My Hobbies

My Computers
My Hobbies
Resume
School Career
The Basics
Blue
Fusion
Hershey
Shasta
Yuki
Birthday List
Blades and Weaponry
Breyer Horses
Christmas List
DVDs
Goals I've Set
Painted Ponies
Essays and Rants
Poetry
Presentations
Religious Writings & Bible Study Thoughts
Novels

An Eclectic World

My Addictions

Off-Site Goodies

Eclectic Thoughts (blog)
GameSpot Profile
Neopets Profile
Flickr
Wikipedia Profile

Hobbies? Do I have hobbies? Oh yeah...way too many!

I LOVE manga, especially shonen-ai/yaoi and shojo. I buy so much, usually buy 5-10 volumes a month, that I have five bookcases just for manga in my house. I also love books in general, with hundreds more volumes housed within three more bookcases in my home. My poor duplex is almost bursting at the seams! When I build my house in 2009, I plan to build a dedicated library with lots of bookshelves so I can have even more books! :-)

Collectonian, my oldest NeopetI own a ton of DVDs, as well, running across a range of genres, with anime being my favorite genre of course. My other favorite movie genres would probably be TV shows, considering how many I have.  After that comes drama, action, and sci-fi/fantasy.

As you might have guessed from my GameSpot profile, I play a lot of video games. I own a PS One and a Playstation 2, and I also play on my computers, though I haven't had much time for PC gaming in awhile. I'm currently playing Final Fantasy XII on the PS2, and I have quite a few games waiting to be played (Onimusha, Dead to Rights, Devil May Cry 1-3).  I also play Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 at random intervals.

Swifty, my second NeopetAnother "game" I play is Neopets. I'm something of an addict, I think. To the upper left is one of my pets, named Collectonian after me. He is a Checkered Uni. I read a lot of books to him to build up his intelligence. The pet to the right is, Swift WindRider, my Island Uni. When I'm on Neopets, I play a lot of the games and I'm working on building up my gallery and my collections. It really is fun and being free, its a great way to pass the time. The only bad part is sometimes I'll waste hours of time on the site and forget to do other stuff LOL.

I do have several collections in real life too! In particular, I collect horse figurines, such as Breyer and Trail of the Painted Ponies. I have a small sword collection (only one set and a single right now), that I hope to grow when I have more display space. I also have a small collection of beanies and other plushies, though I'm rather picky about those so it hasn't gotten to insane levels. I have a few dolls, but mostly because they are hand me downs from my mom.

nano_06_icon_88x31I also love gardening, photography, and oil painting. Sometimes I pretend I'm a writer, too. In November 2006, I finally took the plunge and signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I didn't make it to the 50k mark, but I did manage to get 24,805 words of my novel The Guardian written! That's the most I've ever written on one of my novels, and I plan to continue writing on it to hopefully have it finished before NaNo 2007.

Can't forget cooking! I love to cook and bake. It is fustrating trying to cook in my duplex's kitchen, which is big for a rental but still too small for me. I want a big kitchen in my house! Some of my favorite foods to cook include stir-fry, homemade breads, ice cream, pasta dishes, and seafood. I also love making a steak on my electric griddle. For days I go into the office, I make bento lunches! It is fun and a great way to make lunch more interesting and healthier!

When I have time, I enjoy researching different areas, especially American history, human sexuality and canines. With American history, I tend to prefer to study the Civil War and pre-Civil War times. I want to read more on the history of other countries, but haven't been able to find (and afford) the book types I like. With my areas of study, I always prefer the more verbose writings to lectury technical ones. I also enjoy reading some alternative history stories.

When I can afford it, I do some oil painting and sketching with color pencils. Most is of it is of the landscape variety and shows a mediocre talent, but it's relaxing to do. I stopped painting for years, but I've started back up in the last few years and even have some awesome Bob Ross goodies and books to paint with! *grin* I loves Bob Ross! I am an avid photographer, in both color and B&W film. I have quite a few cameras, with my primary shooters being my Canon Rebel G and my Polaroid Digital.