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Key-J
Paragon

What do you do when you're not gaming?

Our community seems to be growing, which is awesome! So I'm curious what does everyone here do when they aren't gaming? It could be your favorite hobby, your go-to non-videogame or anything in between!

Me, I'm a big fan of cooking - so I love to try and make elaborate meals from time to time. Even if it is to the dismay of my wife, who thinks I overcomplicate things 🤣, and create a big mess lol.

Other than that the rest of my free time is occupied by my kids and having fun with them. PSA: For anyone who doesn't have kids, or is about to. Prepare to spend a lot of time on the floor. 

So, what about you? What do you enjoy?

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**Canadian Gamer & Father - www.twitch.tv/AFKidsGaming** - Live Wed & Fri at 8:00pm PST - Come join!
42 Replies
tenzo23
Elite

Usually catching up on streaming shows and movies (Raised by Wolves 2 most recently, Disney+ MCU and Star Wars series, YouTube, DVR.

Fixing something that's broken around the house.

Finding something I don't really need on Amazon..

/sig Fun guy.

I like to think of myself as an amateur photographer. My subject material ranges from portraits, landscapes to taking photos of my cat.

I also enjoy programming in C, Python and I'm competent with PHP and JavaScript. 🙂

 

Finding something I don't really need on Amazon...(Yup, me too 😅)

Sam
Your biggest fan!
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

planning to next few days and try to make myself better and better.

Likebrews
Adept II

Cooking, catching up on world news and SLEEPING!! I also like to putter around the home either improving or fixing what's broken. Then back to gaming!!

AMD Ryzen R7 2700X on MSI B450 Tomahawk Max 64GB Corsair RGBPro RAM MSI Armor 8GB RX580 WD NV750 Black Creative xFi Fatality 7.1 Twin MSI Optix MAG27322CQR
BigAl01
Volunteer Moderator

After I retired in 2014, I wanted to give back to society for what was a decent career (electrical engineering). I chose cat rescue, so I have a 'Cat Tuesday' every week where I feed feral cats in the morning and rescue cats at pet stores in the afternoon / evening. It's one day a week that I commit to helping cats, as they are very special to me. We have three cats in our home and two outside that adopted us (they have heated beds by our front door in the winter months). It's a sad fact that I don't game very much anymore, mostly due to my right wrist that was damaged in a 1983 motorcycle accident and that same arm was broken in early 2019 when I fell on black ice while walking in the woods. As we get older, age starts to creep up on us and so you need to do your favorite things while you're still healthy. I do enjoy building computers though. I usually build one a year because I love to create things.

This is Tiger.  He adopted us maybe five years ago.This is Tiger. He adopted us maybe five years ago.This is Horacio, a feral cat that hangs out behind a Safeway grocery store in Burke, Virginia with his brother Baby Gray.This is Horacio, a feral cat that hangs out behind a Safeway grocery store in Burke, Virginia with his brother Baby Gray.

As Albert Einstein said, "I could have done so much more with a Big Al's Computer!".

@jamesc359 

@BigAl01Great thing you're doing there!

Hey guys!

/edit Sorry I'm the noobie!

Feel free to share more of your pics here!

AMD Community Pet Appreciation Thread 

/sig Fun guy.

@BigAl01 Love the photos of your cats, and it's great to hear about your involvement with rescue. I'm hoping to become involved with dog rescue once I'm able to buy a house. Sorry to hear about your injuries and that they affect your gaming time, but it sounds like your time is very well-spent regardless. 🙂 I too have had to cut back on my gaming as I've gotten older - I have some achy hands and finger joints that make gaming for long periods of time difficult.

When I'm not gaming I'm usually working 😂 Other than that, I'm usually doing chores around the house (cleaning, watering my many plants, etc), spending time with my dog, reading, and engaging in my other hobby, model horses. 😄

---
Ashley
Ryzen 7 5800X • Radeon RX 6900 XT • Gigabyte X570S AERO G •

I spend a lot of time in front of a computer and having a day job in the Digital dept., its computers all day long..

Others will just ask me, don't you get tired of standing in front of a computer, are you not bored yet?
Well, no.

If I'm not gaming I'll be browsing around in foruns like this, retrogaming, smart homes, ASUS RoG and others.
Following some youtubers for entertainment (either tech, travel or science) and always keeping an eye for online deals, call it window shopping.

Lately for the past months, I'm investing a great deal my time on a Youtube Channel of mine as a hobby.
Scripting, staging and filming the videos can be very fun, you learn a lot with mistakes you never thought.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtXrDgfao1koKkqTfhpvCOQ


The Englishman
sim987
Journeyman III

I usually bing watch on Netflix, Disney+Hostar, etc. Or in the meantime, I play with my cats and also gain some knowledge from Youtube and Pinterest. As many people answer over there and many videos on various topics.

Simran Saxena
Sam_AMD
Community Manager

I have a brand new hobby, started about 5 months ago while remodeling my son's room. Since, for now, he wants to be a jet fighter pilot, we themed his bedroom with jet fighters' posters and models hanging from the ceiling. Fighters include classics from the Vietnam era to post-cold war, like the F-4 Phantom, F-16 Falcon, F-14 Tomcat, A-10 Hog, etc. 

So I went all out and got an airbrush kit, bought a few kits, paint, cement, tools and started modeling. (I did some modeling when I was a teenager, but not at this level). Here are a few pics:

Posters_and_Models.jpgSams_F-14_1.jpg Sams_F-14_3.jpg 

Sams_F-14_4.jpg Sams_F-14_5.jpg Sams_F-14_7.jpg

I have to say it's a great hobby (as playing chess, I'm hooked). I do it at night, when the kiddo and wife are asleep. I spend an hour or two in the garage building and painting...it helps me relax and get away from it all (I'm sure you know what I mean). 

By the way, this is a great discussion @Key-J ! I enjoyed reading everyone's replies - great people, great hobbies, thank you all! 

Sam
Your biggest fan!
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

"What do you do when you're not gaming?"

Waiting for AMD to fix their Drivers for Games i want to play 😄

0 Likes

Watch sports on t.v. streams on twitch.

I like to read. Cook, laugh at memes.

rockmuncher
Adept II

I'm usually busy lifting weights or reading. I lift three or four days a week, cardio two or three days. I love the challenge of it, and it feels good to hit new personal records from time to time. PR days are few and far between, but they're a wonderful high.

great act so time doesn't wasted
ThunderBeaver
Miniboss

Making homemade slow smoked BBQ.

Ribs

Brisket

Roasts for pulled meat BBQ sandwiches.

Roasted sweet corn in the husk.

I make my own sauces and dry rubs from scratch. My own recipe no cookbook needed.

There is plenty of Oak Mesquite and Pecan wood where I live for fuel. Just go to the edge of my yard break off dead branches when I need wood to smoke with.

Turkey is actually my favorite meat to smoke takes 45 minutes to 1 hour per pound but **bleep** is that a tasty bird. Every time I smoke turkey usually 20 to 25 pounders there ain't nothin left for sandwiches.  

Awesome! How do you make your brisket?
Sam
Your biggest fan!
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

I start by rubbing it down with stone ground spicy brown mustard then rubbing in flake salt black pepper and minced garlic.

Let the Brisket rest in the fridge overnight.

Get my smoker ready the following day take the brisket out and let the internal temp come up to about room temp usually takes about 2 hours. This helps ensure that the tendons ligaments and various fats break down which gives that lovely juicy sticky finger can't get enough of taste.

I smoke about 50 minutes per pound at around 190F then for the last 2 hours I wrap in aluminum foil and bring the temp up to about 220 to 230F to get that delicious bark on the outside that has the taste and consistency of high quality beef jerky. I prefer to smoke with seasoned Pecan wood as it doesn't flare up like mesquite or hickory causing temperature spikes. Plus pecan wood adds a mild smokey flavor that doesn't overwhelm the seasoning and flavor of the meat.

All this time I slow simmered my BBQ sauce for about three hours in a cast iron pot. Then for 3 hours I place it in the smoker with the lid slightly open and stir in the smokey flavor that builds up on the surface each time I check the brisket.

I kind of spoiled my local butcher is an old friend and trims my meats like a master craftsman. Also he only deals with locally raised and processed livestock so quality is worth the extra price.  

 

Oh my goodness! Sounds delicious! And it sounds like you are a pro at it. I just learned how to make the "perfect stake", and I'm planning on experimenting with brisket. My neighbor has a smoker so, soon enough, when it gets warmer here in TX, I'll bug him to let me cook with him.

Thank you for sharing your technique and recipe (I'm grabbing a screenshot!) 🙂

Sam
Your biggest fan!
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

Wait here in Texas?

Well shuck my corn we live in the same state.

@Sam_AMD those models look fantastic! I can totally understand your "get away from it all" moments - those I think are needed by everyone. I remember building little models when I was a kid, nothing to that size or sophistication - but I know it can be both fun and relaxing.

@ThunderBeaver Your BBQ sounds amazing, I am a huge sucker for good BBQ but it is something I don't have enough of (or at least as much as I want). We used to have a huge travelling BBQ show come through town every summer for a weekend, and I used to love to go to that. Of course with COVID that hasn't been around for a while. Although, I did hear of a new brewery that opened up in town, that specializes in BBQ. I think I need to give that place a try, especially after reading through this post.

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**Canadian Gamer & Father - www.twitch.tv/AFKidsGaming** - Live Wed & Fri at 8:00pm PST - Come join!
Sam_AMD
Community Manager

Thank you @Key-J 

About BBQ. It's an art! I watch a few TV shows about BBQing and can appreciate all the "magic", efforts, ingredients, talent,  techniques, passion folks put in BBQing @ThunderBeaver 

I would have it everyday!  

 

Sam
Your biggest fan!
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

Sometimes I get lost in deep thought and do something dumb.

Example: I forget to not scratch my itchy nose with the same hand I was scratching my itchy backside with. 😛 

knlegend1
Adept I

I'm into music and photography as well. I edit in LrC and music with Abelton Live 10. 

Hi @knlegend1 

What type of music are you into? 

Sam
Your biggest fan!
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

When I'm not gaming, I'm raising 2 little girls solo. All about that single dad life. Or working another job. 

Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL , 5TB SSD , 13TB Mechanical. Crosshair VII , 5800X , Nvidia 3090, 32gb 14 14 14 32 @ 3600mhz Corsair ram. Corsair 860 AX PSU , RGB like crazy.
Karlpetersen
Adept I

I have an AMD 7 3800x with Nvidia RTX 2070 Super,  32 GB ram and a 500 GB SSD,  when not gaming, I'm dual crypto mining.  Mining with cpu and gpu simutaneously,  and still putter around online at same time also.

 

red5
Miniboss

This whole fiasco with chip shortages and crazy prices kinda pushed me away from my 20+ year hobby as a PC enthusiast. My second passion is cars, so I've had 3 different Mustangs in the past 2 years. My latest, which I bought about 6 weeks ago is a 2003 Mustang Mach 1. They were a limited edition model only made in '03 and '04. I have some plans to upgrade it when spring comes. I also plan to travel around to some car shows and meets around my area.  I've also started to revamp my basement gaming setup. Covid put a huge damper on hosting LAN parties, so I'm hoping to have my LANcave re-done by the time most of this is 'over'.  It's going to be focused on 'retro' PC gaming if you want to call it that. I want to focus on games from about 1999 to the mid to late 2000's.  My kids were fairly young then, and we had LAN parties all the time.  We all agree that most newer games can't hold a candle to older games for LAN parties.  We play lots of FPS and RTS games.  With my LANcave version 1.0 we'd sometimes have LAN parties 4 or 5 times a week. The most PCs we ever had gaming at one time was 19. Great time! Included a link to an old Imgur gallery - https://imgur.com/gallery/pCJYTIMG_1586.JPG

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1085972132004991
Discord https://discord.gg/pttrmDpeVN
BigAl01
Volunteer Moderator

@red5 - We have similar interests.  I'm not so much into cars anymore though.  I did help a friend rebuild a Sunbeam Tiger (maybe 1967 or 1968?) in my parents garage back in the late 1970's / early 1980's, but I mostly just drive around to support cat rescue activities now.  I was studying to be an auto mechanic in high school and then the first year of community college when I switched to electrical engineering as a career.  That took another four years of university to complete, plus two years of night school to get my MSEE while working as an engineer.  I do like hosting LAN parties though and this COVID-19 issue has impacted that quite a bit.  I'm thinking about a Labor Day LAN party at Big Al's Computers this year.  I hope I can make it happen.   

 

Jenn came over to see all the gaming happening at our May 2021 LAN party.Jenn came over to see all the gaming happening at our May 2021 LAN party.

As Albert Einstein said, "I could have done so much more with a Big Al's Computer!".

walking around taking photos 🙂

watch crypto mining vids

Crypto mining videos? Wow...can you share (embed) one here? I'm just curious to see what they cover...

Sam
Your biggest fan!
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

Just working overtime while it is still available. Saving up for upgrades.

Snobb88
Adept I

I watch some anime series/movies and sometimes I search for twitch streamer who has just 3 viewers and talk whit him.

Learning for school, chilling outside whit friends when the wheater is good.

 

bluefrg
Adept I

I am out cooking on my outside grill and smoking beef and pork. Thank playing my Fender Strat.

ThunderBeaver
Miniboss

Lately my nephew and I who both have 10 year old daughters have started teaching them about firearm safety and proper firearm control.

On sidearms shotguns rifles and bows. 

This was the age that we were granted that responsibility and now we are passing that knowledge on.

Our daughters really enjoy it though they do get some minor bruising from the shotgun and rifle recoil they don't complain about it. 

The main thing we drill into them is every firearm is to be treated like it is always loaded and that it could go off without warning even if you know its unloaded.

Also how to clean and maintain the firearms after use. We get some complaints from that due to some of the solvents and lubricant odors used in maintaining firearms but they still enjoy it.

Those girls are way better shots at that age than we were. Happy daddies passing on knowledge. 

Thanks for sharing @ThunderBeaver 

My dad taught me how to use firearms when I was 12-ish. I respect them. We used to go out to my aunt's house (in the hills) and spend a few hours shooting at cans, bottles, etc. I clearly remember the first time I shot his rifle, I was a little scared, nervous, with a splash of excitement...then boom! Just like that, I got over it.

LOL - "Those girls are way better shots at that age than we were. Happy daddies passing on knowledge." Good one! 😉

Sam
Your biggest fan!
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800XT
drpluto
Adept III

watching alot of youtube and discovering artist like laura nyro

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lowteck
Miniboss

I DAD.

Gaming is just a way to decompress from DAD'ing.

To elucidate on what it means to DAD,  I Protect, Provide, Proselytize, Procrastinate, Pillory, and Prognosticate. 

My children are all adulting full-time nowadays and I still DAD.

Best job I ever had...

 

 



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