General Hobbyist Thread

[bluto]

The idea for this thread is to both be a meta hobby thread which jumps off into existing hobby threads that are already in here (music, fishing, etc...) as well as to perhaps spark some new ones. It may also help you become better acquainted with some of the posters that you've "known" for many years.

So basically just start by listing your hobbies and interests. You never know who may be lurking here who wants to talk about your classic Lego sets or whatever.

 

I'm Into:

• all things motorcycle. Currently still on my Indian Roadmaster, but have owned and ridden all types and sizes of bike. I have taught and trained about a dozen riders over the years and am happy to give advice on how to start out safe and smart. I am Pres of my riding chapter which has a worldwide affiliated chapter system.
• EDC (Every Day Carry), I spend way too much money refining the common items that I have with me every day. (for those unfamiliar with EDC, think wallet, watch, keys, pocket knife, multi tool, etc)
• sports wise, obviously the Argonauts are my passion but I am also a long suffering Leaf fan. As discussed elsewhere, I'm also a 28+ year supporter of Manchester City (the only club in Manchester).
• I am a long time member of a fraternal order which is known and meets around the world.
• I own a large (and busy) auto repair facility, so any questions about cars or small businesses are welcome
• Musically, I mostly listen to post-punk, new and classic southern rock, grunge era and classic metal. But I was a radio jock for nearly 7 years and have an appreciation and some knowledge for all types/styles/formats.

 

That about does it for me. Looking forward to seeing what you guys do when you aren't busy fretting over who your favorite CFL club may draft in the 4th round for depth.

 

 

[SpeedFlex27]

I used to do a lot more physical stuff when I was younger. Until arthritis caught up with me as did surgeries in my right shoulder, both knees & both feet took away just about everything I used to do. Like a lot of fishing in the White Shell, Lake Of The Woods, Quesnel Lake at Caribou Lodge east of Bissett, MB (we just called it Caribou Lake back in the day), along the Winnipeg River at Pointe Du Bois & the Lake Manitoba Narrows. Then I moved to Calgary in 1990 & that was it for fishing for me. I never got into fly fishing.

Used to do a lot of curling in Manitoba at the Fort Rouge Curling Club. Curled here in Calgary at the Calgary Curling Club until I physically couldn't do it anymore because of arthrtitis. I haven't thrown a rock since 2009. Golf same. Not for at least 20 years. I loved to golf, fish & curl. I also used to run but that ******* arthritis took running from me too.

I do have some CFL collectibles. I'm trying to collect more much to my wife's angst as she keeps telling me I'm too old to do that we must downsize because once she retires in 4 years she wants to sell the house & buy a condo...

 

Edited March 13 by SpeedFlex27

[itchy]

I'm President of a Beer collectibles club, with a basement full of stuff.

I mostly collect beer tap handles and have about 450 displayed, along with neon and LED signs, tin signs, rare bottles, keg fridge- anything beer or Crown Royal related. I also have 7 arcade machines and a virtual pinball machine down there.

Needless to say, a popular place for poker nights or family get togethers. 

[bluto]

7 minutes ago, itchy said:

I'm President of a Beer collectibles club, with a basement full of stuff.

I mostly collect beer tap handles and have about 450 displayed, along with neon and LED signs, tin signs, rare bottles, keg fridge- anything beer or Crown Royal related. I also have 7 arcade machines and a virtual pinball machine down there.

Needless to say, a popular place for poker nights or family get togethers. 

I bet it is! I find myself wanting to have a cold one there!

 

EDIT: which arcade games?

Edited March 13 by bluto

[Goalie]

I have one arcade and it’s the one every wrestling fan wants. Wrestlefest. There was an old arcade at my lake that went out of business about 20 years ago now and I got wrestlefest from them for free. 

[bigg jay]

My main hobby/interest is anything related to fighting.

I was a fan of wrestling and boxing as a kid and my favorite hockey players were always the enforcers. Dave Semenko was a cousin so as a kid in the early 80's that was a huge deal and probably influenced a lot of my interests.  When the UFC came around in the early 90's, I was obsessed with that and eventually turned it from an interest to a paying side gig.

I started out working behind the scenes for a local MMA promotion before getting hired by our provincial commission.  I worked my way up to being a fight judge (mma, boxing, kickboxing), to a level that had me travelling across the country, working for the biggest promotions (UFC, Bellator).  The pandemic has really changed the industry though (it's basically dead in the prairies at the moment) so I'm back to being a fan mostly now but hopefully one day things will pick up again.  

[SpeedFlex27]

1 minute ago, bigg jay said:

My main hobby/interest is anything related to fighting.

I was a fan of wrestling and boxing as a kid and my favorite hockey players were always the enforcers. Dave Semenko was a cousin so as a kid in the early 80's that was a huge deal and probably influenced a lot of my interests.  When the UFC came around in the early 90's, I was obsessed with that and eventually turned it from an interest to a paying side gig.

I started out working behind the scenes for a local MMA promotion before getting hired by our provincial commission.  I worked my way up to being a fight judge (mma, boxing, kickboxing), to a level that had me travelling across the country, working for the biggest promotions (UFC, Bellator).  The pandemic has really changed the industry though (it's basically dead in the prairies at the moment) so I'm back to being a fan mostly now but hopefully one day things will pick up again.  

UFC would still be big on the prairies, wouldn't it? I mean. their PPV's are always a huge success. Quick question, does Mike Tyson have a chance against Luke Paul on July 20th? Should any State or Provincial Boxing Association sanction a fight between a 29 year old & a 58 year old?

[bigg jay]

Just now, SpeedFlex27 said:

UFC would still be big on the prairies, wouldn't it? I mean. their PPV's are always a huge success. Quick question, does Mike Tyson have a chance against Luke Paul on July 20th? Should any State or Provincial Boxing Association sanction a fight between a 29 year old & a 58 year old?

I was referring to live events, not PPV.  There are no active local promotions in Saskatchewan or Manitoba - Alberta does have a few promotions but not at the pre-pandemic levels.  The UFC has come back to Canada a couple times now but even that is not the same as before.  They were coming up here 2-4 times a year prior to 2020. 

Anyone (especially a Mike Tyson) has a punchers chance but Paul is the heavy favorite for a reason.  A responsible commission is most likely not sanctioning that fight but too many aren't overly concerned with fighter safety.  There's politics involved in that stuff though. A lot of the time, the financial benefits for state/city hosting an event like that will over-ride other issues - it's big business. 

[Brandon]

9 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

UFC would still be big on the prairies, wouldn't it? I mean. their PPV's are always a huge success. Quick question, does Mike Tyson have a chance against Luke Paul on July 20th? Should any State or Provincial Boxing Association sanction a fight between a 29 year old & a 58 year old?

MMA/UFC was hot in Winnipeg but I believe after the incredibly dull UFC 161 it burned the city.   The 2nd time they came back the ticket sales were terrible and they had to paper the show to help fill up the place.     UFC will never come back to Winnipeg.      

Locally we had shows but it is far to expensive to run shows at the Convention Center or the arena.   You can still watch amateur fights but it's not quite the same.     

Mike Tyson/Jake Paul is more then likely fake/fixed similar to some of Paul other previous fights.  I would not watch this without expecting it to be a spectacle.  

1 hour ago, itchy said:

I'm President of a Beer collectibles club, with a basement full of stuff.

I mostly collect beer tap handles and have about 450 displayed, along with neon and LED signs, tin signs, rare bottles, keg fridge- anything beer or Crown Royal related. I also have 7 arcade machines and a virtual pinball machine down there.

Needless to say, a popular place for poker nights or family get togethers. 

Pictures?   

Also did you DIY the Virtual Pinball machine?  I was planning on make one and wasn't sure if it was worth going all out with the shakers and the IR sensors that detect where you are standing to help give the 3d perspective on the play field.   

[bigg jay]

1 minute ago, Brandon said:

MMA/UFC was hot in Winnipeg but I believe after the incredibly dull UFC 161 it burned the city.   The 2nd time they came back the ticket sales were terrible and they had to paper the show to help fill up the place.     UFC will never come back to Winnipeg.      

Locally we had shows but it is far to expensive to run shows at the Convention Center or the arena.   You can still watch amateur fights but it's not quite the same.     

Mike Tyson/Jake Paul is more then likely fake/fixed similar to some of Paul other previous fights.  I would not watch this without expecting it to be a spectacle.  

They were set run another show in Saskatoon in June of 2020 (even though their first show only there had like 7k in the crowd).  They aren't (or weren't at least) against returning to a city that wasn't a smash hit the last time.

That being said, unless things change, most smaller cities in Canada are going to be off their list.   Now that they've been running their smaller shows in their Apex Center, they don't really have a need to travel for their Fight Night events.  it's much cheaper and easier (logistically) to have those shows there.  They're only doing the odd smaller event outside of Vegas which pretty much takes places like Saskatoon or Winnipeg out of the running.  

There are new laws in place in Manitoba which allows amateur MMA (previously not sanctioned but fights still happened).  Hopefully we can get some promoters here to start following the Alberta/BC model that has been very successful out there - a mainly amateur card but headlined with 2-3 pro fights.  It helps keeps the costs down for promoters by only having to pay a few fighters and gives fans some higher lever fights to watch.

[SpeedFlex27]

3 hours ago, bigg jay said:

They were set run another show in Saskatoon in June of 2020 (even though their first show only there had like 7k in the crowd).  They aren't (or weren't at least) against returning to a city that wasn't a smash hit the last time.

That being said, unless things change, most smaller cities in Canada are going to be off their list.   Now that they've been running their smaller shows in their Apex Center, they don't really have a need to travel for their Fight Night events.  it's much cheaper and easier (logistically) to have those shows there.  They're only doing the odd smaller event outside of Vegas which pretty much takes places like Saskatoon or Winnipeg out of the running.  

There are new laws in place in Manitoba which allows amateur MMA (previously not sanctioned but fights still happened).  Hopefully we can get some promoters here to start following the Alberta/BC model that has been very successful out there - a mainly amateur card but headlined with 2-3 pro fights.  It helps keeps the costs down for promoters by only having to pay a few fighters and gives fans some higher lever fights to watch.

Is Tom Wright who was CFL Commissioner two decades ago still heading up UFC Canada?

[bigg jay]

5 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Is Tom Wright who was CFL Commissioner two decades ago still heading up UFC Canada?

No, they got rid of his role a while back (2016?) when the UFC shutdown the vast majority of their foreign offices. I think they laid off like 80% of the Canadian office. Not even sure they have one now.

[itchy]

5 hours ago, bluto said:

I bet it is! I find myself wanting to have a cold one there!

 

EDIT: which arcade games?

I have the Arcade1up machines, which I find very close to the real thing, and much lighter. I find they're a good balance beetween practicality and enjoyment. Each machine has 8-12 games on it. I've got Ms. Pac-man, Pac-man, Mortal Kombat, Street fighter, Golden Tee XL (with bowling and shuffleboard), Star Wars and Star wars virtual pinball, (recently sold Terminator shooter if anyone noticed I miscounted!) Haven't done any mods on them, but could. To the other question, the pinball has the rockers and enough to feel real for me, but could put in another screen if I wanted. Some people go all out mod and use the 1ups as a shell

 

4 hours ago, Goalie said:

I have one arcade and it’s the one every wrestling fan wants. Wrestlefest. There was an old arcade at my lake that went out of business about 20 years ago now and I got wrestlefest from them for free. 

If that ever needed a new home....

Just sayin'

[Goalie]

Wwe only comes twice a year. Aew also. Winnipeg is kinda stand alone ish that way although Minnesota isn’t that far. Rumours are WrestleMania in Minnesota next year. It’s possible they run Winnipeg for Raw that week. UFC tho, I wouldn’t expect them back anytime soon. 

[SpeedFlex27]

57 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Wwe only comes twice a year. Aew also. Winnipeg is kinda stand alone ish that way although Minnesota isn’t that far. Rumours are WrestleMania in Minnesota next year. It’s possible they run Winnipeg for Raw that week. UFC tho, I wouldn’t expect them back anytime soon. 

UFC did the same thing in Calgary years ago. They changed the card with so many matches from the original advertised that it was a fiasco. Calgary UFC fans were unhappy. They promised to be back but they never have.

[Noeller]

Not sure it's a "hobby" (we take it a lot more seriously than that) but my wife are extremely into fishing 12 months of the year. It's painful living in Alberta at the best of times, but when you factor in our passion for fishing, it's that much worse. Last year (2022/2023) we took our ice fishing to the next level and started ice camping. It's been a lot of fun. I work too much during the winter, and the best fishing spot close to us is about 3 hours away, so we don't get out as often as we'd like, but we have a ton of fun when we do. For the summer, we DID have a little 14' Lund with a 25hp Evinrude (...lesson learned: Friends Don't Let Friends Drive E-Tec's...) but sold it when it was being too much of a hassle. We decided we're going to wait until we move back to MB (likely not too far off) before we buy our next boat... an 18' tiller with a nice big dance floor up front. There's just no sense in AB because you have to haul the damn thing for hours to get anywhere "fishable". In MB you can be on the water in minutes.... some places you can even leave the boat docked up for the summer so you can just jump in and go. That's the dream.

Anyhow, yeah.... fishing fishing fishing. Obsession. 

[Jpan85]

For the past few months, I have gotten into card collecting. I started with the newest CFL upper deck series. I have pulled some really good Bomber auto cards and inserts. Probably my best one is an 8/10 Willie Jefferson High gloss CFL Greatness card. I am on the lookout for a Rasheed Bailey auto card. I just also ordered the new Upper Deck Series two NHL cards. Fingers crossed, I will get a Bedard Young Guns, lol.

[SpeedFlex27]

2 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

For the past few months, I have gotten into card collecting. I started with the newest CFL upper deck series. I have pulled some really good Bomber auto cards and inserts. Probably my best one is an 8/10 Willie Jefferson High gloss CFL Greatness card. I am on the lookout for a Rasheed Bailey auto card. I just also ordered the new Upper Deck Series two NHL cards. Fingers crossed, I will get a Bedard Young Guns, lol.

What Upper Deck hockey card is fetching a ton of money, I heard on the news. Connor Bedard?

[Noeller]

3 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

For the past few months, I have gotten into card collecting. I started with the newest CFL upper deck series. I have pulled some really good Bomber auto cards and inserts. Probably my best one is an 8/10 Willie Jefferson High gloss CFL Greatness card. I am on the lookout for a Rasheed Bailey auto card. I just also ordered the new Upper Deck Series two NHL cards. Fingers crossed, I will get a Bedard Young Guns, lol.

my first set of cards is the 1988 O-P-C MLB set. Some really cool stuff in there. Then got into hockey cards with the same 1991 OPC NHL set that everyone on the planet has. In more recent years I have some CFL cards, but I'm more into collecting jerseys right now. I have so many different Bombers styles from over the years. Our basement is quite the shrine right now and we're always checking eBay for what's out there... 

[Jpan85]

The 1/1 Conner Bedard card has a million-dollar bounty on it. https://thehockeynews.com/collectibles/latest-news/1000000-bounty-offered-for-coveted-connor-bedard-rookie-card

Just now, Noeller said:

my first set of cards is the 1988 O-P-C MLB set. Some really cool stuff in there. Then got into hockey cards with the same 1991 OPC NHL set that everyone on the planet has. In more recent years I have some CFL cards, but I'm more into collecting jerseys right now. I have so many different Bombers styles from over the years. Our basement is quite the shrine right now and we're always checking eBay for what's out there... 

Yeah, I buy the new jersey, no matter how ugly they are, just to keep my collection up to date. 

[bigg jay]

19 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

UFC did the same thing in Calgary years ago. They changed the card with so many matches from the original advertised that it was a fiasco. Calgary UFC fans were unhappy. They promised to be back but they never have.

Not completely accurate.  Calgary did have a PPV event (UFC 149) back in 2012 that was completely ravaged by injuries (9 fighters out due to injury & a couple fights lost due to contract issues) but they did come back in 2018 (UFC on FOX 30: Alvarez vs. Poirier 2).  It wasn't a PPV but it was a good event and they only had 1 undercard fight fall off the card.  

[SpeedFlex27]

5 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

For the past few months, I have gotten into card collecting. I started with the newest CFL upper deck series. I have pulled some really good Bomber auto cards and inserts. Probably my best one is an 8/10 Willie Jefferson High gloss CFL Greatness card. I am on the lookout for a Rasheed Bailey auto card. I just also ordered the new Upper Deck Series two NHL cards. Fingers crossed, I will get a Bedard Young Guns, lol.

 

2 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

The 1/1 Conner Bedard card has a million-dollar bounty on it. https://thehockeynews.com/collectibles/latest-news/1000000-bounty-offered-for-coveted-connor-bedard-rookie-card

Yeah, I buy the new jersey, no matter how ugly they are, just to keep my collection up to date. 

 

6 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Not completely accurate.  Calgary did have a PPV event (UFC 149) back in 2012 that was completely ravaged by injuries (9 fighters out due to injury & a couple fights lost due to contract issues) but they did come back in 2018 (UFC on FOX 30: Alvarez vs. Poirier 2).  It wasn't a PPV but it was a good event and they only had 1 undercard fight fall off the card.  

Ha, ha. I take your word for it since I totally forgot. I  have been to MMA events in the city before but I never went to this UFC event. Coming back 6 years later & it's not even a major PPV event tells you the importance of Canadian  cities to the UFC. Except for Toronto.

[TrueBlue4ever]

Three categories of hobbies for me. Activity-wise, enjoy golf and world travel. In terms of mental activities, enjoy crosswords and other word puzzles (Sudoku or Wordle/Quordle/Canukle/Puckle/Puckduko stuff, although it can get to be a bit much) to keep my brain sharp. Also enjoy jigsaw puzzles, especially the 3D ones (I have a city full of various buildings on display, and a 4 puzzle New York City skyline). As for community hobbies, I like organizing and sports-related stuff, so I help with community BINGO and work with the Bison sports programs in tournament scheduling and stats keeping. Have also organized various curling leagues and school volleyball tournaments.

[johnzo]

I have had lots of creative hobbies over the years but nowadays I mostly play drums and write songs with my hobby band. My band is all gen-x people so we're about rock but some country will creep in now and then.  We don't gig for the most part, occasionally we'll play a backyard or a pub but we're mostly about "mom and dad get away from their kids and get loud."

This is my favorite of our recordings -- something my band and I threw together during pandemic lockdown.  it's a weird electro jazz thing, totally not what we would usually play live.

 

Edited March 13 by johnzo

[bluto]

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

Not sure it's a "hobby" (we take it a lot more seriously than that) but my wife are extremely into fishing 12 months of the year. It's painful living in Alberta at the best of times, but when you factor in our passion for fishing, it's that much worse. Last year (2022/2023) we took our ice fishing to the next level and started ice camping. It's been a lot of fun. I work too much during the winter, and the best fishing spot close to us is about 3 hours away, so we don't get out as often as we'd like, but we have a ton of fun when we do. For the summer, we DID have a little 14' Lund with a 25hp Evinrude (...lesson learned: Friends Don't Let Friends Drive E-Tec's...) but sold it when it was being too much of a hassle. We decided we're going to wait until we move back to MB (likely not too far off) before we buy our next boat... an 18' tiller with a nice big dance floor up front. There's just no sense in AB because you have to haul the damn thing for hours to get anywhere "fishable". In MB you can be on the water in minutes.... some places you can even leave the boat docked up for the summer so you can just jump in and go. That's the dream.

Anyhow, yeah.... fishing fishing fishing. Obsession. 

Definitely a plus when you can share a passion with your partner.