A cake stop style thread - no cycling content

biondino

But since I'm not a reg over there, and you guys a) all rock and b) bang on about the slightest thing for hours, I thought I'd post it here (please don't move it, M.Cole).

We're all passionate about our bikes, and riding them, and that passion makes for some wonderful posts. So I thought I'd start this thread so that people could explain their other passions of whatever type.

I, for instance, love baseball. Somehow, late in life, I'm stumbled across a sport with a magnificent history, a cultural impact few sports can equal (in their principal territories, at least), a long season (I can watch baseball every night if I want, and often I do, gorging myself on some of the 2,430 games each regular season) and a wonderful, incomprehensible system of rules and stats which the anal(ytical) part of my brain revels in learning and trying to understand.

The games themselves are wonderful, too - a team game but every pitch is very much a duel, like cricket in a way but with a somehow more abstract, mathematical slant. Like poker (another, if receding, love), luck is a massive contributing factor but it's skill, supreme natural talent and superhuman application that makes the vital difference.

Supporting a team is like joining a warm, all-emcompassing embrace - baseball fans live their sport (which is understandable considering their team will play at least 6 games a week), are immersed in it, and the ones I've come across at Purple Row are among the most imaginative, intellectual and decent people I'm got to know. And this is the internet, so it counts double.

So that's why it's so special to me. What about you?

Wallace1492

My passion is Eclipses. Ever since a rainy, cloudy day on a hillside by St Ives where me and a mate went to see what all the fuss was about.

It was very wet with low cloud, so no chance of seeing the activities of the sun and moon, but at 11 minutes past 11 a band of darkness appeared to the west, this got bigger very quickly and ll of a sudden the light went out - almost totally, there was however some ambient light leeching in from outside the path of the shadow, but the cloud enhanced the darkness. The street light went on, fireworks went off, people cheered and shouted. It was amazing to see this happening not long before mid day. Then after a minute or two, a band of light appeared to the west, and all of a sudden the light was back - the thousands gathered spontaneously burst into applause to Mother Nature for allowing us to have this fantastic natural show.

After that I had to see what happened "upstairs" and have been to 2 further ones in Ghana and Botswana and thankfully they were both clear.

The thing I find facinating is that although they are predictable, they occur in lots of different places that give facinating adventures to get to see, problem is they are usually expensive!! However since becoming hooked, the one that stands out is an Eclipse over Easter Island in July 2010, and I have now booked up for it.

I have missed a couple, but finances dictate that but next year is my "Big One" that I have been dreaming of for years...

Just don't know what I will do after!!

biondino

Wallace1492 wrote:

My passion is Eclipses. Ever since a rainy, cloudy day on a hillside by St Ives where me and a mate went to see what all the fuss was about.

It was very wet with low cloud, so no chance of seeing the activities of the sun and moon, but at 11 minutes past 11 a band of darkness appeared to the west, this got bigger very quickly and ll of a sudden the light went out - almost totally, there was however some ambient light leeching in from outside the path of the shadow, but the cloud enhanced the darkness. The street light went on, fireworks went off, people cheered and shouted. It was amazing to see this happening not long before mid day. Then after a minute or two, a band of light appeared to the west, and all of a sudden the light was back - the thousands gathered spontaneously burst into applause to Mother Nature for allowing us to have this fantastic natural show.

After that I had to see what happened "upstairs" and have been to 2 further ones in Ghana and Botswana and thankfully they were both clear.

The thing I find facinating is that although they are predictable, they occur in lots of different places that give facinating adventures to get to see, problem is they are usually expensive!! However since becoming hooked, the one that stands out is an Eclipse over Easter Island in July 2010, and I have now booked up for it.

I have missed a couple, but finances dictate that but next year is my "Big One" that I have been dreaming of for years...

Just don't know what I will do after!!

That is completely fantastic - I think I have something in my eye...

jamesco

Motorbikes are my thing, big or small, old or new, slow or fast, dirt or road. There's just something so absorbing in riding, whether the thrill of tarmac moving at 100mph one inch from your knee or just the warmth of the sun on your back on a bright winter day. Also like travelling so I once went around North & South America on my KLR650 for a few years. Great fun

Actually, I'm not passionate about push-bikes (sacrilege!), but it's good fun & the only way to get around the big smoke.

Rich158

My passion is music, principly because I have no musical talent whatsoever. Not that a lack of talent stops me murdering many a song on my guitar :shock: :oops:

To me music is a broad church, I love the raw anger and politics of hard core punk, the Subhumans are absolutely fantastic for that. real passion drive and power. Just listening to them makes me feel good about the world, it's good to know that people still have principles and aren't afraid to express them.

On a slightly gentler note I love the complex rhythms of Jazz, and love Be-Bop. It's a highly complex form of music that's constantly shifting, and requires great intelectual as well as manual dexterity. The opening bars of So What from Miles Davis' Kind of Blue still has the power to stop me in my tracks and bring a tear to my eye. It's such a perfect piece of music it stirs the soul, in fact the whole album ranks as one of the great master pieces of the 20C.

I also love folk music, from Woody Guthrie, to Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg and beyond. It's always been the music of protest and charts a fascinating journey through the politics of the last 100 years or more, documenting the mood at any given time, and what was important to people at that time. I think many of the protest songs from every decade tend to be every bit as relevant today as they were when they were written, which is perhaps a sad indictment of the way that politics has stood still over the years.

il_principe

Cycling leaves me with precious little time/money to invest in other hobbies, but I'd just like to say what a pleasure it's been to get to know and meet so many of my fellow forumgers.
A year or so ago I'd never of thought I'd actually meet anyone from here, how wrong I was. Chapeau in particular to those I've regularly ridden/drunk with and to those whose hospitality I've probably abused horribly. You know who you are folks. And to anyone that's not MTFU'd up enough to attend Morpeth or any other meets/rides/sportives etc, please do come along and say hi.

iclestu

Football (spectating, not participating)

I don't mean the tribal support of one's team that (sadly, in my opinion) makes up such a high proportion of football fans, but appreciation of the skill, dexterity and beauty that an accomplished team can display regardless of the colours they happen to be wearing.

It is the king of all spectator sports & I love it.

always_tyred

biondino wrote:

But since I'm not a reg over there, and you guys a) all rock and b) bang on about the slightest thing for hours, I thought I'd post it here (please don't move it, M.Cole).

We're all passionate about our bikes, and riding them, and that passion makes for some wonderful posts. So I thought I'd start this thread so that people could explain their other passions of whatever type.

I, for instance, love baseball. Somehow, late in life, I'm stumbled across a sport with a magnificent history, a cultural impact few sports can equal (in their principal territories, at least), a long season (I can watch baseball every night if I want, and often I do, gorging myself on some of the 2,430 games each regular season) and a wonderful, incomprehensible system of rules and stats which the anal(ytical) part of my brain revels in learning and trying to understand.

The games themselves are wonderful, too - a team game but every pitch is very much a duel, like cricket in a way but with a somehow more abstract, mathematical slant. Like poker (another, if receding, love), luck is a massive contributing factor but it's skill, supreme natural talent and superhuman application that makes the vital difference.

Supporting a team is like joining a warm, all-emcompassing embrace - baseball fans live their sport (which is understandable considering their team will play at least 6 games a week), are immersed in it, and the ones I've come across at Purple Row are among the most imaginative, intellectual and decent people I'm got to know. And this is the internet, so it counts double.

So that's why it's so special to me. What about you?

I miss baseball, actually. Followed it a little when I was over there. No real appreciation of the technical side of things, but I loved the way it was presented, the atmosphere in the stadia (something even cricket now could learn from).
The punditry was in many respects similar to cricket. In cricket there seem to me to be endless statistics available since the dawn of time of 7th wicket stands between left handed batmen at the Oval on a Thursday. In baseball, the statistics are an attempt to pluck patterns from sheer luck, taking imaginative averages to demonstrate that this guy might make it to second during the throwing action of this particularly fat pitcher.
But just like cricket, and like football, the venues and the traditions and the tribalism are all authentic. Cities still mourn the theft of their frachises. There are supporters of LA teams who unreasonably dislike the Yankees because they used to be rivals... but now play in different leagues, 3000 miles apart.
Just like football its getting duluted by new teams with no history but loads of money.

biondino

Always Tyred wrote:

biondino wrote:

But since I'm not a reg over there, and you guys a) all rock and b) bang on about the slightest thing for hours, I thought I'd post it here (please don't move it, M.Cole).

We're all passionate about our bikes, and riding them, and that passion makes for some wonderful posts. So I thought I'd start this thread so that people could explain their other passions of whatever type.

I, for instance, love baseball. Somehow, late in life, I'm stumbled across a sport with a magnificent history, a cultural impact few sports can equal (in their principal territories, at least), a long season (I can watch baseball every night if I want, and often I do, gorging myself on some of the 2,430 games each regular season) and a wonderful, incomprehensible system of rules and stats which the anal(ytical) part of my brain revels in learning and trying to understand.

The games themselves are wonderful, too - a team game but every pitch is very much a duel, like cricket in a way but with a somehow more abstract, mathematical slant. Like poker (another, if receding, love), luck is a massive contributing factor but it's skill, supreme natural talent and superhuman application that makes the vital difference.

Supporting a team is like joining a warm, all-emcompassing embrace - baseball fans live their sport (which is understandable considering their team will play at least 6 games a week), are immersed in it, and the ones I've come across at Purple Row are among the most imaginative, intellectual and decent people I'm got to know. And this is the internet, so it counts double.

So that's why it's so special to me. What about you?

I miss baseball, actually. Followed it a little when I was over there. No real appreciation of the technical side of things, but I loved the way it was presented, the atmosphere in the stadia (something even cricket now could learn from).
The punditry was in many respects similar to cricket. In cricket there seem to me to be endless statistics available since the dawn of time of 7th wicket stands between left handed batmen at the Oval on a Thursday. In baseball, the statistics are an attempt to pluck patterns from sheer luck, taking imaginative averages to demonstrate that this guy might make it to second during the throwing action of this particularly fat pitcher.
But just like cricket, and like football, the venues and the traditions and the tribalism are all authentic. Cities still mourn the theft of their frachises. There are supporters of LA teams who unreasonably dislike the Yankees because they used to be rivals... but now play in different leagues, 3000 miles apart.
Just like football its getting duluted by new teams with no history but loads of money.

Not sure the latter is true. There are 30 teams in major league baseball; the four new teams (new franchises since 1990) came 20th, 23rd, 29th and 30th in terms of their 2008 payroll.

However, as an AFC Wimbledon fan I have plenty of feelings about the theft of franchises :evil:

always_tyred

I'm a little out of date - and because I lived closest to Seattle I tended to empathise with a fairly new team so not one to talk.

When I was there in the late 90's, teams like the Devil Rays, and Diamondbacks were winning. They might not be now, but they were next kids on the block, pump-primed to a world series and possibly left to atrophy?

Chelsea anyone?

Headhuunter

I went to a baseball game in Japan. Has anyone ever watched Japanese baseball? The rules differ slightly (I'm told) to give it more of a team and less individual player stance. I watched Hanshin Tigers (one of Osaka's premier teams) vs one of the big Tokyo teams, I want to say Tokyo Lions but I think they're a footy team.... It was certainly an experience! Baseball in Japanese is "yakyuu"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_in_Japan

sarajoy

You might be able to tell I'm a huge fan of swing jazz and swing dancing.

I started with leroc (modern jive) dancing 2½ years ago, and that was sort of cool but I started to lose the enthusiasm for it after 6 or so months (compounded by the AWFUL bassy euro-pop often played at leroc dances), so I had a go at some other stuff. Salsa was sort of fun but pretty boring after a while, especially as the classes consisted of "Ladies, just carry on fabulously as normal! Right men, this is how to do the blah blah..."

So I found this class about a dance called the Lindy Hop. The slightly lazy beat ("zummmm pa-tsch, zummm pa-tsch") was really nice, and while I struggled to begin with to not lose my footing, eventually muscle-memory kicked in and I found myself starting to improvise and stop saying "oops, sorry!" all the time.

Sadly I have now reached a level where again my local classes are catering more to the men learning moves - I've got my footwork down pat and I now need to work on style, which is generally done when dancing socially and maybe away at occasional camps or weekenders I attend.

HOWEVER Bristol, despite it's really strong musical roots and strong jazz background, has chuff-all places to dance to it. Jazz bands play in small pubs and seated halls to older folk having a sit-down with a nice glass of wine. But a lot of it is dance music! It deserves being swung-out to, Charleston-kicked into life, even being thrown up in the air when the beat kick-starts with a bang after a good break! And the bands love having something so dynamic in front of them happening in time and in reaction to what they're playing. Brilliant fun.

So yeah, you may be able to tell also that I've been on a mission lately. And actually, the Bristol scene is starting to grow (it's already huge in London and many many cities worldwide), and the more we turn up at venues with good swingy jazz being played, the more people ask what we're doing and how they can learn. Even in places with no space, we dance. Even outside on a cobbled street, we've danced.

Tis brill. I loves it.

cee

I love the guitar.

not all guitars....electric ones don't really do it for me...

acoustic solid topped ones (none of this flimflam top stuff....gimme solid spruce or brazilian rose anyday)...

I love the craftsmanship.

I also think you can hear the love that was pored in to a hand luthed guitar.

I also love playing a realy nice sounding and feeling guitar.

I love the fact that they sound better if you give them a cuddle first.

I love the fact that the strings deteriorate as yo play them and you can see it happening over the space of a few days.

I love the space that I go into in my head when I sit and play. Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. it not about them.

Thats why I love the guitar.

biondino

I love dinosaurs. I hope I don't have to explain why - they're so fundamentally freakin' cool!

I also love fossils, and fossil hunting. I haven't done nearly enough of it, though, so if anyone can point out any decent places to go within say 50 miles of SW London I'd be enormously grateful.

Stone Glider

For me there are two abiding interests:

Music, all sorts, anything played with conviction, Elvis to Elgar; Woody Guthrie to Woody Hermann. Like Rich I don't play but I will listen, hard.

Military History, again not very specific or focussed, most periods anything from reading to modelling (though not re-enacting :oops: ) In September I will be on the battlefield of Malplaquet (Belgium) 300 years to the day after the allied army commanded by the Duke of Marlborough defeated the French army of King LouisXIV. That was the fourth, and last, great victory for the Duke and i have done the other three (Blenhiem, Ramillies and Oudenarde) on their respective aniversaries as well. It is neat that there were no more as the trips are rather expensive and I really can't afford them these days.

Statistically (here goes) people with strong interests/hobbies enjoy longer and happier lives.

Aidy

I like cake.

Eau Rouge

Another baseball fanatic here. I lived in Boston in 1999, arriving just before the baseball season started. I didn't know anything about the game, I didn't know who Pedro Martinez was, and I didn't know he was about to have one of the greatest seasons ever. Himself, Nomar Garciaparra (the single greatest name a stadium announcer can say, NooooMaaarrr GarrrrrrSeeeeAhhhhhh Parrrrrr aaaahhhhh ) and a bunch of non-superstars playing some improbable baseball, capturing the whole cities hearts, and, as Red Sox teams always did back then, failing right at the end, to the Yankees. This was the height of the 'curse' and 80+ years of history and pain was so easy to fall in with.
I don't just watch, I also play in a local softball team. OK, it's no more the real thing than climbing a railway bridge is like climbing Mt Ventoux, but it's still good fun.

Photography is the other interest. Mainly landscape stuff, or at least, it used be. It's a passion in remission at the moment. A combination of other things, petrol prices, and the fact I can't look past the same places I've already photographed too many times now has taken care of that. I take pictures of the local am-dram's dress rehearsals these days.

always_tyred

sarajoy wrote:

You might be able to tell I'm a huge fan of swing jazz and swing dancing

What about swinging?

Gets coat.

Paul E

Photography for me, it's very rare for me not have a camera with me, having done it professionally for a company and freelance I have covered a huge range of subjects.

It's the capturing of that unique moment in time that does it for me.

roger_merriman

Paul E wrote:

Photography for me, it's very rare for me not have a camera with me, having done it professionally for a company and freelance I have covered a huge range of subjects.

It's the capturing of that unique moment in time that does it for me.

Ah The Decisive Moment!

itboffin

I like meeting people on the internet befriending them then killing them and adding their scalps to my collection of human remains based throw rug, in fact it's wall to wall SHAG pile these days....

always_tyred

itboffin wrote:

I like meeting people on the internet befriending them then killing them

Do you have newly layed concrete floors anywhere in your house?

always_tyred

I like rowing and other not particuarly extreme things outdoors, maybe on water, or under it.

In the general run of things Rowing + cycling + eating + sleeping + work + study = more than 170 hours a week.

I also like my cats, and other furry creatures (in a healthy, legal way).

doog442

Hi err,my name is ...doog :oops:

Im a.....................................









Leeds united supporter :oops:

what i would say is that this forum is fab and you all so friendly and all that (gush)

On the Leeds forum they think im a gay pinko commie lesbian lover because I ride a bike :shock:

I would add that I do love lesbians but they dont necessarily like me 8)..

itboffin

Always Tyred wrote:

itboffin wrote:

I like meeting people on the internet befriending them then killing them

Do you have newly layed concrete floors anywhere in your house?

No just lots of patios :shock:

Jay dubbleU

biondino wrote:

I love dinosaurs. I hope I don't have to explain why - they're so fundamentally freakin' cool!

I also love fossils, and fossil hunting. I haven't done nearly enough of it, though, so if anyone can point out any decent places to go within say 50 miles of SW London I'd be enormously grateful.

Isle of Wight - fantastic - you might even find a dinosaur - I'm a geologist by training but I still speak to palaeontologists

itboffin

biondino wrote:

I love dinosaurs. I hope I don't have to explain why - they're so fundamentally freakin' cool!

I also love fossils, and fossil hunting. I haven't done nearly enough of it, though, so if anyone can point out any decent places to go within say 50 miles of SW London I'd be enormously grateful.

Cake stop or MTB forum, full of em!

blu3cat

Cocktails, everything from your humble G & T to the almost unobtainable perfect martini.

The skill, the precision, the care the knack of a good cocktail maker, not to be underestimated or under valued at any time. The search for the elusive ingredient that makes no real discernible difference to the final drink, yet it makes the whole drink. The craftsmanship of it all.

And they get you sh*tfaced as well.

Just a couple of rules no Pina Coladas and NO PINA COLADAS :twisted:

Kieran_Burns

Paul E wrote:

Photography for me, it's very rare for me not have a camera with me, having done it professionally for a company and freelance I have covered a huge range of subjects.

It's the capturing of that unique moment in time that does it for me.

I have an Olympus e-10 which is still way beyond my ability to get the best out of and it's a lasting regret that I never get the time to learn how to get the best out of it.

I can still take 'decent' photos but I know I could do better.

Full size:

Rich158

sarajoy wrote:

So yeah, you may be able to tell also that I've been on a mission lately. And actually, the Bristol scene is starting to grow (it's already huge in London and many many cities worldwide)

Does this mean you're going to introduce us to the Bristol swinging scene when we pay a visit :shock:

prawny

sarajoy wrote:

You might be able to tell I'm a huge fan of swing jazz and swing dancing.

I used to play the drums in a swing band, thats where I met Mrs Prawny. We both quite before we had the shrimp but she;s gone back now.

I don't really have a passion for anything any more, I love photography especially motorsports photography but don't much chance to do that.

I really want to play my drums again but I live in a semi and I'm a big hitter so thats out.

Anyone want to start a silly commuting band?