You might look at my office and the 32 plastic robot models on my shelf and think “This guy is a collector!” Or you might look a the bass guitar, electric guitar, long neck open back banjo, closed back resonator banjo, tuba, saxaphone, ukelele, and shamisen in my office and think, “Hey, this guy is a collector!” Or you might look at all the books, comics, or records in my office and think, “This guy knows how to collect!”

But you would be wrong.

I’m not a collector, I’m a serial project starter.

Each of those plastic models is the outcome of a project. You don’t look at a knitter’s socks and blankets and say “Wow, look at this yarn collector!” The same with the instruments; it’s not a collection of world instruments so much as evidence of an obsession for learning about objects that produce sound. The records? Well… most of those are from my step-father who –beyond tools he used for home improvement projects– wasn’t a collector either.

I know collectors with great collections. My uncle is an avid collector and his house is pretty much the town’s museum stuffed with old WW2 memorabilia. His collections also live at the local VA and the old train depot (which is now a museum). I admire people who collect, organize, catalog, and arrange. That archivist nature is a superskill.

Me? I suppose I have some inadvertent collections of similar objects, but I don’t fancy myself a collector. I don’t need more possessions in my life. But if there’s a project… well, don’t mind if I do.