Too many things, too little time.
Dale Woodruff is an American cat dad who dabbles in too many hobbies for his own good. He’s created the website Knockonwoodruff.com to chronicle his attempt to master multiple disciplines while sharing his experiences and downfalls along the way.
My story:
About a month ago, I was diagnosed with ADHD, and wow does my life make a LOT more sense now. What I’ve learned about this condition and how it relates to my behaviors has been amazing and I continue to find ways to work with ADHD and not against it.
Part of my diagnosis that made the most sense was my long litany of hobbies and passions that I was enthralled by (ie hyperfocus) but had difficulty getting started in (ie executive dysfunction). As you’ll learn by viewing this website, one of the biggest struggles I faced before my diagnosis was that I knew what I needed to do to improve, but lacked the “motivation” to do it. Motivation is the wrong word though, I had motivation, but i was trying to use neural typical methods to initiate action which works against my ADHD brain. Understanding how ADHD works is allowing me so much more productivity toward my goals, and I have a LOT of goals. I want to thrive in the following areas (in no particular order):
3d printing (resin and FDM)
Illustration (digital/traditional/comic books)
Writing
Instructional Design
Painting miniatures, making terrain, and other aspects of the “maker” side of tabletop gaming.
Video production and editing
Graphic Design
The Website:
I thought it might be interesting to create a website dedicated to tracking my learning and development in the different disciplines that I hope to become proficient in. I’ve broken out the website into the following main areas of interest:
Strugglebus: Combining my desire to improve in the maker side of tabletop gaming which includes things like painting miniatures, making terrain, kitbashing, modeling, and 3d printing along with video production and editing; Strugglebus is a YouTube channel which follows my exploration of the tabletop gaming hobby. I’ll also post blog entries here where I share my projects and progression.
Art: Here is where I will collect my illustration practice and my lessons learned with graphic design, digital art, and sequential art (comics). I’ll also share some of my comic book writing here including short stories.
Instructional Design: I am a training professional with over eight years of experience in adult education and recently I made the decision to begin learning Instructional Design and Elearning to shift my career in that direction. Here in this blog, I’ll post lessons learned as I develop my understanding of the software and skills necessary for this career path.
Knock on Woodruff: Here I will collect the overall development that I am making as a human being and overcoming different challenges that I struggle with. Learning to work with ADHD instead of against it, improving my mental and physical health, and simple life observations that don’t fit into the other categories.