Titled because I'm starting to think that I may have a problem My involvement with 'hobbies' generally gravitate from being very green with little knowledge to reading forums and books until I could probably start a business. That said, I honestly do a LOT of different things (which probably drives my wife crazy, but she never admits it). By trade/career I'm an electrical engineer, but I've been a sole-proprietor of a car audio business for over 10 years now. That business has since expanded in various directions including home audio and video, some commercial work as well, window tinting (at one time), fabric imprinting, and vinyl graphics. It has also been a means for me to learn a bit about web design.

In 2008 I bought my first home (and got married), which led me to home automation. I spent a few years researching various automation technologies and companies. A little over a year ago I started automating things in my home - for now it's really just a specialized alarm system with automated lighting and control of my garage door, but will be expanded to a number of different things as money and time is available. Since I'm a fan of pictures I'll add one here of the retrofit wiring that I've done in the past year - this was taken while I was about 90% done as you can see a few stray wires that are still hanging outside of the panel:



I've also got a full media server setup, which can record up to 6 channels at once (to a central PC), which can be distributed throughout the house to any of our TVs. This is similar to some of the new systems that D* have began advertising... the difference is that mine has automatic commercial skipping (on shows that have been recorded) and a movie library which currently has 150+ movies. There's a LOT more to the automation and media stuff than that, but that information is for another forum so I'll leave it at that unless there are questions.

In 2009 a friend introduced me to a DSLR and 'photography' (being more than a point & shoot camera). I've spent a solid 4 years now on a dedicated photography forum and have more gear than a number of professional photographers that I know - really that doesn't mean anything other than I've spent a lot of money, but I feel very comfortable with a camera and the technical aspect of photography. Here's a shot I took in 2011 that is one of my favorites to date:



Having said all of that, I bought a 2004 Acura RSX Type-S back in 2007... and joined a dedicated RSX forum shortly after It's obviously nothing exotic or expensive, but I really enjoy driving it (DD). Trying to make a long story shorter, I rear-ended someone roughly 2 years ago [guessing] - no MAJOR damage, but definitely cosmetic damage that would require a new hood and front bumper... I decided then that I was going to do a conversion (to 05-06 styling) and add a lip kit when I was ready to have the paint and body work done. During the time that I was saving $$$ to fund the parts + paint & body... I started reading here. Earlier this year I started placing orders and started to catch the bug as I got ready to send my car to the shop. I've had it back about 2 months now, and I'm getting really close to buying a DA so I can start polishing and waxing by machine

I don't have any new pics yet, but here is a shot of the car back in 2008 after a quick wash:


Again... I've got issues!! [Sorry I can't stop] About a year ago our 2-car garage was full... mainly with various tools of mine, so my wife and I decided that I needed a workshop in our back yard. I starting making plans and even met with our local building department about permits and such, when I admitted to myself that I really didn't have the time to dedicate to building it in the time frame that we needed/wanted it (you'll see why shortly) - so I ended up having someone build it. Here is a screen shot of the 3D model that I was drafting in Google SketchUp:



Here is what it looks like today:


This is basically a dedicated space that I will use for various projects, but primarily woodworking... such as construction of speaker boxes, cabinets, and/or furniture.

The reason I wasn't able to build it was that my wife gave birth to our first child (son) in June! I got the picture of the lion above printed large and framed... and it's hanging in his room

I think that's plenty of introduction for now... I'll try to add updated pictures of the car this weekend.

Overall, I'm a pretty open book and I really enjoy sharing information with others. If anyone has any questions about any of the above, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer as best I can.