Things I *don't* do as a hobby

[compilerbitch]

Inspired by Scott Adams' wonderful oneliner from his current Dilbert blog:

Atheism is religion the same way that NOT collecting stamps is a hobby

I just started wondering if you lot had antihobbies. An antihobby isn't the absence of a hobby -- I mean, there are loads of things I don't do, like polevaulting for example, but I can't say that I make a hobby of not polevaulting.

<flamebait>Vegetarianism, for some people, appears indistinguishable to others as making a hobby of not eating meat.</flamebait>

Discuss.

Edit: ¶ #

[Poll #918141]

Comments

[andrewwyld.livejournal.com]

I don't know that this isn't the same as the linguistic distinction between "I want to listen to Kate Bush" and "I don't want to listen to Kate Bush" (predictably, I am currently listening to Kate Bush).  Ambivalence and antipathy are both handled by "I don't want ..." yet are distinct states.  Thus, not collecting stamps is more like agnosticism; avoiding the ownership of more than one stamp at a time--i.e. no little books of self-adhesive stamps--is more like atheism.  You could, conceivably, make a hobby of never having more than one stamp in your possession at once.

Of course, then you'd have variants--does a stamp count as part of a collection if it is on a letter you are about to post?  If it does, does an anti-stamp-collector have to post letters one at a time, between stamp-buying trips?

[andrewwyld.livejournal.com]

Parachute jumping could be regarded as not falling fatally into the ground, elevated to the status of a hobby.  One of my current hobbies is not being electrocuted--more relevant when you realize I am building or repairing a significant amount of mains electrical equipment for our band, including a vintage valve amp which used to have a ground switch but doesn't any more.  I still think I might have sustained a shock from it the other day, though.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Isolating transformer. RCD. Variac.

(Ex- power supply designer who managed to avoid going voom or pining for the fjords)

[andrewwyld.livejournal.com]

The Fender uses ground as a return path, so there's very little I can do about the potentially-fatal voltages other than not ever touch them while the amp is hot.

Andy did make some interesting sparks with the filter caps one time, and blew the fuses ... fortunately his guitar was grounded as well.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a deathtrap to me, however nice it may sound. I have an antihobby associated with avoiding things that could capriciously decide to kill me. Like horses, or poisonous snakes. Or people from the wrong bit of Oakland. That kind of thing.

[andrewwyld.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I told you about the ground switch?  Old American amps, predating the introduction of grounds into domestic circuits, tend to let you connect the chassis to the neutral pin instead.  Ungrounded, unpolarized plugs being symmetrical, though, this pin could be the live pin.  Fortunately the chassis contains a metal switch that lets you choose which pin is connected to the chassis.

The connection from the pin to the chassis is, admittedly, via a very small value capacitor ... an electrolytic one.

I'm sure you know what happens to electrolytics after thirty years.

We pulled out the ground switch before we powered the amp up.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Rather you than me.

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

I'd say agnosticism is more like "We don't/can't know whether we collect stamps or not";)

(I think the distinctions are covered well by the labels implicit/explicit and weak/strong atheism; an active dislike or opposition meanwhile I think is more antitheism than atheism.)

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

It's interesting, isn't it?

I love playing with ideas that break classical logic, and this is a good one! If you disallow ¬¬x = x, all sorts of fun stuff happens.

I'm fond of logics that have a Hasse diagram like


*
/ \
F T
\ /
B


where F = false, T = true, * = top (could be either F or T) and B = bottom (no information)

This lets you quite elegantly deal with nondeterminism, so you can say things like F /\ * = F, T \/ x = T, etc.

Things get even more fun if you allow values to change over time, however!

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

*grumps at LJ*

 *
/ \
F T
\ /
 B

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

(though of course these typically *do* allow ¬¬x = x, it's just yet more weirdness)