pachoo said:

My paintbrushes and pens. It's one of my most favorite feelings of dry painting my face. I have never splurged big money on anything for myself except brushes and pens. I use coupons tho but one of my favorite ones was a $35 brush and I got it half off.

And I might have a small amount of worship for things I collect... like my sticker collection. And probably books..

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Jokeshopbeard said:

Ah car groups. I loved my EK9 group, all met through the EK9 forum. I made a bunch of friends at various meets, and it eventuated in about a dozen of us going to the Nurburgring (where that pic is from). Probably one of the top three 'long weekeds' of my life. Amazing how well you can bond with people if you are passionate about a common interest - even people you would not normally get on with..

How often do you meet your group? Do you go to big meets/RR days/track days etc together?

I've been trying to find time for a track day on the bike a couple of years now, but I don't have a group to spur me on - the only riders I know are 44 & 52, and very hard to hook up with. Get about 1-2 rides for pleasure alone a year.

If you're doing more than that, then you're doing alright man.. I think you got a little nipper (kid) though right?

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I hear you about that bike. I would LOVE to have one (mainly for that lane splitting in traffic) and that crazy power and the "freedom" I also hear about from riders.
I never really got into them though... and I feel its a little late at this part of my life. Plus I live in Socal and people are retarded around bikes.

My group is awesome. It's a VW/Audi group mostly but all cars are welcome at meets.... though its usually all VWs/Audis.
We have a facebook page we use to talk shop/plan meets etc... about 1000 people strong. Not that many people show up at meets though.. usually around 10-20 people at our normal meets.
They have meets and cruises ALL the time. There's a big all-day monthly cruise where we meet up, like 50+ cars strong... drive through LA, carve through all the mountain canyon roads and end up at Malibu.
There's regular meets we have two to three times a week. And then there is smaller local cruises people set up randomly.
Then there is track days.... and local car show events where we usually come as a group.

I only manage to make it to a meet once every two months or so as I'm so damn busy these days. And yeah got a little ripper now. He's 2 and already obsessed with cars

It really makes a huge difference being part of an enthusiast group. I thought I knew a lot about cars before I joined but I've learned 10x more since.
Plus made tons of new friends from it and made some solid connections. Living in Socal helps too... the car scene is alive and well here.

We like to bitch about how EU VWs ALWAYS get the good stuff and US spec ALWAYS get the shaft on features. Drives me insane.

Example: On the EU spec Golf R: Panoramic sunroof, electric automatic folding side mirrors, LED tails, opening center console, better headlights, choice of wagon, list goes on.
US spec Golf R: NO sunroof period, normal side mirrors, shitty halogen tails, LOCKED and unopenable center console (it's a 4 minute mod to get it to open... but still WTF)... silver housing headlights while EU gets black housing, no choice of wagon. No spare tire. Smaller infotainment screen.

Virtually everyone upgrades to the EU spec LED tail lights because they look so much better (those are the ones in the pic I posted).. and they are pricey as fuck (like 900). Should come like that from the factory.
It's just so many little things that we get the shaft on, it's fucking annoying. I would love to live in EU just to get the better featured VAG cars since that's ALL I drive.
Plus you guys get new cars from them that we get teased over here... and 95% of the time they never come to US. For example we haven't a scirroco for YEARS. I'm jealous.

Jokeshopbeard said:

Do you do that for a living then slip, or are you a self-taught hobby expert, like myself?

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I'm attempting to turn it into my own business, yes. I started back in school, I needed a second elective and it was the least objectionable one. I didn't really have any interest in it but found out I really enjoyed it and had an innate skill for it. It became the only class I liked. Wanted to continue after school but I didn't have the money for all the tools and just kinda forgot about it over the years. Then a year ago or so I decided I wanted a tortilla press (because I cook as well) and all the ones in my price range were either prone to breaking or were so thin they would bend around the dough and were useless. I noticed they used to be made out of wood and decided I could do just build one for cheaper, which reignited my love for woodworking.

So here I am. Up until very recently I've just been doing mostly prep and trying to get my shop set up. I've done a couple of things in between that were done for the money. I took a commission for a bookcase from my wife's coworker which was the first official thing I sold. I restored a china cabinet that was my grandmother's and just sold it a week or two ago actually. Right now I'm working on a bench made from logs I cut up myself. That's in between stuff like building the top for my table saw and finished building my drill press yesterday (but found out I'm going to have to spring for some oak dowels and in a larger diameter so it's now "unfinished" again). I built my wife a jewelry box for her birthday in there somewhere and will soon be starting on a project for a friend's birthday. I'm not really to the point yet where I'm just focusing on stuff to sell, but I'm getting closer.

Some of the stuff mentioned:




(That is just a rough layout so I could figure out how everything was going to go together)