I am somewhat of a hobby collector, in that I really get into some strange random hobbies, but when I move on, instead of completely abandoning them, I just add them to the list of Fun Things I Do Sometimes.
When I was a teenager, I did high-level colorguard, winterguard, and drum corps. Drum corps is like a marching band that sleeps on a bus and rehearses all day, every day, for three months. It’s sort of an all-or-nothing activity, so I don’t do it at all anymore.
For a couple years, I was really active in the SCA, a big medieval re-creation group. Now I just do Pennsic. It’s the biggest event with 11,500 people, and lasts 2 weeks. It’s pretty awesome. LWers might be interested in the Class List (scroll down a bit, because the first week is all boring stuff).
One of my favorite things to do is dance. Besides bellydancing, I used to professionally teach and perform a bunch of circus-style dancing. At professional level I did poi, fire arts, and hooping (my favorite). At a decent level is diabolo, stilt dancing, staff, hat manipulation, and maybe meteors. Things I worked on and still suck at include: contact juggling, club juggling (I can do 3-club cascade and that’s IT!), unicycling, and devil sticks.
I performed at Cincinnati Music Hall, Cincy Fringe Festival, Saks 5th Ave, and more. But I primarily focused on teaching, and that’s what I’m most proud of. At a time when, at least in Ohio, standards were very wishy-washy, I started a group whose focus was to educate and inform. Get anyone who wants to able to spin, and do it safely. I am told that some of the teaching methods I developed are in use in a lot of local burns and pagan festivals (I’m not pagan, but a lot of fire folk are).
When YouTube was new, and people would post vids of their hooping performance, but never vids explaining how to do any of it, I was among the first to post tutorials on hooping tricks. I am really proud of this, because it started the ball rolling, and now everyone posts tutorials, which means that anyone anywhere can learn. (Random bragging: I still have about 900 subscribers to my YouTube channel, despite the fact that I haven’t posted anything in years.)
Especially since I was often bellydancing at places that didn’t have canned music, I wanted to learn how to play stuff. I learned doumbek, a middle-eastern hand drum, which I am pretty good at so long as you don’t want frilly stuff; and I learned oud, a ME fretless 11-stringed instrument, which I suck at, unless you want one of the eight folk songs I know to be played badly.
Other types of dancing I do are social swing which I am pretty good at, and bharathanatyam, a classical Indian dance, which I only got to study for about a year total, because each time I’d find a new teacher (hard in the first place), they’d end up moving away. :/
Other hobbies I’ve focused on include: wall climbing, embroidery, and dabbled in a lot of things through the SCA.
I did the whole “Married with a House in Suburbia” REALLY young in life. Got divorced (pretty amicably) about a year ago, and I moved to Columbus, OH. My brother lives in cbus, and he really helped get me back on my feet. I absolutely love this city, and if “exploring Columbus and doing fun stuff” can be considered a hobby, I guess that’s what I’m doing now. I go laser tagging with friends. Right next to that place is a trampoline park, which is awesome. This weekend I’m going to the Zoo Holiday Lights (and seeing polar bears! yay!) Columbus is also known for having LOTS of these really great non-chain restaraunts. And Jeni’s Ice Cream.
I’m a vegetarian. I have a Australian Shepherd puppy named Griffyndor who has been my best friend for 11 years now. I have a 10 foot shelf of (primarily loose-leaf) tea, but I’m normally lazy and just stick with whatever bags I got at the grocery this month. I work with children, and people (or children) with disabilities. I like Joss Whedon, Neil Gaiman, Miyazaki, GRRM, and more! I think everyone should see Life is Beautiful at least once.
One of the most interesting personal stories I’ve ever heard, both in real life and on here; I often wish I had enough time to develop more unique hobbies. If it’s not too personal, where did you find the time? Do you think your relatively eclectic talents helped or hindered your overall rationality?
Thanks for sharing!
ETA: I love that you’re trying to add a more personal touch to Lesswrong; your personality—as conveyed through your writing style—seems especially suited to this by the way.
Can I pick your brain about SCA sometime? My husband loves medieval-y stuff, and I’m vaguely crafty, so I’ve been curious about it, but shy of just showing up at a meeting.
It is likely that I have watched, and attempted to learn from, one of your hooping tutorials! (I don’t know your account name. But I have watched a lot of them while trying to find people who explain things in a way I understand.)
I am somewhat of a hobby collector, in that I really get into some strange random hobbies, but when I move on, instead of completely abandoning them, I just add them to the list of Fun Things I Do Sometimes.
When I was a teenager, I did high-level colorguard, winterguard, and drum corps. Drum corps is like a marching band that sleeps on a bus and rehearses all day, every day, for three months. It’s sort of an all-or-nothing activity, so I don’t do it at all anymore.
For a couple years, I was really active in the SCA, a big medieval re-creation group. Now I just do Pennsic. It’s the biggest event with 11,500 people, and lasts 2 weeks. It’s pretty awesome. LWers might be interested in the Class List (scroll down a bit, because the first week is all boring stuff).
One of my favorite things to do is dance. Besides bellydancing, I used to professionally teach and perform a bunch of circus-style dancing. At professional level I did poi, fire arts, and hooping (my favorite). At a decent level is diabolo, stilt dancing, staff, hat manipulation, and maybe meteors. Things I worked on and still suck at include: contact juggling, club juggling (I can do 3-club cascade and that’s IT!), unicycling, and devil sticks.
I performed at Cincinnati Music Hall, Cincy Fringe Festival, Saks 5th Ave, and more. But I primarily focused on teaching, and that’s what I’m most proud of. At a time when, at least in Ohio, standards were very wishy-washy, I started a group whose focus was to educate and inform. Get anyone who wants to able to spin, and do it safely. I am told that some of the teaching methods I developed are in use in a lot of local burns and pagan festivals (I’m not pagan, but a lot of fire folk are).
When YouTube was new, and people would post vids of their hooping performance, but never vids explaining how to do any of it, I was among the first to post tutorials on hooping tricks. I am really proud of this, because it started the ball rolling, and now everyone posts tutorials, which means that anyone anywhere can learn. (Random bragging: I still have about 900 subscribers to my YouTube channel, despite the fact that I haven’t posted anything in years.)
Especially since I was often bellydancing at places that didn’t have canned music, I wanted to learn how to play stuff. I learned doumbek, a middle-eastern hand drum, which I am pretty good at so long as you don’t want frilly stuff; and I learned oud, a ME fretless 11-stringed instrument, which I suck at, unless you want one of the eight folk songs I know to be played badly.
Other types of dancing I do are social swing which I am pretty good at, and bharathanatyam, a classical Indian dance, which I only got to study for about a year total, because each time I’d find a new teacher (hard in the first place), they’d end up moving away. :/
Other hobbies I’ve focused on include: wall climbing, embroidery, and dabbled in a lot of things through the SCA.
I did the whole “Married with a House in Suburbia” REALLY young in life. Got divorced (pretty amicably) about a year ago, and I moved to Columbus, OH. My brother lives in cbus, and he really helped get me back on my feet. I absolutely love this city, and if “exploring Columbus and doing fun stuff” can be considered a hobby, I guess that’s what I’m doing now. I go laser tagging with friends. Right next to that place is a trampoline park, which is awesome. This weekend I’m going to the Zoo Holiday Lights (and seeing polar bears! yay!) Columbus is also known for having LOTS of these really great non-chain restaraunts. And Jeni’s Ice Cream.
I’m a vegetarian. I have a Australian Shepherd puppy named Griffyndor who has been my best friend for 11 years now. I have a 10 foot shelf of (primarily loose-leaf) tea, but I’m normally lazy and just stick with whatever bags I got at the grocery this month. I work with children, and people (or children) with disabilities. I like Joss Whedon, Neil Gaiman, Miyazaki, GRRM, and more! I think everyone should see Life is Beautiful at least once.
One of the most interesting personal stories I’ve ever heard, both in real life and on here; I often wish I had enough time to develop more unique hobbies. If it’s not too personal, where did you find the time? Do you think your relatively eclectic talents helped or hindered your overall rationality?
Thanks for sharing!
ETA: I love that you’re trying to add a more personal touch to Lesswrong; your personality—as conveyed through your writing style—seems especially suited to this by the way.
Can I pick your brain about SCA sometime? My husband loves medieval-y stuff, and I’m vaguely crafty, so I’ve been curious about it, but shy of just showing up at a meeting.
It is likely that I have watched, and attempted to learn from, one of your hooping tutorials! (I don’t know your account name. But I have watched a lot of them while trying to find people who explain things in a way I understand.)