Well, I was just reading some newsgroups, looking at my list of subscribed ones.. when I realised that .. Holy Jeez .. I have way too many hobbies, and not enough time to enjoy them all..
Let’s make a list of my current hobbies that I’ve invested time and money into of some sort in let’s say just the last 3 years:
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Photography – over about the past two years, I’ve been pretty avidly exploring photography. I’ve got a digital SLR and two film SLR cameras, four lenses, a tripod, a monopod, three bags, more filters than I can count on my fingers and toes, an external flash, a drawer full of film, three magazine subscriptions, an entire darkroom setup, and a closet full of developing chemicals. I am still very much into photography and try to take pictures as often as possible, but have a problem finding the time to develop and process/scan film. Luckily I’ve got a beautiful daughter to keep me taking photo’s.
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Geocaching / GPS – Geocaching and playing with GPS equipment has been an interest of mine for quite a while. I’ve never really gotten into it too much (only found about 5 or so caches), but I do enjoy being outdoors and using the GPS as frequently as possible. I’d like to get out and hike with it. I’d also love a Jeep or some other 4-wheel drive vehicle to go on excursions in, but that may not be something I will be able to afford for a while.
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Ham Radio / CB – I guess radio communication has been an interest of mine for at least 16 years now? I remember being less than eight years old and my dad bringing home these old clunker Handheld CB radios from work. I was into them ever since, but never got serious. I’ve always had CB’s as long as I can remember having a job, and use them occasionally on long road trips where it’s convenient to hear where the bears are at. Right now in the top of my closet, I have three CB’s, an SWR meter, a magnet mount antenna and a real nice outdoor “side of the house” mount antenna. Again, I rarely use the stuff, so it’s depressing. Onto amatuer radio.. I got into this from my neighbor Jimmy, when living in El Paso, TX.. I bought a book and read it, took online quizzes, bought a Kenwood TH-7xxx something or other handheld unit, but ran out of money at the time.. HAM is something I want to get back into, but time and money right now don’t permit. I’ll get back to one of these days.
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Linux – Linux is not really a hobby, but more like my life. I still don’t feel like I have enough time to get everything in I want. I’ve started three sourceforge.net projects, and volunteered for another. All of which have been sitting for oh 1-4 years depending on the project. In addition, I’ve tried to volunteer to help out even an hour a day with the Gentoo project, but always have some work related thing come up (working at home on the computer most days is next to impossible). Luckily I do run Linux full time at work, and most of the time on my home and laptop machines. So I do get to use it every day, but I just don’t get to write perl, learn C/C++, learn QT, fix bugs for projects, help on IRC, and so on.
I’ve got a lot under my hat for things I want to do, between work, daughter, and trying to catch up on stuff missed while at work and giving my daughter all the attention I possibly can while I have her, it gets pretty tough.
I hope one day life will slow down some and I can catch up on all my hobbies. Or maybe I’ll find a way to become a “mobile GPS using ham radio operator that travels around photographing stuff and using linux” then maybe I’ll be complete.. But as time goes on, more stuff interests me! So we’ll see..
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