What other hobbies do you have?

The hobby that I am most interested in is astronomy, which I’ve been interested in since I was in kindergarten. Almost every night that I can I go outside with my telescope. Another hobby I have is Vexillology (the study of flags and their designs), which I’ve made over 50 flags, two of which are below (First one is a flag idea for my hometown of Uniontown, while the second one is a flag redesign for Pennsylvania). I would love to hear what other hobbies you are interested in!

Outside of coins & banknotes, I'm a very heavy reader.

I have incredibly varied tastes, but my prized collections are from the Scottish publishers DC Thomson. I have every annual they've produced for the Dandy (1939-ongoing), Beano (1940-ongoing), the Broons & Oor Wullie (1940/39-ongoing, though 4 are modern reprints, I do have the rarest as an original), as well as every spinoff character album, possibly all of their one-shot annuals (There's debate over the existence of one of them. An advert supposedly exists but no-one, not even the publisher's own archive, has a copy of the book), as well as many of their adventure series mainly starting from the 1930s.

The rarest 2-3 books frequently trade at £1,000+, though many 1955 onwards are very affordable.

I also love the proto-superhero / pulp heroes, usually the early 1930s (i.e. pre-Superman). Some are novels, some are comics, many are actually from newspaper strips. Think characters like the Green Hornet & Kato, the Lone Ranger, The Phantom, Doc Savage, The Avenger, Buck Rogers, Mandrake the Magician and my personal top five: Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, The Shadow, Dan Dare, and my absolute favourite, Zorro!

I do have later comic stuff too of course, the big names like Superman & Batman, assorted Marvel characters, as well things like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Usagi Yojimbo.

In terms of proper books, love my realistic-ish historical character series like Sharpe, Flashman, Macro & Cato, and Hornblower. But can quite happily read just about anything. I struggle with fantasy though; probably requires more imagination than I have. 🙃

Also have every Scarlet Pimpernel book (most people think there's only one story, there's 11(?) full novels, two short-story collections, and 4 spin-off types) which took some finding.

I've usually got 2 non-fiction books, 2 light-reading fiction, 1 “heavy”-reading fiction, and 2 comic-y books on the go at any given moment.

Right now, reading about The Glorious Revolution, and the 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa (which is truly fascinating as with the advent of the telegraph, it was the first global event with (relatively) instant news updates). Fiction is one of the Flashman series (Redskins), and Andy Weir's Artemis (he's the guy who write the Martian, adapted into a film of same name a few years ago), and the original pulp novels of Zorro. Comics are Dick Tracy (just finishing newspaper series for 1944), and a modern Lone Ranger series.

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I keep wanting to get into astronomy, but there's light pollution where I am so put it on hold for the most part. It is fascinating though, but doesn't half make me feel small & insignificant!

Flags are also fun, I taught myself all the national flags with an online quiz. Think first time I got maybe 60, now reliably up to 190 & all 197 frequently.

I do wish countries would have a little more imagination. My theory is your flag should:

• Be able to be identified in black & white (my colour vision is very poor, though normal vision is sharp)
• A child would reasonably be able to draw the main components of the design
• Not share the full colour palette with it's immediate neighbours

So many blooming tricolours! 😛

Want a fun flag fact? 

The State Flag of Hawai'i is the only one to feature a the UK's Union Jack on it. Despite this, the UK never formally ruled Hawai'i. In simplest terms, the Hawai'ian King basically thought the UK flag was cool & adopted it to show friendship. They eventually realised the nationalistic meaning of flags & combined the UK with the US's stripey colours as a “joint-friendship” between the two nations that visited the most. Obviously, a bit more to it than that, but in a 2 minute nutshell.

I play piano and guitar, big Marvel & DC nerd, enjoy concerts (mostly Rock, Metal & Country), and a movie enthusiast (Sci-Fi, Horror & Drama). And I work in IT so I'm a tech guy as well. 

Both of you should have appeared on “Fun with Flags” with Sheldon Cooper.

Collector, don't give up on astronomy. I also have heavy light pollution by living on a medium-sized city, but I can still see the brightest stars and the most famous constellations.

For the basics, I recommend a binocular. It works wonders, even with light pollution you can see lots of stars if you look at the region where the Milky Way is.

And get a sky map. I recommend the one available here: https://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

For me, I can say videogame, books/comics/mangas.

Along with coins and notes, I have a small side collection of stamps and a half dozen fossils.

Giobruno , what fossils do you have? That's cool as crap! I should've added video games to the list too, I'm terrible but enjoy the campaigns of most RPGs and COD like games. 

Oh, I still do my star-gazing when I can. Got an alright view of last week's planetary parade, though only three were visible for me (Mercury too low on the horizon, Uranus too faint).

Have some more flag facts:

Here's how the UK flag happened:

Despite popular claims:

1. The flag is not symmetrical. The thicker white bar in the top left is the top, with the thinner red bar on the flagpole. This is because the cross of Scotland takes precedence over the cross of Northern Ireland, as it was part of the union earlier.
2. Some people claim it's only supposed to be called the Union Jack when flown at sea (or other waterway vessels), and the Union Flag when on land. This is not true, the flag has utilised both names continously since introduced in 1606.
3. The original Union Jack was created in 1606 which means it actually predates the UK itself which didn't form until 1707, 101 years later! (England & Scotland shared a monarch but were separate nations. However, the Union Jack was created for joint efforts)
4. The modern Union Jack (with the red X for Ireland) was created in 1801. Depending on your metrics, this can make it the oldest continously used national flag. The other contender is Denmark's flag which has existed since the early 1200s, was used formally adopted in 1625 as the national flag. However later in history it stopped being a national flag (being a military flag instead), but was re-adopted as the national flag in 1856(?).

And did you know that in times of war, the official flag of the Philippines is flown upside down with the red side at the top. It is the only nation where this occurs.

(Other nations do have historical war flags though few are utilised today)

Let's combine astronomy and flags. Go Alaska state flag!

Okay enough from me. For now. 😉

And if you want to test your national flag knowledge, here's a quiz: https://www.sporcle.com/games/g/worldflags

Danthann

Giobruno , what fossils do you have? That's cool as crap! I should've added video games to the list too, I'm terrible but enjoy the campaigns of most RPGs and COD like games. 

For short, 3 trilobites, 3 mosasaur teeth, one shark tooth and one small orthocone shell, all from Morocco.

I made a post here about my trilobite last year.

Since it's a side collection, I only buy one or another cheap one. But I love learning about them.

……………………………………….

Wish I could see the parade, but it got a little cloudy on the weekend. But we can still see Venus, Mars and Jupiter.

A Collector

Outside of coins & banknotes, I'm a very heavy reader.

 

I have incredibly varied tastes, but my prized collections are from the Scottish publishers DC Thomson. I have every annual they've produced for the Dandy (1939-ongoing), Beano (1940-ongoing), the Broons & Oor Wullie (1940/39-ongoing, though 4 are modern reprints, I do have the rarest as an original), as well as every spinoff character album, possibly all of their one-shot annuals (There's debate over the existence of one of them. An advert supposedly exists but no-one, not even the publisher's own archive, has a copy of the book), as well as many of their adventure series mainly starting from the 1930s.

 

The rarest 2-3 books frequently trade at £1,000+, though many 1955 onwards are very affordable.

 

I also love the proto-superhero / pulp heroes, usually the early 1930s (i.e. pre-Superman). Some are novels, some are comics, many are actually from newspaper strips. Think characters like the Green Hornet & Kato, the Lone Ranger, The Phantom, Doc Savage, The Avenger, Buck Rogers, Mandrake the Magician and my personal top five: Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, The Shadow, Dan Dare, and my absolute favourite, Zorro!

 

I do have later comic stuff too of course, the big names like Superman & Batman, assorted Marvel characters, as well things like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Usagi Yojimbo.

 

In terms of proper books, love my realistic-ish historical character series like Sharpe, Flashman, Macro & Cato, and Hornblower. But can quite happily read just about anything. I struggle with fantasy though; probably requires more imagination than I have. 🙃

Also have every Scarlet Pimpernel book (most people think there's only one story, there's 11(?) full novels, two short-story collections, and 4 spin-off types) which took some finding.

 

I've usually got 2 non-fiction books, 2 light-reading fiction, 1 “heavy”-reading fiction, and 2 comic-y books on the go at any given moment.

 

Right now, reading about The Glorious Revolution, and the 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa (which is truly fascinating as with the advent of the telegraph, it was the first global event with (relatively) instant news updates). Fiction is one of the Flashman series (Redskins), and Andy Weir's Artemis (he's the guy who write the Martian, adapted into a film of same name a few years ago), and the original pulp novels of Zorro. Comics are Dick Tracy (just finishing newspaper series for 1944), and a modern Lone Ranger series.

 

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I keep wanting to get into astronomy, but there's light pollution where I am so put it on hold for the most part. It is fascinating though, but doesn't half make me feel small & insignificant!

 

Flags are also fun, I taught myself all the national flags with an online quiz. Think first time I got maybe 60, now reliably up to 190 & all 197 frequently.

I do wish countries would have a little more imagination. My theory is your flag should:

• Be able to be identified in black & white (my colour vision is very poor, though normal vision is sharp)
• A child would reasonably be able to draw the main components of the design
• Not share the full colour palette with it's immediate neighbours

 

So many blooming tricolours! 😛

 

Want a fun flag fact? 

The State Flag of Hawai'i is the only one to feature a the UK's Union Jack on it. Despite this, the UK never formally ruled Hawai'i. In simplest terms, the Hawai'ian King basically thought the UK flag was cool & adopted it to show friendship. They eventually realised the nationalistic meaning of flags & combined the UK with the US's stripey colours as a “joint-friendship” between the two nations that visited the most. Obviously, a bit more to it than that, but in a 2 minute nutshell.

Amazing how you are able to read so much at the same time and not get messed up. For some reason I never really got into reading, the most amount of reading that I‘ve done is when I read the Space Odyssey novels. Your idea on how flags should be designed are similar to the North American Vexilloligcal Association‘s (NAVA) five principles of flag design, which are:

1. Keep It Simple.  The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
2. Use Meaningful Symbolism.  The flag's images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes.
3. Use 2 or 3 Basic Colors.  Limit the number of colors on the flag to three which contrast well and come from the standard color set.
4. No Lettering or Seals.  Never use writing of any kind or an organization's seal.
5. Be Distinctive or Be Related.  Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections.

I’m also able to match the countries with their flags, I think I could get every one correct.

I actually did know about the history behind Hawaii’s flag, and in my opinion, it looks nice despite being a complicated design

Awesome tonsee another vexillologist (if that's what ut's called)! 😁 I have also created a bunch of flags just for the fun of it.

I am also into languages. I have studied a lot of languages, but also comparing grammatical structures through out a language family as well and comparing vocabulary and such. So even if I don't speak the languages, I can still understand a lot of languages, in written form, because of this. And to sray on the “dork trail”, I have even gone a step further and started with conlanging (conlang = constructed language, like Esperanto and Toki Pona). I am currently working on a Baltic language. 😁

Here's the flag of my Baltic tribe:

I like to participate in writing contests that are numerous in my country. 

There is just a subject, a number of words not to exceed and then everything is allowed !
I don't know what it can give in English with Google translate but here is an example of a contest that I won. 

It was at the time when the series "Fear the walking dead" was successful.
 

Subject: Fear the hot air

Length 500 words

It was a terrible heatwave!
Luisa languished, liquefying in this humid torpor that had lasted for days. In our apartment flooded with a burning sun, she simmered gently in her sweat. At first, she had tried to resist, she had tied her hair up in a bun, put on light clothes, drank iced tea... But none of this had refreshed her for long. The unbearable heat had gotten the better of her will and, tired, she had embedded herself in her leather armchair, which had quickly enveloped her in a sort of sticky dampness from which she could no longer escape. The constant cloud of the scent of the Sardinades from the old port mingled with the clatter of the boats in the harbor. Even cockroaches had deserted the burning concrete banks, succumbing to ardent rays.
I didn't think anymore, I remained prostrate, curled up in fetal position. At night, walls radiated, almost glowing with a nuclear furnace.  Greasy smells of the grills toppled the thin ochre curtains that the wind no longer stirred against a background of the constant hum of the highway lacerated by horns that windows no longer stopped. The building was deserted. Neighbors too happy to take advantage of the few degrees less of this torrid night had to crawl on the sidewalk.
She pulled herself out of her soaked bassinet like a soapy slide she slid to the ground, without a sound, just the splash of a pile of laundry being put down.
She still wanted to continue to pamper me. In the fog of this blaze she murmured in a sensual voice as dripping as a saturated sponge.
I could hear the crunching of her breasts on the parquet floor, she pushed with one leg to crawl towards this shapeless mass that the Moon reflected on my shiny skin. The meowing of the parquet floor indicated her erratic approach. I was no longer dreaming, the fjords of Norway and the polar bears had fled, even the memory of the lines of dried cod from the frozen Lofoten Islands had deserted the shores of my wavering thoughts. I had nothing left but a pot-bellied and overheated Eskimo to refresh my neurons.
Her arm finally comes to wrap itself around my inflamed waist. Like a brazier I feel her belt of fire calving my insides. My last strength leaves me and I wander, comatose, hallucinating.
I feel the floor scraping my kidneys or is it my head swiveling?
The door slams and the glass rattles and suddenly it’s the overwhelming wave of life that is reborn, my lips come apart and our tongues connect, it tickles my palate and the inside of my cheeks and nibbles me delicately, the fireworks flood my brain which is lounging in the vegetable drawer of the fridge, with Luisa.

Danthann - Love to see musicians, particularly pianists. Not a skill I have, so one im very envious of. 

With the Marvel/DC stuff, is it the modern-ish pieces or the earlier pieces you go for? I've been collecting Marvel's Epic Collections (until I literally ran out of bookcase space) so I love seeing the earlier titles. Of the big names, favourite has to be Dr Strange, but I do love Sgt Fury too.

Got DCs Golden Age omnibuses too (again ran out of space) but fun to see the early Superman & Batman.

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Giobruno - I just can't get into manga. I did read the entire Lone Wolf & Cub (Mildly interesting) but I could not get into the New Lone Wolf & Cub. Think I gave up about a third to half the way through. Got fed up of the hero shouting his catchphrase (something like Ches-tu-do).

I think I recall your fossils post. Was quite interesting to see them. 🙂 Especially the trilobite.

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Pluto - I think it's just how my brain works. I'm really good at compartmentalising things, like scary good. I can put something down for weeks on end, then pick it up & recall all the core plot points. Do it at work too. A few jobs ago, I had four filing cabinets, each with four drawers, and full of files. Quite often I could say “Oh first filing cabinet, third drawer, about half-way in”. Also had our entire design catalogue codes memorised (we had ~140 designs).

On the other hand, I'm useless with languages. I've really tried but they just don't click. I can sometimes kind of read enough to get the jist of a sentence, maybe string along a written broken sentence “Me fail languages? That's unpossible”. Hearing & speaking is just nope.

And I'm not very practical. I can understand how to do something, but I can't get my hands to do it.

Everyone has their skills. Mine is mental data retention, and I can speak “numbers”. 🙂

That creative stuff with flags you (And Ngdawa!) can do I find just so impressive. I couldn't do that and make it look good. 

I disagree with the NAVA stuff to some extent though.

It doesn't need to be too simple. A child's drawing should be recognisable even if wildly inaccurate. Like the UK flag is weirdly designed from a technical perspective, yet a red + × with white borders on a blue background would easily pass despite being probably less than 50% accurate.

Meaningful - Yes.

Colours - No. It needs to be done carefully & tastefully. But tell me that South Africa, Comoros, Central African Republic, or The Seychelles don't have amazing, yet colour heavy, designs.

Lettering & Seals - Kinda. Text shouldn't be so large as to be a key component, but I wouldn't call a flag “bad” purely for having it. Take Brazil, looks pretty neat to me. Though I do think the text should not be the country's name (looking at you Honduras & Nicaragua! And like 90% of the US state flags…).

Distinctive - 110%. This kind of backs onto my theory that a black-white (or greyscale) version of your flag should still be easily identified.

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Ngdawa - Hey, if Tolkien can invent Elvish, why can't you invent Baltic-ish? 😛

Love the flag. I can see the Nordic influence in the cross, yet refrains from using a basic Nordic cross design.

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FrenchLover - Some very lovely & creative writing there. 😲  Yet another talent I envy. To have such imagination must be a wonderful thing.

Way back when, I did write some basic saga-esque poetry about my friends characters in an online game. I don't recall much-to-any of it though. But it contained verses on their background & skillset, before jumping into a combined adventure. I thought it was pretty good. 😛

Anyway, your 500 essay, I can see how it would do well & win. 🙂

A Collector

Danthann - Love to see musicians, particularly pianists. Not a skill I have, so one im very envious of. 

With the Marvel/DC stuff, is it the modern-ish pieces or the earlier pieces you go for? I've been collecting Marvel's Epic Collections (until I literally ran out of bookcase space) so I love seeing the earlier titles. Of the big names, favourite has to be Dr Strange, but I do love Sgt Fury too.

Got DCs Golden Age omnibuses too (again ran out of space) but fun to see the early Superman & Batman.

 

=====

Giobruno - I just can't get into manga. I did read the entire Lone Wolf & Cub (Mildly interesting) but I could not get into the New Lone Wolf & Cub. Think I gave up about a third to half the way through. Got fed up of the hero shouting his catchphrase (something like Ches-tu-do).

 

I think I recall your fossils post. Was quite interesting to see them. 🙂 Especially the trilobite.

 

=====

Pluto - I think it's just how my brain works. I'm really good at compartmentalising things, like scary good. I can put something down for weeks on end, then pick it up & recall all the core plot points. Do it at work too. A few jobs ago, I had four filing cabinets, each with four drawers, and full of files. Quite often I could say “Oh first filing cabinet, third drawer, about half-way in”. Also had our entire design catalogue codes memorised (we had ~140 designs).

 

On the other hand, I'm useless with languages. I've really tried but they just don't click. I can sometimes kind of read enough to get the jist of a sentence, maybe string along a written broken sentence “Me fail languages? That's unpossible”. Hearing & speaking is just nope.

And I'm not very practical. I can understand how to do something, but I can't get my hands to do it.

Everyone has their skills. Mine is mental data retention, and I can speak “numbers”. 🙂

 

That creative stuff with flags you (And Ngdawa!) can do I find just so impressive. I couldn't do that and make it look good. 

 

I disagree with the NAVA stuff to some extent though.

It doesn't need to be too simple. A child's drawing should be recognisable even if wildly inaccurate. Like the UK flag is weirdly designed from a technical perspective, yet a red + × with white borders on a blue background would easily pass despite being probably less than 50% accurate.

 

Meaningful - Yes.

 

Colours - No. It needs to be done carefully & tastefully. But tell me that South Africa, Comoros, Central African Republic, or The Seychelles don't have amazing, yet colour heavy, designs.

 

Lettering & Seals - Kinda. Text shouldn't be so large as to be a key component, but I wouldn't call a flag “bad” purely for having it. Take Brazil, looks pretty neat to me. Though I do think the text should not be the country's name (looking at you Honduras & Nicaragua! And like 90% of the US state flags…).

 

Distinctive - 110%. This kind of backs onto my theory that a black-white (or greyscale) version of your flag should still be easily identified.

 

=====

Ngdawa - Hey, if Tolkien can invent Elvish, why can't you invent Baltic-ish? 😛

 

Love the flag. I can see the Nordic influence in the cross, yet refrains from using a basic Nordic cross design.

 

=====

FrenchLover - Some very lovely & creative writing there. 😲  Yet another talent I envy. To have such imagination must be a wonderful thing.

 

Way back when, I did write some basic saga-esque poetry about my friends characters in an online game. I don't recall much-to-any of it though. But it contained verses on their background & skillset, before jumping into a combined adventure. I thought it was pretty good. 😛

 

Anyway, your 500 essay, I can see how it would do well & win. 🙂

A lot of people think it’s weird being a musician and collecting coins, not something you see a lot. For the marvel dc stuff it’s honestly both. I love the modern movies and the old comics, I have started collecting the Ultimate series in marvel (X-Men, Spider-Man) and some of the current short series. 
For DC, mostly Black Label (darker, more violent) series and Batman. 
Favorites are Captain America and Batman. I have tattoos of both on my calves and plan on getting so much more. 

I used to collect comics as a kid & had some pretty interesting ones (but they were in pretty poor condition after I re-read them a 1000 times). I had some very early editions of Star Trek, The Monkies, Rat Patrol & others.  But they were all donated eventually (& in rough condition). So I got back into it after finding the first 2 Captain Canuck editions.  I didn't even know this comic series existed until I stumbled upon them at our nearby thrift store.  I have been picking up a lot of older Music, Sports & other Time anniversary magazines + a few comic books (Star Trek) if I come across them as well.  

At one time I collected stamps, postcards & older cameras but I haven't really kept at it. I also love to read & highly recommend anything written by Philip Kerr (Dark Matter is set when Newton was master of the mint). His 'Bernie Gunther' books are always fun to zip through.  I also picked up some of his first editions in hard cover (which is not hard to do).

Beside the love of coins, I like:

Reading books (Sci fi, fantasy, horror) and I “try” to collect vintage books of that genres. And also old coin catalogs.

Music. I love music, can't say is a hobby I guess, but is my daily motivation. Anything from heavenly piano soundtracks to gore regurgitations.

My biggest hobbies are a combination of reading books and articles relating to history, art history, politics and political theory, international relations, philosophy, religions and theology, and sometimes the classics. I also enjoy collecting other things of all sorts, and video games take up too much of my time lol. Other hobbies I enjoy are playing the piano, fossil and rock hunting, metal detecting, thrifting, target shooting, and rewatching my favorite movies and shows for the Nth time over. Typically collecting things is an overarching hobby, leaving me with boxes of books, DVDs, records, games (video and board), gaming memorabilia, ceramics, antiques, books, prints, sheet music, fossils, rocks and crystals, and Russian nesting dolls. It's hard to keep track of so many hobbies and collections so inevitably I go long periods of time before picking a hobby back up and running with it for a while.

Over the years l have had many diverse interests which still interest me today and include collecting vintage firearms and also making working replicas of them. Vintage cinamatography projectors and films, growing carnivorous plants, Aroids and Orchids

Full size arcade pinball machines, currently l have only 2 inc StarTrek tng.

 A workshop of vintage lathes of which l have made a number of youtube videos

Video games right back to the early days, now aged 79 l still enjoy the latest games on my PC which my grandkids think is cool 😂