What Are Your Hobbies/Interests?

[JoeRudi26]

First of all, I got this idea after seeing Sean's "Rank Your Favorite Team" thread (cool thread, btw).  It got me to thinking:  We've been here for 5 or 6 years now, and about the only thing I know about most of the hardcore members (or any member, really) is what baseball team they like.  Just as I was surprised to see he listed Villanova Basketball as one of the teams he'd like to see win a championship, most probably don't realize I'd much rather see the Indiana Hoosiers win a national title than to have the A's win 3 World Series titles in a row.

And it's not even close.

But to the point of my post, and other than sports in general, what do you do in your spare time?  I'll try to list mine in order of preference.

1. PC Gaming:  (FPS Shooters, Sports, RPG's)

2. Photoshop

3. MVP Mods: (hangin' out)

4. Reading:  (Serial Killers, True Crime, John Grisham)

5. Cooking:  (I love to eat, had to learn to cook)

6. Working Out: (run 5 miles a day, everyday if possible)

7. Movies:  (Favs: Apocalypto, I Am Legend, Bridges of Madison County)

8. T.V.:  (A&E, Discovery Channel, History Channel, South Park, Family Guy)

 

[SeveredSoulX]

Very good thread! I'll contribute a little to it as well.

Not in any order

1: Video Games (I do PS3 and PC - usually sports, FPS, historical and realistic [nothing like BioShock or fantasy])

2: TV - any baseball game, Family Guy, Futurama, South Park, Scrubs, Mythbusters

3: Books - I read mainly fiction 'treasure' hunting ones such as Matthew Reilly types, I'm also into horror like Stephen King

4: Computer etc. - Photoshop, doing formulas in Excel, hunting for rare finds online, that type of stuff

5: Work - I work for Bass Pro Shops (oh boy) and if any of you call to place an order and I find out, I will personally hunt you down and shoot you.

6: Movies - I'm into funny like Date Night, but also the historical war ones like Cool Hand Luke, Black Hawk Down, and various types.

[Yankee4Life]

Here's mine, ranked from top to bottom

1. Mvpmods. For various reasons. First and foremost was what JoeRudi said. For hangin' out and being part of this great community here. Secondly I get to work with a good staff here that we literally have located all over the world from the United States, Mexico, Canada and Scotland, where my good pal Mark is from.

2. Reading. I don't have a range of authors I follow. I am pretty well set in what I read. I like to read sports books and books from Jack Higgins and I believe I have read everything I could get my hands on from Ring Lardner, another wonderful writer.

3. PC Gaming. AKA playing Mvp Baseball 2005 and all its versions that we have out there. I've got every Total Conversion mod installed on my system and when I feel like it I can pop into 1951 one day, 1969 the next and then follow it up with 1927. And try as I might, each time I play one of these mods I can't find one thing to complain about. Also, if I am not playing MVP, I am playing some kind of hidden object game that usually ends up driving me nuts or some PC bowling game.

4. Computers, including newsgroups What I mean by this is surfing the net to see what I can find. There is so much information that is right there waiting to be read it is sometimes hard to believe. I've learned so much being online and I know I'll keep learning. And with the newsgroups I can concentrate on one certain area. For example, there is a classic TV area where people post classic television shows. This is how I was able to watch a lot of old episodes of The Phil Silvers Show because someone just posted every episode from all four seasons.

5. TV. I'm a big fan of the USA Network. I watch In Plain Sight, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, White Collar and Psych. I like classic TV instead of the reality crap on now.

6. Movies. I like action movies, comedies, movies made in the 1940's. I'd probably watch anything just as long as it isn't a horror movie or a women's movie that deals with real life relationships and issues or musicals.

Thank you JoeRudi for this good idea.

[JoeRudi26]

Thank you JoeRudi for this good idea.

Good post, Y4L, and thanks.  I hope more people jump in here and post.  It's fun to see what other people are interested in, or just what they do for fun.

[DylanBradbury]

Really good idea for a thread Joe.

1. Music: I can't imagine my world without it. I listen to a lot of old stuff from the 60s and 70s, as well as anything that sparks my interest. Often if I hear a song I like, I'll try to find and listen to the whole album. And if I like the whole album, I'll try to get every album by that band or musician. A good example of this: Goodtimes.avi, the music video on the Windows 95 installation CD. I loved the song so I found the album it was on, and have been thoroughly enjoying it ever since.

Also, my favourite album of all-time is the New Radicals' Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. Most of you would probably remember the band from their hit You Get What You Give (in my opinion the greatest song ever written). If you read the Wikipedia article on the band, the band disbanded after front man, Gregg Alexander, grew sour with the music industry. Much like MVP Baseball 2005, any New Radicals merchandise sells for a high price on eBay. Also, check out any song ever written by Alexander, you'll be in music heaven.

Besides the aforementioned, I enjoy The Beatles, David Usher, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, the Barenaked Ladies, the Gin Blossoms, The Moffatts, and Christmas music (see below) and much more.

2. Old (or cancelled) television shows: Television shows like Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Carol Burnett Show are great. Comedy before comedians had to spell things out for the viewer.

Recently it seems shows I really enjoy get cancelled. Smith (cancelled after three episodes), Life With Bonnie, Joan of Arcadia, Freaks and Geeks, Life As We Know It, and my all-time favourite show Arrested Development.

I also watch-if I'm bored-Jeopardy. I'm good at it. Also, lately NBC's Thursday night lineup (minus The Office) is pretty good. That's up until 30 Rock. I don't watch any sort of reality, that includes the shows like Marriage Ref.

3. Old (circa 1990-1998) computer programs: I love, and will continue to play and LucasArts point-and-click adventure. Those games were so great; the story behind them, the incredible hand drawn artwork. Games like Zak McKracken, Maniac Mansion, Monkey Islands I and II, The Dig, etc.

I also love old computer applications like Microsoft Bob, and the Microsoft Entertainment Packs. Anything from the "Microsoft Home" era.

4. Flight Simulators: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 is a lot of fun. It can also be relaxing to just fly. In flight simulators, there's absolutely no boundries or goals just to have fly.

5. Christmas music: I really enjoy Christmas music. Often stores have discount CD bins, and occasionally there's a great Christmas album that sparks my eye.

6. YouTube videos: I recently started watching vlogs like Internet Killed Television, and then musicians like DeStorm. One of my favourite subscriptions is MysteryGuitarMan.

7. Excel Spreadsheets: I'm really proficient at any MS Office program, but Excel's my thing.

8. Baking: Recently, I started making banana bread or peanut butter cookies, when I get a day off from work. It's very rewarding making something and then enjoying eating it with family and friends.

10. Keeping in touch with friends: Out of all my friends, I was the only one who decided university wasn't for me. (And oddly, the first one accepted in my school to university.) It's tough, but I try my best to keep in touch with them.

11. Reading: I go in waves with books, sometimes I can read a four-hundred page book it two days, other books in can take me two years. Authors include Dean Koontz, Agatha Christie, and other mystery/suspense novels.

12. Films: I watch the occasional movie when it comes to my local library's DVD collection. A really good movie I saw recently was Joshua.

That's about it.

Again, really good idea for a thread Joe.

[JoeRudi26]

I don't know how I missed it, but I completely forgot to add music to my list. I played music (80's and 90's radio Top 40) in the clubs for about 15 years, but I like a wide variety.

Music: Nickleback, Creed, Alter Bridge, Hinder, Scorpions, Dokken, Van Halen, Boston, Eric Johnson, Mat Kearney, Maroon Five, Espin Lind, TNT

[gowingsgo8803]

Awesome thread concept.

1. Sports: If I didn't have access to sports, I'd off myself. I love writing about it (www.voiceofvaleri.com), watching it, reading it, analyzing it, playing it. I've been playing baseball for 17 years (I'm 22 in June), and I'm back into playing hockey this year. My mom hates it, but with 3 males in the house, she's become a sports expert with names, positions, teams and sometimes contracts. It's hilarious.

2. Wrestling: I love it. I've been watching since I can remember and I'll continue to do so for the rest of my life, despite the product being God-awful. Some of my friends are huge wrestling fanatics, others continue to argue that its "gay" or "fake", but it's in one ear and out the next. If I had a choice of being able to do anything in the world, regardless of location, money, family, friends, etc., I think hockey and wrestling would be my 1 and 1A.

3. Work: I'm in sports journalism (did you guess sports?), and I got lucky enough to work for TSN (Canadian version of ESPN, basically) for 3 stints over four years. Easily the greatest thing I've ever done. I was putting together the highlight packs and anchor scripts for baseball, hockey, tennis and soccer games. It wasn't even "work", if that makes sense. Has anyone else had a job/career that they'd go to each and every day even if they weren't paid for it? Maybe it's just me. I go in to "work", watch a baseball game, write about it, make a highlight video, and then have it broadcast for the entire country to see. No complaints doing that for the rest of my life. The fact that I got paid for it was just gravy on top.

4. Gaming: Mostly PC & PS3. Right now, I'm high on NHL 10, MGS4 and Drake's Uncharted Fortune.

5. TV: I'll watch sports (NHL, MLB, NFL, NBA, F1), sitcoms and comedies. King of Queens, Fresh Prince, South Park, House, That 70's show. All good stuff. I watch far more of this than I should.

6. Music: I'm mostly into grunge, alternative/mainstream and old rock. Grunge stuff like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, ACDC, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush. Alternative/mainstream is stuff like Our Lady Peace, Oasis, Weezer, Jet, etc.. Old rock is stuff like Foreigner, Tom Petty, Joan Jett, Boston, Scorpions, Twisted Sister, etc.

7. Movies: Anything comic-turned-movie is great. Sci-Fi, thriller, comedy. Stuff like Blade, X-Men, Spiderman, The Godfather, Rocky, Scarface, Wedding Crashers, Step Brothers, etc.

8. Eating: I love food. Red meat is my favourite, so burgers, steak, rabbit, lamb is all key. My motto is 'if it has a face, I'll eat it.' Except for fish. Bacon FTW. Cheese is a close second. I eat far more of these than my health should allow.

9. Sleeping/napping. Contrary to common sense, sleeping is very productive.

10. Looking at girls I'll never be able to date. Kate Beckinsale, Evangeline Lilly, Jessica Alba/Biel. The list goes on. And on. It's not even fair.

11. Man-crushes. That's right. In every sport, there's always a few people who are either, A) very good looking, or are so awesome that you talk about them all the time, whether it's because they're on your favourite team, you like their style of play, they saved your fantasy team, etc. As you can imagine, I get teased about this. Right now, Cole Hamels is my man-crush. He's a sex machine, but it's too bad he's been garbage the past two seasons. Jim Edmonds is a close second. Steve Yzerman (retired) for hockey, Jason Kidd for the NBA and Aaron Rodgers for the NFL.

[Sean O]

Nice.

1). Sports - Competition is fascinating. I've recently become really bored with US-only sports, and tried to branch out into foreign sports that don't get much press around here. It's one of the benefits of the internet age, where you can watch a live soccer game in Moscow or a regatta in Austria. I was raised a baseball and basketball fan, but also had parents who were huge into the America's Cup due to our proximity to Newport, RI. Then in 8th grade I got into auto racing, specifically Formula One and Indycar. Now I'm into anything fast and with corners.

2). Design / Architecture - specifically sport architecture, fittingly enough. Architecture in 2010 is simply terrible and in desperate need of a return to the old ways of design. And, obviously, I draft religiously.

3). Tech - I check engadget a dozen times a day. I plan computer purchases months in advance. I'm a geek.

4). Politics - like everything else, extremely opinionated.

5). Music - music is my drug. Thank god for the Zune Pass, so I can listen constantly.

Those are the big 5. No great surprises, really.

[Yankee4Life]

9. Sleeping/napping. Contrary to common sense, sleeping is very productive.

You see, when I tell this to my wife she doesn't believe me.

[JoeRudi26]

I had mentioned earlier that one of my hobbies was playing music (guitar) back in "the day".  Here's an old pic I dug up from the band circa about 1992.  I'm on the far left.  Go ahead, it's ok to laugh.      

 Ok, Trues, it's your  turn.

[Sean O]

I had mentioned earlier that one of my hobbies was playing music (guitar) back in "the day".  Here's an old pic I dug up from the band circa about 1992.  I'm on the far left.  Go ahead, it's ok to laugh.      

 Ok, Trues, it's your  turn.

As an admin, I demand you change your avatar to your cropped head.

[JoeRudi26]

As an admin, I demand you change your avatar to your cropped head.

No way man, the 90's mullet is bad enough.  Now if we can get Trues to post his old band pic in here..

[Yankee4Life]

I've got a picture of Trues with his band back in the day. Here he is pictured next to David Lee Roth in this photo as he went by his stage name of Eddie Van Halen.

I'm not making this up. Trues can do anything!

[MarkB]

No way man, the 90's mullet is bad enough.  Now if we can get Trues to post his old band pic in here..

Hey, do what the man says! No funky avatar, no membership! Banishment will be forced down from the Gods above! :D