
Ask HN: What do you do on weekend? - anildigital
What do you do on weekend? (for programmers)
======
tptacek
Saturday is my sleep-in day, Sunday is Erin's. I'm on the hook for dinner
Saturday night; I try to do something interesting. Sunday night I tend to
watch TV.

In between, I get some super-unproductive computer time in and hang out with
the kids. Recently, it's been Mindstorms. Last weekend we picked apples. This
weekend is my sister's wedding. Next weekend I owe my son his belated promised
Dim Sum birthday lunch.

A couple weekends from now, I'm doing a class in Chicago for cryptography for
security testers. If that works out well, I'll probably try to do some kind of
class every other month. A class occupies two weekends, one for the class (and
dinner afterwards) and one before that to rehearse.

More than you wanted to know, but hey, thanks for giving me the chance to
straighten my schedule out in my head.

~~~
pasbesoin
Reminded me to check the website for the local orchard. Golden Delicious
picking scheduled to start next weekend. Yum! And a few hours in the orchard
is generally one of the highlights of the year. :-)

~~~
tptacek
Always go earlier in the year than you think you should; right now is perfect.
:)

~~~
pasbesoin
Microclimate keeps this one a bit behind others in the area, in addition to
the region running a bit late this year. But will try to be there on the first
day they open up the Golden Delicious to picking.

------
petercooper
Exactly the same as during the week. As I work for myself weekends are normal
days like any other. I just take random days off with no regard for what name
they have.

My wife has always worked weird shifts (and is now off for a year on maternity
leave) so it works family-wise.. and we don't have to wrestle with the
horrible weekend crowds at places. The only real benefit of the weekend is
less e-mail to deal with :)

------
dfranke
The same thing I do every weekend, Pinky...

~~~
comster
Try to take over the world!

------
b-man
Meet with friends, some scheme coding, little running, sometimes surfing,
beer, stoned gaming, judo/jiujitsu. Oh, and

if has-girlfriend

    
    
      girlfriend pleasing
    

else

    
    
      girl hunting
    

end

~~~
keefe
don't forget...

if count-girlfriend > 1 juggle

------
edw519
Code with less interruptions.

~~~
Novash
Ditto. Code my own projects with little to no interruptions.

------
mrshoe
<http://dieselweb.org/>

<http://shoptalkapp.com/>

Ah, the joys of bootstrapping a startup on the side...

------
staunch
Some combination of:

Programming, Reading, Drinking, Poker, PC Gaming (Urban Terror, StarCraft,
UT3, Quake), Magic: The Gathering, Catching up on entire seasons of good
shows, Movie theater, Shopping (food), Walking (w/dogs)

Big fan of being home on the weekend. I like my home.

------
apalmblad
Get the hell away from a computer. Heh, that sounds negative. I love by job
but I find it easiest to keep balanced by getting away as much as I can for
the weekends. For me, that's hiking, climbing, and back-country skiing. I pay
for managed hosting for a reason.

Or work on code of a more interesting variety. As a startup founder, there's
usually an interesting problem percolating in the back of my mind, and some
days just finding a nice coffee shop and working on code with less
distractions is perfect.

------
wheels
What's a weekend?

~~~
tptacek
The 2 days you allocate to every week to keep yourself from burning out in 3
years and then spending 7 months doing nothing but following links on Reddit.

~~~
dschobel
_doing nothing but following links on Reddit_

ah, the good old corporate job.

~~~
CyberFonic
Which means you shouldn't be at work on those two days of the week.

------
mangoleaf
1) Continue playing taxi by driving son to engagements. 2) Downtime from taxi
work: movies, hang out at beach, etc. 3) Step back from implementation and
think big picture. Meditate on what I have been working on. Veg-out. Let the
mind wander. It has often wandered interestingly.

------
raquo
Some times I even meet with friends on weekends.

------
davidw
I play my favorite video game: emacs.

Joking aside, I make sure to do a bike ride on Sunday, and lately, I spend
lots of time with my daughter.

------
iuguy
Admin saturday. I do all the business stuff that gets in the way during the
week and (if time permits) write some proposals or produce some deliverables
without interruption.

Sunday I try to keep as my day, which I spend with the one I love.

------
allanj37
I brew and/or drink beer! Camping, computer games, ultimate frisbee as well.

------
JangoSteve
I used to work straight through, nothing like 2 entire uninterrupted days of
pure productivity. Then I got a girlfriend. Now I spend those 2 days being
productive in other parts of my life.

------
dnaquin
watch football.

------
tgittos
A random grab bag of spend time with my partner and friends, watch movies,
read, code personal projects, blog and goof off online.

Some weeks I'm really energetic about progressing in my personal projects (or
getting side tracked and coming up with new ones), lately though I've been
avoiding computers.

Tonight I might drink, then try some drunk coding.

------
warp
I spend two weekends per month just at home, mostly coding +reading/playing
video games. The other two weekend usually involve concerts/festivals or just
visiting friends.

I need that balance, too much activity on weekends means my head won't calm
down when i need it to... and too long without seeing normal people and i get
lonely :)

------
ax0n
If it's like the last two weekends, I'm going to be working. so far 18 days
without a proper day off.

~~~
logicalmind
I hope you are working for you own company. If not, maybe you should be...

~~~
ax0n
Well, it was only ~5-10 hours per weekend 2 weekends in a row, and it was in
the name of making stuff easier for my team for the future. In general, I like
my job.

And I actually got out on my bike the past two weekends without working, got
some computers built to hopefully find their way into the homes of school kids
who need something simple at home, and I'm about 18 chapters deep into Snow
Crash, which I feel REALLY BAD for putting off for so long. Never read it
before.

------
icey
Anymore I write more software on Saturday & Sunday than I do M-F. So which one
is my weekend?

------
wmblaettler
Act as stay-at-home Dad since my wife works as an RN for 28-32 hours over the
weekend and is off during the week, where I work 40 hours + parttime
freelance/hacking. Clean, cook (I enjoy cooking immensely), fix stuff around
the house, spend time with the kids.

------
sgoraya
If we are not headed out of town:

\- Clean up around the house / garage / yard-work

\- Wash the truck if needed

\- Watch a movie or sports (I like to set aside time for at least one football
game if possible)

\- Read lazily into the afternoons

\- Videogames if time allows - my ps3 is collecting dust and a couple of
unopened games...

------
felideon
Get out of the house for my family's sake. (With them of course.) We also
sleep or watch a movie in the afternoon if my son is tired and needs a nap.

At night I try to be productive and hack, or I do some research/reading since
my mind is not fatigued.

------
logic
Wrenching and racing. Occasionally programming, as it relates to wrenching and
racing.

~~~
PStamatiou
auto-x, scca, drag, what? i tinker with a mustang myself.

------
Travis
Weekends are when I'm able to work on my startup. Compressed work schedule for
paying job, 4 days x 10 hrs / day. 3 day weekends mean I can relax and put
some solid hours in on my startup.

------
leviathant
Go to a concert Go kayaking Work on the house Dishes, laundry, groceries,
lawnmowing Drive to another city (east coast megalopolis FTW) Stay in and
chill with me wifey Work on music stuff

~~~
apgwoz
Who needs the rest of megalopolis when there's nyc? :)

------
potatolicious
Taking pictures. I hate exercise, and the only way I'd get out of the house is
with the promise of good photo ops. This weekend I'm doing a 13mi bike ride to
get pics from a lighthouse.

------
PStamatiou
typically dinner and drinks with a couple of friends friday night. catch up on
sleep, wake up 10-11am saturday, clean up the apartment (more productive when
it's clean!), take the puppy for a super-long walk, work on my blog (it pays
more than my startup does, so gotta show it some love), keep working on the
blog, go out for dinner with friends, wake up late sunday, finish working on
blog, then back to startup work until 1-3am. then startup stuff during the
week. more or less.

------
movix
Surf, learn and practice bushcraft techniques, daydream about owning a
campervan for kids/bikes/surboards, take photographs of clouds, go fishing but
never catch anything.

------
PieSquared
Practice capoeira, spin poi and contact staff, contact juggle, read, program
my own projects, play Dungeons and Dragons and see moview with friends. In
general, live.

------
leftnode
Is this only what I do programming wise, or for all programmers? Cause I:

* mow the lawn

* exercise

* clean the house

* watch some TV with my wife

And then programming-wise, I work on my side projects and work on building my
own software company.

------
jhancock
Saturday I spend with my son. Sunday, a bit of rest. If I'm feeling fidgety, I
spend a little time online but am trying to find better outlets.

------
Mongoose
Read and fiddle with code by day. Hang out and imbibe with friends by night.
I've been doing a lot of tea tasting around Seattle lately too.

------
rokhayakebe
Email bloggers, or reply. Email distribution partners, or reply. Make changes
on the site. Then from 11PM until 2 AM I actually go out.

------
kd5bjo
\- On call

\- Sleep

\- Spend time outside

\- <http://sfgames.org/>

\- <http://www.berkeleygoclub.org/>

------
alum
Sometimes I'm on the computer, sometimes not, but I always try and catch the
Arsenal match (whether on TV or some online feed).

------
astrec
If the weather obliges I might go paragliding, if not geocaching. Which ever
way it pans out there shall be beer.

------
tokenadult
Watch children's soccer games after teaching my supplemental math lessons, at
this time of year.

------
timmaah
Make sure I spend some time outside away from the computer and technology in
general...

~~~
RossM
Very successfully in your case!

~~~
timmaah
Curious as to what your reply is referring to?

(Still Friday here..)

------
timwiseman
Play with the kids and try to get caught up on my homework for my Master's
program.

------
steveplace
I talk about the stock market for 2 hours live on stocktwits.tv

------
herdrick
Headed to the beach this weekend, I think. Will snorkle.

------
DarrenMills
I would be glad to share, but I cannot remember.

------
dkasper
The same things I do any other time.

------
msluyter
Boardgames.

------
ApolloRising
Dog Parks and Hiking

