

Ask HN: What else do you do besides computers? - clyfe

I seem to spend way too much time on the PC. 9 hours as a job. And then comes the hobby / personal hacking. And then there are news/movies and knowlege, and other entertainment.<p>For inspirational purposes, what do <i></i>you<i></i> do that does not involve a PC?
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mindcrime
Over the years hobbies have come and gone, but some of my other interests
include:

Mountain Biking

Wrestling (amateur wrestling, that is. I wrestled in High School)

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu / Submission Wrestling

Powerlifting / strength training

Running (mostly trail running these days, when I run)

Live music - I'm mostly a metal-head and I love a good live metal/rock show.
But I also like classical, so I'll go to an NC Symphony Orchestra performance
every once in a while.

Watching Doctor Who and Torchwood.

During football season I like to go out to a sports-bar and eat wings and
watch the Miami Dolphins games. I'm also a UNC Tarheels fan, but I am not as
into the college game as I am the NFL.

Every now and then I like to do the dance club scene, although not as much as
when I was younger.

Reading is big: I like horror, suspense/thriller stuff, sci-fi, fantasy, urban
fantasy, and all sorts of non-fiction topics. Most of my non-fiction interests
are fairly typical geek fare though: various topics on science, math,
philosophy, economics, etc.

I'm also something of a Libertarian activist and actually ran for Lieutenant
Governor of NC in 2008 (I wasn't elected.)

~~~
bartonfink
No shit? You're Philip Rhodes? I voted for you (and then got the hell out of
NC).

~~~
mindcrime
Yeah, that's me. :-)

Oh yeah, and thanks for the vote! I didn't win, but I did pretty well by
historical standards for a LP candidate for state-wide office in NC.

~~~
bartonfink
Well it was good to have LP candidates to vote for. I hope you guys make some
inroads even though I won't be around to see it.

I went to Wake Forest, stayed around for a few years after in Winston-Salem
and found that, as my friends from college moved and were getting better jobs
elsewhere, I wasn't making new friends and my career was fairly stagnant
(Winston isn't the best job market).

~~~
mindcrime
Yeah, Winston-Salem isn't exactly a hotbed of activity. :-)

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bartonfink
I'm married, with a baby on the way and a couple of dogs. That eats up most of
what I used to call 'fun time'. I don't do any hobby or personal hacking,
although I do consulting outside of my day-job and am able to scratch that
itch that way.

When I can find 'fun time', I abuse the hell out of my Netflix membership,
mostly by watching historical foreign films, documentaries and crime dramas. I
am also a fairly skilled bowler, with a 186 average. I am an unskilled but
enthusiastic golfer with an average closer to my bowling average than I'd
like. I read as well, although my tastes are a bit unusual (last book I read
to completion was Vergil's Aeneid in the original Latin - I'm working through
Atlas Shrugged at the moment).

Not sure what inspiration you can draw out of that, but I'm sure this will put
Google one step closer to tying all my online identities together.

~~~
mindcrime
_I'm working through Atlas Shrugged at the moment)_

What do you think so far? How far into it are you?

 _Not sure what inspiration you can draw out of that, but I'm sure this will
put Google one step closer to tying all my online identities together._

Heh, I've given up hope on that front. I suppose you could say "officially"
now, since I mentioned earlier the one thing that's an absolute, sure-fire
dead giveaway to my real-life identity. <shrug /> Oh well, if somebody can
connect the dots of all my various online accounts, more power to 'em.

~~~
bartonfink
I'm only 150 or so pages into it - Dagny is reminiscing about her teenage
years with that prince she used to date (don't remember his name right now). I
still have a ways to go, and the family makes it hard to make big chunks of
progress into the book. I carve out 15-20 pages here and there, but I always
feel a little sad when I have to put the book down and deal with something
else.

As for how I like it, thus far I am a little concerned about one point. The
characters that I think I'm supposed to like (Dagny and the prince boyfriend)
all seem to have gotten where they are by being born into awesome situations.
Don't get me wrong - Dagny is a hell of a lot more sympathetic than her
brother, for example - but it's hard to look at her as a "self-made woman"
when the railroad has been a family business for like 5 generations. I'm
hoping Hank Rearden shows up more, because he seems more in line with someone
I'd sympathize with.

Other than that, though, I like it quite a bit. It's almost like my own
thoughts are echoing back to me. I think it would be interesting to see what
Rand would have done had she been alive now and whether the advent of the
Internet, for example, would have changed some of the isolation she writes
into her characters. Also, Dagny would have been able to track down that
missing symphony she heard the train conductor whistling a lot easier.

~~~
mindcrime
_The characters that I think I'm supposed to like (Dagny and the prince
boyfriend) all seem to have gotten where they are by being born into awesome
situations. Don't get me wrong - Dagny is a hell of a lot more sympathetic
than her brother, for example - but it's hard to look at her as a "self-made
woman" when the railroad has been a family business for like 5 generations._

That's true, but there seems to be a concerted effort throughout the story to
tie her - in a sort of spiritual sense - to her grandfather who built the
railroad originally. She thinks about him a lot and you get the sense that she
is - at times - asking herself "Can I be as good a person as he was, can I be
that brave, that strong, etc?"

By the end of the book I felt a lot of sympathy for both Dagny and Rearden.

------
th0ma5
Guitar practice

Sailing (both small one-designs, and helping crew on things like catalinas)

Drawing

Going for a drive and listening to music or talk programs

The never ending quest for a new or better pizza

Social online mixer type real-world events

Museums

Conferences, and generally travel

Ham radio (oops, mostly PC hah)

Kites (and kite aerial photography)

Swimming

I would like to get more into rock climbing

Visiting family, friends, small business owners

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clueless123
Nothing like going flying..

As much as I can, I go fly Airplanes, Sailplanes, Paragliders or go Skydiving.
In all this activities I am forced to focus 110% on the activity at hand,
leaving no space for work stuff to keep running in the subconscious, making
the activity incredibly freeing.

(It is kind of a kill -9 for work related zombie processes )

Ps. Recently I found out Yoga also does the trick

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amathew
Powerlifting/Strength training

Comic books

Reading

Record Collecting (late 70s punk,60s/70s soul, and new house and techno 12"s)

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eengstrom
Reading. Cooking. Wine. Travel. Gardening. TV. Sailing. Guitar. Cats.

I didn't do much of this when I was in my 20's, was all about work. My 30's
seemed to be about spending time with myself, less with other people. Now I'm
over that phase (and nearly the age bracket), I'm looking for more social
things to do in the out doors (other than bbq and beer). Rafting, live music,
fishing and hunting are things I'm trying to do more of.

Pretty much anything that involves one or two of my friends. I'm obsessive
about reading, actual print books and tend to consume them bibliographically.
Just finished a run on our first founding fathers. Last year was history of
sail, wars and politics. Pretty boring to talk about with non-interested
parties, fascinating to read, but isolating.

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sgoraya
>> What else do you do besides computers?

Wife and one child provide a lot of 'doing' :)

I have a mountain bike that I ride around nearly every evening for at least an
hour (a lot longer on weekends)- I ride that same bike to a gym three times a
week;

Read a book;

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DanielStraight
Cooking is definitely my top hobby. It allows almost unlimited creativity, and
you get to _eat_ the results. Does it get any better?

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pzxc
Does playing with my smartphone count (it is not a pc)? Hehe.

Seriously: Reading books, tennis, swimming, lifeplanning, occasionally going
out for a drink with friends.

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JoeAltmaier
Scout leader, enable a game club at the local high school, support a disabled
vet, go to classical music concerts.

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atgm
Kendo, Photography, Cooking, Reading... though the reading is on a Kindle,
which may count as a computer for you.

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tfitzgerald
Painting, cooking, and photography.

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clojurerocks
Triathlons

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lhorie
martial arts and guitar

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justinj
get wet (surf), get lost (travel), get warm (icehockey).

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erichcervantez
I raise a family ;)

