Episode #29 – There was some discussion last week about how many RSS feeds I read, and whether or not I could have a life outside of reading them.
So, to allay any fears that I am some sort of hermit (though I do have those tendencies sometimes), I thought perhaps I would share some of my avocations (or hobbies if you prefer) with you, to give a better picture of me than I have done so with all of my talk of the hundreds of RSS feeds I keep track of.
So, in no particular order, I give you thirteen things I do with my time:
- Social Networking: I run a largish social networks and product review website for pipe smokers. Right now it is transitioning to a new code base, so it take up a lot of my “work” time.
- House Keeping: I work from/at home, so I have taken over most of our domestic chores: laundry, washing up, cooking, shopping, etc…
- Mountain Biking: There is not a lot of opportunity for such right where I live, but I make do with it as best I can.
- Photography: Though I have been remiss in posting new images, I do shoot a lot of pictures, hopefully improving as I go.
- Reading/Researching: I spend a good bit of time reading philosophy and political economy, and working through what I have read. If I ever decide to go to university for such, I am *ahem* well-prepared.
- Exploring East London: I live on the East side of London, and blog about the goings-on and interesting places there on another blog of mine.
- Writing: This is intimately tied to number five above. I work on the craft of writing almost every day, usually for a couple of hours.
- Devil Sticks: A form of gyroscopic juggling from ancient Egypt or China depending on who you believe.
- Ontology: (In the Information Science sense, not the philosophical) I am deeply interested in how data models are created and used to represent concepts and the relationships between concepts. More than being a blog, this website is my personal experiment in ontology.
- Walks/Treks/Rambles: Not only my favorite way to travel (on foot), but my favorite thing to do with a lazy day. Pick somewhere to start, and/or a direction to go, and just see what happens.
- Talk/Discuss/Debate: I really get a kick out of talking to other people and finding out what they are all about, or learning something about what they are passionate about.
- Cards: I am an avid card player. My favorite games include Gin, Poker (Omaha Hi-Lo and Limit Hold ‘em), Spades and Tonk.
- Minimalism: The last several years of my life have something of an exploration of what is actually important to me, and has seen me shed 90% or more of my possessions (and debt), and yet I still find things to divest myself of.
…and now I get to go read up on Devil Sticks. Sounds interesting!
Sounds like you are involved in a lot of very interesting endeavors. I think I’ll read up on Devil sticks also. Shedding possessions and debt is very good. I need to do more of that as I am a packrat and like to keep everything. I plan on doing some shedding this spring when we start unpacking from our move. We have way too many papers, including kids’ drawings and such. Thanks for letting us know what you do besides RSS feeds. I think that mountain biking sounds like fun too. I am sure if you look hard enough you’ll find some place fun to do it. Hope you had a jolly St. Patty’s Day in England (do you celebrate that there being American and all) and having a great weekend. Maureen
So why aren’t you in university? With all the personal educating you seem to be doing, it would seem to me you’d be extremely happy in the scholarly setting. Just curious…not judging. To each his own.
St. Patty’s was excellent, as always, though I missed being in the States for it, as I had made a tradition of going to see my favorite raucous Boston Irish band, the Dropkick Murphys.
As to the shedding of “stuff”, perhaps you would be interested celebrating Discardia…
I am not in university because the purpose of university is not scholarship or learning, but making good team-player workers.