palate cleansing QOTW

[avenueyew]

1. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?

2. What game have you spent the most hours playing?

3. What’s the coldest and hottest you’ve ever been?

4. What outdoor activity haven’t you tried, but would like to?

Comments

[gothwalk]

1. I would say "food history", but most people can find some interest in that if they get to eat it. "Agricultural history" might be the most accurate one, almost nobody's into that. But at this stage, the internet - and things like usenet of old and reddit of now - have shown that no matter how obscure your interest, someone else is into it too.

2. 3rd Edition AD&D, I think, or possibly World of Warcraft. But since I count all the game prep time and writing for AD&D as part of the game, I reckon it wins.

3. Hottest, India, 2004. 44C near Agra in autumn. Deeply unpleasant. Coldest was around -32C in Finland, not sure what year, probably around 2007, 2008? I had icicles in my beard, but it was otherwise grand; we were dressed for it.

4. Y'know, I think at this stage I've tried most of the ones I want to. There are lots of things I haven't done, but I don't really enjoy the adrenaline thing from bungee jumping or the like, and I don't really get exercise endorphins either. There are situations I would like to be in - volcanic hot pools, extensive deciduous forests, tundra - but those aren't activities in their own right. Oh, ice swimming. That I want to do at some stage, preferably with accompanying sauna.

[bastun]

1. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?

I don't think there's anything in particular I do that's unpopular or doesn't have a decent following. I possibly would have said the process of brewing (as opposed to just beer), but turns out there's thousands of us.

2. What game have you spent the most hours playing?

World of Warcraft, no question. I could tell you the exact number of hours thanks to /played, but I think the number would scare me.

3. What’s the coldest and hottest you’ve ever been?

The coldest? At a rugby match, in the Upper East stand of Lansdowne Road. I was well wrapped up, leggings under jeans, thick socks, long-sleeve base layer, t-shirt, rugby jersey, coat, hat, scarf and gloves, full hipflask, and those chemical things that warm up when you break the bit of metal inside, and it took me hours at home to warm up properly. I couldn't even tell you now who was playing. As in I don't even know whether it was Ireland or Leinster!

The hottest? Probably the time on honeymoon where we'd decided to get a ferry from Rhodes to... I've no idea. Some other island. Problem was I'd managed to get myself massively sunburned the day before, then we got on a ferry with no shade in late morning, and had about a 90-minute sailing to a white-stoned walled port that also seemed to have no shade. This was probably only mid- to high-30s, but yeah, I thought I was gonna die.

4. What outdoor activity haven’t you tried, but would like to?

I have never been to a music festival! I would quite like to do one, if I can have all mod cons at bedtime!

[alays]

Years ago my family and I visited Delphi around noon in summer. That was hot. Greece has nice ruins but unfortunately those often don`t have trees.

[evaelisabeth]

1. Deity trance possession.

2. World of Warcraft hands down, I went through a period of exploring Skyrim when we got the PS3 but there are not enough hours in the day.

3. Hottest has to have been in Missouri where it gets hot enough for the tarmac on the roads to melt. Coldest probably in the house in Galway City, it was over a hundred years old and my bedroom was under the roof, there used to be a sheet of ice on the inside of the window.

4. Do I have to go outside? this is hard, ooh I know, I have always wanted to learn how to drive a carriage/cart anything with a horse in front pulling a moderately sized convenience. I have held the reins once on a carriage when I was a child but I'd like to actually learn how to do it properly.

[alays]

1. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?
Not sure if I would call it interested, but I love bad action and catastrophe movies. And I do read and watch an awful lot of WW2 / Holocaust documentaries.

2. What game have you spent the most hours playing?
I was never into computer games, so I can only come up with Carcassonne and HP Wizards Unite on the phone.

3. What’s the coldest and hottest you’ve ever been? That`s difficult.
I`m pretty sure that the coldest must have been in Germany, back when we had proper winters. Although the recent snowy periods in Ireland have been cold as it`s so humid.
The warmest location in regards to temperature was the south of Egypt in holidays. That was 38 degrees but due to its proximity to the desert, I barely broke a sweat. So, the warmest probably was again back in Germany cause my hometown lies in a valley. If it`s hot, it`s sticky...

4. What outdoor activity haven’t you tried, but would like to?
I have the vague notion that I might like to try skydiving. I don`t know if I would actually dare to do it on the day. If I was living somewhere with decent winters, I`d like to try cross-country skiing (not down a mountain, on flat land).