Do you have a hobby?

I don't have one, I have eight. Good lord.

lol WOW! what ar ethey?

i only have one and more and more, i'm really upset to have to like work all the time. i mean make-money-work. it's just so frustrating. i'm really curious to see if anyone else has had a passion that they made into a profession.

wait no i have other hobbies i just don't do them as much. which is ALSO a shame!!

I quit my job as a project manager for a building contractor a year ago to make my "hobbies" my occupation. So far I'm about broke a joke but things are about to take off.

exciting!! what hobbies?

1. sewing
2. jewelry making/beadwork
3. bike repair/maintenance
4. cycling as social activity/entertainment
5. cooking and kitchen experiments
6. not lately, but I used to do more woodworking
7. Scottish highland and national dance

Okay so maybe I only have seven apart from the general reading and home decoration/improvement that everyone does.

wow that's really quite a list. impressed

My Bachelor's degree is in visual arts, so photography, painting, sculpture; getting into video production stuff - my wilderness, travel, and offroading interests jive with those things well, and then I'm working on writing about it all.

Like right now, I'm supposed to be finishing a commissioned portrait instead of reading the internet...

wonderful! i'm so glad it's about to take off for you. wow, a commissioned portrait! really neat.

Some of my hobbies:

1. Playing music in a band
2. Writing about music (and occasionally other art forms)
3. Constructing crossword puzzles

I don't feel passionate about any of these to turn them into a career, although I've thought about at least getting paid for #2 and #3.

I feel like I can only really manage two hobbies at a time, partially because the band takes up a lot of my time: at least 6 hours a week. So like in 2002-04, I helped run a nonprofit arts organization. And then in 2005-06 I concentrated on writing about music more intensely. And now that I've kind of given up on that, I've turned to crossword puzzles.

If I leave the band, I'll probably try to work on my own music. I don't really have time to do that now.

no

Yeah, I left off the hiking & camping & skiing & stuff -- I figure since I haven't done any of that since I moved to NYC, it doesn't count anymore.

Is music collection/consumption a hobby? Certainly a LOT of my free time and money goes towards this end. I even started a database for it, as mentioned on this thread. I don't really have a non-work activity that even comes close to how much time I devote towards music listening. As far as making into a career, well, right now I'm working in a library, and I plan to do a masters in library science and hopefully start a track towards being a music librarian.

But there are a few others that I really love doing, especially cooking. It's not totally a hobby as much as a necessity, obviously, but I put in a lot of time and effort into making my food interesting.

I used to paint quite a bit, especially with watercolors. It's been a long time since I've done that, but I very recently dug out all my old art materials so that I can start again. It was a lot of fun and I'm eager to get back into it.

sure, that's a hobby! that's great that you're so focused.

painting can be sooo relaxing.

what do you guys do during the day?

Wait, I forgot: I left off two instruments as well, but that's mostly because playing trumpet isn't that satisfying unless you REALLY keep up with the practice, and I don't have reg access to a piano in New York. So I'm at...nine?

Day job in book publishing.

get a keyboard laurel!

renaissance woman! i would LOVE to be able to play the trumpet. do you have one? i can imagine it being the kind of thing you really need to practice to enjoy.

book publishing... do you find it rewarding?

ya get a keyboard!

I've thought about it, bell! Kind of at the bottom of the list of "things that would further my hobbyist pursuits" though. Do you have keyboard(s) these days?

i have many.

only one full-sized one though.

Laurel is getting close to "too busy to work" territory.

I sense a visit to your house in the force, labs. It is very strong.

yes come over! i will practice my new hobby of making apple crisps on you.

lucky bell! keyboards are so magical... i only have this one that my parents got me when i graduated.

http://www.meibergen.nl/aanbiedingen/images/Korg%20PA%2080.jpg

it's not perfect but i looove it

When considering this question, I only thought about hobbies that were, for lack of a better word, "productive." Rather than passive things like listening to music or watching movies, although to be honest, I do feel productive when I go to a movie, since I like keeping up with things.

My day job is also in publishing, for an encyclopedia. I like what I do, but it only fulfills me so much, so I don't always feel super-invested in my work. A lot of times I'd rather be working on a crossword puzzle, for instance. I think ideally I'd do the day job part-time and have more time to explore other things (but then I'd be broke).

right

I totally miss playing a piano (I have a Roland keyboard). There's just something about weighted keys.

xxxxxp I LIKE THE WAY YOU HOBBY. If I contribute stuff can there be a beef stew-making demonstration as well?

YES... i used to go the practice rooms at college all the time. steinway baby grands... ; (

if you have room for it, find a cheap piano on craigslist. i found a spinnet piano for $200 (but ended up leaving it in the apartment that i had it in when i moved to a smaller place ;_;)

but yeah i miss having a piano too, there is still one at my mom's house, but it hasn't been tuned in about 10 years.

i know, my boyfriend and i would really love having one. we've entertained the idea. you know, it gets rly complicated/expensive when it comes to moving the piano in.

moving it cost about $200.

I'm going home for 9 days to a house with a grand piano! I'm also roped into singing alto in the church choir again, though, so some time will be devoted to that practice.

I could never work again and never stop having stuff to do, probably -- my myspace page says I'm a project-based life form, and it's not kidding. Money the problem, as always. If I made one of my hobbies my job, though, it would be essentially the same as...my job.

there's just nothing like having a piano in your home.

alto in the choir -- that's so nice! alto is definitely one of my fav parts. i just love, love that range for a woman.

i've really been considering getting involed in a choir again. such a great hobby.

http://www.nycgmc.org/

I mean I like gardening, too, but then I'd be a landscaper and it would be something other than a leisure activity that gave me personal satisfaction.

I don't understand people who don't have hobbies. Generative hobbies, things that generate a tangible result or a forward impulse for change, or however you want to define it. I have known people who didn't read, didn't have craft or hobby pursuits, didn't play an instrument or care about music, didn't go on adventures. I'm sure they have their place in the world(?) but I'm staying away.

WOW jay, thank you,i can't believe i didn't know about that. so, so great. thanks.

Laurel, I know a few ppl KIND of like that -- they seem to treat life as their hobby. which is great, and something i don't really do. i have so many loose ends in my day-to-day life... if i weren't so focused on my hobbies, i think my on-paper stuff would be a little more put-together!

Laurel, these are the same people who says "I don't know what I'd do if I didn't work, I'd be so bored."

I dunno, the ones I'm thinking of pretty much filled their free time with house cleaning and getting their nails done and watching tv/DVDs, and occasional trips to Atlantic City to gamble and eat out. The whole family mystified me. It was also impossible to buy them any hostess gifts because they didn't DO anything.

haha yes tokyo.

I know, i think i would feel very sad, even sadder than i sometimes feel now, if i didn't have anything to focus on outside of work.

i mean, not that i'm like sad all the time. i just sometimes get sad ;)

I have many hobbies. Some weekends, I hardly come out of my basement I'm so hard at work with my hobbies.

http://emptymatter.org/gallery/d/559-5/brandon-bird-walken.jpg

I don't understand people who don't have hobbies. Generative hobbies, things that generate a tangible result or a forward impulse for change, or however you want to define it. I have known people who didn't read, didn't have craft or hobby pursuits, didn't play an instrument or care about music, didn't go on adventures.

i dont have any of these things and i do just fine. i mean i read but id hardly call reading a hobby unless it was done to some unusual degree. i used to play guitar and be completely consumed by music but i reached a breaking point and now listening to music and seeing bands is about as thrilling as filing my tax return. i listen to talk radio these days. maybe having hobbies relies on a certain ability to focus and not get fed up with things.

also, if i could quit my job and live a life on no working, i would in an instant. i cant see how id be bored at all.

I'm sure they have their place in the world(?) but I'm staying away.

i dont understand this at all!

i used to play guitar and be completely consumed by music but i reached a breaking point and now listening to music and seeing bands is about as thrilling as filing my tax return. i listen to talk radio these days. maybe having hobbies relies on a certain ability to focus and not get fed up with things.

this is very interesting. what do you think spurred the breaking point?

what would you do if you didn't have a job?

I make some money with the freelance writing (I'm also about to start writing weekly articles about Jazz that'll bring in some $). So that's good.

that is good.

y'all are making me wanna knit!!!

geez i actually think knitting would be really good for my neurotic disposition

http://pizdaus.com/small/ePINbM4217Rf.jpeg

blerg

http://pizdaus.com/small/ePINbM4217Rf.jpeg

lol that's worth a double post

For the longest time I more or less stopped listening/writing about music as I had gotten married/gotten kids.

Sometimes I think stevienixed is actually my clone.

Like in Multiplicity? That's what Andre Benjamin did up there... Got a clone to carry on all that rapping so he could knit on the subway full-time. In fact, each Outkast album is another Andre... One of them only golfs now.

It would be more useful to have a clone that was in the same country as me at least!

I've picked up music again, it has helped now having a partner who's a ridiculously creative/talented musician and constantly noodling away on his guitars/drum machines/Buzz on the PC, so I bought a new bass and am getting back into it with great enjoyment.

Tried knitting for a while, but found it a little tiring, and hard on my hands, so I gave up :( I do that with things: I'll buy canvasses and paint and do that for a week then get bored, read for a while then get bored, etc etc.

COoking's the only other "hobby" but I dont see it as a pursuit, as it is also a neccesity!

I really wish that I could enjoy cooking. It feels like too much pressure to have to make something that tastes good AND is good for you. I should really work on that, though.

Also: would like to take piano lessons again and/or learn to play the guitar. Not only because music is kind of awesome, but I need to strengthen and improve the dexterity in my left hand - it's still just so clumsy (that's the side I broke my wrist and elbow on 5 years ago). Time and money are not my friends in this.

Ppl talked about wanting pianos upthread: I'd love one too but the size and cost are impossible in a small flat, so I am considering buying a digital piano with weighted keys.

i love the bass... it's right up there with drums, guitar and piano in the sexiest instruments to play category.

as for cooking, i could stand to learn a few things...

oh yeah i also noodle on the guitar & try (to no avail) to map coltrane lines to the guitar.

Okay, to be fair, my mother would GIVE me her piano, but getting it to my house and then finding a place for it here are problematic and expensive. With school, I don't know how I'd fit lessons and practice in. This is kind of one of my post-nursing school plans: learn to play a musical instrument!

i am not okay with the whole concept of 'hobbies'
i find it kind of gross. i mean why can't people just do a whole bunch of things or a few things or whatever they're comfortable with and that be that. why does it have to be called a hobby? so it can be sold back to us? or so we can somehow justify it? i don't know. i feel like it's too diminishing of things that are actually often really important to people not just this minor thing that 'hobby' wld seem to be.

laurel yes get a keytar

I think I'm with you Rrobyn... at least, in the sense I dont like to feel like I have to "have hobbies". I just do whatever I'm in the mood for if I happen to be in the mood for it!

But I am a lazy prick, so there it is.

Sometimes I think stevienixed is actually my clone.

One day we'll have to grab some sushi, talk about knitting, admire eachother's kids who're wearing our hand-knitted sweaters. Then we'll go to the nearby bookshop and recommend eachother some Indian cookbooks and thrillers. :-)

Do you have a hobby you pursue on your free time?

I write crap on the internet, and I also write crap for a print publication which I then recycle on the internet.

How much of your free time do you devote to it?

all of it.

have you considered turning your hobby into a career?

yes, but when consider how much crap people can read for free they are hardly going to pay to read mine.

rrrobyn and trayce doing a much better job of saying what i was trying to say

i am not okay with the whole concept of 'hobbies'
i find it kind of gross. i mean why can't people just do a whole bunch of things or a few things or whatever they're comfortable with and that be that. why does it have to be called a hobby? so it can be sold back to us? or so we can somehow justify it? i don't know. i feel like it's too diminishing of things that are actually often really important to people not just this minor thing that 'hobby' wld seem to be.

otm. if you knit or whittle or build model airplanes, I think that's a hobby. running, writing about music, posting on internet message boards, while they may be extracurricular, are not the same.

I guess I'm saying something different, or assuming that the former activities are not encompassing endeavors for people, but I think the 'hobby' notion is kind of antiquated, and should apply to more antiquarian pursuits.

I'm just a dilettante anyway.

As many people here, bicycling and bicycling maintenance sounds amazing but is undo able as I live in the Midwest and there are hills everywhere and usually no sidewalks.

Lucky bastards.

Oh, as bland as it is, I also want to start collecting model trains someday. I admire those people that have them running all throughout their house.

that does sound nice =)

The Midwest is quite known for its hills.

John, What do you theorize based on that chart?

It's mostly just an example of the volatility of preferred variants among names that have debuted in the last 40 years or so.

do you do the US only? australian kids have such stupid names now. the girls mostly. they sound like girl guide troop leaders.

Yeah, US only.

lol names like what, sunny?

well now i might insult someone if i name specifics! oh , ok, my 6 y/o niece's bff is named ARKAYLA

hmm... haha the caps

it's kinda cool?

i guess one of her parents like it

Arkayla is not in the top 1000 names for any year of birth in the last 150 years.

rightly so

oh i spelled it wrong: Akaylah

Akaylah is not in the top 1000 names for any year of birth in the last 150 years.

Although Akeelah debuted at #711 last year on account of this:
http://www.solwerks.net/blog/images/AkeelahBee.jpg

From the A-C section of the 2005 Australian girls names list:

Aisling
Aislinn
Akaylah
Alyx
Amali
Amarli
Amaya
Anabel-Ida
Anneka
Araminta
Asara
Ashlyn
Breanna
Breea
Bree-Ann
Bridie
Bridie-Lee
Brigitta
Caylee
Ceider

Thats all I can stand

i'm with what trayce said, probably cos i never focus enough to have a proper hobby, i play the guitar, play five a side, read and have a girlfriend/family in my free time, but i'm not going to be going anywhere with either in the near future, and i'm pretty sure that everyone does stuff like that without counting them as hobbies.

i'd love for something i do for pleasure be a possible career move for me, but i've not found anything like that at this stage.

OMG i was gonna guess Brigitta was one!

I was just inducting a new member of staff and she told me her hobby was "wealth creation" and extolled the virtues of this dude for about 30 minutes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kiyosaki

She kept going on about her "broker" (offered me his number) and buy-to-let strategies and search engine optimisation and "passive" revenue and on and on...I felt like she was trying to get me embroiled in some scam.

Can you really classify "wealth creation" as a hobby/interest?

scam

get them to sack her immediately, btw

if she was any good at her hobby, she wouldn't need the job.

Suggest leaving a framed copy of this on her desk

http://brotherpeacemaker.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/bernie-madoff.jpg

poss my least successful thread evah

I Love Stamps (esp. the new Carry On and Hammer set)

But I have returned to it. *yay*

For about five minutes. I'm actually annoyed by music. But this is probably cause I already have so many decibels thanks to my two kids and also way too many migraine attacks. Ah well.

my hobbies are writing and painting and, i guess, reading. and record collecting. you know, the usual stuff people do when they don't really know how to do anything. oh, and pie-eating.

those all sound really fun! i want to try painting