Your Backup Hobby

I keep kicking around the idea of creating another video game. I have several ideas, but I feel like the idea has to be really fully formed and worthy of the immense effort that will be required.

So I guess my hobby is thinking about projects and then not doing them.

RobertB wrote: I've heard that you need to grow a good-sized patch of corn to get it to produce properly. We grew a 10'x10' patch once, and it didn't produce much. I could be wrong, though.

A couple of years back there was some kind of tomato disease that wiped out all our tomatoes. We had to replace all the soil in the garden box.

After nuclear war/global warming, it's just going to be cockroaches and zucchini.

I think that you're right about corn, and it is likely because there needs to be a critical mass of adjacent corn roots to lock together and support their height. That is my completely arbitrary theory based on zero research.

This year's garden was the worst, because I got very busy doing some demo work and masonry for my basement. Plus the HR and payroll portion of my job became very challenging due to the sloppy pandemic relief passed by Congress months ago. So my squash cage is overrun by some weed that looks like oversized grass (no, not that kind of grass), with a single promising squash flower. Maybe I will find one decent squash buried in those weeds. In the main garden cage, there are a couple of recognizable but underdeveleoped stalks of corn, and everything else is weeds, including some very annoying brambles.

Oddly enough, three healthy stalks of corn popped up outside the garden cage. They are just a couple of feet outside of the cage, but adjacent to the driveway. I think they were able to stay stable and grow to a nice height because some of their roots went under the edge of the driveway. I recently harvested the most promising cob for dinner. 3/4 of the length had nice big, juicy kernels, but the other 1/4 length didn't develop any kernels at all. I boiled it in the husk for a short time before eating. Turns out that this corn wasn't grown from the strain that I planted in the garden, but was instead from the cracked corn that I put out for the birds and squirrels. So it had a decent texture but very bland flavor, with no sweetness.

I re-read this entire thread and was embarrassed to find that all my responses were snarky commentary. I suck, mea culpa.

During quarantine here are my big time sucks:

- Lifting weights. Home gym FTW. But you need to track calories if you want to be anything other than strong + fat.

- RPGs via Discord and Roll20. Pretty fun, 10/10, would play again.

- Boardgames via BoardGameArena.com. Sag is really chatty and it always makes me feel bad when I play when I am tired and/or tipsy and don't feel up to bantering with him.

- Drinking. Six months sobriety is great. I constrain my drinking by (a) tracking calories [see above] or (b) thinking about how shitty tomorrow's training will be if I am hung over.

- Facilitating a 5yo going through Kindergarten on Zoom. It sucks for her.

- Cooking. The spousal unit is at work full-time, so I am cooking. On Tuesday, we get a big CSA box. Then (cracks knuckles) I plan. r/vegangifrecipes is great.

- Training my mother-in-law on weight training. She is 68 and has decided she needs to get strong to stave off the inevitable. Unfortunately she has a bunch of scar tissue in her right knee that prevents full depth on squats. Contemplating a post on Rippetoe's site even though it's a hive of scum and villainy.

- Reading 500 words before passing out. Mostly on the iPad. I'm almost done with the first volume of Master & Commander! Looking forward to reading the rest of the series, which at six months per book should take me up to my funeral.

There are differing schools of though on how beneficial a deep squat is, so it may not be so bad for your MiL. Split squats may be a good alternative which also throw in a bit of balance training. Front squats could work too.

Best of luck!

the_jake_1973 wrote: There are differing schools of though on how beneficial a deep squat is, so it may not be so bad for your MiL. Split squats may be a good alternative which also throw in a bit of balance training. Front squats could work too.

Best of luck!

Thanks! Unfortunately her range of motion is bad enough that the best she can do is get maybe 30 degrees above parallel. (I.e. femurs parallel to the ground.) Which would translate into about a quarter-squat.

I asked over at the starting strength forums, and the response there was to go as deep as she can, and progressively load the weight as usual. So that's what I'll do, at least for now.

Some is better than none.

Andi Lennon wrote:
Oh and my other new hobby is sobriety. Six months now. Who'dve thunk it?

That was one of the hardest things my father (God rest his soul) had to do. Kudos for having the courage to do so.

Andi Lennon wrote: Oh and my other new hobby is sobriety. Six months now. Who'dve thunk it?

Starting in college and going well into my 30s, I sometimes partied hard on weekends. During that time, I noticed my dad gradually sliding into alcoholism, and started cutting back on my own drinking. He got really bad during his last year of life, while fighting cancer. In modern times, I generally drink zero except for special occasions, and then I drink precisely three drinks at each special occasion. So maybe 18 drinks a year now on average. Your post made me realize that I have had exactly one drink in the last six months. I absolutely do not miss the hangovers, and I have been in great physical condition in recent years, aside from the expected effects of aging.

Yeah Andi, that's great mate. Well done!
I still drink but very moderately, there's probably only a couple of times a year max now where I still go a little but nothing like the old days. There was a patch when I was sympathy not drinking when we were having the kids, that was a good few years without a drop.

My hobbies - hiking and ultralight camping, i.e., taking a small as possible pack and going bush. More often day trips though just having a ramble, exploring stuff off the tracks where possible. That often involves a bit of mountain biking but usually to get somewhere rather than going hell for leather. I stack it enough doing that that I'm not game to do the serious downhill stuff.

Music is the other i guess. It's been a little while since I was in a group - since i moved from the city basically. Longterm to do list is to make something happen up here now I know a few people. Bass is my weapon of choice but i've probably done more stuff on trumpet in the past if I look at it.

Cheers guys. It was just getting to the point where drinking had shifted and was too often turning me into asshole king of poetry mountain.

It's now joined a comprehensive list of proclivities where it seems I've thoroughly punched all my tickets. Moderation has never been my strong suit. It was time.

Plus it's opened up so much space for other hobbies. Heavy drinking is a pretty demanding pastime when you consider all the periods of incapacitation it brings. From the slurred ascent to the existential sunrise anxiety. I just realised this is the first place I've actually spoken about it - but all the stuff I've done here has been a huge help in filling that time and staying my hand when routine might otherwise beckon. So cheers!

"I keep reading the title of this thread as “Your Backup Hubby”

I thought that was called a side dish.