I spend an inordinate amount of time on Indoor Free Flight, although lately most of it is spent pondering one topic or another, writing about it, or helping run contests, and not so much actually building or flying.
There are other things that get my attention, though. Perhaps others on this list share them:
- Kids
I'm a single father of two great boys. Sole custody means that I'm very interested in basketball, piano, video games, and all the other stuff that kids do. I also spend a ridiculous amount of time driving around like a taxi cab.
- Work
Yeah, yeah...everyone has to work. But I thoroughly enjoy my computer science career – I picked it in Junior High and never switched majors all the way through a Master's Degree. Now it's more than just a 9 to 5 job – I spend a lot of time on technical projects. It feels exactly like working out the nuances of a VP prop, just with a virtual rather than physical machine.
- Go
It's a 4000 year old board game. An easy to learn, lifetime to master kind of thing. Arguably both simpler and more complex than chess (
http://users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/Compare.html). I'm a neophyte 5 kyu on the International Go Server, but I enjoy playing and studying.
- Bicycles
I used to race road bikes when I was younger, but now getting out once in a while for a nice ride is the goal. I don't do it nearly often enough. Events like the local Ice Cream Odyssey ride sure help the motivation, though :)
- R/C sailplanes
Flying without the benefit of onboard propulsion has a lot of the challenge and feel of Indoor. It's honorary FF.
- Fun cars
Life is too short, and I spend far too much time on the road, to not enjoy driving. The kids preclude a two-seater at the moment, but my SRT-4 is pretty cool for a four-door. I also enjoy doing a lot of the repair and mod work myself. The latest project involved dropping the transmission to replace a poorly designed clutch release lever. I tend toward cheap, higher performance Import Tuner type cars, and have owned a: VW Scirocco, Acura Integra, Honda Civic Si, and my current Dodge SRT-4.
- Audio
Nothing matches being at a live performance, but good audio equipment can conjure up a similar thrill. My Xmas present was a pair of Sennheiser HD 650 headphones to pair up with my cMoy headamp and iPod lossless files via lineout interconnect. There's also an Audio Alchemy headamp and pair of Grados on they way to try out.
- Writing
Preferred method of communication (obviously). I'm more comfortable with non-temporal stuff (computers, model airplanes) than real-time things (face-to-face conversations, pets). I like being able to massage an idea until it sounds right to me. Once you say something aloud, it's done and out there.
- Debate
I enjoy the very occasional debate (when I have time), but only in email form where emotion can get filtered out before a response is sent. It keeps things from getting unproductively heated and improves the chance of finding common ground. I'm critical of organized religion (lots of good, but a troubling amount of misuse-in-the-name-of) and modern US political conservatism (getting dangerous). Other topics have included: God (exists, but more like Mother Nature and Old Man Sea than an omnipotent humanoid dad), moral absolutism (exists, but not in a way that humans can know, thus leaving us to attempt an approximation via moral relatavism), indoor R/C models at USIC, and other critical topics.
Happy New Year!
Received on Fri Jan 01 2010 - 12:00:40 CET