A Wrinkle in Silver

All things come to an end. Some new things may fold in on top of it and grow into something new. That is where I am at.

On December 3rd, I had quit my job of nearly 11 years. There are many reasons why I did such a thing at such a time. Top of that list was that I was in an industry that I did not believe in, doing work that was just making things worse. There are, of course, other things that are propping this up to the top. There was a small mountain of issues. It lead to months of no motivation at work, weekends filled with more of the same. It was a rinse and repeat cycle that didn’t have an end in sight. Based on this and other details I’ve might have mentioned on social media, I decided I needed a change. And based on this first week of not working in about 17 years, it was the best choice.

What’s next for me? Well, I’m riding into the virtual sunrise: VR. Now before you think I’m just jumping on the Metaverse bandwagon, I was thinking about this for months before Microsoft or Meta/Facebook made their announcements. The timing was very just, very timely.

I had first dabbled in VR with the Playstation 4 VR unit, playing the popular Beat Saber. You might have even seen me stream it long ago. If you were lucky. The desire to play more songs was strong. I ended up getting an Oculus Quest and got the custom songs I was seeing others were playing. And it was good. Until it turned into an effort trying to get Beat Saber to work after each update.

Games, however, are not the only use for VR. VR and its siblings augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) is grouped in an overarching termed called Extended Reality. And all of them go beyond games.

Ikea has their AR app to allow you see what furniture would look like in your home. Snapchat and Instagram has fun filters to alter your appearance. You can watch movies in VR, experience it along with the characters. And everyone’s favorite, have virtual meetings with everyone in different places (in this time of working from home, it’s certainly a boon). There are use case in the medical field, which includes mental health and surgery planning. Throw in real estate, tourism, and education and there’s just so many things that XR can extend, so to speak. Check out this YouTube video for a small list.

One particular thing that I have wanted to help drive was seeing a way to use AR to bring kids stuck in hospitals together either with other patients or their family. In this last year and a half where there has been massive restrictions on who can come visit on extended stays, this really seems like a great use of XR technologies. That is a long term goal. Given my history in supporting kids via charity gaming, it does make sense.

To achieve it though, there needs to be a lot of learning in the XR space. And thus, I’m focusing my time to get to where I want to be. I’m taking a live online class and also doing on my own learning thanks to a well timed Humble Bundle purchase. In the course of all of this, will be putting up a portfolio of the work I did, showing what I have done in the XR space. I have already put up my first project, as small as it was but there has to be a beginning.

This has been but the second week I have been on this journey, the first away from work. It’s terrifying and at the same time, filled with so much promise with a better outlook for myself in the next few months and beyond. All the thoughts that come along with doing something brand new are keeping me company. Though I am putting those intrusive thoughts into a nice little container to sort out later.

Overall, I’m excited and looking forward to what this new virtual reality has instore for me. If you always wanted to do something awesome, the best time to start it was last week. The second best time for it is right now.