My Hobbies and Habits
I am in general enthusiastic about exploring. I love adventure and am always eager to go on one; typically in the form of hiking and trekking. I also travel often and a bit unorthodoxically, usually venturing off alone with my backpack and my camera.
I am quite fond of photography. I am also into astronomy and own a telescope (a small 90mm Mak). I’ve been wanting to get into astrophotography but I have been busy with other things. I intend to invest more time into it soon in the future.
Other than exploration in terms of traveling, I indulge myself with random things whenever an opportunity presents itself. But I usually go in naively unprepared; like participating in random competitions I have just heard of, running marathons without having had any proper exercise in months, long bike trips on a dingy bike… you get the idea.
I’m also a total software geek. I particularly love instrumentation and I spend hours automating random things, in physical and software systems both. I used to program in C++, but for the past decade, I have been using Python and Shell scripting for just about everything. On that note, my code is usually too ambitiously generalized for its own sake.
I collect open-source software and my guilty pleasure is customizing my many devices and setups. I waste too much time coming up with scripts to create identical device and platform-agnostic configurations. Speaking of collections, I like to collect almost everything (stamps, coins, plants, pine cones, cultural memorabilia, and a lot of random things; I am a total hoarder.)
I am also a wannabe amateur Mathematician but I am better at Physics. If I wasn’t getting into neuroscience, I’d have gone for either of the two. Or maybe aerospace. I like logic puzzles a lot, especially the mathematical kind, like these. If you know any I might not have heard before, please let me know! I’ll make a list of those too, over time.
In sports, I am always up for playing football (I never say no, really!), and I like to play table tennis whenever I get a chance. I used to play competitively but haven’t in a long while. I am also good at shooting and have wondered since I was a child if I should properly pursue it as a hobby. I am not much of a swimmer but I like to surf. I am also looking forward to getting into skiing. Otherwise, I am always looking to try new sports.
I’m also a bit of a nerd. I like technology, history, philosophy, and art, and consume a lot of content on it. I have bouts of random reading where I fall into deep rabbit holes for hours and hours, and do nothing else but read and cross-check, only to then forget and read again.
I have this pattern with almost anything in my life. If it’s work, it’s work. If it’s a hobby, it’s that hobby and nothing else. I don’t get bored so easily doing the same thing over and over. I can instead get quite hooked on it.
I got into audiobooks a while back and became quite addicted to them. It’s quite easy to spend the entire day listening to them and I have often stayed up all night listening to them. So I have avoided them since.
On the topic of stories, leisure reading is mostly fiction for me. I am a fan of detective novels in particular, but I also like fantasy. I also enjoy writing letters and have had many penpals over the past years.
My other passive entertainment changes with time, I was a chronic movie addict in college and have probably watched any good movie you can think of before 2018. At that time, I also finished watching the One Piece anime and reading the then-yet-unadapted manga in just 3 months!
In music, I have a rather “narrow” taste; it’s Rock, but all kinds of Rock (other than Metal). My day-to-day music is typically limited to only a handful of songs and bands, which I untiringly listen to on repeat for months before moving to others.
I also play the Guitar. I started when I was like 12. Although, I never really practiced enough to get good at it. Other things were always in the way. I have been slowly working on changing that and lately, I have practicing singing while playing.
I also like games; all kinds of games – especially card games and board games. I know many card games but my experience with board games is limited. I also enjoy playing pool quite a bit.
I love cooking a lot too, for myself and others. I have always been vegetarian but I often go vegan in long stretches from time to time.
On that topic, I must mention that I have been taking pictures of my food, at least everything I eat in a proper meal, since late 2018 (when I first moved to Japan). My cooking is usually extensive with a ton of vegetables and condiments, and I try to serve it as fancily as possible, you know… for my picture. It takes a long time to cook this way and I know it’s not worth it but I enjoy it quite a bit. It can be an annoyance for others when I cook with friends. To add to that, I also am aversive to recipes and usually experiment a lot with ingredients.
I also usually tend to eat a lot in one sitting. I sadly often miss meals because my schedule is usually quite chaotic as I spend too much time occupied with something that delays my sleep and I even forget to eat.
That is it. I think I covered most activities I enjoy and intend to indulge in. Thanks for reading!
\( ゚ヮ゚)/