Life feels like a constant battle to claw back time. We’re given at most a century to work with. Most of us are working with less, either from lifestyle or poor genetics, and no one is guaranteed exclusion from accidents no matter how safe they are.

There are so many agents stealing our time from us, too. We have sleep as a major thief, mercilessly grifting a third of our lives as a standard. Then you have the requirement of lodging and food, which in our current social structure means we’re dedicating another third of our lives to just having enough money to afford essentials such as clothing and a home. So we’re down to having a third of our lives to dedicate to all extraneous pursuits, like love, happiness, or virtually anything outside of the mundane garbage of baseline “existing”.

This seems like the reason we make a big deal out of going on vacation or having hobbies. These are the things that fulfill our lives and lend them meaning beyond the apathy of “living to work”. Lately it feels like I’ve neglected my need to exist outside of work, even though I’ve been drawing hard lines between my work and home life. I haven’t filled that time with a lot of meaningful activity. It’s mostly just looking up from my phone on occasion to glance at some low-brow reality show about “TV attractive” people pretending they care more about relationships than a million followers on “the gram”. I need something fulfilling to occupy the space between shifts, and I’ve neglected that need.

I think I need to buy a 3D printer.