DVD's
CD's
Anime and Manga
Paintball
Computers
PC Games
Firearms
Gunsmithing
Wine
None of my hobbies and interests are full-time. I typically move from one to the other in cycles. Lately, it has been paintball since I convinced a group of friends to take up the sport for recreation. I have been playing paintball for more than a decade. I have played with the single-shot pistols to today's race guns. In the early days, paintballs were expensive so you shot less with the equipment you had. Today, the paintballs are cheaper but the equipment can shoot them much faster. So, I suppose the average cost for an outting hasn't changed all that much. Playing the game makes you work as a team with a group of people you've probably never met before and work towards a goal of capturing a flag or whatever the objective of the game is. The game is also an adrenalin rush for most people and can be a good way to keep in shape, for those who do not care for the "traditional" exercise routines. I will try to include a few images of the markers I own. (I should really update the images sometime.)
I actively collect anime and manga, and other related goods. As you can probably tell, my anime and manga collection has grown quite a bit over the years. I remember watching anime on some local station when I was a kid. It didn't matter to me that it was in Japanese. The shows that aired were Brave Raideen and UFO Fighter Daiapollon. The station eventually stopped airing the shows and I forgot all about it. I remember watching Battle of the Planets everyday before rushing off to school, but did not know it was originally a Japanese series butchered for the American public. Then several years later on another local station, a daily afterschool show called Captain Cosmic started. Captain Cosmic, played by the host of another show Creature Features, hosted sentai shows such as Ultraman and Spectraman; anime series Gaiking, Getta Robo and Grandizer; supermarionette series Captain Scarlet. Soon after that, Robotech came on the air. What can I say about Robotech except that it was originally three separate Japanese series (Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada) woven together by a new storyline. Macross is like Star Wars in that it is being kept alive by a line of models and toys. After Robotech, came a slough of other shows of Japanese origin such as Voltron (both of them) and Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. Most recently, the Sci-Fi Channel, Cartoon Network and local PBS stations have been showing anime on a regular basis.
What can I say about wine? Often I get asked what's a good wine? My answer is it's all relative. How much do you want to spend? What types wines do you like, red, white, rosé, sparkling, soft, bold, dry, sweet? I always like to tell people, you drink what you like. New wineries seem to be popping up all the time, some of them producing very good wines for not much money. If you look at the wine ratings, you will notice it is on a point system, 100 being the "best". Anything 80 points and above should be fairly good, again it's all relative, you may like an 80-pt. wine more than a 95-pt. wine. I have friends who never used to like wine (some still don't, but hey it's not for everyone) - Either they have tried some very poorly crafted wines or they have tried wines from the "wrong" wineries, but now they say, "once you've had the good stuff, you can't go back". What about storing wine? Unless you have more than a few cases of wine, I say just store it is some dark place where the temperature is relatively cool and does not fluctuate too much. If you are paranoid, you can always invest in a small refrigerator-style cellar that seems to have become so popular these days. You can find free standing cellars to hold anywhere from 12-bottles all the way up to a 1,000-bottles or more. What wineries do you recommend I go try? This all comes back to a question of cost and taste. I personally like wines from Stonestreet, Stryker, Silver Oak, Sainstbury, La Crema, Opus One, Martinelli, Ferrari-Carano, Cardinale, Lokoya, Flora Springs, Joel Gott, Twomey, to name a few of the domestic labels.