Weird or unique hobbies.
Weird or unique hobbies.
I've always loved flashlights. Yes FLASHLIGHTS with an A!!! Anyway, apparently not many people share my rather niche interest.
So I ask you, fellow Lemmites, what are your hobbies and weird obsessions that you can ramble on about for hours?
Please feel free to ramble on about your passions here. Maybe you'll find some likeminded individuals!
Falconry. It's really more of a lifestyle than a hobby now though. I've been doing it for a little over 10 years now and am currently flying a cast (group of birds flown together) of 3 Harris's Hawks.
Quick faqs:
- I use the glove and everything
- It's a hunting sport, we catch rabbits 3-5 times a week
- We all go out together, I flush they catch
- No, they do not bring what they catch back to me, I go to them
- They don't eat the whole rabbit, I trade them a small reward
- They are completely free flighted when doing this
- I've trained them just enough to get them back and work with me, they know how to do bird things naturally
- They don't really go for your eyes, and getting bit hurts 50x less than getting footed
- They are not rescues and are perfectly healthy
- Mine are captive bred, but some are wild trapped
- Wild trapping has 0 effect on native populations, 50-90% of raptors don't make it through their first year
- Even though mine are captive bred they are still wild animals, they are just tamed.
- This is the most regulated sport in the US
Birbs:
- Packing: backpacks, bags, organizers, compression sacks, all kinds of things like this. People loathe packing while I just love to play Tetris with my perfectly organized stuff. I have too many bags.
- Role-playing games: it is weird because I mostly collect them since there's no time to play (nor to learn new rules).
- Automation: why spend 2 minutes manually something when I can spend 2 hours failing to automate it?
My latest obsession is sashiko, a Japanese form of embroidery with beautiful repeating geometric patterns. It’s a folk art that evolved to strengthen cloth, extend its lifespan, and repair torn clothes. Rather uniquely it’s also intended to be stitched with the fabric in your hands rather than in a hoop.
One thing I really love about it from a technical sewing standpoint is that traditionally you don’t use knots at all, but it’s still a strong stitch. Quilters do something similar with what’s called a waste knot that gets snipped away, but this skips the knot step entirely.
There are specific paths you follow while stitching these patterns so that you don’t waste thread. They vary in complexity from simple lines, triangles, and curves, all the way up to tiny repeating patterns that practically replace the cloth with thread.
I don’t have nearly enough patience to do the complex ones like that, but the more simple stitches are so relaxing.
My hobbies mostly sit at the intersection of plants and electronics/programming esp. microcontrollers and managing fleets of them.
Im obsessed with making things grow and relatively simple types of automation can make a huge difference to a plant. A trickle of water applied at the right frequency can turn an unforgiving sun-scorched balcony into a garden.
Im currently working on prototypes of a device destined for mass production. It’s a power unit for a temporary immersion bioreactor used in plant tissue culture. The benefit of my approach is that the power unit can work with almost any growing container and the unit doesn’t need any power hookups.
The unit is powered by the plant grow lights and my Mark I prototype proved it can harvest enough energy to perform any published temporary immersion protocol I have seen.
I think this qualifies as ‘weird’ because it usually requires explanation to justify the ‘why’ of this project. Plant tissue culture is not a common interest.
But if you want to plant a trillion trees and ‘save the planet’, we will need to develop some new propagation methods. This is my little attempt to address some of that need.
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Audio engineering. How to take a bunch of tracks that sound like hot shit and make them into beautiful music. How to record an awesome performance, probably in a shit space with shit acoustics and shit gear. How to work my "magic" on a track to somehow do the impossible. More recently, how to analyze and design analog outboard gear and digital plugins that emulate them in real time. I would do it for free if I had the time. I used to mix people's tracks on Reddit (different username) before I went back to school.
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Music, particularly writing and playing
shitty bedroom black metalguitar. So I guess not that weird other than the music choice... -
Automation, particularly AI and Control Theory. I approach AI from a dynamic viewpoint, i.e. using machine learning to analyze and control systems that "move". I'm still working on unpacking the mathematical fundamentals of AI, especially because the dynamic applications I'm interested in require much more careful understanding of the assumptions that typical machine learning paradigms make about the input and output signals.
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Math. Calculus, linear algebra, dynamical systems, and high- or infinite-dimensional problems. Both theory and applications. I read textbooks and watch open course lectures. I use this math to back up my intuition in all the above subjects. Even people who say they like math find my interest in the subject obsessive.
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Grafting. I like grafting different varieties of fruit trees together to make trees that bear multiple varieties of fruit. So far I've grafted a golden delicious apple onto my crabapple, and a golden orb plum onto my purple plum. It's pretty hit or miss, but cool when the grafts take. I'm going to try grafting some different varieties of stone fruit onto a wild peach tree that I have to see what will happen.
I also like growing fruit trees from seed. I have an avocado tree, an egg fruit tree, a mango, a few red plums, and a firepit peach tree. I also grew some pineapple plants from pineapples that I got from the store, and I got a pineapple from one last year!
Leather working. I inherited my grandfather's old hatchet and knife from when he was a boy scout, these 80+ year old relics had their original leather sheathes that were totally disintegrating and stiff. After looking fruitlessly for replacement sheathes I decided it couldn't be that hard to make my own, and now I'm hooked. I have leather cases for all of my devices, leather bags for different traveling needs, and leather wallets and trinkets make the absolute best gifts. People are always blown away by hand made leather products.
I've been out of it for a while now, but I spent a number of years Nerfsmithing. Which is to say, I modified Nerf blasters. I upgraded the internals to get longer range and higher rates of fire. My real fun, though, was modifying the exteriors to see just how silly I could get. I made a lot of different designs, but below is my masterpiece.
I attached a real red dot sight, after carefully painting it to look like a Nerf accessory. I attached a real laser sight and tactical light, after mounting them inside the case of what had been an official Nerf light. The 10-round straight magazine was replaced with a 35-round drum magazine. A rifle strap (in bright yellow) and a Nerf bipod finished off the main unit (a Nerf Stampede).
Then I attached a Nerf Magnus pistol, still fully functional, as a front grip. And I attached a Nerf Zombie Strike Machete under that as a bayonet.
It looks overbuilt and ridiculous, which is what I was trying for, but it was also an absolute terror in the office Nerf wars. I had a lot of fun building it.
Flashlights are an interesting one. I somehow ended up in !flashlight@lemmy.world and it's definitely a unique hobby. I'm not sure if I'm willing to really join all of you yet, but reading the posts can be pretty cool.
For me, it's probably CRTs, other display technologies and old hardware in general. It's fun to tinker around with stuff. And playing games, be it new or old, on CRTs is what I live for.
Probably "menial task automation", I use Sonarr(series), Prowlarr(movies) and Taiga(animes) + Jellyfin(media server) all conected to my qbittorrent so I don't have to individually download an episode or movie, I can just set that I want to watch it and the programs download it automatically, just set it and forget it and use the jellyfin phone app to cast it to my tv.
Also retrogaming emulation in general, I love watching videos about the newest cheap portable that runs up to PS1 and searching for the perfect shaders to use on retroarch, which I find it to be the mega bezels pack with slight reflections to the side.
It's very taxing on the hardware though, you do need a gaming rig just to emulate old games if you use these.
I, like many of you I'm sure, am an avid collector of hobbies. Recently I've been into Analog Photography. Partly because I like the old machines involved and also because of the creativity and expression of making pictures.
One might ask: 'why not use a digital camera? It's so much easier, potentially cheaper and technically "better".'
To me it's like painting instead of drawing, maybe similar but also very different. One is not better than the other and you will get different results.
I post here on !analog@lemmy.world but mostly on pixelfed.
My weird hobby is reading textbooks on forensic medicine and other forensic sciences. Like how to perform an autopsy, how to identify the cause of death, how to take and interpret fingerprints from different surfaces and such. I am a trained toxicologist but unfortunately only had basic training in forensic toxicology as part of my curriculum (and not working in that field now). 🙂
- Laser holography and optics. After I took an photonics course I became obsessed. I am attempting to build a laser holography setup to capture "true" 3D reflections on a piece of film. Even getting cheap diode lasers to lase coherently at high currents is a challenge. It's a black hole for money so I need to limit myself but it is just so fucking interesting.
- Cameras. I am not a good photographer but I love cameras. I can ramble on and on about every single function detail and the history too. I even built a scientific camera for my job from scratch. And beyond that I even started getting into the math behind distortion correction, stereo, panorama etc.
- 3D printing is a major rabbit hole. Especially if you've built your own printer.
Shaving.
Not in the sense that you might be used to, but "traditional" wetshaving. There are so many aspects to this hobby, it's overwhelming.
Shave soap - all sorts of great scents, different soap bases offering various types of lather.
Razors - Double Edge, Single Edge, Open Blade (straight, shavette, etc), Safety Bar, Open Comb, mild, aggressive, stainless steel, aluminum, titanium... and on and on.
Brush - Synthetic, Badger, Boar, soft, gelly, backbone, handle size, handle shape, knot diameter, knot loft,...
Blades - Lots of options, and they are very very inexpensive (especially DE blades). Different blades often work well in certain razors but not others, and certain people prefer different blades. Blades are highly subjective and it's fun finding some that work really well for you.
Aftershave - alcohol based, toner, balm, skin food, all sorts of great scents, etc.
I got permission to copy most of the reddit wiki on the subject to de-reddit all the info, and we host it at https://wiki.wetshaving.social. I also help run the lemmy instance dedicated to the hobby where people share what they shaved with, new things they bought, and anything else related to shaving.
Lately I’ve really been into making and integrating home automation devices.
Mostly I’m just trying to ensure my privacy in an increasingly non-private world, but it’s a fun medley of skills to deploy - 3d printing, soldering, electrical engineering, a bit of programming, and even some carpentry work.
Let’s see, I got adhd and up until well… next month when I get my first post-college paycheck… been pretty limited on funding. With that in mind
- home automation
- home server w automated media acquisition, and a random assortment of other services
- Fixing things, started out of need to save money… but now I just enjoy doing it. From phones to cars, and soon clothes (just got a sewing machine)
- Scripting/automating random tasks, like clipping all the digital coupons for my grocery store. Or auto booking vaccines back when they weren’t so easy to get.
- I like a good sounding audio system / headphones… but idk if my small collection really constitutes a hobby.
- wife’s got me birding a bit, she’s way more excited about it than I, but I always at least enjoy the walks, and occasionally see something neat.
- oh yeah, photography, mostly to capture moments and places for myself… but I’m venturing into trying to get a bit more artsy to try and convey whatever it was that intrigued me to take the photo to others who weren’t there.
- board games, but I like the social aspect, and I have a hard time finding people who aren’t like… idk what to call them, but people that seem to be autistic and have board games as a special interest. At least that’s who mostly goes to boardgame meetups around here.
- I guess I like collecting useful tools, for the above fixing
- VR intrigues me, and I’m starting a job soon where I’ll get to spend more time working in and developing for VR/AR/XR, and with the money from said job I’ll probably invest in some better home vr gear
- in college, I really liked being a tech consultant for our student org, learned about and implemented everything from event live-streaming to documentation management systems to web hosting hackathon judging platforms.
So yeah, idk… a little bit of everything
I have an odd obsession with tornado sirens and other civil defense things. The odd harmonies that different kinds of sirens can make together. Cold War vibes, and the feeling of "well, we're fucked then" when the emergency alert system goes off, only to find that it's just another ho-hum thunderstorm on the other side of the city. I don't know a whole lot about the stuff but I've spent many hours of many days soaking up videos about it on YouTube.
I miss when all school kids had to worry about was fire, tornado, earthquake, and nuclear annihilation.
My actual is philosophy of psychiatry/psychology/science in autism.
The more I read and learn in this field the more I think people should begin with it before diving in the autism topic itself. Researchers did and still do atrocious research in autism without acknowledging conflict of interest, taking ethics in account, breaking basic human rights, "finding the question when having the answer", etc. A lot of what could be read on autism is just bad.
My best friend was an usher at Dollywood, and freaking loves flashlights. Collects them and has a shit ton.
I like crafting. Anything with fabric or yarn or thread.
Restoring and collecting mechanical calculating machines and slide rules. I was abysmal in math at school, but I love those implements.
I can ramble about a few things:
- AI - very new, unconventional, scary, interesting and fascinating in a lot of different ways, mostly in ways most ppl don't really think about
- US Law - I'm european and I'm not a lawyer in any shape or form but Depp v Heard sucked me in and now I have so much knowledge about the US law that it's flowing out of my brain every once in a while
- Computer Science - with varying degrees of proficiency, obv things like software dev, game Dev, stuff like 3d composition, music production, but also some more specific ones like pentesting, some cryptography or scripting.
My brother loves o lights I think they're called, apparently there's like a whole community for just buying and selling this specific type of light so you aren't alone XD for me I love Rubik's cube type puzzles and lightsabers, I've made my own lightsabers and code in my own lights :) I feel like my friends are tired of hearing me talk about it XD
Fiber arts: popular ones like knitting and crocheting, but I also have a spinning wheel and really enjoy spinning yarn. I used to have a loom, but I didn't really enjoy weaving so I sold it. Lately I've been really in to darning socks and visible mending generally. Fortunately there are tons of fiber arts meetups and online communities so it's easy to find other people who are into any niche area.
I have a dozen different hobbies, but I was really into flashlights for a while too. I was into them enough that my wife asked me to stop buying more flashlights and lanterns. I didn't stop though! I only stopped when I finally decided I had scratched that itch, have obtained what I want, and was bored. But now I have great flashlights in both of our cars, in my mom's car, one at each exterior door of the house, one at the garage door, and a few lanterns in the closet. She very much appreciates the fruits of my labors now that I'm finished.
Lockpicking isn't just for committing crimes! It's a whole hobby! You can't prove that I've ever picked open a lock to get into someone's apartment... Mainly because I still can't get into this damn Abus 72/40, let alone trying someone's front door
If you want something I can talk to you about for hours, get me started on Kerbal Space Program. You know, there's really no "getting good" at KSP, only learning, and for all the planets and moons, there are only like five challenges: Taking off without blowing up, getting to orbit, orbiting the Mün, landing on the Mün, orbiting Minmus, and landing on Duna. Each of those requires a bit more knowledge than the last, and everything after those is just a remix of what you learn from those. To get to orbit, you have to take off successfully. To get to the Mün you have to learn about transfer windows and bi-impulsive transfers. To land on the Mün you need to build a ship capable of getting to and landing on the Mün. To get to Minmus, you need to learn how to match inclinations. To land on Duna you need to learn how to do all of that, but on an interplanetary scale. Everything else–landing on Dres, the Jool 5, returning from Eve–it's all just more advanced versions of those five things.
Of course, there's skill in making these missions as cheap as possible, as low part count as possible, as complicated as possible (see Matt Lowne's YouTube channel), and there are SSTOs to figure out, but ultimately the game itself is about exploring, and to do that you just need to learn those five things. This is just one of many rants I can go on about the game
Warframe. I've been with the game since it's founding and find it to be a blast. The evolving story as they tried out new things and reworking core mechanics with huge improvements is just something I deeply enjoy.
The only sport I watch is Sumo wrestling.
I have this weird art medium I came up with where I take things in the fridge and cabinet that are past the date and turn them into art materials. It began because people I know always debated over what to do once something in the fridge lived its lifespan. Throwing it away always seemed wasteful, and throwing it outside for the animals to eat sounds generous to nature, but you end up poisoning the ecosystem.
The hobby began as I was cleaning out the fridge and wondered if a certain sauce that was forgotten about in the very back of the fridge would make a good paint. It then kicked off from there. In our world where we never know where what we eat comes from or is made of, sometimes something makes a surprisingly good paint when expired, sometimes it makes a good texture builder, sometimes an aroma enhancer, sometimes a good clay substitute, etc. I then find a way to make it last as long as possible, or at least long enough to show people. It sounds weird, but I have created some of my best masterpieces this way.
I think I have quite a few perfectly ordinary hobbies that share a couple common odd quirks/common themes.
- I like to make things for myself, and
2, I quite like small, compact things.
For example, I built my own computer, a Ryzen 3600/GeForce 1080 machine...in a very small case, a Fractal Node 202. I have a gaming PC the size of a VCR. Hell even my keyboard is surprisingly compact. I'm not one of those nuts with like a 64 key board or whatnot, i use a Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro M. It has a numpad, but lacks the arrow keys. They've been grafted fairly cleverly into the numpad to preserve the layout you're used to. It's a fully functional board with 13 fewer keys.
My wood shop is a 10x12 shed on the corner of my property, into which I have crammed a table saw, jointer, planer, drill press, router table, miter saw, a laundry list of hand tools, measuring and layout tools, clamps, cans of finish, a rack for stock, and a decent workbench. It can be a little difficult to work inside the building, but unpacking into the hard just in front gives me a very functional workspace in which I've turned out a couple of birch bookshelves and a pair of oak and pine end tables, among other smaller projects.
Foraging. We have a community too. You will try food that you can't buy in a grocery store. I definitely recommend Staghorn Sumac Lemonade, Blaming my friend Jeff, Garlic Mustard Pesto, Wild Black Raspberries, and Paw Paws.
Some plants also offer health benefits
Yarrow for stomach isssues, Plantain for inflammation, and Milk Thistle for making yourself fart uncontrollably during your intercontinental flight to New Zealand while you lay claim to the middle seat and make it everyone else's problem.
In addition to have a well rounded post on Lemmy I'd recommend you be completely sure of any plants you eat. You accept the risk. You don't want to mistake a poisonous plant! Sometimes you may only mkae that mistake once. In conclusion Jeffery Epstein didn't kill himself, neither should you by eating the wrong plant.
Collecting snail shells. Turns out there are hundreds of land and freshwater snail species, many that are easily identifiable by even as an amateur. Some are common but many are in narrow habitats or restricted ranges, making collecting an adventure. The microsnails might be the coolest. They're insanely small but under a hand lens they can have very intricate shells and they are everywhere! It's like pokemon but irl.
Don't know if it's a hobby, but I'm fascinated with exoplanets, specifically exoplanets that might be inhabited with intelligent life (as we know it).
Every year I will spend several hours catching up on the latest exoplanet discoveries/news, and try my hand at crunching numbers to predict the number of intelligent species in the Milky Way right now.
The cool thing about this is that each time I play catch-up the numbers get a bit clearer. When I started about 15 years ago many of the nested filters to whittle down the final count were very fuzzy, to the point of just being very vague guesses (I think I usually go with 0.1% of planets from the prior filter in that situation). But it seemed like each time I review the latest data the next filter down gets clear. When I say filter I'm taking about things like: planet exists in the habitable zone of its parent star; planet is far enough away to not be in a locked orbit; planet (or large moon) is big enough to have a molten core (and thus a magnetosphere), etc, etc).
Of course, none of this means we'll ever necessarily meet another species (space is so absurdly vast). But it's fun to ponder nonetheless.
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