Other hobbies

[WhistlingBadger]

I am tone deaf and unable to look at how music is put together...

 

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Baroque music is a fascination of mine. I am tone deaf and unable to look at how music is put together, but all of my fish know Bach, Vivaldi and Telemann very well. They're also experts on punk and African hip hop...
Maybe I need to get into birding. I'm never going to be a gym guy. I'm mining this thread for ideas.

Bird watching is a lot of fun because you get outside and it would be a good fit for you because it’s scientific too . You identify birds and keep a log . You learn their habits and watch what they do and eat . You live in an area that many people would do anything to live in and it’s wild . Take advantage of the opportunities afforded to you by that .

 

[gwand]

My 7th grade music teacher turned me on to this fugue. Loved it ever since.

 

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Didn’t they do something like that at Devils Tower in 1977 ? I saw a movie about it .

 

[gwand]

Baroque music is a fascination of mine. I am tone deaf and unable to look at how music is put together, but all of my fish know Bach, Vivaldi and Telemann very well. They're also experts on punk and African hip hop...
Maybe I need to get into birding. I'm never going to be a gym guy. I'm mining this thread for ideas.

You may already know much about baroque music. However the lectures by Robert Greenberg on The Great Courses Series are informative but also amusing. Greenberg is a very funny man.

 

[gwand]

Baroque music is wonderful. Do you sing or play an instrument? It's never too late to take up the violin or the harpsichord. What kind of hiking is available in Maryland? When I travel back east I'm often surprised at how much wild country there still is, close to or even within major urban areas.

I need to work out more. At my current rate, I'm never going to make the olympic weight lifting team.

I use to play guitar but I have developed a hand tremor that’s destroyed my fine motor skills. Bummer. Hiking In Maryland is nothing like hiking in the West. No mountains to speak of. But the state parks have some interesting trails along trout filled streams. For more serious hiking one needs to go a few hours away to West Virginia. Every few years I travel to Colorado for hiking. Last major hike was a trek in Patagonia with my adult son. Amazing.

 

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I use to play guitar but I have developed a hand tremor that’s destroyed my fine motor skills. Bummer. Hiking In Maryland is nothing like hiking in the West. No mountains to speak of. But the state parks have some interesting trails along trout filled streams. For more serious hiking one needs to go a few hours away to West Virginia. Every few years I travel to Colorado for hiking. Last major hike was a trek in Patagonia with my adult son. Amazing.

Patagonia ! ! ! That is awesome Man ! Did you see The Paine Towers or Fitzroy or Cerro Torre ?

 

[gwand]

Patagonia ! ! ! That is awesome Man ! Did you see The Paine Towers or Fitzroy or Cerro Torre ?

 

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@gwand AWESOME ! Totally Awesome ! ! !

 

[GaryE]

I've always held back on more than superficial knowledge of Bach et al, because I can't analyze the music. I'd be afraid that kind of course would leave me behind fast. When it comes to Baroque music, I can say what is beautiful to me, but I can't deconstruct how it worked. Darn.

Hiking in Patagonia - wow.

Here, I have a lot of seaside, cliffside trails. Pines and ocean smell good, but most of the walks I take are in the 5-10 km range. I should raise my game this summer. Every winter, I discover more and more trails I haven't walked yet. It's a good region for that. Pretty well across the street is the start of a seaside trail that is only 4 km each way, but that is up and down deep erosion cuts. That's my warm weather fitness stroll. I'd die on it with the ice now though.

 

[gwand]

I've always held back on more than superficial knowledge of Bach et al, because I can't analyze the music. I'd be afraid that kind of course would leave me behind fast. When it comes to Baroque music, I can say what is beautiful to me, but I can't deconstruct how it worked. Darn.

Hiking in Patagonia - wow.

Here, I have a lot of seaside, cliffside trails. Pines and ocean smell good, but most of the walks I take are in the 5-10 km range. I should raise my game this summer. Every winter, I discover more and more trails I haven't walked yet. It's a good region for that. Pretty well across the street is the start of a seaside trail that is only 4 km each way, but that is up and down deep erosion cuts. That's my warm weather fitness stroll. I'd die on it with the ice now though.

The courses are really more about music appreciation than they are about the deconstruction of the scores. I only have a rudimentary knowledge of reading music. Try it; you may like it. On that note, no pun intended, have you ever heard the composition by Albinoni called Adagio for Strings? Albinoni was an Italian Baroque composer who overlapped with Bach. There is some controversy about the piece whether It was really composed by Albinoni or whether it was composed in the early 20th century by a musician who said he found the long lost composition of Albinoni. It does have more Romantic features than most Baroque compositions. In any case, it’s a beautiful 10 minute piece. Check it out.

BTW The Patagonia track was nine years ago when I was younger and more vigorous. I do not know if I could repeat that experience again, unless a Sherper carried me on his back.

 

[GaryE]

I'm getting more and more tempted by that course.

The Albinoni piece has been played to death here. I have another couple of collections of his other work, and to my tin ear, they sound quite different from the Adagio. But that's like asking a blind person to criticize a Turner. Whatever it's true story, it's magnificent.

I was probably 25 before I heard a Baroque or classical period piece that wasn't used as a theme for a TV show or a movie. I had an acquaintance who had lost his hearing later in life, but who had a massive vinyl collection in a record rental library. He hated Vivaldi, but he was generous in choosing albums for me to listen to once he'd figured out my interest was real.

 

[gwand]

I'm getting more and more tempted by that course.

The Albinoni piece has been played to death here. I have another couple of collections of his other work, and to my tin ear, they sound quite different from the Adagio. But that's like asking a blind person to criticize a Turner. Whatever it's true story, it's magnificent.

I was probably 25 before I heard a Baroque or classical period piece that wasn't used as a theme for a TV show or a movie. I had an acquaintance who had lost his hearing later in life, but who had a massive vinyl collection in a record rental library. He hated Vivaldi, but he was generous in choosing albums for me to listen to once he'd figured out my interest was real.

Over the years I have taken many Great Courses Series on a variety of topics. All were quite good. But I never saw an Aquarium course. You should consider talking with the Great Courses folks and propose creating a course titled something like, Aquarium for the hobbyist: Beginners, Intermediates and Masters.

 

[GaryE]

You can make this a very expensive hobby, and the temptation to make money off it is always there. For a fair period around the 00s, this hobby had become a job to me, and the income it provided was great for the family while allowing me to run a fishroom. I started evaluating every fish I bought in terms of whether I could make a buck off it, and I began to lose my enjoyment. When I left that secondary, side job, I rediscovered my love of fish watching for fish watching's sake.

I think it's crucial to keep your hobby as a hobby. I have my side jobs, one of which is fish videos, but I never again want to lock into an aquarium job. I'd like to cover fish buying, energy costs and a trip for as long as the body can take the conditions. I learned a lot in Gabon, but any illusions about being an expert were ditched as I listened to the people I was out there with as we bounced down the red dirt roads.

 

[jaylach]

I think it's crucial to keep your hobby as a hobby. I have my side jobs, one of which is fish videos, but I never again want to lock into an aquarium job.

Heard that! Even though I DID run a computer business for over 15 years I only took jobs that caught my interest. Way back in the 1980s and early/mid 1990s I worked as a machinist I ran both manual and CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine tools. Did a LOT of CNC program editing and writing. The plant manager where I did this in Ohio in the 1980s offered for me to join the computer department. When I turned it down he was surprised saying that he thought that I liked that stuff. I told him I DO enjoy it and that was why I was turning down the position. Told him that if I made a 'real' job out of it I probably would not want to work on my own stuff at home. All in all I think I've done pretty well with it being 100% self taught yet having 5 awards from Microsoft along with being invited to 3 Microsoft Global Summits with everything except air fare being paid by them.

Sort of funny how it started as a hobby then went to a job and then back to a hobby.