How to Not Be Boring (According to Mike)

I sometimes get weird looks when I out of the blue drop to the ground to look at whatever happens to be crawling in front of me.  No matter what creepy-crawly you happen to come across, there is always some fun fact that you'll be able to share with your friends.

I am often decked out with various bags full of gear and several nets, but all you really need to get started in this hobby is a jar.

Every time I go out collecting, I find something new.  That is one of the great things about insect collecting - you will never catch them all!  

Once you have your collection you can either display it proudly, or alternatively, you could donate it to a museum (which I did with most of my collection).

If you are interested in learning more about this particular hobby, here is a link to some videos and a link to some additional equipment that may come in handy.

Photography

Another great hobby is photography, and you don't need a fancy camera to get started.  A lot of people carry around a pretty decent camera in the form of their smart phone.  Even with just your phone, you can start to learn a lot of the basics and from there upgrade to a better camera.  While it definitely helps to have a good camera, what makes a picture truly great is the subject matter and how it is captured.  If you do a web search for "photography tutorial" or "smartphone photography tutorial," you will be overwhelmed by the wealth of information out there.  Here is a quick rundown on taking pictures with your smartphone along with a more in-depth tutorial.  For the more serious photographer, this site is full of great tips and information.

Once you have taken your pictures, show them to people.  Facebook and Instagram are great places to showcase your photos.  If you start to get a little more serious about photography, Flickr and ViewBug are also great places to share your photos.

Music

I took piano lessons while in elementary school and then in Jr. high I started drumming.  I am not nearly the musician I used to be, but I still enjoy playing and creating music.  Playing a musical instrument is about hard work and practice.  There are also many benefits that come from playing an instrument.

For those of you interested in music composition, there are lots of free tools out there.  A couple I like are Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS) which is great for more modern, electronic music and MuseScore which is geared towards more traditional musical scores. 

Circuits

Last, but not least, I really enjoy building circuits.  This isn't a cheap hobby to get into, nor is it easy, but it is definitely worth it.  I like to build things and knowing how circuits work has really helped me do that.

I actually combined by hobbies of music composition and circuits to build a light show this past Halloween.  It is only an indoor show (for now), but it is still pretty cool if I do say so myself.  I used LMMS to create my arrangement of the song and then I built the control circuit for the lights.

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