hobbies/obsessions other than biking

Darjevon said:

Just wondering guys. what are your obsessions? (other than biking of course) I personally snowboard and fly parafoil kites, and fling the occasional dog turd 😄.

Hmmm... novel question... well, let's see. Though I've held day jobs since college, I'm an artist--a production designer for theatre, in particular. That's my obssesion. Currently transitioning out of sales positions and starting graduate studies for a Master's in the Fall.

I mess with computers a lot, too. And I dig music. How about you, Darjevon?

With a full time job, a girlfriend and other social responsibilities, I can't afford (money and time) to have any other obsession besides cycling. I feel guilty enough doing mountain biking and road cycling. But maybe I'll take up turd flinging.

Lokstah, I've always wanted to be a production designer for theatre. I'm stuck in front of a computer in a cubicle all day. At least its design though.

I play the bass, and have custom made one, as well as have given another bass an extreme makeover.

I also enjoy modifying and creating flashlights. . . . . . Yes, really!

insung said:

Lokstah, I've always wanted to be a production designer for theatre. I'm stuck in front of a computer in a cubicle all day. At least its design though.

Hang in there!

It's a fascinating job; I'm not gonna lie. The trick--as with any art-profession--is finding a balance between doing the sort of projects you entered the field for, and taking contracts that might happen to pay better. One of the reasons I put full-time design work on a back burner was because I found I could do more interesting stuff if I wasn't relying on it for a living.

Hence taking the next step... I'm ready for the masters degree, and ready to take it on full time again (once I'm done with program, of course). Strange to be going back to school again... it's going to be a strange Fall.

Do you do graphics work?

PseudoTrek said:

I play the bass, and have custom made one, as well as have given another bass an extreme makeover.

I also enjoy modifying and creating flashlights. . . . . . Yes, really!

Ok, you're going to have to explain. I'm intrigued. Share a flashlight case study. 🙂

lokstah said:

Ok, you're going to have to explain. I'm intrigued. Share a flashlight case study. 🙂

I am a forum member on a site called candlepowerforums.com and it is everything you ever wanted to know in the field of flashlights, from mass produced items, modified versions of mass produced torches, as well as complete homemade builds. I have taken a 3D Maglight, placed an aluminum heatsink [that fits the inside diameter of the tube] where you'd put the bulb, stuck 3 Light Emitting Diodes from Lumileds on top of the heatsink, and 3 reflectors on the top of the LEDs. What you get is a flood of white light [not like an incandescent bulb, which is actually more towards the yellow spectrum, and orange when the batteries get low], with a hotspot in the center. Much more usable light than anything Maglite has ever produced. 😎

Oh, by the way, I have a complete homemade light that has the same similar output that I use as a bike light. Three 3 watt LEDs running roughly 150 lumens, give or take. It also has a dimmer switch on it so in the event I see someone coming the other way, I can lower the output so as to not blind that person. Now, most likely [and from what I've heard] it isn't as bright as an HID system, but then I've never had the opportunity to see an HID bike light in person, or to do a side by side output test. However, it definitely puts a lot of light out in front of the bike. 😉

PseudoTrek said:

I am a forum member on a site called candlepowerforums.com and it is everything you ever wanted to know in the field of flashlights, from mass produced items, modified versions of mass produced torches, as well as complete homemade builds. I have taken a 3D Maglight, placed an aluminum heatsink [that fits the inside diameter of the tube] where you'd put the bulb, stuck 3 Light Emitting Diodes from Lumileds on top of the heatsink, and 3 reflectors on the top of the LEDs. What you get is a flood of white light [not like an incandescent bulb, which is actually more towards the yellow spectrum, and orange when the batteries get low], with a hotspot in the center. Much more usable light than anything Maglite has ever produced. 😎

Woah... ok... I'm a complete dolt when it comes to electronics and lamp technology, so bear with me here... what purpose is the heatsink serving? Is it actually acting as a heatsink in that role (the LEDs don't get so hot, no?), or is it just some sort of mount for the elements themelves? I'm trying to wrap my very Medieval brain around this...

lokstah said:

Hmmm... novel question... well, let's see. Though I've held day jobs since college, I'm an artist--a production designer for theatre, in particular. That's my obssesion. Currently transitioning out of sales positions and starting graduate studies for a Master's in the Fall.

I mess with computers a lot, too. And I dig music. How about you, Darjevon?

I also mess with computers. hey, go to carreras thread about reinstalling windows 98 in the soapbox; see if you can figure what happened to my pc.

PS which part of the bay area are you in? i live in berkeley hills

Darjevon said:

PS which part of the bay area are you in? i live in berkeley hills

Lived on Hillegass Ave in Berkeley 2001-2004; been living by Lake Merrit in Downtown Oakland for a few months. Isn't the riding around here grrrrrrrrreat? The Bay Area is cycling heaven... when I was in Berkeley, my regular ride was going up Cedar to Euclid, to Wildcat, across and down into Orinda, the Bears loop around the resevoirs, and then back up through Tilden and home again. Ahhhh...

Now I head up Park Blvd in Oakland towards the Chabot center, and connect up with Grizzly Peak, down into Tilden, and onto Wildcat. Either way, it's great riding.

🙂

your kinda scarin me man. i do those rides all the time. i also like to go up shasta, connect with grizzly peak, and come down by the laboratories. are you stalking me?

Darjevon said:

your kinda scarin me man. i do those rides all the time. i also like to go up shasta, connect with grizzly peak, and come down by the laboratories. are you stalking me?

The labs? You mean Centennial? That's a killer downhill (and a b*tch of a climb after a long winter)--no better finish to a ride up there than blasting down that road. I also come Wildcat to South Park (another gruesome little climb) and take Grizzly over the top sometimes...

And yes, Darjevon; I'm stalking you.

lokstah said:

I mess with computers a lot, too. And I dig music. How about you, Darjevon?

I also play saxophone; i have a beautiful vintage evette shaeffer that i had refinished (really nice.) I also play guitar; but i have the cheapest piece of [censored] youll ever see in an acoustic "axe"

Darjevon said:

I also play saxophone; i have a beautiful vintage evette shaeffer that i had refinished (really nice.) I also play guitar; but i have the cheapest piece of [censored] youll ever see in an acoustic "axe"

I play the trumpet and piano. I'm also an accomplished shower and car singer waiting to be discovered. I always seem to be alone in the car and shower though, so the chances of a big break are slim. Everyone who has heard me thinks I'm fairly lousy... if they could only hear me over the deadening hum of a car engine!

ever go to lake tahoe? if so, do you ski, snowboard, or toboggan thru snowcovered woods?

Playing with IT stuff like networking gear, servers, and such.

Another SF Bay Area local here! I enjoy riding my motorcycle and snowboarding. Wakeboarding also competes for my free time on sunny days.

Darjevon said:

ever go to lake tahoe? if so, do you ski, snowboard, or toboggan thru snowcovered woods?

This might be where we part... I love the mountains, but I'm generally a poser mountain man. I ski, but not as often as I like--boarding, sledding, xcountry skiing, waterskiing, all pretty foreign to me.

But friedmikey might pick up where I left off! Where in the Bay do you live, Mikey?

I live in Mill Valley. Grew up here. I spent many years mountain biking, but recently switched to road. I mostly ride around Marin (Paradise, Nicasio, Pt Reyes, Headlands), though all my organized training rides start in SF. I do go to Tahoe often, though I haven't been up in two months now. I've been snowboarding there for twelve years now.

We should rename this the "hobbies/obsessions other than biking thread for people that live in the Bay Area".

Other obsessions include: snowboarding whenever Im near snow (not around here definitely ~30°C today), scuba diving, traveling the world... and on the 'puter: 3D modeling, Web programming, RTS gaming 🙂