Other pastimes

[Br1ckt0p]

About this time every year I get "gaming stale". 4 or 5 winter months cooped up tight against my Sony Bravia with the exhaust fan of my PS3 keeping the room warm is great, but the senses are now dulled, multipliers and killstreaks getting noticably harder to build. It's good to finally re-charge the batteries with other pastimes now that daylight hours and temperatures are increasing. What other pastimes do you pick up when the gaming gets stale?

I've spent most of the winter shooting zombies in a "top down" view, but my favourite view with rifle or shotgun in hand remains first person. That's first-person real-life resolution, not 1080p. Say hello to my little friend.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/bigmacmeal55/TX200/TX004.jpg

It's an Air Arms TX200 Mk3, .177 (sub 12ft/lb) air rifle with fish scale chequered walnut stock :D Custom tuned by myself with a trigger mechanism polish, spring polish, piston sizeing, delrin machined spring guides and top hat, piston buttoned (delrin), and re-lubed with the finest moly grease this side of the Atlantic. Spring air rifle perfection. She weighs in at a very hefty 9.6lb in current config. I now have a 1 piece mount for the scope and a cocking aid (not in the photos).

I've even named it, and I never name any guns (except shotty the shotgun, but it's not very creative). This one is called piglet, as in, winnie the pooh's friend, piglet. The walnut stock has the most uncanny knot in it just behind the trigger. Check it out :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/bigmacmeal55/TX200/TX006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/bigmacmeal55/TX200/TX007.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/bigmacmeal55/TX200/TX008.jpg

Is she a looker or what? :D pew pew. So yeah, shooting and tuning rifles are some of my favourite pastimes away from gaming. It's great to be outdoors this time of year absorbing all the changes that come with the seasons. Keeps it all real. What do you get up to?

[Jason]

Ah, nice topic.

I'm a fairly keen sportsman, playing cricket for a local team as and when my work schedule allows, and I organise a weekly game of football (soccer to those that haven't figured out the difference between their hands and feet yet) with a bunch of like-minded friends - I no longer play competitively, as, to be quite honest, most competitive footballers at club level are idiots (a bit harsh, but tends to be mostly true in my experience).
Beyond that, I also tend to play a bit of poker when I can get enough folks together for a game, although I did play a fair bit online a while back.

[MyNameDidntFit]

I vary from the extreme nerdery of table-top Warhammer 40,000 through to the utterly social activities of going out, getting blind drunk and hurting myself in suitably epic manners. Reading is a pass-time I've probably spent more hours on than anything else I've done, but that's pretty boring and standard.

I'm also a pretty keen hiker whenever I get the chance. Down here in the sou'west of Aus we have some stunning scenery with a bunch of nice mountains and such to climb about on in the most unsafe of manners possible--a few mates and I are actually in the midst of planning a BBQ-and-drinks atop Bluff Knoll, one of the local mountains (the left-most peak is where we'll be having it):
http://www.christianfletcher.com.au/_tentacle/files/images/upload/sr200dp_(2).jpg
So that should be incredibly good fun when we're able to get weather, work and the planets to align sufficiently for us to get it going.


Er, other than the countless varieties of drunken shenanigans that I get up to that's about all I can think of off the top of my head.

[happysister]

there's not much to do around where i am (at least not many things that don't cost a lot of money), so i tend to enjoy movies and hanging out and such. i also play guitar and draw a bit. when i was in highschool, i used to play basketball. not so much anymore. i would totally LOVE to learn horseback riding. there's so many horse farms around here, but....it's so expensive. >_<

[Br1ckt0p]

Wow, that's one good looking mountain Cory. You gotta take lead on those plans and get some photos :cool: Beautiful. I used to love hiking too. A mountain moved while I was stood on it once. I've never been back.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/bigmacmeal55/IMG_0315-1.jpg

Hey Happy! If you're not afraid of some graft, ask your local stables if they need a hand around the yards. Very often they'll pay with lessons and riding time. I'm scared rigid of horses, but my sister got into horseriding this way. Go get 'em :)

[Archangel]

Like Corey, I read a bit, but have far less free time than him these days and don't do it quite to his level. Other than that, I'm usually found these days at the pub at University when I have free time from... well... University.

On weekends I usually hang out with mates for a movie night, or play a solid bit of cricket, football (the soccer kind), or footy (the Australian kind). The footy seasons starting up now, so I'm looking forward to playing a few games soon. Went out on Sunday with my brother and was making shots from the 50m line. I'm pretty excited for it.

[happysister]

Hey Happy! If you're not afraid of some graft, ask your local stables if they need a hand around the yards. Very often they'll pay with lessons and riding time. I'm scared rigid of horses, but my sister got into horseriding this way. Go get 'em

you know, i never thought to do that. that's a good idea actually. thanks for the tip.

[Kozahk]

There is absolutely fuck all to do in forrestfield, but I've managed to continue 8 years of martial arts going across three different styles (TKD, Rhee TKD and, currently, Kendo). I've been on a month long expedition to Nepal, Including a twelve day trek through the Himalayas. Aside from that I go to uni four days per week, work for minimum wage two days per week and study every night. I am an avid anime and manga fan, fairly good volleyball player, a magician (no really) and am currently helping out a Japanese culture festiville in Perth this Saturday to raise funds for the tsunami victims. So yeah... :)

[Lance]

... you have... wait no

theres... no there's not that either

OH! There's the Caravan Park there Koz! (used to live in Forrestfield about 10 years ago - its..... depressingly boring)

(Oh - On Topic) - I write, when I can be bothered and I'm planning on doing something like Krav Maga in the near future - plus there's the usual going to every Eagles Game, Comedy show or Rock concert I can

[Konrad]

Things I do other than gaming...

I study Journalism, this takes up alarmingly little of my time.
I do Photography with a passion, though far less passion recently.
I make vaguely musical noises on a guitar, I used to play a lot, but somehow the time is not there.
I liek to read books, but naturally I haven't been reading much recently.
I help bunnies. It's mostly my missus, but I help bunnies by association.

Long story short, I have no idea what I do. I've neglected most of my hobbies and interests but I have no idea where my time goes. Brb, out looking for passion.

[happysister]

I help bunnies. It's mostly my missus, but I help bunnies by association.

you mean she takes in hurt/homeless ones and helps them find new loving and caring homes?

[Jason]

No, she does their laundry and stuff. Bunny socks are just adorable.

[MetalBalloon]

I used to go to the movies with a few friends every weekend but it cost so much more than it used to so we stopped doing that. At the moment we are looking into paintball, other than that I read a lot, currently reading Stephen King's Gunslinger series.

[happysister]

No, she does their laundry and stuff. Bunny socks are just adorable.
delayed joke is delayed.

[Jason]

I was procrastinating, dammit. You don't honestly expect me to DO stuff within two weeks of it first happening, do you? :p

[Daggers]

I used to go to the movies with a few friends every weekend but it cost so much more than it used to so we stopped doing that. At the moment we are looking into paintball, other than that I read a lot, currently reading Stephen King's Gunslinger series.


If you go Cineworld just get the monthly pass for £12.99, you can go as often as you want.

As for paintball, if you think the cinema is expensive then you won't want to do paintball on a regular basis. The place I went was relatively cheap. They charge you only £10 per person for the full day of games but you have to pay for your own paintballs, and you aren't allowed to bring your own. £6.99 for 100 paintballs and you could get through 200 easily in one game. When you have like 12 games of paintball throughout the day....

[Br1ckt0p]

Paintball! Fun fun fun fun looking forward to the paint ball. I don't care what anyone says though, it's painful, especially at close range or on skin. I got my trigger finger shot once and screamed like a baby girl. Beware the cloak of invincibility you get when you have a gun in your hand. There is no cloak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8akt_g1QyY

[MyNameDidntFit]

It doesn't hurt that much, you girl. Even if last time my mate and I came out of it with blood quite literally pouring from the cuts all over our hands.

You get hit and it hurts a touch, certainly, but nothing terrible. And before you ask, yes, I have charged across open ground at into a fusillade of fire from four other players when we were playing a round of Zombies (headshots only to kill the zombies, zombie shots turn the players) and I didn't have enough rounds for a sustained firefight. Numerous bruises and a bit of blood later, I won. They were all terrible shots and were perhaps stunned into not aiming for the head by my boldness.

[Br1ckt0p]

Nah, getting hit on my trigger finger hurt like bloody hell :D I've aimed for the hands ever since.

Other pastimes, I enjoy fly fishing most days. My job (river restoration) has me at the water side most days from spring through autumn, so the rod is always in the back of the van for some r&r at the end of the day. Sometimes at the beginning of the day too. I call it "sampling" :D

Fish live in the most beautiful places

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/bigmacmeal55/Ramp3.jpg
A northern river

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/bigmacmeal55/Lochan.jpg
A Scottish lochan

I also tie fishing flies for myself and friends, trout flies and salmon flies. This is one I invented called the Bubba Gump shrimp (a salmon fly), which work particularly well for Salmon fresh from the sea. The blue colours become invisible to them the longer they are in fresh water as their eyes change.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/bigmacmeal55/Bubba4.jpg

I'm also getting a Springer Spaniel this year. Can't really call getting a dog a pastime, but I'm going to train her to be a working gun dog so I'm looking forward to learning about that. Will be good company at work too. I might call HER Cory :p:D

[Jason]

I think as you alluded to, it depends where you get hit as to how much it hurts. Bodyshots aren't too bad, nor is anything on the less soft areas of the arms and legs (front of the thighs, shoulder etc). On the other hand, catching a shot on the side of the neck or on the soft bit under your biceps from close-ish range hurts like hell, even with the adrenaline surging.