Interest of Mine, 2020-04a

# Interests of Mine, by Marc Carson

I started this document sometime in 2016 in order to track my interests
as a way of fighting depression. After fighting my way out of the
grip of chronic depression, I began to deepen and broaden my interests
as a way of enjoying every day a little bit more.

So far, it's worked. And as of early 2020, I'm very happy to have a
list of specific values and interests which has grown in length to number
over 500. Each one of these items has the potential to make a hard day better.

I use a shell script to shuffle these and display a few in an app window,
so I can take a little break from work and develop my interests a bit.

--Marc

On the web:

https://www.marccarsoncoaching.com/

https://www.friendlyskies.net/

## Contents

- To-Do
- Key to Codes
- General Activities of Interest
- Specific Interests

## To-Do

- Choose a few areas to explore in even more depth
- DONE 2020-01-08 Add some basic codes

## Key to Codes

Codes are shown in brackets, for assistance in browsing the list.
If applying more than one, apply in alphabetical order.

- P: Promising Area of Interest
  - In terms of energy it seems to be providing me -- energy is key
- NP: New and Promising Area of Interest
  - Can possibly be explored and taken deeper quickly.
- LT Lifetime Area of Interest, Since my Youth

## Tips

- When you see a code, see if it applies up/outward in scope in some way,
  in order to expand your leverage & effective scope of work.
- Combine multiple items for _explosive fusion of interests_!

## General Activities of Interest

Updated from Pastebin on 2018-06-08. Update Pastebin first.
No. Update here first...

- Reading
- Thinking
- Doodling / writing
- Planning
- Strategizing
- Browsing
  - Instagram
  - Books
  - Magazines
  - Blogs
  - Twitter
  - Youtube
- Exploring new subjects in an intentionally shallow manner (breadth--
  move on fast)

## Specific Interests

- Finance
    - [P] Business Finance
        - [NP] Learning about reading balance sheets
        - Studying, analyzing
    - Investing
        - [P] Technical investing
        - Equities
        - Cryptocurrency
        - Watching investments grow: Dopamine
        - Open Source Investing Research
            - Who's buying what
            - Who's got what kind of record, etc.
            - Online communities, blogs, etc.
    - Personal Finance
        - Financial planning & FIRE
        - Researching, reading about
        - Setting goals
- Japan
    - Japanese language
        - [P] Translating Japanese poetry
        - Watching Japanese movies
        - Listening to Japanese music
    - [P] Watching Japanese TV shows
        - [P] Gourmet Japanese TV show
        - [P] Trying out new Japanese TV shows
    - [P] Reading about the history of Japan
        - [P] Meiji-era Japan research
        - [P] Showa-era Japan research
- Korea
    - Korean music
    - Korean movies, e.g. _Parasite_
        - Following favorite actors, like Kang-ho Song, So-dam Park, and Woo-sik Choi
    - Korean singing shows feat. interesting artists like Joseph Butso
- [LT][P] Humor and funny things
    - [P] Youtube videos on Youtube
    - Funny stuff Compilations
        - [P] Weather person and news bloopers
        - Try not to laugh
    - [P] Stand-up Comedy
    - [P] Late-night TV
    - [P] Writing funny lyrics to songs
- Films and TV
    - [LT][P] Columbo
    - [NP] The Wild Wild West
    - The Avengers (UK)
    - [P] Rockford Files, Magnum P.I.
    - [LT][P] Star Trek (TOS, TNG, Enterprise, ST Continues, Picard)
    - [P] Stargate Universe
    - [LT] MacGyver
    - Frasier
    - [P] X-Files / Twilight Zone / Outer Limits-type shows
    - [LT] Spy / Espionage
        - Mission: Impossible
        - Conspiracy Thriller
            - Worricker Trilogy
    - [P] Old BBC shows
        - Dr. Who
        - Random BBC mysteries
        - A Most Ungentlemanly Act
        - The one where the Jurassic Park guy is a master spy
            - Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983)
    - [P] (Year) (Genre that sounds good) film search on Youtube
    - Martial Arts films
    - [NP] History of Specific Films
        - [NP] Favorite film production histories: How they were made
- [LT] Tanks and army and war
    - Historical
    - Modern
        - World military forces
        - Tanks
            - Active protection systems, anti-projectile
            - Projectiles
        - ATVs
            - Design
- [P] Podcasts
    - Star Talk - Neil DeGrasse Tyson
    - Citation Needed
    - [P] Frank Skinner Show - Absolute Radio
    - Spycast
    - Personality type
    - Unsolved mysteries
- [LT] Listening to Music
    - [LT] Electronic Music
    - Dance music
        - [LT] Melodic Dance Music
    - [LT] Chiptunes
    - [NP] Early 2000s Rock
        - [P] Puddle of Mudd / Wes Scantlin
        - [P] Incubus
        - [P] 3 Doors Down - Away from the Sun
        - [P] Staind - It's Been Awhile
    - Live Music
        - Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
        - Sting
    - [P] Cover Music / Cover Bands
        - [P] The Protomen - (The Cover Up) In the Air Tonight
- [P] Creating Music
    - [NP] LMMS
        - Trying out soundfonts and other generators
    - Renoise
        - Isolating preferred instrument sets and using those.
        - Getting a good vamp going.
    - [NP] MilkyTracker
    - [LT] Reason
    - Sunvox
- [P] Finding new joy and contentment in life
    - [P] Addressing life events and problems with humor
    - [P] Finding and exploring new lives outside of the norm
- [P] Productivity & Productivity Methods
    - [P] Creating my own productivity methods
    - [P] Learning others' productivity methods
    - [P] Measuring and analyzing my productivity
- [LT][P] Planning in General
    - [P] Mapping out new ideas & plans
    - [P] Diving into plans and making them executable
- Organization and cleaning
    - Find a small thing that bugs you, or a shelf that's cluttered.
        - Then just think about it. What could fix the problem?
    - New methods of organization
        - [NP] Knowledge capture & organization
- [NP] Writing
    - Responding to writing cues
    - Journaling
        - Interviewing the subconscious via archetype
        - [P] Using and developing my journaling template(s).
        - Journaling my way through my work
    - Writing haiku
- [LT][P] Philosophy
    - Traditional sage-style advice
        - Tao Te Ching
    - [NP] Developing own ideas / theories
- [LT][P] Psychology
    - [P] Personality type research & assessments
    - [P] Personality Trait research (FFM / OCEAN, HEXACO)
    - [P] Archetype (own & others')
    - [P] Jung and post-Jungian writings
    - [P] Dream Analysis & perspectives on dreams
    - [P] Various psychological models
        - Information metabolism
        - [P] Socionics
        - Etc.
    - [P] Reddit's personality-related subreddits
- Astrology
    - Overview and various systems / philosophies.
- Tarot
- [NP] Transhumanism
    - Philosophical & Technological
    - Institute of Noetic Sciences
    - Writing about transhumanism
- Martial arts
    - Chinese (Tai Liu, Northern Shaolin)
    - Judo
    - Kenpo
        - Perfect Weapon, a good old action film
    - Shorin Ryu Karate
    - Ninjitsu; esoteric arts and overlap with development of modern philosophy
- Self-defense
    - Personal / objective meaning of
    - [P] Own self-defense theory / justice
    - [P] Psychological models of the self-defense community
- Art interpretation
    - Subconscious meaning / hidden meaning
    - Viewpoint on society
    - [P] Intuiting the views & perceptions of the author of a given work
- [NP] Auxlangs - International Auxiliary Languages
    - [NP] Toki Pona
    - [P] Esperanto
- History
    - Japan
        - [P] Postwar era Japan
        - Gov't and intelligence agencies of Japan
        - [P] Japan in the Space Age; JAXA and its history
    - China
        - Global strategy
        - Chinese language
        - Postwar-era China
    - USA
        - Early 1800s
        - [P] Late 1800s history
        - [P] Pulp era: Culture, history, special explorations / excursions
        - [P] 1950s USA
    - England
        - Codebreakers during WWII
        - 1800s England
            - [P] Aubrey / Maturin series of books (I think I'm on #13 or so?)
            - [P] Charles Darwin
            - [P] Richard Owen and the "organising energy" in development of living matter
        - Pirate Age
            - Blackbeard, like the "Crossbones" TV series; watched season 1
    - Civil history
        - Washington state
        - USA West coast history
        - [P] History of citizen scientists
    - Military history
        - [P] WWII
            - Pacific theater
              - Atomic bombing
            - Europe
            - Abwehr
            - Nazi Gold
        - Vietnam
            - [NP] Radio operators in Vietnam
            - SEAL teams in Vietnam
            - Green Berets in Vietnam
            - CIA in Vietnam
              - Air America
              - Other operations
        - [P] Falklands Conflict
            - SAS in Falklands Conflict
            - SBS in Falklands Conflict
        - Modern Conflicts
            - Operation Barras
        - Aircraft
            - F-4 Phantom
            - F-117
- [LT] Cold war
    - [LT] Special units
        - [P] Special forces
        - [P] CIA / OSS in the Cold War
            - Bay of Pigs
        - KGB
    - [P] History of the Space Race
        - Sergei Koriolov
        - [P] Race to the moon
        - [P] ICBMs and strategic conflict
    - [P] DEW Line History
        - Personal histories of the DEW line.
    - [NP] Cold War Fiction movies & books.
- [LT][P] Computer Programming
    - [NP] Rebol / R2 / Red
    - [P] Python
    - [LT][P] Basic, QB64, FreeBasic, Gambas Programming
    - [P] Nodebox, Processing, etc.
    - [P] Open Pascal, FPC, Lazarus application development
    - [LT][P] System scripts
    - [P] Productivity scripts (adding efficiency to productivity processes)
    - Utilities--backup, etc.
    - Creating graphics software
    - [P] Creating simulation software
- [LT] Software
    - [LT][P] Linux
        - Trying new distributions
        - Xubuntu
            - Panel apps
        - [P] System scripts for Linux
            - Bash
            - [P] Scripting in various languages: Python, Ruby, Gambas, etc.
    - Emacs & Vim-type specialized editor studies
    - Text entry and organizing software
        - Zim, CherryTree, Notecase Pro, etc.
    - Trying out new software
        - Trying new text editors, file managers
        - Trying new graphics software
    - [NP] Customizing software
        - [P] Creating new color schemes (Geany)
        - [P] Creating new keyboard shortcuts (Geany)
        - [P] Creating new skins (QMMP, etc.)
        - [P] Creating new icons (own apps mostly)
- Computer Hardware
    - [P] Planning, sizing up, estimating, and testing new computer hardware
    - [P] Reviewing computer hardware via blog or video
- Math
    - [P] Creating fractals on the computer
    - [NP] Drawing fractals by hand
    - [P] Creating procedural textures & 3D materials for animations
    - [P] The symbolic meaning and emergence of numbers in nature
        - [P] Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe
    - [NP] Novel structures in/as archetype (polyhedra, etc.)
- Retro stuff
    - Retro Books
        - [NP] Old computer / computing texts & trying out the software inside
    - [LT] Retro Computers
        - [P] C64
        - [NP] Indie Retro News (website)
        - Retro Unix systems
        - Retro Computer hardware
            - Researching
        - [P] SID music: deepsid.chordian.net/?file=/MUSICIANS/C/C0zmo/Airwolf_Theme.sid
    - Shorthand
        - [P] Inventing & extending my own shorthand
        - Learning others' shorthands
- Watercolors
    - [P] Making abstract compositions with watercolors; drawing out form
    - Youtube watercolor tutorials
    - [P] Watercolor pencils
    - [LT][P] Painting military subjects
    - [LT] Painting blue skies
    - [LT] Painting ad-libbed faces
- [LT][NP] Collage-thinking
    - [NP] Putting images together based on my intuitions / inner visions
- [LT] Drawing
    - [P] Doodling on paper or on the computer
    - Drawing slowly with pens
        - Fineliners
            - Drawing maps
        - Ballpoints
            - [P] Faces - drawing ad lib / imagined faces
    - [LT] Drawing military things
    - [LT][P] Drawing sci-fi things
    - [LT] Drawing faces and heads
    - [P] Urban sketching. Vehicles, buildings, landscapes.
    - [LT] Drawing vehicles
        - Aircraft
            - Unique - Short Skyvan, etc.
    - [LT][P] Concept art
        - Drawing with watercolor or a brush marker in grays first, then filling in from there.
        - Opening up Inkscape and ad-libbing concept art from various shapes
    - [P] Drawing letterforms; lettering
        - [P] Transferring hand-drawn letterforms to digital art
- [P] Health, Exercise and fitness -- development and planning
    - [P] Walking
        - [P] Planning music for walking and hiking
        - [P] Planning & testing new walking routes
        - [P] Day-planning while walking
    - [P] Hiking
        - [P] Planning & evaluating potential hikes
        - [P] Speccing out and evaluating walking and hiking gear.
            - [P] Bags and hiking carry gear.
            - [P] Monoculars and binoculars
            - [P] Researching & planning camera gear for the outdoors
            - [P] Researching new hiking clothes & hats
            - [P] Researching hiking accessories & shoes
        - [P] Planning for projects / plans to take place while hiking
            - [P] Amateur radio distance contacts while hiking
            - [P] Photography while hiking
    - [P] Dieting plan development
        - [P] Weight loss strategies and innovations
        - Writing about weight loss and dieting
    - [P] Calisthenics
    - Bodyweight conditioning
    - [P] Martial arts for fitness
        - [P] Learning about others' (from Judo to Kenpo to MMA to Tai Liu)
        - [P] Developing my own martial arts
    - Flexibility / development of flexibility
    - [P] Strength-building physical exercises
    - [NP] Developing my mental health
- [NP] Designing better sleep and rest
    - [P] Researching supplements for sleep and rest
    - [P] Trying new tools & methods for sleep and rest (mp3 players, theories, etc.)
- [LT][P] Space
    - [P] Conceptualized ideas of future space travel / colonization
- Games and board games
    - [P] Shopping for games online at e.g. GOG
    - Minecraft and minetest
    - [P] Roguelike games
        - [P] Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
    - [LT][P] Flight sims
        - Gunship 2000 was amazing. A definite favorite.
        - [P] Flightgear
            - Flying the classic, the Cessna Skymaster
            - [NP] Learning to fly new planes
              - JU-52
              - Learning to fly Spacecraft via simulator
              - Learning to fly Helicopters via simulator
            - Flying in interesting locations
              - Japan to Korea, etc.
              - [P] Flying from home to a coastal airport
        - US Navy Fighters was a lot of fun.
            - Sometimes I just need to fly...
    - [P] Making my own board games
        - [LT][P] Tabletop RPGs
            - [P] Dungeon Difficulties D20 (RPG)
            - [P] Character creation for solo RPGs
        - [LT][P] War games
            - [P] Sniper: Black Sea Crisis
            - [P] Various tactical war games
            - [P] Flight simulators
            - Writing rules as I play.
            - [P] Games in Excel, or a word processor, or LO Draw.
    - [LT] Wargaming
        - [LT][P] Ogre
            - Future-science-war-based.
        - [P] Heavy Gear
        - [NP] Gunblade
        - Robotech
        - [P] War games as read in various books, hex or square gridded.
    - [NP] GMing simple RPGs and CYOA games with my kids
        - Using white board markers and play mats
        - Using decks of cards and mixing up RPG rules.
    - [P] Network game "net" from Simon Tatham
        - There was a very nice version of this.
        - I started a framework on this.
    - [LT] Puzzle games
        - [P] Sokoban, as long as it's not super hard. Like that DOS one...
        - [P] Chip's challenge
        - Enigma is fun, wish I had better level sets.
    - [P] FPS games
        - Solo missions in FPS games
        - Sniper role in FPS games
        - Delta Force 2 was a favorite, way back when...
    - [P] Sandbox games
        - The aforementioned Minetest
        - Rigs of Rods
        - [P] Driving / city exploration games on CrazyGames
    - [NP] Let's Plays on Youtube
        - [P] Like Solus Project with Just Jeremy
        - [P] TheRadBrad
    - Video Game Soundtracks
        - [P] OPL3 & other MIDI sountracks
        - [P] SID & MOD music soundtracks
        - Newer OSTs from various video games
- [LT] Simulation
    - [P] Making my own simulations
        - [P] Designing simulations on paper (dice tables, etc.)
        - Computers
            - [P] Designing simulators in spreadsheets
            - [P] Designing simulators in computer programs / scripts
        - Any given scenario
    - Dice roller simulations
    - [P] Generators for dice / game outcomes.
    - [P] Playing with dice; inventing own dice games
    - Generative art
        - [P] Generating scenarios (genc for example)
        - [P] Generating planets
        - Etc.
    - [P] Sending out space probes; simulating the results
- [P] Web Publishing, Web Design and Development
    - [P] Conceptualizing new websites that would be fun to build
    - Testing and learning new web tools
    - [P] Planning changes and updates to existing web tools / sites
- [LT][P] Books and Reading
    - [P] Browsing book stacks online or off: Gutenberg, Archive.org, AZ, etc.
    - [P] Comic books, graphic novels
        - [P] Tintin and other _ligne claire_ style books
        - [P] Disney comics (Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck adventures)
        - [P] _Watchmen_ style graphic novels
        - [P] Manga (Kawaguchi Kaiji, others)
        - [P] Batman
        - Asterix
- [LT][P] Graphic Design
    - Testing out new fonts
    - [P] Using font play to inspire new ideas; deriving new concepts from fonts
    - Trying out new and interesting color schemes
- [LT][P] Illustration
    - [P] Creating icons
- World Building
    - [NP] Writing about different worlds / cities / etc.
    - From infrastructure to people
    - Writing as if I'm someone writing in their journal, etc.
    - [P] Map making
        - [P] Mapping fictional towns of any desired time / reality
    - Graphics making
        - [P] Vehicle design from abstract markings
        - [P] Building / arch. design from abstract markings
        - Costume graphics design / conceptual art
        - [P] Worldbuilding in MS Paint even...
- [LT] Optimization
    - [P] What space around me needs to be improved? Visualize - Plan.
    - What system in my life needs improvement?
    - [P] How can I improve a thing? E.g. mental processes.
    - [P] What is inefficient? How can I make that thing more efficient?
    - How can I measure the changes I made to improve a thing?
    - [NP] What system can I develop, in order to manage this thing?
- [LT] Visiting the library
    - [NP] Planning Sessions at the Library
    - Random section choice within library
        - Use random number generator to pick a section to browse
    - Checking out movies and music
    - [P] Digging into the online database of a library or deep website
        - Latest-published films, books, etc.
- [LT][P] Visiting Museums
    - [P] Natural history museums, online or off
    - [P] Military history museums, online or off
    - [P] Science museums in general, online or off
- [LT] Spirituality studies
    - topical guides and bible dictionaries are great starting points
        - TG: Time was very interesting
    - Study of ancient religions
    - Mormonism studies
        - Personality psychology in Mormonism
    - Buddhism studies
    - Other groups, cults & religions
        - [P] Shoko Asahara & the Aum Shinrikyo disaster
    - Rosicrucianism studies
    - [P] Studying other new-to-me religious customs and groups
- [LT][P] Architecture
    - [P] Presentations on e.g. architectural design and practice on Youtube
    - [P] Learning about architecture concepts & new movements
    - Conceptual architecture
    - Design thinking as applied to architecture
    - [P] Metaphorical transfer to systems-thinking from architecture-as-building
- [P] Subconscious studies
    - [P] Visualization within the mind
    - [P] Designing and cultivating "imaginary friends," subjective archetypes, etc.
    - [P] Creating, telling, and analyzing stories
    - [P] Subjective scrying / intuiting
- [LT][NP] Radio
    - Ham Radio / KM6NHH
    - AMSAT
    - CW & QRP
    - SSTV / ATV (Slow Scan TV & Amateur Television)
    - Theory / Propagation
    - [P] Portable operation
    - [P] Shortwave radio
    - DXing: FM / AM / Shortwave
    - [NP] FM radio as a mood-setter / adjuster / random info source
    - Broadcast Radio
        - [P] FM stations: Listening to, following, understanding operations
        - [P] Old time radio shows
            - [P] Johnny Dollar
            - [NP] Let George Do It
            - [NP] Suspense
            - [P] Other pulp old time radio shows
        - [P] Radio and audio drama (BBC, etc.)
            - [P] Operation Black Buck (BBC)
- [LT] Toys / toy collecting
    - Toy cars
        - [P] Matchbox,
        - Hot Wheels
        - 1:64s
        - [NP] Diecast Car Racing
            - [NP] 3DBotMaker Diecast Racing League on Youtube
        - 1:38s, etc.
    - [P] Toy aircraft
    - Toy tanks
        - 1/72 tanks
    - [P] Fidget toys research
    - Toy photography
    - Toy soldiers
        - [P] 1/72 toy soldiers
    - Legos
        - Minifigs
        - [N] Technic
- Building Models
    - Paper Models
        - RPG character figures in paper
        - Airplanes
        - [P] Tanks
    - Plastic models
        - Airplanes
- [LT] Research
    - [P] Finding & learning new research tools (online search, etc.)
    - [P] Logging and tracking research
- [NP] Clothing & Accessories
    - Comfortable clothing
        - [P] Super comfortable, brand new socks
        - [P] Picking out T-shirts
        - [P] Comfortable shoes
    - [P] Helpful, useful, or interesting accessories
        - [P] New Headphones: Shopping for, using
        - [P] SAKs: Shopping for, using, designing
        - [P] Handkerchiefs
        - [P] Wallets
        - [P] Watches, New & Old
            - [P] Speccing out the next watch to save for
        - [P] Pocket video game toys
        - [P] Compact stationery: Notebooks, pens, pencils
- Food
    - [P] Trying out new foods / snacks from the store
        - [P] Breakfast cereals: Comparing, trying new kinds
    - [P] Trying specialty / seasonal meals at restaurants
    - Designing a new dish / meal
    - [P] Asking myself what my body wants to eat for the next meal
    - [NP] Inventing new (to me) combinations of foods / spices / ingredients
    - [P] Figs
    - [NP] Indian & Tibetan Food
        - [P] Naan & Roti breads
        - [P] Indian Curry
    - [P] Japanese Food
        - Japanese curry & many others...
        - [P] Japanese snacks
    - Korean Food
        - [P] Kimchi
        - Korean BBQ

## Log

- 2020-02-07 Updated.
- 2020-01-13 Updated.
- 2020-01-10 Updated.
- 2019-05-09 Updated with Radio & toys...
- 2016? Started sometime in here...