So, off off topic here. What are some things you guys/gals do besides work? What are your topics of interest, hobbies, unusual lifestyle choices?
Watched the local rugby team get beat by their nearest rival today, and had a few pints for my troubles of watching it
Right now, it's gutting and repairing an old fiberglass sailboat.
http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=209
I've already bought & heavily modified an aluminum trailer for it which allows it to be launched/pulled from my shallow water, sandy ramp in the back yard.
Right now, riding my motorcycle.
Over the summer just past ... grandkids.
Big focus in the next few months ... designing a house.
Wading a bit deeper into photography.
Sticking my toes into music theory/production.
Travel. Coastal NC, Upstate NY, Austin, Vegas, Breckenridge, Boulder, Denver, Grand Canyon NP, Zion NP, and Arches NP in the past 12 weeks.
Listening to Tim Ferriss podcast, and other podcast episodes with focus on the latest nutritional science and metabolic therapies.
Planting trees.... ;D
https://www.nationalforests.org/
I organize PGP key signing parties.
>PGP
I'm laughing so hard, I'm having trouble typing.
;Dditto ;D
somehow not a joke I can share outside of here.
Lately, volleyball and work with some lake trips on the jet boat. Home theater - tv and movies on the 8' screen with HD surround audio plus a bit of gaming when I have a few minutes.
Looking forward to getting back on the dirt bike asap and doing more street riding as well.
About a month into a new supplement system that has boosted my energy x3 if not more. I can now work all day, and play competitive ball for 2-3 hours, 4x/week. Haven't been like this since my 20s.
Quote from: Brad on September 18, 2016, 01:40:22 AM
Right now, riding my motorcycle.
Sweet, what you riding?
Drastic: just a small 700cc Honda. A CTX700.
http://powersports.honda.com/2016/ctx700.aspx
Nice and maneuverable, I like roaming the twisty country roads with it.
"new supplement system"
MORE info please ;D
I hope AMY can keep up with you...
Quote from: Brad on September 19, 2016, 01:19:48 PM
Drastic: just a small 700cc Honda. A CTX700.
http://powersports.honda.com/2016/ctx700.aspx
Nice and maneuverable, I like roaming the twisty country roads with it.
Cool bike! Did you get the new dual clutch auto? My BIL has the new Africa Twin.
Quote from: Mackin USA on September 19, 2016, 01:39:35 PM
"new supplement system"
MORE info please ;D
I hope AMY can keep up with you...
She's on it too, so we are both crankin' it out together.
Let me pm you an aff link. If you buy and don't like it, I'll buy it from you as I use it daily. Stuff has changed my life.
Brought a season this year ticket for Oxford United, watching way too many TV series (Stranger Things - WOW) + Movies and going bug hunting with the kids in the vast countryside I reside in :)
Apart from that, it's work in between. One day, world domination will be mine!
3 times the energy... please share :)
Ok, riding 2 wheels is all good. not seen that Honda before, looks lovely. I agree, twisties are such fun :) Like turning on skis!
Riding my bike; the Ducati, the Scott Mtn and the road bike. 6000 miles on the motor this last 12 months. I should be doing more.
From the other thread... Tennis. Really enjoying getting back into it.
Quote from: bill on September 19, 2016, 12:46:52 AM
I organize PGP key signing parties.
Bill wins.
I feel like I'm going through a period where I'm interested in more things but passionate about fewer. For example, I had two great days of rock climbing this weekend. Just absolutely super fun with great company. But 20 years ago climbing was more of an obsession.
Lately I'm focused on reading about climate disruption and especially what we can actually do. I believe that we have a very short window (5-10 years) where we can still act and pass on a liveable planet to children born today. Pretty soon, it will be too late to turn the ship to avoid the rapidly melting iceberg. So I'm trying to focus on how to help get two messages out:
- the situation is dire and urgent
- the situation is not hopeless
I do know that framing it as I have above (dire warnings) is not the way. I just don't know yet what the right way is. I do really like what these "kids" are doing. http://www.yecaction.org/
Otherwise... my "fallback" hobbies/interests include - climbing, running, skiing, biking, hiking, wildflower hunting, paleography, getting my house paid off, reading books, articles and Th3 Core, and various things related to the interwebs.
Unusual life choices? That's a strange one because your social set defines normal and my choices are very mainstream among my peers. But I suppose the decision to more or less toss away our Phd degrees in history (me) and molecular and cell biology (wife) and eek out a living in Yosemite is probably not a usual path in the broader society. But a surprising number of people have done the same. Just in my little corner of the building I work in, out of 18 people, we count three doctorates (history, education and economics) who are all doing jobs unrelated to degrees after making the choice to move here.
Golf - Used to play once or twice a week. Then a wife, kids, and a real job happened. Down to about once a month at most now. But I still love getting out on the course.
Football - Pretty much if there is a game on I enjoy watching. Don't get to watch them all but I watch at least 3 or 4 games a weekend, both college and NFL. Seattle Seahawks are my favorite team by far. I actually sprained my ankle watching the game yesterday jumping around after a big play.
Cooking - Particularly meat. I love cooking steaks, smoking pretty much anything, testing new recipes, improving other recipes, and so on. I have a site where I talk about meat at http://completecarnivore.com and when live doesn't get in the way I post there.
Sports in general - I love playing pretty much anything but rarely get the opportunity any more. Basketball and volleyball are two of my favorites to play but I enjoy pretty much everything at some level.
>Africa Twin
Now I'm jealous. Your BIL is so lucky to have that.
I do have the automatic duel clutch transmission, and I won't go back. Honda is really on to something there. I'm hoping they will bring out a larger cruiser with DCT. If not then I'll look at the VFR1200X (aka Crosstourer in UK) or maybe the Africa Twin.
Rupert: Ducati? You can't leave us hanging, please elaborate on the Ducati!
Brad, it replaced my Fazer 1000 I had for 8 years.... which I loved the most, until I got this baby:
http://www.ducati.com/bikes/multistrada/index.do
Now I love this monster more :) I have to work the gears harder, but its worth it. She is 2013, and I have a givi topbox, that ruins the lines, but hey, thats behind me.
I had to go to the post office last week with an urgent parcel (3 miles). I came back the 20 mile route. She made me do it I could not help myself. So good to hear you love 2 wheels too!
Bonsai
Getting into training again and hopefully will dust the golf clubs as well in the spring. Been fishing quite a bit this year as well, however the Alaska salmon trip kind of took fun out of my local fishing.
Otherwise spending time with the kids and enjoying the summer.
>"new supplement system"
Saw a post from Amy about it. Do they ship innnernationally?
>Do they ship innnernationally?
Just looked up, also ships to:
Canada
UK
Australia
New Zealand
no vikingland unfortunately.
You are all making me feel that I need to work some more on work/life balance.
I love being on the water. That is my exercise, reflection time and sanity check. Despite great weather for once, it hasn't happened much at all this year thanks to long hours and being too knackered after work. I've done pretty well at maintaining family time though, which it top of the pile for me.
One of my goals for next year is to reclaim some of the hours the business owes me.
I'm NOW into a TV series on Netfix
http://movies.netflixable.com/Netflix-USA/502591/very-british-problems-season-2
VERY FUNNY & TRUE, I think
>- the situation is dire and urgent
>- the situation is not hopeless
Are you familiar with the idea of ocean seeding?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization
The earth may need some liposuction.
Rupert: That Ducati is fantastic. You folks in the UK get all the cool bikes.
Quote from: littleman on September 20, 2016, 06:51:26 PM
Are you familiar with the idea of ocean seeding?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization
I am, but I worry that most cases where we introduce things in order to solve problems end up causing other problems often worse than the original problem. That solution brings to mind one of my favorite sayings: "If you're going to tamper with nature, remember to keep all the parts."
That said, solutions will be manifold, but like solving the federal debt problem, we won't do it until everyone accepts that a workable solution is going to involve things they don't like (nuclear power, higher taxes, windmills in your backyard, etc, etc). I think it will involve dozens of 2% solutions rather than a magic bullet.
Right now I don't think the primary challenge is technological so much as social. That is, we can solve it with current tech if we had the will. So my current "interest" is thinking about how we build the social will before it's too late.
This should probably be its own thread. I find the discussion on climate change incredibly frustrating.
375 National Academy of Sciences members sign an open letter expressing frustration at political inaction on climate change (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/sep/21/375-top-scientists-warn-of-real-serious-immediate-climate-threat)
>manifold, social
Yeah, I think you are right. From what I've read though it seems like even if we brought greenhouse gas emissions down to 19th century levels we would still need to pull existing excess carbon out of the atmosphere to stop major damage. Seeding may be risky, I think it should be tested and studied, but it seems like it has potential to be a major tool if done right.
On a personal note, I'd love to have an electric person mover, but I just do not have the budget right now. I have an electric bicycle that is a lot of fun, I'd like to convert it to 1000w 48v and put some saddlebags on the thing to use more as a grocery getter.
Quote from: rcjordan on September 17, 2016, 08:56:57 PM
Right now, it's gutting and repairing an old fiberglass sailboat.
http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=209
That's cool RC, are you doing it for profit or pleasure? You going to sail it when you are done?
We like to sail but I'm also a boat hoarder, hhh, My son-in-law said he counted 12 boats on my property, but I think he missed the ones across the street. Some are minor projects, some major.
We like multihulls. Louise likes them because they don't heel. I like 'em cause they are fast. The one I'm working on is a monohull, but a special design for shallow water; shoal keel.
<added>
> fast
Relative to monohulls, but still slow relative to powerboats.
Anything that floats will do really, yeah?
We've only been a few times this year, just busy. Hoping to go back Saturday. I could go well into Oct but if it drops below 80 Amy is not game.
>only been a few times this year, just busy
Same. And we've had back-to-back tropical depressions which have really screwed this month. We used to sail until mid-Nov, but now we sorta-kinda snowbird through the winter, so we won't be around enough to get it overboard. Maybe next April.
Sounds to me like to many toys, not enough time.
RC, that is a serious number of hulls. Do you ever count the CCs of engine you own? You can include lawn mowers and none runners. When you collect toys it can add up. Perhaps that a new thread too.
QuoteAnything that floats will do really, yeah?
I think this thread should be "What Floats your boat ? :)
Also, Anything on 2 wheels will do really.
>many toys, not enough time
Absolutely. You can fool yourself for a loooong time but once you cross your mid-60s.....
>CCs
Engines are my downfall, particularly small engines. The floats & jets on modern, full-efficient small engine carbs are wildly finicky and prone to failing during storage. I'm having trouble with long-term storage even if I use non-ethanol gasoline, fuel additive (I use Sea Foam), and empty the fuel lines. OTOH, some engines seem to *always* start, no matter how much I abuse them. When I find one of those, I keep it --fuel efficiency be damned.
>> pull existing excess carbon out of the atmosphere
Plant some trees. Then plant some more trees. Include some varieties that produce fruit or nuts we can eat.
Be inspired by Johnny Appleseed.
>> I'm also a boat hoarder
My dad would have liked you!
Quote from: buckworks on September 27, 2016, 02:58:20 PM
Plant some trees.
Deforestation is part of the problem, but we're going to need a concerted effort on many different fronts. But as littleman says, this probably should be it's own thread. Didn't want to divert this thread, but this is what's on my mind more than anything these days.
>What Floats your boat ?
>Also, Anything on 2 wheels will do really.
Absolutely warms my heart the watercraft and bikes up in here. (tear)
My dad has noted my growing number of ICE toys in the garage more than once.