“Sabbatical” is now my preferred name for my weeks spent on the couch. As time went by, forced to postpone all of my usual activities, I had to find new ways to amuse myself during all those hours of “free” time. The initial near-panic of seeing things taken away from me, eventually became replaced by the joy of exploring and discovering new things to see and do – all from a semi-prone position. I may even have found the answer to my own question – “Why did I fall?”

Here’s a sample of some of the things that came my way.

Hanging Out With the Cool Kids

In past months I’ve been whittling down both the YouTube and Feedly newsreader subscriptions, letting go of things that I was losing interest in and more to the point, reducing the amount of time I was spending on line. With all the drawing and painting going on, something has to give. In YouTube particularly, most of what I ended up following was art-related.

So it was great fun and hugely entertaining to discover Casey Neistat, a YouTuber from New York City. Casey, a 30-something filmmaker, produces a short movie about his life just about every day. In only a couple of years he has made 500 movies and counting, 5-10 minutes each, filmed with his handheld cameras (often on a skateboard cruising the streets of Manhattan and elsewhere) and his drone to capture terrific panoramic views. With 3 million or so subscribers, he’s recognized on the streets a lot.

His life couldn’t be more different from mine, which is probably why I find it so entertaining. It’s a glimpse into a different generation and a different world. Last week at the Shorty Awards (the Oscars of social media) Casey won the YouTuber of the year award.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with more energy and enthusiasm for life. And it’s infectious. A good dose of Casey makes me want to get up off the couch, laugh, start something new, grab my camera, run and jump and dance and …well, maybe in a week or two.

Finding New Tools

Spending so much time cruising the intertube, finding this and that, reading and saving images, articles and links to sites, I realized, and not for the first time, that my methods are not the best, to put it mildly. My browser bookmarks are a disaster, reference/inspiration images are all over the place and the chances of finding something again in this hot mess of a non-system are dim. Time for new ideas.

There’s a ton of options but one I’ve been checking out is Pinterest. I’d avoided it because of the social media aspect, but I’ve found it to be a good option to store links to images and articles that’s easy to use and visually pleasing. I like the way it’s so easy to grab a link and save it with the “pin” button that’s either already on the site or can be easily tagged from the button on the browser. I jacked up all the privacy settings on my account and set my “bulletin boards” to ‘secret’ to opt out of social media, and it’s working well so far.

Speaking of Hot Messes

Couch time has given me the opportunity to spend long, concentrated hours on learning my new photo software, Lightroom. For far too long, this has hung over my head. I’ve written about this many times, but the short story is that Apple discontinued its pro photo editing software Aperture that I had been using very comfortably for so long, The transfer over to any other software is not easy and not smooth. Furthermore, my file system, with its >15,000 images, which suited me fine, turns out to be a complete mess outside that software. It’s been so daunting that I’ve just slipped into avoidance mode, with the sad and unfortunate consequence that for many many many months I’ve just about stopped taking pictures and telling stories.

Well as it turns out, I now, for the first time, see a very clear silver lining (always there somewhere!) in all of this. The more I learn and play with Lightroom, the more I see what it can do and what the possibilities for new projects can be. Knowing the old Aperture as I did, I can see now that I was a little stuck in my old methods of doing things, always taking the same approaches and in no way using it to its full powers and opportunities. Turns out it was good for me to get shaken up and bent out of shape, although I didn’t realize it. Until now.

Still Loving Low Tech

Not everything was about that laptop on my lap. I discovered a new (for me) mystery writer, Peter May. Through him, I’ve spent my imaginary time in the Outer Hebrides islands in the most western edge of Scotland, following his former policeman protagonist in his Lewis trilogy (The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man, The Chessmen). I see that he’s written lots more so this may be my summer reading on the pergola patio this year. Still love books. Kindle doesn’t do it for me, although yes it’s good for certain things. Mostly though, I need that visual and tactical and 3D.

Weeks have passed since my accident sabbatical began. My left foot is now fine, my left wrist is still sore but functional, my right leg still needs time. I’m up and about but can’t walk or stand for too long. Still, getting better every day.

Much improved and very well entertained.