Here are some of my interests and hobbies that I like to partake in with family and friends.
I've always been a fan of music. I grew up with music playing in the house, my mom singing and humming as she worked on stuff, and hearing her stories about her and my aunt playing various instruments in band. I ended up playing trombone and percussion from Elementary through to my Freshman year of high school. In college I picked up the token acoustic guitar and taught myself how to play some chords and read tablature. I also played around with bass, and returned to playing drum kits.
I listen to a variety of things, but most of my favorite bands and artists could be lumped into indie and alternative genres. I'm open to nearly anything that's playing, with the exception of country music and tween pop, and can find something I like in anything style
Some bands/musicians that I can always listen to are The National, Bob Schneider, The Wallflowers, Sea Wolf, Wilco, and Seattle's own Minus The Bear. The photo used for the Interests slide is of Matt Berninger of The National.
I love video games. I got an NES when I was 6, and played and played it until it barely worked. Soon after it stopped working, the Sony PlayStation came out. I never got the SuperNES, but most of my friends had one, and I had been holding out for the Nintendo N64, but it kept getting delayed. The PlayStation was amazing, way more advanced than the NES. This opened me up to a wider variety of games, like RPGs. In college, I played games on my PC, and ventured into the world of online multiplayer and MMOs. I spent a great deal of time in a MMO called City of Heroes.
While working on campus, I was talked into getting an XBOX by a co-worker's husband. That was the end... err, beginning of my online video gaming. The end being I could not and would not come back from it, the beginning being, well, the beginning. We played Halo 2, Tom Clancy shooters, and racing games. I was hooked. This translated to getting an XBOX 360, even getting multiples to have a console my wife could play on and to replace broken ones. And naturally, I have an XBOX One. We still have one 360 left so we can use the apps on it, and still play older games. Currently, I mostly play single-player RPGs and action games, though I will get into online games with friends from time to time.
I have been a fan of Bethesda's Elder Scrolls and Fallout series for some time. Fallout 4 looks AMAZING!
I grew up reading DC and Marvel comics, like most kids did when I was a kid. I always thought it funny when my mom would ask where Superman was in the X-Men comics, or wonder if Wolverine would help out Batman. I tried many times to explain that DC and Marvel where different universes, and naturally different companies. Superman has always been my favorite. I still got on-board when the X-Men started to take off in the late 80s and early 90s, but when DC decided to kill Superman, I was at a loss. I remember reading through the comics and wondering how on earth this could happen. Then, when they released the first issues for the 4 new Supermen, my mom took me to get two copies of each- one to stay in the plastic and one to read. All was fine with the world when they brought Supes back, even if he had a mullet.
I've now passed on this love to my daughter. I've focused mostly on DC comics, and she can name most of the prominent characters. She knows a few Marvel characters, though. She's got figures of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and so on. She even has some of her own comics. She's still into princesses and ponies, but hopefully her knowledge of DC characters will help round out her nerdiness.
As far back as I can remember, I've always been active and competitive. My grandfather was a high school football and basketball coach, and my grandmother helped focus my attention on thoughtful practice and skill development. In some ways, she coached me more than he did. I grew up loving basketball, partly because it was the sport I was best at. I played baseball but grew tired since it was slower to me. I ended up playing football, and turned out to be a decent wide receiver for my school. I had our first reception for a touchdown in over 20 years, on an 80-yard reception. It helped that my best friend was the quarterback. Despite lacking great speed and strength, I managed to move up from the 3rd string receiver to 1st string.
However, basketball is where I excelled. The summers at my grandparent's house spent working on my dribbling skills, fundamentals, and basketball IQ really paid off. They didn't even have a hoop for me to shoot at. Now and then one of the other kids would get their roll-away goal out, and I'd get to play. I'm almost ambidextrous because of the time spent working with using my left hand. I'm a right-handed shooter, but often times will dribble up with my left. I even developed a style of dribbling to spin the ball so that the "laces" (lines) would always line up perpendicular to my fingers when I would pull up to shoot or pass (scientifically the ball travels through the air more efficiently this way). I could palm the ball in 7th grade, before any of my friends, without having extraordinarily large hands. I started every year I played, as shooting guard, and led my team in 3-point percentage and free-throw percentage each year. I was nominated all-city 3 times, and made it once. That same year, I led the city in 3-point percentage (65%) and free-throw percentage (98%).
Currently I'm not that active in sports besides watching on TV. However, my wife has taken up running, and is performing quite well in it. She's participated in several 5k's and one half-marathon. I did a 5k with her, and ended up beating her by 2 minutes without any previous running or training. She thinks it was a fluke, and it probably was, but it might be something I start doing with her. I'd like to start playing basketball again, and maybe I can now that I'm done with school. Other than that, I get my sports fix with fantasy football and keeping up the the Seahawks. Go Hawks!
My wife and I have grown quite fond of all the craft brews available up here in the Pacific NW. So much so that we've gotten into homebrewing. Her parents make their own wine from a small vineyard in their backyard in Spokane. She picked up several supplies while there once, and tried her hand at it. I started my own brew while she was away, and we compared. We've since ironed out some of the wrinkles, and have produced several tasty beers. We mostly brew ales, but I have made a lager that was very malty with a high ABV. We've even made several meads that turned out well, most notably a couple of cysers (apple meads). We haven't brewed anything of late, but I have a feeling we'll be starting one or two new brews soon. She wants to try brewing with jasmine, while I want to try my hand at an IPA again.