the old, but evolving what is there into something greater, and hopefully in my transformation I can help others along the way.

This is where AKDragonFish3D comes into play.  This all started when I joined some Facebook groups here, some forums there, and I found that I can truly help a lot of people with some odd-duck questions out there when it comes to some of the things I like, and maybe I can make some tools, make some products, classes, vids, course, and help others so maybe when I'm gone, they can help others until they are gone, and the positivity cycle continues.

AKDragonFish3D is going to primarily focus on three topics involving one area - the Interior of Alaska.  

1.  My love of fishing and the outdoors.  A bit of background on this:  i've been an avid fisherman for quite a long time.  I've talked with friends and co-workers about my various exploits in the woods and i've come to realize I have a lot of information to share - skills and techniques, gear use, and primarily location, location, location.  

The normal fisherperson just goes down to the local watering hole, either fishes from shore or gets in a boat uses a fish finder and putters around.  Some of the more semi-competitive people involve knowledge of water column and targeting fish, but outside of "salmon derbies" in Alaska......

.....I don't.  At my core, i'm a scientist.  Science is a personal passion.  What better science than nature, right?  So I study the patterns of fish, where fish are stocked, how stocked fish react with wild fish, lake and river migration patterns for different species of fish, lake geography (barthymetric? i believe is the term?) and so on.  I have a heavy background in traveling in the wilderness off grid and navigation.  Applying that, and a little bit of Google Maps satellite imagry, I find where the fish are, get there, and catch fish.  Pure and simple.  I'm not bashful when it comes to sharing "my fishing holes" with people, because it takes work to get there - hiking or boating that you would normally glance at and go "meh that's too far outta the way to fish".  Fish don't like people, and so the lower the human density, the higher the fish density.  That is true for both lateral (surface) and vertical (depth).

I'll wrap this all up in a series of books i'm writing that I will publish Q2-Q3 of 2022.  The bookstores lack this topic of the ins and outs of fishing in Interior Alaska.  Look for it later this year.

2.  My love for gaming.  I've found an itch for gaming a long time ago, since the original arcade Super Mario Bros.  Over the years, this has evolved from that to older PC games on my i386, and continues to evolve even today.  I recently got interested in Stardew Valley after watching my eldest kid play it during her alloted video game time.  (Disclaimer:  i'm not a fan of shooters).  I've always been a fan of RPGs both digital and tabletop, such as Dungeons and Dragons, Shadowrun, Battletech, etc.  

With this pandemic, tabletop gaming in a more specific term has become a topic i'm most helpful with in terms of being the "idea guy."  So i'm gonna put this into practice by sharing some of this in blog posts around the web.  I've had a "custom D&D" world since 2000 that has had several groups of players explore its various mysteries - and has given me the creative freedoms to break the norms and discover all those answers that people on Facebook and other platforms are now asking about.  So why not?

3.  Lastly, AKDragonFish3D will focus on the last part of the name:  3D printing.  A few years back, I bought a Creality Ender 3.  At a 10k foot level, its "an overglorified hot glue gun with a computer that prints autocad pictures."  There is so much more to it than that though.

There are sites out there like Thingiverse and Yeggi and various others where people create and post beautiful and spectacular 3D renderings of almost everything you can put your imagination to.  You could almost make a new internet rule:  "if the idea exists, it can be 3D printed somewhere."  I've printed an Overlord halloween costume, various earrings, headbands, and other jewelry for family and friends, and a wide variety of nicknacks, toys etc.

Where my (now two, soon to be three) 3D printers fall into play here is for D&D purposes and for fishing.  Outside of some name-brand stuff, remember my new rule?  I've done some tabletop terrain for both D&D, Warhammer 40K (see my YouTube channel to see my SciFi downtown table), and some incredible fishing lures.

On the concept of most things I print vs. purchasing "the real thing" - I've found the 3D printed version a bit more durable, adaptable, and repairable that the factory created one.  I've also found some ways to upcycle quite a few things to cut costs and still be able to enjoy the things I love most.  I plan on sharing this in future posts.

For now, I hope you have a better understanding of what AKDragonFish3D is all about.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back to read even more content in the coming days/weeks/months.

Happy gaming and happy fishing everyone.

"Fishing is Life, for everything else there's coffee"