Hobbies
Over the years, I've picked up a number of different hobbies in varying capacities. Below are a few of them that I continue to actively pursue, with a brief history on how I got started, and how I'm currently staying engaged.
General Aviation
Ever since I was a young child, I have always been fascinated with flying. It may be due to the number of flights my family brought me on while visiting family, or jsut watching the liberation of the birds in the sky that drew my attention. However, due to a number of factors in my developmental years, my dream of flying was put on hold.
In 2018, the interest was suddenly re-ignited - partly due to finding out its accessibility, and also in part to a renewed fascination with space travel. As such, I embarked on a discovery flight to determine if flying truly is something I wanted to pursue. From the moment I held the controls, I was hooked, and immediately enrolled in a private pilot course at Namao Flying Club.
Thus far, I've started toward my private pilot license, with over 30 hours of flight time in my logbook. I've already flown solo, and have a few tasks left prior to being flight test eligible. Depending on factors such as weather and instructor availability, my current aim is to earn my Private Pilot's License by April 2020.
Music
Guitar
In 2006 I decided to take up music as a hobby, and purchased an electric guitar starter kit — which composed of a cheap electric guitar and a small practice amp. On this cheap instrument, I taught myself the basics of guitar tablature and began to play — poorly — some of my favourite songs. At the time, I aimed to play high-speed riffs commonly found in various types of metal music. With enough practice, I was able to reliably play the rhythm aspects of some songs, and some slower solos. The purchase of a tuner made a drastic improvement on the quality of my playing, as my strumming began to resemble music rather than noise.
In time, I felt that I had improved as a player, and decided it was time to upgrade my equipment. As I had proved to myself that this was more than a passing interest, I invested into a moderately-priced guitar and amplifier combination, which I am still using today. My musical tastes had changed around the time of this upgrade, but I had found that the versatility of the guitar allowed for exploration into other genres of music — especially when combined with a host of analogue effects. Further — as complemented by the evolution in my musical tasted — I have added a classical guitar to my collection, allowing for a more mellow and relaxing tone as compared to the harshness that an electric guitar can produce.
While I have taken a few hiatuses from my playing when life got in the way, I've found that keeping my guitars an arm's length away helps keep my skills sharp. Recently, I have found the time to keep myself playing on a regular basis. I'm currently focusing on improving the theoretical aspects behind playing the guitar in order to gain a fundamental understanding of the music that I can play.
Bass
At the same time that I decided to upgrade my guitar equipment, I also chose to explore the world of the bass guitar, and purchased an entry level bass guitar and corresponding amplifier. By purchasing an instrument with both J- and P-style pickups, I was open to the versatility of the bass sounds produced in most types of modern music. By adding the bass guitar to my musical ensemble, I've gained a deep appreciation on the interaction between low frequency sounds and their effect on the rhythms in music, as well as found a way to practice regular timing for use in an assortment of other activities.
As with my guitar playing, my bass playing has also been subject to hiatuses in the past. While I keep my bass close at hand, I am currently taking a break from playing, as I refocus the sound direction I am pursuing.
Piano
In late 2015 — on the advice of a few friends, and aided by a YouTube video series — I started to teach myself how to play piano. My primary motivation for this was twofold:
- to aid in the learning of music theory for the betterment of my guitar playing, and
- to improve my aural training in order to learn songs faster
So far, I haven't made much headway into intermediate playing techniques, but I have learned the basics behind the composition of major scales, as well as the interaction between notes in chords. By being able to physically see the difference between a whole and half step, as well as the single instance of each note on the piano (as opposed to the guitar), I found that the theoretical aspects of music are easier displayed, as is the translation to proper sheet music. I haven't made much headway into my piano study since, due to a number of life and family-related events, but 2020 is looking like a good year for it. My primary goals for 2020 (my 2020 vision, you might say) in piano are to learn the composition of common scales — including the major and minor scales; increase my aural training to recognize notes and basic chords in played music; and to increase the speed of recognition of sheet music in order to sight read new pieces.
Hobby Electronics
Shortly before entering engineering school in 2007, I was volunteering for Discover E Science Camps — a series of week-long day camps with a focus on STEM fields. As a volunteer, I was tasked with supporting the camp instructors with maintaining order with the children in the different camps. One such camp — named Micro — was a camp targeted at junior-high students that introduced them to basic microelectronic circuits. It was while supporting this camp that I too was first introduced to microelectronic circuits — and instantly gained a fascination with the versatility of circuitry. Upon entering engineering school, I found myself surrounded by people with a similar interest in electronics, and proceeded to purchase my first soldering iron, and some basic electronic kits. Some of the first circuits I built included analogue guitar effects, allowing me to combine my two major hobbies at the time. The creation of these sound processing circuits taught me some basics in power management, signal flow and processing, as well as wire management when putting the circuits in an enclosure.
Since my first circuit over eight years ago, I've built a number of additional guitar effects, prototyped various electronic circuits to achieve home automation tasks, and salvaged some electronic devices from the verge of failure — including cellular phones, computer mice, and internal computer hardware. In the upcoming years, my main aim in this hobby is to move past circuits centred around PIC microcontrollers for more advanced automation. Specifically, I'm aiming to delve back into the world of robotics — with a focus on making an automated snow plow prototype before next winter.
Sports
After returning from a 2013 work assignment in Foxboro, MA, I decided to start participating in sports on a regular basis. A number of close friends of mine had already been a part of an EDSA soccer team — competing in both indoor and outdoor seasons — since 2012, and I had joined them in the 2013-14 indoor soccer season. I've been a part of this indoor team since then, providing a supporting role on the forward line. As a team, we've finished with mixed results in different years, but are on pace for a mid-table finish at the end of our current campaign.
In addition to the competitive men's league, I've also been a part of a number of recreational level ESSC teams in outdoor soccer, indoor soccer, and floor hockey. Each of the six teams that I participated in were typically composed of a mish-mash of friends, co-workers, and friends of friends. Serving as captain for four of these teams have taught me more about people-management than any work assignment, primarily due to the differing backgrounds of each of the players on the team.
Furthermore, in January 2019 I joined the NCHL Discover Hockey program at the (minimal) prompting from my friends. I enjoyued developing through the program, and joined the team that my friends had created from the program. In fact, I stepped forward to manage the team - coordinating fees and ensuring player availaiblty for the games. Our team found success in our first season together, and are currently playing in Divison 8 in the NCHL winter season.
Calligraphy
Most recently, I have developed a fascination with fine writing and calligraphy. For many years, my handwriting has been mediocre at best, and with the growing use of technology in my daily life, I found that my penmanship was growing poorer by the day. Recalling the days of hand written letters and pen pals, I decided to improve my writing through regular practice; and to commit to it by using the proper tools. Starting with the purchase of a fountain pen, I began to work on my handwriting into something legible by others, and further into something presentable to others. As my passion and interest in writing grew, I purchased a simple calligraphy set and a small assortment of inks for practice.
Since moving away from a barely legible scrawl, I've had opportunities arise to practice my new-found skills — primarily in the writing of birthday and greeting cards. While the contents of my writing do not necessarily wax poetic, the presentation has a marked improvement over previous iterations — and the addition of a few formal lettering sets in my repertoire aids in the artistic representation of writing.