Mountain Biking

Wrestling (amateur wrestling, that is. I wrestled in High School)

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu / Submission Wrestling

Powerlifting / strength training

Running (mostly trail running these days, when I run)

Live music - I'm mostly a metal-head and I love a good live metal/rock show. But I also like classical, so I'll go to an NC Symphony Orchestra performance every once in a while.

Watching Doctor Who and Torchwood.

During football season I like to go out to a sports-bar and eat wings and watch the Miami Dolphins games. I'm also a UNC Tarheels fan, but I am not as into the college game as I am the NFL.

Every now and then I like to do the dance club scene, although not as much as when I was younger.

Reading is big: I like horror, suspense/thriller stuff, sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy, and all sorts of non-fiction topics. Most of my non-fiction interests are fairly typical geek fare though: various topics on science, math, philosophy, economics, etc.

I'm also something of a Libertarian activist and actually ran for Lieutenant Governor of NC in 2008 (I wasn't elected.)

Oh yeah, and thanks for the vote! I didn't win, but I did pretty well by historical standards for a LP candidate for state-wide office in NC.

I went to Wake Forest, stayed around for a few years after in Winston-Salem and found that, as my friends from college moved and were getting better jobs elsewhere, I wasn't making new friends and my career was fairly stagnant (Winston isn't the best job market).

When I can find 'fun time', I abuse the hell out of my Netflix membership, mostly by watching historical foreign films, documentaries and crime dramas. I am also a fairly skilled bowler, with a 186 average. I am an unskilled but enthusiastic golfer with an average closer to my bowling average than I'd like. I read as well, although my tastes are a bit unusual (last book I read to completion was Vergil's Aeneid in the original Latin - I'm working through Atlas Shrugged at the moment).

Not sure what inspiration you can draw out of that, but I'm sure this will put Google one step closer to tying all my online identities together.

What do you think so far? How far into it are you?

Not sure what inspiration you can draw out of that, but I'm sure this will put Google one step closer to tying all my online identities together.

Heh, I've given up hope on that front. I suppose you could say "officially" now, since I mentioned earlier the one thing that's an absolute, sure-fire dead giveaway to my real-life identity. <shrug /> Oh well, if somebody can connect the dots of all my various online accounts, more power to 'em.

As for how I like it, thus far I am a little concerned about one point. The characters that I think I'm supposed to like (Dagny and the prince boyfriend) all seem to have gotten where they are by being born into awesome situations. Don't get me wrong - Dagny is a hell of a lot more sympathetic than her brother, for example - but it's hard to look at her as a "self-made woman" when the railroad has been a family business for like 5 generations. I'm hoping Hank Rearden shows up more, because he seems more in line with someone I'd sympathize with.

Other than that, though, I like it quite a bit. It's almost like my own thoughts are echoing back to me. I think it would be interesting to see what Rand would have done had she been alive now and whether the advent of the Internet, for example, would have changed some of the isolation she writes into her characters. Also, Dagny would have been able to track down that missing symphony she heard the train conductor whistling a lot easier.

That's true, but there seems to be a concerted effort throughout the story to tie her - in a sort of spiritual sense - to her grandfather who built the railroad originally. She thinks about him a lot and you get the sense that she is - at times - asking herself "Can I be as good a person as he was, can I be that brave, that strong, etc?"

By the end of the book I felt a lot of sympathy for both Dagny and Rearden.

Sailing (both small one-designs, and helping crew on things like catalinas)

Drawing

Going for a drive and listening to music or talk programs

The never ending quest for a new or better pizza

Social online mixer type real-world events

Museums

Conferences, and generally travel

Ham radio (oops, mostly PC hah)

Kites (and kite aerial photography)

Swimming

I would like to get more into rock climbing

Visiting family, friends, small business owners

As much as I can, I go fly Airplanes, Sailplanes, Paragliders or go Skydiving. In all this activities I am forced to focus 110% on the activity at hand, leaving no space for work stuff to keep running in the subconscious, making the activity incredibly freeing.

(It is kind of a kill -9 for work related zombie processes )

Ps. Recently I found out Yoga also does the trick

Comic books

Reading

Record Collecting (late 70s punk,60s/70s soul, and new house and techno 12"s)

I didn't do much of this when I was in my 20's, was all about work. My 30's seemed to be about spending time with myself, less with other people. Now I'm over that phase (and nearly the age bracket), I'm looking for more social things to do in the out doors (other than bbq and beer). Rafting, live music, fishing and hunting are things I'm trying to do more of.

Pretty much anything that involves one or two of my friends. I'm obsessive about reading, actual print books and tend to consume them bibliographically. Just finished a run on our first founding fathers. Last year was history of sail, wars and politics. Pretty boring to talk about with non-interested parties, fascinating to read, but isolating.

Wife and one child provide a lot of 'doing' :)

I have a mountain bike that I ride around nearly every evening for at least an hour (a lot longer on weekends)- I ride that same bike to a gym three times a week;

Read a book;

Seriously: Reading books, tennis, swimming, lifeplanning, occasionally going out for a drink with friends.