Hobbies

I’ve had several hobbies over the years. I used to be into video games but lost interest as I got older. I played a lot of guitar during college, then stopped when I started my career and had a kid. While my son was growing up I learned a bunch of kids songs we used to play and sing together, which was a lot of fun. Now that he’s grown I’ve been playing more. These days I play weekly with a small adult music group at the local music school, and practice now and then at home and play and sing songs for friends and family. I actually love singing and took a few voice lessons but I’m too shy to sing in public, which is something I’d like to work on. I tried an open mic recently and had terrible stage fright, but I’m told it gets easier the more you do it, so we’ll see.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved computers, programming, science and math. I love the feeling when a new concept clicks in my brain. I’m a visual learner and need to create a visual mental model to really understand something. When it works it feels amazing. I feel lucky to be able to have my favorite hobby as my career. In my down time I often just read or watch videos about algorithms, or physics or math. It must be so amazing to be a nerdy kid these days, with so much content available for free. I recently watched an entire graduate level distributed systems course from MIT and did the labs. It’s pretty wild.

My favorite non-work hobby these days is road cycling. I picked it up about 15 years ago when Rob, a 65 year-old friend I played soccer with invited me out for a ride. It happened to be a time when roading riding was really picking up in popularity so I was a member of the local cycling club during a period when it grew from a few dozen to over three hundred members. I have fond memories of those days. I got to a level where I could do 100-mile plus rides and ride in a couple of club races. I remember thinking I’d be happy if I could keep riding into my sixties like my friend Rob.

Where I live now isn’t an ideal area for road riding but I still ride at least twice a week during the riding season with a dedicated group. Whenever I get the chance to travel somewhere I can ride, that’s my ideal vacation. Around here I’ve gone on road cycling vacations to Victoria and Penticton. Last spring I got to ride around Bedouin in southern France and climbed Mt. Ventoux, one of the iconic climbs in the Tour de France. A friend and I are already planning to go to Penticton with a team of fast riders for the Granfondo. I’m just hoping I can keep up. I don’t have any big European trips planned right now but I hope to get back there next riding season.

One hobby I wish I had was songwriting. I picked up Jeff Tweedy’s book about songwriting and it has a bunch of ideas on how to get started, so we’ll see. I noticed that I get bored playing other people’s songs on the guitar over and over, and I think writing my own songs would be a way to keep things interesting. I have no need to perform, but writing some simple songs that tell some personal stories is an appealing idea. The book is mostly about how to find the words for songs as opposed to the music. Making music is easy according to Jeff, anyone can do it by just banging out a few notes on the piano or guitar. So what am I waiting for?