# Other interests/hobbies?



## Greg (Dec 19, 2003)

Just curious. Obviously, the members here all have a passion for Northeast mountains. Aside from that, what other things interest you? For me it's spending time with my daughter & wife, computers & technology, and playing guitar. Lately, I've also been addicted to playing the PS2 game, Socom II online...


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## MichaelJ (Dec 19, 2003)

I play as much as I work in software ... maintaining my web site, writing code, etc. Other times I play piano, sing, and occasionally compose. In the nicer weather I hop on my bike and head to the area woods trails.

Occasionally I have been known to sleep.


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## ChileMass (Dec 19, 2003)

Camping on the Cape, in Maine (usually Sebago) and in the White Mts (Bartlett, NH) with my family and friends.  Hiking in the Whites is a passion, just wish I could get there more often than 1-2 a year.  King Ravine and the RMC trails on the north side of the Whites are unbelieveable.  The other thing that keeps be busy is fixing up and maintaining an old farmhouse here in Mass, which my wife and I have been renovating for 10 years.  It's mostly done, but there's always something to work on, and it's a great thing.  And then there's the Red Sox......


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## Jaytrek57 (Dec 19, 2003)

Ok....PStation...I admit it....love the GTA3 Vice City. Nice way to kill time. I'm 36 (37 New Years Day) also like Medal of Honor.

Very involved with Basketball...4-5 times a week. Like reading a great deal as well. Been recently taking up Poker (serious) and have found it to be quite challenging...hoping to do a tournament or two next year.

Keeping my equipment room (outdoor) neat and tidy...hey what can I say.


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## jlangdale (Dec 19, 2003)

I play guitar as well, six string nylon acoustic.  I play Clapton mostly.  I also like to fly fish, goto movies/dinner, play with my daughter & my dog, take photographs and drive around in either my Jeep, my Corrado or my Fiat Spider convertable.


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## Greg (Dec 19, 2003)

jlangdale said:
			
		

> I play guitar as well, six string nylon acoustic.  I play Clapton mostly.


6 string steel for me. Mostly play Dave Matthews...


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## ChileMass (Dec 19, 2003)

Any other Deadheads out there - ?


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## Greg (Dec 19, 2003)

Greg said:
			
		

> jlangdale said:
> 
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> ...


If anyone's interested, here's a multitrack recording of me playing Jimi Thing (Dave Matthews). I will warn you that my voice sucks. Okay, you've been warned:

http://www.gregblasko.com/music/mp3s/jimi.mp3

Also, I spaz out on some of the improv leads so they're a little disturbing to listen to. Just fooling around here...


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## teachski (Dec 19, 2003)

Well, lets see now....
-There is my website and maintaining it.
-There is the Quabbin Community Band Website (which is tabbed off of my site) which I also maintain.
-There is the unofficial Pine Ridge Website (also tabbed off of my site) which I created and maintain.
-Collecting ski memorabelia
-Visiting defunct ski areas
-Ski history

In addition to that....
-I just had 6 Bb Clarinets dropped at my door for me to overhaul.  
-I love being on line and browsing different sites.
-Family
-Travel (though mostly New England and by car)
-Shopping
-Crafts
-playing my clarinet and bass clarinet
-singing (though I am not nearly as talented as my brother and his daughter-currently a Soph. at the New England Conservatory)
-listening to my niece sing

And oh yes, teaching (above and beyond my job) skiing, crafts, etc.

I don't like to stay home with nothing to do and I don't like to talk on the phone.


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## jlangdale (Dec 19, 2003)

Greg said:
			
		

> Also, I spaz out on some of the improv leads so they're a little disturbing to listen to. Just fooling around here...



I've recorded myself a few times.  Not brave enough to let anyone else hear!  Hah.

I started playing a 12 string guitar in Guam in 91 (sounds like a sony lyric).  Nylon is just too easy and sounds cool.  I'm a lazy bastard.  I also had a Les Paul and a Fender Strat and would love to play SRV.  But my youthful days are behind me.


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## MichaelJ (Dec 19, 2003)

Hmm ... I know someone who's trying to learn to ski...



edit: oddly enough, when I posted this, it was directly below teachski's hobby-of-teaching-skiing post. But looking today, it's further down and doesn't make as much sense (nor retain its humor value).

Oh, well.

Off to REI to pick myself up bc touring skis ... Merry Christmas to me!


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## riverc0il (Dec 19, 2003)

love music.  i am a DJ, have played out in a few clubs in boston.  love clubbing, dancing, electronic music (some favs are autechre, general midi, momu, kraftwerk, boards of canada, fretwell, blim, proper filthy naughty, pmt, hybrid, etc).  also play or have played guitar, trumpet, and various other brass horns.

obsessive reader.  tolkien is my favorite fiction author (hate the movie, VERY disappointed in the vision jackson created and the slight liberities he took) and also read some salvatore and other forgotten realms authors.  non-fiction has generally been topical progressive readings such as zinn, chomsky, and various other critiques on modern society and how capitolism is fux0r3d and NOT operating the way it should be.  etc.

watch lots of movies.  love tragic endings (american beauty, se7en, etc), anything by david fincher (fight club), lions gate films, indie flicks, etc.  anything different than the typical and boring blockbuster movie.  lost in translation gets my movie of the year nod so far.


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## Greg (Dec 19, 2003)

Greg said:
			
		

> If anyone's interested, here's a multitrack recording of me playing Jimi Thing (Dave Matthews). I will warn you that my voice sucks. Okay, you've been warned:
> 
> http://www.gregblasko.com/music/mp3s/jimi.mp3
> 
> Also, I spaz out on some of the improv leads so they're a little disturbing to listen to. Just fooling around here...


Is it _that_ bad..?


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## Max (Dec 20, 2003)

I also play guitar, 6 string Lowden...and an ex-bluegrass banjo picker.  Ride road bicycle, and tour the country with my wife on the Honda Goldwing motorcycle.


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## jlangdale (Dec 20, 2003)

Greg said:
			
		

> Is it _that_ bad..?



No, pretty good actually.


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## Greg (Dec 22, 2003)

jlangdale said:
			
		

> Greg said:
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> 
> ...


Thanks Jon. Here's another:

http://www.gregblasko.com/music/mp3s/cry_freedom.mp3

That's another Dave Mattews tune; a pretty song called 'Cry Freedom'. That recording is just me and guitar with very little effects so it sounds more like a solo acoustic thing. Guitar is a Martin DX1 with a B-Band A1/AST pickup.


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## SilentCal (Dec 22, 2003)

I bowl four nights a week and maintain a 194 average.  Still looking for a 300,  have come close several times but i am in desparate need of a shotgun to blast the 10-pin on several occasions.   I also belong to Big Brothers/Big Sisters and  have a 'little Brother' who I am trying to get into hiking.  (anything over a mile and he's had enough)    I also love to read and knock off a book about every 10 days.     During the summer  I hike  Period.


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## MichaelJ (Dec 22, 2003)

Awww, Cal, what's this 10-pin stuff? You're in Western Mass, you should be bowling candlepin! I've got about a 109 average in my league and broke 600 (for five strings) for the first time last week with a 637. It was a good Christmas present.


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## Max (Dec 23, 2003)

Isn't  candlepin bowling like trying to eat M&M's with chopsticks??


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## Greg (Dec 23, 2003)

oldhippie said:
			
		

> I've been riding motorcycles, since '73 and skiing since a long time before that.
> 
> from *this post*


Hey Hippie - just checked out your Website and motorcycle page. I love this pic:

http://users.net1plus.com/srl/images/steve 73.jpg

The nighthawk is cool too. I had a 1996 Nighthawk 750 for a few years. I've since sold it and entered the world of a wife and daughter. I'll probably revisit the motorcycle world again someday...


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## SilentCal (Dec 23, 2003)

Actually I know of only one place in a 20 mile radius to bowl candlepin.  There may be others but I'm not too sure.   Geez  MichealJ I know you didn't start bowling candlepin in Ludlow!! :roll:   Actually Micheal you may know where I bowl.  Right off of exit 6 on the Mass Turnpike.   Not too far from your old stomping grounds.   You'll have to let me know when you come back to the area.  We could hit the Seven Sisters.


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## MichaelJ (Dec 23, 2003)

Max -

It's not *that* hard. It's just more fun and challenging than eating M&M's with an enormous spoon!

Cal -

Sure, I started candlepin in my Ludlow days. When I was in summer day camp at Whitney Park, once a week we'd get on the big blue Brunswick bus and ride over to the Airway Lanes at Liberty Plaza in Springfield. We had our choice of 10-pin or candlepin there. Other times my father and I would head over to State Bowl, a masterpiece of "not renovated since WWII". I actually would have loved to have owned that place ... I could have done a ton with it.

But I agree, it's not like the days back in my dad's time, when every town center (including the Orchard) had their own lanes. Mmm. Indian Orchard Pizzeria. But I digress...

BTW - "Bob" from the VFTT board, who did the Peak Above the Nubble bushwack with us, is from and lives in Ludlow.

I know exactly where you bowl - they still have the statue saluting the highway there, don't they?

I'd definitely like to come back some time and do the Holyoke Range - I never hiked as a kid so it would be a ton of fun to get out there. I'll bring my bike and ride around Quabbin and up on the bike trail in Northampton, too. Hmmm... the area seems like so much more fun now than it ever did when I was young!


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## SilentCal (Dec 23, 2003)

The Airway lanes is the only place I know of in this area.   State Bowl closed this year.  The statue is still there and you know exactly where it is that I bowl.  Does Bob have a website.  I may have swapped e-mails with him recently.  The Holyoke Range is a nice little area to escape to.   Plenty of loop hikes and even solitude if you know where to go.   The only thing it lacks are some waterfalls but i guess you can't have everything.    Quabbin is also a nice place to go.  Man I can't wait until the snow melts....


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## MichaelJ (Dec 23, 2003)

State Bowl closed? Dang. I would have done so much with that place if I'd owned it...

I don't think Bob has a website ... he's not HikerBob of BobsPics.

To keep things on a hiking topic, is there access to the old SAC base buried in the mountain up by the Notch? I'd love to hike up there and see it if it's open to the public.


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## SilentCal (Dec 23, 2003)

I'm not 100% percent sure of this but i think one of the local colleges uses the old SAC base for storage.   I've heard lots of stories(probaly not true ones) about that base.   I don't think it's open to the public as usually there is a speed-trap set up at the entranceway to that area.   I may just have to run over there one of these days a scope it out.


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## MichaelJ (Dec 23, 2003)

Hey, look what the magic of Google can find: an article on Amherst College's purchase of the old SAC bunker for records storage, and some photographs of the place.

I am _definitely_ coming back sometime next summer and hiking that range!


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## St. Jerry (Dec 27, 2003)

Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2003 3:25 pmFriday    Post subject:    

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any other Deadheads out there - ? 



Yup.  about 60 shows.


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## smitty77 (Dec 29, 2003)

*SAC Bunker*

Michael,
  Where in Hadley is "The Notch" and the SAC Bunker?  I think I took a high school hiking trip to the top of the mountain back in 1992 or so and remember the teacher mentioning something about a military installation dug into the mountain.  I also seem to remember it being a relatively short ride from the greenhouse we visited earlier in the day at U-Mass Amherst.  I'd like to take another hike up there again with the family so if you can provide me with some general directions it would be appreciated.  The company I work for is based in Sunderland on 116, so I'm pretty familiar with the area.

Getting us back on topic:
  I love watching and playing hockey.  (Ice and roller-hockey)
  I used to ride road and mountain bikes quite a bit until I got married and became a dad.
  I'm now starting to dabble in carpentry which has recently taken a back seat to moving into our new house over the holiay.
  I also love spending time with my son, now 17.5 months old, and am really looking forward to getting into the mountains with him again this year.  (The avatar is us on Mt. Monadnock picking blueberries this summer.)

Happy Holidays to everyone!
  :beer: 
Smitty


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## MichaelJ (Dec 29, 2003)

The Notch is Rte 116, a few miles south of Atkins' Farm. The SAC bunker is on Military Road and is under Bare Mountain. There's a Notch Visitors Center at the crest, as well as that huge quarry which by levelling the other side (the former Round Mountain) has effectively made the Notch not a notch anymore.

Here's a link that also has a map. Also, there's a fantastic picture of the quarry from atop Bare Mountain on this page.

Mmm ... nothing quite like fresh Atkins cider or a candied apple.


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## Greg (Dec 31, 2003)

Since there are a few folks in this thread that play guitar, I figured I'd mention here that I'm planning to sell my 12 string. It's a *Seagull S12+*. There are a few dings in it, but it plays wonderfully. I could let it go to someone on the board for $250. I'd rather give it a good home than put it on eBay, but that's the approach if nobody here is interested. I just never play it enough. PM me if interested.


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## smitty77 (Jan 5, 2004)

*The Notch*

Thanks Michael for the info on The Notch.  It sure sounds like the place we visited.  I'll have to do some hiking out there this spring.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe new year!   :beer: 

Smitty


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## jimme (Feb 11, 2004)

You mean there's more to life than the family and skiing? Once I got back on the boards in 2000 I have been obsessed. I basically fake everything else I do. If I'm playing Golf and see a hill, I think about skiing it. Hiking in the woods, I think what a great ski trail it might make. Canoeing helps build my upper body. . .for skiing. I try to restrain myself as my girls are sometimes annoyed with my obsession. This all makes me wonder if I should have taken the ski instructor job at West Mountain 25 years ago instead of taking the DJ job at a local club. Did the club DJ thing for 12 years, then got a job with NYS as a Local Area Network Administrator. (A real stroke of luck that proves my own theory wrong about nice guys.  :roll: ) I've been listening to the Dead since American Beauty was released. First Dead album bought was Workingman's Dead. Then I had to return a warped Clapton album and picked up Amer. Beauty instead. I love to listen to music, but with everything else I have going on my listening time is pretty much all done in the car. Bought a Epiphone Hummingbird 6 string a few years ago, but have played it very little. (Mid-life thing. I had one of these when I was in High School.) Did I say I like to ski? Skiing sets your soul free. For me, three hours on the slopes has the same effect as a week or two off from work. I hope my personalty is better in real life than on the fourms.  :-? 

Jimme


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## 57stevey (Feb 12, 2004)

Lots of guitarists here! Maybe it's a risk-taking thing? Anyway count me in... played in local cover bands for several years but haven't recently.

I like amusement parks in the warm season... Canobie Lake Park is in-town for me and we usually make a few treks to Funtown, Six Flags, Lake Compounce.


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## Greg (Feb 12, 2004)

Steve1321 said:
			
		

> Lots of guitarists here! Maybe it's a risk-taking thing? Anyway count me in... played in local cover bands for several years but haven't recently.


Cool! 8) If you're up for a laugh, here are some recordings I did:



			
				Greg said:
			
		

> If anyone's interested, here's a multitrack recording of me playing Jimi Thing (Dave Matthews). I will warn you that my voice sucks. Okay, you've been warned:
> 
> http://www.gregblasko.com/music/mp3s/jimi.mp3
> 
> Also, I spaz out on some of the improv leads so they're a little disturbing to listen to. Just fooling around here...





			
				Greg said:
			
		

> Here's another:
> 
> http://www.gregblasko.com/music/mp3s/cry_freedom.mp3
> 
> That's another Dave Mattews tune; a pretty song called 'Cry Freedom'. That recording is just me and guitar with very little effects so it sounds more like a solo acoustic thing. Guitar is a Martin DX1 with a B-Band A1/AST pickup.


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## Starter Jackets Rule! (Feb 12, 2004)

Mtn Bike,fish and spend quality time riding the V-Twin.....


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## bur5465 (Feb 13, 2004)

Boating on Winnipesaukee, mountain biking, hiking.
Don't get out much; I'm too much of a tech-head. (You can't spell "Geek" without EE.)


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## Joshua B (Feb 13, 2004)

I enjoy alpine skiing, exploring lost ski areas, photography, body surfing at the beach, music, talk radio, Japanese tuner cars, tennis, TV DVDs, and amusement parks--especially roller coasters. I tend to dive deep into whatever I'm feeling at the moment. Maybe I get a little to into it.


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## 57stevey (Feb 13, 2004)

greg said
"Cool! 8) If you're up for a laugh, here are some recordings I did:"

I'm not familiar with the material but it sounds pretty good to me Greg! I always admire anyone who can do a solo acoustic type thing... I can hardly play a note unless I have the band to hide behind (even when I'm out front)  :roll:


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## severine (Feb 15, 2004)

We used to hike a lot, but got away from it in the last few years.  We're hoping to start that up again once it gets a little bit warmer.  I also used to waterski and hope to do that again at least a few times this year.  And someday I'd like to take up kayaking... We had a really cool whitewater rafting experience in Montana a couple years ago and ever since, I've been really eager to try that again.
Other than that, I'm back in college part-time right now, so I don't have much time for other activities.  When I do have free time, I like to read, take photos (although they're not anywhere near as good as ones I've seen that were taken by other members of this board), work on my website, write, and hang out with friends.


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## lilybean (Feb 23, 2004)

Actually skiing and hiking are my hobbies. I am a musician, so I spend most of my time with that. I teach spinning at a gym in N. Andover, so anytime I can grab my dog and go outside I am happy!!!!


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## Joshua B (Jul 13, 2004)

Steve1321 said:
			
		

> I like amusement parks in the warm season... Canobie Lake Park is in-town for me and we usually make a few treks to Funtown, Six Flags, Lake Compounce.



Steve, you might want to check out my new web site, Lake Compounce Fan Forum.


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