You pretty well know mine: I figure skate, I dig ponds, I keep a reef, I look up ancestors, I look up other things, I follow physics and archaeology and dabble in languages, I draw, I photograph, I travel, I like code, crossword, and jigsaw puzzles, particularly the electronic sort.
Among things on hold, I love camping, riding, swimming, but haven’t done it in years; I used to love fishing, but I’ve nursed too many aquarium fish by now. I’m only happy if I don’t get a bite. I like model building—we’ve got some lovely wooden ship models that have been languishing for 3 years, awaiting spare time.
Things I’d rather go to the dentist than do: go shopping, hike on bare, flat ground, go to a nightclub, a tanning salon, a spa, a manicure, or a beauty parlor.
Wish I had the time to get seriously into falconry. Sadly boarding facilities for raptors and understanding local government officals are both rather rare. Although the average raptor is at its happiest just sat in a tree or similar doing nothing, for the human looking after them, there is a lot of care and effort to be put in to it, may be someday….
I read. XDD Probably one of my biggest money—and space—sinks. Four bookshelves in my room, many double-stacked… I take after my mother here (she’s reading the new Dick Francis at the moment, since I was reading Groundties when she got it… I’m awaiting Harmonies, reread Groundties and am rereading bits of Uplink, and she’s still reading Even Money… but then, she has much more work to do at the moment than I do!) I make jewelry, knit, crochet a bit, draw (paper, tablet, pen tool in PS or AI…), sew, paint, play the piano, strum some chords in E and one chord in D major on my guitar (I lost all my fingering calluses the first few weeks of my senior year of high school, as I did homework and neglected the instrument)… I sing, make greeting cards, do machine and hand embroidery, write poetry and some fiction, although I rarely manage to finish things, *chuckles ruefully*. I play the Myst cycle of computer games (but I’m currently in search of a PC to play Revelation and End of Ages on, though, since they don’t work on a non-Classic Mac OS).
When I’m at school, I fence epée and a bit of foil and saber, and have gone to a couple competitions on the school team (rumor is that we’ll have jackets this year!), but that depends on my workload and physical health. This last winter I went sledding with friends on an unfamiliar (read evil) hill and five of us got injured—me on my right knee—so no fencing for several weeks after I returned to school. By the time I’d got well enough to fence, I had no time to go to practice, alas!
Also I’ve been taking martial arts classes for fun and exercise (the fencing series UO offers, some jeet kune do, and judo starting this fall), but I don’t really do any of that outside of the classes.
Hmm, skiing (downhill, not cross country, as I fall doen too often for comfort during the latter), biking, caveing when I’ve an opportunity (went to a lovely string of caves around Bend, Oregon this weekend, and am still sore and a bit bruised ’round the elbows and knees, having shunned long pants/sleeves in all that luv-er-ly natural AC), swimming (but not in chlorinated water, as it gives me a rash), roller-blading. I’ve tried Ice-skating a couple times, but have yet to find a boot that doesn’t let my ankles roll out and the inside boot edge scrape the eice when I gain any degree of speed. (Any advice on that, Carolyn?) 😀 I found it rather terrifying to be going along and suddenly have my feet drag and twist around beneath me, like I was fishtailing or something.
As a family we go boating (nutshell pram) and kayaking (inflatable) on our mellow stretch of the Willamette when it’s hot (but not too hot, or I cower in the household AC).
As for the conditional hobbies: I’d love to learn more metalsmithing techniques. I took a jewelry intro class: sawing, soldering, finishing, patinas; but it was über-time-consuming and I swore, “Never again at the same time as other studio classes!” I’d like the money to do more fiddling around with Arduino (hobbyist physical computing language with lots of cool gadgets to play with); again, got hooked during a class (I made a little robot that said “hi” and changed its eye-color depending on the proximity of surrounding objects). I’d like a guitar with a thin enough neck for me to hit more chords (my thumb can barely reach the low E string on a Dmaj chord—it buzzes when I try, and G and C are simply out of reach)… I oughta try an electric, with no need for a resonance chamber in the neck…
I’d like a twenty-eight-hour day… or no need for sleep!
Re figureskating boots: go to Play it Again Sports or some other such during the right season and buy some used boots—Graf, Reidell, the better Jacksons, etc, (the sort that don’t have riveted-on blades, but screws) and test for stiffness. You ought to be able to knock on the ankle and get a sound like wood. What you describe would be pretty terrifying, but ankle strength is overrated in this sport: what you need is a proper lacing. Mine pull up so tight my not-so-strong hands use a lace-hook to get a strong enough pull. And there’s an individual knack to it, (I, for instance, pull the inside row of laces slightly tighter than the outside to force my foot over): but over all, your skates should feel like that uncle that always shakes your hand at the family gatherings—somewhat short of crushing your hand. A real, real, firm handshake is the right tightness. And make sure you’re laced clear to the top. That’s where your steering comes from. You tip your foot to the inside and you turn, you tip your foot to the outside and you turn. Unlike hockey skates, you stand bolt upright on your blades (well, your knees are bent) and you keep your chest and your butt aligned over them, with an arch where your shoulderblades meet your back: ie, you don’t want 20-30 pounds of you hanging off outside your center of gravity. Main thing—good tight lacing on the boots, and they shouldn’t hurt. DON’T go by your street-shoe size. They’re completely off. But my skating boots are more comfortable than my street shoes, no kidding.
Thanks! I’ll give it another go 😀
Apf, I’ve known someone who managed to fulfil that dream. I’ve watched a number of flight displays – they’re very fascinating animals.
Urk! :O Another long post! It’s hard to judge length in a small scrolling window!
Leaving out the genealogy and the figure skating, and adding beadwork and metalwork (mostly jewelry-scaled), my list is remarkably similar to yours. Although I am currently doctoring my toenails, twice a day for months (!) to try to get rid of a years-long fungal infection. If it works, I actually want to get my toenails painted, just once! It is working, I think. Another couple of months …
You mentioned the reef but not the cats. I take it they are not a hobby but family — or overlords? There are three former ferals that share my house. Two generally cuddly siblings adopted as tiny weanlings, and one that I brought in as a pregnant mama. Found homes for all 5 kittens, but mama is still not sure about this house-cat thing, though she knows well where the food is to be found. If you can once sneak up on her and start sritching behind the ears, she is mesmerized and will sit in your lap for a long time. But normally she dodges away before you can touch her.
Also cooking. I like to cook, only I live alone and there is only so much cookery in which one can indulge, with only one eater.
Definitely family. Miss Cuisinart, aka Ysabel; Peaches, Queen of the Universe; She Who Must Be Obeyed; and Her Furry Grace—is my furry shadow.
I sing, read, hike a bit, and do a little bit of gardening. At some point I think it would be interesting to get into bee-keeping. And I may try lure-coursing with my next dog. Trink would do it… I swear that she would run until she collapsed if you put her in front of a lure… but she’s not physically up to it. Too old, and looking like she’s starting to get arthritis. Lure coursing is definitely a sport for young healthy dogs. Or I might try agility. The fear I have with lure coursing is that I have the cats, and I don’t want a high prey-drive dog. Although I am learning that the two are not as strongly linked as I would have thought. Trink will run her heart out for a plastic bag on a string, but shows no interest in the cats, and only a mild interest in squirrels and rabbits.
I’m with you, Abigail, on the cooking thing. I push for pot lucks at work, so that I can cook things that I want without having huge amounts of left overs. And I freeze things. But I love to bake (most of which also goes to work), and I have plans to whip up a big batch of baked beans and see if they actually do freeze well. And I’ve made a passel of jams (nectarine, spiced nectarine, amaretto peach, and grape (which never really jelled… next time I am going to add lemon juice and see what happens)), most of which are flagged as Christmas presents.
Genealogy, choral singing (my voice is shot now but still good enough for a seniors church choir), early, early music (think Byrd, Palestrina), water aerobics, walking (before my feet went numb), reading and reading, and jig-saw puzzles, and stamp collecting (used and used on cover), computers, playing with nifty new software, ladies-who-lunch, the red hat society.
I like digital painting and fiction writing and cuteness. I most especially love the making of cute food: fantastically cute cookies, cakes and bento box lunches. Then there’s cute handmade softies (stuffed toys).
What I’m intending to pursue in the near future: Fiber optics and uses thereof, whether it be in clothing (wearable electronics) or home uses with an illuminator, like star ceilings. Sparkly sparkle.
After several attempts to log on, I think I’ve finally managed it and can now de-lurk. *waves* I shall try not to be too much of a spaz.
This site is amazing.
Hobbies –I like to make my own clothes, essential oils, and soaps. I enjoy sketching, though I have no talent for it, and I have an on-again/off-again love for aerobic belly dancing, currently hampered by very small living space. I think my major comfort hobby would definitely be cooking, though: I love to make up new recipes (or mangle existing ones) and foist them on unsuspecting family and friends. I find it relaxing.
Welcome in!
Oh, I’m an experimental cook, myself. I rarely remember the recipes I create—I’ll cook them for a while and then forget them. So I try to write them down. But I enjoy throwing ingredients together, and sometimes I do a good one.
That was quite the list Emilyrln, I just heard about a turkish guitar that is smaller than a regular acoutic guitar that has a smaller neck and 6 strings. Its a bit more like a bajo and called a Cumbus.
ETA: Oh dear. This avatar isn’t what I thought it would be. Apologies to anyone wondering why I’m glowering out at the world. This must be a setting on my own blog, definitely in need of fixing.
Thank you for the welcome! 🙂
RE: writing the recipes down, I am trying to remember to do that myself. I always end up thinking I’ll remember the measurements correctly, and the next time around my zucchini bread is a Nerf football, minus the aerodynamics.
For me my biggest hobby is trying to write a novel. It’s still a hobby until I actually finish it and sell it, if that happens it might turn into a second career, but one never knows.
I also enjoy goofing around on my computer, either surfing, facebooking, playing a game like EVE or WoW or dabbling with photoshop making digital art or trying to make a web page.
I love to read, especially Sci Fi. I also enjoy reading books about cosmology.
I dabbled with miniature painting with my eldest son, but I don’t have the patience to do a lot at one time.
I have an acoustic guitar that I want to learn to play, and a friend gave me his old electric guitar as well, for now its Guitar Hero. =)
I like to golf but don’t seem to find the time to do it very often.
I love to watch Baseball and Football, I also like fantasy sports. Right now the craze at work it Ultimate Frisbee, but it is creating alot of minor injuries. I have been running regularly and used to enjoy that alot, hoping to get to a point where I enjoy it again. =)
I would really love to take some gourmet cooking classes. I would also love to learn how to really paint. I would love to learn Java and php. I would love to be able to craft stuff like stormtrooper armor. I bought a book on how to do it, but building the proper kiln looks to be a real pain. Same with leatherworking. Ever notice nobody sells really cool large belts?
I am really looking forward to retirement, so I can have the time to indulge in these other pursuits. It’s still 5 to 15 years away depending on several things, like a winning lottery ticket…
My number one hobby, thanks to a mother with great foresight, is reading. She taught me when I was 3 years old. I like crossword puzzles (in ink), I dabble with the computer, but it’s mainly a tool for me, not a game platform. I live alone as well, so cooking for one is a pain and I rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to cook for anyone else. The last time I got to do that was a couple of months ago for my parents. I study kendo (Japanese fencing), would like to start iaido, but the closest dojo is 100 miles away, and anyway, until my knees heal both kendo and iaido are out, I make beers, I kayak with a 16 foot kayak, I keep bees and have for the past 8 years, ride a bicycle occasionally, would like to get at least one of my two motorcycles running so I can ride them, I do try to keep in shape by doing Pilates 3X week, and range of motion in the pool. Swimming was great until I blew my knees, so the flutter kick hurts and I haven’t figured out how to do any other kick. I play around with power tools, trying my hand at very rough carpentry, I do work around the farm of a minor repair nature. I like to target-shoot and would like to compete at the National Championships someday in the John C. Garand matches and the NRA High-Power matches. I’m the secretary for my shooting club, and that keeps me occupied for a while.
With all of the work I have as sole staff for two furry denizens, it’s a wonder I get a chance to do anything I want to do.
before moving to atlanta, was riding regularly at a great local barn and will go back to that after my daughter is done with college and OUT of my checkbook, reading – we have 6 book cases downstairs, of which 4 are overflowing. before moving south 18 yrs ago, i used to ski as well. before becoming a full time glass artist, i started many cross stitch projects which are now languishing in the back of the guest bedroom closet. now i’m hooked on helping with the family geneology. following baseball and nascar. as for cooking, i’d rather go down to the studio and cook glass than muck about in the kitchen and cook dinner. am encouragin hubby to take that over more often, it’s slowly working ;)) also used to fly fish when living in new england. loved being out in the middle of a stream with no one around trying to finnesse some delicious trout onto my hook – sorry ms. cherryh, i LOVE to eat trout, especially when i’ve caught it.
Currently I am doing a lot of research on the Anasazi Indians. Ostentatiously, it’s for a novel I am writing. But, well see how that turns out. I also love creating artificial languages, like the Hani, Stsho and Kif as well as Ragi (that I am still writing the sketch for).
My list seems to have gotten shorter over the years rather than longer. Reading has always been #1 and writing #2. Over the years other hobbies have come and gone. Thanks to my addiction to Top Chef I have started cooking a bit fancier than I used to (enjoying it a lot). I taught myself to make hand applique quilts when my 15 year old was a year old and have been enjoying that ever since – no sewing machines, I like to sew in front of the TV. I’m an avid film and tv fan of many genres (same as my reading material). For many, many years I was heavily involved as a Girl Scout volunteer but my youngest daughter decided not to continue last year and I gave it up as well to focus on other things. It really left a big empty place but a year later I’m finding myself getting involved with volunteering for her high school. I got the Choir and Drama programs’ web site up and running and am serving as their webmaster this year. It is a lot of fun – I’m enjoying it SO much I know it is time I step back from being a full-time stay at home parent and think about rejoining the working moms.
Hey, I always say, “You kill it, you eat it,” and I’ve actually lived that close to the food chain, cleaning and eating the catch. But the sad fact is, I’m a marine carnivore—won’t eat freshwater fish, unless you count salmon, which really aren’t. Or are sorta. I used to teach fishing at girl’s camp—including getting a hook out of a 10 year old with a feckless friend—and going to get the baited bait traps after a three day flood. You do not readily conceive the smell of catfish that have been demised in the trap for 3 days…
Nope, if I’m hungry, fish are in danger. No question. But I’d rather it came wrapped in plastic wrap.
I can play a few instruments, but haven’t in a long while. I watch a lot of soccer – GO SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC! Open Cup champions 09! *cough* I should amend that to watching a TON of soccer =)
So many people with so many fascinating interests!
I’m lucky in that I am expected to read for my job as a librarian 😀 O horrors! I get first dibs on anything new that comes in I feel like appropriating, and I actually get to choose the new children’s books. Although with recent budget cuts, that may be a vanishing treat. My bachelor’s was in fine art, so I can make my own crafts for storytime. I’d love to set up a proper studio, but as has been observed earlier, kilns are a pain to properly do, and my jewelrysmithing is of a very minor order, mainly fabrication.
Some of you may have guessed my other big odd hobby from my handle — I collect meteorites. Right now I have over 300 specimens from as many finds and falls around the world. I concentrate mainly on a subset called pallasites, which hail from the core boundary where metal and olivine crystals mix, but love all of these bits of other worlds. Most of my pallasite specimens look like stained glass windows.
We have a big group of wargamers, pen-and-paper, miniatures, and computer. The herd meets every Saturday, and has for the last 12 years, for various games, both packaged and homegrown. Currently in the hopper is an RPG set in the Napoleonic War on board HMS Success, and an old school Star Trek RPG.
I am in charge of household non-computer repairs, so if the cars or plumbing needs to be fixed, it’s my kuleana. Fortunately, my dad made sure I know which end of a wrench or hammer to use, and I am good at reading instructions either with equipment or online as needed. I’ve ripped out and replaced walls, run wiring, replaced plumbing, laid flooring, and installed lights and fans.
I like to cook (I like to eat too!) and for the last several years have made a Christmas gingerbread house for the libraries I have worked at. I also ended up being the repository for all the family recipes. Aunt Anneliese’s herring salad? Grandma’s dark chocolate and hazelnut bread? That would be me.
Every once in a while I get a sewing bug and make a quilt, or dress, or something else we need around the house like curtains or slipcovers or stuff.
I am capable of gardening and do occasionally, but until the rainy season arrives, my ‘garden’ is mostly confined to a table of bonsai.
Neat! Meteorites! I’ve got a slice of meteorite as a necklace, but hearing that some are radioactive, I’ve been a bit worried about wearing it.
Any observations?
There’s a lot of misconceptions around about meteorites, like they are invariably glowing hot when they hit the ground. Although you rarely get a still-hot meteorite, mostly they are cold. Think about it: they’ve been floating in a cosmic deep freeze for millions of years, then have the equivalent of a blowtorch played over their surface for a couple of minutes. You’re fighting all that ‘soak time’ in the near-absolute-zero of deep space, and meteorites don’t conduct heat all that well. Many of them are cold to the touch if someone picks them up right after they fall, some even develop a brief coat of frost!
ANYWAY (sorry about dry academic lecture there!) meteorites aren’t any more radioactive, really, than Earth rocks, and many terrestrial rocks (like granite) have more native radioactivity. They mostly only have infinitesimal traces of the rare isotopes and minerals from the solar system’s formation, which makes them a great snapshot of the early solar system.
If someone REALLY wants to have a lecture on meteorites, we can take it off-thread elsewhere 😀
I forgot to mention I have, beyond a passion, a NEED for water: when I was a kid on fishing trips, they’d find me in the boathouse, sitting in somebody’s boat, just because I loved the feel of it, and talking to the old codgers…I loved that. And the saddest thing about leaving Oklahoma was leaving the lake and my boat. Lord, I love the water. Not to swim in: to sail on.
I also play the flute tolerably well, or did: I was first-chair in a 60-person marching band, and the 12-string not so well, but I enjoy it. I write music: oddly enough I don’t write lyric; but I’ve set a lot of lyric to music, back in my filking career.