Hobbies? Who has time for hobbies?
I do manage to have a few anyway; but this page is kind of skeletal because I
don't have time to write about them. They are sort of in order of time spent on
them. Not all of them are active at one time! Some were the sort of activity you
get into out of curiosity and then lose interest as the novelty wears off.
Others have lasted. See also my
thoughts on the place of hobbies and artistic pursuits in a busy life.
- Reading
- Bicycles (various kinds)
- Sailing (uh, make that Working on the Boat)
- Lampworking (hot glass)
- Movies
- Knitting
- Silk Painting
- Electric Vehicles (now electric bikes)
- (Electronic) Music
- Kite Flying (a poor substitute for sailing)
- Quilting
- Origami
- Worrying
Worrying? Yup. Mostly about the future of our species and
"our" planet. In summary my recipe for survival is this: fewer babies, less
greed, a better deal for kids and women, recycle or die. The long version is
far too long (and polemical) to indulge in here. In between fits of
species-wide angst, one can always worry about more specific things, like:
- exactly when climate change will go nonlinear
- the state of health care in the US
- why today's copy editors don't seem to know their business
- the future of pure research
- whether life is long enough to start learning Japanese
- whether Babylon V will be released on DVD
- whether you checked in that last patch to the CVS repository
- whether there will be any public libraries by 2010
- why every 5th undergrad now seems to be puffing on a cancer stick
- the fate of the Balkans
- why you can't remember the German word for [fill in the blank]
- whether the bus will arrive on time
- whether we really understand the influence of the crossbow on Western
history
- the takeover of the FSU by the Russian Mafia
- what new holes in sendmail (NFS, NIS, Netscape . . .) will be announced
tomorrow
- what we'll do when the oil runs out
- whether there will really be a giant Coca Cola sign in orbit by the
millenium
- whether Bill Gates will own the world (including the mortgage on my
house?) by then
- whether Ollie North (or Pat Buchanan) will ever become President
- and/or "did I really turn the oven off before leaving the house."
Worrying is a great hobby: there's always such a wealth of
options :-( and like knitting, it can be taken anywhere (even on vacation) and
pursued at any time -- especially when you should be sleeping. I once had my
knitting confiscated by a security guard on the grounds that the needles were
deadly weapons, but that's another story.
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