Uninteresting people have dull hobbies. WFers, on the other hand... I have two main hobbies that are probably "weird" 1. Most of you know one of my hobbies is called "DXing"- the art and science of trying to hear distant and hard-to-hear radio stations. This can involve shortwave, AM and FM radio. I've been involved in all three, including editing columns in several radio periodicals over the years (SPEEDX, North East Scanning News, National Radio Club). We DXers try to see how many stations we can hear on whatever band(s) we are interested in. I started way back in 1976, concentrating mainly on shortwave. My "speciality" was trying to hear what we called "tropical band stations", low-powered broadcast shortwave stations from Latin America, Africa and Asia. Since shortwave seems to be dying, I've shifted to AM and FM DXing. It didn't help that I have actually worked at two radio stations. On AM radio, I have logged 998 stations from 28 countries and 34 states since 1976. There was a 15-year lay-off from the hobby but I've gotten cak into it over the past 5-7 years. I'm desperately trying to get station 1000. Right now, I'm sitting on 1490 khz, what we call a "graveyard" channel, seeing what might pop up. Or as my kids say, "Daddy likes listening to static". I also concentrate on the FM band, which can be more interesting. I have heard 720 FM stations since 2007, when I really picked up FM DXing. Now you might be asking "How can you hear 720 FM stations? I can only hear a few dozen". (Some DXers have heard over 2000 FM stations!) Ah, that is where the fun begins. FM radio is unique because there is a propagation phenomena called "sporadic E" that allows FM stations to be heard as far as 1500 miles away with signal strengths that can swamp your local stations. I can remember seeing Cuban TV stations on my parents 13-inch set back in the 1970s every day in the summer (which is a frequent occurrence). When the "skip" is in (mainly from May to August), I can hear FM stations as far as Texas and South Dakota on my car radio. There is nothing more thrilling in radio than a e-skip opening. 2. My second weird hobby is collecting old road maps. I was an Air Force brat, which meant we moved every year, sometimes twice a year. That meant lots of time on the road. Gas stations gave away their maps for free in those days, so I would always come out with an armload of maps. I just fell in love with them. Today, I collect mainly oil company maps (Esso, Sunoco, Texaco.." from the 50s and 60s of the East Coast and selected other areas of the country. I have about 500 maps right now, always looking for more, mainly by trolling around on eBay. How do you waste your time, besides hanging out on WF? BTW- this is my idea of porn.
I really only 2 hobbies. One is reading. I am always reading, or re-reading something. I know most don't consider reading a hobby, so on to number two. MMORPGs, or online role-playing games. I am currently playing DDO, or Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Okay, but what do you read...and what are you wearing when you read it? I played some AD&D when I was in high school- that was plenty weird, even for me back then. Ever try to play it solo?
I like jigsaw puzzles. Just finished a 1500 piece puzzle and started a 1000 piece puzzle with some really weird puzzle piece shapes.
I think my weirdes hobby is being DM for my Friday night group. Most people I talk to find it quite odd, and surprising when I mention I do this. Moreso people who who knew me or knew someone I knew from way back in the past, when things were more crazy.
I knit and crochet. When I have a job and steady income I'm either going to get back into online games or really into dance, all types.
Knit, crochet, read, and watch British mysteries. Midsomer Murders, Inspector Lewis, Cadfael, and New Tricks. Want to get to Inspector Morris but it's not on Netflix streaming.
Wash yer ass!!! I would assume this would have been much more interesting before automation. Seems like it would kind of take the buzz out of sitting up at night and finding 150 different stations - and Art Bell was one 140 of them.
I used to Dumpster Dive. In fact, that's how I ended up at this place. I probably still would do it if there were any point to it, but most retail establishments have moved to trash compactors rather than dumpsters, so there's not nearly as much availability. Plus, my best source, a Linens & Things store, closed a few years ago.
Building plastic models. Buying more plastic models than I can build. Collecting guns that I don't get to shoot any more. Collecting comic books that are piling up in the basement. Videoing my commutes with a dash cam, and saving the footage of people doing rude and stupid things in front of me. Reading sci fi. Collecting billions of DVDs of old TV shows I like, movies I like, etc. Also blind-buying DVDs I might like, which swells the shelves with stuff i'll probably never watch again.
Science fiction and fantasy mostly with a little history (Roman and middle ages) thrown in for good measure. As to what I wear....I'll leave that up yo your dirty little imagination ...
My latest Hobby is watch repair. I am taking a correspondence course on it. Last night I spent 4 hours trying to file the end of a piece of brass stock so flat it could stand on itself (a brass cone). Alas, I failed. It is free filing. Gonna work on it some more. My other hobby lately has been weight lifting, though with the uti I have not been going.
I've gone through many strange ones through the years. Lately I've been reading (I'm on a bio kick). I am currently reading Marilyn Manson's Long Hard Road Out of Hell http://www.amazon.com/Long-Hard-Road-Out-Hell/dp/0060987464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328463034&sr=8-1 It's super interesting. As far as anything else, I don't really have much extra time. I get pretty heated playing facebook games (Tetris, Zuma, Bejeweled, and recently Typing Maniac). Also been on a movie kick. Lately some strange ones. The Perfect Host, Hard Candy, The Human Centipede, Wristcutters, Trainspotting. I feel super boring. lol.
Finicky little buggers, aren't they? Another bonsai person here, and I almost hesitate to say it, but my kill ratio has actually gone down after many years of trial and error. Got any good pix of your babies, Dan? I'll remind you in the spring when they're in leaf.
Not any recent ones. Ive only 3 Bonsai left at the moment. One of my main problems has always been that my Chinese Elms (usually one of the easiest to look after) dont winter properly. Last year, a very cold winter, my 2 remaining didnt drop their leaves and go dormant until February. One of them died and the other one didnt come out of dormancy until high summer. Yet again my one remaining proper Bonsai has not gone dormant for the winter and I think it might die. Going to buy some more soon. Oh and of those I have grown from seed (acorn) I still have one gorgeous English Oak that is now about 7 years old.
I know what you mean. I had no luck at all with mine in a cold climate (New York). There's no hard winter here, so some of mine flourish during our rainy season and undergo "spring" in January, whereas others just hunker down and wait for the angle of the sun to tell them when it's time to leaf. Good on you for being able to grow from seed, though. I've tried numerous varieties, and they usually sprout okay, but I can never get them to survive long enough to move from the seedbed to a proper pot. Well, almost never. I'd brought some pagoda tree seeds from NY (100-year-old tree on the block where I'd lived that was cut down just before I moved), got several to sprout, and had one seedling going for over a year. Held my breath and put it in a training pot...and some creep stole it out of the yard a few months later. (Probably only wanted the pot, the bastid.)
A couple of times a day I sit in front of a computer loaded with graphics software and... surf the internet, getting nothing constructive done.
Wargaming and roleplaying - still a bit out there, but a lot more mainstream these days. Honestly, most of the 'weird' shit I was doing 20 years ago is mainstream now. Fuck, I've become my dad.
