Your Hobby Before This

Xmen I also had a marine tank. I gave up after I accidentally killed all my fish trying to repair a light globe. Don't ask...

My other real passion is cycling and it is far more expensive than my fragrance hobby. My 2 bikes are worth about $AUD 20K!

If I had to choose either cycling or fragrance collecting? Cycling (but that's because I alrady have a very large fragrance collection).

I am a software developer and I own and run a small IT firm.

Designing.. (graphic designer).. it still is though..

This is my first real hobby, honestly. I have lots of interests, but this is the only hobby I pursue.

I'm a corporate lawyer and I work a ton of hours, most of which i spend wondering what my life's calling is.

Other hobbies and diversions include watching Liverpool Football Club, NFL, boxing, reading, and spedning time finding great food joints. Oh yeah - and just hanging out with friends.

I wonder how many BN'rs are foodies, like me. I'd assume that if your nose can distinguish and appreciate smells with such gusto, you'd be likely to love and appreciate excellent food.

Good thread.

I'm currently a full time student in school usually doing 18+ credit hours a semester, and classes in summer. Doing my major in Political Science BS with a minor in Psychology.

I want to be a fighter pilot for the military when I am finished with school.

I originally wanted to be a pro drummer, but the way the music industry is going, that isn't the best route to take. I've been playing the drums for the past 17 years and still play today when I can. Started at age 7 because my mom was taking lessons and I would sit down to play on her set and got hooked. We both took lessons from the previous drummer of Lyle Lovette. Me and him are still close friends today.

My sister Brooke ended up doing the music business gig and has done pretty well for herself. She placed number 5 in last years American Idol and is currently working on her latest release.

Aside from school, military, and drums, I have been a avid rock climber for the past 13 years climbing in competitions are the country, getting to also visit some of the greatest outdoor climbing areas in the US, climbed with some of the best climbers in the world, had more injuries than I can list, and still climb today when I can. Because its harder to get out climbing, I usually lift weights 5 days a week because I find muscle intriguing and a miracle in itself. Watching your body transition from one way to another is amazing and the discipline behind it makes me a better person. The eating, the training, the mindset, the results, the sleep, etc.

I am the second child of my family, but the first boy. For the first 10 years of my life I was surrounded by my 2 sisters, and my mother. So, I was submerged around feminine acts daily. Smells that I can still relate situations with. Like my mother I have the nose of a hound and can smell anything distinctively. She's very picky about smells and I think that alone made me aware of scent. After my first cologne I was curious as to what others were out there, so over time I collected more and more. After a while it becomes an addiction. You see things that remind you of a certain scent, or something you want. It leads me on a hunt for special scents.

Enough about me. Good thread.

Sunglasses. Vintage Italian sunglasses. Specifically, Persol. I'm a huge sucker for well-made glasses and Persol's Ratti models were by far the best ever. None of this plastic mold crap - fully flexible, fitting to the contours of your face.

I even own an authentic pair of the glasses Arnold wore in Terminator 2.

Thankfully, fragrances are MUCH cheaper. I don't have to wait to blow $150+ on a fragrance each time I see a good deal.

Before that, video games. I own wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too many. But I ended up making games my career so it turned out to be worth it! Sunglass collecting was good for a while, but I realized I only really wore them for 2 hours a day on average (on the drive there and on the drive home.) Plus, nobody noticed.

Fragrance is awesome because you turn heads wherever you go, and it lasts all day (most of the time.)

Research chemist here (can't you tell by my avatar)?

I'm a hobby whore, and have had many over the years: photography, wine, cooking, astronomy, and gardening. Of them, I'd say that gardening and horticulture has stayed with me the longest and given the most pleasure (in addition to quite a lot of heartache). Keeping 20 acres of grounds in shape is nearly a full-time job, and I've probably shortened my life by a few years trying to maintain it.

Dynendal - Persol rocks! When I saw Casino Royale, I knew I had to have a pair!

This really should be in the off topic forum. But I'll play.

Hobby before and still is my first love is collecting trophies

Playing guitar was my first hobby and still is, I also collect (to listen to, not to "collect") records. Remember the old black wax?

Yea well both are expensive enough before I even think about what I've spent on fragrance. Ha ha.

@silverbullet

those cans, hahaha good job.

A great collection that is evident from the picture to be a very successfully persued hobby silverbullet..and putting those Martial Arts memorabilia in the pic next to your collection to help keep them from rolling into the couch crease was a nice touch too

My hobbies include chess, numismatics, blues harmonica and developing vehicle fuel-saving device ideas.

General contractor/developer/construction manager.
Scuba diving was a hobby, until we left the islands to find better schools for the kids. Now it's 4 hours to the ocean, and the water is cold. Cold water takes all the fun out of it for me.
I kept coral reef tanks, as well. That hobby was much like a war. Huge expenses, widespread death, and at the end nothing much changed except broken equipment.
Cars have been another......hobby. (What exactly makes something a "hobby" as opposed to an "addiction"?) From rebuilding classic muscle cars to rallying European exotics, this is an addiction/hobby that has been put on hold until my children go away to college. I don't want them driving cars that can get them in as much trouble as I got in during my youth. (Trouble and pain!). In the mean time, travel takes the place of cars as a hobby that the whole family can enjoy together.
Coins, or numismatics as the hobbyist would call it, is another. American for many years, recently ancients.
Without hobbies, life would be much less rewarding. I'm not one that "loves" work, I work to pay for my loves.
Great thread. So many times I have wondered who all you people are that seem to be as strange as I am. I'm sure this has been done before, but I am relatively new here, and haven't seen anything like this yet. Thanks.

I am a Business Banker, and before that I was a Chef.

I have always been into food and cooking, I find it relaxing and therapeutic.

Also Photography, both nature and human.

Lastly, Cigars; I very much enjoy a good Cigar.

Yes, I can be creative as well

Creative director & copywriter in own agency. Lot of political campaigns.
I worked in newspapers, advertising agencies, radio, PR departments of some banks and finances.

I have been collecting some minerals in school, about the same time (1980-1985) - post stamps on soccer theme, in 1981 year I began to play soccer and still love this game 1-2 times a week. Also Soccer on TV (Chelsea in EPL, Spartak Moscow in RPL) and every week bets in Fantasy Football with my friends.
Coins is not hobby - but I bring home some jubilee and ancient coins from every country.

Small collection of sweet nothings - is on my table in office. Jossticks holders, small figurines, kids toys, chinese gods, etc-etc-etc. They just gives me the right mood for work.

Anyway, the perfume hobby is the most great thing.

My favorite hobby before Parfum and still a current hobby

I'm a marketing communications, media relations consultant and multimedia producer.

My other hobbies/activities are gardening, photography, movies, screen direction, reading, nature walks, baseball and living a life in sobriety.

I still have my hobbies aside from fragrance fanatacism. I cook and and I bake bread. I read extensively and create film festivals via netflix - I even helped select films for a small festival in long island. I also go to the gym (smelling good) four times a week and while i'm ashamed to admit it, I have a reasonable porn collection.

My hobby before this was photography, which I still do from time to time.

And believe it or not, given my camera and lens collection along with my Epson wide-format printer, both of which i still have, my photography habit was far more expensive than this one.

I play drums, although its more serious than just a hobby. I also used to "collect" shoes, I had about 25 pairs in my rotation, now I'm down to about 10.

I have a bunch of hobbies other than fragrance. I love to play, read about, watch, etc. most sports (especially MLB and NFL), love movies, love video games (though not nearly as much recently), music (both palying and collecting/listening) and just love to hang and chill. I currently work full time as a bank teller, but will be returning this fall to college to pursue my BBA in Business/Accounting.

Music--composing, playing and performing
Art--painting and sculpture
Food--cooking and eating
Wine--drinking
Cocktails--making and drinking
mashu

Heck yeah! Which model though, the metal style in the beginning, or the plastic 2720s for the end half? I got the 2720-S polarized with brown lenses and they're one of my favourites.

To anyone else - if you need help finding authentic Persols or Ray-Bans for cheap, I'm your man. I've spent WAY too many hours looking for sunglasses.

Music. I was a DJ many years ago and I have collected a ton of music (vinyl, cd's and digital) for my extremely obscure music tastes.

Thankfully I can still manage both hobbies.

But Basenotes definitely takes more of my time. I guess you probably already figured this out by the number of posts I have.

Just curious, have you ever met any other big DJ's.
DJ Abel, Manny Lehman, Victor Calderone, Brett Henrichsen...?

Fantasy sports and anime.

I used to 'date' Abel. Long story.

I haven't personally met the other guys, but I see them all of the time and they were 'around' when I was making my rounds at the clubs. Tracy Young is someone I run into at Starbucks ever so often. That's life in Miami.

Gotcha. I will have to hear that story some day.

I've also been collecting records all my life and have DJed since '91. While I'm still a newb here, I'm no spring chicken with the vinyl.

(But I'm in SF, not Miami, so no celeb-DJ spottings for me - I'm more of an underground guy)

Now that no one spins with vinyl any more, I'm switching my obsessiveness to fragrances...

And I work in the gourmet food business, at the equivalent of an Italian "niche" importer, so I'm definitely a foodie, too.

Three long-time hobbies - more than enough for the precious little time I have: playing the guitar, reading and learning poems, and the english language as such. And I mix these three all the possible ways
Otherwise I'm a computer programmer for a living.

Collecting rare Halloween masks ...and some high end replica masks and props from the "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" franchises..
Collecting Dvd's (especially Horror and suspense movies), Graffiti Art, Producing music (predominately hip hop), etc.

Sleight of hand here, I love blowing minds. I don't really have many hobbies to divide my spare time up with so this basically translates to me having a deck of cards in my hands more often than not.

Professionally, I'm a corporate manager in retail.

Interesting thread.

I've been a restaurateur for many years. After 12-18 long hot hours in and out of kitchens all I really want is ice cold beer, a bit of simplistic sushi, and the loving embraces of my incredibly beautiful woman. Before this addiction I had a penchant for purchasing way too many pairs of designer jeans, but I found that half of my walk in closet was full of articles of clothing that I would never have a chance to wear. At least with fragrances I get to "scratch my itch" at least twice a day

Watches, reading (and spending sums on luxuriously printed and rare books), fashion- especially suits and other formal wear, art films (i still download whole gigabytes of non-commercial art movies), expensive cuisine, going to the theater both alone and with my friends, oldie and even classical music.

was and still am into cult denim

Oh, and teas. I have a penchant for teas; Black, Green, White, Floral, Herbal, English, Russian, Middle Eastern, African, Indian, ect.

It is amazing how many types of teas there are

I used to read lots and lots of Victorian novels. I was on an Anthony Trollope e-mail reading group for a few years. I also still act and direct quite a bit, although I don't really think of that as a hobby exactly.

I wouldn't call this a hobby. I was looking for reviews on frags and accidentally found this website, next thing I know I have half a dozen frags!

Russian non-conformist art from the 1960's to today; Khmer architecture in Thailand; classical piano; opera; etc.

Analogue synthesizers, drum machines, etc . . .

Machines that are nothing but knobs, knobs, and more knobs that create the craziest noises for the sole purpose off speaker phreakin, or just plain chillin.

I have had a few hobbies to the point of forgetting about the necessities of life.
'This' is my latest, but it's the internet including blogging, surfing, staying tuned in with peoples views, opinions and creativity.
Learning about the constructive powers and destructive behavior in the anonymity of our digital age.

Perfume as such is not a hobby for me. I need it just as much as I need to hear music and eat my bread!

My only hobby before this had me in prison for 10 years. Thank you Basenotes for saving my soul. Amen!

Surprised to see you are a Liverpool Football Club fan since you are in the U.S. Me too, have been watching them since 1996, no matter how late the game starts. Apart from watching them, reading their news, I once collected books (now not so active) and listening to Classical and New Age music, which I still do today.

And another hobby was coffee. I wanted to invest in a coffee shop back in 2005 but failing in finding a proper location. After several months of trying I sadly gave up and so suddenly my attention was captured by the world of perfume. I don't know how it started but it's unstoppable. And this seems to last for a long long time I really can't get my mind out of it. I've been visiting basenotes everyday since early 2006 This is my No. 1 hobby.

Hobby(s)?

Landscape photography, collecting native orchid species, collecting mushrooms, artbooks (mostly around the time of Cezanne, Matisse & Van Gogh), music (all kinds), surfing (when I used to lived near the pacific ocean) and more recently diving. I had an obsession with finding the perfect deep-dish pizza dough at one point - and I do enjoy messing around in the kitchen.

Armed insurrection and cupcakes.

Also:

Chess (it's not easy being a geek in a hunk's body)
Reading---it's second nature, so I forget it's a hobby!
Some people don't like to read. I do: http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3LPMI7GGRU83E
Poetry, music, painting and sculpture---Though there's not a single artist that moves me with most of what they've done.
I guess Robert Graves, Beethoven, Van Gogh and Rodin come closest.
Playwrights--There's Shakespeare, and then there's everbody else; Oscar Wilde for the 19th century, Miller for the 20th.
Poker--- A wonderful cure for irrational thinking and a helluva way to build discipline and improve your math.
Martial Arts---Silat first, then too many to mention. I envy the forms of Karatekas and the spirit of Kenjutsu.
Traveling.
Sushi.
Rock and Roll.
Goofing off.
Cats.
Sherlock Holmes,

Cheers,

Mario

Computers and football.. or what Americans called soccer
But i'm not so much into computer nowadays, since its a much more expensive hobby than this

I collect Gibson and Paul Reed Smith guitars and expensive watches. This is by far the cheapest hobby I have.

I may need to take you up on your offer. I have the Tom Ford glasses from the newest James Bond, I may need to swing back around and get the ones from Casino Royale.

The things I spend on consistently are fragrance, books, and music. Music is my first love and although I don't play instruments anymore (used to play alto sax, guitar and piano), I still love to listen and collect. I listen to music from the time I wake up until I get home from work at least. I'm an AI fan, too. Bingo, Brooke is so talented, I wish her much success.

I've spent the past few years remodeling my house w/ my dad's help, so that has taken up any free time for a very long time, but I have learned a lot. I need to finish remodeling the garage now that the weather is warming up and get everything stuccoed this year, after that it'll be done and I can start the major landscaping projects. I do garden some - flowers, fruit trees, grapevines, but so far that is it. I'm hoping the weather stays warm and I'll have fruit, so I can attempt wine making. My dad makes wine, so I want to try my own. I made a batch of peach brandy year before last and it is good.

I started to get back into painting a bit this winter (for art instead of painting walls and staining wood) and hope to do more of it . My mom is trying to get me into traditional spanish colonial arts, too, so I can do it professionally. I'm creative by nature so I am trying to get to a place where it becomes part of my normal life instead of just something I want to do when I have time 'cause you kow how hard it is to make time.

I love to travel, anywhere new to me is usually my pick, but there are a few places I don't mind going back to. I also love to cook - Italian, Chinese, Thai are what I like to cook most and of course, New Mexican. To me food is one of those simple pleasures in life and a meal in my family always last 1.5-2 hours at least, so I love cooking for other people, as much as cooking just for me, and that whole ritual of talking and laughing and relaxing and just enjoying good food and good company.

Professionally, I'm the CFO of the agency I work for. I fell into accounting/audit/finance as a career. I don't love it, but the retirement and benefits are great - I will retire relatively young (47) if I stick with it. So that's my plan for now.

I played bridge. I still play bridge. I can misplay and smell good all at the same time.

Contract? I love double pinnocle, but it's hard to find players

Im expecting pictures of either

a) cars


b) guitars



lets see em!

Most of my hobbies are still good: playing music (guitar), photography, climbing and birding; but I bought my first house and have two young boys, so my new hobbies are home improvements, choo-choo trains, and children's songs (the last one ties back in to playing music).

I played with myself a lot.

A lover of love.

Duplicate. On BBO. Come play with me!
I smell good. My bridge stinks.

I never learned to play either version of bridge What's BBO? I smell good as well and my pinnocle is pretty good