What are your "thing(s)"

[jeepmor]

Mine is jeeps, building stuff, and anything outdoors.

I have oodles of outdoor equipment from mountain climbing to fishing, backpacking, camping, jeepin, fabrication, snowboarding (homer donut drool) and lately firearms and hunting.  New hobbies that I'm enjoying a lot.  It's brought me a lot closer to my family and put me outdoors even more in the past couple years.  And having changed jobs recently from a hand-ons equipment oriented technical role to a more technical oversight role.  Reloading has provided that hands-on oinment that the new job is lacking.  I work in semiconductors.

I'm also a hands-on home improvement guy.  I enjoy the work as a former cabinet maker and have taken on projects that make most people queasy.  Myself also on several occasions.  Every project has something that you never thought would take that damn long.  Pretty much everything I take on, I take on in earnest and delve past the more casual people with some sort of long term plan.  I get dedicated for a year or two, and move on to something else.  I still enjoy them all, but some less than others now, but the equipment for fervor is there in all of them. It's very seasonal.  However, outside is always a big endeavor, and they all go good with that minus the exterior home improvement.  Which is really investment type upgrade work above and beyond.  Upkeep items get upgraded and give me an excuse to buy nice tools.  I should be a contractor.

I gots the the skills, but the degree job pays better and I work a sweet schedule, 3 and 4 day weekends every other week.  See my avatar for enthusiasm.  I have more time than nearly everyone and earn enough money to enjoy my outdoor hobby in earnest and am sincerely enjoying my youth as well.

I'm in my late 30s now and just now starting a family.  It's a boy, he's due Dec. 1, and he's going to grow up jeepin, hiking and snowboarding.  My home improvement biggies will be done in two years or so, then it'll all be about spoiling my son every summer for the next 18 years pending my job doesn't evaporate overseas. 

If it does, I'm going rural again, selling the house and getting a piece of property in BFE, USA somewhere in the PNW where I can go civil engineering or project management route and buy acres of land instead of a 8000 sq foot lot in suburbia Stumptown.  Huge by todays standards.

[Stickjockey]

My "things":

History
scale modelling (just getting back into it)
shooting (don't do near as much as I'd like)
flying (haven't been in a long time, but hoping to eventually build my own airplane)
vintage jeeps (someday I'll get and restore a WW2 MB/GPW)

Currently, My job pretty much precludes my really following any of these. I'm waiting to hear back though, and hopefully soon I'll be in a better position.

[charby]

my things

upland bird hunting
waterfowl hunting
whitetail deer hunting

panfish fishing
trout fishing

gardening
canning foods
BBQ

shooting

camping.. both car and backpacking
hiking

boating

[Brian Williams]

Rebuilding computers, I give them away to help keep kids in the neighborhood with modern typewriters.
Shooting and reloading, I like to hunt but have not taken much time to do so. I would like to keep canoeing, but it takes a lot of time to fully enjoy.

I want to rebuild another 53 Willy's CJ3A. This time with a 60 - 62 Buick/Olds 215 ci V8. It was an all aluminum block and heads with the 4 bbl carb and 4 speed tranny option.  Set this up with a Warn anytime overdrive Plus a bunch of other goodies.  This would give me about 185 HP+ and 16 forward gears and 4 reverse in a lightweight all terrain toy.

I would not mind getting back into any of these; model rockets, balsa wood gliders, or kites and I would like to get the gear for ultralite backpacking.

[Jamisjockey]

Flyfishing.  I enjoy it quite a bit, but only do it about once every other month.
Shooting.  I don't get out nearly enough. 
Cycling.  I enjoy road cycling, mountain biking and cyclocross.  My main hobby, with about 4k invested in bikes, another 1-2k in equipment.  I have been riding with a race club, and will hit the cyclocross circuit this fall. 
Next year, I get a new boat.  26 foot ish walk around or express fisherman.  I'm thinking Roballo or Albemarle.

[wooderson]

DIY culture/aesthetics - design, publishing, music. Dreamed of having my own wee record label for the longest time or a small book concern where I could put out editions of artists' books and that kind of thing.  Less focused on photography now than printmaking, abstract sculpture, interactive art (I've had the idea to do a show of 'DIY famous artists' - ie lay out a canvas with some latex paint and let people 'do their own Pollock' or set up a very basic editing station to let people edit video footage into their own 'short film') etc.. Wish I could afford a place with a garage or a warehouse space of my own for a workshop/studio.

in the DIY vein - 'home improvement' and woodworking and so on. Would like to learn to weld - don't know why, just would.

Guns, of course, - both the shooting and the aesthetic aspects.

Goal for the next year is to learn to kayak well, want to learn more about basics camping. Not ready to go all Survivorman and catch my own bugs, but I'd like to hike and spend a week by myself somewhere without a bunch of Coleman lanterns and stoves and stuff. I'll have to work up to that as I haven't been camping since I was ~12.

Every couple of years I buy a cheap guitar and try to learn to play, always ends badly. But music takes up a lot of my time - listen to a broad spectrum with a special place in my heart for punk rock and early hardcore. Hate The Smiths, Sting/The Police, Van Halen - can't even claim these are rational dislikes, they just bother me.

[Manedwolf]

Working out, being comfortable, playing with further tuning of an Accord into a "sleeper" high-performance vehicle. (as in, it looks like a plain, if rather shiny Accord, it's all in the suspension and under the hood) Having fun. Exploring. Photographs. Spending time with family, friends. Playing with cats. And simply enjoying life.

I decided, after visiting too many yard sales for stuff to sell quickly on eBay, that "collecting" anything is utter futility. Because I'd seen the prized contents of too many people's prized collections and hobby workshops dumped, broken, and tossed into fifty-cent boxes alongside used tupperware, utterly devoid of meaning and without any value after they'd gone. That model that someone spent a month painting and prized is now broken in half and tossed in with the Happy Meal toys in the quarter bin. The WWII uniforms are at the flea market, medals and all still on them. The carefully organized whatever elses ended up soggy and discarded at the dump. Peoples' estates just become a big pile of clutter for their descendants to throw out. So why bother? The only useful thing to collect is fun memories.

[Tallpine]

Horses.

Learning another language.

Petting cats.


That's the fun stuff.  Most everything else is just work.

[jeepmor]

Cool, some wrench heads and jeepers, and of course, gunnies.  I did a body off restoration of my 84 CJ7 from an engine fire about 11 years ago. Burned up the second day on the new job, that was fun.  Long arduous process with emotional rollercoaster ups and downs over the 14 months I took to put it back together.  It was worth every minute and penny looking back and I learned a lot doing it.  It's been an ongoing project ever since.  I still have a list of toys it's just got to have you know.

I can weld also, it is a handy skill to have and quite rewarding once you plow through the learning curve.

Agree with the collecting things advice.  Having been through my grandparents stuff recently when grandma passed away, it was disappointing to see prized possessions end up at goodwill and the like because nobody wanted them.  Such is life.

[Pew pew pew]

Living life, mostly. Finding ways to enjoy myself while being a productive member of society.

Firearms, good beer and wine, good conversation, pets of all sorts (but especially reptiles...).

Running and excersizing. Being outdoors; video games, too.

I'll try most things once... twice even! I like doing things.

[Euclidean]

I'm currently too poor to have any "things".

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

-Computers
-Guns
-Books
-Music
-Enjoying old cars, even though I can't afford one right now
-Getting into Jeepin' with my dad lately.  Planning on getting a TJ of my own this year or next.
-Politics.  I love getting people engaged in political discussions.  I find that when approached with care and logic, most people agree with my libertarian views, they just haven't realized it yet.
-My girlfriend.  Someday, this woman will be my wife.  She has to be.  I can't possibly do any better.
-My family
-Freedom.  For the past year or two, I've been examining what it truly means to be free, especially in my everyday life, not just the "we're all free cause we're Americans" thing.
-Passion.  If there's one thing I love, it's watching other people do what they are passionate about.  I'm generally not an emotional man, but when I see someone play an instrument, or sing, or paint, or whatever, and they are pulling that talent from way down inside them, from their very being, it gets to me. 
I know a guy, named Arnie Vilchez, who plays the guitar.  I was with a friend, watching Arnie play once, and my friend leaned over and said "That guy was born to play the guitar."  He was right, Arnie was put here to play guitar, I think, and when he plays you can just see it.  I love witnessing that kind of thing.  Stevie Ray Vaughn gives me the same feeling.

Can't believe I forgot food, beer, and cigars.
I love to cook, and I love to eat even more.  And that's why I'm a fatty.  That and a desk job.
I enjoy good beer, and I've gotten into brewing recently with my little brother.
There's nothing quite so relaxing as a cool night and a tasty cigar.

[Fjolnirsson]

-my daughter
-Guns(I don't shoot nearly enough, especially with the increases lately in the price of ammo)
-books
-music
-being outdoors with nature
(stealing from Dasmi here)
-Politics.  I love getting people engaged in political discussions.  I find that when approached with care and logic, most people agree with my views, they just haven't realized it yet.
-Freedom.  For the past 7 years or so, I've been examining what it truly means to be free, especially in my everyday life, not just the "we're all free cause we're Americans" thing.
-Fire breathing, well, any fire performance art, actually. I'm working on staff tricks, and learning fire poi, as well as starting out on some contact work. Also learning to juggle, with the plan to eventually juggle flaming objects.
-Fighting. Once, long ago, I got into martial arts, and had planned to start doing serious cage fighting. I never had the chance, with my busy schedule. Now, there's a local group started, and I'm planning to train with them, although at 31, I'm too old for serious competition.
-I enjoy writing, though I don't get much time for it.

[LadySmith]

My Things...
Pets (currently Cats & Donkeys, but I like all animals and will take in whatever needs me)
Collecting guns & gun stuff
Watching & studying wildlife
Reading
Movies (DVDs & VHS mostly, with an occasional trip to the theater)
Dancing
DIY home projects
Kamikaze cleaning&thats what my friends call it. I cant just dust & vacuum. I have to move & rebuild furniture, scrub nooks & crannies no one will ever see, patch & paint stuff and will usually bang myself up somehow in the process.
Collecting skulls
Peanut M&Ms
Being thankful on a daily basis for the good things in my life, including life itself.

[freakazoid]

Hmm...

Religion, I am a Christian anarchist.

Discussing politics, religion.

I like to play video games.

Computers, was originally thinking about getting a job in computer networking, then computer security.

Airsoft, although haven't been able to play in a really long time.

Guns, but I haven't been able to shoot as much as I'd like.

Reading, I really like to read. I have a few of Tom Clancy's books. Both Jurassic Park books, read all 4 2010 series books, Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse, currently reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond, I have started but not finished The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Plus an assortment of political books.

Music, I like a lot of different kinds, and have a lot of CDs. You can see just a touch on what I like here, http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=bitfreakazoid

Movies, I like a lot of different kinds, and have a lot of DVDs. Just a sample would be, The Postman, Dances with wolves, Hero, Ong-Bak the Thai Warrior and The Protector, The Last Samurai, Serenity, V for Vendetta, Red Dawn, all the Cowboy Bebop, a few MST3K packs, Heat, The Burbs, a 3 pack of Clint Eastwood movies that has Joe Kid, Two Mules For Sister Sara, and High Planes Drifter, and much much more, Lately anything with some kind of message of freedom, adventure, and living a simple life. Be it living on your own, with nature, fighting an unjust government, etc. For a while I was renting all sorts of westerns, things like Bad Company, Magnificent Seven man I love that song, Clint Eastwood westerns, etc.

Hiking, I haven't really been able to do any big hiking but I since I just moved into the Black Hills region of SD I am planning on doing it, not much in Kansas where I came from. I plan on doing some really extended hikes, and some day take on the Appalachian Trail, But so far I have only been able to read about hiking adventures, but I have been buying some essential stuff. If not the AP then I'd also like to just take off on foot and travel across the continent, like what Chris McCandless, aka Alex Supretramp, did. Someday...

Reading up on survival stuff, and hope to someday buy a large plot of land and build my own "fortress". Something like what Richard Proenneke did.

[Tallpine]

Collecting skulls

Of your enemies ...  

[cosine]

Music.

[wmenorr67]

FAMILY!!!

Collecting skulls

Of the men who have done her wrong.
Ducks head to not become the next one in the collection.

[Sindawe]

Collecting skulls

Of your enemies ...

What better to drink a toast to their demise from?

My things:

Cats
Spiders
Freshwater tropical fish
Magic:The Gathering
Brothers In Arms (video game, not the Dire Straits album)
Trance (electronic dance music)
Lucid dreaming

[mgdavis]

Currently:
Motorcycles
Guns
Books

Wish I had time for:
Backpacking
Mountain Biking

Wish I had money for:
4x4's

I'm sure there's a multitude of things I've forgotten. I tend to get into something for a bit, then loose interest when I get into the next thing.

[Tallpine]

What better to drink a toast to their demise from?

A scallop shell ...?

[BakerMikeRomeo]

What better to drink a toast to their demise from?

Gravy boat.

~BakerMike

[Nick1911]

-Freedom.  For the past 7 years or so, I've been examining what it truly means to be free, especially in my everyday life, not just the "we're all free cause we're Americans" thing.

I'd love to hear your views on this topic.

I am into firearms, photography, metalworking and family.  (which includes the dogs!  )  Right now, most my time is consumed by college though.

-Nick

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

Nick,
Read Claire Wolfe's The Quality of a Free Man.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/columns/wolfe060701.html
It's been very helpful to me.

[RocketMan]

The link shows a video of one of the "things" I am into.  And the video shows when the "things" go terribly wrong...

http://www.libertylaunchsystems.com/Gallery/LDRS-XXVI/wedgie.wmv

(Warning for dial-up users:  The video is approximately 26mb.)