Winter evening hobbies… sat indoors stuff.., what have you got?

My GF has more shoes than I’ve had hot dinners, hence the need for a rather large rack….

There are nine pairs of trainers there. Either you’re breeding your own football team, you’ve got the world’s most bizarre mutation, you’re secretly a girl, or you’ve got eight pairs more than you need.

Monday: at work until 9:30, so go home, beer/TV. Collapse.

On other weekdays: Get home from work about 6. Help feed/bath the kids. Listen to reading books. Read bedtime stories. Start working again until 9:30/10:00. Beer/TV. Collapse.

Repeat until you’ve forgotten what the outside world looks like during daylight hours.

Collapse.

And there was STW labouring under the misapprehension that public sector workers are slackers and the root of all our nation’s ills…. 😉

I cleared my granparents’ house a couple of years ago and took home some old marquetry kits. For the making of this sort of thing:

Just come back from Grandpa’s funeral on Sunday, so I might try and not make a complete pig’s ear of a couple of them.

Wish me luck!

at work 2 or 3 nights
cooking
drinking
Killing/racing friends on xbox live
having a “go” on my weights
fannying about on t’internet
drawing
drinking
reading
going to the pub

Of the small selection in that photo, I think 4 of those pairs are mine:
Trail shoes
New running shoes
Two sets of retired running shoes

GF has about the same + Astroturf trainers.

Upstairs in a wardrobe she has about 12 pairs of work shoes, 4 sets of boots, 6 sets of casual wear shoes

And we’ve not even got onto cycling shoes yet…

Two sets of retired running shoes

Like I said, you have too many shoes. (-:

(Nice rack, though)

Mainly decorating during the winter months, a bit of training on the turbo in the garage (got a few big rides planned for next year) and sorting out the garage. Its a bit of a mess and crashing about in it swearing at boxes of junk and old tools sorting stuff out is strangely therapeutic.

I have an annoying cold which is making me too ill to ride much in the evenings at the moment. So, my daughter is 18 months old, and I’ve decided it is time for her first synthesizer. Apparently this is not normal, my wife didn’t ever have a first synthesizer (Mine was a Yamaha
PSS-680), but personally I think everyone should have a cheap and nasty electronic musical instrument at some point in their life!

I’ve had a bit of a look round, and you can’t really buy toddler friendly musical instruments that aren’t rubbish. So I am currently trying to build / program one myself, based around an arduino micro-processor module I had hanging around.

I had a bit of a requirements/specifications think first and came up with:

1)It should respond quickly without any obvious delay.

2)It should be able to play actual tunes and have an octave of in-tune notes.

3)It should be able to play chords, and/or make horrible noises when you hit lots of notes at once. Kiddy keyboards where it just plays one note at a time are annoying.

4)All the delicate electronics parts should be inside a box away from prying hands.

So far I’ve built a sound generator which gives 8 completely independent sounds (which can be square, sine, triangle and sawtooth waves), which I’m quite happy with – deals nicely with chords and sounds very very dirty if you hold down all the notes at once.

I’ve also made a quick cardboard and tin-foil prototype of an 8 key capacitative sensing keyboard which works surprisingly well and is jolly clever – each key only requires one wire, which minimises gubbins in the circuit, and there are no exposed moving parts, which should hopefully reduce the amount of toddler damage – I’m thinking of using some kind of metal.

It is a bit hard to hear on the video as I’m just using a piezo buzzer while I wait for some headphones out plugs / an amplifier chip etc. in the post, but I’ve made a couple of quick test videos of the current (very far from toddler proof) setup:-

Yoga for the body and mind (one of those things that doesn’t feel right in the summer)
Learning to play my piano. I have some software that will allow me to record some songs once I’ ve written some………;-)

Blimmin hell Joe! I might just get around to grouting the bathroom!

Blob.. yoga feels good all year round… infact it gets better if you do it all year round!

Studying maps, looking for new trails, planning routes, anticipation of riding new stuff.

Now that I’ve got a road bike that means even more perusing of maps.

Except I’m injured and can’t ride. 🙁

So … reading up on local history and there’s an awful lot in my part of the world now. 8)

C_G… is that why you keep posting pics of stone circles? 😉

You should get a 2nd hand turbo me thinks.

This winter I will either be attempting to find a way to bend the laws of physics (at least one law; I realise time’s against me on this one) or practicing stroking in the long pink at pocket billiards – a shot that defines the true pocket billiards guru.

TSY – I only posted two, didn’t I? Used to have a good route that included Stonehenge and am determined to ride it next year!

Agree about the turbo, will be borrowing one but still think my idea of being able to hire a fancy model is a brilliant suggestion. More chance of sticking at it when it’s more interesting and challenging surely?

footflaps that is great, just a pity my hall is too narrow for something like that.
Keep riding but not as much
‘puter ganes, skyrim and MW3 after christmas.

Yeah, it was just 2 now you mention it.

Stonehenge was the only place we got a puncture when we did London to Somerset this year… combined total of 480 miles just to get a puncture were some faux druid had decided to ditch his beer bottle onto the cycle path.

😆 so what was that ride then? Waymarked one or your own creation?

Drinking port, eating stilton.

And the occassional night ride 🙂

Own creation. Got a little lost getting out of London! Because… the guy who ‘knew’ the way only printed out maps for the middle third of the trip 😀

I think I’ll start planning a Welsh 200 miler as a hobby.

My GF has more shoes than I’ve had hot dinners, hence the need for a rather large rack….
Pics of the girlfriends rack?
Might keep TSY ammused for a few minutes too.

It’s foot flaps that has the big rack, on account of all the hot dinners. You don’t want to a picture of that! 🙂

I think I’ll start planning a Welsh 200 miler as a hobby

Plan the other two as well will you? 😛

**whispers**

I’m building a model railway currently, harking back to my youth! My Dad is rather excited I think!

Aye TSY get on it!

I’ve been trying to figure out an English mtb CtoC but on road may turn out to be the best as it can be done in a day rather than a week…

Hopefully going to get some model kits bulit, got an Airfix 1/24 Sea Harrier, a 1/144 Space Shuttle & a Tamiya 1/35 M113 APC. If I’m lucky I might even teach myself airbrushing if I get Mrs MFL to buy me an airbrush & compressor for my birthday. Also got good intentions to use the cross trainer to get fit again & lose some weight. Might even torture myself a bit on the turbo trainer.

[edit] also looking at the transpennine way route as something to do over a few days in the spring, if I manage to get fit & loose weight over the winter[/edit]

I’ve mostly been finishing this, the interior is pretty much done, then I’ve got the exterior to do and the individual track links to build up, should keep me going ti about February.

Ye Gods; the detail on Chupucabra’s* model!!! 😯

(*Naughty… 😉 )

I’m building a model railway currently, harking back to my youth!

I would love to have an Intercity 125 set again, like what the removal men stole. 🙁

Sigh…

Ta very much Elfin 🙂 That’s why it’s taken me so long, the armour plate and the (working) door hinges are cut out of scale thickness brass sheet and it’s got loads of brass etched and scratchbuilt parts, bloody thing has taken me about a year so far, not looking forward to making the tracks up cos they’re made up of individually cast white metal links:(

I’ve really, really got to much time on my hands ……..

Hmm. I have my old model railway (Linx 0 I think – Intercity 125 set). And my dining table (7ft x 3ft) is being stored in the garage pending building works next year….

…I feel a man plan coming together.

Aye TSY get on it!

I’ve got a basic plan… start in the North… finish in the South.

AS for C2C… start East and head West??

I’m good at this planning lark.

Riding, painting and decorating, PS3, bike builds & maintenance…

Guitar/writing music and I’ll soon be getting Skyrim 🙂

It was only last night I was moaning “What shall I do.. I’m bored”

Things that spring to mind today..

Hyper RC Buggy needs servicing/rebuilding
Learn how to fly my RC Heli… Anyone?
Concorde Airfix model to build/paint
PS3/MW3 – Level 58 already!
Make a video from Mont Jovet/Whiteroom holiday footage, still can’t decide on the music/song
Forks need servicing, not sure how
Do an up to date mix CD & mini-mix

joemarshall – Why not chuck a theremin in there too!

oooh, thremin – the only instrument you play by not touching it…

Absolutely fantastic work Chupucabra!

This is my latest, 1/48th MQ-9 Reaper.

During winter there’s nothing better than being out in the shed, rain lashing down outside while the little fan heater and a single malt keep me warm and toasty.

joemarshall – Why not chuck a theremin in there too!

It appears to be blooming easy to do capacitive sensing if you have a decent fast microprocessor, and essentially a theremin is just one big capacitive sensor (a pair of sensors in the fancy ones) and an oscillator, I was thinking of a distance sensitive pitch bend sensor stuck on one end rather than a full on theremin, cos they really suck as actual instruments to play, but are nice for modifying pitch & volume (and it fits with my no exposed electronics toddler proofing plan).

I think my Dad is up to about 7000 un-made aircraft models now.
Never mind the winter, he’s going to need another ice-age for that lot.

I think my Dad is up to about 7000 un-made aircraft models now.

So what do you think he’s doing sat out in the shed all on his lonesome then?

chupucabra – That is really impressive!

Lego,

My version of the Minor Threat Salad Days cover