I could not possibly identify more closely with a comment when it comes to agreement.

The number of Americans I meet who think that Canada is just “USA 2” is staggering.

This is the truth. Client and user support is often horrific, but if you can land something working with just the technology it can be pretty nice.

Henschenflugel?

I’m pretty sure this is the device John Connor pulls out in Terminator 2 to hack the ATM machine.

Personally, I’ve moved past that stage to the urinating on its grave stage.

Lol I think you are right, I really don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to describe the quality of his art properly.

Definitely! I have actually seen gouache used to great effect when combined with watercolor as well.

There is a guy who does some really excellent watercolor/gouache stuff on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@JamesGurney

Oh man, so many, but to name a few:

If you can afford to get into 3d printing, its extremely useful - probably the most useful tool I have ever purchased. If you do want to get into it and want to learn how to 3d model functional parts, then I would recommend learning parametric modeling with fusion 360 for free.

Programming - people would be really amazed at how useful learning to program can be regardless of your occupation. Python is easy to get started with, and you learn a lot about computer science when learning it as well.

Music production - You can buy a guitar off craigslist for like 50 bucks and just start messing around with it. It might take a couple years, but learning an instrument is a lot of fun. You can also get into music production with free digital audio workstation software such as reaper and some free VST instruments.

Painting - Acrylic paint is cheap so you can start this for a fairly low cost. If you have a little more money, I would say buy oil paint and canvas/an easel, and just follow along with any bob ross video. Oil paint stays wet for days, so its actually extremely forgiving. You can scrape off paint to redo something and never know it was even there in the first place!

I got into firearms recently and it is really fun to learn about.

I just need to find a decent/safe location on some nearby federal land so that I can go shoot without paying 50 bucks every time I want to use the range.

I picked up some basic lock picking when I was younger, its come in handy a LOT of times since then.

Also really interesting to learn about the mechanical engineering behind different types of locks!