The things I love to do. The thing that my friends love to pick on about me is how I am so evenly torn between the simple wonders of history and the awe inspiring power of modern times.  I am just as equally motivated to be on a computer coding away as I am to be at a Renaissance Festival in full garb, with no technology, laughing and being merry among close friends.  I have many interests, and I wish to lay them out here in the hopes of meeting others who are similar in ways.

Attending Renaissance Festivals

I love to attend every Renaissance Festival or event I can possibly make it to.  I love the large permanent village faires, but I also get a lot of enjoyment our of the smaller festivals in smaller communities held in parks and tents.  Some of the absolute best and most loyal friends I have ever made I met at these events.

Drumming Circles

I have a passion for music, and thus I love to attend drumming circles whenever possible.  Why drumming circles?  Because I love free expressionism in music.  I cannot read a single note of music, but I can sure play what I feel when the mood is right.  As long as the circle I am attending has rhythm, you’ll find me either slapping my drum, playing my didgeridoo, or sounding off in harmony with my recorder set.  I am also now learning the violin, which is my first attempt at a stringed instrument.

Street Busking/Entertaining

I love to sing pirate shanties, and use a personae of a bardic pirate to use the instruments I mentioned above, along with my voice, to bring smiles to people’s faces.  The great benefit of this besides bringing happiness to my environment and the people around me, is the tips I get in return.  A man’s got to eat, after all!

The Arts of Theology and Philosophy

When I was attending college, I found an addiction to my Philosophy 101 class.  This led me to also start studying theology as well, and it is common to find me posting stories or articles I have written in various blags around the internet.

Reading

I love to read.  My favorite genre is fantasy, as you can most likely tell from my list of books that I have read on the Games & Books page.

Going to Night Clubs

Many folks ask me how I can be so fit when i do not go to a gym or perform regular exercise.  One night at a club with me and you will see where my fitness comes from.  I love to go to Gothic nightclubs to dance the entire night away, and it is very common to have to catch a ride home with a friend because I am too worn out to drive.  However, it is just as common to find me being the driver as I do not drink, so I always tend to end up the designated driver.

Music

This is different from my mention above of playing music.  What I am mentioning here is my passion for listening to music.  I love everything from Celtic to Goth to EBM to irish traditional . . . ah screw it, it’s easier to say I’ll enjoy anything as long as it is NOT country or rap music.

My Cultures – Steampunk, Goth and Rennie

I love everything steampunk.  This is by far such an awesome culture.  As for the Goth crowd, I always fit in with them, and whenever I cannot be in the pleasurable environment of a Renaissance Faire, I always enjoy the fact that I can hang out with a Gothic crowd, as they are the only open minded culture in existence today besides Rennies.  By the way, in case I am losing you, a Rennie is an individual who lives a Renaissance Faire lifestyle.

Practicing My Spiritualism

I do not necessarily claim a title, but to give an idea of my belief system, I am very much a Pagan and Wiccan.  Whenever possible I use herbal healing over modern medicine, and I also use my beliefs to always keep the glass half full and not half empty (even though a systems engineer would argue the the glass is merely at 50% capacity and holding).

Ah, the Great Outdoors!

Hiking and Camping – two great loves of mine.  Having this love also makes it that much easier to be in a tent or camper when traveling the Renaissance faire circuit.  My favorite environment is always high up in a mountain range somewhere.  Endless flat land tends to get me depressed with very few exceptions, such as the beauty of the Netherlands, which is one of the only flat places I think I could stand to live in.  I also love to mountain bike on the trails across mountains.

Storm Chasing

Stop shaking your head like I am a crazy fool!  I love to chase storms with my camera and get things like tornadoes on film.  Yes, it is a bit dangerous, but as long as you study meteorology and have a good understanding of weather patterns, you can actually perform these tasks very safely.  However i will point out that if you do NOT have such understandings of weather, then do NOT try to do this yourself.

Aviation

I am currently a private pilot, and I absolutely love to fly.  I cannot put into words the way I feel when I am in the air, so as short as this paragraph is going to be, know that aviation is one of my greatest loves.

Photography & Graphic Design

I currently shoot with a Canon 5D, using various lenses and studio equipment to perform all types of image capture.  Portraits, landscapes, action and aerial photography are among my favorites.  On the graphic design end, I love using Photoshop CS6 to manipulate and alter an array of images to meet my needs and the needs of my clients.  This may sound like work, but I am putting this here on my hobbies page because it truly is a hobby I enjoy.

PC Gaming

I absolutely love playing MMORPG games online, as well as action, adventure, simulation and fantasy RPG games in single player.

Anime

I also have a passion for Anime. NO I am NOT one of those individuals where you toss out any random title or character name and I will automatically know what it is. However I am getting further and further into this fine, artistic culture of story, animation and expression. Deathnote, Bleach, and a few others have captured my attention as of late.