So… let’s say you ask me, what are your hobbies? Your interests?

My feeling is that say, seven or eight years ago, I’d have rattled off a list of a number of things. Art, cycling, videogames, comic books, regular books, music, and some other crap I can’t remember now.

These days, I feel like the only legitimate answer I can give is “video games” – partially because of work, partially because I don’t have time for a lot of the other stuff. Cycling’s hard, because I need to find someone else to ride with – I’m paranoid about riding alone. I don’t have time to swim, because the pool’s only open hours I’m at work. Except on the weekends – I legitimately have no excuse not to swim on the weekends, other than that I’m beat from the rest of the week. Comics I don’t read much anymore, largely because I’m out of the loop enough that it becomes hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Recently, the only books I’ve been reading are Foxtrot compilations and politically oriented books, like Paul Krugman’s The Great Unraveling. Now, that’s not so bad, but I’ve also been reading substantially less, largely because of a lack of time.

I still listen to a lot of music, but I’m definitely no longer “hip” or on the cutting edge. Most of the music I find is … through videogames. Ha. Seriously.

I’m working on a piece of art, basically Sharpie on canvas – which is strange, sure, but it’s sort of time-consuming. Which is nice, and I finished a realistic painting late last year, which was quite satisfying. I guess it was actually finished early this year. I’d like to paint more, and should probably get an easel of some sort large enough to hold large canvases, because I don’t really like painting small. 😀

But seriously? I should make a conscious effort to keep certain skills up. Practice the saxophone, clarinet, piano, whatever. Paint more. Swim some. Bike some. Hard to find time, with the dog, and the fiancee, and such, but that’s not blaming them for my own inaction. I’ve just gotta remember that there’s more to life than games, and work, and passive action. Gotta take hold of the reins.