The ultimate nerd mashup thread
Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Hold onto your asses, because we're about to cram hobbies together like a particle accelerator. I know you mofos are into a lot of strange shit: ponies, foxgirls, photography and--crap on a cracker--even truly sordid affairs like crocheting. I know we have threads on all of these, but it's time to bring them under one roof so we can bumblebee it up and cross-pollinate this bitch.
RULES TO REPLY:
1. State your favorite hobby. COME CLEAN.
2. Share your prized possession/memory/object/whatever from that hobby.
3. LEARN US FOOLS 'BOUT YO' WHYS AND HOWS. Educate us. Why is it your favorite? Why did you get into this hobby?
I SHALL GO FIRST:
1. Watch collecting is probably my favorite hobby.
2. This is my prized possession.
3. This is why it's my prized possession. I got into watch collecting because I ran across the Orient Esteem one day and had my mind opened to the very possibility that watches could look like something other than a Rolex. I don't know why I'd never considered this before... Surely there's some smartypants word for an event that immediately and profoundly broadens your horizon? In lieu of knowing that word, let's just call it the "Orient Effect." Anyways, the Orient Effect hit me like a sack of bricks and I began to obsessively learn all about watches and movements and manufacturers. I started with Reddit, but I quickly realized that /r/watches was decadent with smug shitlords and their abundance of Benjamins, so I stumbled into watchuseek.com and fell in love with the depth and breadth of the community--a watch for every taste, and so friendly!
I'm only a beginner, and I hope to one day advance my knowledge to the point that I can perform rudimentary repairs on simple movements. I'll get there! But for now I'm happy to add pages to my encyclopedic knowledge.
Hell, one day I may even like divers. My journey to the Dark Side will be complete.
RULES TO REPLY:
1. State your favorite hobby. COME CLEAN.
2. Share your prized possession/memory/object/whatever from that hobby.
3. LEARN US FOOLS 'BOUT YO' WHYS AND HOWS. Educate us. Why is it your favorite? Why did you get into this hobby?
I SHALL GO FIRST:
1. Watch collecting is probably my favorite hobby.
2. This is my prized possession.
3. This is why it's my prized possession. I got into watch collecting because I ran across the Orient Esteem one day and had my mind opened to the very possibility that watches could look like something other than a Rolex. I don't know why I'd never considered this before... Surely there's some smartypants word for an event that immediately and profoundly broadens your horizon? In lieu of knowing that word, let's just call it the "Orient Effect." Anyways, the Orient Effect hit me like a sack of bricks and I began to obsessively learn all about watches and movements and manufacturers. I started with Reddit, but I quickly realized that /r/watches was decadent with smug shitlords and their abundance of Benjamins, so I stumbled into watchuseek.com and fell in love with the depth and breadth of the community--a watch for every taste, and so friendly!
I'm only a beginner, and I hope to one day advance my knowledge to the point that I can perform rudimentary repairs on simple movements. I'll get there! But for now I'm happy to add pages to my encyclopedic knowledge.
Hell, one day I may even like divers. My journey to the Dark Side will be complete.
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Comments
2. This is my Prized Possession
3. The reason I love this comic so much is its rarity, and the fact that until last Summer it was the only thing missing from my Garth Ennis Punisher collection.
The comic itself is out of print, out of the entire MAX line (Marvel's 'explicit adult content' line of comics) this one was the only one that, as far as the Punisher/Ennis community can tell was ever banned from publication due to some of the material within the comic itself being deemed far too offensive for even an explicit comic line. As of now (Something which annoys me greatly.) Amazon has managed to find more volumes of this comic and so the price has returned to the usual $15-17 CDN per volume but last year when I was looking for this volume the average selling price on Amazon.ca was upwards of $500 CDN.
Luckily for me I found a reasonably inexpensive copy through the Amazon.com and thanks to @UPSLynx I was able to send it to his house (With the express agreement that he was allowed to read it before forwarding it to me) despite the deal it's still the single most expensive comic I have in my collection.
As for how I got into collecting comics, when I was younger I frequented a local comic shop in my neighbourhood called Excalibur Comics (Seriously if you find yourself in Toronto go check it out, the owner Rob would love more comic or superhero aficionados to talk to.) back in high-school I only ever purchased Magic The Gathering cards but one day I decided to browse the store's comic collection and I managed to find the first Punisher comic Garth Ennis ever wrote 'Welcome back Frank' on a whim I bought it and read it that evening. I instantly fell in love and have been collecting comic books (Specifically Punisher and Judge Dredd) ever since.
MOAR.
2. This is my Prized Possession.
3. Music has always been an outlet for me. I got my first guitar at a very young age. It was some fisher price toy, but it had strings and you could hook it up to a stereo. If I could find an old photo (which I'll look into) I would share it. Flash forward to middle school and I was entering the time where one forgoes interest in toys for more mature things. At the age of 13 I asked for my first guitar. It was a terrible heap of wood and plastic. After a year or so with the JC Penny Harmony guitar from hell I saved up lunch money and went to a music shop with the Rents. They split the cost of a very entry level bass guitar with me. An Ibanez. I still have it. Since then I have switched back to guitar, and added a few my more instruments to my collection and I continue to play for my own enjoyment.
My latest addition is my baby. It's a Schecter Hellraiser C1 Extreme. It has a matte finish on it and it's one of the most beautiful pieces of wood I have ever laid my eyes on. It plays like a dream and sounds like one too. The moment I touched it I knew it was special. Those that play guitar can tell you, each guitar is different. They almost speak to you in a Harry Potter, this wand is meant for you kind of way. You can play 10 of the same guitar, and they all play a little different. I've played a few guitars in my time that spoke to me and I didn't buy them. After buying another Ibanez 6 string acoustic based on looks and not how it felt, I made the choice to buy a guitar if it really spoke to me, and it was a sound financial decision. If you're into guitar I'm sure you can relate. If you're not and you ever decide to get into it, remember to listen to what the guitar says to you.
2.
Love my titan RG Gundam MkII. This is a generic review pic but more or less identical to mine.
3. So Bandai make a metric shit ton of plamo kits for dozens of franchises but this one is from their Universal Century Gundam RG (real grade, pretty high spec) line and is an absolute clusterfuck of tiny parts (1/144 scale, like 6 inches tall) that when painstakingly assembled turn into a damn fine looking mkII from Zeta (once you've got the bastard assembled, glued, filled, sanded, primed, painted, panel lined, decal'd and top coated).
I've been collecting robots since I got a revoltech Eva Unit01 years ago and moved on to grab some Patlabor, Gundam and even Pacific Rim stuff with a votoms AT and an IS on order. Plan to eventually get mazinger(s), macross, the big O and a few other series represented, but I have quite the backlog already and seldom hurry putting them together.
As for the why, I find it relaxing. It takes a similar level of precision and attention to detail as SMD soldering I used to do with the same sense of accomplishment but without the burnt fingertips. I've been watching and reading scifi/mecha all my life and I just love the genre generally; though that's not really news to those of you that I've made synchtube War in the Pocket/G Gundam/build fighters. :P
tl;dr
2. When I was a lot younger, getting my rockets and ground support equipment to a field big enough to fly was a real problem since my parents both had full time jobs. I jury-rigged a trailer hitch on my bicycle and towed a Radio Flyer down a 2-lane country road with limited visibility to get to the field. On one occasion, the hitch failed causing the wagon tongue got tangled in the chain and throw me off the bike. I licked my wounds, fixed the hitch, and got everything out to the field without much more trouble.
Another time, I learned about the concept of a boost glider from an old copy of the Handbook of Model Rocketry and the specific example cited was the Renger Sky Slash II. I downloaded a .tiff copy of a bad copy of a fax of the plans from some FTP on the Internet (I think I was 11 or 12 maybe?) and built it from Michaels sheet balsa. It was a huge achievement and flew really well. So well, in fact, that on the 6th or so flight the wind took it out into the forest adjacent to my launch site and I was never able to find it
3. I had a lot of exposure to space exploration propaganda when I was little. I got into rockets when I spent a week at a "Discovery Hall" summer camp which was basically science camp: electricity, magnetism, chemistry, rockets. I sorta remember the other stuff. I'm mentoring some high and middle-schoolers in partnership with the AIAA (aerospace industry professional organization) for the Team America Rocketry Challenge; the rockets equivalent of FIRST/BEST robotics et al.
The nice part about this hobby is that you can choose your level of involvement. There are people that just make small rockets and concentrate on building the most efficient types of that class. Their costs are pretty well controlled at maybe $20 worth of airframe and $3 propellant. Then, there are the people with heavy financial exposure that are putting a $1k plus airframes into the air on $150 worth of propellant. I'm somewhere in the middle with $200 or so airframes and $30 of propellant. I at least try to justify the expense by doing experiments. If you're truly crazy, you can get into UAVs but it'll cost you. It's never been cheaper and it's still $800-$1500 to buy in. Everyone should be doing open-source hardware by now so I'm not going to mention it.
I also build effects pedals, even did it as a small business for a couple years. Fuzzes, distortions mostly. Somewhere around here are some pictures of my builds, my specialty was doing one-off enclosures with different sorts of designs on them.
So I learned a lot about electronics doing pedals, and decided I wanted to build an amp. I ordered a kit amp, just a blank circuit board, a chassis, and a bunch of components, but with a very thorough step-by-step set of instructions.. It was very satisfying getting it up and running, all the more so in that it wasn't really recommended as a beginner kit, but I had to do very little troubleshooting to get a great sounding amp up and running. It was a Trinity Triwatt, a Canadian manufacturer. I built it at the very beginning of 2013.
So, the next step was to build an amp from scratch, just a set of instructions and GO! Source all my own parts, tweak as desired and get it up and running. I chose an internet project known as the AX84, specifically I built an AX84 SEL (Single Ended Lead), which is sort of the 3rd evolution (4th version) of the project. There's a complete build log, including me asking stupid newbie questions, here http://www.guitarscanada.com/showthread.php?60743-AX84-SEL-Build-Log and, as you will see if you troll through (lots of pics!), in the end I have myself another great sounding but cheap to build (about $400 all in) amplifier, that I did everything but design (with a lot of helpful advice along the way). I started just before Christmas and finished up just after New Years. There's even a short video (post#38) where I fire it up for the first time - let me tell you, I was crapping my pants that I would zap myself or burn the house down :P
Like Thrax, I also have a watch collection. Currently numbers a dozen, pics of most of them are in the watches thread. I did get a Bulova Precisionist for Christmas last, the new models aren't as huge and clunky as the first series from a couple years ago. I have a blue dialed stainless model. Lovely watch but a cheap rattly bracelet that I will be looking to replace.
2) My prized possessions in each: My Mad Moxxie Costume, and my outrageously good red velvet cheesecake tower.
3) First: Crafting. Crafting, painting, sewing, knitting, crochet, photography, wreaths, cards, drawing... you name it, I've probably attempted it, or just plain love doing it. Sewing and making costumes/clothes has been something I have tinkered with for years, but am finally coming to get better at. Photography, still learning, just received a cannon Ti3 DSLR for my graduation gift. Painting/card making always loved making people hand made gifts, the knitting and crochet same. Also, sewing, knitting and crochet is something I've always shared with my mother. SO that's nice to...
Baking/cooking if I'm being honest. I've always had an interest in making new concoctions, seeing what spices go well together, making a dessert so amazing you can't help but just have one bite. But I love making people food, having people over for food, and cooking for those. After all I am positive that the best conversations happen around a table full of good food/drinks
Current projects, designing/creating more low calorie/high protein concoctions for @thrax and my attempt to get to our goal BF% andddd designing next years ICOK halloween costume currently. Well, after I finish the shirt and patchwork cowl I'm currently working on.
but that's not what i'm gonna talk about. I'm a beernerd. i love craftbrew and microbrew and even just brew (except bud). i have in my house over 500 bottles (empty) of different kinds that i have tasted and managed to keep the bottle. Of those, half are from Quebec, the rest are from all over the world. i've actually tasted at least 3 times that amount of brand, considering i'm not collecting cans, and all the one that are only on tap.
2. THIS. a Unibroue special brew from 2006 (Cherry Strong Ale, 8%). the first of my collection and also one of the best beer i have ever tasted. (they haven't brewed that beer since)
3. Well obviously you need to love beer. Also drinking a lot helps. Knowing how to put new shelves on your wall is a plus. Having friends that also love beer (i know there are a lot of those here in IC) helps. Just organise some tasting nights, a potluck of beer, cheeze and european style sausage on the bbq, ending with cigars and some cards. Then just collect the empties at the end. (If you're not at your place, peeps are gonna love you for "cleaning" their place!). What i recommend and something i still have to kick myself in the butt to do is a database/ list of all the kinds i have. Makes it easier when a friend ask "do you have that one?"
2.I can rarely pick singular favorites (except for the color green.) So I'll just go over a couple notables.
Honors Biology Class
It was a requirement to have a science project for this class since it was honors. So I decided to do a project regarding researching Bigfoot and proposing methods to identify it's preferred habitats. Some classmates where skeptical that such a project would work. Got an B+ cause I didn't think to proof these methods to known animals of similar size and potential diet (bears.) Biology is not my field of profession though.
Favorite creature: Dhobar Chu (doe-bar koo)
Roughly translated as water hound in Gaelic, the Dhobar Chu is said to be a large (6-8 feet / 2-2.5 meters) amphibious mammal that is white with a black cross-like marking on it's back, and is extremely strong, fast, and territorial. Some liken it to a ferocious otter, others as something else entirely. It's had many reported sitings in the past and can be found as the cause of death on a grave. If this was a real creature it is believed to be extinct now. I've sort of evolved my own mythos around it but I have plans for that and should keep it secret for now.
There is much more then that overall; videogames, books, movies, collectibles, etc, but I can't put it all in here.
3.I like to learn about and exerience other organisms whether they be real, or mythic. Especially if they are mythic; that is to say, they are diverse and complex creature(s) with an ecology and or history. If it's got monsters, creatures, aliens, etc, I want to know more. The closer to being real the better. Games that really flesh out their beasties draw me in for long periods of time (TES series, Monster Hunter, Pokemon.) Works of fiction that place such creatures as main characters are also a great source. Th Redwall series and the Bartimaeus series are by far my favorite books. The more worlds and creatures I get to learn about and experience, the more satisfied I feel.
When playing these games or reading/watching these stories, I look at the creatures with a scientific eye. Monster Hunter is a great example for this. Each monster has it's own ecology that you should take into account when hunting it.
The Uragaan is a large, metallic, geovore that prefers rocky areas that it can munch on. Volcanic areas are it's favorite due to particularly rich ores being brought to the surface by the volcanic activity. It likes to roll up into the shape of a wheel, it's rocky back provided great traction. Leaving explosive traps to weaken it's rocky shell allows you to actually cut into it with your relatively dull weapons. Every monster in the series has traits like this and this is part of why I love this series so much.
After thinking about this thoroughly, I've noticed that a lot of what makes me "me" is rooted in this interest. What my various theological and ethical views are, what my goals for life are, why I chose to "follow" the color green though I can't see it for what it actually is, why I like visual art, why I like certain genres of music, why I like certain anime series, why I enjoy what others say I shouldn't because of target demographic (MLP, Pokemon, cartoons in general,) why I chose other races in RPGs (Tauren FTW,) why I'm disappointed in the Twilight series (I respectfully disagree with her Vampires and werewolves,) and more stuff.
If there are any errors in this wall of text it's cause I cobbled this together over a day.
TL;DR
2) My prized possession? Would it be narcissistic to say my brain? Probably. Let's not say that then. Let's call my prized possession the book I'm working on at the moment.
3) I started writing when I was little. In an effort to make up for the mistake of having me at such a young age, my parents were very diligent about making sure that I was able to read and spell words like "stethoscope" before Kindergarten (my mother's a nurse by trade, so she thought it was cute). Looking back, when I was around 6 or 7, I remember a woman once telling me that I could talk circles around adults... but she wouldn't give me her phone number when I asked for it, so mostly I don't think she was complementing me. Regardless, I had a love for words, and some lady refusing to give me her phone number wasn't going to stop me from using them.
By the time I was in the second grade I was penning stories during recess to recite to my classmates when we got back to our seats. My favorite memory of this involves a character called the "Big Daddy Monster" (loosely based on my father), and me crawling in between fellow students on the carpet, acting out different voices for them. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why my teacher allowed this. I do know that she wrote "Can't wait to see what you write in the future, I'm sure it's going to be great!" in my yearbook at the end of the year... and sometimes I can't shake the feeling that she's still waiting for that "great" piece of work from me. In any case, I'm working on it.
In fact, writing is something I'm always working on. If it's not through yelp, it's through my blog, or my journal, or some funny notes on my phone, my book, or random letters to friends... or even here on Icrontic. It's all I've ever really wanted to do, and when I decided to leave school (I was studying psychology, for those who want to be in the know), my dad told me "I've never seen you in a 9 to 5 kind of job. I never thought it would make you happy", and he supported the decision completely. Now, with a year and some between me and that moment, I'm ready to go back for a journalism degree.
As to why I love it... Nothing else gives me the feeling that I get after writing a particularly good line of dialogue or narrative. I can make people up, I can travel to places no one's ever been... I can get lost in characters and not even be me for a little while. I can be funny and confident, and in a world where I've never felt myself to be either of those things, it's awesome.
So, you know... Look for me on a book shelf one day, because I'm going to be there.
I always wanted to try this campaign, but I am really bad at DM-ing.
2. My prized possession *was* a near-mint copy of Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick," with the fold-out newspaper. However, all of my records were destroyed by saltwater, sewage, and heating oil, from Hurricane Sandy.
3. I got into record collecting by way of a friend of mine, who is an audiophile. I didn't have enough money to buy ridiculously expensive equipment, so I did what I could. I bought an inexpensive phonograph, a cheap preamp, and a pair of headphones. I started small, with a few records I already owned, then started looking for older LPs, like Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, etc. Then I started getting into limited edition pressings, like MSFL (Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs), colored vinyl, imports. I had a nice silver-colored "Deloused in the Comatorium" pressed on 180g vinyl.
Over time I traded up certain parts of my gear. The player stayed, but in came the $200 cartridge, the dedicated phono stage, and the Sennheisers. Then marriage came, and I had to put aside my hobby for a bit. Hurricane Sandy seriously derailed my efforts, but if we move to a new house, I promised myself I would start saving for new gear and new vinyl. This go-around, I am getting a numbered Apple Records pressing of The Beatles- known unofficially as "The White Album."
2. My prized possession isn't really one thing, but a grouping of movie tickets from pretty much every movie I have seen since 2001. I lost a good deal of them to backpocket washing machine disasters, but I think I have kept about 80%. I have well over 200 movie tickets, I average out about 2 movies a month every month since I was 14 (14 years ago).
3. I don't know when I would say I officially started doing this, movie tickets are easier to pinpoint but that was kind of what got me started into collecting receipts from my trips. When I say above I think they tell a better story, I mean it is a something that takes up only a small space, but tells me everything I did that day (more or less). I can see where I went to dinner, on what day, at what time, what I ate, which then reminds of me how I felt about it. To me it is like a picture that allows you to paint the picture in your head more clearly than an actual picture telling you what to remember.
2. Can't pick a single photo, so instead, I'll say it's my site.
3. I don't really know how it started. I think it was originally due to growing up with National Geographic around the house, and then it just gradually grew into a thing. I don't have nearly enough time to give to it nowadays (which you might notice, thanks to the dearth of pictures on the site), which makes me sad, but I like to think that I'm just one trip away from getting right back into it. Still, I miss it. Need to take my vacations.
Enjoy the video.
@Basil where do you get your Gundam Model kits? I am having a hard time finding a place locally that sells them.
@Church4252 I buy most locally which prolly isn't much good to you on the other side of the pond.
I've also used HobbyLink Japan on occasion, given @midga and @ilriyas have used them with no issues (AFAIK) I've got no problem recommending them. Prices are good (example :P) and they'll hold items for up to 60 days after purchase so you can play about with shipping options.
Other US peeps use random Amazon sellers, AmiAmi or one of the specialist domestic retailers; Barnes and Noble are actually supposed to start carrying gunpla in April so you might want to keep an eye out for that.
@Basil OMG NEED!!! http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN976512/Gun