My Interests

# 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.

I use a shell script to shuffle these and present a few in a window,
so I can takes 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

Tip: When you see a code, see if it applies upward in scope, in order to
expand your leverage & effective scope of work.

## 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
  - Business Finance
    - [NP] Learning about reading balance sheets
  - Investing
    - 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
- Japan
  - Japanese language
    - Translating Japanese poetry
    - Watching Japanese movies
    - Listening to Japanese music
  - Watching Japanese TV shows
  - Reading Japan history
- Korea
  - Korean music
  - Korean singing shows that feature moving artists like Joseph Butsuo
- Humor and funny things
  - Youtube videos
  - Compilations
    - Weather person and news bloopers
    - Try not to laugh
- Films and TV
  - Columbo
  - Rockford Files
  - Star Trek (TOS, TNG, Enterprise, ST Continues)
  - Stargate Universe
  - [LT] MacGyver
  - Frasier
  - [LT] Spy / Espionage
    - Mission: Impossible
    - Conspiracy Thriller
      - Worricker Trilogy
  - Old BBC shows
    - Dr. Who
    - Random BBC mysteries
    - A Most Ungentlemanly Act
    - The one where the Jurassic Park guy is a master spy
  - Martial Arts films
- [LT] Tanks and army and war
  - Historical
  - Modern
    - World military forces
    - Tanks
      - Active protection systems, anti-projectile
      - Projectiles
    - ATVs
      - Design
- Podcasts
  - Neil DeGrasse Tyson
  - Citation Needed
  - Spycast
  - Personality type
  - Unsolved mysteries
- [LT] Listening to Music
  - [LT] Electronic Music
  - Dance music
    - [LT] Melodic Dance Music
  - [LT] Chiptunes
  - Live Music
    - Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
    - Sting
- Creating Music
  - LMMS
    - Trying out soundfonts and other generators
  - Renoise
    - Isolating preferred instrument sets and using those.
    - Getting a good vamp going.
  - Reason
  - Sunvox
- [P] Productivity & Productivity Methods
  - [P] Creating my own productivity methods
  - [P] Learning others' productivity methods
  - [P] Measuring and analyzing my productivity
- [LT][P] Planning
  - [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
- [NP] Writing
  - Responding to writing cues
  - Journaling
    - Interviewing the subconscious via archetype
    - Using my journaling template.
    - 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
  - [P] Archetype
  - [P] Jung
  - [P] Dream Analysis
  - [P] Various psychological models
    - Information metabolism
    - [P] Socionics
    - Etc.
  - Reddit mbti or intj
- 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
- Art interpretation
  - Subconscious meaning / hidden meaning
  - Viewpoint on society
  - View of author
- History
  - Japan
    - [P] Postwar era Japan
    - Gov't and intelligence agencies of Japan
  - China
    - Global strategy
    - Chinese language
    - Postwar-era China
  - USA
    - Early 1800s
    - Late 1800s
    - Pulp era
    - [P] 1950s USA
  - England
    - Codebreakers during WWII
    - 1800s England
      - Aubrey / Maturin series of books
      - Charles Darwin
    - Pirate Age
      - Blackbeard, like the "Crossbones" TV series; watched season 1
  - Civil history
    - Washington state
    - USA West coast history
  - Military history
    - WWII
      - Pacific theater
        - Atomic bombing
      - Europe
      - Abwehr
      - Nazi Gold
    - Vietnam
      - Radio operators in Vietnam
      - SEAL teams in Vietnam
      - Green Berets in Vietnam
      - CIA in Vietnam
        - Air America
        - Other operations
    - 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
    - Special forces
    - CIA / OSS in the Cold War
      - Bay of Pigs
    - KGB
  - Space Race
    - Sergei Koriolov
    - Race to the moon
    - ICBMs
  - DEW Line
    - Personal histories of the DEW line.
  - [NP] Cold War Fiction movies & books.
- [LT][P] Computer Programming
  - Rebol / R2 / Red
  - [P] System scripts
  - Productivity scripts (reviewing old journal entries, frameworks,
    etc.)
  - Utilities--backup, etc.
  - Creating graphics 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 editors, file managers
    - Trying new graphics software
- Computer Hardware
  - [P] Planning, sizing up, estimating, and testing new computer hardware
- Retro stuff
  - Retro Book
  - [LT] Retro Computers
    - C64
    - Unix systems
    - Computer hardware
      - Researching
      - [P] Reviewing
  - Shorthand
    - Inventing my own shorthand
    - Learning others' shorthands
- Watercolors
  - 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 subconscious visions
- [LT] Drawing
  - Doodling
  - Drawing slowly with pens
    - Fineliners
      - Drawing maps
    - Ballpoints
      - [P] Faces - ad lib faces
  - [LT] Drawing military things
  - [LT][P] Drawing sci-fi things
  - [LT] Drawing faces and heads
  - [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.
  - Drawing lettering
- Health, Exercise and fitness
  - Dieting
    - [P] Weight loss
    - Writing about weight loss and dieting
  - [P] Calisthenics
  - Bodyweight conditioning
  - Martial arts
  - Flexibility
  - [P] Strength
  - [NP] Developing my mental health
- [LT][P] Space
  - [P] Conceptualized ideas of future space travel / colonization
- Games and board games
  - Minecraft and minetest
  - [LT][P] Flight sims
    - Gunship 2000 was amazing. A definite favorite.
    - Flightgear is fun.
      - Flying the classic, the Cessna Skymaster
      - [NP] Learning to fly new planes
        - JU-52
        - Spacecraft
        - Helicopters
      - Flying in interesting locations
        - Japan to Korea, etc.
    - US Navy Fighters was a lot of fun.
      - Sometimes I just need to fly.
  - Making one's own board games
    - [LT][P] Tabletop RPGs
      - Dungeon Difficulties D20 (RPG)
    - [LT][P] War games
      - Sniper: Black Sea Crisis
      - Various tactical games
      - Flight simulators
      - Writing rules as I play.
      - Games in Excel, or a word processor, or LO Draw.
  - [LT] Wargaming
    - [LT][P] Ogre
      - Future-science-war-based.
    - Heavy Gear
    - Gunblade
    - Robotech
    - 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 matsf
    - 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
    - Sokoban, as long as it's not super hard. Like that DOS one...
    - Chip's challenge
    - Enigma is fun, wish I had better level sets.
  - 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
  - [NP] Let's Plays on Youtube
    - Like Solus Project with Just Jeremy
    - TheRadBrad
- [LT] Simulation
  - Making my own simulations
    - Paper
    - Computers
      - Spreadsheets
      - [P] Computer programs
    - Any given scenario
  - Dice roller simulations
  - [P] Generators for dice / game outcomes.
  - [P] Playing with dice; inventing own dice games
  - Generative art
    - Generating scenarios
    - Generating planets
    - Etc.
  - 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.
- [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
- 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
    - Vehicle design for a given world
    - Building / arch. design for a given world
    - Costume graphics design / conceptual art
    - Worldbuilding in MS Paint even...
- [LT] Optimization
  - What space around me needs to be improved?
  - What system in my life needs improvement?
  - How can I improve it?
  - How can I make it more efficient?
  - How can I measure the changes?
  - [NP] What system can I develop, in order to manage this?
- [LT] Visiting the library
  - [NP] Planning
  - 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
  - Buddhism studies
  - Other cults & religions
    - [P] Shoko Asahara & the Aum Shinrikyo disaster
  - Rosicrucianism studies
- [LT] Architecture
  - Presentations on e.g. architectural design and practice on Youtube
  - Conceptual architecture
  - Design thinking as applied to architecture
  - [P] Metaphorical transfer to systems-thinking from architecture-as-building
- [P] Subconscious studies
  - Visualization
  - Imaginary friends
  - Telling and analyzing stories
  - Subjective scrying
- [LT][NP] Radio
  - Ham Radio / KM6NHH
  - AMSAT
  - CW & QRP
  - SSTV / ATV
  - Theory / Propagation
  - [P] Portable operation
  - [P] Shortwave radio
  - DXing: FM / AM / Shortwave
  - FM radio as a mood-setter / adjuster / random info source
- [LT] Toys / toy collecting
  - Toy cars
    - Matchbox,
    - Hot Wheels
    - 1/38s, etc.
  - [P] Toy aircraft
  - Toy tanks
    - 1/72 tanks
  - Fidget toys
  - 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
- Food
  - [P] Trying out new foods / snacks from the store
  - [P] Trying specialty / seasonal meals at restaurants
  - Designing a new dish / meal
  - Inventing new (to me) combinations of foods / spices / ingredients
  - [P] Figs



## Log

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