[QUOTE=Spiny Norman]
I am not belittling their courage. If the balloon had gone up, they’d undoubtedly perform heroic acts of incredible self-sacrifice, mostly due to a lack of understanding of the situation. I just would’ve wished that they’d be in somebody else’s unit when doing so.
[/QUOTE]
I see you have read Murphy’s Laws of Combat
Never share a foxhole with someone braver than yourself.
[QUOTE=Scissorjack]
I can’t really recall being bored by a photography buff in quite the same way as an audiobore.
[/QUOTE]
Thanksgiving’s at our place this year, you’d be welcome to come by and test your threshold.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
I’ve done tons of genealogical research for my own family, and I couldn’t agree more. I definitely get into the Sudoku meets Zen fits of trying to figure out exactly who this guy’s father was or if this guy from 1624 Virginia is related to this guy from 1682 Virginia with similar surname, but I recognize that it’s a solitary and limited interest thing. I try not to share anymore than stuff that I think relative strangers would find interesting (an ancestress who was her own step-sister or how much slaves were traded for during the Civil War and the like), but once it gets to the point that it’s just names on a piece of paper even I lose interest as my main purpose is trying to reconstruct lives.
By far the most entertaining thing in the research, though, is reading the editorials in old southern newspapers. This actual one I clipped from an Elmore County, Alabama, newspaper at the time of/in reference to the Evelyn Nesbitt trial:
I LOVE things like this, especially since you know for a fact that this woman would have stripped naked and wrestled the corset off of anybody who tried to get between her and the only copy of the latest installment of this sordid tale she so “hated”.
But as far as being 18th cousins 21 times removed to the undermayor of Epilepsy Glenn, Tennessee, I couldn’t agree more; I can see why it might be interesting to you but not to anybody else.
[/QUOTE]
My favorite is an ad on the second page of a newspaper where the front page is all about war with Spain and the Maine and such. The ad goes:
WAR! WAR! WAR!
Not war with Spain, but a war on prices!
You have to imagine the WAR part four inches tall.
Anything to do with cars (see Jeremy Clarkson and his little crowd of brown nosers).
This might be a little bit meta, but nobody’s mentioned it yet, so it has to be said:
Potheads.
The distinction here is that very few potheads sit around and smoke weed — and then do absolutely nothing. No, they smoke weed, and then they engage in various activities: many of them hobbies that have been mentioned in this thread. And the infusion of marijuana into the activity makes the already tedious wankery even more tedious because it’s filtered through the single note of potheadedness.
Foodie pothead: “Yeah, but have you ever tasted foie gras… on weed? There’s like this whole other layer of texture, and the flavor has so much more depth, you can like taste the grain the duck ate, and…”
Sports pothead: “Yeah, but have you ever watched baseball… on weed? You can actually see the pitcher and the batter trying to read each others’ minds, man…”
Cinemaphile pothead: “Yeah, but have you ever watched Bad Santa… on weed? It’s just so dark and so mean, it’s amazing the movie ever got made, it’s like the producers had no idea what kind of movie they were signing off on…”
Gamer pothead: “Yeah, but have you ever played HALO… on weed?”
Audiophile pothead: “Yeah, but have you ever listened to Miles Davis… on weed?”
And so on. I’ve never talked to a stamp-collecting pothead, but I imagine the experience would be similar: “Have you ever compared a mid-1930s British stamp with a late-1960s British stamp… on weed?” or whatever.
Ditto any other hobby mentioned so far, with the exception of those that require intense physical activity. Basically, you take anyone who engages in a primarily sedentary activity, and add marijuana, and you get a hobbyist who is even more obsessive about it than the non-pothead, and who is even more desperate to share the wonder of it all with anyone who will listen.
I win. 
Oh.dear.god. Yes.
A friend of mine is a scrapper. It is such an obsession with her and her life’s work is to do like 4 scrapbooks a year. One for each child ( 2) and one for each grandma.
She talks ad nauseum about it all and carries a camera with her everywhere so she can document the kids on the historic McDonald’s McGermy Slide of Phlegm. if they actually went somewhere other than the local park and McDonalds, I’d want to see the pictures possibly…maybe…ok…never.
She can’t take it any where with her to work on it, but she never.shuts.up.about.it.
It is a mental disorder, I’ve decided.
So, let me tell you about my knitting…my knitting let me show you it.
oh, ha! the scrapbookers. If you think your friend is obsessed Shirley, pray to Og that she never gets bit by the publishing bug. Then scrapbooking alone is not enough. You must discuss the various publishing styles of the different magazines and which one would prefer your tribute to little Sally on the McGermy Slide of Phlem. (how good is the photography? what is the scrapbooking style? how many photos did you use? what size is it?) Then of course there is the quest to get a connection with a scrapbook manufacturer, on the “design team,” which of course means memorizing who makes every “cool” piece of paper in existence and mocking the “uncool” ones. This is also the time the contest obession starts.
I’ve sat in on a few conversations like this. I just want to glue their lips together with their own scrapbook adhesive.
The people we’re hating on have one thing in common. Everyone above seems to be more upset by the lack of social manners of a person cornering you with uninteresting vomit than the subject itself.
A conversation is when TWO people talk.
And now back to your regularly scheduled Pit thread, already in progress…
I think we may have a new contender in our midst: Harry Potter fandom. Try the last page or two of that thread there for a taste, and then realize this isn’t even a dedicated HP message board. 
With regard to audiophiles saying they can hear minute differences between pieces of equipment, has anyone ever done a controlled trial? I suspect most of it is bullshit, but maybe some people can hear stuff that is way outside the human norm (and how accurate are our definitions of the human norm?)
Supposedly, the time it takes for a cricket ball to leave a fast bowler’s hand and reach the bat is too short for the batsman to react. Yet somehow Matthew Hayden can saunter down the pitch and blast Steve Harmison out of the ground. Also, autistic people sometimes have senses that are much more acute than most people’s (and if an autistic person is on weed…).
Anyway, what I’m saying is that it would be good to see whether audiophiles can put their mouths where their money is in a blindfold trial between a £1000 hi-fi and a £10000 one.
[QUOTE=G. Odoreida]
With regard to audiophiles saying they can hear minute differences between pieces of equipment, has anyone ever done a controlled trial? I suspect most of it is bullshit, but maybe some people can hear stuff that is way outside the human norm (and how accurate are our definitions of the human norm?)
[/QUOTE]
A major defining trait of audiophiles is that they have an aversion to blind trials like the Wicked Witch of the West does to water. That is the main reason that people hate them and love to pick on them. It is really bizarre. This trait doesn’t just belong to the individual audiophiles either. Audiophile centered magazines and vendor seem to have a very strong aversion to actual scientific comparisons and don’t seem to acknowledge that such a thing may be appropriate in their passion of choice.
It does fund a nice niche industry however. Monster speaker cable succeeds because of the audiophile mindset however Monster cables are positively plebian now that other audiophiles have gotten them. I don’t know what the real prestige cables are these days but they were pushing $1000 a foot the last time I checked. I is enough to drive an audiophile crazy.
[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
… I don’t know what the real prestige cables are these days but they were pushing $1000 a foot the last time I checked. I is enough to drive an audiophile crazy.
[/QUOTE]
$1000 per foot?? Holy Hannah. Got a link?
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
$1000 per foot?? Holy Hannah. Got a link?
[/QUOTE]
Oh, dude. :rolleyes: <— at this industry, not at you
$1000 cables made of Unobtainium-69 are just the beginning.
A good friend of mine, whom I used to play in bands with, works for Wilson Audio. They make home theater speaker units that go for as much as $150,000 a pop. He was actually as incredulous about it as I was, but then again grateful that people bought enough of them to buy him a nice house.
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
I think we may have a new contender in our midst: Harry Potter fandom. Try the last page or two of that thread there for a taste, and then realize this isn’t even a dedicated HP message board. 
[/QUOTE]
Oof. How could I forget Harry Potter fans? I was cornered by one some time ago. Every time he paused for breath, I’d say “No, I fucking hate Harry Potter.” And he’d still rattle on afterwards. And this was an adult, even. Totally “conversation” lasted a good 5 minutes, which felt like hours.
Is loving Jesus a hobby?
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
$1000 per foot?? Holy Hannah. Got a link?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
$1000 per foot?? Holy Hannah. Got a link?
[/QUOTE]
I am pretty convinced that this is a joke competition among speaker cable makers. The ones linked above cost $23,500 for an 8 foot pair. Be assured someone else will up the ante soon. It makes me want to go to Home Depot and get some material for me to make some and sell them via the web. I would be happy to even fly them personally to the proud owner’s house and deliver them by limo.
Carnivorous plants.
[QUOTE=fessie]
Thanksgiving’s at our place this year, you’d be welcome to come by and test your threshold.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, but at least you can dropkick a camera.
[QUOTE=Zebra]
Is loving Jesus a hobby?
[/QUOTE]
If loving Jesus is a hobby, then I don’t want a job.