Hobbies, COVID, Cool shit

A lot of depressing shit on here and the rest of social media. Anybody used this year to find a new hobby, develop new skills, go somewhere cool, do cool shit you’ve been meaning to do but never had the balls, had an optimistic altering of their perspective on life, asked a girl/dude out, got married, moved cities, made new friends, made some cash, etc?

Seen some guys and gals on here struggling with the hard knocks of life (this year has been no walk in the park for me either) and just wanted to throw some positivity into the forum. Even on the internet positive vibes can be contagious

114 Comments
 

We would host sites and build in templates on Wordpress, then add css code to make changes to the site... maybe 50-200 lines of total code per site (with previously built template)

 

plenty of platforms out there. I built one for a AI startup using Webflow. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it is very powerful. No/minimal coding experience required. The community and tutorials that Webflow puts out are top notch.

Go all the way
 

Done a lot of mountain biking (Marin Hawk Hill1 if anyone is familiar). I rode bmx for a while but always wanted a full suspension bike, a few of my friends got them and we've been riding around different parts of New England for the past few months. It's been a blast and a great way to get exercise since I'm not going to the gym anymore. That's ending soon though (winter), but I got my season pass for snowboarding and getting excited for opening day at Stowe in a few weeks. Other than that, spending too much time on my phone and not enough time reading and playing guitar. Also got into photography a bit more (got the Sigma 1.4 30mm lens if anyone is familiar) and that's been a fun hobby. Did a lot of camping as well which has been refreshing. Realizing I'm somewhat of a serial hobbyist, but there's so much cool stuff to do.

 

Yeah I'd say it's one of the more popular resorts in the Northeast, and it's on the tallest mountain in VT so pretty big from our standards. They're owned by Vail resorts so the epic pass has definitely increased the crowds, but I'm guilty of that too. Hoping to get out to Colorado this winter if it's possible! Been a few years since I've been out that way.

 

Picked up golf around 1.5 years ago and have enjoyed playing a little more. Also have done some reading and learned about different financial topics that interest me.

I am a student so time is typically not a real issue, but with less "normal" college options during the first few months of the pandemic, I was able to do these other things.

 

So excited. I always watched it with my dad but never played because I played other sports. Now that I am a "golf bro" it's even more fun to watch lol. Was hoping for Auburn to have a good year in football and have the Masters weekend with November SEC/Auburn football. Still fortunate to have it.

 

Nice I love Steinbeck, The Winter of our Discontent and East of Eden are some of the best literature of all time. Wouldnt mind re-reading those, but the world is depressing enough as it is.

 

I learned how to poll dance. My girlfriend really loves it.

What do you do - you go to the polls and dance? 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

No, I have one at home, girl loves it. She records me sometimes to show her guy friend and apparently he loves it too! 

 

Basically speeding up how to gather data from multiple places, I do a lot of monthly and quarterly reporting and I need to gather data from multiple spreadsheets, it's really tedious stuff. I am really seeing a lot of value in VBA, and even many advanced excel techniques. People are saying Python is all the rage, but for people that use excel (the entire corporate world), VBA programming really is something that's overlooked, in fact I am shocked it's this over looked and I wish I bothered to learn this a lot sooner.

 

Got even deeper into horology. I have traded watches profitably for a while but these year took it to the next level as I’ve always enjoyed buying and selling things. Watches in particular are fun due to how liquid they are and the type of people you get to meet. On top of that there’s the whole art/craftsmanship side of things.

Planning on bidding at the next OnlyWatch auction and am commissioning some cool pieces from independents I love. 
 

Convinced my business partner to let me throw some cash at an independent as well as a shits and giggles investment. I’ve been lazy about pursuing it though as most are European. 

 

Threw myself into work even more since there was less to do outside of it. Took on some side projects renovating my house over the last 8-9 months (did all the work myself). Gonna do a lot of skiing this winter. 

 

Skydiving (conquered fear of heights), Polo on horseback, taught a group to design and build guitars, read 12 books, applying to grad school, looking to buy a business, rebuilding family bridges. 

 

I got married April 17th with just immediate family around. It was a nice, peaceful day. We basically showed up and got married within an hour. We’ll throw something whenever it’s safe to do so, gives us extra time to save up more cash anyway. I got a new job, which is a huge improvement over my previous job. I went from truly miserable to actually really happy. I moved apartments from a decent, but really run down and shabby place, to a much nicer place in century city. In the micro perspective, 2020 has been very good to me. 

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 
Most Helpful

Always been skinny but for the first time in my life I lifted consistently 5 days a week for four months (my gym didn’t close). Put on 10lbs / started to look a bit better and got my lifts up to non-total embarrassing levels - 160lb 5x5 on bench press. Not a lot for most but was cool progress for me and I loved it.

Had to stop lifting for grind time on MBA apps because between work and that I’m barely getting enough sleep as is. Fucking sucks to finally make even some small progress and now lose it, but I just wrapped up MBA interviews so gonna dive back into lifting. Hopefully a month from now I’ll hear some good news on getting into a school and then have 7 more months of working out to enter summer / fall of 2021 in the best shape of my life, $500K in the bank (bye to half thanks to school), and finally some free time after a 5 year IB/PE grind. Can’t fucking wait.

 

Hell yea dude. Getting into lifting is very rewarding if you are disciplined with the training as well as diet/eating. Seeing results in your body, how much iron you can move, and the mental gains is priceless.

We're all gonna make it. 

Go all the way
 

i made some money trading stonks on reddit, paid off a bunch of student loan debt from dumb nothing degrees i got in my early 20s and decided to take the plunge into business school for finance. hell of a year. covid sucks, but i think the pandemic was a life-changing experience on the positive side in my own personal experience. i am, however, still single, if anyone wants to hook me up with their 28-35 y/o sister

 

Well recently i’ve gotten bored of the meta so i’ll fully off meta rn, the scar has been absolutely ripping shit up for me but that’s not a weapon you can run in solos. Ram7 with meta attachments (mono, long barrel, optic of choice, commando 50/60 mag) is fucking beast, kilo / grau like recoil with m4 damage.

I dont play solos (usually quads trios maybe duos) but generally if it’s final circle / top 10/5 i like to let the sweaty dudes fight each other while we roll in to mop up the rest.

I think the single best tip for doing well in the final circle is just to have a handle on your nerves and stay calm, and also try to have good position (high ground / covered from certain angles so you dont have to watch 360 degrees)

 

thebrofessor

sorry to hear about that. how can we help with the mental aspect?

shit happens, now let's talk about how we can work on it

bro what? no fuck that guy and fuck his mental health.

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

You can always try making art with soft pastels! No dry time.  (OIl Pastel are a type of pastel but are different than the dry powdery pastels)

Oil is by far the most tedious. As a beginner I find it easy and fun but if you start looking into layering paints based on the dry time of each paint due to the differences in oils, it get gets hectic. Also oily rags and spirits have to be dealt with appropriately.

If I were dead set on paint, I'd half-ass oil over acrylic any day.

 

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heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

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