So, When You're Not Playing Roleplaying Games...

[Christopher Kubasik]

Here's what I do.

I've been painting and drawing.  It's become somewhat obsessive.  I really don't care much about writing anymore.  I even had to leave Jesse's terrific In the House of Madness game because of time restraints.  

And lo' and behold, I've got my first show up.  A series of still lifes.  I've spent this weekend so far pulling together a mailing list, designing and printing post cards and such for an upcoming reception.

I've converted my living room into an efficient and comfortable studio space where I can tuck everything away in a matter of minutes.  

I go to open life drawing workshops one to three times a week.

I go to the gym three times a week, jog another three.  Sometimes I hit a yoga class.

I'm a lector at my parish.

I hook up with my friends -- all of whom have children now -- for brunches, and sometimes grab the husbands away for movies.  And I play with the kids whenever I get a chance.  (I used to devote more time to wives... but I'm better about that now.)

I see a lot of movies, but I tend to love the movies nobody else loves.

I'm currently reading a lot of books on religious history and thought.

I don't own a tv.  But I do check the internet too often to see if the next person in the Bush administration has enough of it.  (Powell seems to be getting itchy...  there will be more.)

I like going for long walks in L.A.  And it's true: people who see me walking sometimes get confused.

I like going to different parts of town.  I live in Hollywood, but love hanging out in Santa Monica and Venice.  Right now, though, I'm in a Glendale/Pasadena phase.

I go to one gallery opening a week (at least).

I've been to one party a week in the last few weeks.

I've been to all the museums in town so many times over I'm taking a break from it right now.

I keep trying to find someone to date -- and at a party last week, when a lovely woman in these great shoes with leather strips criss-crossing their way up her calves started going on about aliens coming to her in her sleep, I thought, "You know, there reason you might not be dating anyone right now is because you haven't found anyone you actually want to be dating."

I try to stay on top of keeping my apartment clean... and fail.  And I've realized the only way to do it is to live like I did before the days of the internet: to do it in the odd moments and breaks between work.  Instead of logging on, clean a room.

Though I haven't the money for it (especially in this crazy L.A. market), I've taken to going into open house on weekends just see what it would be  like to walk through a home and think about buying it.

I listen to the soundtrack to the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  A lot.  This does concern me.  But the really fun music also touches on the themes of bringing fantasy and imagination into real life -- a theme I became obsessed with, I believe, when my father took me to see Mary Poppins when I was two years old.  (Mary Poppins, Pinnochio, Rocky Horror, David Lynch, Terry Gilliam... It's all one big rolling movie to me.)

I keep trying to read fiction these days.... and it all seems kind of fake.  Like pressboard pausing as actual wood.

I'm in a life coaching group where we offer up questions to each other keeping us on track, focused and accountable for what we want to get done.

A bought a skelent recently for anatomy studies.  I love my skeleton.

If you live in the L.A. area, my reception is on Saturday, April 17th, from 5--7pm.  This is really a big deal for me.  I started this a few years ago because I realized this is what I really would want to do well before I died.  And now I'm getting good.

It's at Bang Studio, 457 N. Fairfax Ave, between Beverly and Santa Monica.  Anyone reading this in the L.A. area, please feel free to stop by.

Today I'm going up to the Valley for brunch with some friends, then I'll head out to the Huntington Gardens (I think), and probably catch Hellboy.

And you?  What do you do when you're not playing roleplaying games?

Christopher

[Jeph]

Schoolwork. Soccer. Cartography. Read. Chat. Agonize about girls.

Kid stuff.
--Jeff

[DevP]

Desperately hoping to get out of college soon (i.e. this summer). Downside: real world. Upside: I sort of get to be a real person or something, right?

Beyond that: I listen to lots of indie music, and eventually occaisionally post to oneadamtwelve.com.

I'm hobbling my way in to reading more than I should.

I'll get back to you next year when I'm not a CS major. <g>

[Ben Lehman]

When I'm not gaming (well, right now, I'm not gaming very much, as Mainland China has no gaming scene) I...

Learn Mandarin Chinese.  Okay, this is cheating.  Normally, it's...

Write.  Mostly fiction, most of which is allegorical fantasy, but also poetry, mystical screeds, and rhetorical essays (the latter two have been known to blend into each other.)  Some of the poetry has been lightly published.

Study world religions, particularly ancient ones.

Keep in contact with a large circle of friends around the world (harder and harder, these days.)

Work as a semi-professional proof-reader.

Read.  Lots.  I'm very picky about what I read, but it falls into no particular category.  A lot of non-fiction, and a lot of science fiction greats.  Recently, I've been reading "classics," by which I mean books that are still around after 2+ centuries.

I try to keep up on politics and world events, but I must admit to being too depressed about the state of the world to do it recently.

yrs--
--Ben

[DevP]

I'll get back to you next year when I'm not a CS major. <g>

Also, I really really dig political philosophy. My other alias is Locek61dv.

[Lxndr]

I work.  Recently my work has started requiring me to ride my bike between multiple sites in the afternoons, and I've been enjoying that opportunity to get on my motorcycle and enjoy the sights, even if it's pretty much the same inner-city commute every day.

I watch television (more than I probably should, ashamedly).  On rare occasions I actually see a movie, but I've seen such an odd assortment (and so few common movies) that the movies I haven't seen are enough to make steam flow out of Mike Holmes's ears.

I tinker with roleplaying game ideas that I want to publish, read the Forge and Rpg.net, and talk about it with friends.  This isn't really "playing" but might be out of the scope of what you're looking for.

I talk to my girlfriend, who is currently nowhere near Arizona, online almost every night, keeping the relationship and the flame alive.  We don't get to see each other much physically, which is annoying.  I also keep up with the rest of my "harem" (for lack of a better word), who actually get to talk to my gf more than they do me.

Read, from time to time.  Less now that I have a TV, which makes me sad.  I also barely write anymore, except for game-related stuff.  Which is why I enjoy my play-by-post rpg, 'cause it's the closest to written fiction I've really done in a very long time.

Actively avoid keeping up with the news, out of the pragmatic and practical belief that "what's the point in exposing myself to stress and worry about things that I am in no position to impact or change."  Until recently, I almost never travelled outside of a 1-mile-radius bubble surrounding my house.  Now I commute farther in the afternoons for work (my day job is 0.7 miles from my house) and commute for gaming as well.

Tried to start up a second business selling hypnosis recordings (mp3s), finally attempting to put my certification in Clinical Hypnotherapy to use.  I have an example of my hypnotic technique up on lulu.com, available for free, and a single for-sale hypnosis recording, specifically for weight-loss and general health, available for sale.  Nobody's bought it yet, but many people have downloaded and listened to my "sample" (and a second sample only available on my website, not lulu).  I've recieved a few inquiries about... more adult applications of hypnosis and am seriously considering what sort of market there might be and whether I should attempt to tap said market (and where I could sell said products, and host my website, if I go that route).

My house is three bedrooms, and I rent out two of them - one to my mother (who I can actually claim as a dependent this year), and the other to a companion I met through gaming (as, currently, my only social hobby, it's my only venue for meeting people, sad as that may sound).  The money I get from them is part of the reason I've been able to start up my company (both for hypnosis and for rpgs) and is helping me build a nest egg.  I observe and update my budget (which is in a lovingly-crafted spreadsheet) almost every single day.  Wishing my tax return had arrived.

Once again considering going back to school and getting a Theoretical Mathematics degree.  Considering the inability of life to support such an endeavour without getting rid of my house, unless I try to school and work.  Also considering changing jobs - I pretty much qualify for a job as a 911 operator, and that sounds exciting.  Wishing I didn't have to work at all, and dreading the next 45 years of needing to work in order to get stuff.

That's about it.

[taalyn]

Work: which consists of getting my manager organized after 14 years of no system. Fun! I'm a buyer for Celestial Seasonings.

Entertainment: don't watch TV (except for Samurai Jack and Good Eats), but listen to a lot of movies.

Reading: Harukor, by Honda Katsuichi, about the Ainu. The Scar, by China Mieville, again. Refreshing my Old Irish grammar again with Thruneysen's Grammar.

Religious/mystical: working on several magical projects, including some work with Storm Constantine's Wraeththu. Developing a nine-elementa system.

Other: Assiduously avoiding cleaning my room. Trying to get my credit cleaned up. Once a week breakfast with my husband (I don't live in the "Trailer from Hell" with him anymore, as it was ruining a lot of things). Hiking twice a week in the foothills.

[clehrich]

Well, these days mostly I seem to grade student papers.  I teach 3 classes per semester of college writing courses, and while the content is in my field (history and religion), because I designed the courses that way, I get a paper per student approximately every 2 weeks.  That's 55 papers to grade, at about 20 minutes per paper.  Do the math.

I also work very slowly at writing my current book and a couple of articles, which involves a lot of reading and a small amount of writing (more's the pity).

I apply for jobs and postdocs continually.

I cook interesting, complicated food when I get a chance.

I try to keep my wife reasonably happy, which is currently not that difficult as she wants to try for a baby <smirk, leer>.

I play with the cat, who was born stone blind but doesn't let it interfere with an active lifestyle of sleeping, eating, cuddling, and chasing toys.  Actually I'm very proud of him because he killed an actual mouse, and I think that's very impressive considering that he can't see the thing.

I waste a ridiculous amount of time on this website thingy called the Forge, which you may have heard of.  ;>

Oh, and I try to sleep as much as possible, which seems to take the edge off the grading thing.

[greyorm]

When I'm not playing RPGs I masturbate constantly and eat Cheetos. I have an orange dick. Now, while those of you who have met me are desperately trying to sear that image from your brain, I'll tell you what I really do.

Mostly, I try to keep up with four kids. Yes, four. And one of them has ADHD, so he counts for, like three kids all by himself. It's a full time job. In my spare time (HAH!), I write RPGs, work on a bit of fiction and social commentary, and paint/draw. I also watch a lot of movies and play a lot of video games (PS2, Xbox, PC).

Other than that, I work outside the home once a week as a technical consultant, though I'm hoping for more clients and a few more days a week this year, if the bloody economy ever picks up. I've more or less given up on trying to find stable, long-term work (two years of searching will do that to a person).

I was delivering pizzas for six months, but the whole menial labor aspect of the job and the supporting psychology of such a work environment did not mix well with me (not to mention the crap for pay (I make more working one day a week as a tech than I did in two full weeks of delivery)).

Mostly, though, I feed, bathe, and clean-up after four kids.

[Daniel Solis]

I'm in the middle of my capstone design thesis project at the moment. In general, I've spent the last four years working in the studio for days and days. I'm graduating soon though and for a while I was worried I wouldn't find a job in the rather thin local market. Fortunately, I just got a position at the hottest ad agency in the city, so that was a nice ego boost.

Unfortunately, all of this stuff makes game design and gaming in general take a distant back seat. :(

[Jason Lee]

Work.
I admin a few training rooms where they teach network management software.

School.
I go to college.  I just started.  I'm considering becoming a medical doctor, but I hear there is a lot of crappy politics in the industry.  We'll see, I've got a few years to make up my mind anyway.  At about the same time I decided to go back to college I decided to get back into drawing.  I'm annihilating my classes, but the drawing still sucks.

Martial Arts.
I practice Aikido.  I was planning on returning to cross-training in Hapkido this semester, but I've been awful sick, which has made me missed a lot more time than I'd like.  Jujitsu is on hold, like it has been these last 2 years (2 years?  holy shit), until they no longer conflict with Aikido's schedule.

TV.
Don't really watch TV, except for Angel & Enterprise.  I'll occasionally binge on a show or anime.  Like these last couple days we watched the first 2/3 of Alias season 1.  Play video games from time to time, again in binges.

Friends.
Spend a lot of off time hanging out with friends.  Just frittering away time.

The Little Woman.
I think I actually spend most of my time talking to the girl.  Right now she's reading me the Anita Blake series of books.  Pop horror fiction.  It's fun.  We're getting married this July, after nearly 9 years together.  We already own a house together, share money, etc; but, she needs a wedding for some reason.  If it'll make her happy, I can go through a ceremony.

[Walt Freitag]

Besides programming, and designing "persuasive games" (generally not RPGs) for business, marketing, and education purposes...

Believe it or not, working out. (Not sure why anyone else wouldn't believe it, but I can hardly believe it myself.) Starting shortly after last year's Forge Birthday, I got rid of a quarter of my body weight, 55 pounds. I went from borderline obesity and flirting with Metabolic Syndrome X (the greased slide toward ischemic diseases and type 2 diabetes that suddenly appears in front of you when your spare tire collides with your mid-40s) to better shape than I was in in my teens and 20s.

Most of that was through a self-designed diet plan I call "The Half-Assed Diet." But exercise was part of it too, and now I do old-fashined calisthenics, aerobics+weights, running, a little Pilates, or whatever's on the latest exercise video I borrowed from the local library, for about an hour a day. This is in addition to activities like splitting my own wood for the wood stove with ax and wedge; mowing the lawn with my 75-pound near-antique hand-powered mower (modern hand-powered mowers are a lot lighter but they work like crap because they don't have enough traction to spin the blades fast); hand raking and weeding; bicycling around town on errands; hiking; x-c skiing; and swimming at the local beach in the summer.

Y'know what's really fun when you're in better shape? Sex! :-D

- Walt

[Argetlamh]

I fight ALL the time.
Seriously though, much of my spare time is spent on the martial arts. This includes unarmed jujitsu and karate. I spend a lot of time with my weapons too (knives, longswords, schiavona, guns, katana, you name it).

I'm also studying physics/engineering (not quite sure which yet). Hurrah for digital electronics!

Aside from that, I also compose some music. I play classical guitar, and mostly compose for that instrument. Currently though, I'm settting Wiglaf's elegy from Beowulf to music.

I try to spend a good hour or so a day in zazen. Finding time and a quiet place to sit can be a pain in the ass, but one finds ways.

-Dan Vince

[Daniel Solis]

Wow, I didn't know there was such a martial arts presence on the Forge. I've only just started practicing judo and karate as part of a beginning martial arts class. A guest instructor recently taught us some Wing Chun though and that looks like it's my kind of style.

[Dav]

I think I spend most of my time organizing good nights for powernoise in Chicago.  Then I drink a lot of scotch, smoke, and play social whore for most of an evening.

Drinking, smoking, dancing, fucking.

Really, what else is there?

Dav