What Interest do you have besides working out?

Amy Steppe

Amy Steppe

Cathlete
Kathryn's post got me thinking - sometimes we do not share some of the special talents we have. I had no idea she was so talented in jewelry making and that she is also was a cat lover.

What other interest do you have besides working out? What special talent or interest do you have?

I know Cathe used to train puppies that later helped the disabled. She is also a licensed nail artist.

I enjoy readng non-fiction and biographies. One of my personal interests is Eva Peron and the history of Argentina in general. Eva remans an enigma to me and I have read every book and seen every DVD about her life.

I love plays. I have seen a few Broadway plays as well some in Las Vegas.

I saw "Evita" and consider the play the weakest of Andrew Lloyd Weber's work. "Phantom" is incredible -I have see it twice at the Venetian in Las Vegas.

I love ballet (watching not performing). I took ballet for many years and I sucked. I always got hidden on the stage by my instructors because I was just that bad.

I like to read books about beauty and fashion. I also enjoy reading about the history of infectious diseases like the Flu Epidemic of 1918, the history of AIDS, and about viruses like Ebola. One of the best books I have read is "The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks". I also love the book about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 - "Issac's Storm" is a must read!

I love to watch "Desperate Housewives" and "Medium". I admit it - I love the "Twilight Series.

I love the plays of Tennesse Williams. He had the soul of the southern woman.

I guess I have a few "talents" if you can call speaking Spanish fluently a talent. I also can read Portuguese. I used to interpret for the Mexian immigrants in a local health department. I interpreted to physicians who did not understand Spanish.

One other thing I am good at are statistics and research. I have published two peer reviewed articles in the area aof Public Health when I was working on my Masters Degree. I was the sole author of these articles. They were not JAMA material, but I was proud anyway. I have ghost written many an article for physians - they paid me from grants because they either did not have the time or could not write a cogent article for publication.

I like to make short films. Maya Deren is my mentor. I prefer to make black and white films to colour films. My favorite film is called "Impression of my Depression. It is a silent 3 minute film that I put together from 20 min of footage. It is posted at You Tube.

I love to dance - especially swing dance. I have taken ballroom dance which I love, but I really am bad at ballet.

I sure can't cook, draw, sew, or make jewelry. I do not have good motor skills. I failed Home Econmics in High School - seriously! I would make a lousy surgeon!

I am a diehard animal lover. My border collie means everything to me. She is my best friend and she loves me unconditonally. I have 2 other fantastic dogs - but my border collie is my baby. The other two hang with my husband.
I also love birds and have 3 - a cockatiel, a lovebird, and a whitecap Pionus parrot.

I belive in adopting animals - I can't bear the thought of so many cats and dogs being put down when they could be such loving companions.
 
Last edited:
Hmmmm......

What do I like to do?

Cross stitch - I've been working on a huge black and white project for what seems like forever. I finish it sometime next Fall. I just put it aside to make some Christmas ornaments for gift tags for peanut brittle canisters, but those shouldn't take long. Maybe 4-5 hours apiece. I think I have 8 to do.

Love to cook, especially bake. Holiday time is also candy making time - yum!

I'm a crazy reader, love it! But seem to be having a book dry spell lately, can't find anything that really hooks my interest. I need to take a good long trip the library.

Christmas - love it!!!! Almost time to deck my halls, and I've been Falala'ing since June.

I have a wee bit of a Facebook addiction as well *sigh*

Oh and lets not forget shoes :):):):eek::eek::eek:

My dog - love animals. I'd have a hundred if I could.

I don't watch much TV, it's normally late before I sit down, and then it's time to read the paper and go to bed. But I have been enjoying The Walking Dead on AMC. I also like craft shows, but most of those have been replace with home improvement shows, which I used to like and am now tired of. But the Christmas craft shows should be on again soon. I like Dr G Medical examiner and all the real-life medicine and ER shows. Also horror movies - both scary and campy.

That's me!

Nan
 
I am into photography which allows me to travel quite a bit. My boyfriend is a professional photographer, so he lets me tag along on his trips ;)

I also dance...latin, ballroom, swing....absolutely love it.

I work with Project Purr BR, an organization that rescues cats from Animal Control....we work to find them home instead of having them put down. I get to take their pictures for Pet Finder.

I'm not a big TV fanatic, but I love The Big Bang Theory and Grey's Anatomy.
 
I love to cook and bake and I make wedding cakes. Small ones. I took a cake decorating class about 3 years ago and have been at it ever since. I work full time so I can't practice as often as I would like but I do what I can in my free time. I also have a food blog to document my progress on this cake decorating hobby of mine, as well as my favorite recipes. Clean ones and not so clean ones. Check it out if you get a chance. It's listed below.

I have also started looking into food photography. I remember looking through all my moms cookbooks when I was younger and loved looking at all the beautiful pictures of food. I love food :)

thecakechica.blogspot.com/
 
I love to read...books are like movies for the mind. My faithful authors are James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Sue Graffton and of course J.K. Rowling.
Speaking of Harry Potter...I also have assembled quite an ecclectic array of dvds of all different genres that I enjoy depending on what mood I'm in! Recently the cinematography of a film has fascinated me...we catch quite a glimse of the screenwriters mind via the setting.

In season, I am somewhat overly fond of the New York Yankees!!
 
Long answer

This is just in response to the original post: I did not know that Cathe trained puppies or could paint nails. That explains why she can get us all to sit up and bark! That also explains why she looks great all the time!

I used to read a lot then I graduated from college and I really haven’t had the time since. I do keep up with a book club. We were focused mainly on Harry Potter. I did read the Twilight Series. I thought the films weren’t as good as the books. Casting was good, the locations were good, even the makeup was ok. They lost me in the realization of the scripts. Also, there were filmic things I would have done differently. I also enjoy medical journals/articles. I used to read Jama for fun in college between classes. I also read Discover, Scientific American and Science News. Due to my interest I was able to avoid the myocardial infection that has been going around this year because I heard about it in February and I was scrupulous about washing my hands. This infection has killed the 28 year old son of my dental hygienist. It gave my Aunt Peggy a heart attack. It landed my Aunt Laurie in the hospital with afib. It gave my nephew three heart attacks, he is 17 years old. So, you see that it really is a good thing for us brainiacs to pay attention to the literature? They used to ask me why I paid any attention at all, what difference could it make? They don’t ask me that question anymore.

I haven’t attended a play since college. I took an improvisation course and enjoyed that.

I love ballet too. I was very graceful but I didn’t have the slender body to go with it and at the time I was not very flexible. I took the classes but I did not progress beyond level 2. I did some ballroom dancing for a while. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised at how many men there were. I had no idea that so many men like to dance. I’m not up to swing, that takes chops. I like salsa.

I also love TV. I like Medium, Burn Notice, Chuck, and the UK Law / Order.

You must be really smart to be able to read/translate those languages. I took French in college but I got lost in passé compose. I always conjugated them exactly wrong according to my teacher. She just kept saying the definition over and over again, as though I had forgotten what she said, I didn’t forget, I just didn’t understand. I have the deepest respect for those who can understand a foreign language.

Regards your films: Are you shooting on chemical film or digital? I just finished editing and am now in the compression of phase on my latest project, a years worth of footage on a construction site. I shot on the Sony FX7 but I’m getting ready to sell my old gear and buy something new. I need to switch over from DV tapes to hard drives. Its becoming really hard to buy tape.

If I had been good at math I might have been a good surgeon. I can do the fine motor skills.

I adopted my cat, Maria. She was about 3 years old when we got her. We believe that she was just lost. She came to us knowing some tricks. Someone had taught her to give kisses, jump up on a table and to sit. But, she has a terrible sense of direction. She got lost twice in the first few weeks that we had her. I think that’s how she came to be ‘rescued’. At first, the foster family told us she was not friendly, would be a good mouser and was an out door cat. Wrong! She is so cuddly, only kills small birds, and would rather be inside. When I have the funds together, I plan to move out and maybe get a rescue dog. Maybe.
 
about me

I play violin and piano. I studied classical violin for 7 years. I played in the CSUS orchestra, last chair second violin, for 3 years. Then, I went out on my own and had a string trio for three years. We played originals that I arranged. I played chamber music and I also played folk music, including Celtic and Balkan tunes. I took piano lessons from age 14 until I was 20. My parents bought me a 7 ft. concert grand built in 1968 by Yamaha. There are 3 others like it in the world (known.) One in the Van Cliburn collection, one in Eddie Murphy’s home and one that Elton John plays. I play both jazz and classical. Neither perfectly, but I enjoy both. I don’t play by ear, I wish that I did. I can’t do counterpoint or harmonic dictation. If I had been good at those things I would have finished my degree in music. In retrospect, my communications degree is much more useful anyway.

I like to cook and bake. I will make comfort foods from recipes. I have an extensive cook book collection. I can paint. I do watercolor. I don’t draw very well. I have a variation from one eye to the other so everything is skewed. I do digital photography. I prefer to get the image in the camera rather than fix it in post. I have a blog on my dieting journey. I also have a blog on my photography. I haven’t had a chance to do much photography this year, so I haven’t posted in a while. I like to read other blogs too, such as Pioneer Woman and This running life. I listen to Podcasts when I’m not editing audio. I will post my Podcast list in another thread. It would be too long here.

I’m a videographer. I do construction video. I take my footage on my Sony FX7. I edit in FCP. I compress in compressor(I’m probably going to switch to Sorenson.) I author in DVDSP. I’m not an expert, but I get the job done. The part I’m really good at is the camera operating. I have excellent hand skills and it shows in the final product. I’m an active member in my local AES section. That’s the Audio Engineer Society. I’ve been a member for 12 years now. I started taking classes at my local college then I interned at a recording studio. I now use audio as part of my business. I capture the live sound for my video projects. I can also record my fiddle/piano.

hows that for the short answer :eek:
 
RapidBreath said:
This is just in response to the original post: I did not know that Cathe trained puppies or could paint nails. That explains why she can get us all to sit up and bark! That also explains why she looks great all the time!
You must be really smart to be able to read/translate those languages. I took French in college but I got lost in passé compose. I always conjugated them exactly wrong according to my teacher. She just kept saying the definition over and over again, as though I had forgotten what she said, I didn’t forget, I just didn’t understand. I have the deepest respect for those who can understand a foreign language.

Regards your films: Are you shooting on chemical film or digital? I just finished editing and am now in the compression of phase on my latest project, a years worth of footage on a construction site. I shot on the Sony FX7 but I’m getting ready to sell my old gear and buy something new. I need to switch over from DV tapes to hard drives. Its becoming really hard to buy tape.

If I had been good at math I might have been a good surgeon. I can do the fine motor skills.

I adopted my cat, Maria. She was about 3 years old when we got her. We believe that she was just lost. She came to us knowing some tricks. Someone had taught her to give kisses, jump up on a table and to sit. But, she has a terrible sense of direction. She got lost twice in the first few weeks that we had her. I think that’s how she came to be ‘rescued’. At first, the foster family told us she was not friendly, would be a good mouser and was an out door cat. Wrong! She is so cuddly, only kills small birds, and would rather be inside. When I have the funds together, I plan to move out and maybe get a rescue dog. Maybe.
Click to expand...

I am impressed! I got thrown out of piano school because I was so bad! I love music, but have no ability to play any type of musical instrumental.

I am hooked on JAMA too. The new study about the estrogen/progesten (sic) therapy is chilling. Now I see hormone replacement in a totally different light. That study is as important as the Doll and Hill study that proved cigarette smoking was a cause of lung cancer and other diseases.

No, I am not smart because I am fluent in Spanish - I learned it as a 5 year old child living in a primarily Mexican neighborhood in Southern California. I knew nothing about Spanish grammar until studying it in school just as I studied English. In most cases, children learn to speak without knowing anything about grammar. At 6 years old, I knew nothing about either English or Spanish grammar.

The best way to learn a language is total exposure to the language and culture, not so much what an individual studies in a formal classroom, IMO.

As for my films, they were shot 5 years ago with a digital camera. My husband filmed what I asked him to film, then I edited the footage to make the finished product. I purposely made the film silent since it is up for interpretation by the viewer. I interspersed black and white footage with a bit of colour footage to express my point of view.

Another film I did was so much fun! I used some of the music of Raymond Scott as the soundtrack. His music is now public domain. His compositions are in a lot of the Warner Brothers Cartoons. I loved making that film - I had a blast! It is a comedic parody shot in Black and White.

I want to make a documentary film and have the subject, but filming a documentary is tremendously expensive and requires a lot of work.

And cats are great animals. I love cats and dogs equally. Is there a cat rescue? If not there should be. Where I live there are way more cats put down than dogs and that really upsets me. I am overloaded with animals and certainly can't care for more, but if I could, I would adopt a cat. My vet always has cats up for adoption. They are out in the waiting room just waiting for a good home.
 
Last edited:
I'm a pianist and video game dork. 10 years of lessons and counting. I pretty much only play classical since it's the only thing I can get a good feel for. I try to branch out to other genres, but get bored and come right back. I like to do duets with my teacher, who also plays violin. I have a 65 year old upright and dream of having a grand, but neither my budget or living space make that likely.

I have trained as a dog obedience instructor, but my passion is with the piano, so I sort of let that drop. I'm a systems analyst for my profession.
 
Last edited:
I love classical music. So you play compositions by Franz Listz? His music is so full of anger and passion. Do you ever play the Mephisto Waltzes?

My late father was a pianist (I sure did not inherit that gene) and he played classical music the majority of the time.

I also love the music of Debussy and Chopin.
 
Amy Steppe said:
I love classical music. So you play compositions by Franz Listz? His music is so full of anger and passion. Do you ever play the Mephisto Waltzes?

My late father was a pianist (I sure did not inherit that gene) and he played classical music the majority of the time.

I also love the music of Debussy and Chopin.
Click to expand...

Haven't done Listz yet, but have a few from Chopin and a Debussy was my first one that I did after returning to lessons after the summer break. I just finished a Granados, which I adore, and am currently doing a Schubert Impromptu. Mozart seems to be my favorite, but I'm enjoying these unfamiliar composers. It's fun to get a feel for how different they are. I'm also very fond of Haydn and, of course, Beethoven.
 
I'm enjoying reading about everyone's interests outside of our love of Cathe workouts that brings us together here. We're a diverse group!

I have a lot of creative/crafty interests that I haven't spent any time on in months, like sewing, knitting, and making jewelry. I take cello lessons weekly and I'm a perennially intermediate cellist. I have a Ph.D. and my career is more left brain/cerebral, so in my free time I like to do more right brain things, like crafts, cook, play or listen to music, and work out. Also I spend a lot of time with my husband, kids, and dog.
 
I love to bake breads and love making croissants, bagels and making different shapes out of bread dough such as Christmas trees, hearts etc. I do catering in my free time to make some extra money. The most amount of people I've catered for was a charity dinner for 120 people, it killed me, so hard work preparing the food for so many people. I prefer to cook, bake and prepare fancy dinners for 20 people or so, 120 people was too many for one person.

I love languages and I can speak French, German and Irish. I love learning in general and I've done some qualifications in holistic beauty - reflexology, hot stone therapy and aromatherapy. I love painting nails, I worked in a nail salon for a few years and loved the work.

I also am involved with providing emergency care for young people with challenging behaviour.

I love reading fitness book and fiction books, I also like autobiographies as well. Recently I've started to read crime/thriller type books.
 
I didn't know you could be a licensed nail artist.

I love writing. I like journalism and short-story/novel writing. I've got a couple of novels I'm working on—neither are even close to being finished, but I'm trying. :) I'm also trying to get published in a major local newspaper—it's for an article about my choir group.

That's the other thing I do. I've been a professional singer for a short three years, but I'm pretty familiar with the whole music business now, and I'm kind of an opera snob. And I just got the honor of being a "floater". What is a "floater"? Okay, so I'm a natural soprano. However, as a floater, for this one tricky song that has two parts, my director asked me to switch to an alto position because the altos are having a tough time with their part. Now, only somebody who he really thought could do it would get this part because:

1) You need to be a really good singer with good range.

2) You need to be a good student and must beable to learn more than one part to a song.

3) In some cases (like mine), you may need to learn a different part and have in down in two rehearsals. (I actually only have one before the rehearsals where we really need to have our parts down, but I still have two before the major dress rehearsal).

In addition, I can play guitar and will soon learn to play piano. And I can imitate various types of British accents. :D
 
daisymay said:
I love to bake breads and love making croissants, bagels and making different shapes out of bread dough such as Christmas trees, hearts etc. I do catering in my free time to make some extra money. The most amount of people I've catered for was a charity dinner for 120 people, it killed me, so hard work preparing the food for so many people. I prefer to cook, bake and prepare fancy dinners for 20 people or so, 120 people was too many for one person.

I love languages and I can speak French, German and Irish. I love learning in general and I've done some qualifications in holistic beauty - reflexology, hot stone therapy and aromatherapy. I love painting nails, I worked in a nail salon for a few years and loved the work.

I also am involved with providing emergency care for young people with challenging behaviour.

I love reading fitness book and fiction books, I also like autobiographies as well. Recently I've started to read crime/thriller type books.
Click to expand...

I could not imagine speaking three languages other than English! That's really cool! And I love to bake, too. :)

And my God! 120 people!!! Thanksgiving doesn't seem so bad now, eh? :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top