I'd be able to commit real, serious time towards my open-source projects. Maybe I'd finally get my fediverse app off the ground? I'd also take up art and gardening for some variety.
I have severe chronic pain, when it's bad I'm housebound, when it's good I'm lucky to go out at all. Prior to this happening to me, I was a gigging musician, going to culinary school as well. Spent a large portion of my time since it all started avoiding cooking and music altogether, both of which I'm now occasionally able to enjoy in moderation. I also picked up programming, Linux computing and microcontroller projects, 3d printing, modeling for both animation and CAD, some creative writing, kombucha brewing, even been recording some of my music lately.
I'm not a hypothetical after a broken neck/back 2/26/14.
Learned hobby electronics/KiCAD/etching PCBs, 3D CAD design, 3D printing, reading sci-fi, learning programming and going through computer science lectures, and adopting Linux is how I've spent most of the last 9 years.
Learning CAM, kernel hacking, and getting more into amateur radio are on my bucket list.
It sickens me that this isn't something we get any compensation for. When I'm not in paid employment it's something I spend a lot of time working on. It's not easy work either! It's so weird how it's totally separate from paid employment, along with caring responsibilities that happen within the home. It's such hard work like.
I'd really like to spend a good chunk of time learning how to play/produce music. It's a lifelong dream and something I'm slowly dipping my toes into, but real-life commitments make it difficult to keep up :(
I'd be playing and running a lot more D&D. I'd go outside more. I'd drive less. I'd spend more time with friends, my family's kind of awful, and my siblings and I don't talk much with them as it is. If money weren't an issue in this hypothetical, I'd travel a little more than I do. Maybe go to the beach more often than one weekend every five years. Maybe go see other countries.
I think long term I'd get into writing, or game dev. I'm trying not to let my job keep me from doing that now, but with the effort I've put in and the hours I work, I've been in a quasi-permanent state of burnout for the last ten years or so. I spend a lot of time feeling like a zombie, and even when I have some downtime, I find it hard to remember who I am and what I like. Even minimal amounts of effort inside or outside of work overwhelm me at this point. I'm not going to kill myself or wish that I get hit by a bus, but I really don't enjoy the prospect of living through another 20-40 years of this shit, and I don't think there's any significant change that I can effect that will keep me from having to work until I die.
play videogames and consume a lot of movies and series'
Travel my heart out, and not only via planes. If I actually had a lot of free time without the need to check in somewhere, I would just fill a backpack with all the necessary stuff and travel to my destinations via trains, hiking, renting a car, etc. since time would not be an issue
Just be... while sitting somewhere outside, might move sometimes to another spot
Actually meet new people. I don't because I feel like I barely have time for my current friends. That is so god damn sad that I alienated some of my friends due to work and keeping up with closer friends. Fuck work.
Edit: sorry for the rant on the last point. I know not every job is like that and I'm in the process of switching my field.
I would sew costumes, clothes, and stuffed animals!
I would also give away stuffed animals to people in my town. It'd be fun to hide them around different areas to be discovered, with a note encouraging people who want them to take them home.
If I were to become wealthy enough to have this luxury, I would probably goof off and video game the first month. I say this because it’s what I used to do when I was in school and had summers off.
After the boredom kicks in, my brain usually shifts to more creative endeavors. I imagine I’d do some of the projects I used to love. Calligraphy, creating my own language, photography, astrophotography, light gardening, travel to see museums, hiking, visit parks, read, wood working and carving, small projects around the house. Oh wouldn’t it be grand!
Right now? Focus on family. If it was just me who didn’t have to work I’d be a “stay at home dad” but even better if neither of us had to work and we could be a family together without having to disappear for 8+ hours every weekday.
Go to the park, Go to museums, Go to the bay or the beech, Walk in the woods, go to the library, go to soft play, go to role play, visit other friends and family, have a nice day at home and in the garden… there’s just so much to do before we even start worrying about expensive activities. Would be absolutely lovely if this wasn’t limited to the weekends.
Add comment