Like I say on my Work summary page, my motto is “Work to live, don’t live to work.” I do my best to live by this motto by striving to try new experiences whenever possible.  This addiction for new experiences is a large contributor to my continual push for furthering my education as learning something new in my opinion, is one of the simplest yet most rewarding forms of an experience. This is also one of the main reasons I love to travel – visiting a new place provides a whole realm of new things to see, do, taste, and try.  I love traveling to any and all new places (not just tropical paradises), and always seem to find new things to learn about and experience in my journeys to places I’ve visited before.  I have been a student of higher education since 2001 and plan to continue this trend well into my old age.  You can never learn to much, be it in a classroom, at a job, or traveling the world so I strive to always continue learning.

Beyond learning new things (which really is a part of every new experience), I have my classic go-to hobbies that keep me entertained and happy on those nights when I have to work the next day and can’t go off on some crazy adventure.  Among my favorites are video games of all genres and modalities.  I am on XBox Live almost daily (gamertag: o0MrJenkins0o – always looking for new players) and own 3 XBox360′s  (4 once the new R2-D2 one launches).  I’ve been a gamer since 1987 when I got my NES with Super Mario Brothers & Rad Racer (with the awesome 3D glasses) for Christmas.  Since then I’ve accumulated a wealth of primarily console based games including a PS3 (same tag), three Super Nintendos, a modded PSP, an iTouch (with pinball cabinet), an iPad (with mini sized arcade cabinet), classic Nintendo with over 200 games (+ powerglove), an Atari Jaguar, N64, Dingoo A320, Gamecube, Gameboy Advanced, Nintendo DS, a modded Xbox, and soon enough a full-size X-Men Children of the Atom arcade console.  For PC based games I used to love the Command & Conquer series and remember competing for time on the dial-up model to play online versus other players.  That game largely influenced my desire for PC based RTS games seeing as I later added to Warcraft 3, StarCraft, and StarCraft 2 to my minimal PC game library.

My core hobbies do extend beyond video games despite what the previous paragraph may have lead you to believe.  I also love any and all competitive sports.  Soccer, paintball, tennis, roller hockey and wiffle ball are among my favorites, but I really will play any game where I get to compete as human opponents always pose the greatest challenges (e.g., baseball, darts, pool, frisbrewski, beer pong, basketball, poker/card games, board games) – I’ve even taken classes in fencing as there is not much classier than being a swordfighter.

I am, and I am proud that I am a total geek.  I love Star Wars (not Star trek) and collect Star Wars Legos and other Star Wars paraphernalia (I even have a full size wampa skin rug.  I play games like Magic the Gathering (I have about 20 different decks), Dungeons & Dragons (4th edition), and ridiculously complex board games like Twilight Imperium and Talisman.  I love geek movies and culture.  I love new technologies and gizmos – like my Parrot AR Drone RC aerial quad-copter that is controlled via my iPad.  I try to stay up-to-date on science and cutting edge trends (I pre-ordered EPOC’s Emotiv neuroheadset just so I could play with it when it was released).  I actively plan for Halloween parties so I can have an awesome and intricate costume (last year I was a steam punk time traveler).  I own a large Nerf arsenal of weapons.  I enjoy origami and papercraft, but only to build robots, Star Wars vehicles, or other geek artifacts.  Basically, I’m a huge geek and don’t try and hide it.  I think I am at least a well-balanced geek as I enjoy other things as well, but my desire for learning has left me with an active imagination and the fantasy worlds that exist throughout the realms of geekdom provide me with ample opportunities to let my imagination run wild.

I enjoy traditional outdoor activities such as camping, bicycling (just got a new Giant Roam 1 for my birthday) visiting the beach, skiing & snowboarding, BBQ’ing, etc. along with some less mainstream ones like surfing, kite flying, RC vehicles, and cruising around on my motorcycle (a 1983 Kawasaki KZ550 which I do most of the maintenance on myself).  Basically, I love nature and most outdoor activities, especially water sports and power sports.  I love to be outside and I enjoy getting my hands dirty if it is accomplishing something that I take pride in or feel will make my life easier.

I love to do-it-yourself type projects because of the pride I take in my work and the sense of accomplishment I feel when I succeed at building something new or original.  I am currently working on building a chaotic motion pendulum, a SNES emulator mini-arcade cabinet, a custom guitar hero/rockband fender guitar, a high fidelity customizable set of D&D world generation tiles, a wall-sized map of my world travels, an all in one entertainment messenger bag, a giant Lego Rancor, and a turtle habitat coffee table.  I also enjoy cooking for the same reasons.  I was fortunate enough to have a tremendous cook in my mother growing up so I have an appreciation for the effort, artistry, and timing that goes into preparing a new dish or meal.

I love to laugh and to make others laugh.  I find that my wit is much faster than most of the people around me – which is often a dangerous thing if I can’t filter what comes across my mind.  Almost all of my ‘must-see TV’ shows are comedies (Community, The Office, South Park, Parks & Rec, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and Tosh.0 with exceptions of Breaking Bad, Dexter, NFL, Game of Thrones).  I enjoy hearing and telling jokes.  I am starting to get more into magic / sleight of hand tricks. I’m always up for a good prank.  And I love my group of friends because we’ve refined our senses of humor over the years so that whenever we get together its a riot to just tell stories or comment on the peculiarities of the world around us.

Finally, I consider myself a great salesman.  I find that my intelligence, creativity and quick wit combine to form the ability for me to often persuade others to see convincingly see my perspective on different issues.  As such, one of the things I enjoy in life is talking with people about different political issues or philosophies of life where I take an opposing view (even if I don’t believe it)  just to enjoy the back and forth discussion that results.  I believe that most of my debates are successful because I’m a firm believer in logic as a strong ally that most (sensible) people will have a difficult time refuting.

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