Hobbies ... what do you enjoy besides football?

[playzwtrux]

I have been asked many times about my screen name, so I thought that I would explain it, show you what I do in my spare time, and ask you all a question.
Ox says that he pictures me as a teenager because of my name, but I'm actually in my early 40's.
20+ years ago I was into radio controlled (R/C) cars & trucks. At that time forums were starting to pop up and I was searching for a screen name. A friend of mine & I were talking about it and he suggested plays with trucks, and after some slight modification playzwtrux was conceived.

Let me take a moment though to travel back in time to lay the ground work. When I was a young lad one of my favorite past times was to build scale models (1/24 & 1/25th scale). Back then I would build anything; planes, tanks, cars, trucks, sci-fi, etc... about the only thing I haven't built are figures, as I cannot stand small parts that takes copious amounts of time to complete.
I continued to build up until the late 90's when I married and started to have kids. At that point, free time became scarce, and I felt like I needed to concentrate on work and family. I did build off and on during my married years, but not very much, or very often. It would take me years to complete a build due to time constraints. When my X & I separated I felt like I wanted to remember who I was and what I enjoyed doing, so one of the first things I explored was building. That was in late 2012. I started looking around on YouTube and found a community with other builders that I could learn from and a few were encouraging new people to shoot some videos and share their builds. The playzwtrux named had been well establihed by this time and I felt it would be easier to continue its use than to start a fresh. Plus, who wants a bunch of online identites (alias') to remember, besides ox that is.

I have a Facebook page that I post pictures of my builds on and a YouTube channel that I upload videos to. For videos, I mostly do one shot and live with the results. I am working to improve the video quality, and content, but won't allow it to consume a large amount of my time. I likely won't be investing a bunch of money into equipment either. It's just a fun hobby and I intend to keep it that way. If it gets to where it's not fun anymore, I will stop and move on to something else.

Here are links to both sites. Yes, that's me, and yes, I do have a strong accent, and maybe not the best looking face, but it's mine.
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/truxcustomz/
YouTube:
https://youtube.com/user/playzwtrux

So, now you know more about me, what hobbies do you enjoy that you would like to share?

 

[bradgator2]

Is watching porn considered a hobby?

 

[Durty South Swamp]

Is watching porn considered a hobby?

depends on if you enjoy it...

 

[GatorBart]

Cool hobby trux!

Mine are:
Beer - I brew it, buy it, share it, receive it, drink it, puke it - anything else?
Weed - I buy it, I smoke it, smoke it, smoke it and smoke it - maybe I should grow it?
Sex - I like it any which way (with my wife), I have it (but never enough - typical guy), I don't buy it
The sport of the moment - you name it, I'll watch it - especially if any Gator team is on.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

Run/Swim/Cycle, done a few half ironmans, one day id like to do a full. I also build custom bolt action rifle systems.

Up until recently my other main hobby was offshore fishing but I sold my rig when we found out we were expecting, not because momma said so or b/c we needed the money but b/c I knew I wouldn't spend enough time on it for the next few years to justify keeping it. Momma was actually upset about us selling it. We'll eventually buy another one when my son is a few years old but for now there's just no time for boating and fishing. When I do buy a new one its gonna have fuel injection for sure. I had a 200 merc offshore series that ran great, but mixing fuel and oil on a 2 stroke gets old over time.

 

[t-gator]

Is watching porn considered a hobby?

Man i hope so

 

[t-gator]

Pretty cool trux. You seem to be pretty good at it man.

 

[MJMGator]

Bart has the funniest hobbies.

 

[Gatorhunter]

Homebrew, Hunting, fishing and some woodwork (not like brad is referring to).

 

[bradgator2]

Well, let's see. I've shared some of these photos before. Back in college, I started skydiving. UF had a real club called the Falling Gators and we'd we beg for money from the University. Which, of course, they always threw us some bones. After college, it went from a hobby to an obsession, to almost a 2nd time job. There is a league in this country of formation skydiving (http://www.omniskore.com/comp/2015/2015USPANSC/main_4-WayVFSOpen.shtml). I started a team and we competed nationwide. On a good training weekend, we'd make 25-30 jumps. Here's a pic of one of my first teams just leaving the aircraft (Twin Otter), I'm at 12 oclock.

A different pic, from below:

Once you do it for years and years. You start to push the envelope. Jumping out of the biplane was incredible:

Then... hot air balloons:

To finally... jumping off bridges:

BASE jumping is what finally scared me out of it. I watched too many friends die. (oddly enough... I am entertaining the idea of hang gliding lessons here in central fl. You get towed up by an ultralight)

And then I got married.

When I had kids, golf was my game, 3-4 times a week. A leading golf instructor in the world is in Ocala, and I was seeing him weekly. I was consistently shooting 78-80. Then the kids got older, I ran out of free time, and I realized I got fat.

So now, it's living a healthy lifestyle, eating right, and running that are my hobbies. I run, alot. I am obsessed with nutrition. I make exceptions to the healthy part and drink things that are brewed. Or fermented. Or distilled. But besides that....

 

[URGatorBait]

Brad bragging about his money

 

[bradgator2]

I expect to live longer than all the poor, lazy, dumb bastards. And I would like to volunteer to pay more in taxes and give up some benefits in order for them to make those bad choices.

 

[SGG]

I coach youth sports; football, baseball and (sometimes)softball.

Probably my favorite thing to do, and most rewarding, too.

I also play guitar, write music, play drums, sing a little. Not particularly good at any of those things, but I enjoy it.

I've played a few acoustic shows locally, nothing crazy, but gets you a free tab at a lot of places.

As a much more part time hobby, I work on small engines some (ATV's, Scooters, Motorcycles, etc).

I'll buy them on Craigslist and repair them, then resell.

 

[TLB]

TLB is short for TheLoveBandit, a name given to me in High School (GHS!) under the premise my lack of girlfriends was due to me smooching all the girls. It was a half insult, but I took it and ran. I don't recall why I shortened it to TLB on here, and perhaps on the previous site, however I've always wanted to strongly protect my real life from my online life so I use TheLoveBandit for my online persona everywhere and never connect it to my real life. There have been some online communities (see Drugs below) where I meet up with people - meet me, you get to know the real me (and my real name), but then I ask you keep it off the web. I set up a facebook acct under the TheLoveBandit name, mostly to claim it so nobody else would. I get pissed at my wife when she posts family pictures on her facebook that include me. (Yes, my TLB acct and hers are linked).


Hobbies:

Soccer: I played soccer competitively thru HS and club but recreationally thereafter (Engineering >> Soccer in college). Highlight - Sr. year at GHS we made the first Elite 8 in school history. In college my intramural team won all-campus the year I played. I stopped playing between ages 25 and 40, then joined an over 40 league for a bit until I was kindly not included on the invite for the next season. I'm hoping to get in shape and play again later this year, perhaps indoor first, since that is year round with recreational co-ed leagues to ease my way back in.

Computers: Was taught to build them when I was 19, and have built my own ever since. Started programming when I was 11 (TRS-80 and IBM PC Jr), and have always enjoyed spending time on computers, systems, etc. That led to the following:

Drugs: Curiosity growing up led to trying weed (didn't do anything for me), which led to ecstasy (very enjoyable in moderation) and nitrous (I had a problem), which led to an online community similar to this but focused on drug use and harm reduction. I rose from lurker, to member, to moderator, to administrator, to co-owner of the site. My personal drug use was very limited, but the biggest thing I enjoyed from the decade long experience was the interaction with other people (odd, given my aversion to social settings). I loved the fact that I made friends around the world, from all walks of life and from a wide variety of races, religions, etc. It was a real melting pot of minds, and I had access to any kind of 'expert' help for any kind of situation - real life or online. I loved the power of networking, I loved the ability to see a need with one person and connect them to the experience in another person. Additionally, I learned from the challenge of staff management and development, policy making and implementation, as well as the global legal issues associated with an online community of drug users. My drug use is easily 10-12 yrs behind me, and my involvement with that community has faded as well in the past 5 yrs.

Golf: Never had an interest until I was living in Ohio and had (cheap) courses everywhere. Married with no kids led to playing 2-3 times per week and getting decent (90-100). That lasted about 3 yrs, then kids arrived. I will say I started playing in an office league solely to force myself to be social and work on my real world networking, but it grew to where I actually enjoyed playing, and still do. For the last decade, I'm lucky to play 18-27 holes a year.



My time now is extremely limited, given a 75 miles commute each way for work on either end of a 9-10 hr work day. Kids are my priority, so I give them an hour at night (I leave before they wake up and get home close to their bedtime) and whatever we can do on weekends. I've tried to lose weight and set a better example for them, which led to monthly family 5k runs last fall. However a broken foot over Christmas has led to regaining weight and no running for me. Next month we should be back on the program for diet and exercise and monthly family 5ks, and I hope to be ready for my first half marathon this summer.

 

[MidwestChomp]

This past year I started refinishing furniture as a side business. My wife and I find thrift store, garage sale, and street freebies and make them look good again. I plan on starting to build some in the next few months. I'm a house DIYer (we have an old 1940s house that needs improvements). I just build a closet in our finished attic. I love working with noisy power tools.

I play rec league basketball with some guys at work from November through March. I also play adult pick up soccer in the summer months. I love biking. We got a trailer bike for my 4 year old and she loves it. My town of Decorah, IA has an 11 mile bike trail around the city.

If my knees weren't almost shot I would pick up running again. I am picking up cross country skiing again.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

wow, TLB's a stoner, who knew?

 

[Durty South Swamp]

brad is my hero!

 

[Zambo]

I play with trucks too but they are full sized.


Before I started the truck thing I was into golf. I finally hit an even par 72 and promptly hung up the clubs. Now I play maybe once or twice a year.

When I was in the Marines I played guitar in a band, mostly rock cover songs. I sang lead vocals on about a third of our sets.

Other than trucks I spend a lot of time helping my wife on projects around the house. We like to take old things like doors or cabinets or wrought iron and turn them into functional art.

 

[TLB]

...We like to take old things like doors or cabinets or wrought iron and turn them into f'king art.

Sorry, I misread that last bit. I do appreciate things that are 'functional' too.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I play with trucks too but they are full sized.

#68 Lord Humungus, huh? That reminds me, my favorite hobby is 68.... or 69.

That's a damn cool video. If you guys didnt watch it, you should.

I'm surprised you were flying that USMC flag. I've heard rumors that the Mex authorities don't like it much, Halls of Montezuma and all.

Is that an old 1008 with a short bed?

I'd love to do it in one of these: