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What is your daily job ? ... any hobbies ?

Sal1950

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I'm a physicist doing experimental research in superconducting quantum bits and teaching. Pushing 70 and still having fun!
Be careful, this guy was foolin around with stuff like that.
intro-import.jpg
 

JRS

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I'm at a crossroads--whether to slowly slip into the irrelevance of an underfunded retirement, or to return to medicine. We have some serious issues here in NM with the opiate epidemic, and feel the tug of a call to duty (psychiatry, addiction medicine). But for now mostly chilling and trying to catch up with the digital audio scene. I'm a died in the wool DIY guy--at least when it comes to speakers, the electronics I leave to real engineers (but am totally up to building this streamer + DAC FWIW I vote for 8 channels).

Here in NM at the crossroads between sliding into the irrelevence of a woefully underfunded retirement, or to return to the practice of medicine. Things are bad here with the opiate epidemic--there's a small town up the road a stretch that has the highest fatal OD rate of about anywhere on the planet. So I hear he call of duty, just trying to get my boots on.

Hobbies include audio obviously--hook planted deep during HS. Sometimes it's an obsession, other times I may go weeks w/o turning it on. Right now it's on the obsessional end of the VU meters as I try to wrap my head around all the different ways one can to digital active, that and learning more about directivity. My current rig is pretty good, even if it looks somewhat mild mannered.
1634439573753.png


The only shot I have as we had just hung the new OLED, and the sawdust just knocked off the subs--we was gonna have a pahhte, and party we did. On the left cab is the brilliantly remastered DVD of Woodstock--It was quite the evening--Hendrix was dishing, but the cuts of Santana and Richie Havens stole the show, it was a wow evening--I was just gobsmacked by the OLED display and the speakers just image like crazy--absolutley no need for a center. Anyway it ll hung together in a most musically satisfying way. Anyhow, I got hooked on audio in HS--my first upgrade was Marantz 1200 int amp + AR-5's. Dual table--what else?

Other hobbies: Did someone say IPA? No longer my cup of tea--as I am into Czech & German Lagers and wheats with a special place for the fabulous Belgian brews. Been homebrewing since the mid 80's and came close to turning pro ten years later. I was putting all that medical school education to good use, and had yeast cultures from everywhere and brewing 35 gallon batches. But doing so meant forsaking all that time pursuing an MD and PhD and after a whole lotta eenie meanie miny moes, went and did a shrink residency. It's the kind of fork in the road of life we all have had, and as we get
woolly and wonder what if? I keep things very simple--7.5 gal batches with 120 bucks worth of gear, and they run from good to truly world class spectacular. But it's really about the process, don't need two thousand dollars of bling to make it right. I have also dabbled in winemaking--which is downright simple by comparison, and growing mushrooms--mostly shiitake and oysters, with an occasional batch of cubes--sometimes one jus' needs to get their ya-ya's out.;)

1634442116512.png



Another hobby is amateur rocketry: I loved the little estes rockets as a kid, and while in grad school started volunteering at a Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club teaching a bit of physics and coding--rockets being a perfect learning tool. Well the rockets kept getting bigger and bigger until I created this 17' 2 stage monster which hit Mach 2 on it's way to 38k'. All safely returned thanks to pressure sensitive triggers which fire the charges needed to deploy the chutes, usu about 500' high. I'm the guy in the Giants sweater, and feeling the burn.
1634441280304.png

Not mine but some old friends from Utah where I did grad school. These aint your dad's rockets.
iu

Anyhow loving my time here--passion + smarts = loving life.
 
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StuartC

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I work in Automotive Engineering; mainly Vehicle Dynamics, Ride & Handling and Active Chassis Control Systems development. I've slipped in and out of JaguarLandRover, Aston Martin, Bentley and Prodrive over the last 12 years or so, as well as doing a little Professional Driver Training here and there (teaching Engineers to assess vehicle response).

Prior to that I was a Panel Beater, but the lack of prospects led me to go to University at 25 which led to the above career improvement. I also may or may not have had a year of my mis-spent youth working on a travelling fun fair.

Hobby-wise (audio excluded) I dick about with cars. Currently my toy is a '66 Mustang GT (see thumbnail), but previous cars have been Volkswagen GTis of all ages and models, various BMWs including M models, and a host of other hot hatchs and old coupes (Opel Manta SR anyone?). I'm also a fairly hardcore bookworm, and devour most books within 2-3 days (which reminds me I need to buy another new bookshelf).

Otherwise the bundle of joy/chaos/noise/amusement that is my daughter precludes time to do anything else. I definitely don't get enough time to go to the pub as often as I'd like these days....
 

vilnis

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40% of life worked in agriculture, the other 40% in construction. In my free time, I cultivate 600 square meters of land, where I grow vegetables for myself and my friends. I eat the uneaten for the long winter. And, in the evenings I will listen to a song! I come here to read Amira's reports on the harvest in the garden, because I can't draw an audiophile hobby financially. (how understandable it came, I don't know, translated by google, if what, blame it)
 

SIY

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@JRS were you at the U or BYU for grad school? Which department?

I went back and re-read my bio from earlier in the thread. Ignore it, I've had two career changes since then. :D
 

sq225917

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Ecommerce sales and marketing for my sins, climbing, kitesurfing, rowing, paragliding, electronics and 3d modelling/rendering for hobbies, though the last two are also occasional paying jobs.
 

Capitol C

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But we’re not almost 70 unless we look, right?
Maybe I should start a string about that question somewhere on this site, but I'm not sure what is the right place. Unfortunately, there is an awful lot of fun, appealing, and ultimately wrong things written about Schrodinger's cat. A lot of the fault is with physicists who won't make the effort to explain clearly how to think about the poor feline.
 

Golfx

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i am a retired PhD medical entomologist. I worked for US Navy preventing tropical diseases (think malaria and zika) from transferring to Marines on foreign soil. My main hobby which “owns” my soul is golf. I sold stereos in college which is where I caught the bug to enjoy electronics and music. I love ASR and Audioholics. Trying to learn 1/100th of what you guys know.
 

SIY

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Maybe I should start a string about that question somewhere on this site, but I'm not sure what is the right place. Unfortunately, there is an awful lot of fun, appealing, and ultimately wrong things written about Schrodinger's cat. A lot of the fault is with physicists who won't make the effort to explain clearly how to think about the poor feline.
"If you think you understand QM, you don't understand QM."
 

Dogen

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Maybe I should start a string about that question somewhere on this site, but I'm not sure what is the right place. Unfortunately, there is an awful lot of fun, appealing, and ultimately wrong things written about Schrodinger's cat. A lot of the fault is with physicists who won't make the effort to explain clearly how to think about the poor feline.
I’d welcome such a discussion.
 

Capitol C

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"If you think you understand QM, you don't understand QM."
Quotes like this are similar in spirit to Schrodinger's cat, great fun but probably not right, and probably not helpful. It has to be admitted that some very smart people have questions and insights into the meaning of quantum mechanics. It also has to be said that most physicists who work in the field feel that they understand it. The problem is that that the easiest understanding comes from being very comfortable with some very abstract concepts which are most easily expressed mathematically. A nice alternative approach is followed by Feynman his book QED, The Strange Theory of Light and Matter; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QED:_The_Strange_Theory_of_Light_and_Matter and decide if you want to spring for the book!
 

SIY

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Quotes like this are similar in spirit to Schrodinger's cat, great fun but probably not right, and probably not helpful. It has to be admitted that some very smart people have questions and insights into the meaning of quantum mechanics. It also has to be said that most physicists who work in the field feel that they understand it. The problem is that that the easiest understanding comes from being very comfortable with some very abstract concepts which are most easily expressed mathematically. A nice alternative approach is followed by Feynman his book QED, The Strange Theory of Light and Matter; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QED:_The_Strange_Theory_of_Light_and_Matter and decide if you want to spring for the book!
Much hinges on what “understand” means. I can calculate a lot of stuff and get correct answers, but can’t say, at least in a Machian sense, that I understand it. And the more I worked in it, the less I felt I understood. Disclaimer: my high energy friends sneered at my stuff as “mere 1/r physics.”
 

Dogen

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Quotes like this are similar in spirit to Schrodinger's cat, great fun but probably not right, and probably not helpful. It has to be admitted that some very smart people have questions and insights into the meaning of quantum mechanics. It also has to be said that most physicists who work in the field feel that they understand it. The problem is that that the easiest understanding comes from being very comfortable with some very abstract concepts which are most easily expressed mathematically. A nice alternative approach is followed by Feynman his book QED, The Strange Theory of Light and Matter; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QED:_The_Strange_Theory_of_Light_and_Matter and decide if you want to spring for the book!
I love reading (and listening to) Feynman. One of the great teachers of all time. QED is a great read.
 

HerbertWest

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I am a network engineer working for a cloud corp. Basically a data plumber on planetary scale, mostly focused on resource consumption between data centers. It is fun!

In my free time… as a wiser person put it, I used to have hobbies, now I have small children. I stopped annoying neighbors with my saxophone, in favor of wine tasting. After realizing that good wine improved the subjective micro dynamics of my audio system better than a couple of audiophool cables I had bought many years ago (and that went the way of eBay), I started reading ASR.
With covid, I managed to expand my influence in my own house, culminating with a WAF-exempted small man cave for my audio stuff. My better half tolerates my tinkering with hifi gear because it distracts me from squandering much more on a sports car. From time to time this hobby still earns me her concerned looks, like when she found me with a hypodermic syringe full of red deoxit, trying to reach the inside of an old alps slide switch in a Sony vintage amp (trying to follow the kind instructions of a wise and knowledgeable forum member).
 

Capitol C

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I am a network engineer working for a cloud corp. Basically a data plumber on planetary scale, mostly focused on resource consumption between data centers. It is fun!

In my free time… as a wiser person put it, I used to have hobbies, now I have small children. I stopped annoying neighbors with my saxophone, in favor of wine tasting. After realizing that good wine improved the subjective micro dynamics of my audio system better than a couple of audiophool cables I had bought many years ago (and that went the way of eBay), I started reading ASR.
With covid, I managed to expand my influence in my own house, culminating with a WAF-exempted small man cave for my audio stuff. My better half tolerates my tinkering with hifi gear because it distracts me from squandering much more on a sports car. From time to time this hobby still earns me her concerned looks, like when she found me with a hypodermic syringe full of red deoxit, trying to reach the inside of an old alps slide switch in a Sony vintage amp (trying to follow the kind instructions of a wise and knowledgeable forum member).
When the kids are older you can have the sports car, too, with some luck. My wife started a campaign to buy a cool car a year before the pandemic. At first I resisted (kids going to college, we need the money, etc), then I slapped myself in the face and asked what the hell I was doing...
 

dtomamichel

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Retired last position Global Channel Mgr. For Sprecher+Shuh
EE
Audio & Video (separated stereo and home theater)
Photography
Collect old glass insulators
HEMINGRAY 60.jpg
 

SIY

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They still use those on the lines running past the train tracks in our area. My late mother-in-law collected them as well.
 
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