Like a lot of people, I'm a bit wary of AI. Which has caused me to be greatly wary of the future. Which has pushed me into thinking about folk traditions.
Related, I put in my two weeks notice. Partly due to personnel changes, partly due to the use of AI, mostly to do with my clash with the owner's and leadership's ideals. I just couldn't be a part that supported their politics. Even if I was just a lower rung employee.
Anyway, not knowing how long it will be to find another job in this market, I've been thinking about avenues to pursue. To keep me busy and to maybe find a new career path.
Folklore, crafts, and traditions have been coming to mind. While not a billion dollar or maybe even a million dollar industry, I think it's a field that someone could do until there knees caved-in and maybe even after.
I just don't know how to approach it. My first instinct was to learn pottery. Making stuff and selling them, though I've never been great at selling. The other part of me is writing about folk traditions. Perhaps a newspaper or flyer. I have some savings to live off of so it'd have to be cheap but maybe? That, to be honest, does excite me.
I don't travel well. I haven't for some time thanks to an injury years ago. I'm feeling better but still not sure if plane rides or long travel days are for me. I can't go to people in person. Also, I have no money coming in. So maybe reading and writing about these traditions and promoting those who do them is the way to go.
I bought a domain for it. So I'm thinking about it kind of seriously. I bought a couple other domains for ideas in the past before. They didn't work out too well. Fruitybirds.com was originally for a drop shipping company a friend and I were trying out. We stopped. We couldn't get over selling mass produced trinkets that would just pile up in a landfill.
Now it's this weird blog where I share posts that seems cool and apparently write out ideas to process them a little in public. But I think a folk blog would be cool. Something to worthwhile. Or maybe I'm an old man looking too long at the Whole Earth Catalog1 and Foxfire2 books to do what's needed now.