Other Interests

So, other than birds, what are your other interests?

I'm trying gardening again. I have a black thumb and I live in the desert. Double whammy.

Pretty much anything nature and animal oriented, I'm interested in. For a while I bred butterflies (anise swallowtails), but that's hard to keep up with. It was very fun and interesting.

*Photography - Nature and candid (I stink but I love it.)
*Photography - Studio (I'm not too bad)
*Digital Photo Editing (Given that I'm not great at photography, it's a good thing I'm actually pretty good at editing!)
*Computer "stuff" I don't do anything specific, but I have a knack for computers and technology and just making things "work"
*Shooting (Guns - Pistol, Rifle, and most recently Shotgun. Shotgun shooting is a BLAST! (Literally!))
*Disaster Planning and Personal Safety
*And (I hate to admit) Politics. Though for the last 18 months I've tried to avoid it due to being in school. When I get involved, I tend to get very wrapped up in it. Unfortunately, I'm not able to just "follow along."

But I've found birds give me the most joy. Shooting relieves stress. Photography and editing really appeals to my creative side, but my fids just make me feel good.

I love coffee, I used to be a barista. I've always loved the coffee culture and am a pretty big snob about it.

I also have always really been in to music- of all sorts. I play flute, piccolo, oboe, and tenor sax.

I love reading and writing, always working on something.

I also love to cook and bake. I am a southern down home cookin' kind of gal. Nothing gets too fancy here.

I can get a little heated up over politics too. I try really hard to stay out of it though, but I can have a big mouth sometimes.

Oh yeah, Julie reminded me -
I'm an incessant reader. I always forget to mention that as an interest because it's more like part of my body than something I'm interested in. I've been reading since before I started Kindergarten (according to my parents), and was reading a series of historical novels with my mom when I was in 4th-5th grade.

I also love to bake, bread mainly. I love the smell of the yeast and experimenting with different combinations of sweetener, liquid, flours, and nuts. They don't always turn out well but I always have fun!

I love music and going for random runs/walks with my headphones on.
I'm a huge skin-care fanatic, I've been researching and hoarding anti-aging products for a while now...
Oh, aquariums too. I love aquariums, have you guys ever seen Mr. Amano's aquascapes? :affraid:

http://www.adaaust.com.au/gallery/contest2009.html

GlassOnion wrote:

I love aquariums, have you guys ever seen Mr. Amano's aquascapes? :affraid:

http://www.adaaust.com.au/gallery/contest2009.html

OMG Those are absolutely AMAZING! I'd just like to be able to photograph them and hang them on my wall!

I've always liked aquariums too. My problems is that the upkeep is more than I will do. I'd forget something important, the plants would die, the fish would die, I'd cry, the kids would cry, they'd get mad, my husband would be mad because of the wasted money on the dead fish (he wouldn't care so much about the fish) ... it'd be a big 'ole mess.

But yeah, those aquariums are stunning!

EATING. I am a huge foodie. My mom is Italian, so I grew up eating all different kinds of things. Rabbit, squid, octopus, veal, and all the delicious pastas, meats and cheeses. I also love trying new things. I've been lucky enough to be able to "indulge" in some very fine foods.

I love watching movies. I'm not some casual movie watcher either. I watch a minimum of two movies a day. I'll watch anything and everything.

Reading and writing. I love the written word.

Animals. I love all living things (how hippy, eh?). I grew up on a farm, so I was always exposed to nature.

I'm also a self proclaimed feminist. I am woman, hear me roar.

- animals, animals, animals
- websites, website making(later I loose interest). The creating part is my favorite
- home decorating/designing
- a little bit gardening
- eating is maybe not my hobby but something I simply can't stop since I quit smoking

I also want to add something.

After posting in http://www.parrotparadiseforum.com/t262-so-what-do-y-all-look-like, it reminded me of one of my favorite things in the world, TRAVEL!

I've been to Italy (traveled the entire country), Germany, The Vatican, Mexico, USA, and my homeland, Canada. I haven't been to that many places, but God, do I love it!

I'm actually planning a trip right now. Back packing through South America. I am planning on volunteering at a Wildlife Sanctuary in Ecuador's part of the Amazon rainforest. Working with wild monkeys, parrots, and a bunch of neat reptiles.

Here's a link about the place: http://www.ecovolunteerup.org/info.asp?id=155&lng=en

I also want to spend a week or so in Peru. A dream of mine is to see Machu Picchu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu

Tooooo too many. I love all of my hobbies, but wish they weren't all so friggin' expensive. Lots of them get put on the back burner as a result.

- Music: My life. I sing, write and "play" a bunch of different instruments, but am only particulary skilled at guitar. I just like to dabble in the others and then throw them down in exhaustion because they sound awful I love just listening, too, though. Always looking for something different. Sounds fascinate me.
- Horses: My mom grew up loving horses but not being able to own them, so once I turned 8 I was thrown into 4H and she lived vicariously through me. Up until I graduated college I spent every waking moment at the barn and my one and only focus was making it to States that year. Growing up with the barn girls, we never understood how our older teammates would grow up and go to college and leave their horses at home and I HATE being "that girl." But I'll move back soon and be able to start showing again. Until then my mom takes my showhorse on trail rides and lets him get fat and disobedient


- Outdoors: Also my life. Mostly climbing, but I love camping, hiking, all that jazz, too. Also a big fan of ultimate frisbee, though any team sport involving balls I SUCK at. Really. All of them. I'm no good at ball-handling
- :2gunz: Recreational shooting: Kind of outdoors, I guess... but Vicki and I share a love for firearms!! I don't hunt. I don't have a problem with people who eat what they hunt and can drop it quickly without butchering it, but I don't think I could do it myself. I just shoot targets and soda cans. I have a concealed weapons permit, but the only gun hubz and I have is too bulky. This is on my wishlist, though
- Photography: As I've already whined, I have a piece of crap camera, and one day will curate myself a DSLR, but I loooove love love playing around with photos. I also dabble with bootleg copies of photoshop, but am certainly not great at it.

Alyssa - you sound EXACTLY like my sister-in-law!!! Movies and food, that is her existence, haha. Although she's a bit of a homebody, so she's not with you on the travel thingh. Those all sound like awesome travel destinations, though

LyzGrace, I'm speechless. I used was trained to ride horses when I was, hm 15 I guess. I don't know if I still remember something, probably exactly something.
Hey, we have to change you emoticon. Your look to girly :LyzGrace:

So exciting to read of everyone's hobbies!

Zaza, the rainforest adventure sounds amazing, wow! I want to visit the Amazonian forest one day.

Lyz, is shooting any fun? I'd be scared to do 'recreational shooting' in case I get REALLY angry one day..

I forgot to mention, I've been playing the piano for about 13years among a bunch of other instruments. I did quite a bit of composing a while back.
I LOVE movies, I'm a huge movie fanatic and I see myself as a bit of a film connoisseur. My dream job is to compose film scores.

If anyone's interested, this is the kind of work I do at school. I edited the special effects for the clip below *aka everything you hear is done by me*
http://vimeo.com/24287707

That is awesome Anita!!!

My husband keeps a 55 gallon aquarium. Pretty neat. It is "He-man" themed, any fellow geeks out there?

Vicki5280 wrote:

GlassOnion wrote:

I love aquariums, have you guys ever seen Mr. Amano's aquascapes? [...]

OMG Those are absolutely AMAZING! I'd just like to be able to photograph them and hang them on my wall!

I would seriously love to have something like that on the wall in my new office! The campus office auditors decided my lovely humongous window office needed to be a two person office so I'm now in a solo inside office and the big blank wall needs something colorful and pretty on it (aside from the parrot calendar I have pinned up there.)

I've always been big into horses (hi LyzGrace) and up until fairly recently I competed in Dressage and Eventing. Unfortunately, due to a bunch of things, not least the fact that my husband and I are aging (50 and 55) and that our house has lost all its value, and I had a close call this year with hours reduction, and boarding horses in urban Los Angeles is very expensive, and I've grown disenchanted with hyper-urban horsekeeping -- I'm looking to rehome my semi-retired horse and get out of riding for a while. Possibly forever. And I'm feeling pretty sad about that, although I also think it's the right thing to do, at least for a few years. Here's me a decade ago in Spain on the horse I co-owned when I lived there, and then me with Smint, in our last (schooling) show together (I'm not actually quite that ugly. Really. But it's a nice picture of Smint):


I more recently have gotten into jewelry making, you can check it out at http://www.jewelrybydeborah.com/. I use metalsmithing, polymer clay, stringing and a bit of chainmaille in my work. Mostly horse themed, but I'm thinking of branching out into parroty items.

I am a major foodie, like zazanomore, and I love to cook! I fantasize about training to do it properly, but running a restaurant would be way too much work. I love to cook Ethiopian, but I can only get people excited by that so often... I also make a mean paella:

However, since I love food and I'm not riding much anymore... my increasing tendency toward blimphood has let to an obligation if not an actual passion for exercise. I recently finished a 100 day 30-minutes-a-day challenge and I'm getting geared up to move on to a new challenge. Maybe P90x, maybe not. I am not a big running fan (my husband is, but more about that in a minute) so I need to find something that's fun for me. I am pretty into yoga (downward-facing ball-seeking parrot-slave pose anyone?) but I need to augment that.

I love travel, so it pains me that Scooter hates it when I go away. We don't have a lot of money right now for "fun travel" but I do travel often for work, so I get to scratch that itch anyway. I go to Hawaii a couple times a year, I've recently been to Boston and Seattle, I'll be going to Paris in the fall...

I have been a big reader all my life. I went to the library every single week and took a big stack home throughout my childhood. Now I do a lot of "popcorn" reading, mostly mysteries. I am quite fond of Rita Mae Brown's hunting series and her "Sneaky Pie Brown" cat mysteries. My most recent read was "Running on Empty: An Ultramarathoner’s Story of Love, Loss, and a Record-Setting Run Across America" Marshall Ulrich's memoir about his transcontinental run in 2008. It's quite approachable and enjoyable to read even if you aren't excited by running 70 miles a day every day for a couple of months. Which my husband is. You can check his antics out at http://badwaterbill.blogspot.com/ . Since I'm his crew chief, like it or no, I'll be spending a couple of weeks in Death Valley this summer watching him attempt to kill himself while trying to prevent him from actually succeeding. It's Marshall's wife Heather I identify with! Since Bill also wants to do a transcon, although at a much milder pace, say a marathon a day, I'm going to have to figure how to crew him through it with two parrots in an RV, but that's hopefully a few years away.

I used to write, both short fiction and poetry, but it's been a while since I did the all black attire coffeehouse open mike thing. Here's a Sonnet of mine.. you have to read it kind of tongue in cheek:

Quote :

I am ankle deep in a stinking bog
Which squelches, rudely pulling at my foot.
Stranded alone in so much sucking sog
I marvel at the places I've been put.

If I try to struggle against this slime
I know I shall go under with no trace
Perhaps I should surrender hope this time
And, slowly sinking, muster dying grace.

Or, maybe if I, graceless, lay me down
Immersed halfway in lukewarm reeking muck
And float, suspended, manage not to drown
I'll find myself aground on firmer luck.

If, rank and damp, I knock upon your door
Will you mind my dripping on the floor?

Hey, you know what? I've been in kind of funk for the last several months. Dredging up some things I DO has actually made me feel quite a bit cheerier!

GlassOnion wrote:

Lyz, is shooting any fun? I'd be scared to do 'recreational shooting' in case I get REALLY angry one day..

I forgot to mention, I've been playing the piano for about 13years among a bunch of other instruments. I did quite a bit of composing a while back.
I LOVE movies, I'm a huge movie fanatic and I see myself as a bit of a film connoisseur. My dream job is to compose film scores.

If anyone's interested, this is the kind of work I do at school. I edited the special effects for the clip below *aka everything you hear is done by me*
http://vimeo.com/24287707

I love shooting, I can understand that some people could find it boring, but I find it fun And yeah, I guess you gotta have a certain level-headedness... I know lotsa people I would never trust with a gun, but I was raised around them. You have to treat them with reverence or an accident is bound to happen.

That's an awesome video, too!!! I've toyed around with video editing with imovie, I have more fun with that than photo editing, but I don't have as much opportunity. I know a ton of people in school for that, though. Takes a special eye to really pull good movies together, you'll have to let us know if you finish any other interesting projects!!!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I've always been big into horses (hi LyzGrace) and up until fairly recently I competed in Dressage and Eventing.

Deborah, Smint is GORGEOUS. Dressage and eventing are actually two of the few disciplines I HAVEN'T ridden. I started hunt seat with an awful trainer (kick means go, pull means stop) and got to 3'6" rails until going to western pleasure and learned the science of performance horsemanship. Then I got incredibly bored and got into reining, so basically western dressage Now I do a little bit of reining, but mostly versatility ranchwork and cutting. Hence the fact that my horse is 14'2"... he's a sports model I miss jumping, though. One day I'd love to get on a good solid hunter now that I can appreciate what's happening under me.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I more recently have gotten into jewelry making, you can check it out at http://www.jewelrybydeborah.com/. I use metalsmithing, polymer clay, stringing and a bit of chainmaille in my work. Mostly horse themed, but I'm thinking of branching out into parroty items.

Beautiful!!! My mom would love this... I'll have to poke around

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I recently finished a 100 day 30-minutes-a-day challenge and I'm getting geared up to move on to a new challenge. Maybe P90x, maybe not. I am not a big running fan (my husband is, but more about that in a minute) so I need to find something that's fun for me. I am pretty into yoga (downward-facing ball-seeking parrot-slave pose anyone?) but I need to augment that.

Love love love love LOVE yoga. I've heard P90X is a killer, even for people who are in better shape than I am... they said they could barely make it through the warm-up!! I've been interested in trying, but I'm scared, haha. Honestly, if you do yoga frequently and get into the more ashtanga style you can be dripping in sweat by the time you're done, and I think it's so much better for your body and less risky than high-impact workouts, machines, and weights.


This is so much fun learning about everybody!! Good idea, Roz!!!

I love art! painting, drawing, sketching, you name it. I'm not actually that good at it but I do my best thinking while I'm painting. I'll fiddle at crafty things for brief periods but I never stick to anything for too long I also like writing (bad) fiction and all that. And of course reading, I have to take a walk to the library tomorrow to find some good books now that summer is here (got out of school this week, finally!). any book suggestion?
I also like outdoorsey things like kayaking, hiking, and gardening.

It's so interesting to see you all from different side, not the feathered one
ScooterNScotty remind me about Yoga.
I'm on and off with Yoga in my life. I was doing it for couple years together with my father when I was 12 maybe. There was a time, that books like that wasn't able from book store during Communism. I remember we have copied some book from somebody and we practiced every day.
Then I became teenager, so I stop practiced. I started again when I was 19 and I was vegetarian for about 2 years. Then life goes in a wrong direction and I didn't have time(always good excuse) or rather I didn't want to do it.
I started again a while after thyroid surgery in 2006 and stop practicing again.
And that's the thing I have to start doing again. It's good for both: body and mind.

I'm lovin' reading through these posts!!

Lyz, in case you're misunderstood, I don't do video editing. I do SOUND editing

I've always wanted to try yoga, but somewhere I read that yoga actually causes detrimental effects on people with psychological disorders.

GlassOnion, where it came from that fascination? Pretty original hobby
And yoga...for me on the long run it helps me to calm down and control my emotions. Breeding and exercises helped me a lot when I was "down" in my life. I really should come back to it.

"Breeding" ?

(sound design for visual media, is the college program I'm taking )

Cool thread!!

Shooting is so much fun! I don't have any personal guns, I'm not that seriously into shooting (yet ), but our .22 rifle is good enough for me for now. I cheat and use a scope... I feel all sniper though! Maybe I'll get more into shooting in the future. It's definitely a good possibility. Right now I only mention it because you all did and reminded me how fun it is.

I have so much trouble sticking with things... I'll be just enamored with some hobby for a month and then drop it in a couple days. That's kinda why I'm not a musician - I get bored before I learn how to play... I've so far owned a recorder, keyboard, and a guitar. Recorder I was something like 4 so I guess it doesn't count, but I ended up selling the guitar and the keyboard's in my room gathering dust and serving as a shelf... Writing's fun, but once I start an idea I think of another one and start that story instead Same problem as music, really.

But other people's music and writing, on the other hand! I've had my MP3 player stuck on my person almost 24/7 lately. I don't think I'm a music connoisseur or anything, but I listen to a really wide array of genres. Sample of artists on my MP3 player: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Owl City, Il Volo, Vivaldi, Jackstraws, Nickelback, Leona Lewis, and The Ting Tings.

I love books so much! If my mom didn't interrupt my reading, I'd probably starve. I get so absorbed into good books I literally forget to eat. No joke. I haven't been reading so much lately, been busy (or so I tell myself ). I generally read fantasy/sci-fi, and I also like Stephen King and Dan Brown.

moa wrote:

(...) any book suggestion? (...)

For a book suggestion, although I'm stabbing in the dark with what you'd like, I say the trilogy Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness, if you haven't read it. It's a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy in first person point-of-view. Action, suspense, technology, a tiny bit of romance. The last book gets very emotional (meaning I got sucked into the story and ended up crying... Whether they were tears of joy, sadness, shock, anger... I can't tell you, sorry ).

Other hobbies/interests of mine... Hm...
Singing (or screeching, depending on what notes I'm attempting to hit )
Videogames. I'm not an extremely intense gamer, IMO, but I've been known to go a good 6 hours straight - no, no food/water breaks, but yes, bathroom breaks - on a new computer game. Or longer, if I feel I'm *THIS* close to finishing it.
Uuurrmm.... It's random and I almost never do any more, but... I've never lost interest in the games tag and hide-and-seek. (Even though I can't fit anywhere good any more!) I can play those two games just about indefinitely and be perfectly happy

Wow... I'm kinda quirky and random.

VickiNumbers - I enjoy baking too. I thought I was pretty ok at it until I tried this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/classic-black-forest-cake-recipe/index.html
It turned out flat and inedible. You'll have to try it and tell me what I did wrong! I'm at apprx. 4,000 ft above sea level, so any hi-alt tips you can give me!

Julsie - I love my coffee, but I'm not as sophisticated as you are. Coffee for me is like doing cheap shots of Mad Dog 20 20 - It's all about the buzz!! I prefer a cup of coffee that a spoon will stand up in. He-Man themed aquarium?! You HAVE to post a pic of that!

Glass - Love those aquariums! Do you have one? What do you keep? I don't currently have one going. I used to dabble with fish keeping. I was breeding bettas, golden wonder killis, and glass tetras for a while. Yeah, I enjoy breeding stuff. It's a challenge and it's about getting them super happy and healthy so they have kids. Mesmerizing. "yoga actually causes detrimental effects on people with psychological disorders" whaaattt???

Zaza - I love food, too! Back in the day when KayLayUh was around more, we'd be in chat and she commented that whenever I left it involved food somehow - eating it or making it. Noms! That ecovolunteering stuff looks really interesting. Down near Cabo San Lucas there's opportunity to volunteer in gathering the sea turtle eggs. I would love to do that!

Lyz - Crap dude! How do you find the time to be so accomplished? Beautiful horse! Leaving your horse at home, that's not too bad; getting rid of it because you outgrew it or lost interest. . . I could never understand the mentality behind horse keeping - "Upgrade" every few years to a better horse. I mean, horses are herd animals and grow strong bonds to their owners and other herd mates. Sounds so unnatural to rehome them every few years. Love that pink gun! Now if it only had a few rhinestones. . . Despite my love of birds, I've told Evil Chicken there's a bounty on every european house sparrow she plinks off. Now don't jump to any cruelty conclusions. They're invasive and really elbowing out natives. I get migratory birds to my yard and would love to see more of them. BTW refuses to off them so the little mice on wings are still safe in my yard.

Margaret - Maybe you can do websites for people as a side line? What other animals do you like? Despite my love of animals, I just couldn't go vegetarian. I love meat too much. Bacon. . . fuggetaboutit!

S&S - I second Lyz - gorgeous horse! Maybe a feed lease to keep your horse around? Although I do understand the objection to that. I really wouldn't want anyone I don't know to be goofing with my horses. Worrying my boys wouldn't be treated "right" and strong armed since they are kinda willful (hey, they're arabs, whadya expect). You shouldn't have posted a pic of your paella. You're within driving distance. . . I'm glad this thread cheered you up a bit. Sometimes we get in a deep blue funk and don't even know it until we're right in the middle.

Moa - You'll have to do a sketch of Rainbow and show us! We went kayaking a few years ago off La Jolla here in San Diego. I used to surf the area in high school. It never occurred to me back then to look down. Kayaking, we looked down and could see a bunch of sharks. That was an interesting little epiphany for me.

Anyone who hasn't chimed in yet! Hope you do!

patdbunny wrote:

I could never understand the mentality behind horse keeping - "Upgrade" every few years to a better horse. I mean, horses are herd animals and grow strong bonds to their owners and other herd mates. Sounds so unnatural to rehome them every few years.

Unfortunately, being in the show world it happens ALL the time. I don't understand it either. My horse and I were to the point where I could do a full-on reining pattern with the reins tied to my horn and not saying a word, lead changes, sliding stops - everything (I'm sure having my mother on him for the past year or show we'd need to do some reminding ). Every rider has a different style, body, feel, and center of gravity, same with the horse. You could have a seasoned trainer and a world-champion show horse, but if you don't develop that relationship over years you could never accomplish as much.

patdbunny wrote:

Love that pink gun! Now if it only had a few rhinestones. . . Despite my love of birds, I've told Evil Chicken there's a bounty on every european house sparrow she plinks off. Now don't jump to any cruelty conclusions. They're invasive and really elbowing out natives. I get migratory birds to my yard and would love to see more of them. BTW refuses to off them so the little mice on wings are still safe in my yard.

For us back in PA it's mourning doves!!! I've never killed them, but my nana hires out my little cousins to do it, they chase away her pretty little feeder birds

patdbunny wrote:

Moa - You'll have to do a sketch of Rainbow and show us! We went kayaking a few years ago off La Jolla here in San Diego. I used to surf the area in high school. It never occurred to me back then to look down. Kayaking, we looked down and could see a bunch of sharks. That was an interesting little epiphany for me.

LOL yeah, I like to be ignorant about what's underneath me. Went kayaking in really choppy water once and there were these huge jellyfish EVERYWHERE I haven't been back there in a while...
my scanner has decided to stop working again so I'll have to take some pics of my artwork later. No surprise that birds are my favorite subjects to paint

and all you guys who can keep a fish alive for more than a week, I'm jealous. I'm a known fish killer, I gave up after fish #8 didn't make it. the koi worked out and we had them in the pond outside for quite a while until the neighborhood 'coons got hungry, they left footprints in the pond to incriminate themselves...

I have a fairly large range of hobbies and interests. Number one on my list is animals. I want to open a santuary some day and Ive grown up with ever animal imaginable.

Im also very active in the deaf community (im hard of hearing). I actually translate for the deaf when they visit my zoo.

My favorite hobbies are off roading in my truck



And I love photography (mostly natural and macro)


Im a big reader (ive read 32 novels in less than 6 months) and I love hiking and basically anything that is active.