General Music Chat

So yeah this is a music site, but what do you like to do in your spare time? I'm into photography, astronomy and birdwatching, and I usually read something almost every night. Along with games, puzzles, a bit of woodworking now and then, killing beer cans with my .22...

Went out birdwatching today and finally got a couple of good shots of some of the ducks that hang out at a local wildlife management area with a photo blind. Cold, wet, basically a yukky day, but it was worth it. Got this shot of a pair of Blue Wing Teal swimming around. I set up so I can use my point and shoot digital camera through a decent spotting scope, camera by itself won't zoom in anywhere near close enough. Unfortunately none of the shots of the Wood Ducks came out all that well...



So whaddya think? And yeah it has absolutely nothing to do with music, but I thought it might be a nice diversion anyway.

Lrt'd dee...I pull da pud...I design dit

Oh hr;; io
, tpp effed uip to typrersate...I'll try sgsin lwster

I do wood workin for a living so mostly I play music enjoy family & my dogs I'll post some picks of them soon, and a couple of times a month I'll commence to drankin. ya'll come back now ya hear!

I do my share of woodworking also...I shave Vater sticks on my cymbals on a semi-regular basis!

Ok..OK....We don't have to go very far for birdwatching, we have about 25 at last count! African Grey Parrot, 2 Umbrella Cockatoos, mini Macaw, a bunch of Quaker Parrots...the list goes on. We also breed the Quakers.

Oddly enough, my 120lb black Lab doesn't bother the birds. If anything he's afraid of em...big baby! Let somebody he doesn't know walk up to, or past the house and he goes nuclear tho.

I spent about 15yrs in competition shooting, but got burned out when it started to feel like I was going to a second job. Sold all the toys to get back in the groove again...so to speak. I kept a few for personal protection, but all the comp stuff went away.

I love the great outdoors! I like to hunt, or just hike / canoe the backwoods. I like to swim and snorkle. I like to camp out, no I mean really camp out, none of that tin trailer bullshit. I love to shoot.
assault weapons from many ages. Bows, flintlock rifles, cap and ball revolvers, as well as old west type handguns from the cartrage era, modern firearms as well. I reload for my custom S&W 19, and other weapons. I like to work with my hands, make knife handles and such.

Sounds familiar Sans! I shot Cowboy Action matches...old west stuff. Everything I shot was black powder.

My main match ensemble was a matched pair of 4 3/4 nickle, ivory grip Colt 45's, a replica 73 and a Henry, and double barrel hammer 12ga. I still have 5 cap and ball Remmie 58's, 2 36cal, and 3 44 cal, two of em have 45 cartridge conversion cylinders. Yeah, I guess I took that crap seriously for a lotta years!

Did all my own reloads on a Dillon 550 and a MEC 650 for the shotgun loads. When you start shooting BP, you have to be very creative and learn how to roll yer own! I could write a book on all the recipes I've tried over the years!

Lrt'd dee...I pull da pud...I design dit

Oh hr;; io
, tpp effed uip to typrersate...I'll try sgsin lwster

Um...gee...I hope that's the worse I ever get in here!

So I got a little loopy tonight, but I wouldn't exactly call it an "extracurricular activity." Haven't been like that in a cpl yrs or so.

Anyway - I cook a lot, & design things for ppl & just to do it, even if the stuff I design never gets made. When I can, I'm learning to fish & canoe. I've written a few short stories...just don't ask Robin about what I write. I'm a weird kind of gardener, in that I basically want a witches' garden full of poisonous, yet beautiful plants. I've made a buncha bird houses for ppl. I've designed & made some rather odd clothing. I have a short tree that I'm turning into an umbrella by tying the branches all twisty, but that's an on-going project that I've been working on for about 8 yrs. It's a pin oak. I read a lot about all sorts of things, from non-fic to sci-fi to bio's & history & novels. I'm a font of useless knowledge due to this, & I spout weird stuff a lot because of it. I like to learn the old ways of doing stuff, too. I got pretty good at using a foot adz & a broad axe to shape posts & beams, & I recently learned how to smoke & cure my own meats. I used to raise & interbreed rabbits, & I think I may be getting back into that again, as it's a cheap souce of good tasting protien.

You mean your not workin on computers in your spare time for the digitally challenged?. Man...Think of those who REALLY need ya. (yeah , I know what your sayin about now.. ) Yeah man those are some cool ducks for sure..Never seen the blue colors like that.Yeah, it would be good to get away from all this insanity.I wish I had something else to do but I feel like Ive got so much catching up to do, that I make myself learn something on this dang puter everyday. You'll out live me for sure.. Glad ya had a good day chillin out and doing something "normal"...
John

I only wish I had some sort of photography talent. Good pic, Pete. Musta been fun getting in the right setting at the right time & catching them at the right moment. I'd like to see some more when you find the time.

I'm in pharmacy school. Does that count for an extracurricular activity? lol

Now that's an image for desktop.

I used to race my sportbikes on the track.....but now I'm being a good boy and keeping within the speed limits on the street!

Great bird shots Pete,
Yesterday Cin and I encountered a couple of mallards (they seem to come back to our place every year) I did have the camera, but I lack good stalking tecnique and spooked them before I could get a shot. (Had it been my dear old departed daddy, those birds would have been popped, plucked, and in the pot in short order!)

Next to all kinds of music (both makin' and listenin') my interest are ...

personal use home design and construction (lately been takin' up most of my time)

readin' ( mostly history and quantum gravity)

walkin' about in the woods checkin' out the fauna and flora.

As for astronomy, I used to be an avid star-gazer, but I bestowed my old refractor upon one of my sons, since his place has less light pollution. (Besides being a bass player, he has been spending time classifying galaxies online at GALAXYZOO. very cool!)

I used to ride a Triumph 500, but long since ran the piss out of it, so I gave bikin' up as well. (besides, I could never keep up with Crip or JW's crotch-rockets!)

later,
Howlin'

Interesting stuff guys, philby you sound a lot like me. I've made a few birdhouses, tinkered with Bonsai for a while, tried to transplant a cedar for that purpose but it never made it, I'll go for a hike in the woods before anything else except a paying job or band practice. Read a lot too, sci-fi, educational, history, archaeology, a bit of geology now and then, anything that looks interesting.

As far as photography goes, I also shoot a 35mm Pentax and a Minolta, but with the lenses I Have it's really tough to get 'em close enough. That shot was made with a digital camera through a spotter scope at 20X, just had to get it centered decent and catch them sitting still for a few moments. I was in the photo blind at a local WMA, nice place. Watched those two and several Wood Ducks, Pied Billed Grebes, Coots but didn't see the Mallards all day.

sans I'm not that heavily into guns, but do have a couple. Old Remington 512 Targetmaster 22, another 22 can't remember the make, but made in the mid 40's, Winchester mod 1200 pump 16 ga, .243 Mauser inherited from my father and a POS RG 22 revolver. Oh, just acquired a Remington mod 700 muzzleloader, still haven't fired it yet. Somebody left it in the shed out back and moved away, homeowner gave it to me. Firing pin was not screwed in all the way, I guess the guy thought it was a junker and left it. I've never shot competition, but the guy in charge of the pistol team on the ship I was on when in the Navy pestered me to death for several months to join up, he had looked at my marksmanship records...top of the company...I just wasn't interested in it. What they didn't know was when I got out of high school I practiced with a Ruger Single Six on matchbook covers...had a 8 out of 10 average at 30 yards. Hunted squirrels with the damn thing...

Kidd I still do work on computers, but not much, got burned out on it a while back. Going to be putting one together in the next couple of days for a fellow here in town, been a customer for 4 years, great old guy, I help him out whenever he needs me.

This picture is my current desktop, taken about a week ago at a local park.

I wish I had your eyes, Pete. Whenever I take a picture, it always looks like I just missed the perfect pose or action, & it's drab as day old sh*t. LOL - the family won't let me take family photos - that oughtta tell ya how bad I am at it.