What are your hobbies?

KIS, that place looks amazing.

Aside from drumming, I listen to a ton of music ranging from soft jazz to death metal, watch a ton of movies and play guitar and bass.
 
Good God Man! Way to go! You live on an estate!

Andy that's just spectacular, it must bring you so much joy to sit among all that. I can't believe you did all that yourself. It's truly magnificent. What do you have, like your own construction company or something? Or did Bob help you?
 
All my "hobbies" are illegal, so if I told you, I´d have to "get rid" of you.
 
Wow Andy, living in a small rented one-bedroom flat I can scarcely believe your lifestyle. Stunning grounds - well done! I think I will have to call you "Sir" from now on. Well done, Sir Andrew of the Stately Home!

................

Most here probably already know my main other hobby ... http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59618


I used to be keen on digital art but shifted to cartoons because my art tended to look cartoonish anyway:

outsider2.jpg



I used to enjoy creating music with sequencers but the guitarist in my band borrowed all my gear and disappeared interstate before expanding on his habit portfolio and hocking it all off :(

For some strange reason I have also always keen on statistics (probably some ADHD / Asperger-related mental deformity) and that's now become my livelihood.

Strangely enough, in recent years, I find myself with zero illegal hobbies for the first time in my life. Note to self ... Must Lift My Game ...
 
Andy tell me you didn't carve that tree carving, no way..
 
Andy tell me you didn't carve that tree carving, no way..

Larry, Sir Andrew posted that earlier. He had a sculptor friend do it, if I remember correctly. It's glorious. Oh, and the tree was already dead so it was brilliant use of something that would otherwise be wasted.

.... but it was still Sir Andrew's idea to do it.

Thanks Gwaco :)

I won't overdo this ... just one more for a laugh ... it's called "Trouble Afoot" ...


trouble_afoot.jpg


Also enjoy tennis and ping pong.
 
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I'm a semi avid airsofter. My friends and I go every sunday. Its a great way to just get out and be active. I also enjoy hockey. I played for 8 years and still love watching it. Recently I have really wanted to get into mountain biking. Well more like trails and such. Plus I'll be going to college in Chicago so I think a bike would be a pretty good investment. Anybody have any suggestions?
 
I can't believe you did all that yourself. It's truly magnificent. What do you have, like your own construction company or something? Or did Bob help you?
No Larry, seriously, I did that all myself, with great support from my long suffering wife. Literally the only exceptions are; the dragon that was carved by a wood sculpture friend, a local guy hired as driver for the digger & telehandler, and another friend who helped with some of the electrical work and moving rocks for a week. So 99% my own work. That's not just the grounds, but the house from the oak frame up too, and the other structures. I'm very good at building roof structures now! Literally every evening, every weekend, & all holiday time from work for 4 years.

I bought the place 3 days before Christmas for a very cheap price. It was in a real mess, but I was still lucky to secure the deal. These photos are taken after 2 years of work already completed on the buildings. Anyhow, the dragon is called Cedric. Here's some mug shots of him. He's all black now and looks better for it. A few build shots too, including my behind when building the waterfall. I renovated the house & buildings before doing the landscaping.
 

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Wow Andy, living in a small rented one-bedroom flat I can scarcely believe your lifestyle. Stunning grounds - well done! I think I will have to call you "Sir" from now on. Well done, Sir Andrew of the Stately Home!

................

Most here probably already know my main other hobby ... http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59618


I used to be keen on digital art but shifted to cartoons because my art tended to look cartoonish anyway:

outsider2.jpg


I used to enjoy creating music with sequencers but the guitarist in my band borrowed all my gear and disappeared interstate before expanding on his habit portfolio and hocking it all off :(

For some strange reason I have also always keen on statistics (probably some ADHD / Asperger-related mental deformity) and that's now become my livelihood.

Strangely enough, in recent years, I find myself with zero illegal hobbies for the first time in my life. Note to self ... Must Lift My Game ...
Sir Andrew, no way! That's all hard work right there, including renovating the house from the frame up. It's not a money thing. There's no way I could afford the finished item on the open market. Anyhow, sirs never do the work themselves!

More to the point, I love this piece of your art, it's stunning. Really, I like everything about it. Not liking the foot thing though. Yuk! Got to admire the skill in that, just wouldn't have it on my wall.
 
Sir ... Andy? :) "Trouble Afoot" isn't a hanging piece. I don't think it's for anything functional, really :) It's just something that came to mind that seemed like fun. Foot poses were by an ex b/f and then he was on the other side of the camera for my face poses (which may explain why the pic is so ugly :)

The nice piece is called "The Outsider". An adaptation of it was used for an annual report cover a few years ago. I think a print of is hanging in an office in an outer CBD as well.

gwaco, I consider "weird" to be a compliment. Thank you :) One of the great things about this forum is that almost everyone has at least one passionate interest. Apart from the pure pleasure of it, I think being passionately interested in things is great for people in a holistic sense.
 
Sir ... Andy? :) .
I love "The Outsider". Really great vibrant colours, and captures the urban scene superbly.

Oh, BTW, please dump the sir stuff. I was born in an orphanage on the Liverpool dock road, then adopted into a family that existed just above the bread line. Hardly sir territory.
Anyhow, you missed the photo of my crouched butt whilst laying stones below. Sirs don't do that either.
 
To a great extent it's just expanding my horizons learning other instruments. Some I play pretty well, some are an early work in progress.

Other than that I guess I'm sort of a bushcrafty dude. I'm set up for many types of camping, I go hiking a lot and I've sort of gotten a bit into the basic survival skills and kit building thing. Definetly a traditionalist and minimalist though, so I mostly keep it within that frame.

I've recently taken up archery. It's not legal to hunt with bow and arrow in Norway and who knows what laws regarding that will look like when they come, but at least I'll be sort of prepared for that when that time comes. Until then it's just another reason to get outside and get a break from the usual stuff.

Always sort of been into martial arts, but it's been on and off a lot and with how work has turned out it eventually ended. Impossible to combine. It's a bit sad, really.

Cooking has also been a major passion for most of my life, but that too has also taken a bit of a side seat because of the current life stuation. I'm definetly the family chef, but they're not the most adventurous crowd.
 
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I have found a new passion for wood working and refurbishing furniture. I come from a family of builders and engineers. I have installed flooring my entire life since my family has owned and operated business'. I went to school for engineering and architecture and have held various positions in those fields as well. However, I wouldn't consider flooring and construction as a hobby, it's just my side gig that pays very well.

However, what I find myself doing so much now is building furniture and refurbishing used goods. I built a lovely farmhouse table with a matching bench for my house, I have refurbished my mothers age old coffee table (striped, sanded, stained, acquire new legs, and finished), I plan to refurbish our hope chest and soon build an entertainment stand for our living room. I have yet to make any money on my projects but followers on my IG have been asking me to build them computer desks and tables and the like. Something about working with wood in my garage has awoken something in me especially since I spend my life in an office in front of a screen.

I also may find some used drums some time or another and refurbish them sometime.
 
When I'm not being lazy I like biking. Lately I've been doing mostly road biking. Lots of hills where I live so any ride provides a bit of challenge and I can up that challenge depending upon which turns I take. What started me on the biking thing was mountain biking. I live down the road from a 2,000 acre park that has miles and miles of some of the best single track in the state. I used to barrel around through the more remote sections of the park and got pretty good at going over obstacles like large downed trees, rock gardens and some nice short but steep climbs. Then family and work got in the way and I didn't get out on the bike much. I've been trying to ride more recently and started with a little more consistency in May. I'm in better shape than I was at the beginning of the year but still have work to do. And this amazing early fall weather has been incredibly inviting for getting out on the bike.

I also enjoy coffee. I haven't taken the plunge into espresso just yet but have my espresso making kit all picked out. In the meantime I've been perfecting my french press coffee. I've taken to buying beans fresh from a local roaster. Most of the time I'm buying them about 3 days from the date they were roasted. I've also started weighing my beans and water to ensure consitent and appropriate coffee to water ratios. Currently at 1:13. I'm making some great coffee and will usually drink it as a cafe au lait. I foam skim milk in a manual frother that I've heated to 140 degrees to bring out the sugars.

But I've also been trying to get myself back into drumming again which also took a back seat to family and work obligations. I was playing every other week with a group of just for fun doing mostly blues and classic rock. We had 2 to 3 guitars, bass, me, a singer and occassionally a harmonica player. That was actually pretty fun until Covid hit and put a halt to it. Those jams were about a half hour of highway driving from me. More recently I answered an ad on a local facebook page and have been jamming every week with a guitarist and bass player who both live in the same town as I do. We had been playing at my house while wearing masks. A couple weeks ago the guitarist who put it all together found a local singer. But he won't play inside. So we tried playing outside last night for the first time. First there were some technical glitches in that the singer's mic and amp weren't working. Once it started working I became more suspect of this working than I already had been. Since we live in a suburb of NYC, there are lots of neighbors. The song mix that we had been working on is some pretty "bashing" stuff. It needs to be played loud. I can't do that outside on a weekday evening. And there is always the reality that weather conducive to playing outside will not last much longer than a few more weeks. I felt the effort of taking apart, lugging, setting up and taking my drums apart again was just not worth it. I actually resorted to playing brushes on songs that don't lend themselves to brushes. We'll see how long this one lasts but since the other band is holding off due to Covid, I don't have lots of other options.

So, biking, drums and coffee. Nothing really exciting here.
 
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