What interests do you have outside of coding?

I’ve just discovered that @asgartech is a writer! And a pretty good one at that - according to his goodreads reviews - and that got me wondering, what interests do you have outside of the dev arena?

Or maybe you have some hidden (or not so hidden!) talent that you reckon we might be interested in knowing? :upside_down_face:

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Thanks, @AstonJ. I don’t really make a secret of it, but I don’t spend much effort on promotion either since my work is “out of print” and my publisher all but defunct. However, if you manage to find my website you’ll find that I provide free copies.

what interests do you have outside of the dev arena?

This is a good question, but I’m going to be honest with you. Writing isn’t an interest I have “outside the dev arena”. It’s what I’d rather be doing; I became a developer because writers who aren’t outrageously lucky need either a day job or a rich and tolerant spouse.

Thus I suspect a good question to go with yours would be: how many developers are only in it for the money and would rather be doing something else?

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That’s how I found out :smiley: I also downloaded the one I linked to as that first review really sold it! I am not sure when I will get the time to read it tho :man_facepalming: (I love reading, just don’t seem to have the time these days :sob:)

That sounds like a good topic for a thread! Please post it :nerd_face: :nerd_face: :nerd_face:

(General Dev Chat or Industry & Culture may be a good category for it)

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I make my own jams.

I even went so far as to get a logo designed and printed.

It’s a play on the word “marmalade” and my surname (Ohm)

I really like to play with flavors when creating my jams. Most recently I did a kiwi and white wine jam as well as a apple and ginger. My in-laws ate my orange and ginger straight from the jar. :sweat_smile:

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I like going outside and wander around.

Hiking woods and mountains. And if possible even have a camp site for the night.

Usually we go to the Black Forest Mountains in Germany for a week or two a year and have some days of hiking as well as some days with my inlaws.

Last summer we went to the Feldberg and had a nice day (photos), though the planned camping in the woods had to be canceled due to firewarnings.

Also I’m fighting with my wife for better busses at our place. The current one can’t be used to get the kids to school, as the busses schedule would lead to the kids beeing at school an hour early, while they also had to wait an hour for the next bus. Due to this kids aren’t insured. properly. Also it can’t be used for the job as well, as there are only 4 busses a day, the last one at 14:00. This year we had partial success and a new bus line will be established between my city and the neighbourcity, which will also stop at my place (a small settlement between cities) and it shall serve the whole day. Biggest problem with that one is, it doesn’t stop at school, but kids had to change, which is also not allowed due to insurance reasons (at least during elementary school).

Most of the problems we have with the current and future bus would solve on their own, once kids are out of elementary, but we fight as well for the families in our settlement with the newborns, they haven’t yet realised the problem we are dealing with day by day.

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Love it!! Sounds like they taste as good as they look - could that be a business opportunity for you Mads!? :nerd_face:

I am a fan of fermented foods - I bought a large 10ltr fermenting crock from Germany and even pestered @NobbZ for his grandparent’s traditional sauerkraut recipe :laughing:

I love hiking too! I am lucky that I live near the foot of a mountain and when you’re on it you can walk for hours and not see a soul :orange_heart: I’ll have to find some pics but here’s a quick photo from my last walk…

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I too like to hike but as a father of two little kids (too little to reasonably come along) I get to do it very rarely. Luckily I was able to do it yesterday with a good friend and we did a very nice long tour through the woods.

P_20200612_141227

At some point I would love to do some long distance hiking. Somewhere remote. My backpack and me. But that requires a lot more preparation.

Beyond that I’m pretty deep into role-playing games. I like to read and try out indie games like Dread (a horror game with a Jenga tower instead of dice), Ten Candles (again a horror game, literally using 10 candles), Everyone is John (a hilarious competitive one-page RPG, where every player plays a voice in John’s head), and loads more.

At the moment I’m running a Blades in the Dark campaign, where the players embody a group of scoundrels doing heists in the victorian, ghost-infested city of Doskvol. It’s a great game which elegantly captures the feeling of heist movies in it’s rules.

If I don’t pretend to be a responsible parent, hike, or roleplay l like to indulge in some video games (recently bought a PS4), a series, or a book. Right now I play “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided”, watch the 4th season of “13 reasons why”, and read “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed.

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Looks stunning :orange_heart:

Whereabouts in Germany is that?

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Here. :smile:

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Ah nice! Not too far from Düsseldorf - I’ve been there :smiley:

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I do outdoor stuff:

Walking
Camping
Mountain biking
Rock climbing
Swimming



Aviation geek :airplane:

That’s it really :blush:

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I Like that :slight_smile:

I’ve got too many interest, so it’s difficult to find enough time for everything, especially since I got dad.
Main things are:

  • RC Models, especially airplanes, including construction in CAD, CNC milling the parts and building/flying.
  • Brewing mead and beer:
    image
    http://brauzwerg.ch
  • Cooking
  • Running (mostly 10k, until now one time a half-marathon)
  • Motorbiking
  • Gardening
  • Edit: And i forgot one very important thing: Travelling :slight_smile: Hope it’ll be possible again soon.
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I would love to try rock climbing one day! It seems like a fun way to keep fit :smiley:

I used to build and race RC cars :video_game: always wanted to build a helicopter… though I think now it’d be more fun just getting a decent drone… wonder if we should start a thread about them :upside_down_face:

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I did literally everything in RC Modeling (ok, no real jet engine or submarine until now :smiley: ), already doing this for more than 20 years. Also cars and helicopters of course, but winged aircrafts are my main thing :slight_smile:
If you like, have a look at my “slightly” outdated webpage: http://flugmodellbau.ch/

We can start a R/C thread, then I’d share what I’m currently working on :wink:

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OMG that’s a lot faster than the ones I saw!! What kind of speeds can they reach?

Do it! :nerd_face: :+1:

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I don’t know how fast mine is, but it’s got about 2KW of electric power and more thrust than weight :smiley: And I didn’t even chose the hottest engines… So there are some that are WAY faster than this. I know that someone in germany last year finally reached the 400km/h with an electric jet, which is insane.

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I want to get into brewing my own beer as well. Any tips on where to start this journey? :smiley:

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I own a pony for 2 years now. A little icelandic gelding. Getting into horses has changed quite a lot for me. I do not ride as often as most people tho. I prefer to do walks out in nature with him, side by side.

I also recently got into house plants. Currently, I am eagerly waiting for a Monstera Minima and a Scindapsus Pictus Exotica to arrive. They got me so hyped that I ordered them last saturday morning at 3:30am. (send help … :D)

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Tips on making wine would be appreciated too if anyone has any :see_no_evil: :rofl:

Aw, that’s really nice :orange_heart:

You’ll have to post pics, haha!

I would like to start a herb garden one day…

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Hahaha, we recently bought a house and I too got way into houseplants.

This is my small setup.

We also just bought a greenhouse, but the remaining parts have yet to be delivered. :frowning_face:

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