Personal
When I'm not doing physics (which is a depressingly small amount of time) I
have a number of hobbies.
Before grad school hijacked my life, I did Jui-Jitsu for seven years.
If I ever have time again, I'd love to get back into this. I also enjoy really
good scotch and beer and discussions ranking Bush amongst the
worst presidents of all time, but I'm not sure these count as hobbies so I
won't list them below.
Weightlifting and Kettlebells
Rant Warning!
I workout 6 times per week. I need to make this perfectly clear:
I AM NOT A BODY BUILDER.
Body building is one of the lamest things on Earth...right up there with
crotch-rocket motorcycles and OBX stickers.
I train for strength. I used to do powerlifting, but I've recently switched to
olympic style lifting.
I don't use any fancy machines (or any machines at all).
I don't use a pad when I squat or wear gloves.
I never isolate a muscle group or feel the burn.
I just do compound exercises (cleans, squats, etc.) with heavy
weights. This is the only real way to train.
I also use Russian kettlebells. They are basically cast iron cannonballs with
handles. There is no better way to de-sissify (to quote Pavel)
yourself then training with kettlebells.
See Dragon Door if you
think you're up to the challenge...even if you're not up to it, watching
Pavel's training DVD is pure entertainment.
Music
I love a number of different types of music. I play guitar, though not as well
as I used to.
My favorite artists are Tom Waits, The Mars Volta, Johnny Cash, David Bowie,
Led Zeppelin, etc...etc...etc...
Ice Hockey and (American) Football
My two favorite sports teams are the Pittsburgh Steelers and
Pittsburgh Penguins. The Steelers
(American football team for any non-Americans out there) won the Super Bowl in
2006. This may have been the greatest moment in human history. Or, at least,
second to evolving the opposable thumb...without which you can't throw a
football.
Rant Warning!...Again, sorry.
Ice hockey is the greatest sport on Earth. If you get hurt, you deal with it.
You don't take a dive and pretend to be hurt and cry like a soccer player
(this insult is directed at men's soccer, it doesn't seem to happen
in the women's game...they're actually pretty tough).
You keep playing. It is not uncommon to see a guy
break his jaw or foot or whatever and come back later in the SAME GAME
and score a goal.
The Penguins won two championships in the early 90's and were a really good
team until 2002. After a few down years, they're back and made it to the
Stanley Cup finals this year. Hopefully we'll win the Cup next year.
By doing so, we can also continue the recent trend of keeping any Canadian
teams from winning it...it's always good to keep Canada down (especially now
that their dollars are actually worth something).
Movies
I typically like movies which are character driven and could be characterized
as
strange. For example, The Big Lebowski, Ed Wood, everything Wes
Anderson does, etc...
Some of my other favorites are Pulp Fiction, The Godfather I and II, every
Rocky movie except V, etc...
