What Other Hobbies Do You Have Outside of Gaming?

[pacpix]

Baseball Cards:
When I was younger I used to just buy stacks of random baseball cards and collected them.  The problem is I only really care about the Seattle Mariners (Too many games in a season to watch another team, Mets would be second favorite) so I was just getting a bunch of stuff I did not want.  Recently I decided to collect again, but only Mariners cards this time and I am slowly working on a complete set.  I almost have the 1970s finished.  When I started buying only what I wanted I enjoyed it a lot more, this is what I am starting to do with my game collection also.   

CDs:
I have almost completed my Weird Al CD collection.  I am just missing the one out of print compilation and the 3.0 re-release of the Essential Weird Al.  Recently I have been listening to a lot of metal and have been building up a pretty nice collection.  I really like Death/Doom, Death/Thrash, Doom, Thrash, and Classic.  I also like some alternative stuff like Modest Mouse and early Coldplay.

That's about it.

[patrickmeansly]

I like sports.  I love NFL and the NHL.  Oakland Raiders fan and L.A. Kings hockey fan!!  Kings to the stanley cup!!  And music!  I love listening to actual vinyl albums and cd's.  Anything from the 60's to today

[patrickmeansly]

I'm really into Kawasaki Ninjas. It was the first vehicle I purchased. And, in fact, I've never owned a car. I love tinkering around on them Sunday mornings. It's my version of church, I guess.

I read and collect comics. I've pretty much gone trade paperback on everything, except X-men. X-men I buy in floppy form because I have well over a thousand of them and have found some reader copies of really early issues at good prices. That collection is a nostalgia machine. I also keep an old collection of the Eastman and Laird Ninja Turtles from when I was a kid and looking at slowly completing all of the holes in that. This is not a very active hobby. I maintain a pull list and will just read whatever is interesting or fill in missing issues with very well priced comics.

I play guitar. I have a 1984 American Fender Strat that was a pawn shop find. I then frankensteined it to put a Jeff Beck hum bucker in the bridge position. I play a lot of Punk, alt rock from the 90s, and Metal from the 80s. I also own a decent acoustic and a entry level classical guitar that I love to mess around with I mainly play video game themes on the classical. I guy named kabuki bear puts out some great transcriptions.

I'm a math and physics nerd.

sin2beta, your freaking awsome!!  your my favorite member on here so far

[brunauss]

After seeing this as a repeat thread, I had to sit back and think about this one a bit more. All but one of my hobbies have never lasted very long, because my interest in things is just massive. Over the years I have done a lot for hobbies and also found them to be determined by my income level at the time. Local resources played a big part, natural or retail. My most recent hobbies have been helping my mate out with collecting movies and music, as well as totally throwing my self into researching my own family's distant past. Not two or three centuries distant. Two or three thousand years distant. It gets weird. My other hobby has been building stuff. I don't think small either and do it without instructions or blueprints. All from my head. In fact here is my most recent accomplishment in that department:

[patrickmeansly]

After seeing this as a repeat thread, I had to sit back and think about this one a bit more. All but one of my hobbies have never lasted very long, because my interest in things is just massive. Over the years I have done a lot for hobbies and also found them to be determined by my income level at the time. Local resources played a big part, natural or retail. My most recent hobbies have been helping my mate out with collecting movies and music, as well as totally throwing my self into researching my own family's distant past. Not two or three centuries distant. Two or three thousand years distant. It gets weird. My other hobby has been building stuff. I don't think small either and do it without instructions or blueprints. All from my head. In fact here is my most recent accomplishment in that department:

congrats on the building!!  That looks pretty cool.     And the ancestry is something I have always talked about but never got around to doing.  It takes a lot and lots of time to do a family tree.  Good luck to you

[mkarasch]

After seeing this as a repeat thread, I had to sit back and think about this one a bit more. All but one of my hobbies have never lasted very long, because my interest in things is just massive. Over the years I have done a lot for hobbies and also found them to be determined by my income level at the time. Local resources played a big part, natural or retail. My most recent hobbies have been helping my mate out with collecting movies and music, as well as totally throwing my self into researching my own family's distant past. Not two or three centuries distant. Two or three thousand years distant. It gets weird. My other hobby has been building stuff. I don't think small either and do it without instructions or blueprints. All from my head. In fact here is my most recent accomplishment in that department:

What..uh...What IS that?

[brunauss]

The structure above is my answer to how one should build a multi-occupancy doghouse in the tropics. Very few people consider the personal comfort and tolerance of an animal that is technically a walking furnace in such humid conditions. Not once have I seen a large dog down where I live actually lay in their doghouse aka traditional doghouse. The design is flawed and thus you end up with a structure that is no better than an oven with a floor that rots out within the first year or two. In addition, people don't really think intelligently in terms of multiple occupants and usually buy multiple doghouses. Have you priced one lately? $200. Mt design takes the doghouse up off the ground by 2 feet and thus gives them something to crawl under. Quite a few like doing that and end destroying the yard by dogging under it. The interior is truly built for multiple occupants and measures 8 feet one way and 7 the other ( open end to open end ). Next was the frame design for ventilation and rain deflection. I went with a hexagon and keep the closed ends facing against baking wet season sun and harsh chills at the height of dry season. The open ends face the dominant directions wind blows from down here in Florida. East and West. The openings at the top, just under the eaves, assist with heat venting during the most humid part of wet season and thus no tropic air gets trapped inside to dry-rot the roof itself.

[brunauss]

After seeing this as a repeat thread, I had to sit back and think about this one a bit more. All but one of my hobbies have never lasted very long, because my interest in things is just massive. Over the years I have done a lot for hobbies and also found them to be determined by my income level at the time. Local resources played a big part, natural or retail. My most recent hobbies have been helping my mate out with collecting movies and music, as well as totally throwing my self into researching my own family's distant past. Not two or three centuries distant. Two or three thousand years distant. It gets weird. My other hobby has been building stuff. I don't think small either and do it without instructions or blueprints. All from my head. In fact here is my most recent accomplishment in that department:

congrats on the building!!  That looks pretty cool.     And the ancestry is something I have always talked about but never got around to doing.  It takes a lot and lots of time to do a family tree.  Good luck to you

My brother handles the actual paper trail end and assembly of the family tree. He has the resources and skills being a archivist in training himself. I simply do what I am good at, researching legends of the distant past and essentially finding the footprints of my ancestors within those legends. It is hard work, but I am not one to back down from a challenge. If anything, I'm gaining unrecorded perspectives on things that happened in history itself.

[matt]

That's awesome. I've dug into my family history a bit but have trouble (see lack of resources) finding anything pre-1900.

[disgaeniac]

@brunauss -

As a *huge* dog-lover, and as someone who typically has 1-2 larger breed dogs (an Akita & a Rottie, at the moment...these 2 have pretty much became my 2 favorite breeds over the last 10 - 20 years:) -

I'd just like to say that your design looks brilliant 

Well done 

Maybe you should think of patenting it/building & selling some of them?!

Luckily (for my dogs), they'll never have need of one as they like their lives just fine on my beds, couches, and beds of their own - conveniently located close to the fireplace

[soera]

I am not a big dog fan myself (many years as animal control officer will do that to ya) but if I did get a dog, it would definitely be an Akita. A dog bred for taking down Asian bears says alot about its badassity. Plus they simply look awesome.

[brunauss]

[ disgaeniac

I am considering doing just that next year. I see a lot of people down here who have absolutely massive breeds and the house itself can fit two Great Danes stretched out easily. This year's big project is giving my house a face lift by repainting it and adding Carribbean style louvered storm shutters on the west side, where the hurricane winds would likely come from.

[ soera

Rotties have their own impressive history as well. The German variety in particular, a 50% larger long haired variation, can hold their own against a tiger.

[disgaeniac]

I am not a big dog fan myself (many years as animal control officer will do that to ya) but if I did get a dog, it would definitely be an Akita. A dog bred for taking down Asian bears says alot about its badassity. Plus they simply look awesome.

Hell yeah - Akita's are all sorts of cool & bad-assery per(dog)onified

Even as tiny puppies...their paws are so huge that they look more like a bear paw than a dog paw - then you start thinking that they're going to grow into those suckers soon 

Actually, since (I think) they resemble bears so much...my 1st one was named "Kodiak" and I named my 2nd one "Kuma-Ki" (99% sure that means "bear spirit" in Japanese), since they're Japanese dogs...and...I was wanting to remember Kodiak (who was *often* just called "Kody", "Kody Bear", and/or "THE Kodiak Bear"); so yeah - Kody Bear and the next one "bear spirit"   

ALL of my (and my family's while growing up) dogs are seen as, treated as, and loved more as family members than pets.

Unfortunately & sadly, as is pretty common w/ the larger breeds of dogs, they tend to have hip & joint problems & shorter lifespans than the smaller breeds...and when we had to put Kodiak down (at ~12 years old)...it was...tragic  :'(

[sin2beta]

I am not a big dog fan myself (many years as animal control officer will do that to ya) but if I did get a dog, it would definitely be an Akita. A dog bred for taking down Asian bears says alot about its badassity. Plus they simply look awesome.

The name Akita, to me, implies they were bred from both Akira and Nikita (the Le Femme variety). This always made them seem really badass. Psychic lady assassins as a pet. If only you could combine that with robocop.