UPDATED
Great idea (this thread)!
I'll try to keep it short:
Sports: At 13 yo. I started fencing. But after 1+1/2 or 2 years I gave up. I was physically very weak, a stronger wind would make me fly. The sword (épée) was heavy (my coach gave me an adult one) and teammates stronger. At first I worked hard, but after a while I get tired of defeats. Training was very-very hard and I was totally exhausted after every session. And exhausted everyday, because I couldn't regather my energies. Plus I didn't have feel of success, so I gave up. Looking back I'm very thankful to the fencing, now I'm enduring, fast and dynamic.
At home my father made a small table, where we could play TT, but that wasn't serious. The time when I fell in love with TT was 2012 London Olympics. I've seen it on a small black-and-white TV near to the Balaton (an excellent lake for stranding in mid/east-eu). Then I found a club and started playing. My first club was fine, but only amateurs played there and in effect I learned everything about TT in autodidact way, mostly from videos. The basics are exceptions, that I learned from my father, who is the most talented player I've ever seen. He played back in the late '70s in Germany not competitively for about 2 or 3 years. After 40 year hiatus his playing level would be around 2100-2200 point in USA. Unfortunately he had some injuries and the ageing doesn't help, so without training his level lowered to around 1900-2150.
This year in March I decided to move to another club, since I become stronger than the coach
and found a cheaper and way-way better place (for competitive play).
School: I will graduate this year and my plans are to take japanese language and culture as major in the university. And no, I don't speak japanese (yet...), so I can't translate videos and articles for you
I always liked traditional japanese culture, and some stuff from the modern part. Probably music was what won me, song are so beautiful with that language.
Music: I'm not really fan of modern popular music. Don't like rap, house music, dubstep, dance etc. and there is something in (most of) modern pop what makes me uncomfortable to listen. Other than these, I listen a lot of different genres: jazz, funk, classical rock, classical music, some pop, some metal. I listen to a wide range of jazz, practically nearly every type. The only what I don't like is the very disharmonic style. Classic rock: not too much, but it's just because there are genres I like more. I listen to bands from (of course) Beatles to Led Zeppelin. Classical music: I like the most Chopin and Liszt, but other than romantics I listen from baroque to the 20th century's composers. Pop: I mentioned that japanese music had a big influence on me. My very favourite singer is YUI Yoshioka. Actually, I listen to a very few pop singers, I like the voice of aimer, Sinead O'Connor (if she can count as pop), Björk (she also isn't pop, but I like to mention them together). Metal: Japanese influence is the biggest here. Nowadays I listen the most visual kei, but as it's a very-very versatile genre, with tons of different bands, I listen to a few of them. X Japan, who created the genre, has some exceptional melodic power metal song. Melodic is an important word for me, I hate mindless death/trash metal (no offense, that's my opinion). My preferred subgenre is tanbi kei. Hizaki (the man in red costume, see below) is a genious guitarist, founder of numerous bands. If I'm fan of all of his bands. Versailles is a classic, Jupiter is great (Thought I don't like that much Zin's voice, than Kamijo's or Juka's. But I admit his vibrato is top-notch.), Hizaki Grace Project has the best live performance and I don't have words for HIZAKI solo, just listen the album Rosario. I couldn't decide on what song would be the best here for a tribute, so listen both:
Other freetime activities: I red a lot in the past, but the amount is lowered a lot. I don't have a mood for it. Mostly I play board games at home and with friends, both euro and ameri style ones. Like tabletop RPGs, especially story-based games, not powerplaying. Last year I played a lot, this year I have less time for it. I play chess online, but my rating is low (1150-1200 on chess.com, 1550 on lichess).
I think that's enough for now. Bye!
