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

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

Kid stuff.
--Jeff

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>

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :(

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

gobi wrote: 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

cruciel wrote: Firefly and Aikido are the shiz-nittlee-iz-nit.

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.

I teach teenagers to fly.

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.

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

So, I did this last year too, but I gotta weigh in with the other Forgites of Mass Destruction.

I practice a Yang sub-style of Taijiquan. I've completed the open hand set (by which I mean I've learned the movements and basic applications) and am learning a straight-sword set. I also throw knives. Big heavy mommas. They stick in things when I do.

I play Go (12k on KGS - http://www.kiseido.com) but I'm a little rusty cos I've been busy. I hope to start playing regularly again in the summer and break my losing streak.

I play and teach violin - that's my "job" although being a full time pro musician is a little way down the road. Just now I'm a freelancer. You can find the web page for my orchestra here: http://www.ilsymphony.org

All you Chicacgo, Champaign, and Peoria types come on down and listen sometime. We do concerts in Bloomington.

BTW Ralph, I think I walked by your car a couple of weeks ago in Bloomington. Is it white, with your last name and a number on the license plate? I was with friends, so I didn't have time to peer in the windows and look for copies of Universalis. :)

Other than that, I like to read and watch cable, sci-fi, fantasy, kung fu, gamer type stuff. I still play PC games, although my computer is getting a bit rickety and needs an upgrade. I like shooters and RTS. I sometimes like dungeon crawls, but I'm picky. I enjoy Dungeon Siege.

It goes without saying that I like food. Although not as much as Mike Holmes.

And, I moderate the indie-netgaming yahoo group, where we play all kinds of crazy Forge monkey games on the internet.

Hey,

Work - professor stuff, like a fiend. Too much grading (I favor bluebooks), too much prep, too much advising, too much freakin' work, not enough pay.

Homeowner - It's like having a car that appreciates in value only if you feed it blood, only bigger.

Martial arts - training all week in various ways, teaching two-plus classes, participating in self-defense workshops (wanna get certified). A serious matter.

Publishing - frantically trying to run Adept Press successfully, but missing about half the self-imposed organizational deadlines that keep later stuff from becoming train wrecks. Add Trollbabe too; one of my great pleasures.

Reading books, comics, etc; viewing movies - constantly. It's like breathing.

Role-playing - not as constantly as two years ago, but at least once a week and usually twice, these days. This factors into prof stuff too, due to the campus group.

Forge - too much damn time, interfering with all of the above.

Socializing - mostly integrated with all of the above, but I try to have friends who "just plain friends" too. That's harder when you're pushing 40. Having a downstairs bar in the house, on the other hand, makes for a whole new world of friendly entertainment.

Stuff that seems to have dried up in the last decade or so, for me, includes: dancing and hangin' out with live music; camping and backpacking; roaming, whether in the city or on the road or internationally; keeping up with rock-and-roll culture; and writing fiction for fun.

Best,
Ron

Yay.

School- Studying acupressure, eats up about 4 days a week, 8 hours a day.

Exercise- Pentjak Silat(indonesian martial arts). Time to start a new program to up my conditioning

Life- Roomie and I just got a car! He's supposed to teach me to drive soon here.

Mind- Books on sufism, physics, history, etc. Just begun getting into Go and Chinese Chess

Music- Hiphop and soul primarily. A little bit of freestyle and punk sliding in there as well.

Movies/TV- Anime, HK movies, starting to get more Japanese and Korean movies as well.

Social- Primarily my roommates, still building a new circle in Berkeley. Funny enough, cutting out a lot of people at this time. Exceedingly single and hoping to hop into some summer flings.

Chris

School - Studying linguistics and writing. Trying not to let them combine too easily - people who do that write novels that read like textbooks.

Exercise - Letting my taekwondo slide. It frustrates me; my style is strictly empty-hand, and I want weapon forms desperately.

Art - Lately, mostly tossing together costume concepts for Exalted characters...not good mental and creative exercise, but good technical practive which seems to be profiting me in that field.

Entertainment - Getting dragged to movies a lot. I hate watching movies in theatre; I want to eat while being entertained in the background.

Video games - FFX-2, awesome costumes in this one. A joy to play. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2, makes D&D fun.

Creativity - My creation cycle seems to be turning around towards words rather than pictures again, which means more short stories and games, as well as little game-chunks like Exalted Charms (a joy for the sheer technicality) and reapplications of the Nobilis-style resource-spending system to other settings.

Music - Saw Phantom Planet recently. Wondering if Garmarna is coming out with a new album anytime soon.

Reading - Mircea Eliade on alchemy for Crucible, and (I hope) some China Mieville for fun, once I get to the bookstore.

When I'm not playing RPG's...

1) Spending time with my fiance, whether I like it or not. ;)

2) Cycling. I use to work as a Bike messenger, but now I work for UPS. I still cycle a lot, though.

3) Fooling around with and tweaking my computer. I'm about to go back to school for computer science (never finished that BS).

4) Martial arts (another one!). In the past I've studied shotokan karate, Hombu Aikido, and Tenshin-ryu kenjutsu. At the moment I'm not studying anything (time and money) :( but hopefully in the next couple months I'll be able to start up Mugai-ryu iaido.

5) I also play the upright bass, but gawd... when was the last time I practiced?

Evening Parental Unit to my two sons, I've got a 4 month old and a 6 year old.

Stare at my sketchbook, hoping inspiration will hit me on the head with a skillet.

My day job, a sales-whore for a printing company.

I've recently been addicted to my XBox playing Metal of Honor: Frontline and Halo.

Try and get my studio http://www.studiopasseno.com off the ground.

A mix of things, though few are really productive.

Pursuing a promising new relationship; fun, a good kind of time consuming.

Gaming- roleplaying a couple of times a week (though one group's going kerblooie, so that'll cut back a bit). Board games, whenever possible, with a strong emphasis on those European style boardgames. Puerto Rico has become a serious obsession around these parts.

Maintaining friendships long distance-- it takes a lot of time to keep from falling down to "christmas card friends"; usually enjoyable, but time vanishes quick.

Reading-- I've managed to stay away from TV, so I compensate with a ton of schlock sci-fi and fantasy. Sometimes I read good and useful things, usually by accident.

These last few weeks have been busier; something about spring shakes stuff loose. Hit Sequoia N.P. and wandered all over, loving the experience. (The company was also good). Theatre attending again, ditto. Some vacations coming up-- Ironically, two trips to Nevada coming up this month; one to help friends move (and lots of board gaming), the other to visit a good friend and help him destress from excessive work (etc.)

I have a 2 year old daughter, wife and a house. I'm trying to start up a software company with a couple of partners. The venture capital is out there! I go to my day job and pretend to be interested. I play with my high school buddies on Its Your Turn; mostly Go and Dark Chess (highly recommend Dark Chess .. fog of war totally changes the game of kings). The weather is starting to get nicer in the Seattle area, so its time to BBQ and drink beer with friends.

Glad to hear 'bout y'all,

Work-Posting electronic readings in the book mines. No, I'm not a librarian, I just play one at work.

School--getting my masters in forestry by holding aforesaid job at the university library.

Spiritual--spending lots of time drumming, singing and dancing 'round all night fire circles. Though the thought of spending another summer getting drowned in my tent while camping at festivals makes me shudder. Must be getting old.

Social--Not so much of that these days due to working full time and grad school schedule. Mostly spend time with my household and the good old friends/family of choice that is my gaming group. Have been getting out to the movies more lately. A trend I plan to continued.

Exercise--damn little. Studied Tai Kwon Do for some years, but have moved away (literally and figuratively) from it. Looking for something less linear, possibly internal arts like Tai Chi, etc.

Homesteading--Due to the good influences of my cooperative household, I've been seeds for the garden, tapping maple trees and other good stuff. Nice to live in the country. But the mud!

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

I've just become IT manager at my company, which is insane, so that's a majority of my time. I also manage to do housework, somehow - I'm a partner, or non-legal spouse, or boyfriend, or something like that. (The relationship has a mutable name, but a non-mutable link. I think I'm actually common-law married in Louisiana, which is awesome.)

I cram in some reading, when I find time. I'm about halfway through Daniel Dennett's Freedom Evolves, which just went from being really fucking boring to good. I'm a nutty free-information evangelist, and think that the only way we can manage to have a decent future is to share now.

Also, I have two cats. This is a tremendous amount of my time and energy, mostly comprised of laying on the floor and rolling around, with a slight mix of shoveling poop.

I don't get it. When you're rolling around with the shovelling-poop, what is it mixed with?

Work. 8-12 hours a day, sometimes on weekends, for the last 9ish years, trying to help build/keep alive a smallish software company. That ends in May (what's left of the company will no longer be my concern). Mixed feelings there. Relief mingles with regret. Next job - we'll see how that works out.

Horseback riding - lessons with the girlfriend so that when we take a vacation, we can ride horses in the wilderness rather than having to walk through it. Not that walking is bad, but riding lets you get to some places that would be VERY tough otherwise, and has rewards of its' own.

Reading. I haven't been able to shake the need for an hour or three with a book most evenings. I try to be ecclectic, but do end up focusing on SF/Fantasy.

Time with the GF, two cats, a townhouse with good-sized patio/garden, cooking, the rare trip to the gym (it'd be nice to get back in rock-climbing shape) . . . I think that's most of it. Oh, and I've been mucking with photography a bunch of late - the new digital cameras are just cool.

Gordon

Let's take this slowly (i.e. don't make too many people jealous):

Day-to-day life: I am busy with a PhD in Geochemistry. Which may not sound too exciting until you realise I am on a paid trip to Oslo, Norway for 8 months this year. Doing stuff I really enjoy. With no strings attached. Since I "retired" 3 years ago, I now have an MSc and a BA(history and ancient history), and I don't mind the occassional term paper or 80... Much!

Martial Arts: I normally run a group in South Africa that deal in western Martial Arts. I teach German Longsword, sword and shield, dagger work and wrestling. I have a black belt somewhere in my cupboard from Goju-ryu Karate, but the medieval stuff is much more fun. Oh,and I run a sword-selling business on the side (not terribly successfully but my collection runs to 12 blades now:))

Socialising: I am out most nights of the week. People complain when I am not around as they never get out. The female side of things waxes and wanes, but I always have a large group of female friends.

Internet: Swordforum, Forge, the newspapers in English while I am in Norway.

Movies: Violent=good, serious=good, not much else. Unless there is a woman to drag me a long.

Books: Between 5 and 10 a week, fiction and non-fiction. My biggest expense after beer.

Writing: If only I could ever finish... Very good at starting, very bad at finishing....

Roleplaying: Less, but I am trying to write a TRoS supplement, and hope to run a major campaign later this year.

James

Work - Web design for a university three days a week, 2 days freelancing doing technical editing on web development books, writing tutorials for web design sites and occasionally some actual development.
Home - Just moved house, so lots of oddments that need doing.
Hobbies - Tai Chi of the Lee Family Style. Writing. Reading. Painting minatures and building scenery for my Pulp rules. Oh, and writing and reviewing for Realms
'Net - B3ta, Metafilter and many others.
Real life - Whatever time's left goes to my wonderful girlfriend, Frances.

-Matt

Work: I'm in tech support. Really not that exciting. Used to be a web designer/programmer until the company I worked for got sold out twice in 3 months, then got shut down by the buyers. Now running general IT support for a yachting company, and loving the quiet life.

Entertainment: I have a huge TV, biggest of anyone I know, but do not watch TV at all. I don't actually own an aerial. Anything that's good I'll get the DVDs of or download, saves me having to watch adverts etc. The TV also gets used largely for Videogames. I have pretty much every console ever made, although they see less use now that they used to. I still keep up with the weirdass Japanese imporst and everything I have is chipped so I can get things that don't come out in the UK.

Comics: I love comics, but I never really got the Superhero comic bug as a kid. Recently started actually liking some of that stuff. That said, I've been reading comics since I was 5, but sci-fi and noir stuff rather than supers, really. 2000ad and Aliens, more recently Transmetropolitan (if you haven't read that you really oughtta), Halo and Sprocket and Stray Bullets really rock my world. I really don't buy comics all that much anymore. I realised that the comic publishing model used in the US doesn't really appeal to me one bit (ie, pay 2 quid for 24 pages, wait a month, repeat) so I've switched to buying almost exclusively collections. Some people moan that people like me are killing the industry by not buying individual issues, but frankly it's not my responsibility to prop up a failing industry because it's business model sucks.

Gaming: I have a regular group on Tuesdays. There is also the odd weekend game. currently running Shadowrun, and actually having a really good time with it. Also been playtesting Danger Dudes, which has been going better than expected. Also to my shame I play Heroclix regularly. I wouldn't say I was obsessive about it though. I've never really played a collectable game before, and, y'know, getting Hellboy to beat up Spider man has always appealed...

Music: Industrial, verging on noise. Hate Goth music that calls inself industrial, but this is a long and boring argumunt. Cannot and will not listen to the radio because pop music make me actually feel sick in my stomach. As a result I acnnot go shopping with my girlfriend, which is a bonus :)

Social: I live in the UK and so drink heavily by some standards. Actually I drink heavily by British standards too. Since the last Forge Birthday I've split up with my longterm girlfriend and started a relationship with another girl I've known for some time. We're both very happy with the arrangement, but she lives in London and I live in Southampton, which is a fair old distance by our standards. She runs a marketing company and so isn't around all that much, which suits me as I can spend plenty of time gaming and still be in a loving relationship with a non gamer. Recently had to stop drinking for a month. I also had to give up caffeine. Anyone who knows me will know that this is a really big deal. I found out all kinds of things during this period: For instance, there's a Sunday morning, apparently. I also lost loads of weight. I don't weigh myself, but I did notice an extra hole in my belt that I hadn't ever been able to use before. I'm not exactly what you'd call fat, but a little overweight maybe. Now less so.

Toys: I'm a total techno toy geek. I Have a treo600 phone pda thingie which i love hacking to do things it shouldn't. I have about 3 different MP3 players and such. Several gadgets for things like programmable remote controls and such.

Bad habbits: I smoke (because I like it, not because I have to. I often don't bother to buy any for weeks at a time), swear and drink like a fish. I also don't do all my washing up ontime.

Interesting (?) factoid: I still use a Dvorak keyboard.

In between weekly games I usually try not to get kicked out of Med School again...long story. The rest of the time (if there's such a thing as "the rest of the time") I usually hang out with the_girl who I've been with for 6 years. We live together and have a dog.. half Staffordshire Bull Terrier/Half English Bull Terrier.. both the_dog and the_girl are insanely cute.

I play guitar and write songs, which couldn't be said to approach actually playing or writing in any truly competant form. I jam with some friends occasionally.

Occassionally I draw/sketch

I worry about my hair, spin objects around my fingers, check my email and post on too many forums neurotically.