Other interests

[dublinus]

Hi,

I'm pretty curious...

We all know that people on this site are interested in OS development...but what are some of your other interests?

For example, I am also interested in heat engines, such as Stirling engines, and building them.
What about you guys?

Dublinus

[Alboin]

Art, math, and language.

[quok]

I'm an avid homebrewer, both beer and wine. Although I tend to focus on the beer making (and drinking!) more than the wine making. I just recently acquired a new chest freezer after my old one quit working. I've got two small kegs and a bunch of bottled beer in there, with room for a carboy for lagering. Currently one of the kegs is filled with a Guinness clone (complete with a nitrogen draft system) and the other contains a Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse clone. In bottles I've got some American Amber Ale (a clone of the popular US mid-west regional beer Fat Tire) and my own Oktoberfest.

I even try to adhere to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 as much as possible for a homebrewer, so all my stuff is naturally carbonated, and it's all unfiltered. Naturally carbonating a keg is a bit of a PITA, though. You basically end up with a couple of pints in the bottom that are 'wasted' because they're just full of yeast.

Aside from that, I just love spending time with my wife and kids, and that's probably where the majority of my non-work time is spent.

[bewing]

Farming/gardening here. I'm pretty good at roses and blueberries.

Also, I spend a lot of time inventing. Linear electronics/power supplies, electricity storage and generation, and jet engines.

[piranha]

I'm restoring (and fixing) a 1960s Williams electro-mechanical pinball machine. I'm almost done, actually. It's fully playable and works correctly!

-JL

[cr2]

<post deleted>

[Solar]

History in general, with several focal points (early medieval Europe - 1st to 12th century, roughly - 2nd World War, the revolutions of the 18th/19th century). Martial Arts - I did Ju-Jutsu for several years, and try to pick up sword-fencing (medieval / Lichtenhauer style). Soccer (home and national team only, though). I know a few things about astrophysics, nuclear physics, and biology, as these raw forces of nature keep fascinating me.

All this currently takes a poor second place to home improvement currently, which I am not really "interested" in but has to be done.

[Omega]

Hey, I love your beer brewery thing... I could use you as a neighbor.

haha, pinball machine, when will you ever stop playing?

Myself, I prefer the outdoors over my computer, believe it or not.

In the summer I stay fit by running in the park, playing paint ball (SWAT style), swimming, hiking, rock climbing, and repelling.

In the winter I stay fit by skiing and snowboarding. Both in which I am pretty good at btw. My best trick on the board is a 360 front-indie grab off a two foot ramp, and I also landed a manual and rode it for ten feet once, which was pretty sick.

I love wrestling and Muay Thai. Just trying to improve my flexibility, strength, stamina, and understanding of them at the moment. Learning as much as I can and trying to make it all automatic through practice. I study the human body and the impact force behind various moves to help improve my overall ability to perform.

I love Yoga in which I am started in advanced positions now. Still can't do the lotus, but I can achieve nearly all the other moves thus far. I do Yoga probably like 3 times a day and it has totally improved my health and happiness. I also spend time to meditate.

I guess when I am not going nuts outside I sit at my pc and bang out code or play counter strike. I like watching movies online when I am waiting for something to compile or download, or something halting my progression.

Other than that, I live to DIY small electronics; been doing so since a small child. My latest work (sad but true) was a vibrator I made for my girlfriend out of a marker to house the batteries and leads, a vibrance razor vibrator thing located inside the razor casing (duh, for the vibration), a tweezer case for the tip (it was shaped perfectly like /\ with a round tip and it fit perfectly on the marker, I then soldered it all together, stuffed some cotton in the marker to hold the batteries in place, and even cut a slit at the end of the marker so a tiny plastic sheet could slide in and out of it (turning on and off the vibrator); I even made a traveling case for it with an extra battery inside. Not my best/favorite work, but my girlfriend seemed to like it a lot. After all, she asked me to make it for her. My favorite DIY device was a fan I made out of old pc parts. It had two speeds (lo and hi) and a LED indicating battery life. I loved that thing!

I am going to stop listing the things I like to do, because this could take a while. OK, one last thing. I also like to play the guitar, harmonica, violin, piano, and sing. I am awesome at piano and guitar, I am mediocre at Harmonica, and laughable at violin (but still trying). My musical stylee is Folk/Indie/Other if you want to know exactly. My inspirations are Hank Williams, Dylan, Donovan, Raconteurs, White Stripes, Pixies, and Modest Mouse to name a few. I wanted to travel around and play on the street this summer (to see if I could make some money), but got side tracked by this darn OS project, so maybe next summer.

OK, that's all from me. I'll let someone else talk now.

[AJ]

Hi,

I play the violin and piano, do kayaking and cycling and always have a book on the go (currently Terry Pratchett's "Making Money"). I also listen to a lot of music and get to (classical) concerts when possible.

We moved home last year, so like Solar, a lot of time has been put over to home improvements (I completely re-did the garden this spring - from rotavating the soil to re paving some bits, planting other bits and building a fence along a new boundary due to some land we bought). I'm also trying to get an old Suffolk Punch 14" mower going at the moment, but it's proving very frustrating.

Since the arrival of my son, there's a lot less time for all that though. Having a 7 week old in the house really makes you appreciate any moments of relaxation!

Cheers,
Adam

[edit: I just moved this out of the auto-delete forum because it's got quite interesting ]

[DeletedAccount]

Sleeping ,

This week i slept for nearly 31 hours at a strech ---- Can anyone beat that ?

[quok]

Hey, I love your beer brewery thing... I could use you as a neighbor.

Strangely enough, two of my neighbors are homebrewing as well. One of them got me in to it, and the two of us got the other interested. At first I would let the new guy borrow some of my equipment, but after he returned my bottling bucket and some other things all moldy, I vowed to never again let someone borrow my beer making equipment.

I've also been spending a bit of time renovating my home. I bought the place in 2002, shortly after I turned 22. All my neighbors thought it was a little odd for a single 22 year old guy to be buying a house, but it turned out to be a really good investment. I just started the renovations last year, and must have dumped just shy of $20K into it so far. That's a new fence around the back yard, siding and new windows, as well as new doors, and reinsulating most of the house as well. I've finished about half of the basement, where I added a second bathroom and framed out a room for my office, and I completely remodeled the first bathroom as well. Now it has a nice jacuzzi tub in there and porcelain tile (which I laid myself) instead of wallpaper everywhere.
I've got a two car attached garage which is where most of my brewing equipment is located. In the next week or so I'm getting new garage doors on there for some better insulation and security.

My loving and understanding wife fuels my desire for power tools as well.. She bought me an air compressor, and all kinds of nifty things to go with it, like my framing nailer and finish nailer.

About the only big thing I have left to do at some point on the renovations is a new roof on the place, but I'm still not certain if I'll do that or just sell the place and find something bigger. I need more room for my brewery

[01000101]

I like skateboarding, playing guitar, and hanging out with friends. OSDeving is fun, but having BBQ's everynight with friends and skating are necessities.

[piranha]

Adding to my last post...

Myself, I prefer the outdoors over my computer, believe it or not.

Thank you! At least thats someone on these forums! Sheesh.

Add: Guitar, Card Tricks, Pranks/Tricks, jokes, fire (and related pyrotechnics)

-JL

[Revan76]

Severall things which look pretty interesting :

parkour, phreaking,lockpicking, urban explo ... (never tested all those activities but they look kinda fun)

[Dex]

I have the same interests as some of the other forum members eg: Martial Arts, (Tae Kwon Do and wing chun), hill walking, model engineering, woodwork. I also do falconry (flying birds of pray ).