So, What Else Do FESSERs Do?

[Black Knight]

So, we all know you play Fire Emblem, and probably other video games too. But outside of the audio/visual device realm, what other kinds of hobbies or pastimes do you have? Do you play a musical instrument perhaps? Or maybe you participate on a sports team? I know, you maintain a hydroponic garden, don't you? Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it's interesting. Or is playing video games all you do in your free time? not that's a bad thing.

I play the trumpet. Have for seven years now. I've participated in things like district and all-state music festivals, but really I just enjoy playing in an ensemble, even if it's not for a concert. I particularly enjoy Jazz band, although I'm not as experienced at it because my school does not have any organization for jazz musicians. But I did get into the district jazz festival and had a blast. I've also played in the local Springfield Community Band (like they turn anyone away...) during the summer, although for the past two years I have not because I wasn't on the continent during July both years, when the majority of the concerts take place.

I also maintain several aquariums. The first I got was a 29 gallon five years ago, and I have since bought two 10 gallon tanks and a 75 gallon. I mostly stick to community fish (non-aggressive fish under ~4 inches in length), but the 75 gallon tank is entirely populated by African Cichlids indigenous to Lake Malawi, which can be more aggressive. Actually, because these fish are more aggressive there need to be a lot more hiding places in the tank for the non-dominant fish, so I constructed a giant "rock" landscape in the tank that covers the back wall and floor. I say "rock" because I actually manufactured these rocks out of a Styrofoam core I cut into shapes and then covered and connected together with dyed cement (the cement was also beneficial for raising the pH of the water up to a level Cichlids are more comfortable at). I kind of thought most of my fish would have died off before I went to college, but some of them have been extraordinarily long lived, while the short lived ones always left some fry (babies) behind.

If you saw the picture I posted in the "member picture thread" a while back, you'd know I'm a runner. I started doing it at a sport in 6th grade only because my best friend was doing it, but since then I have developed quite a fondness for it. I do both Track and Cross Country (WHICH ARE DIFFERENT SPORTS!), but my favorite is definitely cross country. Long distance through the woods is much more fun than just running on the track like those sprinter pussies, and in general I've liked the people on the cross country team a lot more (They like video games, Magic cards, computers... you know, nerds). I also enjoy running on my own, and where I live is an ideal location with all sorts of winding dirt roads that never have any traffic.

Well, enough about me. Let's talk about you.

[Raisin Bagel]

Well, I'm a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do. I've participated in a couple tournaments, earning 1 2nd place in fighting, 2 first place, and 1 3rd in forms. I also play football with my friends for fun, and am constantly being asked to play on a team.

...wow, my post looks tiny and lame compared to yours.

[Suichimo]

Dungeons and Dragons.  I've been trying to get my friends to go with 4th edition but our group is split 50/50 on 3.5 and 4.0.

Manga/Anime.  More so manga than anime however.

Does college count? 

[Fëanen]

Well...I enjoy reading quite a bit. And I very much enjoy music, particularly classic rock

I bowl twice a week, although my average is just slowly climbing up from abysmal. And I really like fishing, although I haven't caught a thing in two years (although I came very close with quite a lunker of a catfish.)

Oh, and I've been considering making my own pickles. A bit of an odd hobby, but my love of pickles is quite intense.

[theshim is the shimiest shim of all the shims that ever shim]

Dungeons and Dragons.  I've been trying to get my friends to go with 4th edition but our group is split 50/50 on 3.5 and 4.0.

Manga/Anime.  More so manga than anime however.

Does college count? 

This.  But I play 3.0 as much as possible.  Don't like 3.5 very much, and 4th edition has a few things that tick me off.

Yeah.  I play D&D, read (fantasy) voraciously, the occasional bit of manga/anime, play too many video games (NO SUCH THING), and DRAMA.

Drama is my life during most of each semester.  It takes up an absurd amount of time, but the awesomeness inherent in it far eclipses anything that could possibly be lost by participating...like, you know, half a point off my GPA.

I went bowling last week...three games.  First was abysmal, second OK, third pretty good.  I actually bowled the second turkey of my life...and promptly rolled a gutter ball.  Same thing I did the only other time.

I used to play keyboard, though I was never fantastic at it, but I still like to sit down and figure out stuff by ear when I get the chance.  I also really want to learn to drum, but alas, that ain't happenin' any time soon.

Aaaand, yeah, that's it.  My only other skill seems to be making girls laugh.  Which I almost never do, since they stopped talking to me...   Kinda sad, really.

[Raisin Bagel]

I assumed anime was counted in the visual realm.

Since others have named it, I watch A LOT of anime. Even more so since I got Netflix(great selection). I also read A LOT of manga. My favorites are those of the Mech genre.

[Superbus]

Let's see...

* I'm a Security Engineer at an financial security company based out of Milford, CT. I work on providing firewall security to banks.

* I'm a freelance columnist and reviewer at Diehard GameFAN.

* I'm a Lv. 3 USA Hockey official who has also done both college and semi-professional inline hockey.

* I used to play competitively until a history of head injuries did me in.

* I used to coach high school hockey.

* I used to be in the military.

[I Fell In Love With Judas, then I got Herpes]

Not much, really.

[Thunk00]

I don't do that much interesting outside of FESS.

I had two jobs this summer. I've been a cashier at a coffee and sandwich shop in Berkeley since February, and during the summer (up until last Friday) had a pretty time-intensive job with a catering service. Over the last couple of weeks, I've also had a bunch of time sucked up with independent study classes and summer assignments that I slacked off with.

For fun, I read a lot in all genres, and play old computer/video games. I also read a lot of news online every day, and talk about it, pushing crackpot theories on anyone who'll listen. I used to play GURPS, participate in the JSA, and practice Wing Tsun, though I don't have enough unscheduled time to do any of those regularly anymore. I also did lots of drugs my second year of high school, but I haven't even touched alcohol since May 31st.

My life actually sounds pretty empty and nasty when I type it out.

[YokaiKnight]

Other than the usual FESS hobbies (gaming, music, reading, anime & manga, movies) I'm not a very busy guy. I do play on my school tennis team, though (that and the start of school are why I haven't been on much this week). It's a lot of fun and something I can focus on, which I typically don't do too well. We're a lot better this year and our first match is tomorrow, I'm pretty excited. For the record, practice started two weeks ago, we're not jumping in that quickly. It's a short season though.

Also, I've found that watching professional lacrosse is pretty fun and I'm considering getting season tickets with some of my friends. I only go out to sporting events occasionally otherwise.

EDIT #902384: As something I DON'T do that a lot of my friends and peers do, parties are something I've never been big on. I have a good time kicking it with a best friend or a few buddies, and don't have problems with meeting people, but house parties have never really appealed to me largely because I don't drink. Though I'm always down for a good party story.

[quanta]

Used to wrestle in high school. Now other than typical gaming hobbies and such, I spend quite a lot of time each week doing mathematics research. It's fun, challenging, and I even get paid. Recreational drugs can be entertaining sometimes too, but I try not to light up too often (and fail).

[Cold Popcorn]

OK, where to start... Keep in mind video games are still easily my number one.

I race karts  , and I'm damn good. Haven't got the money to go seriously though. I'm a bit of an engineer, so I've built a number of completely useless things, like a semi-functioning remote control car doesn't turn anymore, and a table tennis practice thingy that shoots balls at you and counts the score when the IC isn't overheating because I can't be stuffed getting a bigger heat sink before I toned the speed down it used to be incredibly hard, it was faster than some pros serve.... I used to play cricket, but I'm not that good at it. I'm a bit of a weapons/vehicle expert (relatively compared to anyone in town, at least). I occasionally fly model gliders with my Dad that's if I get really bored. I'm in my final fear of secondary school, doing my VCE, so I get dragged around by various teachers/classmates bugging me for homework/help. And complaining about me setting the record for percentage of lates for a single class 97%, all but two periods. I shouldn't be proud of that.

[arashisama without the decorative symbols. RANDOM ENOUGH?!]

I lead a secret double-life as an exotic dancer on the Vegas strip

Audio/visual basically includes music/art, yes?

That leaves... what? Sports, employment, something or other?

I used to do some swimming, dance and cheerleading. I quit because I didn't like being under the sun. I also did kendou; I didn't suck but I wasn't an uber prodigy. I did some kyuudou, but mostly standard archery. Nowhere near Olympic level, but I do have my own carbon bow and a set of $45 apiece arrows. Looking back, I laugh at how many times I fletched myself with someone else's arrows before. I work as a Starbucks Barista in order to give a friend my free drinks because she works ridiculously hard. I also enjoy corporate executive dinners because usually it is a lot more refined and elegant than any other party I can get into at my age (granted, you wouldn't go into a dance club expecting a dressy event). I do fishing in a small group. I'm not really a fisher; I just enjoy the relaxation of doing nothing. I write, though I don't have enough time to put all my ideas to paper (proven through Aitherion's Crack Pairing Challenge, which I submitted 9 months later than the deadline of). Before I got my job, I went to Starbucks to camwhore people's cute dogs. I still camwhore sexy cars.

That was a lot of sentences beginning with 'I'.

[Peechu with a side of popcorn]

hm

- I work at a United Parcel Service as one of the primary supervisors. I'm the boss of 15+ employees on every weekday and am charge of their payments, their paycheques, supervise them and hold responsibility for them while they are on the clock; I'm also in charge of training all newly hired people and have to contentiously maintain 3894738947839789 conveyers & the sort operation throughout the day. Really enjoyable considering how much is on my shoulders and how many challenges I have to face day to day, plus over $2k a month is really good for the hours I get

- I've gotten back into playing tennis after starting college this fall. Since I'm enjoying it, I'm going to stay with it and try to play more competitively with my free time.....

- College student -> Criminal Justice, going to law school after I've completed all the graduate work.

- Black belt in a Korean Martial Art called Tang Soo Doo.

- Free time: go out with friends, stay up at night playing various games(Ragnarok Online, World of Warcraft), chatting with people

[Black Knight]

Audio/visual basically includes music/art, yes?

Oops, my mistake. I meant audio/visual device (fix'd) IE, just video games. I guess that's what I get for trying to spice up my language. I didn't mean to exclude reading/TV/manga/anime/music as hobbies.

Speaking of which, I'm also a movie fan. Like a huge movie fan (I don't even really watch regular TV that much). I'll watch just about anything, the only movie I ever turned off was "Man of the Year" with Robin Williams ( just not funny ), and I was this close to walking out on Shrek III in the movie theaters (easily the worst movie I've seen in theaters ). Own at least 100 movies and about 20 TV series, although we have NetFlix and rent a lot too.

[Draggy Dragon Dragger]

Well I work at our local K-mart, but my other hobbies include pencil drawing, reading and walking around town.

[Lord Fuckboy]

Not much, really.

This.

Hopefully I should be taking driving courses in a couple weeks and I'll probably get hired by my dad in his business, but other than that nothing particularly special.  If my friends invite me to go out somewhere, I'll take it whenever I can (but my friends are pretty busy, so it's sorta tough to schedule something - whenever something does happen, shit happens on my end which interferes).  Whenever I'm invited to a party I try to go as well, because I find it fun to be around people.

About two or three times a week I have Marching Band practice at school, where I play a Valve Trombone.  Eventually, I should be doing Jazz Band as well with a proper Slide Trombone, but that's about the extent of what I do that isn't homework.  I used to be the second highest ranked person in Kempo Karate three years back, but due to many circumstances I've quit that, among them being that my old instructor quit.

[Triahna]

Getting into my 13th year of playing the cello, 3rd year of studying music and... final high school year!   Actually, practicing the cello 4 hours a day doesn't leave a lot of time for other stuff. :<

I read a lot of fantasy books (Tolkien & Co.), but also "real" literature lately. That's because I often complain about how there's nothing I haven't read, and then my mom just shoves the books into my hands.

Besides that, I'm trying to do some sports... mostly table tennis and jumping on my trampoline. Also, since our neighbors have a new cute cat, my new job is to lure her into our house and then cuddle her endlessly.

As some of you might know I draw a lot, and I'm trying to improve in using copic markers as well as learning other techniques. I'm lucky that I have a dad talented in arts.... But I'm highly unlucky in having no time to learn all the stuff from him. ;A;

And... that's it. For now at least; I guess this is gonna change after I finish school. :333

[Cooked Mongoose]

Hmmm...

I've played the piano since I was about four, and the violin since I was about 7.

I love to cook. Seriously, I am just a happy camper if I spend a greater portion of my day behind a stove.

I play chess and poker as much as I can, or really any card game in general. My favorite card game is Egyptian Ratscrew though. For at least one summer I would love to work at a casino.

And I love to work with glass. I'm not too good at glass beads because you hafta work with fire and molten glass, and it's all very frightening, but making stained glass pieces is so much fun. Even with all the glass splinters.

Oh and dancing. Regular dancing is just so much fun. I did take balet lessons right up until high school, but I'd much rather learn salsa or tango or even, if not especially, swing dancing.

[the undrowned turnabout]

Those who know my artwork will be pleased to know that soon I will be studying BND Art for the purpose of getting some sort of animation degree. Having failed anything related to science, it is a worthwhile replacement. I also have a deep interest in novel writing, which started off from both my Yuri's Revenge Fanfiction and making the story for my flash animation series. These have got to the point where they are tasks of such enormity that progress is slow. Sorry to anyone wishing for the third chapter of the Yuri fanfic - it will be made sometime or other. Given the interest in writing and art, I also read lots of fiction and non-fiction. Subjects range from Fantasy, Sci-fi, science, art and (more recently) the Zen Buddhism books by D.T. Suzuki. Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm are great as well. I have become more and more fascinated by Eastern religion and philosophy, and I probably know it better than I know the West - showing my ignorance on both sides.