I've dabbled in, and enjoyed all of the following::
Here's the dirt on each.....
The thing about reading is, it is the thing you can always do when nothing else is available. I'm a big believer in always having a book handy. I usually have 3 to 5 books going at any one time. One of them will be in the bathroom, one will be next to the bed, one will be in my carry case to work, and one will be sitting around waiting to be picked up any old time. For the last couple of years they have been non-fiction with very little fiction mixed in. This exactly the opposite of the first half of my life. I can't think of anything more valuable than reading, and, if I ever had kids, a love of reading is something I would encourage and hope they inherited. I just don't get people who don't read. Not even the newspaper. It's like you chose to walk around with your eyes closed. I have a whole other page on reading here
Well, if my web pages are not a give away, I like to write as well. I've always been able to express myself better writing than talking (at least extemporaneously). I've written many of the documents used for training at my work place because, I was one of the few tech people who knew how to write. What I find is that people hate to write because they think they have to sound different in writing than when they are talking. What they write sounds stilted because it's something they would never say if they were just talking to someone. I have, in the past, told people that the best way to write is to pretend you are talking and write that. You don't need to search for huge words, or some convoluted means of structuring a sentence. Just talk to the person you are writing to. AND read what you write to see if it sounds natural. If it doesn't sound like you, throw it out and try again.
Oh yes. Re-writing. When I was in school the teacher would say to re-write something before turning it in. I didn't get it at the time, but I do now. Now I have no problem re-writing, looking for a better phrasing to get my point across. These web pages are being re-written constantly, though no so much as anyone would notice.
I actually have a novel that is about 1/3 done...It is progressing slowly, because I lack the discipline to sit down and work on it when I feel less than creative. I know the whole story, and just need to get it out.. so I reckon I should slog through it, and then start the re-write process once I have the first draft done.
The most interesting thing I've learned while writing this book is that it is true that the book will take you places that you did not expect to go when you started. The characters will do things that you didn't know they were going to do when you started. But as you write, and as you put yourself in their place and mind, things happen that you didn't expect, and the story becomes better for it. (Now.. who knows, maybe what I'm writing is utter crap. But I'm still getting a little of that writer's experience that I've heard others talk about so much on NPR. So, crap or no, it still works that way. Interesting.) It's an interesting experience to have something that is being created from your own mind, take you places you didn't know you were going to go when you started. No wonder the Greek's believed in Muses - outside beings that help with creativity. It almost feels sometimes like there is someone other than you doing the writing when it happens. The only explanation that fits is a god or goddess of creativity looking over your shoulder. Those Greeks were pretty smart.
There is a whole other web page devoted to movies.. so I won't be going into it here. Suffice it to say that I LOVE the movies.. always have.
I love trying new foods. There are not too many things that I've tried that I did not like. Love Thai, Indian, Italian, American, Argentinian and Chinese. Don't think I've been impressed by Vietnamese, but then maybe I have not been to a good Vietnamese place yet. Danish is bland, along with British. French cooking - at least when I've been to a good French restaurant is very good. German cooking is a little heavy on the fats (though with Adkins now, it's probably great).
On the list of foods I don't like put: BEETS. I don't know why I don't like beets. To me they taste like dirt. Plain soil. Nothing good about them.
Also, put Sea Cucumber (yes, it's a worm) on the list. I had the unfortunate experience of having someone tell me what it was JUST as I got it into my mouth, and being in a social/business environment where I could not just spit it out... It was a tough swallow. (The taste was bland, but the texture just gagged me.)
I have a few rules when it comes to enjoying food.
RULE 1: If at first you don't like it, try it again in 5 years... your tastes may have changed. I have found foods that I did not like years ago that I do like now. (I use this rule with beets.. but they've always tasted awful)
RULE 2: If you are in a foreign country and are suspicious of what is being put in front of you, EAT IT FIRST, then ask what it was. This worked great in China.
I guess you can tell that I use computers in a hobby manner. Building these webpages didn't happen on a piano, ya know. I also work on them, and like being creative with software. I've programming in more languages than most people have ever heard of (Basic, Fortran, F77, PL1, Pascal, Algol, Cobol, Lisp, PDP Macro, VAX Macro, Java, etc). My first programs were stored on paper tape. I've used punch cards, reel to reel mag tape, and modems where you had to insert the phone handset into the socket. Call me an old timer when it comes to computers.
I own a potters wheel, and have dabbled in the past with ceramics. I would like to play more with it, but since I don't have a kiln it's a little useless to do so.
I had my own dark room once. As a teenager I hired a girl to pose nude for me once and got some really great artistic shots.. One of which I may include here someday if I can ever get her to sign a valid model release. I don't think she was 18 at the time (I don't think either of us were) and so the contract I had her sign then is probably not valid. Besides, it would be rude to post someone's nude photo's without their knowledge and active consent..
I received a scholarship one summer to learn more about photography and dark room technique. This was taught by Ray Lewis (who you can find on another web page around here somewhere). We went to New York to visit some galleries and learned how to develop slides directly from negatives. It was a fun summer.
In some ways I think perhaps I should have kept up with the photography and pursued a career in there.
Yes, I am somthing of a nudist. Or at least I like having the minimum amount of clothes on at any given time, and frequently that means none.
I was a member of Elysium when I lived in L.A. I'm still looking for a club in the Bay Area to join. (Though with the house I live in now, that's not really necessary.. the pool area is private enough to enjoy anytime in any way) I feel a spiritual connection when I'm out in the all together (so to say). And, I hold that there is a BIG difference between Nudist and Sun Bather - the later only wants to be out on those perfect sunny days.. the former will enjoy the rain just as much. I'm the former. I've enjoyed rain naked plenty of times.
I've visited several nude beaches ... San Onofre, CA; Little MacKenna, Red Sand, Mauii; Secret Beach, Kuaii; Humbolt Beach, CA... Secret Beach is the best of all of these.
In my current house I have a private back yard and pool area so that I can pretty much wear nothing most of the summer. Friends have been warned to call first if this bothers them. After a time it tends not to bother people.. they just get used to it.
Used to make whole tapestries. The best thing I ever did was a print used as a decoration at a friends wedding for the alter.
Would like to learn how to use this. I have tinkered with the one I have, and have found some creative uses for it. I'd like to combine it with ceramics and spray glaze with it.. but then the kiln problem pops up again.
I did discover that you could put bleach into it, and spray fabric with that.. and, with stencils.. make some interesting designs on clothes for Burning Man.
Well.. would like to do more of this but time always seems to be a factor.. I liked Death Valley ALOT! And hope to go back there for some time alone under the stars. Yeah, I hike Death Valley alone. Being someplace where you know for an absolute fact that the nearest human is more than 10 miles in any direction... where there are no "background" sounds.. no cars.. no planes.. no high altitude jets.. no human sounds at all. There is something about that that is magic to me. (And no one cares what you are.. or are not wearing either - see previous paragraph - grin)
Tearing out, re-wiring, insulating, installing windows, and rebuilding walls in an old house I used to own.
I didn't get a chance to do this in the new house. We hired someone to do the work because my wife wanted it done in less than the amount of time I could have done it.. i.e. 5 years. Can't say as I blame her. Maybe I'll get a chance to build a deck in the back to replace the one we have.
For a time I collected stamps. Well, not so much collected as aquired. I was never very good at sorting them out into the collection books, or keeping track of what I had. Of stamps, there are just TOO many different kinds. You almost have to specialize on way or the other - American Stamps, First Day Covers, European Stamps, Stamps from defunct countries (like the 3rd Reich), etc. Otherwise it's all just too over-whelming. Sometime after I left for college I gave the whole collection to Nacy Limpert's younger brother. Hope he managed to do something with it more than I.
Now, coin collection was a blast. You could keep track of coins better than stamps. And you could know what all the holes were in your collection and go after just those items. I LOVED going to coin auctions. You'd check out the list of coins being sold, look at them, and then wait for the items you wanted to come up for bid. Then the fun would start. "How much do I really want this? Do I go another dollar up?".. it was great. Sometimes you lost. Sometimes you won.
I had a problem one day when I went to an auction in Pennsylvania and bid my last dollar for a coin. What I failed to take into account was SALES TAX. I grew up in Delaware. We never had a sales tax! I forget how I managed to pay, but I did.
I've stopped collection coins, though still look at proof sets. I should perhaps sell or give away my collection one of these days. Why drag it around forever. Kind of like my collection of SciFi books. Eventually everything becomes a weight.
While in college my friend Bob and I started, ran, and had a ball with a theatre company. To this day it is still in operations. Search the web for Harrington Theatre Arts Company, and you will find our legacy. There is more on this on the memories page.
I was not so much an on-stage kind of person, though I did play leads and minors. I like set design, prop creation, and staging more than the acting. I'm more of an organizer than an actor. Loved it.
Rob Betley and I tried our hand at movie animation. We did not have a "single stop" movie camera, but did pretty well with single trigger bursts on the 8mm camera we did have. The animation we made was base on "Yellow Submarine" with some of the same characters... the vacumm monster ends up consuming everything, including itself. It was kind of fun.
I also did some "live" animation using my brothers and sisters. One in which everything my sister touched disappeared, including herself (notice a pattern here? If your a freudian, keep your opinion to yourself.) And of course took plenty of pictures of dummies being pushed off the roof of the house. My brother loved these. He was so energetic about grabbing it and hauling it back up for another go...
I can't believe our parents let us get away with some of the stuff we did.. traipsing all over the roof of the house.
When I was growing up I liked building and launching model rockets. I built several Estes rocket kits and eventually designed my own rockets from parts.
In one I added and expander piece and a clear plastic payload section with the nose cone sealing that off. It was the perfect size for a mouse. Well.. sure enough after a test launch of the rocket we launched a mouse in it; one of the white pet mice we had. I put a bunch of tissue in the payload section to act as a shock absorber.. put in the mouse so he would be face up at launch.. then put more tissue on top so he would bash his head against the nose cone at any point. He wasn't stuffed in, but he couldn't turn around and get himself into an awkward (or dangerous) position. Then off he went.
On recovery we opened the payload section and let him out. He seemed a bit dizzy, but was otherwise unharmed. He made another trip that same day, but was spared and future space exploration by the accident of my sister stepping on the fin of the rocket and breaking it off. I didn't need to launch him again.. I'd proved the concept and knew it would work fine for any small innocent animal I cared to send up.
In another adventure I installed a triple stage system into a single stage rocket I no longer wanted. The 3 stages consisted of a BOOSTER rocket, a NORMAL rocket and a NORMAL rocket. Now, this is NOT a normal configuration for a multi-stage model rocket.
In case you didn't know, a NORMAL rocket has a boost phase, a smoke delay phase (so you can see it from the ground) and a forward explosion phase that pops the parachute recovery system out of the rocket. A BOOSTER rocket is the same without the smoke delay. It is designed to boost the rocket to a certain height then immediately ignite the next rocket in the chain with a forward explosion. You would never put a NORMAL rocket in the middle of a 3 rocket chain.. unless of course you were ME and wanted to have a little fun.
Those of you who know something about model rockets can probably guess what happened, but for the rest of you the flight went something like this..
Lift off was great. The booster took the rocket up a couple of hundred feet and immediately popped the normal rocket in the chain which soared off to quite a height. Course, since this was originally a single stage rocket the normal rocket in the middle was flaming out the bottom of the rocket as it went up. At appogee the smoke delay kicked in and was clearly visible. The rocket started to fall over and head nose down. Then the middle normal rocket did it's forward explosion to pop the recovery parachute, and lit the final rocket in the chain. The rocket shot straight down into a hillside about 30 yards from the launch pad and into some tall grass. Then from the tall grass you could see the smoke delay on the last rocket drifting up. Finally, when the last rocket popped you saw 2 halves of a rocket burst out of the top of the grass.
It was a riot.
I never went so far with solid rockets as to mount one on the front of my car, like my brother did, with a launch trigger on the dash board... but that's another story.