Annotation

1)

Katlynn D, “The World’s Greatest Hobby”, blog.hobbytown.com, HobbyTown

USA, 31 Aug. 2010. Web. 18 June 2011.

In the Article, “The World’s Greatest Hobby”, Katlynn D. (An employee of Hobbytown USA)  talks about what her views are on the world’s greatest Hobby. This question doesn’t have a definite answer but Katlynn gives her opinion is such a way that it even convinces me of it. The point of the article isn’t to convince people that trains are the world’s greatest Hobby but rather to tell people about a large model train event.

Someone walks into the store and asks, what is the most popular hobby? And in the past I would have answered them with observations that I had seen around the store, what was selling well and what people seemed to really enjoy.  However, the truth of the matter is that the rest of the world is a bit different then the small crowd of hobby enthusiasts in Louisville Kentucky. The statement that convinced me of this was, “Trains were the biggest mystery to me. I had never really learned much about them. My dad is a big R/C racer, my friends are gamers, I’ve built a few models, but trains were a complete blank.” This quote shows that the author until recently had little knowledge of how great the train hobby was just like me.

The reason this quote stands so much out to me is that it almost perfectly describes my own experiences, I have a friend who is a big R/C racer (who actually introduced me to my current boss), I have a group of friends who board game, I have built a few models, and trains are the one thing I know almost nothing about. This makes me want to look more into trains to find out what she learned that gave her such a great respect for trains when she is already into so many other hobbies.

2)

Jon Crowley, “Traxxas to Sponsor Kyle Busch in Three NASCAR Truck Series Races

,“ sxsnews.com, Side x Side Industry News, 24 Aug. 2010, Web, 18 June 2011

While something titled “Traxxas to Sponsor Kyle Busch in Three NASCAR Truck Series Races”, might not sound like an article relating to my place I found an interesting connection within it. Kyle Busch, current NASCAR drive, is a former HobbyTown USA employee. And while he wasn’t an employee at my store I could easily relate with things said by him in an interview in this article.

In a lot of ways Kyle Busch makes me think of myself, not that I want to be a NASXAR driver.  “I worked at a hobby store in Las Vegas when I was a teenager and remember selling a lot of Traxxas vehicles and equipment. I’ve used the vehicles throughout my life because R/C cars have always been a huge passion of mine.” Like Kyle I find myself working for HobbyTown USA and also find R/C cars to be somewhat influential in my life, but in a moderately different way.

Instead of becoming sponsored by the R/C company that I have sold cars for, I have sometimes seen myself applying for a job there working on their electronics. While it might seem like a childish dream to want to join some big company fresh out of college I see no harm in trying for it. I have always had this feeling since Junior year of high school. That year I was struggling in physics and I also started working at HobbyTown, working there taught me all about electronics and how currents, amps, volts, and overall electronics worked. This surprising helped me in physics and when applying physics to my work actually made it somewhat fun. Having fun in a career is something that I have always been taught to seek so I have naturally grasped firm to the idea of working in the R/C world.