Hobbies

Well as I have said in my About Me page I have way too many hobbies for a man in my financial situation and here I will try to introdue you to them all.

Anime – Well this one you saw coming, even if you have only taking a quick glance at my blog. I got in to Anime way back in the day. When I was little it was Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets / G-Force and Star Blazers, in high school it was Robotech. Then later I found out all these shows had something in common they were made in Japan. The first non edited anime I saw was Iczer1 (raw) and that got me looking for more.

Go – Reportedly the oldest abstract board game around today. Played mainly in China, Japan, Korea, and other parts of Asia it is a game of simple rules that bring out complex situations. While I have a nice board and stone set I lack other people to play where I live so I mainly play online at the KGS go server. Go players are ranked by skill level,  in order to make finding someone of equal skill to play with easier you can see my rank graph here. Ranks range from 30 kyo, the lowest, to 1 kyu, then it starts over again a 1dan to 7dan. As of this wrighting I am ranked at 4 kyu on the KGS server. How ranks are calculated is kind of complex and there is often heated discussion as to how ranks from ranking systems compare to each other.

Photography -

Computers – I have a BS in Computer Information Systems from California State University Chico and have been messing around with computer since the the Apple IIe days. My first computer was a TI 99-4a it was really more of a programmable game system that you could hook up to a TV. Programs for it came on a cartage and you could save stuff to a audio tape drive. At the jr high I went to we had a few of the old PET computers and I got to mess with them a lot as I had the inside track with the librarian.

Models – Another obvious one to long time readers. Right now it is mainly Figures and Gundam’s that I am building but I and my family have a collection of model train stuff both HO and G scales. The nice thing about the bigger G scale train is that they are weather proof and can run out doors. At one time we were going to build a outdoor layout but like many of our plans it never got beyond the planing stage. I haven’t done any modeling in quite some time and got back into it after seeing some videos on Youtube of some of the top Japanese Gundam modelers. Being out of it for so long lead to the problem of having to reacquire most of my supplies and equipment. Models are not all that expensive you can get a good Master Grade Gundam kit or resin Figure Garage Kit for under 50 bucks its getting all the supplies that can set you back a pretty penny.

Electronics – When I first set up the hobbies page I didn’t put this category in because at the time it had kind of falling off the back burner. But I’ve been interested in electronics for quite a while. In fact I earned a Associates Degree in Computer Electronics before I went on and got my BS. Make magazine and few other place rekindle my intersest and I am currently working on a couple of projects in the works.

Expect this page to change and grow over as I work on it and try to make it look pretty.