What are your hobbies? Genuinely trying to find something new for myself.
Right now my free time mostly goes into watching series and checking trades, and I want to add something that actually feels productive or fulfilling instead of just passing time.
Curious what you’re into, and honestly, why you got into it in the first place. Doesn’t need to be impressive or unique, just real.
My passion is horses and horseback riding, but it’s dangerous and expensive so I don’t recommend it to folks unless they have money and are into taking risks lol.
I love cross stitching and writing as well.
I recommend everyone read Seabiscuit; by far the most remarkable non-fiction book I’ve ever read, and a real life fairy tale.
so the boat isn’t even getting an honorable mention…?
I don’t kayak anymore :(
The only person who would go with my has a back injury that makes it too painful to paddle
Birding. Gets you outside and is healthy for mind and body. To get started, download the Merlin app (*or whoBIRD on FDroid) and walk outside. If you start getting into it, maybe buy or borrow some cheap binoculars. Meet up with a local Audubon group for a social outing with some generally chill people. And your observations can help gather data for science using eBird from the Cornell lab of ornithology.
I fucking hate the stigma surrounding birdwatching. Birds are fascinating, intelligent, and social creatures, and they constantly do things you wouldn’t expect.
Today, in the US Virgin Islands, I saw a pelican diving into the ocean for food, a pigeon digging determinately in the sand, and some weird tropical bird tossing mustard packets into the air over and over again.
That’s so cool! I’d love to go birding in that area sometime. I’m in the middle of the US, but we had a vagrant Brown Booby visit us from the Caribbean last month. That was a lot of fun to see!
You’re 100% correct tho. Birds are amazing! They sing, dance, give gifts, commit arson, they travel the world, and they’re actual real-life dinosaurs.
Plus they’re literally everywhere. You don’t even need to go out of your way to see some.
Reading. It’s always nice to stumble into a new book while browsing around the store. I generally go for science fiction or fantasy but really just go for what interests you.
Mechanical design and 3D printing. I’m mechanical engineer so it goes well with the hobby. I often end up making simple tools for things needed around the house. Making glow in the dark tooth brush stands that fit neatly in a sink nook, coat hangers, and replacement parts for knobs that break can help save you a little money (if you ignore the obvious cost of the 3D printer and filament).
Building Gundam model kits is also quite entertaining. I’m getting close to finishing all the models I want though so it might be a waning interest.
Archery is one of my latest interests. It can be rather cheap in the long run because every piece of equipment is reusable with proper care. It also overlaps neatly with my 3D printing hobby as I make quivers and vambraces to save a little more cash.
Lastly is video gaming. I go on just about any platform and even pirate but lately I’ve been buying DS/3DS cartridges because there’s something fun about the ritual of inserting a cartridge to original hardware to start a game. It makes it like you’re invested in the title you have unlike scrolling around a library list and launching it from there.
My free time is divided between audio books, video games, some TV, mostly YouTube, and learning bass guitar.
I try to skateboard once or twice a week in the summer, and snowboard at least twice a month in the winter.
I have a few motorcycles but those are more cheap transportation these days than a hobby.
The skating, snowboarding, and motorcycles are my “Screaming at the gods”. Dangerous activities that require total focus so everything else in life can be forgotten for a while.
Books and the bass are to keep my mind active and learn new things.
Fellow bass player here. Who are the bass players you’re listening to?
I have the world’s most expensive PlayStation controller. For the past five years I’ve pretty much only played Rocksmith 2014, and have a few hundred songs downloaded. I’m about to hit 1000 hours played.
On my fourth bass, a brand new Ibenez fretless, and finally have a setup without all the buzzing and crap of a cheap bass.
I like blues, classic rock, but my brain just seems hardwired for 90s grunge as that was my youth.
Greenday, Offspring, Primus (on easy) are my go to. Really enjoy Me and Bobby Mcgee by Joplin and Moonage daydream by Bowie when I’ve been drinking.
Been thinking about taking lessons at a local store, I really want to learn to read tabs and get things setup to play along with YouTube.
I’d love to be able to play some Pink Floyd, Phish, and Grateful Dead. Other than three Dead songs there’s none of that available.
I live in an apartment so it’s all headphones.
Dude I have too many. You asked for it:
- Balisong flipping
- Begleri
- Yoyos
- Airsoft
- Watching hockey (go Ducks) and do a little ice skating
- Archery
- Rock climbing
- Hiking/backpacking
- Scuba diving
- Geocaching
- Kite flying
- Rubiks cubing
- CS:GO
- Linux and FOSS stuff
- Other tech related things
- 3D printing
- Good quality pens and pencils
- Lockpicking
- Disc golf
- knives and metallurgy
That’s so many! How do you figure out what hobby to engage on any particular day?
I’ve made a schedule to do 5 of those hobbies regularly every week: archery, airsoft, rock climbing, hiking, ice skating, and a wild card in there
I’m imagining you accidentally rolling up to the archery range in airsoft gear. Whoops, wrong day! Sorry, lemme find my bow…
Do you have a picture where you’re dressed up in all your various hobby gear at once? Airsoft gun, bow, hiking backpack, rock climbing gloves, and ice skates. And a pineapple of course.
Haha, never has happened to me, though sometimes I have shown up to places with my arm guard on.
I should really consider doing a picture like that, that’d be so epic. Though, I’m sure the ice skating rink won’t let me bring my airsoft gun, maybe I can bring a yoyo
Cheap:
Felting is unexpectedly fun but probably not rest of your life fun.Mid: Cooking, delving into other cultures dishes, learning to replicate a meal you eat out. If can be fun, but has an upfront learning curve. on the upside, you need to eat anyway.
Expensive:
RC drones/Planes are fun and get you outside.Gardening (veges!), musical instruments (currently guitar), vidja games, cooking, bread baking, self-hosting, paddle boarding, wood working, and a life-long hobby of trying new hobbies.
There are thousands of hobbies out there. You never know which ones will click with you. Try as many of them as you can! If something looks interesting, go for it! Look for the least expensive entry point. If it requires equipment, rent, borrow, or go super cheap. Unless its safety equipment… Then don’t go cheap.
A fine example is guitar: don’t spend more than $100 on a used acoustic. If you stick with guitar long enough, you’ll eventually be able to make that shitty guitar sing while also understanding exactly how it’s holding you back so you’ll know what to look for when upgrading to something intermediate.
Also, “earning the right” to get better equipment is a badass feeling.
Apply that to any hobby that requires investment. If you invest a small amount of money and realize the hobby is not right for you, you didn’t lose much but gained a lot of insight about yourself.
Earning the right to better equipment is so satisfying. Like leveling up and getting to equip new gear
Exactly!
There is also the benefit of being able to move on from a hobby that doesn’t click, without having to feel any amount of guilt.
I garden poorly and do canning! I got into gardening because last year (technically two years ago) my mother for purim gave me a bag of things and one was some san marzano like seeds. So last year’s growing season I planted those and it worked! I can because we use to can growing up. I’ve been canning before the garden but they’re a natural fit.
OpenStreetMap editing, photography for Panoramax
Modding ipods and game boys, Collecting vinyls, firefighting in my community, biking in the mountains, I’m trying to learn how to properly swim a croll this year, roller skating is fun, boxing, and running outdoors are my current options. Hope something inspires you!
Gloryhole visiting. Not saying you have to participate, but maybe check off on a map all the holes you visit. Some shops may even have a stamp or something you could get as a souvenir. I’m sure it would be a memorable and rewarding endeavor, either way. Or, you know Pickleball is really picking up steam.
board games, not only its nice way to get to social gatherings, but theres bunch of games with solo mode. So instead of spending tons of hours on your computer you can play some board game
retro video game collecting just a warning it’s expensive as shit be ready with your wallet
Photography. I bought a second hand camera body, a couple of adapters and have been building up a roster of cheap old 70s-80s lenses. I can bring my camera whenever I go out, or go on more specific photography walks. It makes me look at things more closely, and therefore enjoy them more.
Whenever I’ve brought my camera to events and gatherings, the response has been very positive and people really enjoy the photos being “artistic” and “dream-like” (on account of the imperfect vintage lenses and my often poor manual focusing).
It’s been a fun journey of discovering what lenses I most enjoy using. For me it’s been either 40-45mm for walking around snapshots or 180-200mm for portraiture.
Maybe I’ll get some more modern gear some day, but then I’ll know exactly what I want, and have the skill to use it to the fullest.
Archery.
