Hobbies

[haggholm]

Between work, something of a social life, programming for fun, and exercise—currently jiu-jitsu twice a week and weightlifting once a week—I manage to keep pretty busy, with reading always available to fill out the corners. There are a great many things I would like to do, but just can’t prioritise (kickboxing—I could do it, but when I’m there I’d rather practice jiu-jitsu), or don’t have enough time to invest in (judo).

And yet there are a couple of things I would like to either try or actually pick up. For instance, I would like to learn to fire a gun. This has nothing to do with self defence or anything like that. I don’t want to own a gun, and I can’t imagine carrying a gun around even if I legally could. I’d just like to go to a range, rent a gun, and learn to shoot it, because it seems interesting.

Then there’s the Academie Duello, a school in downtown Vancouver—a five minute walk from my office!—that teaches swordplay. Not modern fencing with ultralight foils that don’t work as weapons, but mediæval and renaissance swordplay: Rapier, sidesword, longsword… (They also have other weapons—quarterstaff, spear, sword and shield, pole ax—and knightly pursuits like falconry seminars.) Since they offer a free introductory class, since they have lunch-hour classes, and since they are, as previously mentioned, a five-minute walk from my workplace, I think I may at least go try it out one of these weeks.

I wish a week were a lot longer, work a lot less time consuming, and my energy levels considerably higher…