NEW SKILLS

[chieflittlehorse]

I've been reading Electronics For Dummies and I'm very interested in using the bread board and making my own circuits. When I was thinking of going to a Junior College, Electronics had always interesting but I ended up taking Business Administration classes as I thought that would be my career.

I had been reading Commodore magazine when I was a kid and still own a Texas Instruments 99-4A and a Commodore 128 computer. I used to type in programs that where available in the magazine.

As of this moment I'm interested in learning how to cook like a good chef. Been looking up videos on Youtube. They also have a good cooking course at the Junior College too.

I wish we had more time to pursue my interests but work is taking my time away.

So are there any hobbies or interests that you guys would like to pursue or are pursuing. I would love to hear about them.

My other interests would be bee keeping, model toy trains, deep sea diving, welding, learning electronics, learning Visual Basic, hacking, hiking, cooking, web design, CCTV, exercise & health, home building, construction, fishing, and wilderness survival. Sounds like a list of Boy Scout merit badges.

CLH!

[Josephus]

It's funny. I am still young and have done many of those things to some level. I have an extreme list of interests and have a work-in-progress system to manage them all. I am interested in just about everything. Right now it is high speed weightloss, improving dedication, practical statistical analysis, traditional flyfishing and tenkara, exploit automation via python, increasing reading speed, cable management, risk management, infrastructure vulnerabilities, abstract game theory, and increasing the influence of communication skills.

Maybe my little system might help to do more:

First thing is to accept that yes you really can do all that stuff but not all at once. You could be incredibly serious about one or two for a few years then drop them for others. One of the few hobbies that keeps returning for me is NDE, thus why I have been lockpicking for 20 years but still am not very good lol. Anything skill based means sometimes having to backtrack when returning from a break.

Second is the hard part in accepting that variety breeds versatility but kills depth. You will never be very good at any of those things if you choose to do all of those things, and that is okay. Variety is the spice of life.

Third is cutting out the fat and finding efficiency. Think real hard about what you want to do with what time you have. For me that means no TV, no fiction reading, almost no movies, no drinking, no smoking, lots and lots of no. All those things suck up time and give back less than other things I want to do. Sure it can be fun relaxing on the deck with a drink, but I find an equal amount of satisfaction learning something. So the choice goes just satisfaction or learning and satisfaction. Lots of the stuff you listed has overlap, which is great! Use it. Fishing, wilderness survival, cooking, exercise & health, and hiking can all be done at the same time. Backpacking takes some significant fitness and improves it easily. It does require some wilderness survival skills while giving the opportunity to practice whenever and wherever you decide to stop for the night. I love fast and light hiking to cover whatever mileage is needed so I can have lots of offtime for bushcraft. Fishing incorporated with lightweight gear is what I'm working on, and doing the whole backpacking gourmet thing with fanciness and even using the fish you caught is amazingly impressive to me. Smoking it is even an option in the backcountry. Just don't use an aluminum pot or risk burning through it.



Still trying to find a way to justify taking a safe lock with me on weekend excursions but they are on the heavy side.

For me the hard part is dedication. Sometimes I just want to take a break or lounge around for awhile but every time I do, I feel disappointed at the opportunity cost of not pursuing an interest with the limited time we all have. So I'm working on that one strongly.

[GWiens2001]

TI99-4A? Do you have Tombstone City? My dad and I used to play that together. Loads of fun.

Gordon

[freek007]

For me the hard part is dedication. Sometimes I just want to take a break or lounge around for awhile but every time I do, I feel disappointed at the opportunity cost of not pursuing an interest with the limited time we all have. So I'm working on that one strongly.

In addition to picking, I am currently also into: Shooting, craft beer (studying for Cicerone Certification) and home brewing, board games (more advanced than Risk/Monopoly), Miniature wargaming (Warhammer 40k), motorcycle riding/repair, vegetable gardening, minor gunsmithing, pocket knife collecting, bushcraft/survival skills, cooking (including molecular gastronomy).

Things that interest me and I would pursue if time and funds were not an issue: blacksmithing, major gunsmithing, ALL the board games (I am a nerd!), youtube video production, reloading (ammo), backpacking, biking, stunt driving, and of course getting better at all the hobbies in progress...

[pmaxey83]

I'm finally learning to leave the seat down and I'm getting a better grasp that my wife is smarter than me. Also I'm getting really good at turning the page, on the daily "Cat Naps" calendar my wife gave me. As far as hobbies, I feel learning to pick high security locks has become it's own hobby to me; a constant back and forth in which I can't figure out if I'm completely terrible at it or just not good enough.

I'm also learning to not make knives dull on my water stones I bought from a sketchy dude on Craigslist. Everything else I do for fun just feels like work.. lol.