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For the og's

LostwagesLostwages Posts: 56 ✭✭✭
in General Discussion
So I'm curious about something the og's might be able to answer. How do you guys stay engaged in the forum and cigar hobby after the initial hobby honeymoon is over? It just got me thinking about a comment a member made about fly by activity on the forum. Say you're in a cigar buying freeze.Whether it's because of money issues or you are happy with what you currently own. What keeps you coming back and excited about the hobby? Have you got bored of it and came back? What made you come back?

I ask this because I'm a professional hobby keeper lol. I get into something new. Research like crazy, spend a bunch of money. Then it slowly dies down and I usually find something new. Even though I still like all the experiences and joy of that hobby I just don't stick with it. I heard a comment before that stuck with me. The guy said he was addicted to the knowledge and not particularly the hobby itself. How many of you feel that way too? This seems like a great hobby and probably the biggest group of people of any new hobby I've experienced. So I think I'm looking for tips that keep you engaged for the long haul. 
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Comments

  • Captain_CallCaptain_Call Posts: 1,553 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not sure I qualify as og but I'm here for the people. I'm a serial hobbyist too.
  • TNBigfoot68TNBigfoot68 Posts: 2,755 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Me looking at the different cigars to figure out what I wanted to smoke was my excitement in the beginning, so much so the wife called it my Cigar Porn. After time it has become the bond and friendship of my Cigar family. Yes I still like dreaming about Cigars I haven't smoked yet, and learning new stuff, but my focus has changed. 
    I was born a fool, and just got bigger!
  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You wanna get hooked, roll your own. Ohmigod, the aroma!
    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
  • Trykflyr_1Trykflyr_1 Posts: 2,514 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not really an og when it comes to cigars... the calendar, however... that's a whole 'nother story.   I'm here for the knowledge, the camraderie (Comrades!) and just the laughs I get on the Vherf.  I've now got a bunch of friends I've never actually met. 
    I'm still troubled by what I did for that Klondike bar...
  • LostwagesLostwages Posts: 56 ✭✭✭
    The vherf, contest and whatnot sounds very interesting. Never done anything like that on a forum before. I still have a lot to learn but eventually it does slow down. I'm think that cigar smokers for whatever reason seem to be overall much nicer than other groups I've been in. I hopped into the online gun forums in my last hobby and unfortunately most of them are jerks lol. Even though we all had the same passion. It was a very weird community. The people here seem much more united. I hope cigars become something that sticks. I really enjoy them. 
  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Some of us will fade out for a bit sometimes.
    But we always come back or are forced back. LOL!
    If you look at cigars as a hobby, then you will likely lose interest.
    If you look at it as a lifestyle, relaxation or enjoyment, then that's different.

    Hobbies mean you are collecting **** to collect it and have it.
    Accumulating cigars is for one purpose, to smoke them.
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • BKDogBKDog Posts: 1,229 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lostwages said:
    So I'm curious about something the og's might be able to answer. How do you guys stay engaged in the forum and cigar hobby after the initial hobby honeymoon is over? It just got me thinking about a comment a member made about fly by activity on the forum. Say you're in a cigar buying freeze.Whether it's because of money issues or you are happy with what you currently own. What keeps you coming back and excited about the hobby? Have you got bored of it and came back? What made you come back?

    I ask this because I'm a professional hobby keeper lol. I get into something new. Research like crazy, spend a bunch of money. Then it slowly dies down and I usually find something new. Even though I still like all the experiences and joy of that hobby I just don't stick with it. I heard a comment before that stuck with me. The guy said he was addicted to the knowledge and not particularly the hobby itself. How many of you feel that way too? This seems like a great hobby and probably the biggest group of people of any new hobby I've experienced. So I think I'm looking for tips that keep you engaged for the long haul. 
    This is such a great question. I also have many hobbies, as I "suffer" from an over-active imagination, and my mind is always racing. Thus, I probably have some similar interests as yourself, with hobbies ranging from expensive long range rifles and optics, to leatherworking and blacksmithing, motorcycling, hiking, to computer gaming, digital art, painting, drawing, you name it. As a kid, I often tinkered in the garage all day long, inventing things which mostly ended up being useless, and that's probably where I will die one day when I'm old and senile, talking to a hair drier while attempting to recreate some Tesla experiment. I've served 12 years in the military, I was the "got to" guy who could get anything done, even in the most ridiculous situation like sitting on the top of a farm house on the border between Iraq and Iran with nobody around for miles, and the problem only interrupted my tea time with the natives for a few minutes. For people like myself, I guess we're just able to problem solve really well because we have already run through a similar situation either in practice or in our head at one point in time. The title "Jack of all trades, master of none", comes to mind.
    What actually keeps me engaged in cigars? Over the long haul, nothing. I've lost interest in the past, was too busy doing other things to worry. I never really kept a collection back then, either. Now that I'm older and more sedentary, I guess it only makes sense to keep a...ehem...a few cigars on hand. I've started to get more involved online socially at this place and SpiritedSmoke, which is actually a nice place to frequent because the company is mostly genuinely good, just like this forum's active members. Let's look at some of the things I've done to remain focused on cigars recently that may assist you in your quest to justify the rampant abuse of your credit cards, shall we?
    I built my own humidor by re-purposing a wooden trash bin holder made in Amish country, which coincidentally, is also where I happen to live. It's way too over-engineered, cost far too much to justify its existence, and can easily be replaced with a $40 Coleman cooler. I mean, I insulated the damn thing with aluminized bubble wrap and lined it with red cedar, followed by a veneer of Spanish cedar. It's like Adolf Hitler picking a fight on three fronts, it's stupid on top of ridiculous...but unlike the results formed by that angry little Austrian, It works. Would I ever build something like this again? Probably. I've been thinking up plans for a walk-in for some time. I figure, when I am no longer drawing up plans in my mind, it's time to get to work on it.
    I have a few handfuls of dog rockets I experiment with, testing different storage methods and I successfully managed to grow mold after failing at it for quite some time. It's much more difficult than people sometimes think.
    I started rolling my own cigars. Did you ever know a kid in school who had terrible OCD? Did you also, by chance remove the Jacks and toss them a deck of cards, allowing them to spill, then ask directly for them to locate any of the Jacks? Well, that's where I'm at here in this juncture, and it's....absolutely....brilliant! I mean, it's not quite as costly as collecting expensive super premiums and boutiques, but if you're serious enough, it could run you more than a few hundred bucks easily enough. I have a couple Coleman coolers filled with tobacco just waiting to be rolled, it's glorious! Naturally, I saved some money and spent time making my own chaveta out of an Amish dough cutter I picked up at an antique store for $1. By the way, hobbyists shouldn't enter an antique store unaccompanied, just saying. I mean you could, but you will probably find a black hole and disappear until the shop owner finds you hours later when its closing time.
    I started a private "club" with friends from online. Yes, it's much the same as what we do here at this fantastic place, sending cigars and whatnot to some acquaintances and friends. I think it's just as much fun smoking fine cigars as it is finding out they've received the package you sent and are pleasantly surprised. It's really cool sharing cigars.
    Let's see, oh yes. Pipe smoking. Because, why not? I mean, it might all start off all innocent like, purchasing the really attractive deal on Cigars and Pipes dot com where they list a good pipe, pipe cleaners, Czech tool, and bag of Antietam for $19.99 and you think to yourself, "how could they be making money?" But, then you realize you have to sample different types of pipe tobacco and it turns into a late night CBid binge and you suddenly have 35 tins of Plum Pudding and a few dozen various other kinds of interesting pipe tobacco. Maybe it's pipes, because we all know that a man should enjoy his tobacco from a really good pipe. Suddenly, names like "Stanwell" have meaning and you're looking for that one pipe, that perfect draw and feel to accompany your fine tobacco experience. And thus and so forth and what not.
    You could start up an Excel document (I use Linux, so think 'Open Office') and begin plotting your demise and heavy use of caffeine as you click-clack away typing out a spreadsheet listing every cigar brand, date of acquisition, and personal rating.
    Then, for more fun, create a .pdf for every cigar blend you come up with as you roll your own cigars! Of course, you cannot do this on Winblows, but with Open Office, you can create .pdf files without giving a greedy corporation your hard earned money just so they can use it to travel to a third world country and test out poisonous vaccines on unsuspecting poor people for the pharmaceutical industry. Thanks, Bill Gates.
    The list is endless...let me know if you need any more ideas, I have plenty.
    "Love is a dung heap, Betty and I am but a c.o.c.k. that climbs upon it to crow."
  • RhamlinRhamlin Posts: 9,033 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Hey when I find a group that can put up with me I stick with it😄
  • WylaffWylaff Posts: 5,360 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Open Office is available for windows. :)
    "Cooking isn't about struggling; It's about pleasure. It's like sǝx, with a wider variety of sauces."

    At any given time the urge to sing "In The Jungle" is just a whim away... A whim away... A whim away...
  • GuitardedGuitarded Posts: 4,705 ✭✭✭✭✭
    “I’ve got a great cigar collection - it’s actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn’t going to smoke every last one of ‘em.” Ron White
    On the subject of saving cigars for special occasions, “ Remember it’s just a bunch of old rolled up tobacco leaves.” @Wylaff.

    Friends don't let good friends smoke cheap cigars.
  • LostwagesLostwages Posts: 56 ✭✭✭
    Guitarded said:
    “I’ve got a great cigar collection - it’s actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn’t going to smoke every last one of ‘em.” Ron White
    On the subject of saving cigars for special occasions, “ Remember it’s just a bunch of old rolled up tobacco leaves.” @Wylaff.

    It's more like rolled up money lol. Take that $10 or $20 and light it up haha
  • LostwagesLostwages Posts: 56 ✭✭✭
    I'm just like that with money. Same when I have a range day. Each pull of the trigger is money flying down range lol. I still enjoy and find it therapeutic as well. 
  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If a cigar isn't like a one or two our vacation, then I don't know what to tell anyone.
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • MorganGeoMorganGeo Posts: 2,230 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Echambers said:
    I just do my thing, then get pissed off at everyone, quit, realize I actually like most of you mother*******, come back for a while and do my thing, repeat. 

    Easy peasy. 
    Sounds like me!  
  • EchambersEchambers Posts: 4,184 ✭✭✭✭✭
    MorganGeo said:
    Echambers said:
    I just do my thing, then get pissed off at everyone, quit, realize I actually like most of you mother*******, come back for a while and do my thing, repeat. 

    Easy peasy. 
    Sounds like me!  
    Brothers of different mothers...now get in your closet!
    -- "There's something that doesn't make sense. Let's go poke it with a stick."
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