Hobbies

Many of my hobbies have tended to be about things which were also my job at IBM. Guess that makes me pretty lucky and it sure added a lot of fun to my work. Technical things have been of interest to me for as long as I can remember. Chemistry sets, erector sets, junior scientist things, ham radio, flying, and just about any new technology that has come along.

I came up with a technique for attaching twine to the inside of a wooden container in such a way that when the container was full of cardboard you could release the twine, tie it up tightly, and lift the bundle out intact and it was ready for the recycling center. I did a patent search and found nothing like it but when I found the cost to file I decided to think about something else.

I have to admit I spend a great deal of my time using computers and on the Internet. You can see what computer hardware and software I used some years ago when this page was first written if you are interested. I have gone 100% Apple since and there is a lot in the blog about the iPad, in particular. I will update the hardware and software section when I get a chance.

Other hobbies I spent many hours on in years past but that have gone a bit dormant include experimenting with music synthesis, Linux, and GPS. GPS is commonplace now but it was geeky in the early days. The Global Positioning System is another area I find really fascinating. For Christmas a few years ago, some friends gave me a Garmin GPS 40. That got me started. There is a great deal of interesting information on GPS online. I have included GPS coordinates of the places I have visited recently on my travel.

A major area of interest to me has been music. I have a music section in my Favorite Places but also have a dedicated Music page with some of my own music. I also like to read books and there is more about that in the favorites section. The hobby that helped me stay in shape (but also wore out my knees) is running. Last but not least, I still spend quite a bit of time riding motorcycles.