Help for Hobbyists


I’ve just learned of a website dedicated to hobbies — HobbyHelp. They describe themselves as, “a small team of enthusiasts, looking to share our knowledge and experience with anyone looking to start a new hobby.” Some of the most popular posts are, 10 Most Popular Hobbies in the World, 10 Hobbies That Look Great on Your Resume, and The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Astrophotography. But what brought me to the site was a message from Jenny, one of the bloggers at HobbyHelp. She had seen my post, NASA Image and Video Library, about NASA’s consolidation of its scattered resources into a single archive, and reached out to me with a link to a post of hers, The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Astronomy.

I think HobbyHelp is selling itself short by limiting its audience to beginners “looking to start a new hobby.” I think their site would be useful to people who are already involved in a hobby, too. People who are trying to expand their knowledge, or who are contemplating taking the next step in their experience. That is certainly true of Jenny’s post mentioned above. The depth of her research is plain to see. The care in the writing is obvious. While useful to someone taking their first steps in the hobby of astronomy, her piece would also be useful to people further along.

If you’re looking for a new hobby, visit the HobbyHelp website. If you’re interested in astronomy, visit Jenny’s post. Either way I think you’ll be rewarded for your effort.

rjb

August 5, 2019

I got a note from Charles Wade of the NightSkyPix website asking if I would like to add a link to his site to offer my readers an additional source of information. From the site:

NightSkyPix is dedicated to learning and teaching all aspects of astrophotography and night-time imagery.

I had a look at the site and could see no obvious reason why I shouldn’t link to it. It looks like a thorough and professionally-crafted site dedicated to astrophotography.

Charles Wade – NightSkyPix

So, there it is.

rjb

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Recording The Plainsrunner

Photo CC0 on Foter.com


Jan Mehlich – CC-BY-SA

I’ve been recording The Plainsrunner for a couple of weeks, and it’s going well. There should be about two more weeks of it, then it will be on to polishing it up for presentation. I’m finding these sessions a little easier than the recordings I made of the Green Comet trilogy, which you can find on the Downloads page. I think that mostly comes down to shorter chapters, which are easier to do, and a shorter story overall, which is less daunting.

I always seem to enjoy this part, while also not looking forward to it. People say they like the audiobooks, though, so it’s worth continuing.

rjb

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VocalID Certificate – 1500


I got another certificate! VocalID has sent me a certificate commemorating my reaching the lofty goal of 1500 phrases recorded for their Voicebank. VocalID is a company that is collecting voices that can be used to build personalized voices for people who need them. See my original post on VocalID.

rjb

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