Hobbies

[PranQster]

Hobbies... hmmm... I have several which I don't spend as much time with as I'd like. I have an electric guitar, black ESP Maverick, which I never seem to find time to play. I'm much better at changing strings and setting intonation than I am at playing it. About 2 years ago I completely re-did it with high quality gold hardware (except black chrome bridge), new wiring and EMG pickups.

During the '80s I owned many different guitars, several of which I wish I had never sold... a certain black Les Paul - Custom Shop with gold hardware comes to mind .

Other things I never find enough time to do include photography, astrophotography, and working on my car.

Here are some of my amateur photos... http://jdchoate.mcn.org/images.html

[Komag]

nice pics!

[Springheel]

I used to have hobbies before TDM and children came along.

[demagogue]

Don't you mean to say that TDM & being a father are now your hobbies?

That's the positive spin you can put on it.

[PranQster]

nice pics!

 

Thank you very much Since being in Texas, I haven't taken many shots, except at the zoo and some family pictures. I miss my home and the dramatic coastal scenery... can't wait to return and be inspired to do more.

[Serpentine]

Hobbies... eh pretty much just TDM (texture work can be very relaxing) and working on some random other rather less exciting opensource projects.

 

Lately I've found myself formatting a lot of classic hard sci-fi ebooks, which either are not released as retail ebooks, or are of low quality.

 

The rest of my spare time goes to finding incredibly useless information or raging at terrible pubbies in Heroes of Newerth or following EVE current-events (logging in is way too much :effort:).

[GameDevGoro]

Wow. My hobbies and I have many fond memories together.

 

Now that I think about it carefully I realize that all of my hobbies since ever have had something to do with my rather meticulous nature.

I remember as a kid, I used to go over like cereal boxes and stuff like that, and cut out the tiny, tiiiny images on them. You know those images and logos that companies have, but are printed super tiny on like product boxes and stuff?

I used to save them in a transparent box and it was sort of like collecting stamps? But less elegant and more minuscule.

 

I used to be a nature dork, like know about insects and flowers and all that. Keep one of those wooden-frame press thingies (I forget the real term, something with 'herb'- I'm thinking "Herbarium") with like plant-life dried and kept there with some documentation. Again, really picky stuff with details.

 

But then when I was like 12 or something I picked up 3D modeling. I messed around a bunch with that and later discovered programming along with the interest to create games. You know- I thought that if there's something as picky and precise in computers as what I had done earlier it had to be programming. (I remember my brother discouraging me and saying like "If you do *one* mistake, it all ceases to function!" or something. )

 

After that I've been computer all the way. Kinda sad when I think about it.

 

Yeah and I draw... But that started so long ago I can't even remember. Every kid draws, right?

 

There's my extremely weird hobby timeline. Haha. xD

[Glyph Seeker]

Hee - nothing wrong with being interested in nature.

 

Myself - my Mum is a big gardener and spends all her free time doing that for the most part. I don't know much about keeping things alive but I know the names of lots of plants and take huge pleasure from noticing things in the wild or in peoples' gardens.

 

When I was younger we used to go visit Kew Gardens as a family. It was a bit arduous for a toddler but I have fond memories of the sense of adventure of what seemed like an endless park and woods in what seemed like the middle of London.

 

http://www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/garden-attractions-A-Z/Princess-of-Wales-Conservatory.htm

 

Probably my favourite was the PoW conservatory - which had a desert section with cacti (My favourite!) and then plunged into a steaming, humid rainforest section with a huge carnivorous plant section (My joint favourite!).

 

===

[demagogue]

I know Kew Gardens mostly because the IF game Trinity starts there, and it has about 4 or 5 puzzles in it before you get zapped into a small plot with a sundial and mushrooms.

 

When I was living in New York I'd walk around Central Park all the time. However big the city is, there are still corners of that park you can go and be on your own, especially really early in the morning or like on a snowy day.

 

My favorite memory was when the southeast pond froze over, it was snowing, no one was around but me, and there were ducks trying to waddle around on the ice, sometimes it cracking apart and they'd fall in and flap around. On another snowy day a bunch of people collected in Strawberry Fields on the 25th anniversary of John's death to play his music, and at one point Yoko came down to sing along.