Activities Outside of Quiz Bowl

[LaurenJernstadt]

I was kind of curious as to what activities you people on the forums do outside of quiz bowl. Maybe this could help make some friendships on the forums.
I'll statt with myself:
Outside of captaining the Fulton Pirate Quiz Bowl Team, I am an active leader in my school serving as Treasurer of the Class 2017, Treasurer of NHS, and President of Students Against Destructive Decisions. I also led the charge on my school's first ever lip dub which we used to raise money for Relay for Life! You can view it in the link below. I'm actually the first singer in the video.
https://youtu.be/JtqRZKHntRM
I also participate in many sports at my school. My freshman and sophomore years, I was an active member of my school's cheerleading and competitive pompon teams. I would still be doing both today, but the pompon club was discontinued my Sophomore year, and sophomore year of cheer kind of ruined the experience for me (let me just say it was drama that wasn't properly dealt with). However, I am proud to be a former cheerleader, hence why I will be the one at quiz bowl tournaments wearing a white, navy blue, and gold bow on top of my ponytail. It sets me apart, and it matches my personality. Otherwise, I also run track and cross country. I would like to try a hand at fencing when I go to college; its a sport that has always fascinated me.
Finally, in my free time, I love to sing and read classic literature. I may seem like the girly girl on my team, but I like getting down amd playing Smash Bros with my teammates. I might not be the greatest at that, but hey, girl power conquers all!
So that's me. What about the rest of you? I don't know of any other quiz bowlers who are also cheerleaders, so that would be awesime to meet one of those, or even someone who is into or wants to try fencing!

[A Dim-Witted Saboteur]

I'll refer you to this thread: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =5&t=19305
It seems like a lot of QBers did Model UN and activities like that, but there's a lot more diversity than one might think.
For one, I participate in a diverse array of activities such as Science Bowl and History Bowl as well as Quiz Bowl.
EDIT: I just remembered that also Luke Tierney does fencing. He would make an excellent forum friend.

[bluejay123]

So, here goes nothing.
I take photographs, specifically monochrome symbolistic compositions. With them, I strive to make people think beyond what is actually depicted. My sister typically models for them, although she'll be in college next year so there goes that endeavor.
When not contemplating my existence or photographing someone's own, I attempt to play viola and piano (keyword "attempt"); but the people in my orchestra are pretty chill.
I really love writing flash fiction but typically writers' block hampers that process. However, my life experiences usually dictate what I write about to an extent. The only reason I know about Hemingway's six word stories (for QB) is due to my own collection of microsoft word documents filled with random phrases that probably only made sense to me in the moment I wrote them.
I swim and play tennis as well just for an adrenaline rush.
And honestly, the best part of what I do outside of Quizbowl is the random dance parties that I have alone in my room at like 1 am. There's nothing better than 2010 pop hits, yinz.

EDIT: If anyone ever wants to talk photography or whatever, hmu.

[Panayot Hitov]

When I am not injured, I am a NCAA Varsity Athlete™ in the Sports of Cross-Country and Track, a small minority among quiz bowlers. I also like movies, pro wrestling, and radio shows.

[Pallas's cat]

Not much interesting, but I play violin and was a dancer for a long time (mostly classical ballet, so I still have a ton of random French terms floating around in my head). I also like cooking and baking (ok maybe I just like food in general) even though my culinary abilities are basically nonexistent.

And honestly, the best part of what I do outside of Quizbowl is the random dance parties that I have alone in my room at like 1 am. There's nothing better than 2010 pop hits, yinz.

YES

[Auks Ran Ova]

I don't know of any other quiz bowlers who are also cheerleaders

paging Eliza Grames

[Ciorwrong]

I won't get into all my stuff because I was pretty normal in terms of extra curriculars in high school. I did SciOly, ChemOly, etc.

One thing I am proud I did was my friend and I started a landscaping company in May of 2013 which we ran independently until August 2015 before I started going to MSU. We mowed lawns for people in Northern Wayne and Southern Macomb counties, did mulching and spring clean ups, etc. One issue was this that we didn't know what we were doing at first since we were dumb 16-year-olds, so it took us a while to learn how to keep track of business purchases, how to repair our equipment, etc. We bought most of our equipment second hand from craigslist and we spent hours repairing it either in his garage or in a warehouse in Warren, Michigan. Many days we'd go to quiz bowl practice then head out in his 1989 Dodge Dakota to jobs until 9 o'clock at night. We also did leaf removal and snow removal during the school year after lawn mowing season ended.

I didn't get paid much at all but it was much more exciting than my current job as an econ TA. There are tons of long, odd stories if anyone wants to hear them sometime. One of our clients was an alleged drug dealer and ran away from his property, another tried to take over an abandoned gas station that we edged and weed-wacked.

That was quite a blurb, but if anyone wants to talk about classic lawn equipment like 2-stroke Lawn Boys, Mcclane edgers, and argue about which weed-wacker brand is the best (hint: not Craftsman or Homelite), I'm your guy I guess.

[Banana Stand]

Poker is my main hobby that I've put a ton of time into outside of quizbowl, and alternates back and forth with it as the activity where I actively focus on improving on a daily basis. I also write short fiction and have gotten published a couple times, and I'd be happy to exchange writings with people since I've been interested in how many quizbowl fiction writers there are(I'd imagine a decent amount, since most of us read fairly often). I also drink/party/degen on weekends when I'm not quizbowling, which has drawn frequent comparisons of me to Julian English and Geoffrey Firmin from my teammates. I used to do stand-up comedy but realized I didn't like bombing so I stopped. I used to play chess but realized I would never bother to put enough work in to be really good so I stopped that as well.

[eliza.grames]

I don't know of any other quiz bowlers who are also cheerleaders

paging Eliza Grames

Finally another quizbowl-cheerleader!! We can form a two person squad.

[dwd500]

That was quite a blurb, but if anyone wants to talk about classic lawn equipment like 2-stroke Lawn Boys, Mcclane edgers, and argue about which weed-wacker brand is the best (hint: not Craftsman or Homelite), I'm your guy I guess.

Not really a hobby, but I guess I have a story for you. When I went to Murray State, probably around 1998, I took a part-time job at the Briggs and Stratton plant making lawnmower engines. I was really bad at setting up the springs for the throttle (I think that's the part I was working on) and was holding up the line. It took a level of dexterity I couldn't get while wearing the thick gloves that they mandated I have on at all times.

Anyway, they put me on the testing line for the rest of that shift. By the time engines got to me, they were running. I had to put my hand over the gas tank, and, by choking off the air, make the engine stall to a stop. I had to mark engines that didn't stop. How would I know? Because I then had to disconnect the sparkplug wire. The ones that didn't stop sent a big jolt up my arm and down to my knee.

Needless to say, I was a bit faster on the other job the next day. I ended up switching over to working at the Mattel factory on the other side of town not long after that.

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

quizbowl is great but have you guys ever tried garlic bread

[alexdz]

When I am not injured, I am a NCAA Varsity Athlete™ in the Sports of Cross-Country and Track, a small minority among quiz bowlers.

Awesome! I've been pretty heavily involved in college track and field over the past few years as an official. It's a good side income if you work meets that pay, and it's an enjoyable experience even doing it for free.

[Ciorwrong]

That was quite a blurb, but if anyone wants to talk about classic lawn equipment like 2-stroke Lawn Boys, Mcclane edgers, and argue about which weed-wacker brand is the best (hint: not Craftsman or Homelite), I'm your guy I guess.

Not really a hobby, but I guess I have a story for you. When I went to Murray State, probably around 1998, I took a part-time job at the Briggs and Stratton plant making lawnmower engines. I was really bad at setting up the springs for the throttle (I think that's the part I was working on) and was holding up the line. It took a level of dexterity I couldn't get while wearing the thick gloves that they mandated I have on at all times.

Anyway, they put me on the testing line for the rest of that shift. By the time engines got to me, they were running. I had to put my hand over the gas tank, and, by choking off the air, make the engine stall to a stop. I had to mark engines that didn't stop. How would I know? Because I then had to disconnect the sparkplug wire. The ones that didn't stop sent a big jolt up my arm and down to my knee.

Needless to say, I was a bit faster on the other job the next day. I ended up switching over to working at the Mattel factory on the other side of town not long after that.

I've worked on a couple Briggs and Stratton engines and we liked them quite a lot for a gas engine. They were much more reliable (aside from a crappy muffler that was connected to one) than the Techumseh engine we had that just died after one season. Before we started to use volt meters and had spare spark plugs, we would test to see if there was a spark by having my partner holding a wrench or piece of metal to the spark plug with the boot off while I would pull on the rip chord. If my co-owner got shocked, we knew that the spark plug worked...

That factory experiences sounds interesting. We have spent hours messing around with those throttles and the carburetor floats so I feel your pain with the dexterity limitations.

[Quantity of Books v. Kansas]

I've swam competitively since I was five, swam varsity all four years of high school (yuck), and played the violin for nine years before I quit last year.

I joined basically all of the science clubs at my school, which would include Chem Club (I am the current secretary), Science Olympiad (we're not good at all, but I was the president this year), a brief (two year) stint in Ecology Club, highlights of which include identifying soil layers in a hole in the ground with Jackie. My most favorite is Science Buddies, a club where the fourth graders from our local elementary school come over towards the end of their school day and we do science experiments with them. NHS is a joke at our school, but I did/do a ton of teacher aiding hours for that (the chemistry teachers love me because I do all of their dishes).

I had a very neat opportunity to volunteer this past summer in the Lung Transplant Clinic at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, during which I learned a lot about making faxes and prior authorization and health insurance and how to spell a wide variety of antibiotics/antirejection/antiviral medications. If anyone is in the Philadelphia area, I highly recommend the Summer Teen Volunteer program if you're looking for something to do during the summer.

[Nate714]

Asides from Quiz Bowl, I'm apart of The Junior State of America, a political debate organization for high school students (I hope to be on state cabinet next year + chapter officer!) and DECA (which also includes Quiz Bowl at some of their events), where I've made states this year (didn't make nationals though). Also, I'm apart of our school's new MUN club which is gonna start up next year.

Besides that, when I'm not in school I enjoy graphic design, particularly designing logos and such. I'm also planning to volunteer on the campaign trail for our governor's race this year, as I did in 2015 up in New Hampshire for John Kasich (sad to see him lose!).

[Majin Buu Roi]

Lotta theater. Watching theater (time and money permitting), listening to Broadway soundtracks on a loop, being in things, particularly musical theater and improv, that sort of stuff. Also, stuff like the Civilization games and Crusader Kings 2 are a major part of why I'm better at history than any other subject.

[Golran]

No longer in school so my job & studying for actuarial exams takes up a good majority of my time. In my free time, I bowl (around a 180 average buoyed by a huge spare conversion percentage (75%+ including splits) and cut down by a strike rate around 25%) and referee a lot of high school football and youth league lacrosse. Board games with friends are cool too.

[A Dim-Witted Saboteur]

Also, stuff like the Civilization games and Crusader Kings 2 are a major part of why I'm better at history than any other subject.

This. Also nothing makes you better at geography quite like games that make you stare at maps for hours on end.

[Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone]

Also, stuff like the Civilization games and Crusader Kings 2 are a major part of why I'm better at history than any other subject.

This. Also nothing makes you better at geography quite like games that make you stare at maps for hours on end.

Adding to the chorus: Paradox games get you buzzes

[Steeve Ho You Fat]

I just wanted to say that I'm really glad this thread exists - if I could go back and do high school and college again, I'd definitely still play quizbowl, but I'd make sure not to lose sight of my other hobbies as well. Now that I've graduated and withdrawn from quizbowl a little bit, I've gotten back into hiking and going outside, as well as music. Quizbowl is great and a lot of fun, but without other meaningful hobbies it's much easier to get burned out or frustrated.

[kitakule]

My activities outside of quiz bowl largely consist of my student leadership with Chi Alpha (a college Christian organisation, not a frat), doing stuff with the Yale African Students Association, playing pick-up soccer, and playing FIFA when I have the time. I also like to listen to disco music and watching Doctor Who.

[SpanishSpy]

Model United Nations, Pep Band (alto saxophonist), ballroom dance, lots of alternate history (have had nonfiction relate to the genre published online), and I write for Odyssey Online.

[bretthogan43]

I did cross country at school but have spent most of my free time listening to metal.

[Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone]

Adding to the chorus: Paradox games get you buzzes

Activities outside QB that don't get you buzzes: sitting in boats

[Skepticism and Animal Feed]

I founded a satirical newspaper in 10th grade, making fun of events at my high school. It was a lot like the Quizbowl Tribune, except about my school.

They didn't let us run the "9th grade field trip to Iran ends poorly" article, my first experience with censorship.

[setophaga]

I will attest that birding has secured me at least one power on almost every quizbowl set I've played.

[Muriel Axon]

I will attest that birding has secured me at least one power on almost every quizbowl set I've played.

Nice username!

[merv1618]

The bulk of my major activities were musical in nature. In high school I did choir, orchestra, and pit orchestra for musicals but still acted in most plays. At NU I joined Phi Mu Alpha (as did Cory and Dylan), and was one of the renegade Jews in the chapel choir; through the latter, I met Joseph Schwantner, Eric Whitacre, and the late Stephen Paulus. These days I'm back in an orchestra and a few choirs but that's about it.

[JA01]

I've done science Olympiads for the past few years. I've decided to quit it though from loss of interest. I'm more of a humanities person. Love art, films, classic rock, some modern music in there too. Huge admirer of theatre and musicals. Love board games too. Unfortunately I don't have that many people to play with so I only play once in a while.

Jade Anderson smithtown high school west