I've been changing the About page on this site a little recently. Changing the wording of some of the sentences, stuff like that. I have also been listing some of my new or rekindled interests. Doing that, it made me think about how it would be nice to talk about them some more and why I like them. And there is a lot to go over. I will also rank them by how invested I am in the subject.
Typewriters have such a vibe to them. I like the noise they make. Right now I have five typewriters. All of them free, to me at least. Some of them have crazy acquiring stories, like me finding my grandparent's typewriter in a thrift store after a year. Another one I recieved a phone call tip that there was one sitting out in the open at a donation box. The other three were gifts. They were fun to take to school and act like I was a time traveler or something. Letting other people type on them and stuff. I hardly ever really get them out of their cases these days however.
I have a bunch of pens. A lot of the reason I am in to pens is due to school. When I was in high school, I was in a lot of classes that make you take notes on paper. It was actually kind of wasteful when you think about it, considering we had Chromebooks that we could've typed stuff on. But anyways, I was taking lots of notes, and I was using normal ballpoint pens and the like. I had to to write past because I had to transcribe the notes from Powerpoints up on the board to the paper. And the teachers always went too fast for people. I was writing fast as possible. Eventually my hand starting hurting because of it. So I started researching what do I need to get to stop my hand from hurting. Lots of websites mentioned fountain pens. Saying it was a better style of writing stuff down. So I went ahead and got the only fountain pen worth a damn from the local Office Supply. A Pilot Metropolitan. And it turns out the websites were right! I do prefer the experience of writing with a fountain pen over, say, a mechanical pencil or ballpoint pen. You don't have to put much pressure at all on a fountain pen due to a thing called capillary action. It's said that on a properly tuned fountain pen, you actually don't even to press down on it at all for ink to come out. Just gliding around the paper is enough. So switching to this style of pen did really help me out. I started off with that Metropolitan. It might have been a little less practical due to it being a capped pen, but I liked it. Then I dropped it and broke it. Then I found a fountain pen with a click button like normal pens. That sucker is super practicle, and my pen that is always full of ink. Now I have a few, some working and some broken, and nice accessories like a pen case. If you switch to a fountain pen, expect to get compliments from your friends. They can be a little messy, however, so be careful.
I also have a bunch of promotional pens from places. Senior year of high school, we had a college fair. I got as many free pens as I could, haha. They are all shoved in my desk now not being used. I like adding more to the collection every now and then.
Now that I am out of school, I don't write as much. Meaning that I have less reason to be super-into fountain pens. If I had wrote this like a year ago, they would be higher up the list.
I got a suitcase record player for Christmas one year, and I've liked them ever since. In the words of Marge Simpson, "I just think they're neat." Through various means I have expanded my collection. About half of the collection is from my family. My favorite record is a copy of the Everly Brothers "A Date With The Everly Brothers" from 1961. So retro. So vintage. I feel like I would listen to my records more often if I had a more sophisticated player. Get me some thrift store hifi setup going on.
A vintage Buddy Holly record is still at large...
The much more frequent way I listen to music is Spotify. I like discovering tracks, and organizing my playlists. I used to just listen to my favorites, but that has it's drawbacks. It can be jarring going from 50's doowop music to Queen or something. Now I have playlist for different genres and moods. I am listening to it while I am writing this, actually.
Guns are cool. They go bang. I have some. But I've never actually shot any of my guns before, weirdly enough. I guess I am a gun poser. I don't have the kind of land available to just go shooting whenever. I'd have to go pay a shooting range. I would like to have a civil war rifle some day.
Knives are a good collectible. They can also be practical. Whenever I am doing something and I need to cut a thing, I get a sense of satisfaction out of using my trusty knife.
I was a serious Hot Wheels kid. I had a stockpile of them. Raced them all. Even the ones that were supposed to be more of small models got raced. There is so many cars out there. Many different applications. I like off roaders. I like race cars. I really like the designs of cars as well. The muscle cars of the 60's and 70's. Sleek supercars. But I really like American cars of the 1950's. Owning a 1958 Plymouth or similar Forward Look Chrysler Corporation car is on my bucket list. Just driving around listening to old music in my old car. That sounds chill as fuck. I do actually have an old car right now, a Squarebody truck. It's been a bit of a handful, so I'm gonna try and sell it and get something a litlle newer. If I get an old car in the future, I'm gonna be sure that it's not my main car.
I like trains just a little more than cars right now. Usually they are tied with cars, or at the bottom of the list when I don't care about trains. But I am on a bit of train kick currently. I really like the idea of something that can be used a lot for a long time. There are trains that have gone millions of miles. There are locomotives that are from the 1800's that are still working and pulling trains. You gotta respect the hustle of a train. They are engineering successes. Personally, I am a bit of a steam loco guy over diesel or electric, but they are all cool.
I even have a very small three rail O Scale layout. Most of it is thanks to my grandpa. He bought it for me when I was a little kid. I got the pieces out of storage, and now it's permanently set up on top of a bunk bed. It doesn't have any cool little buildings or anything, but watching the train go round and round at speed is enough for me.
My current hyperfixation. Everyday, I am Reddit looking at cool boot pics. The different configuration that are available. Boots were sort of my entryway for the broader topic of fashion. I have some cowboy boots, but I'm stupid and keep buying wrong sizes. I think that whenever I find boots that really fit the kind of walking I do, and that actually fit me, I'll be less interested in them. But right now they are on the higher end of the ranking.
It's a sport that I actually like playing! Well, besides wrestling, but wrestling is way less accessible and I kinda sucked at it. But yeah, Pickleball. You get to play with your friends, or meet new people.
Love me some good vidya. But I think I have to branch out soon to avoid getting bored. I have a lot of Rockstar Games games, and a lot of car games. Gotta switch it up.
I have kept the internet posted about myself for like 5 years now. It's a major stress reliever. I have met some awesome people through this hobby. And I like seeing what other people create on the web. Not sure what else I can say.
I like upgrading my computer to acheive higher FPS and graphics. I've recently also got into the sound part of things as well, finding a sound setup that was hidden in plain sight in our house. I strapped that sucker to my computer, and now I can listen to music real good now. I build my desk around my computer, adding monitors and different peripherals. Hell, I've a got a Nintendo Wii at my desk now. Factoring in that my computer also facilitates the enjoyment of my other hobbies like music, gaming, and webdev, I think it is right that it's at the top of the list.
I like vintage technology as well [ex. typewriters].