Reading (sci fi and murder thrillers), Computers games
I am just getting back into photography after many a year of not doing it. My mind is full of cobwebs but im slowly learning.
My wife drags me out to national trust type places.
The occasional gig and the odd pub night.

hi, benching is competitive over clocking, trying to get best score you can in various bench mark programs.

Benchmarking. Computer components pushed to their limit (overclocked), usually with some kind of exotic cooling. Then running a set of benchmark tests to see how high a score you can achieve. Then submit the score.

Immensely addictive, cripplingly expensive, but very rewarding.

I used to climb. Later in life, I discovered that fat people seriously can't climb. I just can't get close to the cliff because my belly is in the way, and even if I could then my finger tips couldn't hold my 14 stone

Ah ok. Gotcha. I could only think of this or this.

Tell that to the sumo lookalike who climbs at Mile End nearly every day, upside down. Your finger tips will get rougher, your forearms will get stronger. Your waist will get smaller.

That is.

Of course.

Unless you sit whining about how fat and old you are instead of hitting the climbing wall.

Hobbies? People do stuff?

Meh.

Taekwon-Do;
Cycling;
Trolling;
Sleeping.

Seems pretty standard really...

Whenever I'm not on /b/ or MSN, I tend to go out on my pitbike (think motocross bike, but small) up the local woods. And every weekend I race my full-sized bike.

Other than that, I like to go help my dad in the garage. It could be anything from finding out why a car won't start, or making something. And I love it.

Oh, and tinkering with PCs, and going out with my friends on the pedal-bikes up the same woods. . Have been known to do a bit of fishing, too.

But... but... but... my big chair feels so comfy under my whining butt

You have a perfectly valid point, but when I was 17 I used to be able to stick to the vertical like an insect without having any great strength. Plus, I doubt a "built" climber would be able to hang on some of the holds I used.

I did used to go to a local climbing wall, but you're not allowed to now without a qualified instructor. I don't think it gets used even once a month now

When I joined my gym, I thought I saw a wall outside, and asked the gym owner about it.
“Yes, we were going to put one in until the council Health & Safety Officer announced we'd need 4 members of staff per person climbing.”
True story.

Why, just why?

At the Manchester climbing wall there's about 6 staff on the floor and about 100 climbers at peak time. And I had to almost beg them to supervise me the first time, they were ready for me to throw a harness on and go for it.

Was that recently? The rules were fine when I first went

Photography's a pretty big one. I watch a lot of rugby too, although can't play anymore. And ordinarily I'd be on the archery field 2/3+ times a week, but that's a no-go atm with my shoulders being brokéd.

Edd

I'd climbed before, but i told them i'd forgotten how to tie on with a proper knot and they showed me once and said go for it, techincally yes i was qualified, but my point was that aftre that i was totally unsupervised and would have been from the start if i hadn't said anything. I had a climbing card at Mile End which was enough to convince them i was a climber

And yes Manchester c;limbing centre is a perfectly safe place, it's self-regulating, someone will tell you if you're doing something wrong.