What are YOUR niche hobbies?
What are YOUR niche hobbies?
So, there are some things that most people do, playing games, watching movies or television, playing music. So let's get specific.
What are some of your favorite things to do with your time? The more hyper specific the better?
Urban exploring (for lack of a better term) with no purpose other than to discover. I live in a city and I'm constantly just wandering around going down streets I've never been down or into alleys I've never been in or checking out stores I've never been to. This is my approach when I travel to other cities and other countries too, I often don't have a plan for my trip/vacation, I just arrive there and then start to wander and see what I find.
Painting expensive plastic with expensive paint.
Hardware modding. Consoles, handhelds, old computers, RC cars... whatever.
Roller Derby - I strap on skates, pads, and helmet and then knock people on their ass. It's great fun.
Quite a few, actually
- Artisan Keycap collecting, to a lesser degree mechanical keyboards (I usually use them as displays to showcase my artisans)
- Boardgame collecting and playing. I'm a big fan of modern area control games. Also trying to design some. Slowly.
- I curate a magic the gathering commander cube. Hopefully mtgcube gets a community somewhere around here
- Reading, lots of fantasy there.
- EDM shows and festivals, recently. Probably have been going to too many, but I always jump in with both feet
Ohhhh, the keyboard thing sounds neat. I know some of my friends really love mechnical keyboards, but I haven't see a lot of cutstom keycaps.
Got any favorites you'd like to show off?
I do enjoy bouldering and also jump rope. I suppose those are niche…
What's bouldering? Is it just a different name for rock climbing?
It’s rock climbing but more specifically the type with no ropes or harness. Just the body and your chalk. The height ain’t high of course and there’s safety mats. Fun to solve those short problems.
I like sewing - I make a few pieces of clothing once in a while but usually I'm just mending things or adjusting the fit of store-bought clothes so that they look better on me.
I also love gardening - growing vegetables outside and mushrooms inside. I'm pretty new to both but the mushrooms in particular are really fun - many of them grow a lot faster than vegetables, so it's exciting to have a faster feedback loop and try little experiments to find what works.
I really hope the sewing communities take off on here.
Sewing is one of the things I always wanted to get into, but I never found a good hook to pull me in. Any tips?
I think starting with alterations to clothes I bought at thrift stores or sales helped me a lot - I did a lot of that before I ever tried making something from a pattern. Even making a simple garment from scratch can feel like a big project, but if you're just taking in the sides of a shirt (for example), it's easier to get it done and feel good (even though picking out the seams first is so annoying)
I build and fight combat robots. Think Battlebots but smaller.
I'm getting my kids started with LEGO Mindstorms! Sumo bots is the first idea that came up.
... I think my 13yo wants to go bigger. Welding, anyone?
I'd go with 3d printing before welding. You can so quite a bit with a 3d printer and the CAD skill you gain are quite useful. I printed most of the parts for my 3lb robot and it heald up quite well.
My favorites (right now) are learning to play star wars legion better, getting back into gunpla, finding mobile games that aren't utter garbage, trying and failing to find decent friends, and sorrowfully watching hasbro destroy magic the gathering.
There are too many sets and spoiler season never ends. I mainly just follow now in case there are any good singles for updating my cube
Yeah I stopped playing about 2 years ago just because of product fatigue. And the new LOTR stuff costing twice as much as a regular set? No thank you. They have also leaned heavily into turning MTG into a weird "investment vehicle" with all these ultra-collectible and exclusive cards, the most egregious of which is the "one of one ring." It's pretty gross. It's much less about the actual game now, which I'm sure would (does?) disappoint Dr. Garfield as he only wanted to make a game. He expected people to play magic at the kitchen table and wrap a rubber band around their deck when done.