Dem
47
GOP
53
Here is the question that was asked several weeks ago:
J.H. in Portland, OR, asks: We've seen how many of the Electoral-Vote.com faithful are connected to the computer sciences and now I'm wondering how many are involved with ham radio. I ask this because I wonder if there is a correlation between technical curiosity and experimentation, and the awareness and interest in political events. Or between other areas of interest and interest in political events.
So, I would like to know: What are Electoral-Vote.com readers' hobbies?
If you would like to review, the first entry in the series is here, the second is here and the third is here.
Today, it's readers who cook, who collect, or who do something tech-related for fun:
J.E. in Boone, NC: Retired pastor here. Hobbies are fermenting fruits/vegetables and beer; pickling fruits/vegetables and my liver (?) and creating hot sauces, which some studies have shown can be protective for your liver!
R.P. in Marquette, MI: Cheesemaking! Here's a cabra al vino:
L.G. in Waltham, MA: Retired physician now indulging in gardening (veggies, fruits, flowers and trees) and cooking.
D.R. in Harrisburg, PA: For the last 23 years, one of my many hobbies has been collecting slide charts and wheel charts. With over 3,100 of them, I decided to apply for a Guinness World Record ("World's Largest Collection of Slide Charts") which I received this year. Hard work but a labor of love.
Another serious hobby I love is doing copy editing for Electoral-Vote.com. Finding and reporting typically 2 to 6 'Corrections' (typos and grammar errors) each day is as enjoyable as my daily sudoku puzzle. I'm not very interested in history or politics (electrical engineering, math and physics are my fortes), but reading Electoral-Vote.com lets me know at least that I am not totally ignorant of these things.
A.S. in Black Mountain, NC: I was a collector, up until we had to downsize for a smaller retirement situation. I collected safety razors and their paraphernalia. The development and innovations are varied and sometimes ridiculous. Some of the older ones are absolutely beautiful and expensive.
I also collected bananaphernalia. Everything from salt and pepper shakers to ties to harmonicas to phones. I kept the salt and pepper shakers (small!) but sold everything else to The International Banana Museum in Mecca, CA, that is now closed.
And I'm an artist. but that is much more serious than it is a hobby, considering I earned a couple art degrees.
S.S. in West Hollywood, CA: My hobbies? Well, I often explain that I follow politics the way others follow sports. Except with politics it matters who wins. I've never had any interest in actual sports. What I've read about them at Electoral-Vote.com is the most exposure I've ever had.
I learned to read from comic books my grandfather gave me. That was the start of a lifelong hobby (some would call it an obsession). I currently have about 60,000 comics. Plus a large collection of action figures, movie and Broadway posters, Playbills, fast food toys, autographed photos, DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs, and original film and TV scripts. As well as all kinds of other theater, film, comic book/superhero, political, and other miscellaneous collectibles including some rare albums and historical LGBT material. I admit I wish it was all better organized, but my home is not nearly as scary as you are probably imagining right now. (The large storage unit helps.)
I'm also a big television and film watcher. I vote for the Emmy, Producers Guild, Hollywood Independent Spirit, International Documentary and Razzie Awards. That's not boasting, it's the justification I use for all the films watched and television binged. I also do short film reviews at Letterboxd. For what it's worth, I have an almost unbroken record of winning the Oscar pool at whatever party I end up at. (Okay, that's boasting.)
I'm now at the stage of my life where I'm trying to figure out the best way to sell my collectibles. If any readers have suggestions and/or L.A. locals are interested in coming to some kind of arrangement, please reach out through Electoral-Vote.com.
D.G. in Palo Alto, CA: I've lived in parallel tracks since junior high school: One is academic/intellectual/professional and the other is expressive/emotional/hobbyist. All the latter revolve around a core of passion for music (non-operatic or classical).
I sang doo-wop growing up in White Plains, NY. As the Beatles hit our shores I arrived at Amherst College, where my freshman roommate, also a music fanatic, taught me to play guitar. Together we wrote, sang and played rock songs; we also joined the Zumbyes, a close-harmony a capella triple quartet that traveled the East Coast college circuit. As "The Fools," a rock band which I fronted, we also played gigs at local venues. A really solid foundation in singing and playing music. I continued to listen avidly and collect rock, soul and jazz music after college, but never again had such appealing opportunities to perform.
While teaching junior high in Philadelphia (an alternative to Vietnam War service), I heard and taped a 24-hour history of rock and roll on the radio. I also read Charlie Gillette's The Sound of the City, the first deep history of rock. And so I became fascinated with tracing this history through my own collecting. Meanwhile, I had developed interests in baseball statistics and rankings of everything from size of city to greatest ballplayer to best-selling records. I spent hundreds of hours copying chart data from the public library's microfilm collection of weekly Billboard magazines, and on my own initiative compiled a proprietary ranking of the Top 1000 Hits of All-Time (then, 1955-1969). In its 75th anniversary issue, Billboard published my work and continued to sell my annual updates for the next seven years. My first published gig in the music biz.
Upon hearing British imports of Beatles albums, I became attuned to the audiophile aspect of record collecting. This became yet another dimension of my hobby. Now I aimed to own the best-sounding versions of all the music I most loved. Combining history, sound quality, and original release and chart data, I became somewhat of a "scholar" of this subject. When CDs arrived on the scene, I enjoyed a seven-year career as music journalist for digital audio and rock and roll disc magazines, critiquing new CD releases across decades and genres. Record companies sent me literally thousands of CDs, which allowed me to "perfect" my own collection without breaking the bank.
After retiring from professional work I launched Rock 'n' Soul Alley, a now-defunct website, which included a timeline (in precise chronological order) of 2,400 songs from 1945-2014, a Pantheon of Artists in tiers of excellence across seven time periods, and a database of my CD collection with ratings of excellence and sound quality for each CD or set. It never got off the ground because it was designed on the cheap for a pre-social media era, and I never put in the time or money to make a serious go of it.
My collection evolved from vinyl to CDs to music files, but I have not gotten into streaming. I have over 55,000 songs on my removable drive, and continue to add new music as I discover it. What has remained a constant to this day is the core activity of making and listening to my own playlists. For me, the acts of listening, conceiving a playlist project, the focused listening involved in choosing and sequencing the tracks, and the iterations needed to perfect the concept—all these are my creative expression, with the added joy of then listening to the product (and sharing it with my music buddies) afterwards. I have made well over 600 playlists over the 55 years it has been my passion. (Fortunately, my wife loves my playlists and enjoys dancing to the more rhythmic ones. And that's an understatement!)
E.S. in Providence, RI: My hobby is my vinyl/CD collection. Whenever I drive by a thrift store/yard sale/flea market, I always stop to look through the used music bin. I don't buy online because for me it's all about the thrill of the hunt.
B.P. in Arlington Heights, IL: My background is in psychology, and I have worked in that field and in social work, exclusively with children, for more than 35 years. But my other passions are music and collecting. I play multiple instruments and have written and recorded dozens of songs, both serious and comic, and my humorous songs were played several times over the course of the last 15 years or so of The Dr. Demento Show (which ended earlier this year, after 55 years).
I also am a huge collector of recorded sound in virtually any format (except the awful 8-tracks), and have perhaps 10,000 records, tapes, etc. My passion for the last 30 years or more, though, has been finding obscure, rare and even one-of-a-kind recordings on reel-to-reel tapes, anything from radio recordings (going back to 1947) to TV shows, to tapes of commercials, to recordings of live events to home recordings of friendly gatherings and much, much more. For more than 15 years, I've been sharing the most interesting of these on blogs, the last 10 of those years on my own site. The other thing I collect obsessively are examples of an odd, only-could-happen-in-America type of record called Song-Poem Records (look it up), and I have been sharing elements of those records on a different blog since 2009.
A.B. in Wendell, NC: I am a numismatist. That is a fancy word for a coin collector. Unlike many collectors, I am not particularly interested in the monetary value of coins, but the historical value. To that end, I actually wish I had some of the very limited still-surviving Confederate coinage. But I don't, and likely could never afford it.
I have two prized coins, one being an 1842 Large Cent, back when they made pennies the size of half-dollars. When I look at that coin, and realize Abraham Lincoln may have once held it... it's kinda awesome. My other is an 1867 2-cent piece—yes, they actually used to make a 2 cent coin, and I think they should do THAT again instead of getting rid of pennies. With a 2-cent coin, you'd never need more than one penny in any transaction, thus penny production could be cut by half to two-thirds. I also have coinage from 44 different countries, and also own some very rare World War II scrip dollars. None of it is monetarily worth much, but the historical value is high. I intend, when I go, for the collection to go to a local VFW post or something, so that it may be enjoyed by others. I also collect some paper money, but only really special stuff. I have a ton of $2 bills, and a few Silver Certificates of various denominations.
M.B. in San Antonio, TX: This has come up before, but there are a few Electoral-Vote.com readers who are philatelists, i.e. stamp collectors. A propos of nothing, this is one of my favorite stamps, from French Polynesia, 1958:
S.H. in Tigard, OR: Wine label collecting!
L.B. in Boise, ID: When I am not rubbernecking on the disaster that is the slow motion train wreck of our democracy, I collect vintage cars. I like to say that the ones I collect are visually stunning pieces of art, and technically amazing pieces of engineering, and while I like the cars, it is the people that I love. I meet people from around the country and around the world. Being highly connected in the field helps with this (most people who collect the same cars as me, and see my initials and location, will know who I am). Virtually every time I get gas, someone comments on my car, while random people talk to me and tell stories every time I go on a road trip. To me, life is an adventure and the things we do and the people we meet are what makes this all worthwhile. Having a fun hobby is a great way to make things happen in your life. It is also nice knowing that when people see me enjoying my hobby, it brightens their day—they generally smile, often wave or give thumbs up and sometimes take pictures or video with their phones.
T.B. in Wiscasset, ME: Now that I am "retired," I spend my "spare time" (What is that?) repairing antique Volvos and rebuilding SU carburetors for people all over the planet.
I also publish an occasional blog post wherein I try to disseminate information that I hope will be useful to someone faced with doing a difficult or unusual repair.
R.P. in Kāneʻohe, HI: As a child, my passions included catching fish and keeping them in aquariums, SCUBA diving, creating software programs (especially databases) on my dad's Apple II+ computer, and re-designing and re-building my bicycle in various ways (among other garage engineering projects).
As an adult, my two primary (and concurrent) roles in my salaried job (which I've had for nearly 40 years) are as a marine biologist, and as a web/database programmer/software engineer. On the side, I've also been a paid contract mechanical engineer to design advanced diving equipment. The transition from my amateur and uncompensated childhood passions into the very same passions as an adult (except now professional and compensated) was entirely seamless. It is only in hindsight after nearly six decades on this planet that I have come to realize that I somehow managed to orchestrate the perfect life (at least, so far). To be fair, there are two other things I enjoy doing that are not part of my profession: (1) watching movies (my tastes align with those of Z's almost—but not quite—perfectly); and (2) losing to my son playing a version of 2-person, 4-way chess that he and I invented. Oh, and of course, also reading Electoral-Vote.com. Every. Single. Day.
H.B. in State College, PA: Starting from about the age of 9, my hobby was astronomy.
Somehow I never outgrew it, and found that I could actually be paid to pursue my hobby... as a professor of astronomy, an involvement with the Hubble Space Telescope, and now as an astronomer emeritus still getting observations and writing papers about them.
It sure beats working for a living.
R.H. in Macungie, PA: My all consuming hobby is astronomy, but it has morphed over time. I started with observing using a telescope but rarely do so any more except for comets and solar eclipses. Over time my interests expanded into:
- Astrophotography (back in the film era before digital)
- Collecting meteorites
- Collecting antique star charts and atlases
I've also lectured extensively over the years about these topics and had some articles on the history of celestial cartography published in Sky and Telescope magazine. My wife doesn't share my interest in astronomy but loves helping me frame star charts like this one as works of art:
A.G. (KC2KNQ) in Scranton, PA: Radio operator/artillery surveyor for the United States Army and (supposedly) a radio repairman—among many other roles—for the United States Marine Corps.
My radio specialty (self-appointed and willingly given up by others the role had been foisted upon) was antennas. I like designing them, toying around with ideas the math says shouldn't work.
I am a very proud commercial aviator and great nephew of a pioneering WAAC. I was qualified as a commercial aviator by my great aunt's best friend in the WAACs, 53 years later. We figured that out during the flight test.
I hold patents in silica manufacturing related to hydraulic fracturing, industrial preventative maintenance, a restraint device that is pending, a short haul intermodal platform that is pending, a design for a conveyor pulley cleaner that was bought by a mining firm, and I occasionally just design things while "working" in my truck.
Writing is something so much more than a hobby to me, but it's also what I do in my spare time because I love it. Without writing, in the past I would have died. Life would be meaningless at this point without a pen and paper so without writing I would still die. Words were the only things my abusive upbringing couldn't take from me and words were the only thing that got me through it. I refer to them as my shield in my left hand and my sword in my right. Truly, they are.
J.R. (W9TXU) in Heyworth, IL: I became interested in ham radio and electronics in my grade-school days and was licensed in the early 80s. That led to my continuing hobby of collecting and restoring antique radios, along with earning a private pilot's license along the way. My love of technology ultimately led to a career in computers and IT from when I bought my first (a TI-99/4A) in 1983. I was studying to be a Spanish teacher, but the computer changed all that!.
My experience is that the skills required for a career in technology include critical thinking, observation and awareness of the world around one. Also, having an interest in politics ever since I saw some of the William F. Buckley/Gore Vidal debates in 1968, I've found over the years that the two areas of interest do indeed complement each other nicely. As we know, politics and technology often meet head-on, with what we call in the biz "unpredictable results!"
T.S. in Maple Heights, OH: Also a licensed ham. (Hmmm... maybe Electoral-Vote.com can have its own "Echo-Victor.Net.") I have engaged in work-mission trips through the church. I also engage in online gaming and have been a volunteer firefighter in a couple of communities where I have lived. I have also just had my first experience as a poll worker on November 4. I like to travel internationally when I can afford it.
W.R. in Fayetteville, AR: I have been an amateur radio operator for over 50 years; I hold an Amateur Extra Class license. I have also developed on my own some knowledge of computers and networking over the years from the experiences of being a ham radio operator.
I am retired now (73 years old) and still enjoy (and sometimes cuss at) working on ham radio gear, computers, and my very own home network in order to keep my mind sharp! I also work on audio recording using computers in the preparation of amateur radio presentations.
Best regards! (73 in ham radio)
D.M. (aka NQ4S) in McLean, VA: I've been a reader of Electoral-Vote.com since its inaugural year in 2004. I'm a software engineer who started to self-learn programming as a teenager, over 40 years ago. And, yes, I am involved with ham radio. I'm not active these days—funny how starting a family can interfere with hobbies—but I do still maintain my license and maintain a membership with ARRL (the American Radio Relay League). When I was active, I used to gravitate towards contesting (trying to contact many other people over a set period of time) and particularly using digital modes. Digital modes in amateur radio allows combining my love of working with computers with my interest in the challenges to contact far away places with very little power. My greatest accomplishment was getting a confirmed contact with someone in New Zealand over RTTY using only 100W through a 60-foot tuned loop of wire in my townhouse's attic.
D.K. in Stony Brook, NY: Aviation. Flying small planes around the Northeast—single engine propeller. Good for getting off Long Island without fighting the traffic of New York City or the delay of the ferry to Connecticut. It puts big chunks of upstate NY, NJ, PA, CT, RI, MA, VT and NH within easy reach. Maine has a lovely coastline, very scenic, but takes a bit longer to get to.
J.S. in Peterborough, ON, Canada: My hobby of following USA (and world) politics is largely motivated by my belief that climate change is an existential threat to humanity, and that we have to keep aware of developments (political and otherwise) that affect it.
This doesn't connect very much to my other hobbies, which I'll get to. It connects more to my former electronics career (I'm retired now), in which I worked on (among other things) instrumentation to measure atmospheric pollution. There are many parallels between electronics and earth science: capacitance, resistance, non-linearity, feedback, transport delay, thermal runaway, etc.
Electronics is one of my hobbies, and has been all along. The closest I got to ham radio was (in my teens) to build and briefly test a couple of low power (sub-milliwatt, probably) transmitters in the AM, short wave, and FM bands. Other than that I do (in no particular order) carpentry, reading, lighting, cooking, solar power, photography and gardening.
B.C. in Phoenix, AZ: I spent the last 40 years of my working life providing IT support for companies in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. About 25 years ago I started using Linux to set up secure file sharing for clients whose FTP servers had been turned into porn sites. At that time, I also began using Linux on some of my own homebuilt workstations; primarily to avoid having to purchase a Windows license.
My neighborhood has lots of retirees like me. They purchased home computers between 5 and 15 years ago, and many of those boxes fall short of the hardware requirements for Windows 11. Since Windows 10 reached end of life earlier this year, and will no longer receive security updates unless some additional money is ponied up, these folks on fixed incomes are in a real bind.
Although I know how to bypass the hardware limitations by building a tweaked USB install drive, I've never thought that was a good idea. You never know if or when Microsoft will just cut off that option by making some changes to the install process. Also, word has it that Microsoft is going to further limit the ability to use a local user on Windows 11 machines, and you will need to have a "Microsoft account" to log in and use it. With all the health portals, bank portals, and other portals retired folks have to deal with, they do not need yet another user name and password. Also, Linux simply runs better on the older hardware than Windows 10 or Windows 11, with the bonus of avoiding all the obnoxious popups and other stuff.
So my primary hobby these days is helping my fellow retirees avoid the expense of buying a new computer by migrating their current machines to Linux. It keeps my brain sharper, and it is a real joy to hear an 80-year-old grandmother exclaim that her 10-year-old HP Envy Touchscreen laptop runs "better than it did before!"
M.C. in Centralia, IL: Amateur mineralogy. Love all kinds of rocks. Joining a club allowed me to meet a very diverse demographic.
J.B.C. in St. Louis, MO: I suspect J.H. in Portland may be on to something. While not necessarily limited to the various computer sciences, I'm betting a great number of these responses are going to be technical in nature and require some degree of higher education, curiosity, and a broad interest in what makes things tick.
Personally, my primary hobby is "messing around with technology." Technically, that means taking my work home—computer and network systems administration. My own home computer lab has at times rivaled the employer's data center (primarily because I was allowed to take home all the off-lease stuff that would otherwise have been recycled). When I was younger, I used to collect VAX—during the peak of my collection I had a VAX 4000/200 (with the QDSS Dragon Video adapter), a VAXStation 4000/60, two MicroVAX III systems, and a dozen VAXStation 3100s, all networked together running NetBSD. I did still know VMS back then, but getting the hobby licenses for it was a pain, when it was even possible. The 4000/200 had a pair of QBUS HVD SCSI controllers, and I had a rack filled with 500 MB drives connected to it. Eventually I had to get rid of most of it just because of the power draw and space requirements for it all, although I still have the BA213 cabinet the 4000/200 was in—I want to modify it into a retro PC case someday.
For years I was a programmer—learned BASIC on a Tandy Color Computer 2, Pascal on a PDP11/70, C on a 286 and C++ on a Pentium; dabbled in PHP and Powershell and trying to pick up C# now.
Other hobbies are model building (started with REVELL kits, now I sometimes do Gunpla), LEGO, electronics tinkering (x00-in-one kits were my favorite gifts when I was a kid).
One of my favorite, but least-exercised hobbies, though, is collecting and restoring 70's era mechanical Pachinko machines. All of this amazing engineering, powered by balancing balls rolling around in chutes and tripping catches, latches, and everything else. I have 3 in working order, two that need new glass and some light work and one that... well, I can pull parts from it, I suppose.
In the next, and final, entry in this series, we'll have some hobbies that we could not easily categorize, as well as a reader survey.