Go Outside and Make Something

Wrote an Instructable about getting outdoors and called it Water Walks for Mind and Fitness. The guide explains some of my motivations for getting outdoors, and some of the making activities I integrate into the excursions.

I even snuck a few paintings and drawings into the mix to illustrate how art can be mixed with other activities. This is usually a tech-centric blog, so I don't talk about the visual arts much, even though they are actually some of my favorite hobbies.

A quick landscape I painted. It's not great art but looking at the landforms closely enough to paint them helped me really see the environment around me. People are often surprised that I even know how to paint, but you can write code and paint, they aren't mutually exclusive.

I've noticed that some members of the local maker group tend to separate their outdoor activities from their maker activities. I used to do the same thing, and probably worse. I was kind of stuck in my mind all week as part of my job, and the occasional walking and hiking and camping were all very separate from the creating and designing parts of my life.





I try to talk about using your tech making skills outdoors, like the RC Airboat Instructable, or the welded cascade fountain downspout thingy. But I've never written about the motivational aspect before.

And I've noticed that there is a division between the artists and the tech people. It's like some people think that if you can code then you can't paint or draw - or vice versa. But that's not true. You can paint and draw and still be a good techno-citizen.

Made an RC airboat out of an broken quadcopter drone. Just wanted an excuse to get outdoors and get my make on at the same time. It's always good to get some of your inventions out into the wild.

Eventually, I discovered a way to integrate my designing and other intellectual interests with my outdoor adventures. When I did that, I discovered that both types of activities enhanced the other. Being outside makes refreshes my mind and body. My creative and intellectual side provides challenges and goals when I get outside.

I decided to write an Instructable guide to address these divisions and talk about how I brought several diverse interests together. So if you've been meaning to "get outside more" this summer, check out the guide and see if it might give you a extra motivation for some fun outdoor adventures.

Check out all of my Instructables for some fun projects to do, indoors our outdoors.

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