Idea taken from thenewgreen's post here. I thought it would be sort of cool to do the exact same thing, but with us! So I'm starting things off.
That's me with my wonderful Giant bike, which I've ridden nearly every day for the past eight years or so. It's my favorite hobby, my primary mode of transportation, and the best place to listen to music and/or meditate. Couldn't live without it. (I was in a hurry to get somewhere and asked some passerby to take a quick picture, so excuse the utter lack of quality.)
I'd love some input from all of you!
I've got lots of prized possessions! I'd say my bikes, but I don't want to upscale you flagamuffin ;). I've got my old pinewood derby car I made with my dad, my debate ballots from freshman year of high school, the PC I built for myself in middle school that has undergone many upgrades along the way, even a Blue Angel Plane model a pilot gave to me on the first time I had gone to an Air Show! Hell, my first sentence was about airplanes! The first thing I had ever said (according to me mom, I was utterly quiet, and all of a sudden I spoke a complete sentence) was "the airplanes are taking off!" at almost age 4. Planes have always been a huge interest of mine, and at one point that switched to computers. When I'm not practicing my coding, I'm reading my borrowed "aviator's aeronautical handbook". Maybe someday, when I've all settled down, I'll get my pilot's license.
But anyways, back to the point. At this point, if I have to condense my most prized possession down to one thing, I'd say my Epiphone Casino (or commonly known as "the Beatles guitar". As a student, money doesn't exactly float my way, but that's no problem. I'll spend my afternoons playing the guitar. On weekends, I might jam with a few friends. I've been playing nylon-string classical guitar for a long long time, but it took me until ninth grade to actually get invited to play with others. I was never really social, so it's not all that surprising I was never asked before to play with anyone. The only time I'd play music with others was for school band, and it's not so intimate with 20 clarinets alongside you. This guy wanted to set up a band for the school's talent show, and by golly he did. He had a violin, trumpet, clarinet, him on drums, and me on guitar as the instrumentation. First song? Day Tripper by the Beatles.
He only asked friends anyways, so we were pretty tight knit from the start. On our first rehearsal, we were ready to see how far we could get sight reading.
It was terrible.
For those that know, trumpets and clarinets are B flat instruments. A "C" on the clarinet and trumpet is actually "B flat" on most instruments. This is to save confusion, as most music written for trumpet/clarinet are in the key of "B flat" so if you called "B flat" "C" then you effectively trick yourself into thinking there are no sharps or flats.
The drummer? He transposed wrong. He forgot to change over the sharps and flats and we ended up with this abomination.
thenewgreen has probably heard the song already but he couldn't have known the backstory.
You couldn't hear the guitar as soon as any other instrument started playing. Why? Nylon string guitars and trumpets, or any instrument that's not another classical guitar, don't play well :). I saved up money from friends I built PCs for, and ended up buying a regular version of the Epiphone Casino. Extreme bang for my buck. Lovely guitar. I fell in love by first strum.
Granted, we didn't get much better by the talent show, but it was all about the experience!
Yet since then, this guitar has carried me the whole way. I've loved and lost playing this guitar. I've smiled and argued and cried and everything else in between. I've played at coffee shops and auditoriums (just school ones). It means the world to me, as well as many other things.
Along with my tennis racket and computer mouse, I feel this guitar is an extension of me. And for that, it is my most prized possession.
TL;DR: I love music along with many other things. My classical guitar was too tame for group ROCK AND ROLL so I got a sweet electric that's been with my for better and for worse.
I just call her my dear/my love. The ongoing question is what to name her. I remember explicitly a speaker in health back in that same freshman year who was there to talk about aging. She said "you'll never go through this much change in so few years ever again". Clearly, she meant height, hair, vocal chords, etc. but I felt it to be also very symbolic. In those years, we're a singularity of vulnerability. Any little influence changes everything we stand for, everything we believe in. Reading a great book will change you like the way the Doctor regenerates. All of a sudden you have different friends, a different sense of fashion, etc. Likewise, Muhammad Ali said "The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life." which while portrays change as positive, treats change as a necessary thing.
This is one of the bigger themes of my life so far, or at least one of the things I spend sleepless nights thinking about. I don't like change, it's scary. At any given time I think "the way I am now, the interests, the friends are perfect. Why would I ever want to change?" but the way you never notice the hour hand move on a clock.. the way you never realize the sun moving above your ahead.. suddenly it's a year later and I'm completely different.
I'm a lot older now, but I don't consider myself an "adult" quite yet. In that vein, I'm not getting any tattoos, not making any long term decisions, etc. which I will most likely regret.
Likewise, I don't want to name her something that I'll just think is stupid later in the future.
If anything though, it's getting to be a real problem.
Despite that I really try to live by the ol' saying "regret feels worse than rejection"..
I always go around it by saying "anything I DO do right now, I would just regret!"
change isn't always a bad thing though, and at my age a few regrets might not be so bad. :)
EDIT: Man, just typing out my thoughts like this is therapy! I honestly feel better just putting this into words that I can see. It's like.. looking in a mirror in a dream. You're so used to the usual thing, you know what to expect. Not when something peculiar stares right back at you.
Not to belittle your wonderful post, but to reinforce your point - I named my Toyota "Jesus Christ Supercar" when I first got it and changing names is sacrilege but I'm kinda over my Jesus-Christ-Supercar phase and regretting that decision. So yeah. Don't get a tat, kids.
I had a car called "The Egg". It was a white Chevy Nova Hatchback. I loved that thing. Jesus Christ Supercar is a tough name to top though.
So in thinking about this it occurred to me that there aren't a lot of "things" I prize. That said, I am quite find if my Hubski mug. Although we have a dozen or so coffee mugs, I tend to use this one every time:
Not pictured: mk
Me too. I need some ecib original beans for the coffee first.
First I have to roast a batch that would be worthy of that mug. I'm not even kidding, -I want one that changes with the heat signature.
Do they make them where they change color with heat? I'm sorry, but the ultimate would be if it was just the grey/blue hub wheel, but when you put your coffee in, the center turned orange like when you've got mail or a notification. Come on.
FYI: along the lines of this topic, I recorded a song a while back, based around answers Hubski users gave regarding what they would save out of their home if it were on fire. Here is the link: http://hubski.com/pub?id=18863
Right, so I just took these with a webcam - I don't have a camera - so the quality is poor. And I'm hungover right now. And I didn't iron my shirt! What will the Hubski people think of me...
I have a number of prized sentimental possessions (and one enormous prized practical one - my laptop, which has basically my entire productive output on it). But easily my most prized possessions are my two mandolins.
They're part of something I always wanted to do - to play music - but never really got around to. Even when I did get one mandolin, and then the other, my playing was infrequent and it's only been this year that I've been practicing regularly and seeing good development. And it makes me happy, even if I'm still crap. Oh, I should totally upload a jig to Hubski some time or something.
So I have two mandolins. The skinny one is the one I play most often now (closeup below) - I need to put strings on the other one and keep forgetting. They're both German - maker unknown - and over sixty years old.
First of all, how cool to see a photo of my pal I've been having conversations with for going on two years now. Very cool! And, those mandolins that I've heard about in the past, how nice to see them too. I'm glad to know they're getting some action these days and being played. They are really beautiful, I can see why you prize them.
Yeah, I only just realised I'd never shown my face!
The big one has a nicer sound but the little one has a bird on it.
flagamuffin, great bike. My bike is need of some work, I plan on taking it on next week. I realize that I will drive 1 mile to the store to pick-up milk or something else that I should be riding to. Plus I want to start taking my daughter on some long rides. Consider me inspired. Thanks for the post.
Piggy backing here, I just wanted to agree! I love Giant bikes! I love all bikes! Bikes are also my main mode of transportation, and I've got a few. My favorite has got to be my mid seventies Bertin road bike. Steel frame. It used old Shimano 600, but that was too much of a hassle. It's single-speed now. So much fun.