What did you do this week (and weekend)?

Yesterday morning my partner dropped me off at the shop. Usually I go Mondays, but my teacher wasn't able to do this Monday. His shop is in the closest town an hour from where I live.

My partner had to get work done on their car, and suggested we get a hotel room that night instead of driving back. My partner picked me up at 6 and drove me to the hotel, a beautiful historic building where they had rented the most stunning suite with its own balcony that overlooks the whole town.

Then we had a lovely dinner at the new Italian restaurant accross the street. We walked back to the hotel after and sat on the balcony and watched the near full lunar eclipse, drank some wine, then walked to the nearby watering hole for a night cap.

This morning my partner decided one night wasn't enough and rented the room for a second night. It is just so relaxing. I'm being spoiled and I can't emphasize enough how much I really needed it.

I went to a new hackerspace/makerspace hybrid that is going to open soon, to play around with their laser cutter and work on some projects I've had on my mind for some time, like an air purifier that I've been too lazy to build using just hand held tools. This started an ongoing chain of thought: we're in a city of less than half a mil people and yet there are three hackerspaces/makerspaces. Is this sustainable?

I've been a long time member of the one true local hackerspace - non-profit, no external funding, democratic and a bit edgy at times. Visited this week as well. However over the years it's been losing its edge, making its culture diluted and more mainstream accessible, and while the fact that it has 4x more members than a decade ago (which is the cause of the dilution, not the result of it) has some pros, like allowing us to afford a big space, the hackerspace transformed into what feels like a group of mostly people who want to be a part of a community where somebody else does cool cutting edge shit, instead of a group of people who want to (and are able to) actually do cool cutting edge shit. This is disappointing and makes me feel a much smaller connection to the place than I used to.

The new lab that I visited is also a nonprofit, but with central leadership. It tries to be accessible for non-hackers as a makerspace, but with the day to day stuff mostly ran and maintained by a core of hackers, with rules less strict than in a commercial makerspace. We'll see how well that works. The upside is that while it has external funding, it's not from a potentially hostile business that expects something back. It should make enough money to pay for its rent and energy, but if that doesn't happen here and there, it's not the end of the world. And the funding provides cash for more expensive machines, like the laser cutter or a big 3-axis CNC.

Then there's a commercial makerspace ran by a local startup incubator/innovation center. Also with some expensive machines, but with somewhat stricter rules and less freedom and sense of community.

The new lab is certainly going to compete with the other two in its hybrid approach, which I guess is the point. So far a few of the people who, like me, were not entirely happy with the direction the hackerspace was going, left the hackerspace and are helping to set this place up and get it ready for opening. Competition is not wrong though, and this could be a golden era for hackers/makers.