41–50 of 111 posts
My work hosts daily lunch hour pickup games on our field. Once a year they sponsored a tournament. We even have a lot of non-employees play with us.
Now I’ve been meeting people outside the work games in local leagues and pickup games through a Meetup group.
Would recommend. The community is really open to newcomers in my area.
When I finished my undergraduate degree, I found I had a huge vacuum of time. So, I started running. I signed up for a marathon with some friends and the training was fun, because I was running (!) the show. I ended up running pretty well, and kept it up.
Nevertheless, I met a girl while running who really put me through the ringer on a "running first date"-- She turned out to be an Olympian in track. This past week, I actually got to watch her compete at the World Championships in Budapest in the 5000m, and was even luckier to propose to her about two days ago.
I still think it's kind of funny, as a guy who really hated exercise growing up. She's a great foil to my dorkiness. Anyways, feel free to ask us anything about running. We're just killing time right now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
8 hour course? Did you actually get through the entire thing? Was it worth it?
I learned ableton through trial and error, but I have watched the whole video and got a lot from it. I wish I'd had that resource when I was starting out, would have saved me a lot of time. So I'd say: yes, it's worth it if you're picking up ableton.
I also learned ableton without any resources, but back in 2003 when it was a simpler product. It begs to be tinkered with (I think that’s the draw of it) but it’s a deep bit of software.
Woodworking - It started when someone on my work slack posted an image of an arcade machine they had made. I thought "I want one of those". So I borrowed a circular saw and made one. Then I was hooked. Now I'm doing lots of home improvements, such as building a coffee bar and converting an unused area into a pantry. I'm currently building some shop furniture, then I'll be converting an unused cupboard near our entry…
For me too. Though it’s more DIY in general (plumbing, electrics, decorating etc too). Built myself a shed from scratch earlier in the summer as a warm up for building a garden office. Currently have the roof off the porch (somewhat regrettably given the state the summer in the uk) because the ivy got to it before we purchased the house and it was rotting away. Having to learn a new set of skills around tiling hip ra…
Do it myself and any issues are easier to live with as they are my fault.
Later I picked up Basic, which was coincidentally used by the Basic Stamp that my school had a few spares of, which led to my software career, but hardware is still taking up my benchspace.
Hackerspaces and working on physical things in general i think brings the social element, especially when someone needs a tool you have and you need something they have ;)
Making music. At the ripe old age of 16, I bought DJ Shadow's "Entroducing" album, and wanted to make music just like that. Started out making "music" with the Wave Editor that shipped with Windows 95, and the rest is history. In the last 26 years or so (man that sounds like a long time), I've learned a number of different DAW's, put a modular system together, learned to play instruments (piano, guitar, drums), and w…
I’ve invested a fair amount of cash in the equipment (4x CDJ-1000 mk2, 3x PLX-1000, a DJM-750mk2 mixer, etc - c. €8-9k all in) but it’s fun to have friends over for B2B mixes (or B2B2B2B depending on who’s around!)
I enjoy the ability to easily switch styles/technique. Quick-mixing d&b every 16/32/48 bars or looping techno over 4 (digital) players is a very different experience to the tactile, analogue - and brutally unforgiving - world of vinyl.
Thanks to DVS (digital vinyl system) technology I can also mix/manipulate digital music as if it was vinyl.
Also cycling - 5 bikes and counting :-)
I've been having a lot of fun with HAM radio lately -- it's tech adjacent, and very social.
You can find swarms pretty easily and it’s very satisfying to save them. A bedraggled clump of sad bees in the rain can be transformed into a productive monster given the right home.
You can learn it from a friendly beekeeper, a local club, or a good book. There is no substitute for seeing a skilled person work with them though.
And coffee. I don’t care an awful lot how it’s made (unless it’s instant or pod) as I subscribe to the Gruber rules [1], minus that weird bit about keyboards.
You can have a great coffee very inexpensively and it’s another one that is widely appreciated. I toast the bean and grind them in the grinder I restored and brew on a reproduction Faema E-61 [2]. It’s a massive luxury and is one of the more beautiful bits of engineering in existence.
[1] https://www.foursides.ca/keys-to-success-by-john-gruber/
[2] https://www.faema.com/int-en/product/E61-MONOFASE-ANNIVERSAR...
Music is a fantastic option. I've always loved listening but didn't dig into it for a long time. I imagined myself getting into synthesizers and DAWs and figured I didn't need another hobby that keeps me at the workbench or computer. During the pandemic I decided to buy a bass guitar and it turns out there is something to these analog instruments after all. A key part of it for me was intentionally avoiding electroni…
I'm in the same boat, but I like recording too so I got a "digital 8 track" that can completely replace a DAW and allows me to record my acoustic or electric instrument or my voice, and edit the recording, and mix it down into a final product, all on the device. If you have any interest in recording & want to maintain the part where you stay away from the computer/workbench while you play music, I cannot more strongl…