What not-so-common activities/passivities do you enjoy for casual fun?

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purkkimestari

Tell me what do you like to do for fun? Is it a craft, a game, a specific tv-show, writing poems? For example, I enjoy watching watching videos from tasvideos.org (speedruns of video games), and solving problems on projecteuler.net.

The "not-so-common" keyword in the title is left for the reader to freely Interpret, and should not cause arguing.
The purpose of the aforementioned keyword is to hopefully provide novel ideas for activities to people, as opposed to listing activities that most everyone has already considered.

I look forwards to hearing what activities you have discovered for yourself!
 
I have been VJ'ing in clubs for 10 years. I stopped a few years ago as it became too much. Having a full-time job and cruising around clubs all over Europe during the weekend was such an energy drain. I just couldn't keep up anymore. Both my job and the VJ'ing suffered as a consequence so I had to make a choice. The full-time job pays for my house, the car, food, etc. so it wasn't a very difficult choice. A sad one but not a difficult one.

Especially during summer it was extremely busy. Almost every weekend we played at some festival. And flying back and forth between Holland and Ibiza to do shows there too. In a typical week we flew to Ibiza on Sunday and did a show on Monday. On Wednesday we flew back to Holland to do a show on a Friday or Saterday. Sunday we flew back to Ibiza again. At the end of the summer I usually needed a vacation to recharge my batteries again.

It was the best time of my life. Being treated like a superstar, flown back and forth, 5 star hotels, the whole nine yards :)
 
I'm not very entertaining. I read a lot of nonfiction. I am very fascinated by the history of humans, occult, religion, the esoteric, law, psychology, myths, and other similar topics.

I also write and play music. I enjoy listening to instrumental music. If the music must have singing, I enjoy the likes of Tool.

I am also very interested in quantum physics. But, who isn't. I especially enjoy the holographic universe theory. But, that goes hand in hand with researching the occult and gnosticism. I dabble in other things, but those are my main interests.

I am slowly learning C and assembly. I'd like to be able to write hardware drivers.
 
purkkimestari said:
Tell me what do you like to do for fun?
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In one word: aviation.

I actually enjoy hanging around at large airports, watching the planes land and take off, preferably with a beer in my hand :beer I also fly myself: I do paragliding (a.k.a. parapente) and skydiving (a.k.a. parachuting or parachute jumping). In the past I have flown glider planes, but that was a long time ago and has fallen by the wayside since. And I'm interested in aeronautical engineering: gathering data on aircraft and using that to calculate various performance criteria, preferably as accurately as possible.

I used to play darts, billiards (sometimes pool, but mostly carambole), football (real football that is, not handegg) and badminton and do karate, but I don't (get to) do any of that a whole lot anymore.

Oh, and I used to play Magic: The Gathering, but I stopped playing when Wizards of the Coast released one expansion set too many for my taste and have recently sold the last cards I still had.

P.S. Of course I enjoy music, but in my case I wouldn't call it a hobby. I have a guitar and an amp, but I can only produce sound with it, not music (impulse buy, driven by a frustration over not being a rock star).
 
SirDice said:
I have been VJ'ing in clubs for 10 years ...And flying back and forth between Holland and Ibiza to do shows there too.
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Ibiza?! Wow nice going. You must have been pretty serious into it. Have I seen you on djforums.com by any chance?

I DJ for fun as well, mostly for small house parties or special occasions for friends. I spin vinyl only though since it gives me a chance to get away from a computer... and I LOVE VINYL. I am in a '90s alternative rock band and jam weekly. I enjoy the odd game of GURPS when possible (table-top, pen & paper RPG). My wife and I love to sail our 20ft Matilda day cruiser. But currently most of our spare time is consumed building a low impact, strawbale home. :)
 
Well, writing this is what I do in my spare time :D. I don't have to say that I like to play with computers.

Otherwise I like to read manga. I am also a trained operatic singer (I am a bassist), and I was singing for a while in our national opera (not for long though, since my physics studies were/are more important at the moment). I like many different kinds of music (classic, rock, most kinds of metal, some electronic, pop, disco, ambient etc.). I would like to test myself in a death metal band, since I also know how to growl, despite being a classical singer.

Like @h3z I listen to Tool a lot. But I'd also like to recommend some bands like Sólstafir, Gojira, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Metsatöl. Some of them are noticably heaver and may not be for everyone.

I like to think about physics and mathematics in general, although it's hard to say if it's in my spare time, since the distinction here is a bit blurred. Well, @h3z, here I will have to disagree with you, and say that quantum physics cannot really go hand in hand with the occult, and I don't share your passion for String theory (holographic universe came from there. I am more of a Loop quantum gravity guy, if gravitons can indeed be quantized in a sensible way).

I read Wikipedia to relax as well. Just some random page will do. I also like to read about different religions, traditions, beliefs, history of ancient civilizations, philosophy.

I like to read fairy tales, and learn about the people of those times -- their moral values, and how they changed over the time. Most of the fairy tales repeat throughout the world (with some slight variations), so it's pretty hard to find anything original for me anymore, but I still try.

On Fridays or Saturdays I go out, drink some beers + any alcohol there is, and play board games/table football in the nearby student club.

I read science fiction and fantasy as well. Right now I am reading the tetralogy Book of the New Sun.
 
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jozze said:
Well, @h3z, here I will have to disagree with you, and say that quantum physics cannot really go hand in hand with the occult, and I don't share your passion for String theory (holographic universe came from there. I am more of a Loop quantum gravity guy, if gravitons can indeed be quantized in a sensible way).
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No, worry. It would be very pleasing to find, proof of either theory. Or, any theory for that matter. The holographic universe only holds my interest, since it reads similar to some very old beliefs. But, I'm not going to say the world is flat, just because its interesting that someone once believed it. ;)
 
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Well, theories can get even more bizzare :D. According to the mathematician David Hilbert, the world may actually be just one-dimensional, so it would be even less than flat (maybe you could say straight in this case). There is no good physical argument against it, except maybe the rate at which gases are extending with temperature, but this isn't good enough (rigorously speaking). So in truth, we may be living our lives on a line, but our perceptions are deceiving us into thinking, that we live in a 3D space.
 
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jozze said:
Well, theories can get even more bizzare :D. According to the mathematician David Hilbert, the world may actually be just one-dimensional, so it would be even less than flat (maybe you could say straight in this case). There is no no good physical argument against it, except maybe the rate at which gases are extending with temperature, but this isn't good enough (rigorously speaking). So in truth, we may be living our lives on a line, but our perceptions are deceiving us into thinking, that we live in a 3D space.
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There's actually an interesting book written like that, which deals with shapes living in a 2D world along with the hierarchies involved. It's called Flatland: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/201

It's in the public domain since it was written in 1884. Someone also did a computer animated film about it as well (although the book goes into more detail about some things): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfglluny8Z0
 
Sound.

I'm quite passionate about sound, sound design and with that synthesizers in general. I've been intrigued by synthesizers ever since I was a kid, so when I moved to my current place of residence where I really felt 'at home' I started to pursue that interest again.

Started with purchasing a relatively simple (but still extensive) electronic keyboard (because for me the keyboard is a universal-like way of music making) and then followed up on my synthesizer fascination. At that time my idea of a synthesizer was "a keyboard with lots of knobs and dials" but I soon learned that there was a lot more to it than that.

Alas; because this is basically a hobby I decided to focus my attention on the digital side of things and go with the so called "software synthesizers" instead of hardware, the stuff is expensive enough as it is
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.

And that led up to me getting my hands on software such as Ableton Live 'Suite', Reason (although a full fledged environment of its own I usually use Reason "linked" to Ableton Live) and also Max/MSP which is a visual programming language completely aimed at multimedia purposes.

Sidenote: Max also has an open source "counterpart" called Pure data ("Pd").

The cool part about Max is that it has also found its way into Ableton Live (which is how I first came into contact with it) in the form of the Max for Live product. Which is basically the Max programming environment embedded into Ableton Live, which effectively allows you to program your own instruments and/or audio or MIDI effects.

And it is partly because of Max that I started learning a lot more about all the theories and science behind audio. From common aspects to how sound filters work or how you can easily create very specific sounds by merely using some specific oscillators right to more heavier stuff such as sound compression and expansion techniques.

Although I'm not much of a musician I do consider myself a decent ("semi-professional") sound designer.

The best part was when I made some money with my hobby when a friend asked me if I could help him and his friends out with mastering some of their material (when necessary). That was a very cool experience, even though I didn't particularly liked the music ;)

Anyway, passionate enough to build a fan website & maintain a blog. But unfortunately I haven't had much spare time as of late, and most of that has been "wasted" on this forum (which is also a double faced issue; because although I like helping people I also hope to learn new stuff while doing so ;)).

If interested you can check out SynthFan.info. Nothing too special, but still fun in my opinion.
 
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swirling_vortex said:
There's actually an interesting book written like that, which deals with shapes living in a 2D world along with the hierarchies involved. It's called Flatland
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I've seen that book referenced in my readings a few times. However, not regarding its value to physics. It seem to be commonly referenced as a metaphor for the human society. I have only read snippets of it, but it looks like a good read.
 
ShelLuser said:
Although I'm not much of a musician I do consider myself a decent ("semi-professional") sound designer.
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I bet you have some cool tracks. Maybe not mainstream, but cool.

I've written a mix, using real and digital instruments. It sounds good in my ear. But, I know that it is just strange to the average music listener.
 
swirling_vortex said:
It's called Flatland
[snip]It's in the public domain since it was written in 1884.
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I didn't know that, thanks for the link. At some point I'll probably purchase the "real" book anyway, if only for in my book case, but still.
 
  • I ride motorcycles (sports bikes, have a CBR600RR and an old RGV250 2 stroke)
  • I play video games (Borderlands 2, Dragon Age)
  • I watch MotoGP (go Marquez!)
  • I drink (beer, vodka, irish whiskey)
  • Lately, occasionally I race go-karts (casual, don't have my own kart)
 
segfault said:
Ibiza?! Wow nice going. You must have been pretty serious into it. Have I seen you on djforums.com by any chance?
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A little late with my reply but I think so, yes. When we started Ibiza was our dream. Ten years later we're actually there. My buddy, who started it all, is still rocking the screens. After I stopped he went on to South-America, Japan, Australia and a few other places.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvleYw5i3zk (overview of 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXPXJfxAuJc (overview of 2012)
 
I brew beer, mostly ale recipes. While drinking the beer is exponentially more fun, it's also that much more common. And I'm slowly converting a ranch into a vineyard.
 
sossego said:
@ShelLuser, where does one start with pd-extended?
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That is not easily explained, especially since this environment can have a rather steep learning curve. Also keep in mind that my expertise lies completely with Max itself since I don't use Pd (and although they have similarities they're also quite different).

Unfortunately the Pd documentation has always been a bit limited in my opinion.

Even so, when I gave Pd a try out on Linux several years ago I somewhat enjoyed this Youtube video. Goes over some of the basics on Pd itself and gives you a good impression.

I'd basically recommend to get a hang on the way of programming (as said, it can be a little rough to get used to) and then try to get a good understanding of what the individual components do (trigger, dac~, cycle~, etc.).

Edit: A good approach for that could be (ab)using the official Max documentation, it's also freely accessible online. Here is a good place to start in my opinion.


The most important thing when playing with all this however is to have some basic understanding on the theories behind digital audio. Because without that you'll most likely run into stuff which may seem completely off while its actually quite normal.

Stuff like aliasing for example; when using a sampling rate of 44.1kHz (as commonly used on CD's) you can never reach a higher frequency than 22.05kHz, also known as the Nyquist frequency. Always amused me when friends show their super-duper hi-fi stereo kit with ultra-tweeters, or whatever they were called, and then played CD's on them :e

Even so, when you're not aware of this you can get weird results in your patches.

A good run down is the "How Digital Audio works" on the Cycling '74 website, though an even better source is to pick up a book somewhere.

Hope this can give you some impressions, if you need more info then feel free to send me a message, though I can't guarantee that I'll be able to help out.
 
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Apart from being a bike lover and long distance tourer, I've been practicing various forms of martial arts as a hobby since teenage. Started off with boxing, later got involved in taekwondo and thai-boxing to strengthen up my comparatively weaker legs. I absolutely love parkour and free-running too.

Sadly after I started working as an admin since 4 years, I've constantly struggled to find enough quality time for the practice because of odd shifts pattern of support projects.

Regards.
 
h3z said:
Nice! What inspired this endeavor?
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Was firstly born out of disgust for the current state of our local housing market. We'd been looking for a nice piece of land in the country to build on but couldn't afford the land and a house (which is ridiculous as we are both fairly educated and well paid). We wondered how on earth ANYONE was affording a house. Turns out they aren't. Just burying themselves under mountains of debt. When we saw the Simon Dale house online we decided we could build something like that ourselves, cheaply and naturally. The nature/health benefits are nice too as we have lately become more and more "natural conscious". Also, in true open source community spirit, we are also documenting our progress to publish online for free to help encourage others who wish to do the same.
 
segfault said:
Also, in true open source community spirit, we are also documenting our progress to publish online for free to help encourage others who wish to do the same.
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Please post a link or put one in your profile.
 
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