Hello: my name is...

[CorpGypsy]

My name is David. I am 27 and currently living in Luxembourg (a tiny country in Europe) with my wife, who is from Spokane. We both work at Amazon and had relocated from Seattle to Lux in the early part of 2012. My wife is due with our first child in July. She's taking about 9-10 months off to care of our little one and follow her passion of writing. Her decision to follow her passion has prompted me to rethink what it is that I want (need) in a career.

Like N8, I grew up taking things apart to better understand how they work, how they could be made better, or for inspiration for other gadget designs. In middle school, I followed Craig Anderton's rise to fame in the diy guitar effect pedal arena and had my first go at building a few pedals. It was an exciting time for me, aside from horribly rendered schematics w/ no sound bites hosted on geocities or angelfire, which could only be found through a myriad of random diy forums or directories. Unfortunately, I put down the soldering iron and pursued other opportunities, that while leading me to a great career, left a void that I ignored until recently. I've begun to rebuild a small workshop for building amps/pedals and getting some of that tinker time back, but am always wishing I had more time to build.

I've been reading a lot on hackerspaces, the various tax structures used, how they form and integrate with local communities, how some are sustained and others fail, etc. Later this year, I'm taking a 2-3 month sabbatical, part of which will be used to tour hackerspaces around the world to understand what makes them successful and what networks could be established to support one another (ideas, marketplaces, shared memberships, etc.). My wife and I are considering a move back to Spokane in the next year or two, so I'd love to help this group out and contribute as best I can while abroad. This seems like a really diverse group, in backgrounds and interests (drip irregation systems, solar tracking??? Awesome!!), and there's a ton of energy that I'd like to be a part of. Have loved reading everyone's posts and look forward to participating.

Cheers,
David