Do you have any niche interests?

Nah, I'm just re-living my misspent youth in the 1980s.

 

I kind of study rap lyrics without even knowing it a lot of the time. The conversational rhythm/conviction necessary for the lyrics to work is interesting. Whenever I have friends over to consume pizzas amd fizzy drinks I mess about with Audition with my very unecessary setup. It never sounds as good the next day...

 

Making scrimshaw drinking horns. Haven't done any recently, but there's local ranchers here in Montana who can supply them. I just enjoy the carving.

 

Genealogy and collecting old paper. Really old paper.

 

I've always wanted to try that, but even pencil on paper shows my lack of drawing ability

 

I make stick figures look bad. I feel your pain.

 

Sorry to hear that! Funny enough, stick figures can be a lot harder to pull off well than some might believe...

 

Really? How, it is simple lol.

 

Proportion, consistency, balance of width of lines to the size of the figure. xkcd has some of the finest stick figure art around, IMO:

image for artwork, source is here:

 

And so does the Order of The Stick by Rich Burlew, especially the newer ones (although by now it might surpass the criteria for just a stick figure, perhaps complex stick figures? Very complex stick figures! The early ones were certainly of the stick variety... ) Also a very good story overall.

 

I'll have to check it out.

 

Anime music videos:



I want to learn how to do these edits. Although to be honest sometimes this guy gets really extra with it and it just hurts my eyes / feels like I'm having a seizure. Thinking about buying a new computer soon so I can run Adobe Suites on full blast, have fun learning the software, watch my anime blu-ray collection, and finally start working on an anime commentary YouTube channel.

 

I make weird sculptures out of common household items and love fine tobacco. Can't smoke cigarettes or cigars, but I'd enjoy a nice hookah or a pipe.

 

I really got into pipe smoking about 2-3 years ago - I was even sent half a dozen good quality briar pipes from a chap on a forum who read my thread about decent beginner pipes and not being able to afford a good one. He even sent some tobacco. I used to buy some gorgeous Irish cream baccy, but I never really got the hang of smoking, could never keep them lit and the interest faded.

 

I collect, at a very low level, tobacco pipes and even occasionally try to smoke them. I've watched videos and read sites on how to load, pack, and smoke them but have never really succeeded.

Still like to look at them though, might post pictures of my collection someday.

 

Lucky you! I'm more into kiseru or Chinese long stem pipes, but it's a heck of an expensive hobby, so I mostly smoke hookahs now. The cat approves it, she likes to watch the water bubbling inside the vase and chase the smoke rings.

Why, I'm sure there are interesting pieces to see.

 

I am very interested in how we can use native plants, trees and shrubs ro create a low-maintenance garden to increase biodiversity of birds, bees, butterflies and moths.

 

My buddy keeps bees as a hobby and he's very into lobbying the city council to change the lawn rules. Upper-middle-class suburb, his lawn proper is all wild prairie growth, but he's required to keep the parkway (area between the sidewalk and the street) in a Hank Hill green monoculture.

 

Do you know if they are honey bees or native bees? I am only interested in native bees and native plants. Exotic bees like the honey bees we have here in Canada are native bees' competitors.

 

Honey bees, sorry. I think I recall they were an Italian strain but I'm not sure. This is in the Chicago area, I don't know what insects are native or not or how much competition there is. From his account the main issue is his neighbors overspraying pesticides. Any insect that lands on their rose bushes has about an hour to live, because god forbid flowers attract bugs.

 

Awesome! I smoke a kiseru.

 

Didn't know the name for it, but my team and I bought one that was about 3 feet long when we deployed to Korea. Carried it across my backpack, when the 1st Sgt asked what it was I said "It's the Team Four War Pipe, First Sergeant!"

He walked away muttering something unintelligible under his breath.

 

Great! Where do you get your kizami?

 

I bought my first one while I was in Japan, but I broke it. My replacement was from ebay . It's just a mass produced one, not an antique one.

 

Mine was from a souvenir/junk (Japanese ごみやげ) shop in the ville, which is the US military name for the area outside the base that caters to foreign (aka American) servicemembers. Highest quality, real cultural artifact. It might still be at one of my parents' houses, but Enlil only knows where.

 

My first one was a souvenir from a tourist tat shop at the Sensouji. Probably made in China.