What is or was your "macho" thing

[Melissa]

Melissa, you aren't kidding about the expense involved.

The Tank and stand are almost inconsequential in cost compared to the rest of it.
I quit keeping track after $3,000 on my 100 gallon.
130 Lbs. of Live Rock alone was $650.00
The lighting was $900.00 (Metal Halides + T5's)
it goes on and on.

It's my escape though, I can sit there and watch for hours.

One day I'll post pictures, if anyone is really interested in it.

Jessica

Yeah, I still had to get a sump, a pump, protein skimmer, lights, more powerheads and a hood.  Not to mention all the stuff to go inside of it.  I even have the best saltwater fish book available (the conscientious marine aquarist) signed by the author.   I'll see if I can find a picture of my old tank.

Melissa

[Suzy]

Well, I spend time working on my truck.  Been redoing the interior and the engine.  Cheaper than buying a new one.  Funny thing is nowadays I really hate the greasy hands!

Would you count fishing and hunting?

Kristi

[HelenW]

Would you count fishing and hunting?

Kristi

I would!

Fishing (with my Dad), hunting, shooting (skeet), reloading my own ammo.  I got into woodworking too.

But the thing is, I still like a good walk in the woods, that's all hunting was to me anyway, mostly.  And I still like spending time in my small workshop making nice things out of wood, mostly, but using other materials as well.  These are solitary pursuits, however, shooting sports are too filled with testosterone fueled machismo for me to be comfortable doing it.  So maybe most of the stuff I liked, and still do, isn't a macho thing?

hugs & smiles
helen

[Chaunte]

I used to target shoot.  Never got into hunting, though.  I just like the skill of placing a small projectile in a distant paper target.

Does liberating a civil-war cannon & firing a bizzilion pounds of black powder count as macho?

Chaunte

Yes, the cannon is back where it belongs.     Right next to a 1908 Caddy & the carriage President McKinley was taken to the hospital in when he was assinated.

[Julie Marie]

My macho thing?  Hmmmmm 

When I came out to the family, the comment I heard most often that surprised me was that people couldn't believe it because I was so macho.  Never would I have used that term to describe me.

Since I work in an all male and pretty macho environment I was probably comparing myself to these guys and by those standards I was anything but macho.  But to family and friends I was.  So I guess my macho thing was my life ................ until I gave myself permission to transition. 

Julie

[Shana A]

I never did the macho thing at all. All through elementary to high school, I was always the last one picked for any team, and tried to avoid guys whose idea of fun was to beat me up for being a ->-bleeped-<-got or sissy. I've always been the sensitive artist type, regardless of gender.

zythyra

[nathan]

Macho? I'm ALL ABOUT the macho.

Exhibit A: My "motorcycle".

[tinkerbell]

Macho? I'm ALL ABOUT the macho.

Exhibit A: My "motorcycle".

Exhibit B: your photo!   cute!

*tinkerbell runs and hides*


tinkerbell

[togetherwecan]

hey even us GG's have macho things...I love to watch and play football, I love power tools and building things - especially with wood, I am a bit of a computer geek (if that counts), love fishing and camping too and I am a black belt in kickboxing and a purple belt in grappling! I grew up with 5 younger brothers, what can I say? lol

[KarenLyn]

I joined the Marines. That's about the extent of it. I do or would like to do a lot more traditionally "macho" things now... I drive a race car and rock climb and I'd like to hang glide, scuba dive, learn to sail, get a pilot's license. I wouldn't mind doing some more rappelling. I did that in the marines and really liked it.

Karen Lyn      

[nathan]

Exhibit B: your photo!   cute!

*tinkerbell runs and hides*

I'd say that you made me blush, but that wouldn't be very macho.

[Steph]

This girls macho thing was serving in the elite Canadian Airborne Regiment - Paratrooper extordinair   as part of the Special Service Force, and I trained with and instructed units of your 82^nd Airborne when they came to the Canadian far north for winter warfare training.  In fact I was so successful that I became a jump master, and ended my stint as a parachute instructor - happy memories - dark memories but memories none the less.

Steph

[BeverlyAnn]

...and I trained with and instructed units of your 82^nd Airborne when they came to the Canadian far north for winter warfare training. 

LOL  You might have helped train my brother.  He was 82^nd for about 12 years.

Bev

[Elizabeth]

Hey everyone,

I coached little league football both as assisstant and head coach.

Love always,
Elizabeth

[cindianna_jones]

Kiera,

I have never understood this thing guys have to take off perfectly good parts on a new vehicle and replace them with something perceived (not shown) to be better.  My hubby has a new motorcycle and he has replaced all of the mirrors, stands, license plate holders, lamp mounts with chrome.  He want's to chuck the exhaust system as well.  I don't get it.  The bike doesn't look any better to me. Really, to me it looks the same.  I really don't get it.  I figure he's already spent more than a thousand dollars on this "upgrade".  I just look at him and smile.  What can I do?

Cindi

[BeverlyAnn]

Ah, but Cindi, you have to understand the male mind and the concept of nothing that came from the factory is good enough.  I know this because during my racing days, I hung out with a lot of male minds (ok the minds were attached to bodies before anybody asks  ).  Men have this concept of taking the baseline product, changing this and that to make it their own.  I mean when I was pretending I took an 8000 dollar Plymouth, spent several more thousand on engine, transmission, wheels, tires, etc just so I could drive 55 mph.  Sheesh, I could have put that money in an investment and by now had enough to pay for somebody's SRS.

Or to put it simply as the old saw goes, "the only difference between little boys and grown men is the price of their toys."

Bev

[Tiffany Elise]

  In my failed attempt to "be a man" I did the following:
Got married
Joined the Army
Practiced full-contact, kick boxing
Target practice: 357 & 44 magnum, 12 ga pump, browning 9mm. Colt 45 auto.
Built hot rods
Street raced
Made my wife and daughters "act like women."
Stitched up my own wounds.
Did all electrical repairs with the power on.

I was an idiot!
Tiff

[ChefAnnagirl]

Julie Marie wrote:

When I came out to the family, the comment I heard most often that surprised me was that people couldn't believe it because I was so macho.  Never would I have used that term to describe me.

This is almost exactly trhe same thing i heard from my family, and the same internal reaction i had - in fact, i cringed hearing that particular response....

I fished in part because of this - became very skilled at it - especially later in life trying to hang with certain friends - i still do, but now it's much more about just being on or near the water and the outdoors in any way i can get there.

I was the world's most successful professional teenage vandal and thief.

I used to have a deep interest in certain maritial arts and various handheld weapons as a means of reconciling myself when i was much younger

Part of the reason i went to back to school as a professional Chef - lots of insanely macho people in that field sometimes...lots of insanely insane people in general - this appealed to my "machismo" in some very comforting ways.


there's more but brainlock has set in at the moment...

Thanks,


Annagirl

[Gwen C]

I did a lot of things growing up to test fate, hide my pain and prove my macho. Things like jumping off the top of a train bridge that was over 50 feet high into a river and almost ripping off my arm, jumping off of high rocks into a river between rocks, catching rattlesnakes with my bar hands, climbing up the back side of Half Dome in Yosemite and hanging over the edge, solo free climbing (non-technical) mountain peeks in the Sierra's, driving out of control on acid in the mountains in my Porsche 911, building and racing a 911 race car that went 165mph and I took every drug imaginable in the 60's, 70's and 80's. (sober now for almost 14 years)

It's a miracle that I am still alive. I have given up all these past activities. Therefore, I am really hoping to someday completely put this obvious death wish behind.

Gwen

[Amanda Barber]

I know that many of us have, in the past, tried something macho to "cure" or convince ourselves we weren't what we are.  With me it was drag (no pun) racing.  I had a '70 Plymouth Duster with about 700 HP that we raced and I drove a '73 Plymouth Roadrunner with around 500 HP on the street. 

I've built alot HP in the chrysler and Ford camps
(still do ) 

I always loved 4x4s, was driving instructor for UN aid caravans and Landrover offroad driving school.
It was hard to tell myself that the caravan years were only about the Aid work and not about the chance to drive on several continents, across the worst terrain on the planet because weather or a petty government wouldn't let planes fly.