When taking a break from work, or solving tech puzzles, I engage my time to indulge in a range of hobbies that keep me balanced, curious, and productive.
Video Games
As a member of the Nintendo Generation. I enjoy wide range of gaming options. I am no stranger to Skyrim, Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, Starfield, The Witcher, and so on. I also love Civilizations, and “management” games such as Stranded: Alien Dawn and Rimworld. The fact that you do not have direct control of the inhabitants of those games, except for in very specific use cases, means you have to think of design and management in a more abstract way to keep your game denizens alive and thriving. Of course, I’ve built my own gaming PC, but also love my consoles for just sitting down and playing and not having to tweak every little thing.
Motorcycles
There’s something therapeutic about riding motorcycles. Whether it’s a scenic ride out of town or a quick jaunt through the city, motorcycles are my way of embracing freedom, motion, and a good chance to chat with my friends via headsets, as we explore Oregon.
Cats
As a keeper of a household with two cats, Harlan and Oberon are typically more in charge than I am. Being the kind of person who talks to their cats like they understand, I enjoy our wide ranging and opinionated conversations, as they challenge my world outlook constantly.
Internet Technologies
Despite working in IT, it does regularly follow me home. I’ve been known to read morning internet news with coffee and experiment with container builds for fun. Technology is constantly evolving and growing, and personal projects as well as regular reading help to keep me up to date. I have several home-lab projects I am constantly building up and tearing down, trying out new things and building integrated systems to try out something that I may end up using at work. This is how I learned kubernetes and containerization, as well as self-hosting many other application stacks and trying out features of newer versions before deploying them at work.
Solitaire
There’s a certain satisfaction in flipping cards and clearing a deck. Solitaire is the perfect low-stakes challenging puzzle when I need to let my subconscious brain work on another issue that my conscious brain cannot seem to verbalize. In some cases, it could be considered mental white noise with a sense of victory at the end.
Reddit & Reading the News
Reddit is my daily window into the collective chaos, brilliance, and humor of the internet. Whether I’m learning something new, following niche tech subs, or reading the latest “mildly interesting” discovery, it’s part of my digital routine. I also make a point to keep up with current events—tech trends, world news, and whatever else the algorithm decides I need to see today.
Music
I started my journey with music when I was 5 years old, learning how to play the piano. From there I learned the trumpet, french horn (because my father played the French Horn professionally), the tenor saxophone (much to the disappointment of my father), trombone, and organ. I then became interested in DJ’ing in high school, after being complimented on my song selection skills at a party. I picked up some decks and started playing around with mixing and learning the skills of beat-matching, then live remixing. I spent over a decade organizing and managing dance nights at nightclubs and bars in Richmond, VA and then Las Vegas, NV in the 2000’s and 2010’s.
Continual Learning
Another major thing I enjoy in my free time is to learn new things. If there is a subject that I find interesting, I will go and find whatever information about that subject I can. Physics, chemistry, biology, literature, critical film theory, cultural anthropology, economics. There is so much in the world to learn. By continuing to constantly engage with ideas and information, it allows me to synthesize new ways of viewing the world and incorporate the things I learn constantly.