Hobbies

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Good afternoon all

Just wondering what you all do when your either not sat in front of a PC (or two/three....) or got your nose in computer related book.

To start the thread here goes:-

I got a telescope (SkyWatcher 5.1" refractor) earlier this year so I enjoy astronomy. I've modified a Philips webcam so hope to connect it to a laptop and start astrophotography.

Love motor racing so I'll be up tomorrow morning at 4.30am to watch the Japanese GP. IndyCar racing is fantastic too, well done to Scotish born Dario Franchitti (sp?) for wining the Indy 500 and the 2007 Indy Championship.
V8 Supercars and BTCC tintops.

Dug a vegetable plot this year, some grew some didn't. Great to do with the kids!!!!

Computers too but you wouldn't be interested in that!

Bob

 

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When not sat at my PC, Im reading tech related text books (sad realy). Im also a mad SciFi fan.

 

Hi StuPeas

I've just bought the complete Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. Not read a novel for years!

Bob

 

I don't think Ive EVER read a sciFi novel. The only books I read are textbooks. I cant explain it, I tend to think reading fiction is a waste of my time, but I'll happily watch 2 hours of the new Battlestar Galactica. Weird

 

Well, the reason you think reading fiction is a waste of your time, is because it is....

I have to admit though, I do read some fiction. I just have very wide-ranging tastes in reading material. I'll read anything from Tex Burns, Larry McMurtrie and Louis L'Amour (Westerns), to Leon Uris, to Tom Clancy and John Le Carre, to just about any book on American history or just anything on history, to Winston Churchill, to some science fiction, to the Bible, to Shakespeare. I'll read almost anything. It's a rare book that I won't finish once I start it.

As to the one hobby I hope to get back to, that's photography. I'd love to have a good dslr(Sigma SD14) along with a few good lenses ranging from 10 mm fish eye to maybe 500mm telephoto along with a couple of good macro lenses. Photography is one place I can really lose myself. It's been 25 years since I owned a decent slr and I quite often still "see" landscapes, plants, and animals in terms of what they would look like through a camera lens.

 

I'm a Sci-Fi nut too and have read most of Asimovs books, harry Harrison and Philip K dick. Now when i'm not in a text book i'm reading the Star Wars series of books or else one of the Warhammer 40K titles.
In the rest of my spare time i'm paining WH40K minitures, playing miniture wargames with my son (Star Wars and WH40K), Computer games and watch some tv or films. I'm also into case modding and am working on my 2nd case mod.
I'm also decorating the house at the moment, having to go away on trips for work, and a number of over things so i rarley have any spare time. Then again i have so much to do at times that I dont get anything done as i dont know what to do next!

 

Arry,

I've been collecting on and off for the best part of 22 years. I started when WH40K first came out and was called Rogue Trader. Unfortunatley my painting has never really improved that much.
A few times i've stopped collecting and sold teh miniatues only to re-start a year later. Now i collect along with my son so that gives me an excuse. AT the moment i have Dark Angels, Imperial Guard, Eldar and Demon Hunters. My DA army is around 6000pts in total with 2 land raiders and 3 Heavy tanks!
I'd say my skills are fair, i can paint a prettey decent marine or eldar ina few days, but stick to basic painting for the whole army. Trust me, when you have 1500 minitures yue tend to rush painting the basic troops! And sitting crouch down bent over for 2 hours makes my back kill!!
I use the GW paints and around 5 different brushes and try to paint only in normal daylight not with the house lights on. An undercoat followed by base coat, shadowing, highlighting and then deatil work is how i tend to paint the special models and skip the shows and fine details for basic troops.
I also collect the Inquisitor models and convert them before painting. I find these size models a better palatte for my skills. Oh and i also play BloodBowl witha Skaven team!!!

 

I enjoy the gym. Just started training again last month at a gym thats right next door to where i work so its nice and handy

 

I play squash, and do a fair bit of reading (Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight, Bernard Cornwell), play Star Wars and Doctor Who (when he lets me) with my son, and also play Guild Wars. Ooh, and before I forget (she's looking over my shoulder as I type), I spend as much time as possible with my darling wife...

Not much time for many of the above at the moment though, as I try to keep on with the studies...

 

Giddy,

Which Star Wars is it you play? I play the Wizards Star Wars minitures with my son. He has around 250 figures, almost all teh Rebel Storm set. But they are hard to get round here.

 

We are still into the poseable action figure ones... I have to do all the talking (no, don't laugh, I do a very passable Princess Lea voice. Darth Vader is a bit more difficult and can result in coughing fits). That said, he is only eight (tomorrow actually... ).

He is very keen to get his hands on the Warhammer stuff but, when I went into the local Games Workshop in Lincoln city centre, they suggested that 10 or older might be a better age to start him at.

I have never heard of the Wizards SW miniatures. They sound like they could be the sort of thing my son could get into. I'll google them in a sec. Thanks for the heads up.

By the way, does anyone remember the old Hinchliffe tin soldiers? I used to have over a thousand Napoleonic war ones, and did a bit of wargaming until I was in my early teens.

From there, I moved onto Diplomacy, both as a Face to Face and PBM player. I have also played Diplomacy by email.

 

At the moment im playing halo 3 on me xbox, but i have recently started tai kwon do at my local gym
(I would add studying void atm as well for my new job since they are talking of implimenting it)

 

At the moment on my military camp (only cos i live there till i get my new house sorted) however the guy taking it does wander all around the coventry and surounding area.

Yes it is totally friendly, as long as you dont mind exercise that is. (surprising how hard it is to hold a single pose )
There is a website under construction at the moment so when its done ill post it for you, that way you can see the locations

 

I used to do Tae Kwon Do for a couple years, I found it excellent exercise and fun !

I damaged my knee in the end so had to give it up, Its very beginner friendly and its more of a sport, that adds a fun element that I haven't found in any other martial art.

 

I do Tai Chi. Currently helping to lead classes twice a week, although im looking to up it to three.

When im not doing that im either on WoW, on the 360, or reading (mostly sci-fi and other fiction).

 

Yep its a good martial art to use especially for a beginner and someone who wants to get fit

I love battlesstar too and have box sets, I even have the box set of the Origional with Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict

Used to do that too very realxing

I unfortunatley can't do any martial arts anymore do to permanent bleeding to the blood vessels in my eyes, but used to do a few various ones including the ones above Kung Fu and Ju-Jitsu.

Now I enjoy learning about technology, driving and am gonna get into swimming again as the Doc says walking and swimming are the only physical excersise I should do.

I enjoy socialising, playing Rome Total War on the PC, snooker and drinking beer and I walk my dog 2-3 miles every day.

 

Hobbies? Who has time.

Actually, with my writing schedule, it's tough to find time to do a lot else. I probably don't have a "hobby" in the traditional sense right now. I do enjoy going for walks over lunch, just to get away from the computer. Also, autumn is a wonderful time of year in Southwest Idaho and I love being out in the cold, crisp air.

This probably isn't a hobby, but I really enjoyed building my personal website and my congregation's website. There's something almost theraputic in building and maintaining websites for me. I don't know exactly what it is, but it really calms me down. I was feeling kind of "off my feed" today, so after I got home from services, I fired up the congregation's website and made a series of updates to the content. Calmed me right down.

I like bookstores and libraries. I have enough unread books in my house to make a small library of my own, so I don't buy or check out books, but I love to browse the titles and see what's out there. Books seem more "real" to me when I see them on a shelf than when I'm looking at them on Amazon.

Most of my reading is spent on technical books. When I'm writing, I have to do a great deal of research and I use print and web resources. That means I usually have a pile of books and magazines littering the floor around my chair.

I haven't read for pleasure in awhile but books that I'm currently in the middle of include "The Case for Democracy" by Natan Sharankey and "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. Years went by when I didn't read for pleasure at all but one day I decided that it would be a good thing to distract myself and take in a larger body of information.

I used to be a huge Science Fiction fan back in the 1960s to early 1990s. I also really enjoyed mysteries and some fantasy. Few people know that Issac Azimov of "I Robot" fame also wrote a series of short story mysteries collectively known as "The Black Widower Mysteries". They were quite good, didn't involve solving murders but did involve solving mysteries where the reader (if they were really sharp) could use the clues in the stories to figure out the mystery before getting to the last page.

To relax, I'll pop a DVD into my computer and watch a TV show or movie. I went through the first three seasons of "House" and found the show so interesting, I actually started watching the fourth season this past week. Last night, I watched the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies". In days gone by, I used to like to watch serious drama films and artistic efforts but anymore, I just want to be entertained and not have to think too much. I do enough thinking in the rest of my life.

I teach at my congregation which means I do a lot of Bible Study to prepare. I really enjoy doing the research. It helps me learn more about the Word of G-d and deepens my faith. I branched off from teaching and started writing theological articles for the congregation's website. I never know if anyone is going to read them until I get feedback from members of the congregation or guests who say they've read what I wrote. Usually I learn just as much by doing the research as anyone does who reads my content.

When my son David was five, he had terrible gross motor skills. A friend of mine suggested enrolling him in a martial art to help him learn more control. We found a family-friendly Tae Kwon Do dojo near where we lived and David took to it very quickly. Soon, we got the other two kids involved. David was very close to earning his black belt when we moved from California to Idaho. The kids didn't pursue Tae Kwon Do after the move which I think is too bad, but they were involved in plenty of other activites.

How's that for "hobbies"?