Gallery: Living the Wired Life: Walk the Fine Line Between Passion and Insanity With Our Favorite Obsessives
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We all have hobbies, and a lucky few have a passion. Within that group, there are some for whom passion borders on obsession. Such people are the subject of [Living the Wired Life](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/living-the-wired-life/), a series of profiles about people who use technology to pursue their passion and excel at their endeavors, whether it's [riding hundreds of miles](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/06/wired-life-aaron-gulley/) through the desert, [crossing the Pacific](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2013/07/sailor-philippe-kahn/) in record time or putting yourself [in the studio with Mick and Keith](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/07/wired-life-audiophile/) as they laid down the tracks for *Exile on Main Street*. These are serious (and potentially dangerous) undertakings, but that's part of the appeal. You don't become obsessed with the Wired Life if you don't love it. Here's a rundown of people living that life. [Emile Rosales](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/chuggaaconroy/) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- He just plays games, all the way through, for hours on end, and talks about them as he does it. They’re games he’s played before, games many of his viewers have played before. But people like watching [Chuggaaconroy](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/chuggaaconroy/) so much that for now, ad revenue from his videos has made Emile Rosales’ hobby a full-time job. *Photo: Kendrick Brinson/WIRED*
talia herman02Philippe Kahn and Mark Christensen sailing off the coast of Santa Cruz .
[Philippe Kahn](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2013/07/sailor-philippe-kahn/) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kahn has been on the water since childhood, and sailing permeates his life and the culture of his company, Fullpower Technologies. Four years ago, he and his lone crewmate, Mark “Crusty” Christensen, shattered the [transpacific double-handed record](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2013/07/sailor-philippe-kahn/) with a time of 7 days, 19 hours, 38 minutes and 35 seconds. The previous record-setters had taken more than 10 days to make the trip in 2001. So how did Kahn do it, with a partially crippled boat, no less? By being singularly obsessed with optimization — finding the right crew and the right technology to survive and prosper on the high seas. *Photo: Talia Herman/WIRED*
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[Mike Grellman](<a href=) ------------------------- You only think your stereo system sounds good. Grellman's [six-figure audio system](<a href=) sounds like you're in the studio with Mick and Keith as they're laying down the tracks to *Exile on Main Street*. Grellman is a Rolling Stones fanatic, and he demonstrates his system with a live-in-the-studio version of Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain.” Every fluctuation in Jagger’s voice and each pluck of Richards’ guitar strings sounds amazingly alive and detailed, with a deep, airy soundstage that only grows bigger as more instruments enter the mix. The system quickly sucks you in and demands your attention. It’s a far more vivid musical experience than anything I’ve encountered outside of a nightclub. “On a late night after a bad day, with a glass of wine and good power, this reminds me of seeing the Stones in a smaller venue in 1981,” Grellman says. “You get that feeling you got, and it’s closer to that event to anything I’ve ever had. This system puts me there.” *Photo: Brian L. Frank/WIRED*
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[Chip Yates](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2013/06/chip-yates/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Yates knows a thing or three about electric vehicles, having built a battery-powered motorcycle that topped 200 mph and spanked purpose-built race bikes on the track. Now he's looking to the sky. You see, Yates is a pilot. He got his license a year ago. Despite his inexperience, he has a dream. A crazy, outlandish, almost insane dream. He wants to repeat Charles Lindbergh’s historic [flight across the Atlantic — in an electric airplane](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2013/06/chip-yates/). To fulfill the ambitious goal, Yates must overcome the great disadvantage of electric drivetrains — their limited range. His solution is to use unmanned aerial vehicles that will provide additional electricity during the flight. That’s another way of saying he will use autonomous battery packs that will meet him in flight, transfer energy to the plane and return safely to an airport. *Photo: Dennis Provost/WIRED*
Jakob Schiller05Aaron Gulley
[Aaron Gulley](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/06/wired-life-aaron-gulley/) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riding a [mountain bike solo through hundreds of miles](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/06/wired-life-aaron-gulley/) of desert sounds like a special kind of hell. Gulley has done it several times and says “fun” is a better word to describe the experience. Training is vital — show up at a race like the Trail 300 without having done the work and you’re guaranteed to suffer – but also, relatively speaking, straightforward. You’ve got to put in the miles. Gulley does a lot of training on a road bike because he’s got hundreds of miles of picturesque roads right outside his door. A road bike also lets him measure his power more effectively and is a more efficient way for interval training. He tries to squeeze in 20 hours of training a week, which is a bit easier than you’d think because he writes about cycling gear for a living. His garage is crammed with two dozen bikes at any given time, most of them loaners he’s testing. He’s got his sights set on a seven-day race in Canada, and maybe down the road, a 750-miler in Arizona or any number of other impressive (or insane, depending on your point of view) endurances races held across the country. *Photo: Jakob Schiller/WIRED*
06Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
[Chris Cosentino](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2013/07/chris-cosentino-chef/) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cosentino is at the forefront of a movement to return offal to the American palette. Offal, of course, are the entrails and bits that can – and, Cosentino argues, should – be eaten but too often aren’t. And when this [evangelist of offal](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2013/07/chris-cosentino-chef/) isn't spreading the gospel of guts, he's designing knives. And writing comic books. “Chris embraces everything in life with such energy and vigor, be it food or comics or whatever he plans to tackle next,” says C.B. Cebulski, the Marvel talent scout who brought Cosentino on to write an upcoming issue of *Wolverine*. *Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED*
07Justin Smith, better known as Just Blaze, in Manhattan's East Village.
[Just Blaze](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2013/08/ltwl-musician-just-blaze/) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You know [Just Blaze](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2013/08/ltwl-musician-just-blaze/) as the mega-talented producer behind artists like Jay-Z, Drake, Mariah Carey, and Eminem. But he is, and always has been, a hacker at heart. He makes electronics do things they weren’t intended to do. “I was very much a tinkerer as a kid,” he says by phone between studio sessions in New York. “I was doing things like hacking or splicing extra battery packs into my mother’s cordless phone to try to get the battery to last longer.” Still not sold on his hacker cred? How about this: Before anyone had songs produced by Just Blaze on their phones or MP3 players, he infiltrated the industry via Motorola’s famed P900 two-way pager, composing lo-fi recreations of late ‘90s hits like the Notorious BIG’s “Who Shot Ya?” and Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.” He's been at it ever since. *Photo: Alex Welsh/WIRED*
Talia Herman08Brett Miller getting back into the SF bay
[Brett Miller](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/07/triathlete-brett-miller/) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Miller never set out to become a hardcore triathlete who thinks nothing of swimming two miles, then riding 112 and finishing the day with a marathon. He just wanted to lose weight. Somewhere along the line, though, he became obsessed with the sport. “It is a bit like a drug where you need to get that next fix and it has to be better than the first time,” Miller says. It's easy to see how that happened. [Triathletes are data-driven](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/07/triathlete-brett-miller/), constantly tracking everything from how fast their heart is beating to how much power they’re generating. *Photo: Talia Herman/WIRED*
