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Personal Interests?

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 10:09 am
by Chandra
Programming has been the major part of our life. And there's no doubt that 'Programming' is the primary interest of everyone here*. Apart from that, I'm sure all of us have few other interests. I personally prefer swimming, playing soccer, watching movies and playing video games. It's hard to find a time for almost all of these but I've a trimmed work schedule and hence lucky enough to invest some portion of the day on my personal favorites.

So how does your day go? Anyone else as lucky as I am?

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 10:51 am
by shikhin
Hi,

Except programming, which is of primary interest to me, I also prefer photography, playing computer games (inclusive of stupid flash games), reading novels and writing stuff. I also need to go to school, which limits the time I get for everything. Usually, I end up doing loads of programming, little photography, very little novels and writing stuff, and almost NO computer games.

And of course, I prefer drinking coffee. 8)

Regards,
Shikhin

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:48 pm
by piranha
Physics. I'm very interested in physics. I am also very interested in technical theatre (It's probably my favorite thing to do actually). I like riding bikes along difficult trails, playing guitar, building things, electronics, science fiction...

-JL

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 4:23 pm
by Chandra
piranha wrote: I like riding bikes along difficult trails, playing guitar ...

-JL
I used to play guitar back in school days. We had a small band then. We even performed numerous shows especially on the events like 'Annual School Anniversary'. When the college days began, everything dissolved and we were on our way. One of my friends turned out professional these days. It was his dream and he did well in this field. I still play but not with that huge interest I had before.

Cheers.

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 5:28 pm
by Jvac
My personal interests other than programming are fishing for Bass and Blue fish, Mechanical Systems Designs, Nature, NASA, and walking my dog.


Edit: And studying the Bible

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:45 am
by SDS
Chandra wrote:And there's no doubt that 'Programming' is the primary interest of everyone here*.
Whoa! I'm not sure I could say that programming is my primary interest - it is something I do for fun, and for work.

As a scientist, it should be no surprise that I am generally interested in the sciences from most perspectives, including maths and a bit of philosophy.

Outside of that I do a lot of sport and music. I row with the university lightweight rowing squad, cycle on and off road and enjoy badminton and squash. I'm a 'cellist and a percussionist (mainly tuned percussion) and am on the committee of the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS *doh*), as well as singing in a couple of choirs.

After al that, a bit of casual programming is a nice break and relief in the evening/on the train!

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:06 am
by aod
Mathematics, astronomy, drum'n'bass.

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:45 am
by LegendDairy
I love electronics just as much as programming. I also like playing video games :D And as people said it's hard to find time for all this. :c

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:00 am
by Solar
My kids don't get half as much attention from me as they should. The same could be said, with less urgency, for my garden.

I like the regular fantasy RPG sessions we have on Tuesday afternoons, and wish I could make myself like the readily-available Midgard system well enough to start my own campaign in it. Since I don't, I started translating and re-editing the Rolemaster system, including companion material (resulting in about 300 pages tightly-set in LaTeX), which was and is my main project this year. I hope to replace that activity with gamemastering sometime early next year.

I also should exercise more, but at least I got started on that vein, re-kindling my Judo "career" interrupted some twenty years ago with once-weekly trips to the gym.

Stuff I would like to do if it weren't so time-consuming is traditional archery (including fletching and the dream of building my own bow), and medieval re-enactment, both of which I shelved for that very reason a couple of years ago.

I'd like to go bicycling with my wife, but that's also shelved until the kids can look after themselves for an hour or two.

Oh, I could think of lots of things other than programming, like reading a book, or getting a good afternoon's sleep, or just doing nothing for a week... let's just say that a decade of office madness has taken some of the fun away. Perhaps it'll get better when I get the chance of developing again instead of "patching together" what others left behind. Things are looking better that way.

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 11:29 am
by neon
Mathematics, astronomy, and electronics. Suppose I can also add playing video games sometimes; typically RPGs or adventures.

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:12 pm
by NickJohnson
I'm currently a freshman in college (majoring in CS, of course,) so after programming comes doing homework for me. Programming and/or thinking about OS design nevertheless takes up most of my time.

I really like mathematics; I guess when you've been programming in C all day, taking the union of two infinite sets makes you feel like a god. It's also a lot of fun once you get to the level where you start to see how algebra and geometry and analysis start to flow together, although I'm definitely just at the tip of the iceberg. I know if I'm good enough at it or care enough about it to be a real mathematician, but it has definitely changed the way I think about things.

I suck at music, and I don't play any real instruments. However, for some reason unknown to me, I can play pretty much any scrap of paper as an instrument (blowing across it to create a vibration, and changing the tension across the surface to change the frequency.) It actually sounds quite good, and I can play some pretty complex melodies. My attempts to refine this have mostly failed, however, since every time you switch pieces of paper, the constants of the wave equation change, and I don't have perfect pitch at all, so I can't tune it.

I don't usually play video games, although my favorite series would definitely be Legend of Zelda. You cannot beat me at Super Smash Bros. Melee. That was my entire life during sixth and seventh grade. I have also been trying for weeks to get Myst to run under Wine, because I played it years ago but never completed it (it kept crashing on the Channelwood Age) and I want my revenge.

I do watch some TV, although less than I used to. I watch Doctor Who, and I've seen all of the new series, but I admit I haven't seen any of the old series (and probably won't, for time reasons.) I don't really watch much other sci-fi, although I've seen all of Firefly and liked it a lot. I also actively watch Adventure Time and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. If you do not know about the latter, it is infinitely better than it sounds. Along the line of western animation, I also like Invader ZIM and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Favorite book series: the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy trilogy. Second favorite: The Art of Computer Programming.
Shikhin wrote:And of course, I prefer drinking coffee. 8)
Green tea for me. I prefer to keep my caffeine tolerance low, so I can break out the Mountain Dew when I need it.

I also go outside on occasion.

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:17 pm
by SDS
NickJohnson wrote:You cannot beat me at Super Smash Bros. Melee. That was my entire life during sixth and seventh grade.
That sounds rather like my life in sixth-form, although for Mario Kart Double-Dash. I don't play often any more though - it takes the fun out of it when you haven't lost a race in years :-(.

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:19 pm
by Coty
Ohh, Well, I watch allot of sci-fi, play quite a bit of minecraft (been trying to build my own CPU with redstone logic).I have an interest in vehicles, and thus am obsessed over my ford focus. (can't go wrong with a 4 cylinder 5 speed!), I enjoy getting a new electronic device and that awesome feeling you get when you void it's warranty. I have an interest in music but have no talent, so I often resort to attempting impersonations.

Oh and of course woman, I mean, that counts as a "Personal Interest" doesn't it? :lol: :wink:
Shikhin wrote:And of course, I prefer drinking coffee. 8)
Of course, preferably black, but anything will do! :wink:
NickJohnson wrote:You cannot beat me at Super Smash Bros. Melee. That was my entire life during sixth and seventh grade.
Oh how I wish I had the eathernet jack for my gamecube, because it was also my life during that time :P

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:28 pm
by VolTeK
Dead frontier, and reading.

Re: Personal Interests?

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:43 pm
by DeletedAccount2
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