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Ask HN: What are your (non-hn-related) hobbies?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your (non-hn-related) hobbies?

#51

Post by mcantor »

I highly recommend fencing. It's a spectacular workout, and the three different weapons provide unique experiences, one of which will certainly cater to your intellect or personality. Foil is highly strategic, épée is much less rules-oriented and the most like a "real" duel of the three, and sabre is extremely fast-paced.

The only downside is that competing can get expensive, but the exposure to so many different fencing styles is worth it. All three weapons are fun and intellectually stimulating to study, and the community is universally supportive. I think it's an excellent "hackers' game."

My other hobbies: drawing & painting, writing & reading (always reading), finding new music to listen to, video games, and poker (another great game with deep strategy behind it).

Re: Ask HN: What are your (non-hn-related) hobbies?

#54

Post by paddy_m »

Sailing and skiing. I have really gotten into sailing recently, especially racing. There is so much beauty, skill, and thinking in the sport.

I am a huge f1 fan. I either go to a meetup to watch the race (normally at 7am). Normally in addition I download a British feed of Friday practice 1 and 2 (speedtv only shows p2), Saturday p3, and qualifying. F1 has a lot of political intrigue, tactics and technology.

I'm not into a lot of traditional geek hobbies. I could care less about comics, sci-fi, or video games. Comics and sci-fi have just never done much for me, I just couldn't get into them. I enjoy video games when I play them, but they are just too much of a time sink, so I stay away. The first person shooters seem to require a large amount of skill and practice, when I play them I fell hopelessly lost.

Re: Ask HN: What are your (non-hn-related) hobbies?

#55

Post by yan »

paddy_m wrote: post #54

Sailing and skiing. I have really gotten into sailing recently, especially racing. There is so much beauty, skill, and thinking in the sport. I am a huge f1 fan. I either go to a meetup to watch the race (normally at 7am). Normally in addition I download a British feed of Friday practice 1 and 2 (speedtv only shows p2), Saturday p3, and qualifying. F1 has a lot of political intrigue, tactics and technology. I'm not i…

Where do you sail? I have been looking to get into it. My goal was to help out on current races and get into it that way. (I hear people need all the help they can get and will let you come along for free). I'm near Baltimore so there are a few active sailing clubs around here.

Re: Ask HN: What are your (non-hn-related) hobbies?

#56

Post by paddy_m »

mcantor wrote: post #51

I highly recommend fencing. It's a spectacular workout, and the three different weapons provide unique experiences, one of which will certainly cater to your intellect or personality. Foil is highly strategic, épée is much less rules-oriented and the most like a "real" duel of the three, and sabre is extremely fast-paced. The only downside is that competing can get expensive, but the exposure to so many different fen…

I have thought of getting into fencing. DHH's article about it a couple years ago piqued my interest.

Maybe I'm just elitist, but I think that with more obscure sports/hobbies you meet more interesting people. Anyone can play/talk about basketball, without much effort put in to play/learn about the sport. A sport like fencing though, requires a much more serious investment of time and follow through. Has anyone else noticed this?

Re: Ask HN: What are your (non-hn-related) hobbies?

#57

Post by hughprime »

streblo wrote: post #14
khafra wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...show you the ropes Along those lines, Shibari. It's a great way to meet girls.

If you don't know what Shibari is, don't try looking it up on Wikipedia at work. Do it when you get home.

To save me the hours and hours of curiosity, does someone want to give a brief and work-safe summary of what this particular activity is?

Re: Ask HN: What are your (non-hn-related) hobbies?

#58

Post by paddy_m »

yan wrote: post #55
paddy_m wrote: post #54

Sailing and skiing. I have really gotten into sailing recently, especially racing. There is so much beauty, skill, and thinking in the sport. I am a huge f1 fan. I either go to a meetup to watch the race (normally at 7am). Normally in addition I download a British feed of Friday practice 1 and 2 (speedtv only shows p2), Saturday p3, and qualifying. F1 has a lot of political intrigue, tactics and technology. I'm not i…

Where do you sail? I have been looking to get into it. My goal was to help out on current races and get into it that way. (I hear people need all the help they can get and will let you come along for free). I'm near Baltimore so there are a few active sailing clubs around here.

I sail at the Manhattan Sailing Club. http://myc.org membership is reasonable, about the same cost as a gym membership.

Racing is even cheaper if you know what you are doing. The words you are looking for is "rail meat". When the boat is going upwind it heels over, you need people on the uphill side of the boat on the rail. Being rail meat require very little knowledge. I would try to go out on days with unpleasant weather, fewer people show up. Rosh Hashanah was the first time I got out on Long Island sound (the boat had a very hard time finding crew that Saturday).

Try the Annapolis races, I'm not sure of where they meet, but you could probably get out on Wednesday nights and Saturdays.

Re: Ask HN: What are your (non-hn-related) hobbies?

#60

Post by silencio »

Knitting and crocheting and everything fiber-arts related. I love it because it seems tedious or stupid to a lot of people who don't know how to knit, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of creating fun things for my friends and family and myself (see http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/432735303/Photo_on_2009-0... for one ;) ) and I also enjoy using my tech background to convince people on Ravelry (a super big social networking site for knitters etc.) that knitting and designing patterns can be a lot like coding (cause some of them are super intimidated by tech, bah).

I also loooooove playing the piano. And making ice cream from scratch, for the interesting combinations and flavors you can make. And like a lot of other HNers are mentioning, learning foreign languages, even though I don't necessarily get a chance to practice speaking them much :( Snowboarding too, despite living in sunny LA. I wish I could get started with indoor rock climbing here as well, but I haven't really found anywhere good for that near where I live.

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