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What's your hobby? Passion?
Topic Started: Jun 20 2013, 04:29 PM (930 Views)
Aamaranthine
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Basically, tell us what you're passionate about, be it your hobby or even your career, and explain to us why you love it so much. I'm sure that everyone here has a hobby-horse of some sort that they'd love to go on about but never have the chance. And what better way is there to share our kinship in Mordor than by sharing that with eachother?

Passion: *drumroll* Ancient History and Latin

Justification/Explanation: I fell in love with the Latin language as a boy and I'm not fully sure that I can explain why its inflections and declensions haunt and enthrall me so much to this day. But I'll give it a go; I've always love languages and facts and meaning, the sort of esoteric side to our everday interactions. Latin is a great way to disassemble and truly understand European languages and they're effects on how we think and how our society evolved.

I also became acutely aware how works like those of Virgil, whose English translations were previously impenetrable and to be honest boring to me, were suddenly not only easily understandable but actually beautiful and moving in their mother tongue. The Aeneid today remains for me one of the bests descriptions of what it means to have your life in the control of others, to be torn between to ideologies, and to wracked by anger and fear of failure and inadequacy. It's a very human story. And I wouldn't have known that without Latin.

As for the cries of "Why do you care about Latin it's a dead language/won't help your career?" I have only this to say; in this utilitarian world, where everything is judged and valued solely on its ability to provide career advancement, isn't there something to be said for doing something that you love, purely for pleasure, to the best of your ability without an expectation of reward? Knowledge for its own sake.

I think that sort of pursuit of knowledge is an extremely meaningful thing for every human to find, I think that Knowledge for its own sake is as the pote Larkin said "what a skilled, vigilant, flexible, unemphasised, enthralled catching of happiness is called."

Also a practical justification for Latin


So, Mordor, what's your hobby?
Edited by Aamaranthine, Jun 20 2013, 06:53 PM.
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Wibblefeet
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Come with me if you want some Carrots
My hobbies change, I'm always trying something new in the world of games, or topics of reading, and so on.

I studied French and Latin years ago in school. Couldn't speak either one of them now worth a damn. I've studied Japanese on my own, but again, can't actually converse in it, due to a lack of practice.

I read. Almost anything I can get my hands on. Fantasy, Science fiction (soft, hard, and military), History (several tomes that my co-workers have pronounced 'a cure for insomnia'), and nonfiction from biographies to concrete skills such as Blacksmithing.

I play games. Family games like Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. Silly games like Munchkin or Fluxx. Strategy games like Civilization, Axis and Allies, and Diplomacy. Anything to keep my mind working.

I play racquetball, Watch Ice Hockey, and have, in the past, PLAYED ice hockey, but not for a few years now.

Somehow, I find time to keep mildly active with my family (harder than expected, with my work schedule).

And, of course, work.
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Aamaranthine
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I love reading too. I've been particularly interested in Saul Bellow and Philip Roth of recent.

Which of those hobbies would you describe as your passion?
Edited by Aamaranthine, Jun 20 2013, 06:53 PM.
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Majestas
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Shelob
For me, it is math.

Math is something that just clicks for me. For me, it just works with my mind. I love how there is a logical explanation and it can be figured out. Its a great thing when I see all the numberes come together and I can see it come out. And when I don't get it right away, I can think it through and then I will see what happens. I can find my own way through and it can be a challenge to me. Its a logic that cannot be denied. I like the black and white of it, unlike the literature we have to analyze in English and come up with five different ideas what it could possibly mean. But in math, there is a right in a wrong and you have to figure it out. There is no way you can say something different than someone else and they both be right. I know it might sound kind of crazy, but it is that part of me that gets the logical manner of it.
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Aamaranthine
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I really do get that, you know. Patri is the third declension dative masculine and singular form of "Pater" and it's not going to be anything else. There's laws that you can learn for the system of conveying meaning, an underlining symmetry and logic. I think that Maths often strikes people in the same way.

When did you first "get" Maths? When did all the pieces fall into place and you got your passion?
Edited by Aamaranthine, Jun 21 2013, 07:39 AM.
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Charax
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Mordor's White Rapper Wizard
I like politics. I have no justification, because I'm not sure why. It just interests me.

I really hate those political simulation games though. I played something called NationStates once. Waste of time.
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Majestas
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Shelob
Well, my teachers first really noticed my skills as young as first grade, and it has blossomed ever since.
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Aamaranthine
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I have no idea what first grade is.
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IH
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The Ever Curious
Children of the 1st grade are 6 - 7 years old. It is equivalent to Year 2 in the British schooling system (if that is from where you hail).
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Alancar
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I'm a magical princess from another dimension
you start your education at 5?
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IH
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The Ever Curious
Reception class begins at 4 and covers 4 - 5 (Reception is before Year 1). Prior to that parents may send their children to 'play school' where cooperation between children is encouraged.

When does education begin where you are from?
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Aamaranthine
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Indeed I hail from England, Intelligent Holograms. And I vaguely get the whole "Year 1" et al. but my schools never used them. For me it was always 3rd Form, Lower Fourth, Upper Fifth, then Sixth Form.

And yes, in the UK I started school at 4.
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Thunorim
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Haradrim
I am really, really, reeeeally love history. Especially the Civil War era USA. I just find the whole time period very interesting. There was so much political discourse that is so different from the way things are today.

I also find studying space very compelling, since our universe is so massive and there's so much to study and see.
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Majestas
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Shelob
You see, I had two years of preschool (3-5), a year of kindergarten(5-6), and then there are the grades 1 through 12. After 12th grade, you are 18 and you go to college! So, it was first really seen that I had a particular talent for math at the age of 6.
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Jahmurai
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Azog Soulreaver
Majestas
Jun 21 2013, 01:24 AM
But in math, there is a right in a wrong and you have to figure it out. There is no way you can say something different than someone else and they both be right.
Erm, I dont agree with the last one, there are lots of ways to solve 1 problem mathematically, that is the beauty of it and thats why it can reach a very wide public.

A very simple example : you have problem x and you want the answer Y. Two very different methods which will most likely bring you to answer Y is to solve it either algebraically or through geometric formulas. Both very different methods of solving, BUT bringing you to the same answer. But of course its an opinion.

Anyway, I study Applied Economic science in a Belgian university (KUL) cause the aspects of economics, maths and psychology is a mixture of pleasure with alot of variety and lots of interesting cases...This is my passion on the professional side

Recreative I do at the moment cycling, jogging, fitness and swimming.

Mens sana in corpore sano ;)
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Majestas
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Shelob
Yes, but the end product is still the same. You are both right because they have they same answer.
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Jahmurai
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Azog Soulreaver
You have said "you cant say something different" Algebra is different from geometry, but nevermind
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Aamaranthine
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So there are two people who agree in principle that maths is fantastic, but vehemently disagree as to why it's good. Ah, NS, you never fail to amuse :P
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Majestas
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Shelob
Yes, I am more of an Algebra person. In geometry, they are all like "proof, yay, there can be many options" while I am going "I think i am just going to make a program that can do it so I can cheat on tests :P "
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IH
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The Ever Curious
Algebra can give different answers to the same question, Quadratic Equations are an example of this.
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