# What other hobbies do you keep?



## Primrose (Jul 19, 2012)

I probably do way too much with my spare time and that's probably why I have such a poor attention span, but in addition to writing I...:

Read, bake, cook, draw, crochet, make jewelry, bike, parent a small dog, blog, paint, do general crafts, origami (mostly paper stars) and more that I can't seem to pull off the top of my head.

But I was just curious as to what sorts of things you all do when you're not working on what you write.


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## JosephB (Jul 19, 2012)

I play guitar, write and record, occasionally perform. I get together and play with guys who were in bands etc., but who mostly quit when they got married and had kids etc. The cool thing is, now we can all buy the gear we could never afford. I draw and paint on occasion -- that may be my best talent, but I just never seem to get around to it. I even have a half-finished studio space that isn't used -- that includes a little photography area as well -- with studio lights -- power packs, flash heads etc. Those are collecting dust too. My wife's going to take it over if I don't do something with it soon. Most of my time these days is spent with my kids -- they're growing up fast and I don't want to miss it. I'm guessing I'll have more time for the other stuff later -- when it's no longer fun or cool to hang out with dad.


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## beanlord56 (Jul 19, 2012)

I play bass at church with both the "big church" praise band and the Youth praise band (even though I'm not in Youth anymore. They're quite desperate).

I'm a tea and BBQ guru in the making.

I live in my inner nerd, nerd-gasming and drooling over _Star Wars_, _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ and _The Legend of Korra_, _The Lord of the Rings_, _StarCraft_, _WarCraft_, _Diablo_, _The Elder Scrolls_, _Warhammer 40,000_, _Warhammer Fantasy_, _Star Trek: The Next Generation_, _Pokemon_, and _Mass Effect_ (except for the horrid ending"s" of the third game).

I prefer to read novels from some of the series listed above (so long as they don't have the taint of William C. Dietz, Richard A. Knaak, or Karen Traviss), as well as _Harry Potter_, Rick Riordan's modern mythology novels (_Percy Jackson and the Olympians_, _The Heroes of Olympus_, _The Kane Chronicles_), and my favorite author Ted Dekker.

I don't read comics often, but when I do, I go for _Batman_, _Batman Beyond_, _Static Shock_, _The Flash_, and _Avatar: The Last Airbender_.

I'm an avid gamer, with my top ten favorite video game series being _StarCraft_, _Halo_, _Dead Space_, _Batman: Arkham_, _Assassin's Creed_, _Half-Life_, _Mass Effect_, _Darksiders_, _Pokemon_, and _Red Dead Redemption_ (not a series but still great).

If you haven't been able to tell by now, I also love movies. My top ten favorite film series would have to be _Star Wars_, _Toy Story_, Christopher Nolan's _Batman_, _The Lord of the Rings_, _The Terminator _and _Terminator 2: Judgment Day_, _Alien-Alien 3_, _Harry Potter_, _Indiana Jones_, _Pirates of the Caribbean_, and select _Star Trek_ films (like _The Wrath of Khan_, _The Undiscovered Country_, and _First Contact_).


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## garza (Jul 19, 2012)

You might or might not consider photography a hobby, as it has been an adjunct to my writing beginning with the first story I ever had published. I draw and paint a bit, but have had little use for that except over the past two years using an occasional bit of graphics as filler in the Newsletter. 

Electronic tinkering has been a hobby from my early teens, and I continue to enjoy building projects and making old computers work again. I've tried to teach a couple of techies in local computer shops how to troubleshoot and repair at the component level, but they contend the price of a new motherboard today is so low it's not worth the time involved. They call it economic efficiency. I call it lazy. With a 'scope, dmm, logic probe, and a few parts you can get old machines up and running again quickly and cheaply. Village schools with near zero budgets are happy to get any computers that teachers can use in their classrooms.


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## Deleted member 49710 (Jul 19, 2012)

In summer, gardening. In winter, baking bread.
I bike, more for transportation then for fun, but I guess it's sort of a hobby.
I like eating in restaurants and drinking wine.
I used to sew, but I'm not very talented in that way and no longer have time.


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## Primrose (Jul 20, 2012)

Joseph- Kids DO grow up fast. I have two siblings under the age of eight and another batch that are older than that and I spent most of my childhood raising them (big sister with negligent stepfather for the lose...). You definitely have to enjoy that stuff while it lasts. My baby brother is three and I feel like I can count how many times I've seen him on my two hands.

Beanlord- HEYYYYY Fellow movie lover! I haven't even hooked up the cable in my new place because all I do is watch movies...

Garza- Photography is totally a hobby! I took a class in photography in my freshman year of college and had a blast. Developing photographs is definitely a lost art. I still have my photoseries from my final project and the other projects and I still find them aesthetically appealing...

Lasm- PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEAAAASE teach me how to make bread! I've been so desperate to learn because it seems like it could be a lot of fun. Because you can shove pretty much anything into bread. And I love bread in general. YAY BREAD!

I also neglected to mention the Jekyl side of myself that sings and acts...it's kind of a dead part. Majoring in theater is a really bad idea.


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## Winston (Jul 20, 2012)

World domination.  Just in my spare time.  Can't give any additional details due to the NDA I signed with the League of Evil.

I collect music.  Comedy, historical broadcasts.  Need a Herbert Hoover soundbite?  Maybe splice that with some George Carlin and Merle Haggard?  When I shuffle my 15,000 tracks, its chaos.  And I like it like that.


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## philistine (Jul 20, 2012)

Photography, painting, sculpture, origami, fashion, fashion of the 'good 'ole days', collecting books, language study, smoking, film (I'm a big film buff, and have made a few things myself) and drinking.

I've been looking, for a good while now, to get into collecting records. I've been as broke as a China plate for an age, so haven't had the chance to start yet. I'll probably start with a gramophone, get a collection of 78s, then see where it takes off. 

It seems everyone keeps themselves busy on here!


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## Jeko (Jul 20, 2012)

I play flute - Grade 7 distiction! Woop!


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## Deleted member 49710 (Jul 20, 2012)

Primrose said:


> Lasm- PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEAAAASE teach me how to make bread! I've been so desperate to learn because it seems like it could be a lot of fun. Because you can shove pretty much anything into bread. And I love bread in general. YAY BREAD!



Here is a website with lessons on starting to make basic breads. Some people get very into the chemistry and whatever, but I keep it simple and the results are still good.


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## Elarian (Jul 20, 2012)

I read a lot, cook, bake (mostly bread but sometimes cake. Nom) and crochet on occasion. I also love photography though I'm not as good at it as I'd like to think. Mostly though, I'm a parent so I cut and glue pictures, make things from the insides of toilet rolls and make pictures using pasta shapes


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## garza (Jul 20, 2012)

Primrose - Photography started as a hobby for me when my parents gave me a Kodak Brownie 127 box camera when I was about eight years old. When I started writing for the local newspapers both writing and photography became income generators, no longer true hobbies. Today photography has gone back to being a hobby without the chemical complexities.


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## Terry D (Jul 20, 2012)

Reading (if anyone on a writing website doesn't consider reading a hobby, that's just wrong!), woodworking, my dogs, but primarily my 'other' hobby is time travel.  No, seriously, when the conditions are right I can go as far as half-a-billion years, or more, into the past.  I plan on doing so tonight in fact.  All it takes is a clear night sky and a telescope.


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## HKayG (Jul 20, 2012)

I am a serial baker (as opposed to a cereal baker), i love gym classes (spinning is the best), reading, art occasionally, photography and agility with my best boy:



He is a perfect subject too


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## JosephB (Jul 20, 2012)

philistine said:


> I've been looking, for a good while now, to get into collecting records. I've been as broke as a China plate for an age, so haven't had the chance to start yet. I'll probably start with a gramophone, get a collection of 78s, then see where it takes off.



I’ve started collecting vinyl records. Mostly classic albums from the 70’. I just got Neil Young’s Harvest. I have the Who’s Quadraphenia, with the jacket-sized photo book and Zeppelin’s  Physical Graffiti – with the die-cut windows on the jacket. I love the cover art and liner notes etc. I’ve also started to buy newer vinyl too – Kings of Leon’s Holy Roller Novocain EP, for example. I have a lot of jazz on CD and on iTunes, mostly 50 and 60's era, Bird, Miles, Coltrane etc. I'd love to get some of that on vinyl, but it's more rare and a lot more expensive -- but what's available is often in very good condition -- jazz aficionados tend to take better care of their records, I guess.

I have lots of 78s. Some big band, some jazz, some classical, some weird stuff like accordion music -- most of them I got when I was a kid, all at once from an old lady who lived in our neighborhood. I've just hung on to them. I haven't really checked out the value of them or even gone through them very carefully -- but I don't think they're worth much.


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## The Backward OX (Jul 20, 2012)

Perv on women of all ages up to about 60, except the dogs.

Sit and stare at the lounge-room wall for hours.

Write letters of complaint to the Gummint.

Still trying to teach Riley to count. 


Riley ->


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## JosephB (Jul 20, 2012)

Heh. I know a few old guys who perv on women. One sends my wife a lot of off-color emails, some kind of explicit. Some old guys where my wife used to volunteer would make rude comments too. They operate under the delusion they can get away with it because they’re old and people think it’s cute -- but they’re mostly wrong.


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## Primrose (Jul 20, 2012)

HKayG- What a little sweetie! I will never know what it is about puppy faces...soooo irresistible. Although, after our last two, puppies have lost some of their potency for me. This is my little sweetheart






Which brings up another hobby...amateur photoshop tinkerer.

Edit: Ewww I can't remove that gross attachment thing... Sorry guys.


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## Mr mitchell (Jul 20, 2012)

I play games, watch films, meet friends, clubbing and go out for fresh air.


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## patskywriter (Jul 20, 2012)

gardening, listening to music, playing music on guitar, writing music, photography (part of my work as a journalist, but still a hobby on the side)


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## Gamer_2k4 (Jul 20, 2012)

I'm a brown belt in judo and I enjoy biking, DDR, and all sorts of sports.  I also play piano (and just started learning violin) and do a little bit of computer programming for fun.  Lately I've also grown interested in complex Lego sets (like this one) and collecting old currency.


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## misusscarlet (Jul 20, 2012)

I... am still young so have not quite found a lot of hobbies. My main hobby is reading. If I made more money I would buy more books. I watch movies, read manga, write, work, complaing about life cause I am so young. I enjoy eating any food that is not american, lately food has become bland and tasteless, go go spices.


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## garza (Jul 20, 2012)

Terry D - Reading has never been a hobby of mine and never will be. A hobby is like, you know, something you do just for fun that has no lasting importance, like my interest in ham radio when I was a kid. I enjoyed it, learned a good bit about electronics, but it was not related to anything of vital importance in my life. It was not tied to anything central. 

Reading always was and always will be central in my life. I don't believe you can be serious as a writer and look on reading as a hobby. Reading is too important. Same way when I had a photo of mine published in the newspaper for the first time. Photography at that point ceased being a hobby, though it has returned to that class of activities along with fixing up old computers - fun but not really important in my life. In short, a hobby.


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## ElDavido (Jul 20, 2012)

American Football (My uni plays in a stupidly named league, British University American Football League, BUAFL), and running. It's 5 days after my first Tough Mudder and I'm yet to take off my orange headband!

That and I frantically plan where I want to travel to.


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## Terry D (Jul 20, 2012)

garza said:


> Terry D - Reading has never been a hobby of mine and never will be. A hobby is like, you know, something you do just for fun that has no lasting importance, like my interest in ham radio when I was a kid. I enjoyed it, learned a good bit about electronics, but it was not related to anything of vital importance in my life. It was not tied to anything central.
> 
> Reading always was and always will be central in my life. I don't believe you can be serious as a writer and look on reading as a hobby. Reading is too important. Same way when I had a photo of mine published in the newspaper for the first time. Photography at that point ceased being a hobby, though it has returned to that class of activities along with fixing up old computers - fun but not really important in my life. In short, a hobby.



Point well taken, garza (sometimes I paint with too wide a word-brush).  But I believe that the vast majority of fiction writers became writers because of their love of reading, and that most would continue to read for pleasure even if they gave up writing.  Many hobbies do have lasting importance.  Astronomy is a hobby of mine--I'll never make a dime off it, nor be know for it--but it is also central to my life and to my idea of who I am.


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## Kyle R (Jul 20, 2012)

Perhaps Terry has seen me doing my hobby: Flying through space in my inter-galactic, wormhole-traversing, warp-drive powered, time-travelling spaceship! If you look close you can see me waving from the pilot's seat as I speed past Orion's Belt.

My hobby, clearly, is defying physics.


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## Deleted member 49710 (Jul 20, 2012)

Thanks to Terry D for reminding me that reading can actually be pleasant. I read a great deal for my work, but it's not the kind of reading where you get to let go and enjoy it. And today is a bad workday, so I just read for pleasure for an hour and feel slightly less like banging my head against a wall.


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## Terry D (Jul 20, 2012)

KyleColorado said:


> Perhaps Terry has seen me doing my hobby: Flying through space in my inter-galactic, wormhole-traversing, warp-drive powered, time-travelling spaceship! If you look close you can see me waving from the pilot's seat as I speed past Orion's Belt.
> 
> My hobby, clearly, is defying physics.



That was you?  You need your tentacles trimmed, my friend.:alien:


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## Sam (Jul 20, 2012)

I don't think of writing as a hobby, ergo the original question is flawed for me. I spend at least five hours every day writing. Since I don't have a job right now, and my income is benefits and my novels, writing is my profession.

My hobbies, however, include body-building and darts.


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## JosephB (Jul 20, 2012)

Hobby can be an unfortunate catch-all word. It doesn't necessarily mean you don't take something seriously or approach it with a professional attitude.


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## Primrose (Jul 20, 2012)

> Reading always was and always will be central in my life. I don't  believe you can be serious as a writer and look on reading as a hobby.  Reading is too important. Same way when I had a photo of mine published  in the newspaper for the first time. Photography at that point ceased  being a hobby, though it has returned to that class of activities along  with fixing up old computers - fun but not really important in my life.  In short, a hobby.



On that point, I will also agree. I guess I just think of it as a "hobby" because I do it in my spare time when I have the time to do it. I did learn the hard way how crucial it is to be a reader when you write.


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## Eluixa (Jul 24, 2012)

My Nikon D40 has been my favorite toy since I got it, about four years ago for my birthday, had two lenses, the smaller one it came with and a 55/200. This year for my birthday I got a new lens 70/300 to better capture birds, but it is heavier and I am not used to it yet. Would love to photograph wildlife, well more than the occasional flora and fauna I find in my path. So far, I've used my camera with very little understanding of what it is capable of, so spending more time trying to figure it out. 
I watch movies often, especially enjoy foreign and artfully made movies though I'm also a big fan of Indiana Jones, loved the new Avengers movie... too many to name all. Fire and Ice is a favorite though, Princess Bride, Silverado, Shanghai Noon.
I'd love to sculpt again, but too much in mothering mode, see keeping family functioning, to get that together. Writing on the computer is doable with kids... sometimes. 
Have been painting the girls room, looking forward to painting on canvas again one day...
I like pruning, occasionally, not as often as needed. Same with cooking, I love to do it on occasion, but not nearly as often as people like to eat. Thank you Dominoes and Costco.
Reading, of course. Mostly fiction, mostly fantasy, but not entirely.
Shopping for lovely clothes, mostly for my kids, Browsing eBay.
Researching online, mostly for writing, but sometimes just identifying a flower, an unknown word, following links, learning. Following debate here, people watching. 
Traveling any time I get the chance.


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## jroland0482 (Jul 25, 2012)

Hmm hobbies, I spend most of my time chasing my 15 month old son and fingerpainting, coloring, following him around outside, playing in the mud, and taking him on daytrips. lol.
I personally enjoy reading, I enjoy animals and volunteer with multiple animal rescue organizations (although definitely need to point out I am a welfarist as opposed to rights)
I have dogs all over the US and Canada that I have found rescues or homes for.
I also love to cook, baking included. It centers me and I like to experiment in the kitchen.


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## ElDavido (Jul 25, 2012)

Eluixa said:


> My Nikon D40 has been my favorite toy since I got it, about four years ago for my birthday, had two lenses, the smaller one it came with and a 55/200. This year for my birthday I got a new lens 70/300 to better capture birds, but it is heavier and I am not used to it yet. Would love to photograph wildlife, well more than the occasional flora and fauna I find in my path. So far, I've used my camera with very little understanding of what it is capable of, so spending more time trying to figure it out.
> I watch movies often, especially enjoy foreign and artfully made movies though I'm also a big fan of Indiana Jones, loved the new Avengers movie... too many to name all. Fire and Ice is a favorite though, Princess Bride, Silverado, Shanghai Noon.
> I'd love to sculpt again, but too much in mothering mode, see keeping family functioning, to get that together. Writing on the computer is doable with kids... sometimes.
> Have been painting the girls room, looking forward to painting on canvas again one day...
> ...



Good to see there's someone with some camera class out there. *Angry fist shake at Canon* One of my saddest moments was parting with my D200, but ah well someone's probably using it more than I was.


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## bigjantailor (Jul 28, 2012)

Fishing, sailing, and once I'm in shape again surfing. The water is a big part of my life. Living near it makes me batter.

I pining to get out at the crack of dawn to go salmon fishing.

Have fun, Jan


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