Non-torch interests

I love shooting, casting and re-loading. Iā€™m a computer programmer, a Linux nut since about 1994, and an amateur photographer. But my favorite hobby is bicycling, especially mountain biking.

Nice idea, this thread!

Another Linux nut here, since about 2001. Like many others here, I also love photography, but Iā€™ve never owned any really good gear and I donā€™t have much time for it now. Iā€™ve also always loved 2-way radios, and now Chinese products allow me to mess around with that kind of hardware on the cheap in a way that I could never dream of doing as a kid.

Apart from this, I generally tend to have strong opinions on EDC type items, be it a pen, a backpack, a multi-tool, a cell phone, or even shirts and shoes; I either love it or I hate it, and I like things that have a minimal and clean design.

I used redhat and SuSE in the latter 90s but switched back to ms due to lack of support for my motorola based modem. I enjoyed compiling a fast compact kernel though, since I ran multi-processor self-builts. Back to linux since 2005 (a gentoo based distro and most recently arch based). Wish I could find a few people near me interested in cycling. Bike and molle gear ready to go.

Shooting; pistol, rifle, shotgun. Reloading to feed the kids.

Slingshot or slingbow? Cheaper than reloading for rabbit and other small game.

Another amateur photographer here, also I still have an interest in an old hobby, model trains, but something had to give financially so I sold off most of my train stuff and bought a couple of lens :money_mouth_face:

Using Ubuntu with LXDE, gave up on MS totally after XPpro.

Cheers David

Cars, movies/teevee, photography, edged weapons, lots of tekkie things.

I like the technical aspect of cars, wiring, exhaust, cooling, all the different interacting systems. I can never leave well enough alone. LED lighting, upgraded suspension, useful mods, not silly wings and spoilers and stretched rubber and ā€œlook coolā€ things that make the car drive like $#+#. Like stretched 8ā€-wide tires on 9ā€-wide rims, at such a negative camber that youā€™re almost riding on the inner edge of the rimā€¦ do you seriously think youā€™re getting a good ride with that? Somebody should tell those jokers to knock it off, and pull their pants up, too, because they look retarded. :person_facepalming:

And I like cars in general, at least those that sound like cars, not like high-strung lawnmowers with gastrointestinal disturbances. Even in a mostly-stock Regal (whisper-quiet at idle), stomping on the loud pedal and getting appreciative head-turns and smiles gives me the warm fuzzies. :smiley:

As for photography, I specialise in in-flight critters, always trying to get that ā€œimpossibleā€ shot. One of my crowning glories was an in-flight dragonfly pic (they tuck their legs in, kinda like helicopter skids), and some schmo emailed everyone who commented on my pic that it was fake, photoshopped, that no way could a camera/lens focus that quickly on an in-flight bug like that, and then posted a similar accusation in the conference itself, so I went and posted more shots of that type, crisp enough that you could count the critterā€™s nose-hairs. Showed himā€¦

Bugs, birds, turtles, bunnies, all kinds of critters in the wild, fair game for my camera. And the usual sunsets, seascapes, flowers, trees, ā€œsimple delightsā€, that kind of thing. Itā€™s relaxing.

I like critters in general. Always had dogs, ā€™til my last hairy little brother died, then it was just cats. When they both died within weeks of each other, it got awful lonely, but Iā€™ve got a cat in front and one in back who come for their daily feedings. Not counting the raccoons, armadillos, and now skunks who finish off the food that the cats donā€™t eat at night. Yeah, skunks in nycā€¦ Whoā€™da thunk it?

Buncha other things Iā€™m probably not remembering right off.

Wow, I didnā€™t realise there were interests other than flashlights. :smiley:

FPV racing, quadcopters & other RC
This hobby pretty much takes up a lot of time and money. Incredible how much I have spent on quads and RC in general.

LED flashlights and designing interior lights
Outdoor hobbies, hiking, traveling, photography, outdoor gear
Knives & knife making (I have only made 1 so far and it was a terrible one)
Survival, prepping (but I never actually had a ā€œsurvivalā€ situation or scenario)
Guns, rifles, slingbows, slingshots, airsoft
Electronics (1st degree is in EE and I play around with led drivers, power supplies, DMM, ā€¦)
Laser
shaving (have multiple DE razors)
Travel, road trips, EU & USA
Cars (I work mostly on BMWs but I am keen to get some American muscle)
Motorcycles (donā€™t ride any longer but follow the scene, magazines)
ATVs (my uncle has one, those are a lot of fun. saving up for my own)
Trucks
Tools & air tools
Computers, Linux, software in general
Wifi (I try to make my own antennas for FPV, home wifi, ā€¦)
single board computers, IoT, ADSB
HOME / DIY (furniture making, renovating, woodworking, build stuff around the house)
indoor gardening (grow lights, no, not that kind of growing! :slight_smile:
ham radio
investments, stocks & funds
weight lifting

forgot, I also have a job that requires a lot of time & travel. needless to say I have no time for wife & kids (yet)

Got any intersting pics of your pet rocks tekwyzrd?

My other main hobby is cycling. At the moment Iā€™m riding at least twice a week but aiming to up that as I have a major event coming in October. Recently got myself a dropper post and itā€™s taking a few rides to get used to.

I also enjoy readingā€¦ probably not the genre(s) that others around here might enjoy though. I often borrow my daughters books which are in the ā€˜Young Adultā€™ category and tend to revolve around dystopia scenarios such as ā€˜Hunger Gamesā€™, ā€˜Divergentā€™, and ā€˜In the Afterā€™. I sometimes read literotica too.

PC modding:

RC cars:

Robotics:

Music production and DJing:

Speaker design and building:

Also programming, web design, 3d modeling, and DMX lighting programming/control.

I like flashlights, knives, computers, video games, movies, music, and television.

accordion, singing in band
road bicycling
vegetarian
contra dance
zydeco, cajun dance
2 5 year old boy twins
fixing things
collect clocks, watches, tools, camera tripods {long story}, calculators, slide rules, toys, bike paraphernalia

Knives (folders mainly)
Self Defense training/teaching
Weightlifting/amateur powerlifting
Shooting
Kava
Reading, mainly psychology but also about any of the above

Non-torch hobbiesā€¦
I am interested in RC, more specific, quadcopter(drone), but i also play other types like Cars and plane, heli(heli is the most thrilling one)
Another hobby is programming with microcontroller, im thinking about learning some IoTs stuff now

My new hobby this year is metal casting, I built a foundry furnace this spring, and Iā€™ve been working on refining it and learning mold making.

This thread reminds me of a guysā€™ sig on another forum that resonates with me:

[QUOTE]I donā€™t have hobbies. Iā€™m building a robust post-apocalyptic skill set.
[/quote]

Playing rock/blues bass guitar for almost 48 years, tools, gadgets, vacuum tube audio, Large screen TVā€™s with surround sound, Mac and PC computers, home electronics, home improvements/maintenance, gardening, cooking, eating quality foods, etc.

Good idea, tek, Iā€™m loving this already. Well here we go:

ā€¢ Video games. There is a big pull for me in a story set in a world where you can take control and experience it for yourself. Lately, another pull to it is game modding, more specifically how folks can turn a game engine into putty in their hands and mold it to whatever they see fit, going from total conversions still similar to the base material to total overhauls that donā€™t even classify as games anymore, such as Source Film Maker, an amazing little 3D filming engine that was based off the Source engine for video games that was in its place a refinement of GoldSrc, which is itself a mod of the old Quake engine. Itā€™s a ā€œtower of duct tapeā€, and it awes me how far we can go with just patch-ups.

ā€¢ Like pinkpanda, Iā€™m pretty fond of cycling. No branch in particular, just the though of hopping on a cycle and putting it to work, feel the wind in my face while pedaling on a road or down a hill; the machine that is the bicycle amazes me just as much as how viable it is to move around on two aligned wheels :laughing: Iā€™ve spent more adapting and repairing my bike in ten years than most regular folks have spent overall on cycling in their entire lives. Iā€™m with my hands tied since three or four years back thanks to university, an unwilling move to the night shift, and the increasingly cycle-hostile nature of my neighborhood, but Iā€™m almost certain all of that will be sorted out come the end of this year. New house, new diploma, new job, new chances to bike! :smiley:

ā€¢ Right now Iā€™m pooling my pennies to buy a good bow and a good set of arrows to mature my interest in archery (bows, slings and slingshots only, Iā€™m not as big a crossbow enthusiast). I also have an air rifle, but when it comes to single-use ammo, Iā€™ve found out Iā€™m a bit of a hoarder, even with ultra-cheap pellets :stuck_out_tongue:

My interests are:
Photography (in particular Light Painting)
Urbex
Rollercoasters
Horizontal dancing

Wow, Iā€™m boring :person_facepalming:

  • I like to repeatedly pick heavy things up then put them down. Squat, deadlift, bench, strict OHP & bent over rows. All about strength gains, not trying to be no bodybuilder or pro anything. I would like to learn the clean&jerk and power snatch, Those are technical and self learning hasnā€™t worked for me. I need a coach to teach me safely and that costs money.
  • PC gaming. Putting PC builds together, not that itā€™s hard, basically Legos for adults. Donā€™t do any modding, just like helping others ascend.
  • Motorcycles, donā€™t do much for fun riding anymore. I currently commute 90% of the time via my bike. I also like working on my own bike and cars.
  • Iā€™m still a kid at heart and love all the fun stuff still. Amusement parks, roller coaster, water parks, paint balling (sold off my gear, used to go every weekend, not so much anymore and just use rentals), going to try some airsoft looks fun. Indoor wall climbing.