Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

Modeling!! Military tanks and airplanes, Gundam and now Warhammer. Learning a lot painting techniques.

Also building "drones". I create a glider and slap some propellors on it, then race it once a month in a local club.

I'm obsessed with interfaces at the moment.

How do humans interface with computers and data, from control to visual feedback.

How humans interface with music, perform it, read it, store it. How do birds interface with tones and rhythm?

How software interfaces with other software and hardware.

How humans interface with the world via symbols. I've been reading about Semiotics a bit, and find the field fascinating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics?wprov=sfla1

Birdsong as code: https://youtu.be/OCYU0LtqRH0?si=4DwOKC3oZ6vE-w-y

Guitar, and as a subset of that, music theory and composition. It started as a something to get me through the first pandemic winter in Minnesota in 2020, never having held a guitar before, and it turned out to be something I've been completely obsessed with for more than three years now. I have played guitar literally almost every day since I started. I play for about a half hour every day before I head out to catch the bus, and very often play for another hour or two in the evening.

My main focus for the past two years has been solo fingerstyle guitar, especially classical. The two full pieces I've learned so far are "The Water Is Wide" arranged by Yenne Lee[1] and "Home" by Andrew York[2]. I've almost finished memorizing "Tango Azul" by Nemanja Bogunovic[3], and I'm working on learning "Autumn Leaves" also arranged by Yenne Lee[4], and "Blackwood Lullaby" by Justin Johnson[5]. And I've learned a bunch of short studies and pieces, a recent favorite being "Vals Frances" by Francis Kleynjans[6].

In addition to playing, I also attend classical concerts put on by the Minnesota Guitar Society[7] and do a little bit of volunteering for them, primarily editing full concert videos for their YouTube channel (which, sadly, are mostly taken down after a brief viewing due to contractual stuff).

[1] "The Water Is Wide" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bufc2HY9F2U

[2] "Home" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ajTcwJBbw4

[3] "Tango Azul" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDZgTsKrluE

[4] "Autumn Leaves" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxGT5z6d-GA

[5] "Blackwood Lullaby" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC58eXL-MJY

[6] "Vals Frances" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSNmwn54vEI

[7] https://mnguitar.org/

Practicing bass guitar. I never played music as a child which makes learning as an adult ten times harder, but that won’t stop me, I see it more as a fun challenge hah. I started with piano during the pandemic, which I enjoyed, then that morphed into generally learning the full gamut of production with DAWs and whatnot. Bought a bass guitar in the summer and have been having a blast learning, I have practiced nearly every day that I am at home, and actually notice how much better I am getting. Also identifying areas to improve upon, and focus on getting my hands to do what my brain wants is a really good exercise, and a really good break from the ol’ enterprise software grind :)