30 Days Meme [20/30] and TWS

The 30-Day Meme

( Previous days... )

Day 20 | A hobby of yours

This is going to be another tough one, because I don't have a lot of hobbies at this point.  I used to, when I was younger -- I collected a lot (coins, baseball cards, and yes, stamps :PPP), I listened to shortwave/world band radio a lot, I wrote a hell of a lot more than I do now (I'm talking about creative writing, of course, not essays for school), I read more books than I do now, I drew on occasion (mostly floor plans and maps and things like that, because I had no drawing abilities otherwise and I still don't), etc.  Now I so rarely have time for myself that it's hard to keep up a pastime, plus a lot of the stuff I enjoyed as a kid I could never get back into now.

I spend a lot of my free time online (so much so that my mom says I'm addicted XD), but everyone does it so I don't think it counts.  My radio show was definitely a good hobby, I'd say, but that got old too; I still enjoy talking about music, though I certainly don't know the ins and outs of music theory and what I say tends to be awkward anyway.  ^_^;  I could try getting back into astronomy; I was really interested in it when I was younger, and during freshman and sophomore year here I was in my college's Astronomical Society, which was a lot of fun, but I don't have the means or the knowledge to continue (not that I can't get it, it's just difficult).  There's writing, I guess, but as much as I want to write more I'm still blocked.  There's yoga, but that's tough to keep up with when I'm on a busy schedule, and I'm still physically unfit so it's still more stressful to me than one would expect.  There's anime, but I haven't watched everything under the sun like some people have, and I'm not too keen on the subculture (e.g. cosplay, wall scrolls and other anime-specific merchandise, etc.).  And then there's fandom, though I'm a lurker who's in it more out of morbid curiosity than anything else, who doesn't like starting fannish conversations, and who likes staying that way, to be honest.

I guess you can say I dabble in a lot of different things, without delving more deeply into one or two hobbies.  I should probably solve this soon; "all work and no play" is not a good way to live (and I suspect laziness doesn't count 8DDDDDDDDD).  Maybe something that requires a little more physical activity; my AFP professor suggested skiing, which I've been thinking about anyway, and besides, I've always kinda sorta wanted to go skydiving and/or hang-gliding -- those sound pretty cool.  Or maybe get some willpower so I can quit Firefox and start watching more anime, reading more books, or writing more.  We'll see about that.  :3

Day 21 | A recipe
Day 22 | A website
Day 23 | A YouTube video
Day 24 | Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 | Your day, in great detail
Day 26 | Your week, in great detail
Day 27 | This month, in great detail
Day 28 | This year, in great detail
Day 29 | Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 | Whatever tickles your fancy

********************************************************************************
So I really haven't done any work today.  Whoops.  XD  I think I can get away with taking it somewhat easy this weekend, though (huge emphasis on "somewhat").  The first lab for GIS went better than I expected, though I can start to see why people have issues with the computer software (I didn't have a problem with it, though a lot of other people did), and now I have to figure out what to do for this first assignment.  It's an interesting assignment, though; it's about colonias, a type of low-income, extralegal, substandard housing community found along the U.S. side of the border with Mexico.  And I found out recently that my GIS professor works with indigenous communities in Latin America to help them create their own maps as alternatives to official maps that serve to downplay issues those communities face ("counter-mapping"), which sounds really cool.  ^_^

Speaking of which, today was the spring activities fair, and I had to table for Voices of Indigenous People, which I don't like doing because I am very bad at anything having to do with promotion, and nobody ever shows up at our table anyway (well, we got six people to sign up for our mailing list, which isn't a lot but is par for course for a group like ours), so it was a pretty painful hour just sitting there.  At least I wasn't hawking and pressuring people like last time; that was a big mistake.  -_-;  Other than that, though, I'm doing fine.  :D

All right, more YouTubery!  First I came across this not too long ago -- robotics would totally be a hobby of mine if I was any good at programming and building stuff:

And then there's this awesomazing video about what would happen if Timbaland went back in time and made a music video with the Founding Fathers -- if you've already seen this on your f-list, well, THERE'S A VERY VERY GOOD REASON WHY:

Finally, this week's song. This video is amazing as well, and the band reminds me a lot like Menomena: