Hobbies, Interests & Things I Use

An ongoing list. Last updated May 2024.

Hobbies

• Journaling: I’ve journaled on and off since 2007.
• Nature Walks & Hikes: Even more fun with curious little kiddos.
• Reading: Too many great books/authors to list.
• Exercise: Running, trail running, cycling, walking, soccer, frisbee, basketball, badminton, swimming, rowing, and skiing are my favorites in no particular order.
• Scale Modeling: Got into this in college as a way to de-stress. Turns out handling minuscule plastic pieces can also be stressful, but on the whole I find building, painting, and weathering scale models to be a cathartic activity, especially with an old movie playing in the background. I mostly stick to WWII vehicles. My favorites have been the Academy TBM Avenger, the Tamiya A6M5 Zero, and the Airfix Fw190-A8.
• Amateur Ham Radio: Got my technician license (Callsign: KK7KAQ) in early 2023. Mostly enjoy listening to local nets I happen across and taking my radio into the mountains with my brother-in-law and dad. Recently got a DMR I’m excited to delve into when I get more time.
• Watercolor Painting: I’m so bad but it’s so fun.
• Sketching: Used to draw much more than I do now. Still, I enjoy sketching the occasional building, spaceship, or elderly man (according to my wife it’s the only type of person I can draw with any degree of accuracy).
• Fishing: Trout, salmon (still seeking my elusive first!), bluegill. I really only got into fishing in 2023. Every time I go I ask myself, why didn’t I get into this sooner? When you have a decent clue what you’re doing, fishing is so enjoyable on so many levels. My wife is my good luck charm.
• Rockhounding: Hunting agates, jasper, carnelian, petrified wood, quartz, and chalcedony. A great excuse to get into nature and learn about things we take for granted; the PNW has some of the best rockhounding in the country world.
  
• Crossword Puzzles & Scrabble: I plug away at these types of game from time to time. Much preferred to, say, number games like Sudoku.
• Chess: Low elo legend. Big fan of the London system (when I can remember how to use it).
• Stamp collecting: Took my kids to the annual stamp expo in Portland this year. They were the youngest one’s there by two generations. The various booth owners doted on them, giving out plenty of stamps and covers (old letter envelopes) to start their collections.¹ Philately is a great hobby for kids and adults alike—it involves history, geography, culture, and art. I’m only just scratching the surface, but I like how each stamp tells a unique story–either about those exchanging it or the time in which it was produced.
• Camping & Backpacking: Last year (2023) I took A on his first backpacking trip. An incredible memory—the first of many, I hope.
• Archival Research: Here.
• Soccer: Grew up playing & watching. Big Arsenal fan.
• Language learning: Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Spanish (in that order).
• Letter Writing: I sometimes wish people still sat down and corresponded like they used to. It affords the space and time to think about what you really want to say in a way texting and phone calls can’t.²

Things I Use

I don’t have to have the best, the biggest, or the latest and greatest: I like things that work and work well. Here’s some things I’ve stuck with through the years.

Pen and Paper

• Pentel P209 0.9mm Lead Mechanical Pencil: I used to exclusively use 0.5mm mechanical pencils, but I picked this one up a few years ago and never turned back. I don’t use pencils all that often, but I enjoy the yellow color and find the balance and styling of this one particularly satisfying. They work outside, on wood, for projects, for broad, thick sketching and outlining. They write on darn near everything.
• Lamy Safari (Charcoal, fine): I’m not a fountain pen snob. I like my pens to be reasonably affordable, timeless, and well-made. I always come back to my Safari.
• TWSBI Diamond 580 Clear: I love this one with deep blue ink.
• Rite in the Rain 3 1/2”x5” Weatherproof Soft Cover Pocket Notebook: These are built to last. Great if you love using pencils or ballpoint pens.
• Plotter 2mm Grid Refill Memo Pads: Beautiful, compact, so handy to carry. May eventually switch to these as my EDC notebook.
• IBM Selectric III Self-Correcting Typewriter: Got this thing for $50 and have been loving it ever since. The internals are so complicated I’m scared of anything breaking! Not to mention the typewriter repair market isn’t what it used to be…

Every Day Carry

• Garmin Instinct: One of the best objects I’ve ever bought, period. That’s how good this thing is. I’ve worn worn it nearly every day (in every condition imaginable) for the past five years. I’m on my third set of silicon bands (cheap replacements on Amazon), but the watch just. keeps. going. I suspect I’ll be singing the Instinct’s praises for years to come.
• Kershaw Ken Onion Leek, 3” (olive drab): One of the best knives I’ve ever owned. It’s almost perfect. So light you forget it’s even there. Love the simple lock mechanism and the way it tapers to a sharp point.
• Gerber Suspension-NXT: Whenever I need a multitool. I often take this one fishing.
• Kokuyo Field Sketch Book (3mm Grid): I was a big Rite-in-the-Rain guy for awhile, but this little notebook has converted me for the time being. Love the smoothness of the graph paper and size of the squares. Excellent for doodling or journaling. I do wish it was a tad smaller.
• Uni Jetstream SXE3-507 3 Color Multi-Pen: I’m always carrying different pens, but lately I’ve been enjoying this one a lot.
• Headphones: I’m probably the furthest thing from an audiophile. If I have to go wireless, I prefer second generation Airpods. They fit my ears better than the newer ones. I use Bose SoundSport In-Ear headphones (wired) almost every day. They’ve been beat up, chucked around, sat on, chewed on (I have a toddler), and I never get tired of using them. On flights, I go old school with a pair of Bose QuietComfort 2s from the mid-2000s. I never tire of wearing them, either.

Software

• DEVONthink: Scanned documents, searchable repository for my archival material, imported PDFs, archived web pages, family stuff, pretty anything I come across, I throw in there.
• Things: Great to-do app. Basically use it as a catch-all for random notes and thoughts and things I need to remember until they get archived somewhere else.
• IA Writer Classic: Love it for writing markdown. Bought it in 2014. Still haven’t felt the urge to cough up $50 for the upgraded version.
• Obsidian: Used to use it much more than I do now. Great for so many reasons.
• Inkscape: For whenever I need to do anything with vector graphics.

Photography

• Canon EOS 70D DSLR: I inherited this camera from my mom, and I’ve been using it off and on for almost a decade now. I’m no professional; the extent of my photographic knowledge basically begins and ends with the “Rule of Thirds,” something I learned in my 6th grade photography class. Back then we were using some pretty cool cameras. Floppy discs!³
• 24mm and 55-250mm lenses: I own two lenses—the first is great for all-purpose, general photography, the second is great for portraits, nature photography, close-ups, etc. I’m pretty sure I’m living well beneath my privileges: I leave my camera on automatic most of the time; I don’t like to fiddle with settings (or know what I’m doing when I do). Someday I’ll figure out how to maximize its capabilities. By then I’ll probably be ready to buy a new camera. For now, I’ll keep using my old Canon to take purposeful pictures whenever the desire arises.

Computer Hardware

• Apple M1 Macbook Air (2020): Hands down the best laptop—nay, computer—I’ve ever used. Traded in my 2019 Macbook Pro (intel chip, touchbar, potentially the worst keyboard ever) for this model. The M1 chip was like a quantum leap in terms of speed, battery life, and overall enjoyment.
• Apple iPad Mini (2021): Extremely useful in the archives. My iPad and iPhone (and their built-in OCR) have honestly revolutionized the way I do archival research. Better autofocus. Easier to hold. Totally silent. Great resolution. Simple to charge. The iPad is also great on flights, watching the occasional movie, taking in the car, etc.
• Apple iPhone 12: I try to put off getting a new iPhone for as long as I possibly can. It’s fine.
• Lenovo ThinkCenter M715q Tiny: Got this in 2019 for using Windows at home. It has been an excellent PC. Love the small form factor. It punches way above its weight. I enjoy a good Lenovo keyboard, too.

Honorable Mention

• Spartus Alarm Clock Model 1140: I’ve used the same vintage alarm clock since I was a kid. It’s a wood-grained 1980s SPARTUS with bright red numbers. I love it.

General Interests & Things I Like

There’s no rhyme or reason to this section, just a record of things I generally enjoy.

• Good people
• Mountains, Rivers, Beaches
• Cannon Beach; the Oregon Coast
• Great notebooks
• Graph paper
• Typewriters
• Farming
• History
• Oral Histories & Conducting Oral Histories
• Military History
• Supranational Organizations
• Multilateralism
• Collective Security
• Security Studies
• Leadership
• Antique Books
• Meditation
• Positive Affirmations
• Harmonicas
• Great speeches
• Architecture
• The country
• Cooking
• Flight simulators
• Self-examination
• Grand Strategy
• Statesmanship
• Gardening
• Values
• Adventuring
• Animals
• Trees
• Snow sports
• Snow caving
• Snowball fights
• Snowshoeing
• Travel
• Cats (and the occasional dog)
• Record players, MP3 players; records, MP3s (didn’t keep many tapes or CDs!)
• Antiquing
• Sporting events
• Maps
• Short stories & narrative prose
• Nachos
• Building Fences
• Old Time Radio
• Marksmanship & Skeet Shooting
• Happy Homes
• Emergency Preparedness
• Ranching Life
• Wisdom
• Talking to the Elderly
• Being Amazed by Sheep Dogs
• Digital Minimalism (an aspiration, not a reality)
• Plaintext Simplicity
• Spearmint Gum
• Being a Lifelong Student
• Kindness & Compassion
• Skipping Stones
• Keeping a Personal Website
• No Social Media
• Salmon Fishing
• Making Jerky
• Landscaping
• Commonplace Books
• The Winchester Diver
• Diogenes
• Spiritual mooring, ethics, laws, values
• Good citizenship
• Topography & Mapmaking
• Smiling
• Wartime Letters
• Simple Living
• Gratitude
• Apples (Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji, Pink Lady)
• Lost Apples of the PNW (Harrison, Nero, Summer Rambo)
• Smart layering
• Digging holes for plants
• Uplifting symphonies
• British walks
• Mint tea
• Chocolate Digestives
• Wool blankets
• Suits
• Religious hymns
• Lifesavers
• Root Beer
• Pistachios
• Peanuts in the shell
• Short naps & long naps
• Vintage service stations & pharmacies