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

[talysman]

work: not applicable at the moment, because I live in silicon valley and used to be a web tech.

social: also not applicable, because I'm dealing with some familiy issues that prevent me from having a social life of my own.

hobby: I guess you could count my experimental music performances as this. once a year, I and some other local experimental (noise) performers organize the Northern California Experimental Music Festival, aka Noisefest. last year, we won a grant; I edited the video footage for our three-minute sample video we used for the grant proposal, so I'm kinda proud of that.

also hobby: machinima and animation. I've been lax on this lately, but I have a lot of plans.

entertainment: I go through cycles where sometimes I'll watch practically no tv, then switch to watching a lot. right now, I mostly watch some sitcom reruns (it varies, depending on what's available.) I only watch three new tv series: Smallville, Enterprise, and Angel. one of those is going away, and I imagine Enterprise might be following soon. I'm not that attached to any of them, however.

when I'm not watching whatever they are beaming into my brain, I watch classic movies on DVD. mostly '50s stuff.

[Bill Cook]

Work: I run leads and build agent relationships for a home security company.  I also do 20-30 hours a month of contract programming for an accounting software package called Solomon.

Games: I post on the Forge, play in a gaming group that meets in Keller once every one to two months, play Starcraft: Brood Wars alone in my apartment to kill time and I do a little RPG writing.  The main thing to emerge from that effort is a content dense procedure/mechanic, largely written as a reaction to ideas discussed at the Forge.  And Valamir's improvized situation rant on RPG.net.

Music: I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to build sets to sell shows.  But the limitations of my condition and having financial struggles severely hamper these efforts.

Other: I meet with my mom on a Saturday once every two weeks and make a soup and a salad out of these recipe books we use.  It's a great way to learn to cook.  I show up at my dad's house once a week and drown my prospecting blues in the light of plasma TV DVD's and surround sound.

[Argetlamh]

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.

Wing Chun is a good style, as much as any style can be good or bad. I recommend you look into it deeper.

-Dan Vince

[joshua neff]

These days, grad school takes up a lot of my time. In fact, I feel bad even posting this, because I should be doing schoolwork.

I work part-time at Borders Books.

I spend time with my fiancee, Julie, & her daughter, Morgan. We're looking for an apartment together, planning to get courthouse-hitched around the end of May, take a two-week trip to the UK this summer (which means I have to apply for a new passport, as my old passport expired), & begin the process of my adopting Morgan. All of which keeps me pretty busy, too.

While all of that is going on, I carve out as much time as possible to read as much as I can, watch as many movies & good TV shows (on DVD) as I can, & write. Mostly I write poetry. I work on fiction & essays, too, but with the time constraints of grad school, being a boyfriend & dad, & gaming, I have a hard time writing anything longer than a few pages. But I am determined to write more, especially pulp fantasy. I also spend quite a bit of time on-line, surfing for fun & goofy information & posting on a few BBS's (including this one). Every so often, Julie & I can get a babysitter & catch a movie, but that doesn't happen as often as I'd like. Julie is also a fanatic for going outdoors, so when we both have time we go on a hike through some of the gorgeous state park areas in Wisconsin.

[Bob McNamee]

Work: I work as a Tinsmith in a Steel Mill that was saved by the Russians (of all people) from closing... the only US company interested, just wanted to close us and take our customers. Its a good job, making all sorts of odd things out of sheet steel... appeals to my spacially oriented mind.

Social: I spend a lot of time with my wife, and our cats... and occasionally babysitting grandkids.

Gaming: My gaming is done with the indie-netgamers. Although there is talk of getting a monthly gamer night going again, maybe boards games though.

Hobby: Well, the most recent stuff was with my woodcarving. This weekend was a two day show at a local park's nature center. Our club contains several very good duck carvers, so we get invited to do these. I get some attention because I do a fair amount of yam carving. I'll have photos posted to the web in a day or two...gotta get the new pages sorted out. Other than woodcarving I do some drawing, painting, airbrushing, and computer artwork.

Martial Arts: Well I did a year of Tai Kwon Do, and a very small taste of Kung Fu a long time ago. Right now I'm having quite  a bit of enjoyment doing Tai Chi Chih at the local YMCA. I always liked 'forms' 'katas' by whatever name, so this suits me fine. Plus, I can use any excuse to not tighten up muscles after hammering steel.

[Rich Forest]

I, like Josh, spend a lot of my time reading for grad school, and much of the rest of it feeling a nagging sense of unease about not reading more. Then there's writing my dissertation: I really, really need to get started on this, but I haven't gotten much done yet. It's going to be something I'll spend a lot of my time on, though. Maybe I should write something today.

The rest of the time, when I'm not spending too many hours clicking refresh on various boards about RPGs and mixed martial arts, I'm usually watching TV and not feeling guilty about it. I pretty much watch the Simpsons religiously, Malcolm in the Middle, Samurai Jack, Smallville, Monk, and whatever is on the Discovery channel. Unless it's snakes. My wife doesn't like snakes much. Anyway, thank god I have cable and can watch these shows in English, otherwise I might have to find something productive to do with my time. Now all I need to do is find some way to get mixed martial arts over here. It's not on the TV, not on the cable TV, and pretty much completely unknown. (This is me crying. *Sniff*)

I listen to music a lot while I'm online—mostly country music, bluegrass, Americana, rockabilly, and folk.

Other than that, I also spend a lot of time on weekends and free days acting as an expert informant for my wife, who has a small-ish Ebay business going now, mostly selling old action figures and toys. Hong Kong is toy heaven—there are more toy stores here, with more obscure toys from all over the world, than I've ever seen anywhere else in the world. Sometimes even the little mom and pop stores that aren't toy stores will have a few toys, and those places can be goldmines—we've found great things on the shelves that are out of print (Resaurus Street Fighter and Crash Bandicoot figures, for example). Now my wife is an expert on which figures are in demand, and she recognizes all kinds of comic book and video game characters, but she has to come to me to find out their stories :-) Which I'm happy to provide.

Rich

[Christopher Weeks]

I have a wife and two kids.  I spend lots of time on them.  Kids are cool, but also a pain in the ass when you want to be greedy with your time.

I deal with deadbeat tenets, but it's my fault for wanting to be a slum lord.

I play computer games, particularly MMORPGs, these days.  But I'm largely unsatisfied.

I think.  Really, most of my time is taken up by just thinking about stuff.  Much of it revolves around either freedom or kids (and there's a broad intersection of the two).

Oh, and I work as a web developer.  (PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, and scant perl)  Nine years of university says I'm supposed to be a teacher, but fuck that.  Schools suck.

Chris

[Andy Kitkowski]

Wow, I didn't know there was such a martial arts presence on the Forge.

I think it's an RPG thing.  As for me, it's the only physical activity besides Volleyball, Skateboarding, Dodgeball, "Tag" and Hiking that I can do without getting bored.  After 6 years of TKD, 3 years of Kyokushin Karate (in Japan), a semester of Aikido and a year of Wing Chun (the most recent), I've given up martial arts because I have other hobbies that got in the way.  That's why I gained 30 pounds in 4 years and went up to a 36 waistline :-(  Information Technology is a bitch godess: She giveth the money, and the ass.

As for me, my real hobbies are studying Japanese through reading manga and playing weird-ass import PS2 games. My favorite manga these days are Mugen no Jyuunin ( http://www.z-builder.com/manga/mugen ), Fruits Basket, GTO, and a bunch of others no one has heard of yet. I'm probably going to take some advanced Japn courses at Duke this fall (cleared it with the boss) to pump my brain... Truth be told, aside from translating some eclectic Japanese RPGs, I've not been studying as hard as I could, or should.

I also do webwork. I'm trying to study more about PHP and database interaction, but it's too much like work and not paying off as much as I'd hoped. But I do other stuff, and have a small collection of domains that I work on every now and again.

I watch DVDs with the wife (most recently Firefly, which made me its bitch), and help out her graphic design business ( www.kneko.com ).  I love working together, but sometimes it can be a pain: Come home from the Real Job only to start work on a Second Job. Pooie.

I listen to a lot of music.  My collection is tied between New Age (the real stuff, not the Yanni crap), Techno (esp House and Drum&Bass), with some Hip Hop and Soul on the side. I've thought about making my own Drum & Bass music with Acid, but I think about a lot of things that I'll never get around to doing.

I also like going to the local coffee houses.  Talk to the wife, work on translations, etc.

-Andy

[John Harper]

Matrial artists of The Forge, unite! I study Aikido and Japanese sword.

For work, I'm the Art Director for a creative agency. I do what I love, so I don't really "work" at all. I realize how lucky I am.

For fun, I consume everthing Joss Whedon creates with a white-hot passion. I go on and on about movies and filmmaking and crane shots and subtext and bore everyone to death. I sometimes draw. I have been known to handle firearms. I watch obscene amounts of TV, and am proud of it. I drink alcohol, usually while absorbing second-hand smoke and suffering hearing loss. I read stuff -- some with pictures and some without.

I spend time with my girlfriend. I actually play roleplaying games twice a week. I'm a happy guy.

[Jason Lee]

Firefly and Aikido are the shiz-nittlee-iz-nit.

[DevP]

Firefly and Aikido are the shiz-nittlee-iz-nit.

Amen. (Watched all of Firelfy many times, and have, um, taken a "hiatus" from Aikido.)

[pete_darby]

1. Warping the mids of my kids. Going nicely, Alex is cheeky, sarcastic and almost as clever as he thinks he is. Don't know where he gets it from. Ruth has the filthiest laugh in the world, and as stubborn as the women on both sides of the family.

2. Not doing enough for Kelly, the most fabulous human being that has ever walked the planet.

3. Acting, which is taking up a vast amount of time the next two weeks. And singing. And dancing (which, if you've seen Fantasia, I'm sure you can adequately imagine).

4. Work. I pretend to, they pretend to pay me.

5. Pretend to write, but really play PC games.

6. Argue incoherently on the internet.

[brainwipe]

I teach teenagers to fly.

[Matt Wilson]

For the next three months I'll still be working at a subsidiary of a giant Chicago-based corporation* (my title is marcom guy #24601-A-1138).

When I'm not at work I'm preparing for my upcoming wedding (July), and the move to Milwaukee that will immediately follow it.

Plus, I'm hoping to attend GenCon and to have something ready to sell there. Things in that department are looking good.

I also try to spend some quality time with my dog Emmett every day.

And I joined a gym recently.

[GreatWolf]

Let's see....

Work:  I work in the IT department of a Christian ministry.  I could say that I'm a computer programmer and a systems analyst, but in a three-man department, these distinctions don't really count for much.

Hobbies:  In addition to RPGs, I've been delving into the world of German boardgames.  Reiner Knizia is amazing!  Recently, I've been exploring the world of the GIPF Project, which has been quite enjoyable.  I used to study aikijutsu and kenjutsu, but the move to Illinois has put the kibosh to this.  So, as a pale replacement, I boffer.  :-D

I'm also going to take the plunge and help my wife with the gardening.  We have long wanted to construct a Japanese-style garden in our back yard, and this may be the year that we start.

Finally, I've started working on a screenplay with a co-worker of mine.  We're looking to produce the film as an independent work ().  The work is going well so far, although I know that we have a long way to go before completion.  Some of the principles of indie production that I've learned here apply pretty directly, so I've been keeping those in mind as well.

Reading:  I've been reading a lot of theology recently.  Lots of stuff by James Jordan, which I've been finding quite helpful.  I also just started rereading Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe again, to get me in the right mindset to finish up Legends of Alyria.

Family:  I am married (7 years this June) with four children (ages 6, 4, 2, 3 mos.).  Therefore I am quite busy with children.  But that's a good thing.

Church:  I am essentially in charge of a monthly men's get together.  We get together in the evening at a local brewpub, drink beer, and talk about Jesus.  The talk has been very good, and the beer is pretty good, too.

That should be enough to start with.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf