Hey Buba,
This coming weekend I'll get another batch of photos uploaded... or is it downloaded? Loaded anyway.
It looks like you're having a great learning experience.
As I look at some of your pictures I admit to not knowing quite what you're up to, but it is obvious that whatever it is you have a fevered, creative mind and a lot of enthusiasm for what you're doing. I say go for it. I think maybe the fact that we are doing something is more important than exactly what we're doing.
I have my own strangeness, eccentricities I guess you'd say. For one, I'd rather shop at the dump than one of the malls filled with new junk. I like old junk and the price is much more in line with my finances.
I have this idea, theory, what ever it is... that when we are in the throes of creative making we generate a kind of inner light which is greatly needed in our world... people who love what they are doing have a kind of brightness about them. Too many of us are involved in drudgery and our inner world is too often dark.. so in the end we contribute to the world's darkness, depression, hopelessness.
Consider the surgeon who hates his work, does not want to go to the hospital and can't wait to get on the golf green... performs his surgeries mechanically with resentment, perhaps thinking of how much money his trophy wife is costing him. On one level he is doing important work, but on another level he is part of the darkness.
And consider the old woman who is humming to herself as she creates clunky doll clothes for her grand daughter from scraps of fabric. The clothes are made without skill but with a lot of love and she is having a wonderful time herself being a child again... she is shining her light and from the vantage point of the planet as a living, breathing being her light contributes more to global well being than the doctor's dark labors.
That's how I see it, anyway, tending always to see the spiritual aspect of things. I'm sure many would disagree with me or the world would be a brighter place than it is. I always advise young people to "follow their bliss" in the words of Joseph Campbell, to discover what it is that lights them up and then do that, to let that joy guide them in their lives.
So my friend, whatever fuel you're running on, it is high octane. Your welding tip gives off sparks and so do you. More power to you, Buba. Keep smiling...
SB