Prior to becoming disabled after getting hit by a drunk driver I was an executive chef so cooking was/is my main hobby. I also love to read, every day from April to October is spent following my beloved Boston Red Sox, and I have two kids who keep me busy! I am also a history buff, especially local Rhode Island and New England history, and of course living in the ocean state I love the Atlantic ocean and spend as much time as possible at the beach or eating chowder and clam cakes at one of the many clam shacks we have here.
I am arriving late to the post. Enjoyed reading everyone's hobbies. I have many hobbies. Unfortunely, I also have many projects that are not yet completed. I went through a spell of depression and lost interest in many things. I have begun to regain focus and plan to return to many of my previous hobbies. I first need to get organized again. I also would like to write a book, but I am having a hard time getting started.
I was into photography very seriously, I got into it during the film era, in fact, I still have my 3 Nikon film cameras which are obsolete, I cannot afford a digital system so I had to leave the hobby, hopefully maybe someday I'll be able to do it again because I miss it. If I had it to do all over again I would have become a professional photographer but it's to late to do it now.
@pipeman83 - You can get a good digital camera for a lot cheaper than it cost to buy a good Nikon F3 back in the days of film. I'm a retired military photojournalist (although they called Public Affairs Specialist in the Coast Guard when I retired) and I miss the days of film photography and working in the darkroom.
To me being a professional photographer in the digital era is more challenging because I've always considered a digital camera - and I have 2 - to be nothing more than the old pre-loaded Instamatics. You just have to point and shoot. And with the built in cameras on smart phones and tablets it has become even more easy for everyone to become a photographer.
My daughter went to college and got a Fine Arts/Photography degree and then attended the Seattle Art Institute for 2 years more photography and can only find occasional freelance photography jobs. I kept telling her the instructors were lying about how much money professional photographers make because they only talked about the tops in the field. Those high paying photographer jobs are few and far between.
On the other hand, great photography is an art form these days and digital cameras and computers make it easier.
I tried out some pen turning on the lathe. My first attempt, a Workshop/Sketch pen/pencil. It has the “claw” style lead/pen insert gripper. You can switch out the 5.6mm lead for the pen insert that has a replaceable mini cartridge. It is a made from Olivewood.
I have a lot of things I enjoy doing.... Cooking, grilling, bourbon sipping, hunting, trout fishing, shooting, lake kayaking, camping, reading, PC gaming, wood work, antiquing for new to me pipes, and finding new tobaccos. I have a few new ones I'm going to try such as refurbishing old pipes and fly fishing.
Currently my hobby is staring out the picture window and watching a crew re-pave my street. Been living here over 40 years and never had the road repaved. Pretty cool. When that roller gets going my entire house shakes.
@RockyMountainBriar - I was just going to read through this thread to try to get to know everyone, but NOOOO! YOU! You have to ruin everything! I would be a freakin' writer, wouldn't I? I would use a pen and pencil every single day, huh? Those are to freakin' KILL FOR! Do you sell those?
I've had many different hobbies over the years. I enjoy learning new things and trying to master them. About 15 years ago, I was at a long term care / nursing home conference and one part of a presentation struck a chord and has stuck with me.
The presenter gave us all 4 index cards. We were asked to write 1 thing we enjoy doing on each index card by order of interest or importance to us. After some thought, I came up with the following;
1) Fishing 2) Traveling 3) Reading 4) Smoking my pipe
The presenter then said "In an effort to help you understand what our residents are experiencing, throw away card #1 and #2. You'll never do them again. Tear #3 in half. You'll probably be able to do that about half as much as you'd like and maybe, if you're lucky, you will be able to continue to enjoy #4"
As this was long term care focused, the example is obviously for those who age and decline. That said, with some recent health problems I've experienced over the last year, I've noticed a significant dent in my #1 and #2 cards already.
Until 58, I liked: target shooting with rifles; cooking; reading; smoking pipes and study mathematics and physics. Now my eyes are not the same so stopped shooting but still doing the others.
Sadly the older I get the less hobbies I have. Most of the physical outdoor hobbies like camping and hiking have gone by the wayside as my body deteriorates from the normal aging process. Reading was a biggy for me until my eyes started giving me trouble. I still read - but not for as long. Tendon damage in my hands brought my musical career to a crashing end. But I still enjoy listening to music - including my own from time-to-time. I once enjoyed model building ... usually some Universal Monster kit or ALIEN figure - and I got pretty good at dry brush painting - but the issue with my hands made painting with any degree of proficiency a no go as well.
But as some hobbies left others filled the void. Shortly after joining the forum I started taking pictures of my pipe collection which got me interested in digital photography. So now I'm combining photography with my passion for writing by assembling a variety of old articles, music reviews, and short stories written in the past, plus an extensive chapter on my band and music history, nostalgic recollections from my childhood, and even some of the things I've written here at the forum including tobacco reviews, the occasional rant, and my responses to the more interesting topics discussed into a hodgepodge collection of random ramblings. A sort of informative yet humorous autobiographical epitaph to be hidden away for family members to discover upon my death. Hoping to get one of those ... "I didn't know Dad, or Grandpa, or cousin Joe did all those things" moment.
I figure if I'm ever going to write down some of those childhood memories there is no better time than now while I can still remember most of them. And in the process I'm digging out old articles I'd written and completely forgot about. There was a time in the late 80s' when I wrote a series of articles for the magazine "Movie Collector's World" during the VHS video revolution called "Horrors From The Video Crypt". I just located those articles in a folder tucked away in a plastic bin in my garage that hadn't seen the light of day in about 30 years. It was pretty cool re-reading them for the first time in decades.
So as a result of my association with the pipe community and The Pipeline in particular I've not only made a truckload of new friends and learned all facets of pipe smoking - but as a bonus The Pipeline was instrumental in helping me fill the void left behind by those old hobbies with this newfound hobby/project.
Walking, Reading,Music, and doing my own history projects by that I mean searching for not so good historical events [ but not always] and finding Then and Now pictures. If their are any Vietnam Veterans out their google Paul Blizard, he lives in SAIGON now Ho Chi Minh city, and has posted about 800 pictures of historical events mostly during the Tet Offensive and the Fall of Saigon. He shows pictures of where these events took place and what it looks like now.
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I like to scoot around on this baby when I am cabareting, or participating in a poker run for a good cause......
Golf
Reading
Writing
Singing (got a solo comin up this Sunday @ church)
Cigar & Pipe Smoking
Cigar & Pipe Acquisition
Tobacco Acquisition
Guitar
Pipe Refurbin
Flying (pilot for 25+ years now)
Chess
Poker
Cars
Collecting Watches, Pens, Books & such
Scuba diving
Sailing
Fly fishing
Some more than others.
Others, not nearly enough.
But, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure those aren't necessarily hobbies... More like vocations.
I sit on the rear deck, read, and smoke my pipe.....
The presenter gave us all 4 index cards. We were asked to write 1 thing we enjoy doing on each index card by order of interest or importance to us. After some thought, I came up with the following;
1) Fishing
2) Traveling
3) Reading
4) Smoking my pipe
The presenter then said "In an effort to help you understand what our residents are experiencing, throw away card #1 and #2. You'll never do them again. Tear #3 in half. You'll probably be able to do that about half as much as you'd like and maybe, if you're lucky, you will be able to continue to enjoy #4"
As this was long term care focused, the example is obviously for those who age and decline. That said, with some recent health problems I've experienced over the last year, I've noticed a significant dent in my #1 and #2 cards already.
Now my eyes are not the same so stopped shooting but still doing the others.
I might be able to come up with another.
Astronomy
Golf
Creating music
Stamp collecting
Garden/yard work
Firearms range
Pipes & pipe tobacco
Estate sales/thrift stores, etc.