Hobbies

[icampy]

What are everyone's hobbies? I have a handful. Guns (modifying, shooting, building), knives, silencers, jeeps, hiking, general space stuff, hiking, tinkering with arduino but it got put on hold due to getting serious about school, building things in general, reading (love history and fantasy/sci-fi books), horror movies, and soon, hopefully, adding a telescope to my toys.

What about everyone else? Fishing (and bowfishing) used to be near top of my list until I moved to the desert.

Also, If you had access and time, what hobbies would you take up? I mean somewhat realistic, not "I would buy an island, start a fortune 50 company, cure cancer, and own a fleet of submarines". I would love to get into ham radio, learn CW, learn Russian, perfect my Spanish, fish every day, and build and fly a glider plane. If there were more hours in a day, and I was single...

[aviator guy]

My constant lifelong (or nearly so) hobbies have been flying, guns, mechanicin' (fixing/building/fabricating/tinkering) and boats.

With most of my time taken up with work and school , I don't do as much flying (but I try to stay in the air... going for my first glider flight soon; that may turn into my next rating) and most of my mechanicin' is done fixing cars and things around the house. My interest in guns has waned in recent years due to general stupidity in that hobby (high prices, shortages, newcomer morons, etc) and I haven't boated in a while but I REALLY want to get another boat.

Amateur radio (I even learned code) is one that I picked up about 10 years ago and that's been fun. It's kind of a dweeb hobby, but I've learned so much from it... you should try it. The time commitments aren't that horrible, and it's pretty easy to drop it and pick up where you left off without ill effects.

I really want to build an airplane (preferably a seaplane) one of these days. I'd also love to earn my A&P (airplane mechanic) certificate, and learn to sail. Maybe one day.

[icampy]

Very cool. I work in aerospace and a lot of guys I work with are building planes or have pilots licenses. Wish I had time to do that!

I love tinkering and building too. Just built an AR upper 2 weeks ago. I had always assembled lowers, but decided I wanted to start building uppers also. At work I fix/fabricate/machine/troubleshoot....last project was a Crew Capsule (the part of a rocket that people sit in) maintenance deck. Today is a rocket engine inspection fixture I have to build.

I live in a rural area now, and I'm generally the only one at the range (and it's a LE range), or if I'm just out in the desert, so I don't have to deal with the new guys or anyone else, actually. Ammo prices have normalized and it is available everywhere (I have been buying a lot from academy, free shipping over 25$ on everything).

I actually own a 2m radio for emergencies, obviously I don't broadcast on it. I started studying for a license about 5 years ago, started learning code, and was even communicating to a coworker (old timer ham guy) by writing in codre for everything, for practice. But I moved states and dropped all of that. That one is achieveable, after I finish schooling. I mainly want to be able to chat on 2m to hit these towers closeby for emergencies and whatnot. Line of sight out here is 50+ miles or more, so it's a good place for it. We have some repeaters on some closeby mountains that will allow me to reach a couple of big cities.

[Joeman200]

Hiking, geocaching, and fishing are my main hobbies. Also knives, I have a damascus bowie with rosewood. I would be into guns more if I had more money (I'm young), and I have an interest in radios too. I don't have a CB yet, but I've officially used 800s. If I had more time and money I would get into classic/sports car collecting... as soon as I win the lottery.

[icampy]

Nice. I enjoy knives too. I like to trade them to try out different models.

[Life Long Learning]

This Life Long Learning is my hobby! Hiking, softball, and knives here as well.

My Buck Knives (been to the factory), Spyderco, Benchmade, Becker, and a few Case, etc., if all made in the USA. I do have some kukri blades and been on a few patrol with real Gurkhas.

[cookderosa]

I blog and try to help homeschooling parents in my free time, it's probably the hobby that gets most of my time.
I collect hostas, especially the Hosta of the Year varieties.
I'm an extreme couponer (yes, like tv).
And, I love cooking for friends - especially if we can sit outside on our patio with some home grown-veggies, food on the grill and a nice wine. I do that every chance I get which is not nearly enough.
Lastly, I'm a little bit obsessed with the band Lifehouse.

[dfrecore]

My only hobby is this forum/helping friends & acquaintances wth their degrees. After that, parenting pretty much takes up ALL of my time! :-) I haven't watched TV in a week, at least.

WAIT - I lie! We are remodeling a bathroom/laundry room, and powder room. It is currently taking up a majority of my life, and I'm not exaggerating there. Even though I'm not doing the work, I'm basically GC and dealing with all subcontractors, and planning, going to HD or Lowe's to get the stuff we need, and keeping them all on track is exhausting.

[icampy]

Good responses.

I forgot one more of mine since it's mostly work related, but voluntary and an interest and almost a hobby. I'm a NREMT first responder and volunteer on (and formed, with 3 others) a ERT at work. I lug around a giant med kit, complete with o2, every day. We have an EMT instructor come out once a month for a 4 hour training session. In the process of forming a SFFMA Industrial EMS team, getting an ambulance, brush trucks, TX fire brigade training (ff1 if they let us, but doubt it), and rope rescue and confined space rescue. After I finish my degree, will try to get EMT-B using an online/hybrid version on my own (work still is balking at the time it takes to sponsor us). It will never be my job, just a volunteer. Our local hospitals are rural and very understaffed, so I will be volunteering at them, however little, to help them out. To put it into perspective, they have 1 main and 1 seconds ambulance in my town, and the janitor drives the ambulance because there isn't enough EMS personnel to keep 2 in the back and one driving. So they are even requesting NREMT EMR/TX ECA (what I am) on top of EMT volunteers.

Before I got serious about school last winter, I studied and learned on my own to improve my skills, so I consider it almost a hobby.

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Oh, response time to our site, IF they have personnel, is 1 hour. That's in ideal, perfect circumstances. Which is why we formed the ERT and are about to get an ambulance, we will be transporting to them to save time if we don't call a medivac, and even then we might meet the bird closer to town.

[Joeman200]

That's awesome! I just completed FF1&2 + hazmat awareness training myself. I'm only BLS certified but I really want to become a MFR/EMT-B. I was on a rural volunteer department but I would need my medical training if I wanted to apply for an actual job. I'm studying for the substance abuse DSST right now and my concern with medical training is the same with this test-- memorizing all these medical terms/drug names.