hobbies
Reading
Arkwright is big on reading; he has a room that he calls his library, and it is chock full of books. He is a fairly efficient reader, able to read rather large volumes in a short amount of time. He keeps a list of all the books he's finished, complete with the date (and occasionally time, if he feels like being specific). He puts this up on a little bulletin board in his kitchen so it's easy to access, and every year changes it out for a new one, so he can record how many books he read in that year. This year, he's currently read 76 books as of September 29th -- which is actually a bit low for him. He tends to spend a lot of money on books, as any frugality he might have is completely lost when there's a possibility of getting a good, new read. Due to the fact he reads so much, whenever someone asks something along the lines of "What's your favorite book?" or "Who's your favorite author?", he may sit for a while to think of it. He's honestly not sure at this point, though he does have several favorites among both categories. His favorite genre is nonfiction essays and the like written by authors who share a similar career as he does, and, a bit ironically, his least favorite genre is science fiction, stemmed from a dislike of more advanced technology. After all, what could be better than the lovely sound of clinking gears and heavy pumps? The pure intricacy that makes up the technology he knows best, these works of pure art... He couldn't see why anyone would want anything different.
|
Documentation
This one's an odd one. He loves to document things, via audio, video or pen and paper. He documents a lot, too, although only about his work, never about his personal life (for example, he doesn't own a diary). Arkwright, whenever he has recently fixed a new thing or a new problem, will likely document it in some way, usually by writing, so that he may look to it later on if the need arises. He also appreciates just the simple fact of putting everything into words, freezing some aspect of that time and it'll always be exactly that way. He has a filing cabinet in his library where he sorts the written aspects of these -- organized by model, nature of problems, and similar things -- rather neatly (incredibly neatly -- they're even alphabetized!). Audio is saved on casette tapes, which are stored in their own little box and their containers are labeled in excruciating detail about every little thing. Videos are much less common, as the technology to make them is far from perfect and storing them is bulky and difficult, so he usually only uses it for when he obtains new mechaniks, especially if they are from models and builds he isn't used to, or if he found them in some odd way.
|
Cleaning
Despite his rather unpredictable personality and energy, another unusual hobby for Arkwright is cleaning. He loves to be organized and neat, and his occupation can get a little dirty sometimes (read: a lot dirty, he gets covered in oil and grease and the like nearly every day on the job), so he takes it upon himself to clean it as much as possible. Organizing by stacking papers into perfectly centered little towers; arranging things on his desk in an efficient, geometric way; cleaning and dusting almost every surface that is used, and the like. This cleaning is sometimes necessary; when he is tired, which he usually is on the rather common all-nighters he likes to pull, he tends to get a lot clumsier and messier, and he often has memory problems with these late-night endeavors, so he is usually left in the dust about how in the world his office got as messy as it may be, and whether or not a small tornado decided to wreck havoc on his living space. In this regard, it's fairly good that he enjoys cleaning so much, or it would be much more of a chore. Cleaning also fairs as sort of a relaxation tactic for the busy kalon, something that can be taken slow and at his own pace -- as leisurely as he likes.
|