Everybody Needs a Hobby

[irish o'phile]

1. Wanting to die.

2. Drinking.

3. Slowly drinking myself to death.

 

[Irish Insanity]

I've honestly never seen one of those metal football games in real life. I always thought they just vibrated and nothing really happened. Pretty cool to learn different.

I've been a performing musician for half of my 33 years... roughly...maybe a little less than half.

That has launched me into a number of hobbies. I've really gotten into customizing guitar effects pedals, and have been preparing to build my own custom circuits. Following that, I want to start building reproductions of some classic 50s tube amplifiers...burning fingers!

The soldering iron and I have gotten to be great friends.

I've been slowly getting into buying and restoring vintage golf gear with my father....he's got about 900 clubs in his basement.

Pretty sure you're my older brother. Except he's not a sports fan. And 38. He's taught himself how to play the guitar at age 12. He's actually really really good now. He's produced music baxk in the day for a band he was in. And from about the age of 20 he's made his own, and for others, custom guitar pedals and refurbishing old tube amps.

 

[tussin]

Video games. I'll have to get some pictures together of my collection someday, unfortunately it's a bit spread out between my house and my parent's place. A lot of my NES collection of 600+ games resides in a cabinet at their place. I've also got a Play Choice 10 Arcade in my garage.

Do you sell at all? Particularly SNES.

 

[Irish#1]

Love the football set up ACamp. I had one of those in the 60's. Hated the players never went straight ahead. I remember reading the instructions and it said to boil the rubber pieces in hot water to make them go straight. I was all excited expecting a miracle after boiling them and they still went in circles.

Of course when you're like 10 years old you take a lot of things for granted, but today if I would have read those instructions, I would wonder how in the world boiling rubber would really help a piece that sat on a vibrating top go straight?

 

[connor_in]

When I was a kid I thought my cousin's electric football game was cool when he got it. However, the next time we visited and he got it out, someone had set something on top of its box when stored. This had created a bit of a dent in the playing surface, so everyone just kind of migrated to mid-field. Sad, really.


Oh and for those who haven't figured it out in other threads, my biggest hobby is movies. Another one is my 10 yr old only child son. He keeps me busy enough that after he goes to bed, I crash and just watch movies.

 

[GATTACA!]

I build bird houses and feeders mostly. But I have built tables, chairs and random other things. I probably added birdwatching to the hobby list, as I do it daily. lol That's why I started building bird stuff, then friends and family started asking for them.

I also like to whittle though. I've made a bunch of spoons, walking sticks, etc.

Gotcha very cool. Pics if you've got them.

 

[GowerND11]

Magnets.

 

[connor_in]

Magnets.

Mental image of you just changed to:

 

[IrishLion]

Magnets.

People's knees

 

[GowerND11]

People's knees

Somebody got it!

 

[gkIrish]

Some of mine:

-Record Collecting
-Plants (Indoor only)
-Sporcle.com
-Movie Ticket Stubs (I've saved all of my stubs since 1993 when I was five)
-Live Trivia (every week for a few years now)
-Golf
-Video Games

Others that I was serious about in my youth that I have strayed away from but will get back into eventually:

-Comic Books and some Graphic Novels: I own about 750 comic books
-Stamp Collecting
-Baseball Cards and other sports

 

[zelezo vlk]

Some of mine:

-Record Collecting
-Plants (Indoor only)
-Sporcle.com
-Movie Ticket Stubs (I've saved all of my stubs since 1993 when I was five)
-Live Trivia (every week for a few years now)

Others that I was serious about in my youth that I have strayed away from but will get back into eventually:

-Comic Books and some Graphic Novels: I own about 750 comic books
-Stamp Collecting
-Baseball Cards and other sports

Do you do a national trivia thing? I have been going to a Geeks Who Drink thing for the past few weeks because it's at a local brewery.

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[gkIrish]

Do you do a national trivia thing? I have been going to a Geeks Who Drink thing for the past few weeks because it's at a local brewery.

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So when I was living in my hometown I just went to a local brewery that did their own thing. Then I moved to Cincinnati and started doing Last Call trivia which I believe is national.

I currently do "Question Everything Trivia" which I think is just local here in Cincinnati. But I like the format and my team tends to win a lot so I do that every week.

 

[GowerND11]

Actual hobbies would be:
-Video Games
-Golf
-Coaching (I know it's not necessarily a hobby, but it's something I really enjoy)
-Just started collecting records
-Watching Wooly and Koon argue like an old married couple

 

[GowerND11]

Some of mine:

-Record Collecting
-Plants (Indoor only)
-Sporcle.com
-Movie Ticket Stubs (I've saved all of my stubs since 1993 when I was five)
-Live Trivia (every week for a few years now)

Others that I was serious about in my youth that I have strayed away from but will get back into eventually:

-Comic Books and some Graphic Novels: I own about 750 comic books
-Stamp Collecting
-Baseball Cards and other sports

We do trivia every other week. My friends are on a rotating work schedule and can't do it every week. Cash prize which is great.

 

[zelezo vlk]

So when I was living in my hometown I just went to a local brewery that did their own thing. Then I moved to Cincinnati and started doing Last Call trivia which I believe is national.

I currently do "Question Everything Trivia" which I think is just local here in Cincinnati. But I like the format and my team tends to win a lot so I do that every week.

Nice.

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[gkIrish]

We do trivia every other week. My friends are on a rotating work schedule and can't do it every week. Cash prize which is great.

We get gift cards but they can be used towards alcohol. So we are throwing a day drinking party this weekend because we have accumulated about 750 bucks in gift cards over the last 6 months.

 

[MNIrishman]

Camping and hiking, boys! Nothing defines America like the great outdoors. My only issue is that the fall is the best time for camping, but since I've become a football fan I am conflicted all autumn long.

Thinking about making the switch from a tent setup to a hammock setup. I've heard good things, but the investment is steep.

 

[GATTACA!]

Magnets.

 

[GowerND11]

We get gift cards but they can be used towards alcohol. So we are throwing a day drinking party this weekend because we have accumulated about 750 bucks in gift cards over the last 6 months.

That's a good deal. We just started going to this place within the last 2 months. We are pooling the money too. Going to use it for some kind of party in the future.

 

[zelezo vlk]

I just get free beer

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[NorthDakota]

We get gift cards but they can be used towards alcohol. So we are throwing a day drinking party this weekend because we have accumulated about 750 bucks in gift cards over the last 6 months.

I'll assume my invite was lost by the USPS.

 

[koonja]

Master bating.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

Looks like we have some Renaissance men in our presence (and also Koon).

- Woodworking
- restoring old machines
- house projects
- gardening
- hope to start a few bonsai trees every year
- just learning metalworking
- attempting to learn landscaping at a decent enough level to develop a master plan that'll be low maintenance and high value in terms of useful areas. I may need to 'rough it up' then take it to a landscape architect or other such designer to help lay out a multi-year plan that we can develop in phases. If anyone has done something similar, I'd be interested in hearing your experiences and what level of DIY you carried throughout.

 

[ulukinatme]

Do you sell at all? Particularly SNES.

I probably should, but no. Oddly enough, the NES collection started out of nostalgia in my 20s. Missed a lot of games from my youth, games I had sold off, so I started hitting garage sales and flea markets to find the old titles I used to play. Started picking up some extras after that, stuff I always wanted to play but never got to, and it just took off from there. It was a lot of fun when I was actively collecting, but with kids I don't have the disposable income to finish the collection at the moment, still have another 100 or so games to go.

As far as the SNES games, I probably only have 30 or so. There's a few rare titles in there, and a lot of Square titles that have retained or exceeded their value, but most of the games are common stuff like Super Metroid and Mario World. Do you collect, or are you just looking for a few old games you used to play?

 

[tussin]

I probably should, but no. Oddly enough, the NES collection started out of nostalgia in my 20s. Missed a lot of games from my youth, games I had sold off, so I started hitting garage sales and flea markets to find the old titles I used to play. Started picking up some extras after that, stuff I always wanted to play but never got to, and it just took off from there. It was a lot of fun when I was actively collecting, but with kids I don't have the disposable income to finish the collection at the moment, still have another 100 or so games to go.

As far as the SNES games, I probably only have 30 or so. There's a few rare titles in there, and a lot of Square titles that have retained or exceeded their value, but most of the games are common stuff like Super Metroid and Mario World.

That's awesome. I have a small SNES collection that I'm looking to add to and really view it as a fun, little hobby if you have the storage space.

Do you also play the games? I've heard great things about the Analogue NT.

 

[ACamp1900]

Love the football set up ACamp. I had one of those in the 60's. Hated the players never went straight ahead. I remember reading the instructions and it said to boil the rubber pieces in hot water to make them go straight. I was all excited expecting a miracle after boiling them and they still went in circles.

Of course when you're like 10 years old you take a lot of things for granted, but today if I would have read those instructions, I would wonder how in the world boiling rubber would really help a piece that sat on a vibrating top go straight?

Boiling bases is a technique but it's actually illegal in sanctioned play... you can't JUST boil them, you have to boil and then tweak the prongs with pliers...

it's actually much easier, and legal, to just heat up your pliers or flash the prongs with a lighter first... you can def get MOST bases to run straight, or get them to turn when you want, like a DE turn towards the QB for example.

EDIT** another acceptable technique is simply adding weight to the players... you can add led tape (like golf tape) under the player base or use poster putty under the base itself... I believe official rules allow a player to weigh 4 grams and under... for reference and player on a base just by itself weighs maybe 1.7 grams, so there is a lot of wiggle room there... adding weight to even an un-tweaked base improves it's performance.


EDIT/EDIT*** Funny I have a gram scale and all kinds of tools for my 'tweaking'... I have to be very careful how I word stuff like this around people who have no clue what I'm actually talking about.

 

[ACamp1900]

I probably should, but no. Oddly enough, the NES collection started out of nostalgia in my 20s. Missed a lot of games from my youth, games I had sold off, so I started hitting garage sales and flea markets to find the old titles I used to play. Started picking up some extras after that, stuff I always wanted to play but never got to, and it just took off from there. It was a lot of fun when I was actively collecting, but with kids I don't have the disposable income to finish the collection at the moment, still have another 100 or so games to go.

As far as the SNES games, I probably only have 30 or so. There's a few rare titles in there, and a lot of Square titles that have retained or exceeded their value, but most of the games are common stuff like Super Metroid and Mario World. Do you collect, or are you just looking for a few old games you used to play?

If ulk ever sells anything and moves his OG dragon warrior complete to anyone but me I will hunt him down and end him, and his family, and his friends, and his friends' family... there will be no one left with knowledge of him.........

I collect NEs stuff too... though my collection is limited to games I actually enjoyed back then and not collecting mass games to complete a collection.

 

[GATTACA!]

Looks like we have some Renaissance men in our presence (and also Koon).

- Woodworking
- restoring old machines
- house projects
- gardening
- hope to start a few bonsai trees every year
- just learning metalworking
- attempting to learn landscaping at a decent enough level to develop a master plan that'll be low maintenance and high value in terms of useful areas. I may need to 'rough it up' then take it to a landscape architect or other such designer to help lay out a multi-year plan that we can develop in phases. If anyone has done something similar, I'd be interested in hearing your experiences and what level of DIY you carried throughout.

I've got all the fine art skills if we need to round out the team. Oil painting, gouache, sculpting, drawing, ect.

 

[ulukinatme]

That's awesome. I have a small SNES collection that I'm looking to add to and really view it as a fun, little hobby if you have the storage space.

Do you also play the games? I've heard great things about the Analogue NT.

If you're into collecting, the best advice I can give is go out into the wild and find the games. Flea markets are some of the best sources for games, although it's gotten harder to find older stuff over the years. It used to be random sellers would always have NES/SNES/N64 games lying around. Those random sellers now have PS2/X-Box titles or newer stuff, times are changing. Most decent sized flea markets I've been to typically have at least one video game exclusive dealer that carries older games, but even their stock is dwindling over time.

It used to be around 2000 you could find NES and SNES games all the time at garage sales too, but again time has shifted and now all you find is stuff from the last few generations of consoles. Old video game and movie rental places used to sell out their stock too. My buddy and I would buy them out or pickup 50-60 games at a time for dirt cheap. Now when you're looking for a certain title the best bet is Ebay, and that isn't nearly as fun as finding something in the wild. My buddy, who also used to collect, found a Myriad 6-1 at the flea market once for $4, which is pretty crazy since an opened copy goes for well over $1000. He sold the game to me dirt cheap when he got rid of his collection, cause he's cool like that. I've also got a sealed, original Cheetahmen 2 that I bought for $50 around 2002 and it sells for $2000-$3000 now.

I do play most of the games, but I use the original systems. Had to buy a new power cord for my SNES a few months ago because the old one bit the dust. I don't go in for these new, after market systems they have these days, just doesn't feel the same. I play most of my games, but certainly not regularly, and not all of them. I just recently started introducing my kids to the NES and SNES games, some of which I haven't touched in 5-10 years. I've got a handful of sealed items in my collection that I refuse to open, but there have been a few times where I did open stuff...which was probably a stupid move. I picked up the entire Aladin NES Deck Enhancer set complete with games around 2001, all sealed, and I opened everything to try it out. Needless to say the games were kind of lame and not worth devaluing them.