What hobbies do you all like to do? What got you interested?
I'll go first...
Linux
I got into using Linux as a desktop computer way back in 98 with Mandrake 5.2. I thought it was so cool that there were people putting together an open source operating system, that it was available for free and that one could get as under the hood as one wants. After some time I got into Debain and the Debain derivatives. I came out with my own, and for a while it was rated in the top 10 in popularity. These days I'm just a user again, but maybe someday when I have a bit less responsibility I'd like to get more involved again.
Inexpensive SBCs
I just love single board computers. I love their efficiency, their small size, how they make the most of their space, how they run on less energy than the cooling fan of a regular computer, and I really love their silence. This stemmed from my work with Linux, I started to tinker with fanless Mini-ITX computers. It is a fantastic scene in 2021. The Raspberry Pi as really brought affordable and relatively powerful ARM based SBCs into the commodity space and has fostered a community to the point where there is now strong demand for computers in this space. I'm pretty sure SBCs will continue to be an interesting place to tinker. As for now I am content with my current setup.
Exercise
I started weight training at 13. Did it more or less consistently until my mid twenties. I kinda slacked after having a couple of kids, but started back up again after I decided to do something about the extra weight I was carrying around. Covid has kept me out of a gym for going on two years now, but I have a pretty good home routine; it's a combination of calisthenics and dumbbell exercises. I'm also going for quick evening walks after dinner and am doing some skateboarding with the kids when possible.
Flashlights
I know this one may seem a little silly, but flashlight have changed a lot in the last 10 years. The high performance ones have microcontrollers and some of them run on open source software that is hackable. There are floody lights the that could fit in your palm that could light up an entire football field. There are lights that could easily reach 1000m that could fit in your pocket. The technology is rapidly evolving. Unfortunately, you're not going to find any of these lights at your local Walmart.
...
There are other things I am into, but I don't currently dedicate much time to at the moment. I like to learn about the history of technology. I'm also pretty into physical anthropology. Performance cars are an old obsession of mine that's hard to kill.
Construction. I've just started making concrete caps for my bulkhead walkway. This, and a planned walkway from the house to the pier, will require hundreds of big pavers. Each paver requires a 60 pound 27k bag of concrete mix. I'm purposely handling the bags and resulting pavers manually for exercise. Seems to be working great as a workout.
Equipment. I enjoy working with my backhoe quite a bit.
Smarthome. I have purposely kept myself from getting too deeply involved with smarthome tech. I see quite a few guys & a couple of gals who are consumed by "do everything" smarthomes. I've kept my stuff pretty simplistic and enjoy occasionally dabbling with it.
Boats. I like boats, power & sail, but haven't done anything with them this year.
2 Wheels
Dirt biking, street bikes, bicycles.
Got into dirt biking about 10 years ago. Something I always wanted to do. Street bike to ride when I can't get to dirt. Spent a lot of time on bikes as a kid. We now have street bikes, dirt bikes and urban bicycles for both of us. Got a newish dirt bike in March that I just took out a couple weeks ago. Installed a new tall seat today.
WaterSports
Family went to the lake as a kid, as long as I can remember. I've always owned some type of watercraft as soon as I was able, starting in my 20s. Still really like going to the lake on someone else's boat though. hhh
We moved to house with a pool a few years back and boating kind of fell off. Went last year and had some mechanical issues. Got everything fixed this year and had a blast. Looking forward to more trips next year.
Home Theater
New house has a dedicated media room. We watch the big screen most evenings. I play a few games, into some sims and toying around with VR. In the old house, the LR was the home theater, and I ran everything off a rasp pi, except gaming was on consoles. (Primarily PC now.)
I have a decent-ish partial simrig for racing. Amy has a nice rig built out like the Cessnas she flies. Yoke, pedals, throttle quad with trim wheel.
Volleyball
I haven't played much in a while. Covid shut leagues and open play down, and I've been busy with work. Looking forward to getting back into this in the fall, at least some outdoor open play. Really miss it and looking forward to seeing differences from training these last few years.
Local Racing
Redneck NASCAR. Love it. We basically tailgate during all races. Back the trucks onto the back stretch and have a party. My brother has been taking me since I was a kid, and we still go. Great excuse to get outside and drink a few brews. It is quite the cultural event.
Slot Car Racing
New addition here. When racing season is off, my brother and our racing friends run 1:24 digital cars, about the size of your hand. We take out the magnets which makes the rear end more lively and a bit more of a challenge. I bought a cheap set off of FB marketplace to check things out and have an excuse to get together for brews when we can't go real racing. Lane changes, brakes, etc. Pretty neat and expanded the track with another set and new cars.
Gym Training
This is more part of my daily routine than a hobby, but I really miss it when I can't. Amy started about 4 years ago and I followed a few months later. We're both in our best shape ever.
Firearms/Shooting
This one has fallen off since COVID as ammo prices have more than doubled. They are basically back down to just double or so now compared to pre-pandemic. Being in the South, most people have and use firearms. It sort of goes with the territory.
Great thread, btw.
Thanks guys I get really curious as to what you all are into other than online marketing. I want to read more.
I have a friend who is really into slot car racing. He's old school and likes to make his own racers. He makes beautiful little chassis out of brass and experiments with making all wheel drive cars and such. If you are interested I can post some pics.
Photography - I've been heavily into photography for the last 14 years ever since moving to Cape Town. I made the jump and bought a drone 5 years back. I never leave home with my camera backpack as I never know when something will grab my eye! I would say that I tend to focus on surf, landscape and beach lifestyle more than anything else - I don't do wedding shoots!
Home renovations - We bought our first house mid 2020 and we have been doing some small scale house projects, the first biggish one is lined up for December to completely gut the smaller of our two bathrooms. New shower, new toilet and relocate it, new sink and relocate it, new floor, new lights etc... really looking forward to getting into it with my brother-in-law who fortunately is a master builder who has been in the trade for the last 30 years!
Exercise - COVID put a dampener on getting out to the gym as much as I was going early last year, but the home equipment we have has been a real help as well as getting out hiking in the Western Cape.
>If you are interested I can post some pics.
Sure! Post em up.
Excercise
Just got back into the gym after long periods where I started going for a month or two, but lost motivation. Got my 2 oldest girls training as well which also gets me off the couch. I actually enjoy it now.
Golf
Been hitting a few balls recently. A good buddy of mine is a green keeper at a nice club.
Home improvement
Been toying with some of our own products and installing some blinds in the house, at my moms and in the summer house. Great experiencing what our customers see.
Also been having a architect drawing up some plans for extending our somewhat small town house; expanding the attic, new kitchen, extra room etc. All on hold as it's 30-40% more expensive atm and no construction workers to do the job.
Xbox / Call of Duty
I thoroughly enjoy playing COD and got myself an Xbox Series X. Once the fam is sleeping, I'm on a killing spree.
>> flashlights
I grok that. I always have at least one light in my everyday carry.
Fiber Arts
Sewing and knitting have been major interests all my life, and these days I'm teaching grandkids. Yes, the boys too. I learned from my mom, grandmother, and a neighbour who owned a fabric store. As a teen I sewed much of my own wardrobe, even my wedding dress when the day came. I own three sewing machines; the one I use most is my mother's 50+-year-old Elna. It's fun that my online career has included SEO and PPC management for a dress manufacturer.
Music
If my house were on fire, the first thing I'd rescue would be my viola. I'm a classically trained violist and pianist. I still play in public, mostly in church these days but at one point I was the house pianist for a fancy restaurant. I taught private music lessons on and off for years. I don't practice as much as I should but just a few days ago I dug some music out of storage with the goal of brushing up some old repertoire.
Editing
I've become seriously interested in editing as art and craft. I find it more satisfying to polish someone else's prose than to write my own! I have served as editor on documents ranging from press releases to doctoral dissertations, and would like to do more of the latter. Editors Canada has a certification program and I've applied to take one of the exams next month. If it goes well I might tackle more.
House
We're wanting to build a house ... in the community where eight of our grandkids live ... but covid disruptions have set us back. When people ask how it's going I say that we're on track but not on schedule. We have accumulated enough materials to start the workshop, which we hope to build next spring.
Grandkids
We have twelve grandchildren. Need I say more? :)
Golf - I have played for about 25-30 years but my game has gone downhill the past few years. I finally took my first lessons this year and it helped a ton. Been playing maybe once a week this year and got my 9 year old playing now too. Shot my best round of the year last week in the cold and rain. Probably only have a couple more weeks of golf here so hoping to get out at least 2-3 more times before I start dreaming of a trip somewhere warmer.
Barbecue - Been smoking meat for about the last 7 years or so. I am up to probably 12 different grills/smokers and hopefully can add a couple more next year. Brisket and beef plate ribs are my favorite meats to smoke.
Kids - This one takes most of my time and doesn't leave enough time for the other two.
I've been feeling lately that I'm a rather boring person since my hobbies mostly haven't changed in years and my wife has so many more hobbies than I do, but here goes...
Natural history. I spent years and years in mountains and forests without a good understanding of what was happening around me. A bit less than 20 years ago, I started learning the names of flowers and was captivated by learning about the life stories of the plants and animals around me, which ultimately led me to a few seasons as a naturalist ranger. I wish I knew more and devoted more time to it, but I get great pleasure from learning about it and, above all, from sharing the most interesting bits with others. I consider myself a beginner, but it's still enough to really enrich a non-naturalist's experience of a place.
Skiing. My parents were both ski instructors and my dad was a coach, so I've been doing this longer than I can remember. These days AT skiing (aka alpine touring, randonnee, skimo) is my current favorite. Put skins on the skis and climb uphill. Take them off and ski back down. I enjoy the up as much as the down and mostly like being out in a gorgeous winter setting, in silence, under my own power. And then a nice descent is a bonus. 25 years ago, I was always wanting to go steeper. Now it just seems dangerous (for backcountry skiing, "steep" generally means if you fall you won't stop, so the consequences are high, and that just appeals to me less and less). If I can't AT ski, next choice is skate skiing and if I can't do that, I still enjoy riding a lift and skiing down or cross-country skiing, just not as much as the others.
Running. That's a really odd one to think of as a hobby. I've also run as long as I can remember, but in my youngest years, just for transportation. Then to train for other sports. In the last 15 years or so, I've come to appreciate how much I just enjoy doing it. My runs are typically on trails and I find it meditative and peaceful to plod along (I'm not fast and seem to get slower every year). A couple injuries have brought the mileage down. I've worked back up to 10-mile runs, but would like to work back to much longer ones.
Writing. I've lately been writing fiction. I have no intention of sharing it with anyone and I really don't care much if it's good or bad. It's more like a gym for the imagination. I'm enjoying it (though I've been slacking the last few weeks). Last year I self-published a print-on-demand book of very short (1-8 pages) of mostly non-fiction. Theresa contributed some original drawings for it, which turned out really nice I thought. Originally I had planned on just making one copy for my dad for Christmas as an elaborate joke, but I ended up liking the final product more than I expected and I've been handing out copies to friends. That feels a bit uncomfortable both because some of it is fairly personal and because I don't want people to feel obligated to read it, but several people have said they really enjoyed it, so I'm getting more comfortable with the idea!
Climbing. I always say I'm going go do more, but I just don't seem to do as much as I'd like, but I guess I'm doing at least a little every week or two (it used to be 3-5 days/wk in season when I was younger). We did go climbing for our anniversary. We used to do a big climb almost every year for our anniversary - El Capitan, The Diamond. In recent years we've fallen out of the habit, but we revived that tradition this year (somewhat foolishly - it was in excess of 100F/40C that day).
>>gym
That's one I really miss. I find strength training at home really hard and the nearest gym to where we live is just way too far away. I would do that more if I had a good gym just a bike ride away, which was the case for me from 1986 to 2003, but not since.
>>2 Wheels
Have you tried an electric yet? I just had my first ride an electric trials bike yesterday. Fun and a bit scary. The torque is insane.
>>I find it more satisfying to polish someone else's prose than to write my own!
Generally, I would agree. It's an art form unto itself, finding that balance between making something read better and inserting your own voice where it doesn't belong.
>Writing. I've lately been writing fiction.
Very neat. Maybe you can share the kindle version here one day. ;)
>Have you tried an electric yet? I just had my first ride an electric trials bike yesterday. Fun and a bit scary. The torque is insane.
Not yet but definitely intrigued. Saw one at the trail head trip before last. Very weird sound coming through the woods.
Great thread! love it.
There are a few 30 year olds round here who love the electric mountain bike.
It gets them to the down hill twice as fast, so in 2 hours they have twice as much fun.
In the UK we had a petrol Yamaha FS1E (motor with pedals to get over the law at the time for young people....)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_FS1
this is the new version :
https://usa.eskuta.com/ No licence required.
(Not seen these on a downhill course though!!!! )
My hobbies are also anything 2 wheels, (4 bikes) or that involve water. (boating/waterskiing when fitter, swimming, sailing (see below)) Not really got the two to cross over yet, except in a triathlon.
Family time is big too.
Walking the dogs seems to take a big chunk of my life,
as does general home/machine maintenance... not sure it's a hobby more a requirement. That said, still having fun with Hubitat.
Skiing... but its a weeks holiday a year, pre-pandemic, not sure about next year.
Sailing... racing on a Wednesday, and a week in the sun would be nice every year... not so easy in a pandemic.
Running... a means to fitness and spending time with Lucy, definitely not an end in itself, I envy you.
>Sure! Post em up.
He does a lot of different designs and is always experimenting. Here are two of them. The one with the solid axle in the front is an all wheel drive variant.
>Very weird sound coming through the woods.
I was surprised at how much noise it made. Way less than a similar bike with the throttle wide open, but far from silent like I always hear people say about electric cars.
>Maybe you can share the kindle version here one day. ;)
I don't think there will ever be a Kindle or EPUB version. I looked into converting it and it was way too much hassle. I have the print-ready PDF that I could share... and it's under $5 on Amazon ;-)
It's published under the Woody Guthrie copyright notice, which famously stated: "This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
>all wheel drive variant
Neat! I guess the drive shaft and gearing aren't installed yet. Very cool little cars.
>Way less than a similar bike with the throttle wide open, but far from silent
Yep, much less noisy and should make for happier neighbors.
>under $5 on Amazon ;-)
lol...
>I guess the drive shaft and gearing aren't installed yet.
I know he sent me some pics somewhere of some finished cars. If I come across them I'll post.
>I always have at least one light in my everyday carry.
That's a very smart thing to do. I think a light and a pocket knife are two very good things to always have on you.
>Writing
I use to really love writing fiction and I miss doing it sometimes. I'm afraid I do not have the mental bandwidth these days to do it well.
>Have you tried an electric yet?
I've been sitting on an electric bike build I've been wanting to do. This next year though I am going to be concentrating on modifying a car I have in the garage.
Quotemodifying a car
well?
>going to be concentrating on modifying a car I have in the garage.
Not chopping up the Datsun, I hope.
Yes the 74 Datsun Z, but it is already modified. I am keeping the 350CI (5.7L) V8, but I'm making the car manual again. Nothing too fancy, probably just a T5 out of a Camaro. I just think a small car with a big engine needs a proper manual transmission.
Ha Ha, your best hobby saved to last :) I have not messed about with cars like that since I had to. And never had a muscle car of my own, only kit cars.
sounds fun!
Excercise
I have been practising judo for 10 years now and i love it. Before corona I was also swimming and i hope to pick that up again
Wine tasing
Who doesn't like a good glass of wine?. I have become very interested in wine and try to taste as much as i can and I rarely buy the same wine twice
Skiing
The speed, g-force, fun... I wish i could do it more but unfortunately i only ski for 1 week every year.
CS:GO
I don't play that much anymore but the Counter-Strike is my game
Quote from: Torben on October 28, 2021, 06:41:10 AM
have become very interested in wine and try to taste as much as i can and I rarely buy the same wine twice
Have you looked into getting an essences/aromas kit?
For a while we were in a group with two people studying for their sommelier exam. In order to defray the rather substantial costs of tasting enough wines to really learn your regions and such, they formed a sort of club. About 15 people I think. Everyone would kick in money and then they would be able to buy some expensive bottles and taste, say, six wines from a given region.
Let's say there were six wines and three different scents - black currant, leather and cherry - if you smell the scents then taste the wines, it's way easier to pick them out. In other words, you smell leather, black currant and cherry, then you pour the six wines, then you taste them all and I could easily identify the overtones whereas without priming my sniffer, I wouldn't be able to identify them at all.
I'm not really into wine and don't drink much, but that made it really fun... I don't know whether they actually passed the sommelier exam or not.
update: like this
https://www.wired.com/story/wine-aroma-kits-aromabar-aromaster-le-nez-du-vin/