So, here's my "gettin-to-know-ya" topic?

What are your hobbies and passions?

Mine - I read like most people sleep. Six hours a day, probably. The last book I read was Studs Terkel's Working, consisting of interviews with people about what they do for a living and how they feel about it. So far, it's the best book I've read this year. I'm a huge Jonathan Lethem fan, and also devour any Ross Macdonald (thanks, Ron!) I can find.

My other hobby is the ukulele. I play every day and do two open mikes a week. I tend to switch genres a lot, and am practicing a bunch of punk songs right now. I write my own songs as well, and sometimes rearrange others'. (My rendition of Fugazi's "Merchandise" is pretty killer.)

Work, take care of my son, surf the intarweb. Occasionally have friends over for board games. I'm going to be doing some roleplaying this weekend (PTA) for the first time in a year and probably about the tenth time in six years.

I'm a stay-at-home dad. For sources of cash (other than my lovely wife and bread-winner) I am also a web designer, animator, video-wrangler and jujitsu instructor.

For recreation I contact juggle, sword-fight, collect comics, dabble in anime and manga, draw, kick absolute ass at Crazy Taxi, play the piano, cook foreign bachelor foods (did you know that people in america will be impressed if you can make a pizza? or sushi? or stir-fry? or dim-sum? as I understand it, these are just the other-continent versions of grilling a hamburger and popping open a beer), ski, work number theory proofs in my head and devour Netflixed TV-series in syndication.

I'm a linguist, a fiction writer, an artist and designer.

I love to cook! I love to eat! I play card games and board games and I used to do taekwondo before my studies ate my taekwondo time.

I like to read about martial arts and dance (as those of you following Mridangam may have noticed).

Looked at from sufficient distance, all my interests are the same.

I'm a soccer goalkeeper when time allows, I study Modern Arnis once or twice a week and I write short stories while working on a novel.

I begin my master's degree in Library Science this summer and my current job is in a university library as a late night supervisor.

I just started a highly paid, highly interesting, high stress tech job that requires more back-training than I've ever seen before. I just finished up two weeks of computer training and took a standardized test, and currently have begun two weeks of at-work 8-hour intense lab training, also followed by two more tests.

So my current hobbies have all been ditched for "Keep my head above water".

BUT, that's not too interesting, so instead I'll mention that I read a lot of manga in the original Japanese, usually before bed; do some web design with my wife; play Playstation 2 games (again, mostly Japanese imports: Japanese langauge games = Japanese training = Work skills preparedness = I deduct all my PS2 games and manga as work expenses on my taxes).

I would like to say that I'm also into martial arts and camping, but I haven't been doing too much of either these past few years.

Hmm...

I like pretending to do graphic design. I don't really have any training in it, but I buy books on typography and play around in photoshop and stuff. Sometimes I think I write game stuff just so I'll have a reason to experiment with layouts. In that same category, I'm now teaching myself how to draw, which is possibly laughable.

I've played guitar for about 15 years, and when I had functional equipment I used to write and record songs (and play for the occasional drunken campfire crowd). Now I just set it next to the computer and pick it up when I need a break.

I also spend a lot of time with my dog, who is the coolest dog in the world (no, yours is not; you are mistaken). We go on a lot of walks and to the dog park, and we tear up cardboard boxes together and ride around in the car and other fun stuff.

In the fall: back to school, if all goes well.

The thing that gets the most stares: I'm a father of 10 month-old triplets. Totally and incredibly rewarding, and sometimes exhausting. My wife never fails to astonish me. :)

I like to take telescopes onto remote hilltops and hunt for galaxies and other faint fuzzies. Quiet, peaceful, subtle.

For money, I'm a NASA contractor right now on a science mission hosted at Stanford. Pretty fun stuff, especially since I'm permitted to learn new programming languages. Yay!

-Jason

My current hobbies are reading fiction, gardening, and working for a living.

Highlights of my work "hobby" include Amazon CS ( and union organizer there!) and fireman on a steam locomotive. I've also been a tech writer and html coder. My current stint is as an English tutor at North Seattle CC, but I'm looking for a full time job.

My passion is writing science fiction. My story "Schrodinger's Mousetrap" won the Writer's of the Future grand prize in 1994. I've finish "Tithonium Rising," a novel of far future revolution and am trying to sell it. I've started my next novel, "Cage of Future Past," about an interstellar colony stranded in the past.

Right now I am working full time (medical non-profit) and applying to law school! It sucks mightily, especially if you enjoy being lazy, which I most sincerely do!

I live in Philadelphia, but I've been exploring Manhattan a lot lately because my GF lives right next to Battery Park with a great view of the Statue of Liberty. She's teaching me Mandarin. She's tolerant of my gaming! She makes me very happy in every way. (I sure hope I don't mess this up!)

I practice aikido 4 or 5 hours a week. It's fun! I wish aikido had crazily poetic names for moves, though. Also: it turns out that everything in life is better with swords. I didn't know this before. Try doing what you're doing... and then do it with a sword nearby. Instantly better.

I read Russian literature, Silver Age comic books, and articles on quantum physics. The last good movie I saw was A Very Long Engagement. I love to cook, though on worknights I never have the energy. I love to ski too, but can't afford to do it more than once or twice a year.

Ages and ages ago, I wanted to write fiction! What the hell happened to that goal, anyway?

I used to be a teacher, 3rd grade, and then I moved to Canada. Now I professionally wait for immigration to let me work in the country while they go through a teacher-shortage in the local area. My lord but nations are stupid things.

I also read. I read everything, endlessly. That is when my other big hobby, my wife, doesn't object to the fact that I'm reading instead of spending time with her.

Besides that I muss about with culture studies, rheorical theory, anime, and theatre.

Right now, I'm in that ambiguous place between graduation and finding a job. I'm taking the chance to travel around the country. It's really been a great experience -- running around, meeting a lot of you, getting to know people in person, making good friends into better friends. I am consistently impressed with the quality of people that the Forge attracts. The gaming skills are amazing, of course, but also as people.

My hobbies -- I read and write just a metric ton. My gaming writing is really only a small footnote compared to the fiction and essay writing I do. Present Projects: a short-epic about a Sumerian king questing for enlightenment, and a sprawling allegorical SF novel about a culture of immortals. I've been recently reading through English versions of the four Great Chinese Novels (Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey West, All Men Are Brothers and Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and I'm three down, one to go. I've also just finished Book of the New Sun and am trying to settle down in reading Gormenghast. I read mythology, religion, and anthropology a lot, too.

My college degree is in Physics, and while I'm not pursuing it as a career, it holds a great interest for me, particularly theoretical cosmolgy (the study of the universe as a whole.) I still read physics abstracts sometimes. I'm also interested in particle physics, string theory and other theories of everything, meteorology, astronomy, and oceanography. Earth-based astronomy of the sort that you can observe from your backyard has always been a hobby.

I've been studying Chinese on-and-off for about two years, and lived in China for much of 2004. I was going to go back right about now, but Vincent, Emily and Meg convinced me to stay for GenCon to handle the Polaris release, so I'm doing that. If all goes well, I will be back there this September, for at least a year. I absolutely love the language and the people.

Apropos of that, I am a slowly developing tea geek.

I used to be a big anime fan, but learning Chinese I kind of had to stop watching that, 'cause it got me linguistically confused. I've been picking that up again recently. I still read comics -- Japanese and Western -- voraciously.

I've been hoping to get more into backpacking and canoeing trips again. My family still does that every summer, although I haven't had the chance to join them in a while.

For a while I was teaching myself C++ in my spare time, but that's sort of fallen by the wayside.

yrs--
--Ben

Script-writing and blogging. Half my day is all about creating and solving problems, then I actually relax by blogging about the process of writing & TV series design (and how to improve it).

I'm also a sucker for marathon video nights, large parties with lots of new people to meet and taking every 4th day off to do whatever I want.

What I do besides roleplaying:

Work
I hate what I do, but t's a job, and I'm good at it. I don't wanna do it no more! Nuff said.

School
I'm going to school at night, trying to get a degree, so I can change fields and get into a new career -- one I might actually enjoy.

Hobbies
Camping, canoeing, hiking, target shooting (not hunting), bartending, reading, learning new languages, eating vegetarian and healthy, preaching about the benefits of vegetarian diets, smoking, being preached to about the dangers of smoking, and avoiding sleep.

In my free time...
Yeah, right. I've heard about that "free time" stuff, but I don't know what's it's like. I try to keep my time filled.

I'm finishing up grad school (Library and Information Studies) and looking for a job, preferably in a public library. I wrote a novel in the month of February, and I've got an itch to do it again--sooner, rather than waiting for NaNoWriMo in November. I read when I can, surf the web a lot, watch a hell of a lot of DVDs (movies and TV series), work part-time in a bookstore, and hang out with my wife and daughter.

i could tell you about my job, but it's boring and technical. It makes me money and keeps my desktop publishing skills sharp.

but hobbies and passions... jeebus. it's all in that fucking game i wrote. all of it. I feel like Mia Farrow looking into the crib after having giving birth... it's my everything, it's a monster; i love it.

I guess I'm kind of a filmie, too. To flex my feeble film muscle... I've had my eye on Burt Lancaster since I saw Sweet Smell of Success. Had him pegged as a big dumb leading man. So untrue.

Dro and I saw him in this '64 Frankenheimer pic called The Train. He plays a French railway engineer during WW2. It's all shot in Paris, but he doesn't even try to affect an accent. Awesome. That's star power. Great old school action movie. The kind where you win with brains and guts rather than bullets and explosions. Such resignation in those shoulders!

Then I recently saw him in Visconti's The Leopard. Such a strange movie. I felt like I didn't get it, but I also couldn't help but like it. And Lancaster speaks Italian for that one!

-L

I go between my job as a cartographer and a part time gig teaching art classes at a local community college.

I make art that few except me love, read all the time, watch movies when I can, write some games here and there when I can get over feeling humbled at the feet of the mighty designers who I find myself in the company of. I do woodworking when I get the chance (and the money, hardwood ain't cheap.) I'm working on learning php to augment my web design skills. I maintain the GCP wiki and roleplaying lab which I'm hoping to host more people and games on.

My wife is threatening me with children, which will cut down on a great deal of the above.

Trevis.

I'm a soon-to-be lawyer over here in Germany. Actually, my final examination is this friday, so what the fuck am I doing sneaking around this forum instead of preparing?! ;-)

I used to do some fiction writing, but that has diminished in the last few years. For sports, I do some running and volleyball, but not at a very high level. And I like travelling. I have a wonderful trip to China booked for the end of the month, and I'm almost more excited about that than about my exams and finding a job.

I'm finishing up studies in acupressure so I can open my own practice.

Hobbies:

Read- a book a week, sometimes quicker. Mostly cultural/religious
Food- love good food, learning to cook new stuff every month
Anime- Getting back into it. I like robots & ninjas. I will never grow up.
Hiphop- Sort of a love/hate affair.
Martial Arts- kicking my ass back into getting more serious about it.

Chris

Like almost all of you - I work. Got my own business which nicely ignores large parts of my chemical engineering education and allows me to surf the web whenever I like, when I'm not supposed to be working on sustainable development and software design.

Occasionally, I crank out a kick-ass piece of software.

My hobbies seem to be consumed by the latest hobby in my life - my lovely girlfriend, we're moving into a new house and you know that whole drill.

When they're not consumed, it's generally due to ninjutsu twice a week (so much depth), rock-climbing (she does that as well - so I got back into it), and cross-the-board gaming - boardgames, cardgames, RPGs. I like to develop the first 2 to the point where I can win competitions and get into european championships, and by that time my interest's usually moved on.

I'm looking forward to getting a motorcycle this year as well, dust off my skills, go touring. The Netherlands have had about 1-2 weeks of fine weather, now.

People prefer my cooking to going out to a (quick) restaurant. I enjoy trying to please and surprise them. Do you know that thing where you let others just bring a pile of ingredients, and you've got to make something? I love that.

I work as a computer programmer for these people.

Otherwise: I climb (indoor's mostly) - I'm almost good at it. I read quite a lot of non-fiction, but not like I used to. I make homebrew.

Let's see. In my honest-to-gosh daily life, I'm an archaeology grad student. I have a website: http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~jeh30. I'm a great big history nerd as well -- I'm really a historian who happens to work with a lot of archaeological evidence rather than a proper archaeologist. I used to have a little zine (well, the first issue was actually huge, not little) in which I attempted to write history in the same way Hunter S. Thompson wrote journalism.

In my other time, I spend a lot of time reading. A lot. I'm also starting to turn my hand to writing. I'm currently working on writing the first piece of fiction I've written since high school, and it's a lot of fun, though heaven knows if I'll ever finish it.

Most of my time is consumed by work, as the academic library which I'm in charge of doesn't run by itself. The rest of the day is shared between doing things with my family and either writing larps, reading (mostly academic stuff; I've grown jaded with fiction over the decade I worked at a public library), or doing reviews on experimental music. I usually manage to combine the last two, which in turns leaves me enough time for regular gaming. I'm extremely glad that I'm both a very fast reader and a person who doesn't require much sleep.

Write short stories, write poems, draw comics, write scripts, draw, photgraphy, photoshop, film, program, piano, stand-up... all at a very amatuer level of course. Short stories are probably what I'm best at, I do some very expierimental horror stuff that I'm quite proud of.

Go to college. Get freaked out by my ex-girlfriend. Get freaked out by this one girl so she can model me for her "Freaked out people" collection.

Video games, both playing and collecting. I'm pretty big into the emulation scene as its a nice way to not have to deal with the clutter of physical stuff, but I've got a pretty impressive physical collection as well.

I pick fights with cars a lot. I decided that if a car comes by me that makes a painfully loud engine boom, I bend over and say "GOOD EVENING MADAM" to express the fact that their attempt to prove their masclunity failed and I actually thought they were a lady. My friends aren't sure if this makes me cool or just a jerk, but I think I'm saving the environment.

I used to have many, many answers to this question. These days I mostly do just a couple things, a lot.

I sit in coffee shops for hours and hours and hours, working on my thesis directly or indirectly (i.e. analyzing texts, reading articles and books, writing copious notes, and plugging along at actually writing sections of my thesis).

I obsess over almost anything that is in any way connected to Street Fighter and continue to fairly regularly play Street Fighter III: Third Strike on my good ol' dependable Dreamcast.

I travel when I can afford to. I take many pictures of travels or just around Hong Kong, and sometimes I post them on my livejournal, which I try to update regularly. I spend time surfing the web.

That's about it at the moment, but it fills my days very comfortably.

Rich

work: Ick, computer security

home: Home ed for my kids, less computer games than I should given how many I own and how few I finished, them crazy DVD box sets...

Oh yeah, acting. Since last year, about half my year i'm involved in a production.

Writing: first drafts of novel & kids story done, awaiting re-write.

Geetar playin', and you know, stuff.

By day, I'm a junior civil servant in a large government department (which, if said government gets its way, will soon be a small government department.) It pays the mortgage.

By night, I fight crime! Well, actually I'm a bit of a homebody - I'm studying with the Open University (working towards a degree in computer science) and I spend the rest of my time with my girlfriend, my other close friends and spend way too much time on the Internet. I also read a heck of a lot. Somewhere in the middle of all this, I'm trying to be an indie games designer.

I very occasionally do some acting - this used to be a regular amateur hobby, but it started to get a bit of a chore, because the local group kept expecting me to do 3 or 4 plays a year and that's a lot of rehearsal time. I still take on the occasional short project, but only if I think it's going to be fun. In fact, I've just spent a surprisingly enjoyable evening playing the part of a demented masochistic monk for someone's degree film project.

I can't believe I have to moderate a Birthday Topic.

Original question was "What are your hobbies and passions?" Unless you love your work, don't bring it up. I hate my job, too, and yours bores me. Anyway want to make a new topic about hating ours jobs, feel free. I'll post, I promise.

To my bourgeoisie relatives, civil servants and such I introduce myself as a student. Helsinki University, majoring in mathemathics. The cover's getting a little thin, though, as I study less and less, and more and more of my studies center on folkloristics, philosophy and ancient languages. Not to mention that I'm currently doing my fourth or fifth year (I forget which).

To most of my associates I reveal my real passion, which is art and culture. I want to be a writer, game designer, poet, whatever will make me free. Freedom to communicate with my fellow man and figure out some fundamentals about this life of ours, instead of getting paid for stuff I don't care about. Just last Christmas I perhaps found some convinction on this: I won't ever be a very good mathematician, but I perhaps could become a writer of some note.

Concretely, since last Christmas I've lived up north in my little home town, spending my time in cultural pursuits ranging from writing to web coding to reading and stuff. The work schedule is still forming, but I'm pretty satisfied with my progress here. I could totally imagine living a major phase in this way, writing and studying stuff in a small town.

It's been years and years since I last considered "hobbies", really. There's just projects with more or less immediate cultural meaning. Lately I've taken up running for exercise, having practiced Krav Maga (one of those martial arts) before, when living in Helsinki. Similarly I've been spending a great deal of time watching anime, but I don't feel that it's a hobby - it's more about familiarizing myself with the genre and major works, to reap the benefits one gains from the arts. Really (although it's fun, too).

Then there's reading, movies, comics, music, all kinds of gaming and such... they're all a part of the cultural web I'm interested in, so there' really not that much difference. At some point I'm consuming a given art, then I'm suddenly fiddling with producing something similar of my own. Most such stuff never gets published, but some do.

Concretely, what I've done this spring exactly: writing rpgs, writing grant applications, running, leading the Finnish Boardgame Society, web coding for fun and profit, watching humongous amounts of anime (I'm talking 200+ hours of various series) and of course roleplaying... that's it, pretty much. Hopefully the various projects start carrying fruit this summer.

Reading these descriptions, some people clearly have a more clear idea about where their life's heading than others. Part of growing up, I guess.

Hobbies Reading. Much reading. Science fiction, fantasy, crime, and history non-fiction. I'm also a brownie guide leader for a group of 14 6-10 year old girls. Most of my friends refer to them as my 'minions' and accuse me of corrupting the young and planning to take over the world with them. I make no denials. Family history research, as a present for my dad who wants it recorded, and my uncle who wants to see what can be discovered.

Passions Words. Beautiful words and putting them together in interesting ways. Not seriously, but just for fun. Travel. Strange places and cool history. I live in a very young country in terms of recorded history, so I like going to places that look old on a human time scale rather than the geological. People. The way they work and all our everyday madness. Statistics and research design. I love the elegance of it all. And I'm lucky enough that it's just become my job (I mention it as a passion that's coincidentally my job, rather than the reverse).

By day I'm an analyst at the Department for Work and Pensions (Social Security to you). I'm responsible for an analytical programme that seek to determine the best ways of preventing fraud and error in some of our main benefits. This afternoon, as a special treat, I get to meet the Minister. Along with 30 others, I'm not that special.

By night, I'm the editor of the Origins nominated zine Places to Go, People to Be. I'm not really sure how that happened, but it's quite nice. I'm not sure I have a whole lot of time for things other than roleplaying, nothing terribly organised that is.

Paula, that's my wife, has been heard to say, "Why does everything you do have to be roleplaying related?" And she's a gamer so it must be pretty bad.

We did go to the theatre last night and caught a pretty decent Blithe Spirit at the Savoy Theatre. We also go to the occasional gig. London's great for gigging. This year I've seen the Raveonettes and I think NIN is next on our agenda. I also read a lot, mostly whilst commuting. I'm a big football fan (West Ham don't ya know) but I've not been playing much recently since getting tendonitis whilst skating.

I also comment on other people's blogs whilst not really bothering with my own.

I'm passionate about ideas and the way they fit together logically.

I'm passionate about fantasy, both in the broad sense of 'imagination' and in the narrower sense of 'stories about swords and magic'.

I'm passionate about my six month old daughter.

I guess #2 is the hobby part. It's really the only hobby I have time for. All my free time that doesn't go into my fantasy life goes to exploring nature, principally by hiking around remote areas. But I wouldn't call that a hobby.

Besides role playing?? There's a "besides role playing" now? Why didn't anyone tell me!?

Read, debate philosophy and theology with old friends.
Just over the past 6 months I've gotten serious about WingTsun Kung Fu, which is a "practical" martial art (no Katas, nothing fancy--just fighting).

Forgites,

As an introduction, my name is Andrew Cooper and I live in East Tennessee. I'm 33 years old and married with 1 child.

What do I do besides play games?

I read. I tend to stick to fantasy with some Sci Fi thrown into the mix. Every once in a while I'll dip into an Espionage novel, a biography, or a philosophy book. With my current schedule, reading has become a luxury that I don't have as much time to spend doing but I do like it a lot. Next year when I take my wife on our 10th Anniversary cruise, I intend to spend lots of time in a lounge chair reading and sipping cocktails. Woot.

I program computers. I also do this for a living but I taught myself because it was something I enjoyed doing so I'm guessing it counts as a hobby too. Recently I've written a MUX engine in VB.NET and I've played around with making a VB.NET version of the old D&D Gold Box games that SSI released in the late 80's and early 90's.

I work out with free weights and I run. I stopped doing this for several years and got fat. Now I've started up again and am struggling to get myself back into shape. I also like to play basketball, soccer, and volleyball. I love football; although, I've never played. I do play in a fantasy football league every year and this past year I won the Superbowl for the second time in 4 years.

I played the trumpet for 9 years but haven't touched it in at least that long. Mostly, that's a time issue. Musically, I run the soundboard and other equipment at church. My church is one that places a good bit of emphasis on music so our equipment is very good and playing with it is a lot of fun. Besides, as the sound man I can make sure the bass is thumping and the electric guitar is screaming. :)

Hmmmm... that's about it, at least it is if I stay on topic. I could certainly regale you with tales of my lovely wife and 14 month old son but that'd likely bore you to death.

I make shit with my spare time. I make art. I make babies. I make playlists with i-Tunes. I make video game characters. I make my wife crazy. I make myself run. I make myself read all sorts of shit.

Keith

Hobbies:
- write fiction (currently editing my first novel-length manuscript)
- Martial Arts (started with Wun Hop Kuen Do, nowadays doing Kajukenbo)
- compose techno and industrial songs (see signature)
- spend time with the love of my life and the kids (three boys: 12 yrs, 10 yrs, 14 months)
- waste time discussing politics and philosophy online, a leftover from my graduate school time
- do puzzles and riddles
- watch movies and good TV series (Farscape, Deadwood, Carnivale...)
- used to play computer and video games, but those have gotten a little stale (and too time consuming) recently

Hobbies I get to do now: Singing at drum circles & fire circles (like a pagan hamster wheel, but more fun :); dancing: contact improv, freeform; reading--lately hard boiled fiction & forestry related stuff; web design in a small way; learning about environmental regulation & conservation in MA--it's more work related but I'm sure not getting paid for a lot of it, so it's a hobby for now; making maple syrup; petting chickens & other farmy stuff.

Hobbies I wish I had time for: silk painting, marblizing, martial arts, hiking, juggling, writing, playing guitar.

Passions: none lately, I'm too tired & busy from working & doing forestry grad school! I"m sure they'll resurface once I graduate and get a couple months of sleep. :)

best,
Em

I love to travel. One of the better parts of my job is that I don't travel much, but when I do it's usually international.

I love food and wine. I cook pretty well -- but I keep it informal (ie, I don't do presentation, all I care about is how it tastes). Many of my friends cook as well; we will often do dinners where we each cook a course or two and have 5-10 courses over the evening.

I've been really getting into watching anime lately. Not the cutesy stuff with screechy voices, though.

I live. I've finally managed to arrange my life to where there is no separation between work and play, education and entertainment. Basically, I travel around doing what catches my interest at any particular time.

Just two days ago I flew back into the states from Ecuador. While I was there I worked on an organic farm and traveled around the country. I climbed mountains, met cool and interesting people, and experienced a third-world country. It was about a 9 week trip.

In about three weeks I'll be going to Oregon (I'm in Atlanta visiting friends at the moment). Most likely I'll be taking an intern position at Lost Valley Educational Center where they try and educate people about permaculture, sustainable and healthy/happy living, etc.

After that, who knows? I'll probably take the winter months to go visit family and friends. Then I'll find some other place I'd like to go. Maybe the Omega Institute for Holistic Education in New York state. Maybe by then I'll have something else I'd like to pursue.

The details that fit into that bigger picture include hiking, backpacking, climbing mountains (17,000 ft. being my personal record), reading, reading, reading, cooking like the devil, intense discussion about meaningful things with friends and soon-to-be friends, stuffing my laptop with a decadent amount of music, dancing-any kind of dancing, laughing, loving, bucking the system, and generally enjoying the short amount of time I've been granted.

-Chris

In spite of my angst-filled quasi-goth roots (I still wear mostly black), I'm something of a hippie, having gone vegan, doing yoga, being a Buddhist, and preaching nonviolent solutions to the world's problems. Someday I'll give a workshop on Nonviolent Communication at a gaming convention and all the social maladroitness of the participants will be transformed into super-duper heart-connection communicative excellence, and the world will look up to gamers as the people who can smoothly and lovingly negotiate even in the most polarized of situations.

Heh.

I am applying to a local correspondence college to get a Bachelor's of Justice Studies, to be followed by a residential Masters in Conflict Resolution, to turn that passion into some kind of career, possibly consulting, possibly working within the justice systems or one of its alternative tracks, or who knows what? Better than slogging away in the bitmines as a systems administrator, much as I do like working with Linux in general.

I play the harmonica, and people even stay at parties and clap when I jam with a competent guitarist. Hey Clint! Man, if we ever end up at the same con, you gotta bring that instrument so we can do weird acoustic punk. I'd be so into that.

Like practically everyone here, I read voraciously. Ron turned me onto classic sci-fi and fantasy (I can't really stand the modern fantasy stuff anymore, mostly), and just finished Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, which was pretty interesting. Just started the Jerry Cornelious chronicles, too. Not surprisingly I read a bunch of Buddhist stuff, and am working on learning Pali so I can get the original scriptures in their original language. I love chatting about linguistics generally.

What do I do besides RPGs? Well, there's the job, the wife and kids, and then...um...

I sleep a little and eat... uh...post to the Forge? Does that count as something else?

Then there's...uh...

I'll get back to you on that.

Mike

I hang out with my wife and kids, mostly. I have two kids who are really cool to do stuff with, and Krista and I watch lots of movies thanks to Netflix. I am a connoisseur of all sorts of things: books, food, movies, music. I am snotty and intellectual about how I enjoy these things and would probably be a critic if I thought anybody else actually cared what I thought. Or if I thought my opinions weren't obnoxious.

I study theoretical biology (MsC), like to write, make drawings, run around, never have time and I love to be with my friends (sometimes roleplaying, sometimes not)

I do Highschool, which fluctuates between maddening and intensely awesome. In fact, I should at this very moment be turning out a few pages on Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Outside of that and Gaming, I dick around with Adobe Illustrator and do a wee bit of calligraphy (which I'm terribly sloppy at) and cartography (which I am improving at rapidly). And linguistics. I love languages, alphabets, and words. Part of why I like Frank Herbert and Neal Stephensen so much... their books are full of random diversions into the history of the written and spoken word, without being jarring or out of context. Love it.

I work. Now it's customer service by phone for Godaddy.com. If you ever buy anything through them, please do it through me, as I get the commission. ;) But, only if you like me, obviously.

Besides that, I ride my motorcycle less than I probably really should, but enough to consider it a hobby.

Thanks to a previous roommate getting TiVo, I'm actually back into watching television again. Kind of embarrassing, but such is life.

Thanks to a gracious soul purchasing City of Heroes for me, I also actually play a video game regularly now.

I just bought some private stock, and might be buying a new house, so I'm really exploring the whole investment thingamajigger idea.

I'm very much a fan of hypnosis (both therapeutic and entertainment), and the study thereof, and hopefully by next year I'll be able to get out to the American Board of Hypnotherapy convention as rabidly as I currently want to go to the GenCon conventions. I need more vacation time.

I read, though not as much as I used to (blame the people who introduced me to TiVo and City of Heroes). Almost all fiction though. I don't want to escape the real world by reading non-fiction, as that's... the real world.

Hobbies: Roleplaying, designing games by accident, Warhammer 40k, playing guitar, writing, creating content for my website, playing classic arcade games, abstract painting, listening to music, computer programming.

Passions: Writing. Music.

Goodness, Clinton, you want to know *all* my hobbies and passions?? I'd be writing all night. Ok, short list:

I help run an awesome mothering/parenting thing called MotherWoman, found at www.motherwoman.org.

I help make awesome tie-dye stuff for all ages with WildChild Tie-dye, found at www.wildchildtiedyes.com.

I spend lots of time making little photoshop/pixel doodles, found at http://home.earthlink.net/~lumpley/megweb/index.html.

I do all sorts of elaborate hair design for stage with these folks http://www.hampshireshakespeare.org/.

I'm pretty involved with our local UU church, http://www.uugreenfield.org/, where, among other things, I teach an awesome sex-ed curricula for teens called Our Whole Lives. More on OWL:http://www.uua.org/owl/what.html.

I'm totally in love with my Inkle loom (http://www.inkleweaving.com/) that Emily Care got me for Solstice last year.

Like Em, I love fire circles and dancing, especially American Tribal Belly dance http://www.bdancer.com/med-guide/culture/tribalbd.html.

I volunteer at the Amherst Survival Center http://www.people.umass.edu/support/asc/.

I'm on the PTO at my son's school, where I just finished a HUGE read-a-thon with Usborne Books. I'm a consultant with Usborne www.ubah.com

I love taking pictures (what, no link??!) and making scrapbooks.

I love playing in dirt, especially with Emily Care.

I do web-design for MotherWoman and for the Amherst Family Center.

I love quilting and embroiderie and anything related to fiber arts. I don't knit by force of will, and I haven't learned to tat, but other than that, if it has fiber in it, I do/have done it.

I read a ton, and watch movies sometimes, and sing a bunch, and listen to music sometimes, and hike sometimes, and I'm on-line a LOT.

With Vincent, I raise two sons who are turning out to be as voracious readers as we are. In the above read-a-thon, the goal for the kids was 300 minutes over 14 days. Sebastian (8 yrs.) read 1500 minutes. That he told me about or I thought to write down.

I'm a photographer. I've shot for http://www.indieclick.com and http://www.suicidegirls.com(<-- NOT WORK SAFE.) I'm currently not doing anything special, but I'm going to be shooting for a Vancouver news magazine, http://www.terminalcity.ca pretty quick.

So, aside from being a geek, that's my shtick.

I also obsess over hipster subculture and collect vast amounts of music.

Wow, staff photographer for Suicide Girls? Damn. That just cries to be made into a game setting.

I'm a mental health worker, which gives me lots of inspiration for games.

I used to write science fiction, but these days real science is a lot more interesting to me, and I'm trying to make the transition to be a nonfiction science writer.

I listen to a lot of music, and am starting to learn to play the piano. Musical references also tend to infest the games I run.

I like to spend time outdoors to counteract my geeky tendencies: I ski, go camping, and work in my garden, especially growing herbs and heirloom plants. (looking for seeds? www.cooksgarden.com rocks.)

I also spend a lot of time chauffeuring my 8 year old son around.

Hobbies: Board Games (European style-- Settlers, Carassone, Through the Desert, etc.), Reading (though much less than before), TV (curses Tivo, much more than before). Getting into biking again, after sitting out last season. Cooking, trying to find interesting dishes (waning).

Passions: I'm pretty mellow, though adding a girlfriend to the mix has focussed me quite a bit. As soon as I post I'll think of more...

Scott

Danny_K wrote: Wow, staff photographer for Suicide Girls? Damn. That just cries to be made into a game setting.

I'm an actor, so I act. I'm currently in a musical for school (I have my first lead role)

I sell home security systems. Mostly off telemarketing leads. I'm getting some songs ready to sing and play on guitar at a campfire at my sister's wedding in California in June. I've had some trouble with my hips and lower back, so I'm doing a little Yoga these days. And trying to cook more, rather than eat out.

I also do some contract programming for an accounting software package called Solomon, though there hasn't been a lot of that lately. When I'm in Grapevine, I like to stop by my dad's and check his latest DVD. He was gifted the biggest plasma screen television I have ever seen (and I've been in many, many TV rooms) for moving a Lear.

Besides my regular group, I'm in two roleplayer meetup groups, one of which I organize. I accrete a measure of design to a current project on a monthly basis. Just trying to feel like living and keeping up with expenses is a lot to manage at present. That and I'm having trouble getting to bed at a decent hour. Nervous apprehension? On the plus side, I've got the sugar beat for five days running now. Wish me luck!

I actually have a job that is a passion, namely graphic design. I also get to work with some of my best friends on Earth. Whom I also get to practice Aikido with.

I get to teach Aikido three times a week. My training partners are some of my best friends. Whom I also get to work with.

I'm in love with a beautiful woman, and I get to spend lots of time with her.

I play video games until the wee hours of the morning (lately: City of Heroes). Loving your job means not needing a lot of sleep. I kick unholy ass at Dead Or Alive and Call of Duty.

I am passionate about film and television. Don't get me started. I get to watch lots and lots of both thanks to TiVo, Netflix, and four independent movie houses within walking distance of my apartment.

I sometimes have the crazy idea that I design games. Let's call this one a passion. Hobbies are something you do regularly. Still, a game I haven't finished writing yet has its own fan base.

I am a lucky, lucky man.

I consider my interest in the setting of Glorantha to be external to gaming to some extent, so include that.

If I had the time (and no job in the morning) I would love to go out dancing on the Northern Soul scene. Gee, I'm so retro. I also like 70's funk and dream about writing a blaxploitation theatre style freeform.

If I could spend an hour or two uninterrupted I would do more (more than none) oil painting. I'd like to be able to paint like Frazetta, Picasso, or Ray Troll, or draw like Robert Crumb. Not much to ask.

I'm spending a lot of time playing "soccer" - game at weekends, training in the week, taking my 2 boys, who also have matches at the weekend, to their games. Doing stuff with my 7 and 5 year old sons. Now I live in Australia I guess this includes going to the beach.

I don't read much but have a few favourite authors that I re-read if I have a job involving a public transport commute - Clark Ashton Smith, RE Howard, Sprague De Camp, Dunsany, Eddison.

If I wasn't happily married I'd spend my time and money on booze, women, gaming and fritter the rest away.

Keith

I have job in philosphy as an 'AiO', the Dutch equivalent of a PhD-student, only you get paid for it. I'll also count reading philosophy among my hobbies, with interests ranging as widely as analytic philosophy of science, Nietzsche, structuralism and post-structuralism, ethics, Kierkegaard - and recently spilling over into things like narratology and semiotics. This also connects with my interest in RPG theory, or maybe they feed off each other.

I also like reading fiction, though the rest of my reading leaves little time for this. Dostojevski, Kafka, Nabokov, Henry James, Jane Austen - the classics, mostly. (I'm planning on reading Ulysses next, but that might be a too ambitious goal.)

Then, there are such things as hanging out with my friends, cooking (I cook some mean vegetarian food!), and I should especially emphasise writing: philosophical essays, personal reflections, Wikipedia-entries, and many other things.

Hmmm.... I commute. I've been helping to finish a basement lately. Reading, mostly non-fiction, though I do venture into fiction now and again. Doing some freelance design work (print and web). Trying to relocate sometime soon, so a lot of resume writing and job searching.

My hobbies/passions were much more interesting a year ago: Scuba diving, writing, graphic design. I tutored a few college students in photoshop (the local community college only taught corel). I was in a psychobilly and then a noise-rock band. I was also involved with a group that toured throughout Florida dressed as pirates. It marks the second time in my life where I was actually paid to be a "pirate". Guess I have the look or something...

Time is more constricted now. I wake up at 5... get home at around 5:30 or 6. Try to remember to exercise, meditate or do something healthy. Usually cook dinner and/or cleanup. By then it's right around 8 o'clock, which gives me an hour or so to read, spend time with my pets and then get ready to start it all over again. So little time for anything. My wife says I have a serious problem with just relaxing and not doing anything. I probably do. She's usually right about stuff.

Scott

I work at Human Head doing really cool stuff, I read when I can (which isn't much), I hang out with my wife and daughter (who are awesome), I like to cook, eat things that are dangerously hot, and listen to music.

I love looking through art portfolios. Just looking at stuff is certainly a hobby of mine.

I think about the foundation and execution of intellectual property a lot. Every whatever number of days, I stumble across some theory or idea or concept and break it down to its base components and try to see how it could fit together differently or be merged with the components of other things. That's probably my favorite hobby.

I write fiction and poetry (not what you think). My latest fiction project, Charlotte, completely is chugging along. (It's online if you care: http://www.livejournal.com/~thisischarlotte)

I read a lot too - history, science, essays etc. I have developed a taste for literature since I've grown out of my geekish period, and I'm ashamed that I can't remember more than fragments of all the poetry I read.

I would do what I do for work even if I wasn't paid for it (well, within reasonable limits), so it's all good - most people find it extemely boring which explains why I'm paid for it, by the way.

For holidays I try to pick remote spots to walk in, preferably abroad (it's not a real holiday if I understand the language).

I listen to plenty of music and try to go to gigs (classical and world music mostly, though I'm not yet too old for the odd indie rock night out).