Hobbies

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

My favorite hobby, bar none, is computer gaming. Been doing it for at least 25 years. I build my PCs from scratch.

Used to play pen-and-paper and live-action RPGs, back in the day. I enjoy reading sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and Christian fiction.

As you might guess, I enjoy the challenge of IT certification, and I enjoy passing along information in my writing. I'm about to start my second book, with the help of a couple of others (you know who you are).

I enjoy scuba diving, though I haven't gotten to do much since my oldest son was born. I'm one swim test away from being a PADI Divemaster - I'm currently a PADI Rescue Diver.

I used to teach Sunday School until very recently, but I'm still quite active in the church in other ways. I sing in the church choir, which is probably my favorite way of serving the Lord. I've gotten to sing the US National Anthem at two major league baseball games, back when I was in the Army. I would love to learn to play the piano... I can play by ear, but not very well.

My son is currently in a "Tiger Cubs" TaeKwonDo class. I'm considering joining, since it's only $20/mo extra for me to join.

It's not really a hobby... but I *really* love being a dad. My sons are the shining jewels in my life. They are the best kids a dad could ask for.

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

You need to get out in the sun more, Michael.

jk

 

Smoking, Beer, Football

Simple as that.

 

LOL, another ex martial artist here, 6-7 very intense years of wingtsun kug fu, however had to give up a few years ago because my knees are screwed, I now have orthotic inserts that were specially designed for me and since giving up my manual job I have not yet suffered from any knee pain so another reason for me to smile

I love music, electronic music mostly and try to make some on my home setup, not fired it up for a few months due to all this finding a job in IT malarky but hope to get back on the musical horse soon. I have recently started going down the gym again but cannot run yet because of my crap knees, Cycling is ok and in an hour or so myself and my GF will go for a ride and probably get soaked.

I like to read about computing in genral but cannot do this close to bedtime or I dream of zeros and Ones and wake up confused and grumpy, for this reason I always have a good fiction book on the go, I love books by Douglas Coupland, Alexis Sayle, and have just yesterday finished Gorge Orwell's 'coming up for Air' another fan of comedy here, love the IT crowd, mock of the week, phoenix nights and that kind of thing.

On top of all this I have to find time to slowly finish our house/garden and cook the occasional meal.

I wish I had more time

 

And buy a new shirt

 

If I did, I'd go up in a puff of smoke. I keep the sunscreen companies in business.

 

I was on vacation in Florida... it's about the only time I can get away with wearing it.

 

I guess I'm one of the few here that doesn't read for pleasure
after the amount of reading i do for work related stuff I just cant unwind with a book in my hand, I do however watch a lot of movies and TV on DVD (over $10000 worth of DVDs now, I could start a blockbuster)

I'm also a keen scuba diver and photographer, currently do more photography than diving as I not driving is a bit of a hassle when your not part of a club currently a Divemaster though and looking to further develop my technical diving skills with some advanced Trimix qualifications (currently Adv Nitrox and Deep air qualified)

I'd like to move more into underwater photography but a case for my D200 runs at almost twice the price of the camera (about £1700) before strobes!

to be honest recently I've been pretty hectic at work and my hobbies have narrowed down the the movies and DVD watching when I have the time, I'm also learning to drive which is fun, should help me get some of my other hobbies back off the ground too

 

My hobbies at the moment are limited - one by the amount of studying I want to do and two the amount of stuff I'm doing with my girlfriend (see volunteering below).

Photography - only got into it about 3/4 years ago with a point and shoot camera, so after my A+ this year I went a bought a DSLR (Nikon D80 for those who are interested) and have been having a great time experimenting and shooting. Just join a 10 week adult education course in intermediate digital photography which is great - spent 3 hours working around town taking photos of the most random things...... damn enjoyed it though.

Learning - every since I was small I've learnt. Nothing can stop me - I'm dreading the day when I retire and will have nothing more to learn about (I think I'll go crazy with boredom!) . I don't read to relax. I very rarely (if ever) read anything fiction and have always got my head in a text book (70-271, photography, physics, mathematics, general IT/project management).

Volunteering - met my girlfriend doing this while at uni. Have spent hours hitch-hiking from Bath to Paris (and organising the event), have organised and participated in a sleep-out in Bath (to mimic what its like the homeless there) and to raise money for the local homeless/help get back on feet shop - Julian House. Spent 5 months volunteering to organise and event manage my uni's Freshers Week in 2004, and volunteered for a year after my degree and helped raised £115k for local charities. I've been a volunteer team leader at London's Walk the Walk for Breast CancerLinky and have actuall walked the Edinburgh Moonwalk in 2005. I'm hopefully going to become a trustee of a local mental health charity..... but thats in the pipeline....

Girlfriend - apart from the obvious with your loved ones, she's a Brownie and Guide leader Linky and I take part in the behind-the-scenes organising/doing-as-I'm-told assistance. Quite a few hours a week is spent doing that

I also try to go for a 20 min run each night...... try - sometimes not as successful as I wish.

Also I work in IT - now thats definitely a hobby for me

 

Where are the fangs?

 

Apologies for the intentional double post (it may not be by the time I've finished waffling ), I just had to get that last comment in

When I'm not thinking about my finances my main hobby is geocaching

I also a fan of Rugby League and Union, more of a union fan nowadays, I don't have a favourite team, so when I watch a game on the TV it's always as a neutral, makes the game more enjoyable that way.

I was a great F1 fan up until a couple of years ago, simply because it got boring when Michael Shumacher was winning everything. Lewis Hamilton recently re-kindled my interest in the sport.

I love sci-fi/fantasy. I am not ashamed to admit that my favourite shows were "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer", "Angel" and "Charmed".

I also love ficitional cop shows, the US ones are the best, like "Law and Order" and "The Shield" and most recently "Shark", I love court room dramas as well.

Another favourite of mine is "House", Hugh Laurie is absolutely brilliant in it.

Looking forward to the remake of "The Bionic Woman"

I have also started looking into facets of the pagan religion, hence my current avatar and looking into meditation as a way of "letting go"

Also plaguing you guys with my financial worries

 

Actually, I like Michael's shirt. During the summer, I almost exclusively wear outrageous Hawaiian shirts.

Photography. I almost forgot. I was very much into photography (me and my favorite Nikon) back in the 1970s-80s. After I got married, and especially after I had children, I just couldn't find the time for it. It was a sad day for me when I read that Kodak no longer made black-and-white print paper.

 

It's true!

 

You do know it's possible to take black & white photos with some of the new dslrs don't you? The new Sigma that has me fired up about photography again is being used in that area quite successfully. I've seen some great b&w results that people have posted.

 

There's a particular art and effect you get with b&w photography that you can't achieve with color. Ansel Adams used it very well in his work. I like the mood you can create in b&w. There's a certain character you can reveal in your subject that would be lost in a color photo:

 

when i was about 12 i had a tyranid and a chaos army, then it spent years in my parents garage until last year when i gave it all away to a guy on another computer forum as i thought he'd get more use out of them than i would.

my other hobbies include sunday league football......although i've been out since pre-season training because i screwed up my right knee. i damaged the blood vessel down the inside of the knee (had an 8" bruise ), tore my meniscus cartilage and strained pretty much all 4 ligaments making a tackle. been out for 10 weeks and ive only just started light training again i also like mountaining biking and hiking when i get the time and free from injury to relax i watch alot of films and tv series

grim

 

I'm a rock climber and of course I have my dogs.

 

I definitely understand why you like it. That's why I pointed out that you can do this with the modern dslrs and their processing software.

I really like photography. It's the one "art" that I'm fairly good at. I can't draw or paint anything other than stick figures, but my photography skills got noticed right away in local camera shops back in the 70's. I had pictures on the walls in several of them.

I have to say I really miss those old mom-and-pop camera shops. They've been replaced by the big retailers who have no interest in anything other than selling you what makes them the most money. They also hire the cheapest sales people they can get who have no photography skills whatsoever so asking for advice from them is like asking to be fleeced.

 

Mainly I drink.

Of course, I do other things as well:

I support Charlton Athletic (which is pretty close to football, but not quite)

I watch most sports (football, rugby and cricket) but - and this may surprise you - I have an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of most US sports (american football, baseball and basketball, but especially hockey - I love it. My ideal job outside of IT would be something in hockey, unfortunately, it is about as 'niche' a sport as its possible to get in the UK, so not much chance of that!

Used to play a LOT of sport when i was younger - football (I was a striker), hockey (left wing), american football (strong safety), cricket (middle order batsman, offspinner) and badminton, but as I'm fat and old now I just can't be bothered with it any more - plus I've been ill for a couple of years now with something that makes any exercise completely knock me out for three days afterwards

I read a LOT - everything from sci-fi to fantasy to science to politics. To give you an idea of the breadth of what i read, here's the last five books (not counting tech books!) I have read:

Terry Pratchett - Thud
Joanna Blythman - Shopped
Murray Gellman - The Quark and the Jaguar
Michael Connelly - The Concrete Blonde
Steve Lowe & Alan MacArthur - Is it just me or is Everything shite?

I have two cats - which I absolutely adore. If I couldn't work in IT or hockey, I would run a cattery. In fact, that's what i plan to do when I retire.

But, mainly, I drink.