Hobbies

I have a wide range of interests, and my hobbies change quite frequently. Below are a few things that have tickled my fancy over the years:

Art & Graphic Design – This is a big one in my life. I’m constantly absorbing, appreciating, and assessing, the various art and design I see all around me and picking it apart. I like to dabble in digital design mostly, but have off and on tried my hand at various forms. This includes painting, drawing, video production, digital design of all types,  as well as physical variations including fabrication and print media. I would love to someday retire and spend more time immersing myself in artistic passion and pursuits.

Photography – Hand in hand with my appreciation for art and design, I’ve always loved a well-framed shot and spectacular architectural or landscape photography. Something about it just speaks to me. Capturing that split second for all of eternity, for others to appreciate and enjoy and interpret so many multitudes of ways. I’ve recently picked up a decent camera again and plan to get back into it a bit and explore some new technique and styles.

Magic & Sleight of Hand – At a really young age, I became fascinated by Magic and Sleight of Hand (legerdemain). It was also one of my most early areas of business exploration, as I would walk around and do street magic (sleight of hand and card tricks) for random strangers for tips and just for the sheer fun of it. As time went on, I tried to package a few tricks and instructional kits and made a few bucks off that as well. It was also my first real means of networking as I began to connect with professionals in that industry and reviewing products.

Metal Fabrication & Engineering – There’s a lot to be said of making something from nothing. With my dad being a life-long mechanic, and professional mechanical engineer at a yacht-building company for over 25 years, I was introduced to the art of fabrication and engineering at a very young age and always took a great appreciation in it.

As I became older, in the area of Santee, CA it was the cool thing to fabricate parts for your off-road truck and I began hanging around fab shops and with friends working on their various rides and projects. This resulted in me learning a ton of hands-on fabrication skills and various methods. I’ve helped build several trucks, and learned the start-to-finish process of building full tube-frame chassis and suspension systems.

Electronic Engineering – I was one of those kids who was constantly taking things apart and (most of the time) putting them back together. One of my earliest memories of electronic engineering was when I wanted some nicer headphones. I couldn’t afford a nice set like most of my friends had, and my parents weren’t the kind of people to just buy us things we didn’t need.

So, I set out to make my own headphones with hand-wound coils around the age of 6 or 7, and made a basic headband and speaker enclosures out of aluminum with padding made of felt and cotton stuffing. Looking back, they were pretty cool and worked pretty decently for what they were, although not that sightly or fashionable. Imagine some clunky looking DJ headphones without any product design polish. Nevertheless, it showed me I had the chops to make my own products, and reinforced my yearning and intrigue for product design and electronic engineering.

 

 

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