{"id":221,"date":"2020-12-30T13:43:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T21:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/?page_id=221"},"modified":"2020-12-30T14:02:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T22:02:27","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This website is about things that interest me.\u00a0 More importantly, it\u2019s about things that I think you<\/em><\/strong> might find interesting as well.<\/p>\n

We live in an age where there are plenty of interesting things to do with your mind, but increasingly these are virtual activities rather than hands-on.\u00a0 I\u2019m old enough to remember a time before the internet… a time when real, hands-on \u201chobbies\u201d were commonplace.\u00a0 I hold a strong belief that engaging in such activities promotes enthusiasm, mental acuity, self-esteem, relaxation and a happier outlook on life.\u00a0 \u00a0Today it seems like internet surfing and gaming are taking the place of traditional hands-on hobbies, and young people in particular are suffering the consequences: decreased mechanical aptitude and less appreciation for what they can accomplish themselves, without a slavish reliance on the \u201cconsumer culture\u201d of cheap, mass-produced items.<\/p>\n

Luckily, there are some positive trends.\u00a0 The \u201cMaker\u201d movement is taking off, stimulated to a large extent by increasing access to technologies like 3D printing and programmable platforms like the Arduino.\u00a0\u00a0 Programs like \u201cLego Robotics\u201d in schools are truly a blessing, as they expose young people around the world to the joys of not just mastering concepts intellectually but also thinking through how to make something real\u2026 and then\u00a0doing it<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 That\u2019s the underlying theme of everything you’ll find on this website: hands-on involvement with making, restoring, exploring, collecting or even eating interesting things.<\/p>\n

So welcome to the website! I hope you enjoy it, and maybe you’ll discover some \u201cinteresting things\u201d that you didn\u2019t even know existed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This website is about things that interest me.\u00a0 More importantly, it\u2019s about things that I think you might find interesting as well. We live in an age where there are plenty of interesting things to do with your mind, but increasingly these are virtual activities rather than hands-on.\u00a0 I\u2019m old enough to remember a time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":99,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-221","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228,"href":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/221\/revisions\/228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veryinterestingthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}