Things U Would Rather Do Than Play Sports

[sparkle]

Easy for me: Shop. What are your hobbies?

[i_like_1981]

Easy for me: Shop. What are your hobbies?

Me? Well, I would definitely rather put on some quality music from the 1970's or 80's on my old record player from one of my original vinyls. When an album is released in the 1970s or 80s I prefer to buy the vinyl from the time than some souped-up CD version. It's more authentic. Takes you back to the past. Which would basically be where I live were it not for my computer.

I also like to write, watch films and I can't say I mind the odd shop once in a while. I go to the charity shops quite often to see if they have any old records or magazines that would interest me. Usually they do, so I'm a regular donater. But it's not exactly the old classics you find there like Queen... slightly more tacky, naff stuff that younger people would probably laugh at or use as a frisbee. For me, any old record is welcome in my flat. Any modern CD goes out the window to take a 60-foot drop. Hell, take one look in my place and you'll realise that it's a place where the past should remain untouched!

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Earl]

My hobbies?

I'm on a bodybuilding program (which I would consider to be a fitness activity, not a sport). I'm working with a personal trainer at a local health club.

For entertainment I enjoy watching The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Tales of the Unexpected, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. I also enjoy reading short stories by Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, and Robert Bloch.

I also enjoy listening to certain rock songs from the 1960s through the 1980s. I also enjoy a few classical pieces such as Stravinsky's Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring and Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain.

Speaking of short stories, I've been writing one (which I don't intend to even try to get published) that has turned out to be rather long. It's a blend of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

[sparkle]

<3 MST3K

[Earl]

rotten is also a big MST3K fan. I must admit that I had previously seen several of those movies on TV years ago when I was a kid. My favorites include their putdowns of Earth Vs. The Spider, Hercules Against the Moon Men, The Creeping Terror, Beginning of the End, Terror from the Year 5000, and (of course) Manos: The Hands of Fate. Too bad they couldn't have done Night of the Lepus, which should have been retitled Attack of the Killer Bunnies. The worse the movie, the funnier the show.

[Skul]

MST3K for the win. Whenever I'm bored (or even when I'm not), I'll watch an episode of that for a laugh or seven.

I also like reading, writing, listening to music, surfing the 'net and gaming.

[Fat Man]

Anything is better than sports.

I would love to get back to working on my oil paintings. But my left wrist was fractured back in July of 2001, and I'm left handed.

What happened was I was living in a 2 bed-room apartment. My ex-room-mate who had his second stroke suffered severe memory loss, became paranoid, delusional, and violent, and one night, he came into my room and attacked me with a machete fracturing my left wrist, and when I picked up the phone to dial 911, he started hacking the phone line, so I headed out the door, and he struck me in the back of my head. I went down the hall and out the front door to a pay phone on the corner to dial 911. As I went out of the building I left a trail of blood behind me.

An ambulance and two cop cars arrived on the scene, and as I was being strapped to the gurney to be put in the ambulance, I could see a police officer going into the building with a shot gun.

I was in the hospital for three days, my left arm in a cast for a month, and my ex-room-mate went to the slammer for nine months. We went our separate ways and eventually I moved into another apartment across town.

If you look closely at my picture in my Avatar, you notice the black band I'm wearing around my left wrist. I wear that when I go out. It's a wrist support. It protects my wrist from any more injuries. My wrist is stiff, and I barely have any feeling in my two smallest fingers on my hand. So, my left hand is really fucked up!

I use to play the guitar. I can't any more. I use to do oil paintings. I can't any more. Because my left hand is all crippled up. So, that's another thing that has been taken away from me.

Now, I just go on line with my computer, download music videos, and watch TV. And I drink coffee and smoke my pipe or a good cigar. And I enjoy cooking and eating. That's all I have now. No more guitar playing, and no more oil painting.

Yeah! I bet that would make all the jocks and sports fans happy!

By the way, when I watch TV, I don't watch sports.

If somebody were to put a gun to the back of my head and force me to watch a football game on TV, I would say . . . PULL THE FUCKING TRIGGER, NOW!!!

So, I would rather die than to play or watch sports.

[greencom]

I enjoy science and history and all things electronic and mechanical, I combine all of this by collecting military artifacts from the WWII era. I have a collection of military radios from that era that I managed to get working. Recently, by selling some things on Ebay and Craigslist, I was able to purchase a 1942 Willys jeep in nice running condition, I get nothing out of new cars but the old stuff stuff fascinates me and they hold their value. I also enjoy a good science fiction story, I've been getting "Analog" magazine for the past 38 years and enjoy their great science fiction and factual content. All of this is not a casual interest of mine, it's a passion. I cannot imagine myself watching anything as pointless and boring as a football or baseball game, why it's so popular is beyond me. I rejoice in the scientific accomplishments mankind has achieved. I was using my GPS to get me to a guy's house that was selling some parts I needed in New Jersey a couple of weeks ago and it got me to his front door without a hitch, what a marvel of science and technology, I love it! I just hope that this trend of anti-intellectualism in this country will reverse itself . We need more people in science and math not sports. Sports is a dead end stagnant pool of fecal matter. BTW I was born in 1951 and my favorite music is from the mid 80's. I like Robert Palmer, Midnight Oil, Dire Straits among some others. Maybe my ID should be "I_Like_1951". Just kidding there 1981.
Greencom

[i_like_1981]

Maybe my ID should be "I_Like_1951". Just kidding there 1981.

I myself find plagiarism to be a form of flattery! Thanks Greencom!
So, you'd be i_like_1951 and I'm i_like_1981.
Does anyone else want to tell me what their username would be like in that format? Well, it's your choice. But I get the feeling I'm on the younger end of the spectrum in this forum.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Earl]

My username would be i_like_1950. I cannot tell a lie. I'm the oldest one here. That means I'm just an old goat.

[Fat Man]

My username would be i_like_1950. I cannot tell a lie. I'm the oldest one here. That means I'm just an old goat.

Well, I was born in 1951 so that makes me the second oldest goat.

But I don't like the 1950s. That was the McCarthy era, which really sucked.

Gee! I wonder why nobody has made and comments in response to my being on the receiving end of a violent machete attack back in July of 2001.

My left hand is fucked up and I can't play the guitar anymore, and I have been weak and wobbly on my feet ever since I was struck on the back of my head by the machete attack.

That has really fucked me up! For keeps!

[greencom]

Fatman,
My God, that was an unbelievable story! It's good thing the blade did not connect or you would have lost your hand. You certainly have had more than your share of mistreatment at the hands of others, both physically and mentally. I can certainly understand your attitude and feelings. You have a lot of friends here and we sympathize with you.
Greencom

[Fat Man]

Fatman,
My God, that was an unbelievable story! It's good thing the blade did not connect or you would have lost your hand. You certainly have had more than your share of mistreatment at the hands of others, both physically and mentally. I can certainly understand your attitude and feelings. You have a lot of friends here and we sympathize with you.
Greencom

Thank you very much Greencom.

After my ex-room-mate had his second stroke, I was doing everything I could to take care of him during his recovery. He was diabetic, and after his second stroke, he was prescribed insulin, but he would not learn how to take his own shots, so I administered his insulin shots to him.

I did the cooking, preparing the meals making sure that all meals included plenty of vegetables. So I was the official kitchen bitch. But I didn't mind because I enjoy cooking.

But I was not able to do everything by myself. I needed help. He needed some kind of nursing care, but I could not afford it. I was publicly begging for some kind of help and literately down on my knees!

I couldn't handle it by myself. I needed help.

He has suffered severe memory loss, and half the time he didn't know what planet he was on!

Also he had become paranoid and delusional and even violent, then one night he attacked me. I was lucky I didn't lose my left hand. But my wrist was fractured and for almost a month my had stainless steel pins in my wrist and my forearm was in a cast.

I was in so much pain, I was unable to take care of myself and I was deeply depressed. A friend of mine who was a therapist, he arranged for me to spend a few weeks and Santa Teresa, a psychiatric facility. They were really nice there and took care of me, then on the day I was taken home, the cast and the steel pins were removed.

It was good to be home again, and well, my ex-room-mate was in jail.

I finally had my own personal freedom. He had become a tyrant.

He actually resented me. He was only slightly overweight but he had high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, and he resented me, because despite my obesity I was in much better health. At the time I weighed 310 pounds, but my blood pressure has always been normal, and my cholesterol levels are actually lower than normal, he he would always ask how I could be so fat and not have high blood pressure.

I now weigh about 400 pounds, but in my most recent lab results, my cholesterol was only 140 and my triglycerides were only 90 and everything else in my lab results were within the normal range. My thyroid levels were at the low end of the normal range, but still within the normal range. Also, when I went to get the lab tests my blood pressure was 105/68 and my pulse was 56 which is kind of slow. but I have always had a slower heart rate and a lower temperature alike 97 degrees instead of the normal 98.6 degrees. When I first get up in the morning it's usually like 96.5 so I guess it's because of my slower metabolism. I don't sleep, I hibernate.

My ex-room-mate would actually get pissed off with me, because he had high blood pressure and was stroking out and here I was, weighing more than twice his weight, and I guess he thought I should be clutching my chest all the time and gasping for breath since I'm such a big fat-ass.

He was only 5 years older than I was. Back in February of 2005, I found out through a mutual friend that he was in the hospital with another stroke, his third one. I went to see him, and he was in a comma. He never regained consciousness and in march of 2005, he passed away.

He was only 58 years old, the same age I am now.

But since I have been living on my own, free from his tyranny, I'm actually in better health now than I was back in 2001 when he was living with me, because back than, I was under constant stress. He had become a real tyrant.

He didn't know how to take care of himself. When he was much younger, he drank excessively and ate mostly junk foods, and experimented with drugs. This was years before I ever knew him. He wasn't doing drugs anymore and before his first stroke he had a job, but his earlier habits had taken a toll on him, so he was on medications for high blood pressure. He had his first stroke in march of 1997, his second stroke may of 2001, and died after his third stroke on march of 2005. There is something seriously wrong when someone has three strokes in just 8 years.

Anyway . . . . .

Thank to the machete attack, my left hand is fucked up for keeps.

I'll never be able to play the guitar again, and my wrist is stiff and hurts on some days, so getting back to doing oil painting is out of the question.

I never liked sports, but now, I'm fucked up to where I can't do anything else either.

So, I just go on line with my computer, listen to music, smoke my pipe or a good cigar, and watch TV.

I like mostly science fiction movies and educational programming.

But I can't watch any movies that have sword fights in them.

[i_like_1981]

That's a shocking story, Fat Man. There are times when I find myself wishing for a roommate to join me in my flat (preferably a female, but you can't have everything, can you) but having read your story I'm quite relieved I don't. Because when you're stuck with the same person every day for years and you always have to care for each other there will be tensions and if not properly dealt with tensions can escalate. But I've never known of something like this happening to anyone round here before. It's a real shame you can't use your left hand anymore. The potential to do things you love has been stolen from you for no good reason. But I bet you feel better now that you are safe from the terror of another tyrannical roommate who would try to kill you.

Best regards,
i_like_1981