Stupid hobbies.

[Doubtful]

Just sorting out my race calender for next year, looks like some fun times ahead -

This cycle up badboy is the cycle part of one race next year, (Swim is in that lake you can just see faaaaaaar in the distance, then a nice 10k dash around where the picture's taken from).





The question is, what hobbies do you lot have, when you're off your computer and doing something else, what makes you tick?

[DM_Equinox]

I always knew you were a nutjob. Pretty place though.

[JuneyGnomey]

Sleight of hand.
I am quite obsessive about sleight of hand with cards. Don't play poker with me. It is a class skill, I have many ranks

I am also a photographer and work with a stop-motion animation company on music videos and animated shorts. We won a national award last year. Again, this is a hobby, not my day-job.

[Verrath]

That's me, many years ago (the one going after the ball) Not quite so fit anymore, but working on getting back there. Still play indoor and beach volleyball.

I ride my bike a lot (though not up crazy hills and things) and when I get the chance I go horse riding or skiing.

I like long walks on the beach and.... oh, wait. Wrong board.

[thaelis]

Beautiful picture, I wish we had landscapes like that in Oz!

Lol, my weird hobby would have to be speaking Mandarin. When people find out they're like "Oh wow cool, you study it at Uni?" and I'm like err no I just...um..like..do it for fun :/

[AsuraKing]

Doubtful that looks like one helluva race, i recently started doing triathlons myself, tons of fun.

[EndsBeginning]

Umm complete nerd here. Read Scifi, Forum RP (Which makes me wonder why I can't seem to RP on Sundrens forums), PnP games, Computer games (Ohh I'm so loving Dragon Age), and I just LARPed for the first time Saturday night.

[BedlamX]

Costuming nutjob here. The whole family gets into it. We do sci-fi conventions, wear teh geeky costumes from various TV shows and movies, build prop weapons and gizmos...mass hysteria. I do almost all our costumes from design, sewing, building, and even latex prosthetic appliances. We are uber geeks...to the nth power .

Halloween is a fun time around the old Bedlam household.

I also do airsoft and paintball milsims, target shooting, and some drawing/sculpting.

[greypawn]

does Sundren not count? I do play a lot of video games and watch a good amount of movies.

The craziest thing I'm into is probably MMA: focusing on boxing, jiu jitsu, wrestling, karate, and muay thai. you haven't lived until you've taken a round house to the face! heh. anyways I'm injury prone and poor so I haven't been active at the dojo for some time now.

as far as the geekfactor goes, I do the ren fair dress up thing. good times.

[Peridan]

While I don't discourage people from this new MMA fad that seems to be going around, I've been practicing Chinese Kenpo for nine years. I also box regularly at a gym, and I enjoy a lot physical activity when I have the time with my friends playing football, soccer, or just horsing around.

I also have a penchant of seeing really bad movies and getting a kick out of them. It's totally worth the five dollars.

[greypawn]

Yeah, MMA has gotten pretty trendy. That and the culture can be a bit annoying but if you can get pass all that, and can gut the violence, its a pretty amazing discipline.

[BedlamX]

I also have a penchant of seeing really bad movies and getting a kick out of them. It's totally worth the five dollars.

Ah...one of myother favorite passions. Really love the ones that go even beyond "B" movies (think "Y" or "Z" style).

You should look up Recon: 2020 or Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter for a great night of bad movies. Any time the Net Flix synopsis starts out describing the film by stating there is bad, sci-fi TV movie bad, Uwe Bolle bad, then there is Recon: 2020...it has to be watched

[Peridan]

I've seen JC, and it was a blast. But I enjoy old school sci fi and horror movies, as well as any particularly bad movies that come out in theaters.

And as far as MMA goes....My thoughts on it are thus (and I do not mean to derail, if anyone has any thoughts please PM me!): It's a style that has taken from many different forms of martial arts, and has not provided the background and philosophy that go with them.

Traditionally, martial arts have had a specific focus in mind when created. Whether it is to provide a specialization in a certain fighting form, or to defend against an opponent of certain dimensions and qualities. Jiu Jitsu, for example, was created as a form of fighting designed against armored samurai in feudal Japan. It provides a certain philosophy towards fighting and makes practical use of it through its techniques of locks, pressure points, and throws. It is with this in mind that a student learns the techniques, progressing from a student to a proficient practitioner of the art.

And do not keep any illusions, it is an art. It is a mode of self defense, but there are other more intellectual aspects as well as spiritual that make it a complete fighting form. The same can be said for most other ancient fighting forms from the far east, and it is with this in mind that I say that MMA provides form, but no substance. Granted it teaches technique. But the fact remains that people in it do not learn where or how the style they are learning comes from, and the ideas behind it.

A martial art, in my opinion, has this as a requirement. You do not grow as a person or as a martial artist unless your mind and spirit grow alongside your fighting techniques. And I see people such as former WWE stars, and former NFL players who have never heard of a kata using their superior muscle and power to fight alongside martial artists who have devoted their lives to their art. One can make the argument that it is the results that matter, that whoever wins is the strongest. Perhaps that is true. But I refuse to recognize MMA as a true martial art as long as I see frat guys who spend all day at the gym decide to put on some gloves and call themselves martial artists.

[Doubtful]

I used to box (Sadly, since moving to Hicksville I've not found a gym that's fitted my needs) regularly and enthusiasticly when I lived in Capital City, while it may have lacked a lot of the philosophical conetations of a martial art, it had reams of social implications and really worked hard to instil disipline, common sense and a sense of belonging in all the people who boxed and trained there.

Sadly since moving to Hicksville the gyms have just not had that sense of identity, and to many of them seem to fall for the 'Bigger = Better. Being a fucking idiot = Bestest of all' mentality (Watching some massive chunk of muscle tear apart a newbie, then laugh like he'd just won a big compo or something, that put me off the last gym I went to).

Got more info on the race though!

Start:


End:


That's a lot of hill.

[Kaizen]

Damn, that is one long trek. That sir, is badass. My two favorite hobbies for the last 4 years?

Beer Pong (this was during Halloween):




And doing stupid things on my motorcycle:




I ride a yamaha R6, for those that are also into bikes.