Krisbee

Hobbies

Listed here are some of my hobbies.  Most of my writings on the subjects are on various other websites, social media, etc. so I don't really see the need to elaborate on them too much, but are chronicled so you can see my diverseness:

  • I am an amateur radio operator, licensed by the FCC to operate on various frequencies throughout the radio spectrum.  I hold an Extra Class license, the highest you can obtain for amateur communications, and primarily operate on the HF (shortwave) frequency bands.  I have a small tower at the house, four antennas, and talk around the world.  I use voice communication, as well as morse code and some digital modes.  Details of my station, setup, and pictures are on my qrz.com web page.

  • I collect music, primarily 60's-70's rock, though I do dabble in late 90's-2000's indie/alternative music as well.  I have somewhere around 2000+ recordings, and I also collect strange, outsider, and exotica music as well.

  • I am a film buff, and while I tend to stay with 1970's independent cinema, I also am a fan of foreign, trash/exploitation, indie, and classic films as well.  I have somewhere around 1200+ dvd's in my collection, as well as many TV shows of a quirky nature.

  • I have built a full sized arcade cabinet from the ground up that houses many (200+) classic arcade games from the early 80's, as well as classic home gaming consoles from that era as well.  My childhood fantasy has come true!

  • I am a Linux user, and all of our computers in our household run Linux.  Except for three windows programs which we run in a virtual machine, and a few other pieces of software, we run free and open source software.  Linux is an operating system where the community works together to innovate, with its' only intention is to make the best, stable, and most secure operating system; not based on any financial gain.  When money is not the goal, the paradigm of software development changes to incremental, collaborative, and innovative design.  Our systems are extremely stable and the free software is quite robust.

  • I am a huge cheerleader for Internet TV and the Roku set-top box.  This small little wonder (running Linux, of course!) costs $60 US, and delivers free or cheap streaming high-def television from the internet to your TV, with no computers in the way (unless you want to stream from your computer, which you have to setup a small web server, which I do).  An amazing device, and I am a frequent contributor on the Roku forums.

  • I run a small horse farm with my wife, and while an occupation, it does require a lot of my time now.

  • We are both scuba divers, but due to us being in the middle of North Carolina and our free time is very small, we don't get to dive nearly as much as we would like (never, actually).

  • We are both Walt Disney World fanatics, and our bi-annual vacations are almost held there exclusively.  We contribute to the online community, have a Disney memorabilia room dedicated to warehousing our stuff, and have loads of music, video, etc. from the parks in our possession.  Our bedspreads were even purchased as used from the resorts at WDW!

  • I used to be a Volkswagen enthusiast, but time and money has curtailed that activity.

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