What will you do when you retire?

Bill Struhar -- 30 years and out.
Retirement date: June 30, 2002

I keep hearing the question, "What will you do when you retire?"
So I sat down with a two-piece chicken snack and composed this answer:

Activity	Description and Infrastructure in Place
continue with the good stuff -- Gail	There are a lot of good things that I am now doing that I will simply continue to do -- travel with Gail, for example. We were in Costa Rica last December. Next time we can stay a month. We will take a nice trip to celebrate my retirement -- we're thinking of Vancouver, the Canadian Rockies and the lower part of Alaska (we spent a couple of weeks driving around the rest of Alaska last year).
video editing	I have a new Macintosh G4 with superdrive (can burn DVDs) with Final Cut Pro 3. I have finished all of the Final Cut Pro tutorials and will continue to sharpen my video editing skills during my last three months at Sinclair. I also have hardware and software based broadcast and editing systems, including Premiere on the PC platform. (But Final Cut Pro kicks butt.) I have a digital camcorder.
digital histories	I will create digital histories of my family and my career at Sinclair. I have already gathered materials -- I have digitized the home movies from my childhood, collected and scanned many old family photographs, and I have collected documentation of my career at Sinclair. These histories will be presented on the Web. (Everything I do will probably be presented on the Web.)
digital art -- images	I will create drawings/paintings with Painter 7 software, illustrations with Freehand and Illustrator, and images/photography with Photoshop. I own and have been developing my expertise with all of the above software, and I have a good digital camera.
cartoons and comics	I have gathered a library and have been reading heavily in the area of comics and cartoons. I will create comics and cartoons with Flash. I am thinking of doing my digital history of 30 years at Sinclair as a comic -- the medium seems right for the task.
3D stills and movies	I have the professional 3D tool, Lightwave 7, and have done the first tutorial. I also have Amorphium Pro, a very user friendly 3D creation and animation tool. I have also worked with the beta version of a new 3D tool for the Web called "Atmosphere." And I own Director 8.5 which does 3D. Maya has also released a free "learning edition" -- I have that. And I have Truespace and Blender -- it is fun to learn new software.
Digital music	To a limited degree, I will play with music creation, editing, mixing in Acid Pro 3 and Sound Forge 5. I also have an audio editor for the Mac called "Peak." Audio work will be done mostly to support Web and video projects. I won't be doing audio work for its own sake.
Web sites	I will continue to develop Web sites and move into the creation of dynamic sites. Flash and Dreamweaver will be my tools of choice. I really want to create a dynamite, comprehensive personal Web site once I have the time to work on it.
educational technology	I will keep my eye open for interesting short-term (less than a year commitment) educational technology opportunities. I have considerable skill at creation and delivery of Web and multimedia training workshops, and I have a broad technology background and management skills sufficient for program development. I have also managed a large, multi-year, federal grant. And I have chaired an academic department. I am also a veteran of on-line teaching and a pioneer in hybrid course development. This background and these skills will likely lead to something -- but I have to be careful that I don't let myself be sucked back into the rat race.
free on-line courses	I plan to develop some world-class psychology and technology courses for Web delivery, and offer them for free on-line. I am thinking this might lead me somewhere I can't predict in advance.
neighborhood Web site	I have reserved the domain, daytonbelmont.com, and I have done a quick prototype of what a neighborhood site might look like. I have inventoried all of the businesses in Belmont. This could be a fun hobby.
paint on canvas	I will return to painting on canvas to some degree, though I imagine the paintings will be captured and reworked digitally.
golf	I purchased a second set of golf clubs, so I am prepared here in Dayton and at the Little River, SC condominium.
South Carolina	I have a condominium on the Intracoastal waterway in Little River, South Carolina. It is paid for. I will go often. It is a good place to read, compute, see friends, golf, paint, and be in the sunshine.
studio	I have a 1000 square foot studio with full kitchen, bath, sleeping quarters, and materials for years of artwork. Working on the studio itself will be an interesting art project -- I have created large openings in the walls between rooms, inset a TV into the wall, done some re-wiring, etc. I own the studio and it is paid for.
garden	I have always had a small vegetable garden and have planted the occasional flowers, shrubs, etc. I will enjoy fooling with the yards and gardens at the house and at the studio.
redecorate	I will redecorate the inside of my house. I have been looking forward to having time to do this for a long time. My house will be paid for in a year and a half.
mom	I will continue to spend time with my mom who is now 78. I've tried to make her a priority in the past few years.
daughter	My daughter and grandson live in Portland, Oregon. I visit a few times each year, but now, wherever she is living, I will be able to spend much more time with her. This might be the best part of retirement. She is the meaning of my life.
grandson	My grandson is ten years old and also lives in Portland. I'll finally have time to do things with him. I can fly to Portland for Grandparents Day at school -- for the first time.
build computers	I have been picking up computer cases, mother boards, processors, DVD drives, memory, etc. whenever I see them at really good prices. I have the parts to build several computers from scratch.
Linux	I have computers with installs of Red Hat, Mandrake, and SuSe. I want to create some things on Linux desktops, and I want to get an Apache server running on Linux, with PHP and mySQL.

So how does all of that sound?

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