Killing invasive plants. It’s very satisfying to see the results and makes a difference for biodiversity. Pulling ~10ft tall buckthorn or bush honeysuckle out by its roots with a Weed Wrench is good exercise too. Check if your area has a local Weed Warriors group
Origami.
It is affordable, fun, can be quite useful and once you reach certain level is an art form.
Music. Because it’s sound, even when I’m at my most lethargic, depressed, and too exhausted to do anything, I can enjoy it just by feeling its vibrations in my body.
Collecting rare and high-quality pages on the internet, especially personal websites. In this age of social media where information flow is manipulated by algorithms, the culture of personal link collections is all the more necessary.
Do you know about Neocities?
Yes, I know about it. My specialty is personal websites in the Japanese-speaking world, which is my native language, and some of the website creators occasionally use this service.
For example, DJ Telematic Visions does.
Nice, it’s probably a good idea to collect certain websites. Would you share some of them?
Thx, I’ll check it out!
Tabletop rpgs are the only artform that merges artist and audience. Telling a story is probably the oldest human artform. With a well-designed RPG and a good group you can tell a story and thrill yourself at the surprising outcome. It’s a unique and timeless hobby.
Quite an oversimplification as far as all forms of art. Definitely an incredible one though! I need to get back in.
Gaming: very convenient. Don’t have to put just about any effort into turning on the computer after work and spending the entire evening.
Hunting: I feel like a part of nature in a way growing potatos in the garden does not come close to.
And it usually only requires a one time purchase, making it a rather thrifty hobby!
For instance (pls don’t judge, I have a life, I promise):
I got over:
- 5000 hours in dota, a free to play game
- 800 hours in satisfactory, after paying like 25 € once
- 600 hours in Timberborn after paying like 15 €
The cost per use is insanely efficient!
When I was in college, I blew almost my entire savings buying a new Playstation and the latest copy of Street Fighter. The practical side of me immediately started second guessing myself for ‘wasting’ all my money. So I started tracking how many hours I spent playing it.
By the time I graduated, it worked out to something like costing me 10 center per hour of playtime. I reached the point where I probably needed to start adding in the cost of electricity. Although the initial buy in price is high, gaming is an amazingly cost effective entertainment. (Not sure this holds true anymore with subscription games charging a monthly fee, but it was solid when you owned them)
How did you get into hunting? That’s very different from gaming lol
For me, gaming got me into hunting lol. Specifically RDR2 and theHunter.
I also started thinking more about the ethics of meat consumption. I basically decided that I should be participating if I continue to eat meat. My dad hunts deer, so I told him I’d go with him if he bought me a rifle.
I live in a tiny town in north Scandinavia. Common hobby, easily accessible.
Not if you hunt game.
Music production
I was a professional musician most of my adult life, but it was all performance and I never really got to experience the recording/audio engineering side. So I’m semi-retired out of that now, and I built a little recording studio in my house and have been slowly studying production while continuing to write and record music. It’s a good hobby for me because it allows me to keep scratching that musical itch I’ve always had and gets me out of my own head after working in a lab all damn day.
Drums! It’s honestly just a lot of fun and a bit zen, depending on what you’re playing. I don’t play in a band anymore, but they’re still a blast. I try to play at least a couple times a week.
Film photography. I enjoy all aspects of it. Travelling around to all the antique stores looking for cameras, composing shots, developing the film…
Textile work and sewing. I love working with fabrics and turning a flat piece of cloth into a usable/wearable object. It also gives me a feeling of connection to the flow of human history. When I’m sitting in my craft room, hand stitching a hem or working on a piece of embroidery, I often think about the fact that the physical movements I’m making with my body have been shared across human cultures and time. The pulling of a needle and thread through fabric is a mirror of the human tapestry we all create together.
Well said!
Gaming and cooking
Fun and relaxing
Tasty and relaxing
My hobbies are more for practical function than hobbies.
I design and 3D print things to fit my specific needs, rather than compromise with something store-bought. I recently made a USB cable holder that matches the profile of edge banding on a desk I refurbished.
I made a bed, refurbished a desk and made a dressing bench. I have plans to make an entryway table.
I sewed a cover for the pad for the headboard of the bed I made. I’ll make another one for the bench whenever the fabric shows ups. I also made a t-shirt last year, one that fits me.
As a middle aged man, playing soccer. I fell back into it just before I hit 30 and have made a boatload of interesting friends from all walks of life in the decade since. It’s also a lovely mental yoga, for an hour several times a week I don’t think about work, politics, life of anything, just keeping a dumb ball out of my dumb net and helping others put it in the bad guys’ net. Physically, to keep playing I’ve had to stay in shape, which is a lot easier when it’s directly related to a fun hobby instead of a vague concept of being healthy.
We’ve been at it so long that a couple teammates who met playing have just had their first kid.
I’ve fallen off a bit on it, but Go. The amount of complexity that emerges from simple rules, the aesthetic forms that emerge, as if both players are collaborating on a work of art. To an experienced player, each stone has a meaning, in it’s own language, and you can almost hear them speaking. There are so many ways to approach the game, a player’s personality reveals itself on the Go board, and any flaw in one’s way of thinking, anything you need to work on, comes out on the board like looking into a mental mirror.
I’m actually heading out to a tournament now, and I’m super rusty but I think I’m starting to rediscover my interest in it.
3D printing. Making things in general, because it’s useful, but 3D printing specifically because I can make things I otherwise wouldn’t be able to dream of making.
Mead making. Good quality time with my wife, and we get to drink it, so… what’s not to love?
