I see we have members from all over the world in our tiny little group. We’re actually quite diverse.
I thought it’d be nice to see a little beyond the XO personas we have, if you’re comfortable with that. I know some folks aren’t and that’s fair.
Otherwise… so… outside of this game, what have you done for fun, lately?
No one-upsmanship, please… just sharing a little window into our worlds.
I’ll start with this:
Not far from where we live is Road Atlanta. It’s a road race course that hosts all sorts of events. I love it, and have even gotten to ride in a few races as a passenger & drive it in a race car. Tons of fun! A few weeks ago, I took my kids to the NASA (National Auto Sports Association, I think) races. It’s an amateur racing organization, which is more fun than the pro stuff because you get to walk around the paddocks, meet the drivers, sit in the cars, and maybe… just maybe… ride in one.
This is a Caddy CTS zipping along.
The mix of cars is sometimes hilarious… how about an antique Mustang, newer Camaro & an old Miata? That Mustang reminded me of the time I got my date drunk & took her dancing… she was all over the place!
I’m not much of a picture takin type person irl. my “for fun” tends to involve heavy equipment and lots of water, so, phones and cameras just get in the way, and are at risk of breaking. All that’s to say I love going gold prospecting. I used to record it lots years ago but, as mentioned, phones and cameras break and I’m not made of money. Not yet! When I find that gold nugget, I’ll let y’all know!
Karaoke and shooting pool are my favorite weekly getaways. Singing mostly rock, ranging from Zeppelin, Billy Idol, Pink Floyd to newer bands from the 90s/2000s like Korn, Seether, Modest Mouse, The Killers, STP, Peral Jam, etc. I mix it up with the occasional Eminem song or Gin and Juice, with my lone country song being Ol’ Red. But yep, once a weekend, youll find me playing for 5 or 10 on the table and rocking the crowd out in between. Im in my 30s, no kids yet.
Hahaha, imma karaoke this week-end. Not particularly my passion, I’d rather sing with my bass in hand, but a man’s gotta do concessions to find a mate (^:
But holy crap, you can still sing Plant’s lines in your thirties? ^_- Even he gave up way earlier than that
Gold prospecting with heavy equipment? Okay, what equipment are we talking about? There was a “Mini-Gold-Rush” here in Georgia before the big rush out West. So, we have defunct gold mines around with touristy gold mine activities for the kiddos… panning for gold & the like. Of course, no one every actually finds gold, but whatever. There was never much here.
What’s the “heavy equipment?”
Get started man! You don’t wanna be like me popping out babies at 41!
If it wouldn’t get me divorced, I’d share a video I have of my wife singing Linkin Park years ago at Karaoke. Full on screaming the “shut up when I’m talking to you” line.
We own stock in a Miata company (Flyin’ Miata) and my wife runs purchasing, so we are all about the Miatas. Turbo Kits are our thing, and we have even been featured on an episode of Top Gear competing against a Posche a few years back. We got the better review too.
That’s my son and the former owner of Flyin’ Miata (Bill) on track day. At the time of this picture, that car was the Boss’s car. He gave us a sweet-heart deal on it when he sold the company and retired. Now it’s my son’s car.
As for me, I was a biker, but my life is mostly over and that’s why I do this game. If I still had a life it’d be alone on some Highway out in the middle of nowhere, chugging along on my Vulcan 1600.
I like Karaoke too, but despite my roots being in Heavy Metal, my aptitudes are for Country and George Jones and Randy Travis are the ones I can nail pretty good. I can’t help it if my balls hang low.
We are about to start “Summer Camp” here in Colorado. That’s where our company invites Miata owners from all over the world to come hit the track and tour our beautiful mountains. For about a week this little town will be crawling with Miatas. They come from literally everywhere, from Canada to Australia, all walks of life. It reminds me a lot of a well groomed version of a Bike Club the way they all fanatically pamper and customize their cars, hug each other, and like to let the top down and feel that wind in their face as they cruise about the US countrysides in packs. The Brotherhood is palpable. Kids love their Miatas.
Car guys are almost always cool… the NASA and SCCA events are always filled with guys who are super excited to share & talk about their cars… or hats… or good coffee… LOL The Miata is just cool because it lowers the $$$ threshold significantly.
in quotations works perfectly, as I was being hyperbolic, just your usual shovels, prybars, pickers and such, but about 60-70 lbs worth in and hanging from the backpack. But I stay off the tourist trap trail and forge up the river, and falling into a dredged hole is not unheard of.
I can absolutely nail ‘Going to California’ and ‘Hey, Hey, What Can i Do?’. I can sing ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ and ‘Stairway to Heaven’ very well. But the first two are showstoppers.
Im with you tho, ive landed more girls and girlfriends singing than any other avenue of courting that ive tried.
I always think of the song ‘Short Skirt, Long Jacket’ by Cake with the line that goes, “at CitiBank, we’ll meet accidentally. We’ll start to talk when she borrows my pen…”
I dabble in knifemaking and leatherwork. Not much good with the knives (and worse at taking their photos), but here’s one where I unintentionally thought myself how to do a taper grind (taper isnt shown in photo…idk how to photograph the knife’s spine without it losing focus):
Was going for a hollow grind at first, decided to stop using a pedestral grinder for such purposes and made the switch to a cheap belt sander and decided to go for an (attempt) at a full flat grind. Hollow>Flat results in a nice taper I discovered, although it’s not at all needed for a blade this small. (lil EDC 3 finger knife)
1084 steel with black linen Micarta handles.
I’m now working on a Kiridashi. The belt grinder I have is a cheapo 1x30 Harbor freight model so I’m refining the grinds (as the grinder doesnt get them as flat as I’d like) with a extra coarse grit DMT hone. (blade has been hardened so files wouldn’t work for this) I probably shoud’ve gotten a extra extra coarse gritsize instead as that’s specifically for stock removal, but this is working too, just slowly.
That Mustang reminded me of the time I got my date drunk & took her dancing… she was all over the place!
