What do you like to do when you're not working, slacking on Cyburbia, or fulfilling family obligations?
Me, I like to grow vegetables. I'm co-producer of an old-tyme radio show group. And I like to read as much as I can (very eclectic choices). I also enjoy stategy-based computer games too (like Civilization or Europa Universalis).
People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn't mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn't lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know? - Garrison Keillor
Yard work/landscaping
Watch sports
Go to gym/run
"I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany"
I have a baby. What's a hobby?
"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" Jeremiah 22:16
My initial response was going to be something similar to this, but I didn't want to reign on Maister's parade so early on a Friday.Originally posted by kjel
"I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany"
I am on a bowling league one night a week in the fall and winter and I run and go to the gym about 4 or 5 days a week before work - I run for relaxation and meditation more than training or anything. I also like working in the yard and planting flowers (I'm almost ready to give up on vegetables though since I just don't have enough sunlight, space, luck...).
I think my new hobby will be building watches. I just ordered a bunch of tools off of eBay and the have begun to arrive so I'm going to practice by changing out the hands and face on an old Seiko automatic that I have.
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I'm working on focusing much more in 2013 than in years past, so the only hobbies I have that I regularly partake in right now are going to the gym and playing Warcraft. When it gets nice out and it's still light out when I get home, the gym time will get cut back and replaced with increased running.
What do you mean I can't plan? My SimCity has 390,269 people with a 99% happiness rating (1/23/2017)!
coin collecting and biking
I'm sorry. Is my bias showing?
Every day is today. Yesterday is a myth and tomorrow an illusion.
For some reason my in-laws think I am a serious coin collector and keep buying me old coins for my birthday and Christmas. I have no idea if what they give me is actually valuable, but some of it is sort of cool (half dimes and 2 cent pieces are pretty interesting). I think they know that I like to amass buckets and buckets of change and never spend it and equate my hoarding with collecting.
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I seem to pick up and drop hobbies along the way. I've done some home brewing - good beer! I've done some woodworking, I sold my tools when I moved, but I'd like to get back into scrollsaw work. Once I buy a house again I'd like to start a good vegetable garden. I with Maister on the Civilization games, but mostly I torment the kids and family and volunteer at the local zoo when I have time. So lots of things I want to do, but it's either no time or money.
I don't pretend to understand Brannigan's Law. I merely enforce it.
The hobby I've had the longest is crochet. I do all sorts of projects - yarn & thread - and give away most of my results. I find it helps with stress, allows me to work with some fun materials, and to be creative.
I've tried knitting, but it's not a peaceful hobby for me.
I like to putter in the garden, but it's nothing serious. Plants better be hardy and not expect any care if they are in my garden/flower beds!
"We do not need any other Tutankhamun's tomb with all its treasures. We need context. We need understanding. We need knowledge of historical events to tie them together. We don't know much. Of course we know a lot, but it is context that's missing, not treasures." - Werner Herzog, in Archaeology, March/April 2011
gardening, photography, baking, sewing, dog walking ...
One might NOT think that "dog walking" can be a hobby, but I have found it to be so addictive that when I was between dogs, I NOT only volunteered to walk my friends' dogs at the park, I walked with friends walking their dogs at the park even when I didn't have my own. So, I decided I just might as well get my own ... which I have. It's the very best way to force yourself to get your butt off the sofa and out the door despite the cold, rain, wind, snow ...
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. -- John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1961
Hobbits? Well, I've read the books but I'm not into collecting them.
“Death comes when memories of the past exceed the vision for the future.”
Being a gym rat
Reading
Writing
Some gaming, but not as much as a I used to
Thinking about picking up coin collecting again
When did I go from Luke Skywalker to Obi-Wan Kenobi?
So your a budding horologist. I have a interest in in watch making, but thus far i have done nothing but read about it. So do have a lathe or milling machine? That's cool. Right now my hobbies include collecting & restoring old hand tools and fixing up my old truck. The hand tool collecting isn't as much collecting to display as it is to use. Although, I have well over 60 handsaws, which I use 5 on a regular basis. I guess I'll use the other 55 or so for bartering if we have an catastrophic failure of the power grid. I am not even sure how i came into that many as one day I had a couple then the next thing I know I have a boat load.
Oil painting, mostly landscapes similar to the Hudson River School movement. Right now, I am creating my own color charts specifically for green oil paint. I have roughly 180 shades of green created (took several months of mixing the paint and carefully documenting the results on palette paper in a binder). I have at least another 400-500 shades to get a good spectrum of green. I will probably be done with the color charts in another year or so, and then get back to doing the oil painting. Yes, it is slow and meticulous process, but it is my art and it is as much about learning and observing results than just cranking out paintings left and right. I would like to have my own home filled with my own art, but it will probably take me at least 15-20 years for me to build up enough of a collection to do that. It's a hobby so there is not really a promise date.
"This is great, honey. What's the crunchy stuff?"
"M&Ms. I ran out of paprika."
Family Guy
Biking, and to a lesser extent running, is my biggest side activity/passion these days. I commute to work most every day and then try to get out for a long (3-4 hour, longer if the wife permits...) ride on the weekends. I try to run once or twice a week as well. I do some road biking, but its mostly mountain biking that gets me excited. I'm fortunate I have a lot of trail options close by. My kids are also into biking these days, so its something I can do with them or for myself.
In a new twist on my love of camping and biking, I started last summer "bikepacking." Like backpacking, but you load up your mountain bike. Its sort of an off-shoot of ultra lightweight backpacking as the gear is pretty minimalistic. I use a tarp for sleeping and a small denatured alcohol stove made from two beer can bottoms for cooking, for example. The great part is you can get to some really remote places a lot faster than backpacking. With a family and demanding job hours, that's a real plus. The planning and configuring of gear is also fun and is carrying me through the winter months. I'm excited to take my 12 year old son on a bikepacking trip in the spring.
I am also an amateur musician (percussionist) though I haven't made much time for that lately. Still, it soothes the soul.
As an aside, regarding the watchsmith stuff, my great grandfather was a watchmaker and jeweler. He had a small storefront in a little western PA town called Dawson. I still have some old pocket watches of his. None of them work, however, so I don't know what that might say about his skills...
The purpose of life is a life of purpose
I don't have my own lathe or milling machine but this is the Detroit area so finding somebody with access to those tools is not an issue. However, at this point I don't plan on building my own cases, though that is something I'd like to give a try at some point. My first order of business will just be to see if I can take one of my current watches apart completely and put it back together again and still have it working. I'm hoping to give it a shot this weekend actually.
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Gardening, but don't grow much in winter.
Woodworking, but have not made anythin in a while.
Coin collecting, but have not added to the collection in a couple years.
Puppies, and will be getting some this week.
Anyone want to adopt a dog?
I know that town. It's not too far from where I live.
I like photography, and at one time had a darkroom. I enjoy baking and cooking; I used to grow flowers, but haven't done that since I sold my house. I'm beginning to ride my bike again, and am looking forward to warm weather for that. I'd like to take some overnight trips. Sometime this spring, the final link to The Great Allegheny Passage will be finished, connecting Pittsburgh to Washington, DC.
For bikepacking/touring not too far from you, I also recently saw this trip report from the Shenandoah Valley. Pretty interesting. I've also camped in the Monongahela National Forest. Stunning!
Not many people know where Dawson is - that's pretty awesome! (to me anyway). I visited there a few summers ago. The day we went it was rainy and gray and just made a depressed town seem even more depressed. Dawson was at least half abandoned, it seemed. Along with total dilapidation and neglect, there were also a handful of very nicely restored HUGE Victorian homes. The Yough, sections of which I have paddled, looked pristine from a distance, but when we got up close, there was a lot of pollution - numerous car parts, including the entire exhaust system of some vehicle. I left with a sad feeling, but also hoping there would emerge a movement to clean things up and better employment opportunities for folks living in that area. Some pics below.
My great grandfather's store was in this large brick building:
One of my hobbies is also documenting interesting places!
Last edited by wahday; 28 Jan 2013 at 12:45 PM.
The purpose of life is a life of purpose
Powerlifting/Strongman
Hiking various trails
Movies - have a huge collection of DVD's and I'm a major movie buff
Geneology - have pretty much traced back family history on both sides to the 1500's
Urban history
Beer
Real estate/architecture/home improvement/interior decorating
Sports - especially college basketball and NFL
"When life gives you lemons, just say 'No thanks'." - Henry Rollins
That's one of my hobbies, too!
It's pretty awesome to me that a faceless person out on the interwebs knows a tiny town in my area.
Dawson is in the county south of mine, and is the county is the butt of quite a few jokes and is considered to be mostly backward. There are groups who try to organize clean-ups of the things you saw, but I don't know how active they are down that way. The bike trail is causing a lot of improvement in trail side towns and areas. Let me know next time you're near, and thanks for sharing your photos!
Over the past few years, I have gotten into a new hobby... woodworking & carpentry. It has been something that has always fascinated me and being the owner of a historic home, it has become a bit more of an asset. I started by restoring antique furniture for our house where I would have to pull something apart, repair it, and rebuild it. Sometimes I would have to custom make parts.
We have been talking about redoing our kitchen since the bad cabinets from the late 70's are falling apart, but it was impossible to find a reasonably priced cabinet selection that would match the details of the historic pantry cabinet... so I decided to build my own. This weekend I finished all of the lower face frames and carcass boxes, and this weekend is doors and drawers. This way I can build each one to meet the requirements of where it needs to go, and match the historic character of the house.
I have also rebuilt windows, replaced parts of sashes or window sills, built fireplace mantles and surrounds, installed multi-section crown molding, and even built a bunk bed for the older two boys. Something about creating is just so fun. I also enjoy digging up old episodes of New Yankee Workshop and this old house online.
Other hobbies include landscaping & researching history. Reading is more of an addiction than a hobby for me.
If you want different results in your life, you need to do different things than you have done in the past. Change is that simple.
I love woodworking, I just don't have the money right now to buy the tools I need. For now my hobby is upgrading stuff in the house. Nothing like some DIY to build some pride (and equity) into your house.
Maybe when I'm done with the kitchen I'll pick up a cheap scroll saw and get back into doing fretwork. It's always fun and relaxing to make little ornaments or things that I can hand out at Christmas time.
I don't pretend to understand Brannigan's Law. I merely enforce it.
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