

What do you do for fun on Friday, Saturday nights? - jaytee_clone

I love meeting entrepreneurs and hackers, or just motivated and brilliant people in general.<p>From my experience, the best time to make friends is during recreational activities as suppose to conferences. I could be wrong since I have been to far less conferences than "parties".<p>Thus, I'd like to conduct a survey to see what fun and social activities you guys do on Friday and Saturday nights.<p>Eventually, it will be nice to have a comprehensive data set, but let's just start with activities and places first.<p>Thank you for your input.
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thedob
Living in NYC, Friday and Saturday nights tend to revolve around restaurants
and bars. Although drinking is generally involved, this doesn't mean that it
isn't a good time to get to know and engage in conversation with other
entrepreneurs and hackers.

From my experience, the best way to quickly become friends with someone is to
share a couple beers with them. Plenty of business, coding, and good general
technical discussion can follow later.

~~~
iron_ball
Who would downmod that? It's not original, and I suppose it could sound like a
call to alcoholism, but it's been a highly successful model for acquaintances
and friendships for as long as beer has existed.

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scott_s
If that sounds like a call to alcoholism to someone, then I submit they don't
understand alcoholism.

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saroj
beer is a religion ;)

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tjic
I'm an introvert.

Friday night I head home, cook dinner, play with my dogs, fire up the
woodburning stove if it's chilly, and read a book. Maybe call a friend or an
out of state family member on the phone.

Saturday night I head out to "Guy's Night" with one or two friends - grab
dinner out, head home, watch a DVD.

It sounds boring as hell, but it's exactly what I want to do.

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ardit33
no time with the ladies?

either dating them, or chasing them around?

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roberte3
Here in Seattle we have a group called Saturday House
(<http://saturdayhouse.org>), its a great meeting place, for meeting smart
people who are working on great projects. (The tag line is a barcamp every
weekend.) Usually at the end of Saturday House a group tends to head out on
the town and have dinner at various locations.

Also there is the Six Hour Startup Group that I run,
<http://sixhourstartup.com> which hosts events on Sundays at one of the local
bars.

We also have a Startup Drinks organization (Last Friday of every month,
<http://seattle.startupdrinks.com>) and Hops and Chops www.hopsandchops.com
(Every Thursday Night).

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tocomment
why oh why can't Stamford, CT have stuff like that?!

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pgebhard
I suppose you could start it yourself. :) If you feel so strongly that way, I
bet there are others out there like you, too.

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yan
I started climbing indoors every week last year and have been keeping up with
it since. It's very social, fun and develops your body in ways few other
hobbies can. There are rock gyms in most densely populated areas I believe.

Plus there's less of a tendency for awkward, quiet moments as you get a break
from eye-to-eye contact when you're actually climbing.

~~~
tocomment
Isn't that expensive? Do you go by yourself or others? The one near me is
inside a big sports store and no one is ever using the wall. I feel like all
the shoppers would stare at me if I climbed there.

~~~
yan
The ones inside big sport stores aren't really climbing walls. They're more
like attractions.

I pay $60/month for climbing (in Maryland), or it's $16 to go once. Rental
harness and shoes is about $9. The prices fluctuate depending on the gym you
go to though. Mine offers classes sometimes too, so if you want to take those
it will be more money, but by all means they're not required. Try to find a
local rock gym; googling works fine and searching climbing forums.

I go with a few coworkers who also caught the climbing bug, there are also
always regulars at the gym who you get to know after a while and I sometimes
meet new people at the gym to belay me. (You can't really climb by yourself as
you need a person to support you on the ground ['belay'] unless you're
bouldering. Bouldering is close to the ground and is generally more inventive
and harder as the problems (a problem is a set of hand/foot holds that you
have to traverse to complete a route in bouldering) tend to be very technical.
For more actual explanation on how everything works, wikipedia is a great
resource, or alternatively, you can just contact me.

It's a great hobby, in my opinion. Good for physical development, good for
meeting new people and very rewarding as you see yourself progress to harder
climbs.

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chriskelley
Friday and Saturday are the two nights per week that I go to bed early. I'm in
bed by 9pm on Friday and not much later than 10 on Saturday.

Social scene is during the day. Saturday I spend playing rugby and hanging out
with the club, no working. Sunday I have no-pressure brunch with my closest
friends. Sunday afternoon I get a massage, and Sunday night is one of most
productive coding sessions of the week - decompressing your brain for a couple
days does amazing things.

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sidsavara
It's more like a 3 step plan:

1) Go to a tech event on a weeknight, meet with people in a "formal" setting.
2) Conversation drifts to non-tech interests, comraderie develops 3) THEN on a
Friday or Saturday night, I meet up with some of these same people in a more
social setting

In addition:

4) ??? 5) Profit!

~~~
jaytee_clone
Kudos. That's the model I'm going for, except that I'm trying to skip the
first part. (Low on cash)

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sysop073
Reading HN is the cornerstone of any fun Friday night

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NoBSWebDesign
I usually reserve conferences for weekday evenings if at all possible; it
makes me feel less guilty if I end up drinking during the week at a conference
than at a party or a bar.

Friday nights, we usually have band practice or a show somewhere, followed by
drinking and hanging out with fans and friends. Saturday nights are usually
filled with more partying or taking my girlfriend on a date.

I've spent many many weekends over the past few years working straight through
on my startup, but since we've started to turn the corner of profitability,
I've stopped doing that.

~~~
jaytee_clone
I used to play in a band too.

Now that I'm working on a start-up I stopped playing music.

Hopefully I will get to the position you're at now.

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ConradHex
On a good Friday night, I go to the local comic shop and play a collectible
card game. (One that's sort of like Magic: the Gathering, but different.)

I know, I know. Wild times, right? I enjoy it a lot, though. You get to use
your brain, it's very competitive, and the social interaction is great.

~~~
foulmouthboy
Which one? Is it The Spoils? Cause I've been thinking of trying that one out.

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ConradHex
I haven't tried Spoils. It's the World of Warcraft TCG. Very fun.

EDIT: It's been out a couple years now, and is going pretty strong. Check it
out if you get a chance.

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makaimc
I don't play either WOW or the card game based on it, so I'm wondering, why
would you play with cards over the online version?

~~~
ConradHex
It's such an apples-vs-oranges comparison, and it's also largely a personal
choice. I do play the card game over the online game, though, regularly.

People who've played lots of Magic say that the WoW card game is a better game
than Magic, for what it's worth.

EDIT: Oh, I misread your question. Why? Well, it's sort of like the difference
between driving a car and riding a bike. A bike isn't a crappy car, it's
fundamentally different, with its own set of strengths.

Also, the collectible card game is NOT a simulation or re-creation of the
online game. It's more like Magic set in the WoW universe.

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jasonlbaptiste
i live in the valley. i go to tech parties paid for overfunded startups where
liquor is free... wait those times are over.

~~~
aston
I take it you missed the Yelp party yesterday?

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jasonlbaptiste
was sick :-(.

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iloveyouocean
I really enjoy the local Contra Dance scene. Most populous areas (and even
some rural areas) hold regular dances.

For those not familiar with Contra Dancing, it is a called set dance vaguely
reminiscent of Square Dancing, but the scene is very different. A very
eclectic group of people from all walks of life attend. Most everyone is
friendly and it is a great way to meet people.

~~~
jaytee_clone
I never heard of that dance before. It does look quite eclectic.

I usually go out and salsa dance once a week.

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markbao
I... I work.

Being a student (hs) means weekends are prime time for working.

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tptacek
I watch Kung Fu Panda with my kids.

~~~
light3
lol! No man you should be playing board games, reading stories and teaching
them to code !!!!!

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pistoriusp
I usually spend one evening at home with my girlfriend and the other evening
going out with my girlfriend. We usually go out for dinner, or out with
friends... Sometimes we just have dinner outside on the patio with a bottle of
wine.

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sh1mmer
My wife is an artist so tech talk is banned, at least it is if she doesn't
have someone to gossip with.

We live in San Francisco and tend to go see friends for dinner or drink, or
meet them out some where. Sometimes we go to tech-event after-parties. I know
and work with a bunch of guys who bring their wives/gfs who talk to each other
while we talk shop.

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brandnewlow
If you're in Chicago, tomorrow night we're hosting a meetup on the north side
for local writers, photographers, "twitter people" and anyone else who likes
beer. [http://www.mypunchbowl.com/parties/407573-windy-citizen-
dece...](http://www.mypunchbowl.com/parties/407573-windy-citizen-december-
meetup)

~~~
jaytee_clone
Kudos. I'm not in Chicago, but I applaud your effort.

~~~
brandnewlow
One of our writers <http://www.twitter.com/annatarkov> decided to get on
twitter about 2 months ago. She's now got almost 1000 followers, including
just about anyone who's anyone in the media in Chicago. She's been promoting
the heck out of our little meetup. I'm pretty stoked. Motivate the right
people and they'll spread the word about your project!

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pavelludiq
This weekend i plan to just read "python for unix and linux system
administration". Anyone else read it? Is it good?

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fn
The following keep me sane after the normal insane workweeks: Swing dancing on
Friday night, and hanging out with my girlfriend on Saturday night.

~~~
jaytee_clone
Agree. I make sure I dance once a week too (salsa).

Unfortunately. (or fortunately depending on the perspective) I still don't
have the time for the second one.

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truebosko
I live in Waterloo, and all my friends from highschool / college are pretty
much in Toronto or other areas so hanging out with them is pretty tough but
generally:

Friday - Sit at home with the girlfriend, relax, watch a movie, just
appreciate that you've completed a good week of work. Oh wait, too bad we both
work on Saturdays! She works 100% of the time, I work every second Saturday so
basically Friday's are a way to relax and go to bed early as usual :)

Saturday - We like clubbing on late Saturdays as it's close + good music.
Sometimes invite friends over, or go out to a restaurant, or try to check out
any events going on in the city (sadly, good night-time events are rare here)

Most of my outings in the past year have been during the week. Concerts and
other events which I go to a lot during the week. Geek meets on Mondays, etc.

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iloveyouocean
If you are interested in having a date on Friday or Saturday nights, check out
<http://flowmingle.com>

During the week we guide you through an introduction process with a group of
around 20 other local people. The introduction process ends on Friday. When
you find someone you are interested in we help you set up a meeting.

~~~
jaytee_clone
Cool site, but my intent for this post was more for non-romantic
socialization.

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charlesju
I code; we're in hardcore startup mode.

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peregrine
Quality time or so I like to call it.

Usually spent with the girlfriend, at friends, or very alone. I use the time
to relax and turn my brain off. I usually avoid alcohol and stick to things
more natural.

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symptic
If I'm not doing school work, I'm typically freelancing. School + Paying the
bills + Entrepreneurshipping is hard to maintain. Especially when two of them
are mere formalities.

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petercooper
Stay in and work / experiment / play. Why? You have no phone calls, no
"urgent" e-mails, or any of that when everyone _else_ is out having fun :)

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light3
I either spend these nights playing dota (I cram these into a binge dota
session), reading (If I find something) or playing the violin.

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msie
Having fun on a Friday or Saturday night would be nice... :(

~~~
Tichy
What prevents you from having it?

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msie
Heh, I prevent myself from having fun and I am the greatest obstacle of all to
surmount.

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shimonamit
bestofyoutube.com

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kingkongrevenge
I start gathering women for my one man orgy at about 8pm and am good to go for
the night with about six come 10pm.

