OT: Other than Michigan Football, what are you into?
Since there is absolutely nothing going on in the world of Michigan football at the moment, I was wondering what my fellow MGoBloggers are into outside of Michigan athletics.
Are you a train nerd? Do you build tiny dollhouse furniture like that guy on The Wire? Serial killer?
Mostly family and kids activities. 2 kids and another on the way. Being a parent is the best thing ever.
Basketball once a week, plus more when I can. Played in one Macker last summer. Still fondly remember the Macker's glory days (and my own glory days, I suppose).
Reading. Lots of stuff so I can keep up with my students. I just finished Rick Yancey's 5th Wave. It's very, very good. Elegiac and haunting. I'm reading the Throne of Glass right now. It's irritating me because I can't quite figure out why it's so popular. Sarah Maas, well, you can tell that she started writing the book in high school. So many dumb things in it. No theme or original ideas. But the romance and characters and pacing are decent. I think the series must get better as it goes on; for a high schooler, she did a great job.
Role-playing games. Pathfinder once a week.
Writing. I used to write for Dungeons and Dragons. Then I wrote my own stuff, including a novel. Then the kids came and... maybe I'll put something out again this year.
My wife teaches chemistry to local sophomores. I have a healthy respect for the amount of time it takes to lesson plan/grade. She'll be up till midnight most nights. She has to get most of her fun done during the summer/weekends.
Another vocation that my temprament (short tempered, doesn't suffer frustration easily) isn't good for. :-)
Wait - just saw your tag line -physics.
Chemistry and English are the worst for grading and planning. English because of the reading and Chemistry because of those @#$!!#! labs.
I actually teach some chemistry sections as well as physics these days. I hate losing time to lab clean-up and set-up.
the labs do take a ton of time. She has a passion for it though. She's way smart, and good at what she does. She really likes to do the labs, I think, because it can really get through to some of her students who otherwise might not find the topic interesting.
Distance running, whether it's training runs or traveling for races, occupies most of my non-working hours. In the winter, I scale back the running a bit so I can spend my free time snowboarding.
What else is there?
fixed it for you
I try to spend a lot of time in the gym. My newest hobby though is cooking. It started out just because I like eating and my wife doesn't like to cook, but I just have a weird/competitive personalty and once I start doing something I really want to get really good at it. Which leads me to where I spend a lot of time... on youtube learning how to do things. You have to be careful on youtube though. You can go from a Salmon en croute recipe down the rabbit hole to a video about illuminati putting chemicals in our food without even realizing what you're clicking on. I once got on youtube trying to find a healthy pizza recipe and went to bed convinced the earth was flat.
Ah yes, The the old Earth-Pizza-Paradox. We all know the Earth is like pizza, they both have a crust and a wide variety of toppings. But are their shapes similar in that they're round or similar that they are flat?
Cheap Beer
Space
Stocks
Commodities
Finding new customers as a Risk Management Consultant
Chewing Tobacco (cue someone telling me how bad that is)
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may be the only bear you'll ever pinch but then that bear comes back and slowly kills your ass over many years.
Family, fishing, golf.
Hunting?
does not check out?
Used to hunt a lot when I lived in MI. I prefer archery and you have to put your time in for that. Out here in MN I only have public land to hunt and with the new family, not a lot of time to put into it so I've kinda fallen off the hunting wagon. I still hunt, but more like I hunt 5 times a year. So I don't do it enough anymore. However, I hunted 5 times last year and shot 3 deer, so I think I did okay.
3 deer in 5 outings ain't too bad at all. Sounds like your MN public land is a helluva lot better than my MI private land.
Well, I cheated. Shot one of those 3 on public land in MN. I saw all of 2 deer in MN last year. Luckily one wanted to go home with me. The other 2 were from private land in MI.
I'll take all of the above. I was gonna post about Guns as my real non-sports interest, but opted for Dr. Toboggan's interests. Love those beautiful machines. Old, new, rifle, handgun, exotic I don't discriminate.
Steeler football, Ancient Aliens, GoT, reading history and SCI-FI, guns and tranny porn.
Cycling. I recently got into it and ride a few times a week. My wife loves it too so we do a lot of 30 mile rides together when we have free time. When we first started, our bikes were horrible, but we didn't realize it until we upgraded last year. Now I love my light road bike. And I've lost about 20 lbs since I started.
I also love camping and hiking. I come from a family that camps all the time. It's a great way to get away from the work laptop and phone. I try to go places where I can't get cell service to prevent any use and enjoy nature.
Also a huge Detroit City FC fan, and just a huge fan of NPSL soccer....or any soccer.
Win. Win.
you have discovered the secret of a happy relationship. Men are not complex. ;-)
I have bow staff skills, nun chuk skills, computer hacking...
Girls only dig guys who have good skills.
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I hate admitting that it is Golf, but it is. I like finding new ways for me to hate myself in my leisure time.
There is also this thing where I am fascinated by amusement parks. I can find myself burning a few hours at a time just watching ride through videos. I’m going to blame the engineering part of my brain but the reality is it’s escapism. My brain likes to go back to the simple wonder of a vacation day at a theme park being the best possible way for me to spend time.
Gator hunting
Finishing grad school
Hanging with my wife and kiddos
Bitching about Detroit sports teams from afar (I'm pretty sure I could hear the Tigers sucking all the way down here in south Florida).
beer whales and listening to trance and deep house.
Edit: Apparently someone doesn't enjoy good beer and dancing. I pity you.I see your profile picture and now have to ask you a question. I'm going to Boston next week with the lady friend for a long weekend and am considering making the 3.5ish hour trip up to Hill Farmstead for a day, as I found out it is their anniversary week and they'll supposedly be having a celebration all week. My question for you: how worth it would it be? Time is the biggest issue, as I want to see as much of Boston as possible, but it would also mean renting a car for the day. My girlfriend and I both love stouts, porters, sours, quads, tripels, etc. Not a huge fan of saisons and generally stay away from IPAs/PAs.
So, your thoughts?
Fly Fishing / Boating
Mountain biking
Dog Agility
Going to bull fights on acid
Like others have said....family. My oldest started softball this year (age 7) and she is enjoying it. I am busy with coaching her and working on her fundamentals. My other 3 kids take up a lot of my time as well with changing diapers, playing tea party, and dressing up dolls.
When I do put the kids to bed I am a big Strat-o-matic baseball player. I play that by the hours. If I had more time I would really like to get into hunting and fishing more, but my schedule just does not allow for it at this point of life.
And expect anything less than the usual BS, how much everyone loves their kids, and a bunch of posing or pretend-irreverence?
It's obvious what EVERYONE is into: MgoBlog and pretending yopu have a life outside of it.
Like to Golf
Workout
actually like playing some video games, just kind of a mindless escape
enjoy seeing a good movie
When I can travel.
Other than Michigan football what am I into?
skinny skiing, going to bullfights on acid.
It shows on the non-mobile version. You're good.
I have a full life beyond football fortunately - I am an avid gardener and amateur chef, and I also dabble in music collection and composition as well. I am a collector of classic film and TV items too, mainly comedies and an ever-expanding collection of Star Trek stuff. I am a film buff and I workout nearly every day too, and I even fit in some reading, mainly history / scientific reading.
I could go on, but I actually have to prep for a meeting - another meeting, I should say.
Playing basketball, fishing, and computer games.
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