Other hobbies?

[Gamerforlife]

I've been a fan of pro wrestling for years, mostly WWF/WWE. I'm kind of an internet fan so I know a bit more about the business than the average fan who just watches it on tv.

I've had an on again, off again appreciation for comic books over the years. I think it was sometime last year that I started collecting graphic novels and trade paperpacks, but I moved on to other things. I still pick up certain things from time to time though(like the Y: The Last Man TPBs and the new canonical Buffy and Angel comics), and I own most of the well known Batman books(my favorite comic book character)

I'm a little bit of a DVD geek. I have a fairly large collection of movies, anime and some of my favorite tv shows on dvd. I grow tired of the constant double dipping in the dvd industry though, not to mention how often we get shafted when other regions get better dvds. All of these things occasionally turn me away form DVD collecting. It's sort of annoying too to see much of my stuff re-released in high def. I'm not buying the stuff all over again though. Thank god for backwards compatability and standard DVD upconversion, makes me feel like my standard DVD collection wasn't a total waste of money.

In general, I seem to have a thing for collecting stuff, especially video games. And as someone else said, I generally love entertainment in all its forms. Movies, games, comics, etc. I generally like to look deeper into these things than most people though. Most people will buy a DVD for example and just watch the movie. I like to actually check out the extras and commentaries and educate myself a bit. I always have an apprecation for cult things, and underrappreciated works of art. Often I just get blank looks when I mention some of my favorite movies, shows, etc.

Musicwise, I listen to metal mostly. Aside from metal, I like artists like Curve and Collide. Mostly, stuff that isn't mainstream or well known here in the states. With all my other hobbies I generally don't have money for music unfortunately, which explains my large mp3 collection.

I used to dabble a little in drawing, but not so much anymore. Being an artist is hard work and lots of practice, I didn't have the dedication.

I also used to be interested in learning foreign languages, but it's not something I continued to pursue. However, I do have a pretty solid understanding of French. I don't speak it particularly well(not anymore anyway), but I can often make sense of what other french speakers are saying.

That's about all I can think at the moment. Oh, and I used to do a little acting back in high school and my first year of college. You know school plays and theatre. That sort of thing. Another one of those things I didn't stick with though. I'm sort of still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I work at an insurance company right now. It pays the bills and the mortgage, but it's just a job. Seems like I never found the career I was meant for. I never did finish college either. Oh well, I'm 28 still time to make sense of who I am and what I want I guess.

[Droid party]

This one is for Scooter. Mike ( the lad from work) brought his CS mustang to work this morning so I snapped some pics of it for you. Hope you like em, I only had my phone handy to take the pics.
It sounds absolutely amazing. He bought it as a wreck and rebuilt over a 4 year period about 10 years ago. You can see my baby ( albeit dirty) just past it.

[Scooter]

Very nice!

[philipofmacedon]

I love to read. Most of it is science and fantasy. Some of it is utter trash but I've been finding there's a lot of old quality stuff out there. Authors like Robert E. Howard, William Morris, Lord Dunsany, William MacDonald, Charles Williams, Zelazny, Philip K. Dick, Asimov, etc. I read real books as well. My maternal grandparents were Greek emigrants and this got me interested in the classical world at a young age. I think epic poetry is great; we should all read the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and Paradise Lost every few years.

I like to cook. It's probably because I really like food. I learned one summer because I knew I'd be studying abroad the next year and I didn't want to starve to death. I like being able to create something and know how it came into being. So much of the stuff we eat is just crap. I'm not concerned about my health or organic farming; I just want to eat real butter and meat, not weird chemical that taste funny.

I think most kids today just imagine food comes from a magical happy place. I was blessed to grow up in a household that raised pigs, sheep, cows, and a big vegetable garden. I've still got a patch of raspberries that I'm cultivating. I even had the chance to work as sternman on a lobster boat and bring those delicious crustaceans up from the ocean floor.

I think it's important to try and preserve a cultural tradition if you've got one and that means cooking. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all types of food, good old hearty American cuisine included, but there's something nice about authentic cuisine. Even if you only like comparatively bland food, like my friends from Pennsylvania, you should still aspire to make the best potatoes and gravy anyone ever saw. Man I love gravy.

In the last few years I've really gotten into Euro board games. My friends and I try and get together every Sunday afternoon for a few games of Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne. It takes a while for people to get the hang of them, but they are loads better than most of the games we've been recycling for the past 50 years here in America. I play Texas Hold 'em every week too.

I've been studying English grammar recently. Ever since those damn hippies threw out the grammar books in the 60s and 70s we've become a nation of people who don't know our own language. I found it unacceptable in my own life, so I'm working to overcome it. It's a bit perverse, but I'm actually coming to enjoy diagramming sentences. The process is so analytical and neat.

I like studying philosophy, Christianity, and religion. Whatever you think about God's existence, humanity's place in the cosmos, the meaning of life, how we know things and what qualifies as knowledge, whether history has a point and if it is progressing somewhere specific, you can't deny these are important questions. I suppose you could be a nihilist and claim that nothing matters but I'd probably try and punch you in the face and see if you maintained your belief consistently. Anyway, that's about it.

[philipofmacedon]

hot sauce - i eat it, study it, review it. Hopefully getting a High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) soon to start measuring capsaicin in the sauces. The hottest stuff I have ingested is in the 4 million scoville unit range (by comparison, tabasco is about 2,000).

That is amazing. Do you eat it straight or make endless batches of hot wings? Has it taken a long time to build a tolerance up? Are your taste buds burned off?

[Adderall]

my taste buds seem OK right now... except for the fact that when I go out to eat and a place says "try our hot such and such with a kick" I always have to get it to see......and I'm always disappointed. I usually do the first taste test at work in the morning with a bacon egg and cheese bagel. If a particularly hot sauce on the scale hits me, it will usually be 2 hours later at 10:30. I have to make a quick trip to the mens room then. Other than that rare occasion, I can hold it down pretty well. The crazy thing is that once you start getting into hot sauce, it's hard to find that sweet spot between having a sauce that is just the right hotness. Most of the stuff I try is either way too hot, or just not hot enough. There is a point you can hit where the heat is very tolerable, while giving you great flavor, and burning your face off at the same time. I also love a good plate of wings with a black and tan to wash it down, although there aren't any places around DC that make wings hot enough

[Daniel Primed]

Video games is my most important hobby but outside of gaming I also like photography, blogging and digital design.

Blogging

I've been blogging for about 2-3 years now. For most of this time I've been blogging about myself but in the last 1/2 a year I started blogging about video games. I've always been interested in web entrepenauring(??) and making websites, so my blog is like a natural progression. Its the only site that I own that I am working on and it is likely to stay that way for a while. Blogging is also sorta how I discovered this website.

Design and Photography

I've been designing for about 5-7 years now. I specialize around 2D design but have overall good multimedia skills. I'm proficient with: 2D animation(Flash), actionscript programming, photoshop, macromedia fireworks, adobe illustrator and adobe indesign. I've also abbled in C++ and some 3D programs. I am currently working on video editing.

Photography is another hobby that I am into and it accomodates the design nicely. I use to play around with the family camera but I decided to pick up a SLR camera near the start of the year and haven't looked back.

[aaron]

adderall that is the weirdest and most interesting hobby i have ever heard of. just sayin'. it's cool but honestly i have never heard of anyone being that into hot sauce before. kinda neat.

[executioner]

Aside from video gaming mostly spend my time watching japanese anime and asian movies from hong kong, japan and korea. Last two years watch more anime than I play video games.
Music and playing guitar is another big part of my life. Also reading mostly sci-fi, fantasy or horror (mainly stephen king) books. Have a lot of interest in cars and lately in playing paintball.

[marurun]

What? What are these "other hobbies"? Sedition! Nobody here is allowed to do anything but play video games. Jerks! How can you say you love video games and have other hobbies, too? That's like cheating on your 2nd secret wife you don't let your 1st wife know about because polygamy is illegal!