Personal - Hobbies

I have been playing guitar for ten years now. Like most beginners, I got sucked in by popular bands of the time like green day. Later on I found Ani DiFranco. This caused a major music revolution in my world. I gave away my electric hendrix playing axe and got myself a used acoustic guitar.

Recently I bought myself a new acoustic/electric guitar who's name is Pandora. I'll post a picture of her here soon. She is very pretty and sounds fantastic. I still have my old acoustic but it's becoming neglected. In theory the old one is the one I would take places with me. In practice I take Pandora. Also, the old one never got a name. I'm not sure why.

Most of what I play is Ani these days. Everything else is either not challenging enough or boring. For any Ani fans, Out of Habit is my favorite song to play. I also do Both Hands, Talk to me now, Sorry I am, What if no one's watching and some others I can't think of. Out of Range is on the list to learn soon.

Other artists I like include Tegan and Sara, Tori Amos, David Bowie, Beatles, Doors, Cake, a myriad of Ska/Swing/Big band artists, Massive Attack, Weird Al, Billy Joel, Peter Paul and Mary, Vast, Eric Clapton, Madonna and more.

No, this is not a sport. I just like to rollerblade and bike. Roller-blading is my favorite physical activity. Part of that has to do with the fact that it doesn't trigger my allergies/asthma for some reason. When I bike, my lungs can't take the hills in vermont very well. The same hills on blades are challenging but not a cause of asthma problems.

Some of you bladers may be scratching your head and wondering where/how I blade in northern vermont. Well, I have about the neatest pair of skates out there. They are called Terra 9's from a company called LandRoller. I love these skates. I will post pictures of my own pair as soon as I get a chance.

Reading is a huge part of my life. At time of this writing I am reading Freakonomics and The World is Flat. This is not my typical type of reading material. I generally stay in the epic Sci-Fi/Fantasy world. Most of the time I'm using my logical mind so much that I just want to escape into fantasy world for a while.

My favorite authors are Isaac Asimov and Terry Goodkind. Asimov has written something about everything. I've read most of his Sci-Fi writing and a smattering of random other things. For example, I have one of his joke books. His writing is unsurpassable in my mind.

Terry Goodkind is almost as good an author as Asimov. That, however, is not why I like him. The world of his Sword of Truth series is fantastic in my mind. It takes just enough fantasy characteristics and combines it with his own philosophy about life the universe and everything (And oddly, I have not read HHTG. Yeah, some of you probably just died of shock). Some of the philosophy portrayed in this series is near to my own. Check out the Philosophy section for more info on that.

Another author that is quickly making my favorite authors list is George R. R. Martin. I recently discovered his Song of Ice and Fire series. This author has more guts than any other I've read. He puts many topics in his story that others won't touch and has no fear of rapid change and shifting character loyalties. He also writes from multiple point of view characters. The latest book was actually split into two books because he had too many points of view to tell. Get this series and read it.

Other authors that get my thumbs up are: C.S. Friedman, Arthur C. Clarke, Tara K. Harper, Jacqueline Carey (also gutsy), Melanie Rawn, Some Anne Rice (This needs qualification), Terry Brooks and about a zillion others. These are the cream of my collection. There are dozens more that I should mention but I can't think of right now.

I shouldn't leave out the classics. I have read a good bit of philosophy and classic literature including Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Freud, Austen and a myriad of others I can't remember. I find most of them to be to dry or obsessed with one particular thing or another. Jane Austen, for example, focuses entirely on social drama. I like books that don't obsessively focus on one thing.

I feel that I should take a picture of one of my book shelves. The books are stacked two deep and horizontally above on every shelf. There are literally thousands of books in my house. There's even a copy of the Great Books classic collection upstairs. Crazy world.

My 3d work has been done for personal or educational reasons. By 3d work I mean high end 3d applications like Maya, 3ds max and SoftImage. It is an entirely different beast from 2d Photoshop/Illustrator design which I do professionally.

I've recently discovered a 3d application called Modo which I find excessively refreshing. It is primarily for modeling and still image creation in a 3d world. It does not do animation yet. As such, it is extraordinarily easy to use. I'm working on a few personal projects in it now and will share some of them once I feel they are good enough for public viewing.

I bought myself a digital camera and have taken it to heart. I had been avoiding it for years, telling myself that the technology isn't there yet. Well, a cousin of mine showed up at my house with an actual decent digital camera that I was comfortable using. So I went out and got myself a similar one. Mine is the Cannon Powershot A620. It is fantastic.

Unfortunately, due to my busy schedule, I haven't gone many places that are worthy of many pictures. Also, all the photos are scaled down versions of my images. The camera takes ridiculously detailed high quality images. I learned that it's better to have the ridiculous large images than be stuck with a picture that's great but not high enough resolution.

There are a few things I want to get into. The first of these is swing dancing. There is something about the music and the movement that I adore. Every time I see people swing dancing I just want to move to the rhythm. Unfortunately, I don't have any of that elusive rhythm for myself. Therefore, I must go find swing classes one of these days. That day is getting closer every minute. I can smell it.

I would also like to return to Tae Kwon Do. I took an intensive training class for 3-6 hours a day years ago. I loved it but I was in college then and didn't have time to continue it. Every time a new chapter in my life starts, I keep thinking it will be the time to go join a class. It just hasn't happened yet. Also, my need to rollerblade, bike and eventually swing dance have superseded this particular desire. I will get to it though.

Snow boarding. I live in Vermont and don't do any winter sports. Does this seem ridiculous to anyone else? It certainly does to me. I know I'm not fond of skiing. I like wheels on my feet, but long sticks make me feel like I have a third left foot. It just doesn't work for me. In theory, snow boarding is completely different. The dynamics aren't relying on my ability to coordinate parallel feet. Watching me try this the first time should be worth some laughs.