Favorite weird hobby?

[HopeHoops]

I did rockets for a while. I painted lead miniatures for D&D. I built models. I've done all of the normal weird guy shit. I collect old computer components. Now THAT's demented.

Yours?

[ZombieHorde]

1. My weirdest, most bizarre hobby is

posting on DU.

[HopeHoops]

2. OUCH!

[barbtries]

3. i spend inordinate amounts of time

reading on a political website called democratic underground.

[HopeHoops]

5. YOU need professional help - D'OH! So do I!

[barbtries]

7. i can't quit it

damn, i can't quit it

[HopeHoops]

9. Okay. Just inhale one post at a time. Ask yourself, can I do without another?

FUCK NO!!!!!!

Okay, well at least that's the first step.

[Denninmi]

4. I take photos and collect rain samples from any tropical systems that impact SE Michigan.

I'm a weather watcher, enjoy storms, and started saving mementos from any of the former hurricanes and tropical storms that make their way to SE Michigan. The past few years have been dull, not much has made it here. I've gotten some great photos of spiral bands from some past storms, though. And, little vials of water from various ones.

My favorite -- Hurricane Dennis that made it here as an intense rainstorm in July of 2005, dropping almost 6 inches of rain in a few hours on a Saturday morning, accompanied by some of the most intense lightning I can remember.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Dennis

[HopeHoops]

6. Isn't that a little on the, well, boring side? Just sayin'

[Denninmi]

8. For me, that's as good as it gets.

Want to send me into fits of excitement? Give me a couple of good coupons for the grocery store.

My life is dull. What more can I say?

[HopeHoops]

10. You need to get laid more. No offense intended, but hey.

[i_sometimes]

57. I have never thought about that...

How that rain and its water is from so far away! And I live in Oregon, you would think this might occur to me.
Do you ever test it?

[handmade34]

64. sounds interesting to me...

reminds me... a number of years ago I managed residence halls at a college in Vermont that is quite popular with Meteorology Students... my RA's were all "storm chasers" and when tornado season hit in the midwest... they took a road trip... that was their big excitement in life; Loved it!

[ohiosmith]

11. Not too weird. I collect pub and bar gear. Neon signs, mirrors, tap handles, glasses, coasters,

towels, etc, etc.

[HopeHoops]

12. That's at least practical.

[ohiosmith]

13. Tell that to my wife.

[HopeHoops]

14. Won't work. My wife's a packrat too.

[Brickbat]

15. I find myself collecting books not for the books themselves, but for what's written in them.

[HopeHoops]

16. One of them thar librul readin' freaks, eh?

That's what books are for. We have thousands.

[Brickbat]

29. Ha, I realize I wasn't very clear about what I wrote!

I like collecting books for the notes that people have hand-written in them, whether they are dedications or comment.

[HopeHoops]

46. Off subject a little - check your PM for a message from Tobin.

And yes, the hand-written notes are fun sometimes. I've got corrections all over my college text books - mostly things that should have been caught in the editing process like errors in formulas. Unfortunately I loaned one of my favorites to another student and never got it back. It was about various philosophical theories, the people behind them, and what they meant in less precocious terms than most books on the subject present them. Bummer.

[LynneSin]

17. I have a giant box filled with old computer components I could donate to your collection

[HopeHoops]

19. Only if you're willing to fight my wife about it.

[AllenVanAllen]

18. I build and paint figure model kits.

They also go by the name garage kits.
Here's some of my 'build up'work.



They're usually made of poly resin plastic and painted with acrylic paints.

[HopeHoops]

20. At least he has a loin cloth! I used to do the same with 1" lead miniatures.

Some of them were smaller.

[AllenVanAllen]

39. I never could make the mimis look good.

I preferred working on 1/6th scale and up. I've seen some amazing gaming figure work out there.

[HopeHoops]

47. I used a triple zero brush for details - I can see REALLY well up close.

Unfortunately, my distance vision is on a steady decline. I even need glasses to use the laptop, but if I take them off and get really close I can see the individual pixels. Something's wrong with that.

On Edit: I actually have three pair - infinity/dashboard bifocals, infinity for driving long-distance, and just dashboard for using computers. It's awkward, but it works (although the prescriptions need to be updated).

[GermanDem]

21. Wow, that's great!

I have three guinea pigs. I love them! My husband thinks I am nuts, and my kids call me "the crazy guinea pig lady".

[AllenVanAllen]

45. Thank you GermanDem!

How could ya just have just one? Look at that little face...

[HopeHoops]

48. We have a rabbit. He's a sweet thing, but one is plenty.

At least he doesn't tear me to shreds anymore. I had him out cuddling for a long time last night.

[AllenVanAllen]

68. Shredding bunny?

How did your rabbit cut you up? I had one rabbit when I was a child but it never bit or anything.

[HopeHoops]

70. Rear claws. He can kick like a kangaroo.

He doesn't do it very often now, mostly just when he needs to get back to his potty. I've got a few scratches, but nothing like when he was young. My arms looked like I was suicidal.

[GermanDem]

65. OMG! So adorable!

Is that yours?

[AllenVanAllen]

69. No not mine.

Just some fuzzy adorableness I found online.

[enuegii]

38. Did you use Ron Paul as a model?

[frogmarch]

22. Not so weird, but

my latest hobby is making things with wire.

I’m just a beginner, but someday I’d like to be able to make something as striking as this chainmail/chainmaille dragon:

[GoCubsGo]

23. That's really cool!

I find it hard to believe you are "just a beginner"!

[frogmarch]

27. I didn't make that dragon,

sorry to say. It's a photo I found on Etsy or somewhere.

[HopeHoops]

25. I used to make chainmail. Do you have ANY FUCKING IDEA HOW LONG THAT TAKES?

It can take a couple of weeks to get enough to cover one forearm. I don't really give a shit anymore - I'll just fight if I have to - armor be damned.

[frogmarch]

26. I've seen how-to videos, and

it does look as if it takes a long time to do it. Still, I think chainmail is beautiful, and I'd like to make at least one chainmail piece.

I used to quill, which means I have lots of patience. But I do have my limits. Maybe chainmail won't be my thing. I can understand why you don't do it anymore.

[HopeHoops]

28. I don't do it anymore because I have attitude, a cane, and a 3rd degree black belt wife.

It won't stop a bullet anyway. And frankly, I just don't give a shit. I've made much larger guys stand down just by getting in their faces with attitude. They don't know what they're facing. If I don't have my back brace on, I have a leather vest to serve the same support purpose. It will stop a knife. The only defense against a gun is to disarm your opponent. My wife and I both know how to do that.

[i_sometimes]

24. I collect little boxes.

Small, ornate or not. Old, new, just little boxes to put things in.
Then I collect little things to put in my little boxes.
My daughter thinks its weird.

[pamela]

42. I collect little boxes, too.

You should read the dedication to East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I have the book around here-I'll look it up for you. It's sort of a neat quote about a box.

[pamela]

43. Here it is...

Dear Pat,
You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, “Why don’t you make something for me?”
I asked you what you wanted, and you said, “A box.”
“What for?”
“To put things in.”
“What kind of things?”
“Whatever you have,” you said.
Well, here’s your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts- the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.
And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.
And still the box is not full.

JOHN

[i_sometimes]

54. Lol, timing is everything!

I didn't see your post till I posted the same thing!

[i_sometimes]

53. Found it.

Dear Pat,
You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, “Why don’t you make something for me?”
I asked you what you wanted, and you said, “A box.”
“What for?”
“To put things in.”
“What kind of things?”
“Whatever you have,” you said.
Well, here’s your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts- the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.
And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.
And still the box is not full.

JOHN

That's pretty neat. I put odd stuff in mind, old rings, plastic frogs, weed, momentos. I have them in bone, all types of wood, wicker. Some are jeweled, some are round, some have no lids. Just something about little boxes.
I find them at thrift stores quite often for cheap.

[i_sometimes]

55. What to you keep in yours? eom

[HopeHoops]

66. I read that as "litter boxes" - now THAT would be weird!!!

[i_sometimes]

67. LMAO! Yeah, that would be creepier than even 'Cat Lady'.....n/t

[Brother Buzz]

30. I secret down to the park playground at night and.....

spray the slide with Teflon® dry lubricant. Kids love it.

[i_sometimes]

56. Hey

Does that work on all surfaces of slides? We have hard plastic at our park and the kids shoes always drag and then catch, flipping the kids over. A few have been hurt. I tried PAM cooking spray but it smelled really bad and the other parents were not happy.

[Brother Buzz]

59. It was a crappy plastic slide that inspires me to juice it.

Teflon® spray is a dry lubricant and leaves no detectable residue and has no smell once the vehicle flashes off. Pam sounds like a no-no.

[i_sometimes]

60. So I learned! My brother suggested

wheel bearing grease, lol! I will pick up a can of that and see how it goes. These kids can go head over heels, literally!

[sakabatou]

31. Uh... making AMVs?

Anime Music Videos.

[Kali]

32. golden knotted cords off Amarula bottles

odd liquor, beer, and wine bottles (contents almost exclusively consumed by moi, but not all), saddles and other "horse" equipment from places I have traveled or someone I know has been.

and oddest to me, I seem to have acquired a bunch of ceramic art from Mata Ortiz and I don't even remember particularly LIKING pottery. It is fragile, has to sit on shelves, takes up lots of room, isn't worth much and it is hard to store if you don't want it out on display. Every time I go down there I swear I am NOT buying any pots and every time I end up with at least two or three more. I need to take photos of my last two, might post them later. Nice cloudy day for doing outdoor shots.

oh and the other involuntary collection seems to be old broken down vehicles

[LiberalEsto]

33. I collect and identify native wildflowers

I do this everyplace I go.

I went nuts in and around San Francisco last summer because of all the marvelous wild flora. Almost everything was unfamiliar to me because I've lived in NJ and Maryland almost all my life.

[HopeHoops]

49. Black-eyed susans are still my favorite flower - I have them in my PA bed.

[Moondog]

34. Hobby, as in the singular form?

Hmmm. In no particular order -

Building insanely bright LED lights (flashlights, special purpose lights, work lights, etc). Basically, anything you can do with LEDs. Had to learn to solder to do this, but it was worth it.

Recumbent tricycles, specifically high-end "tadpoles". They are chimeras, marrying the DNA of a racing bike, a go-kart and a Big Wheel (remember those?) into one seriously fun vehicle to drive around to nowhere in particular.

Collections. Latest passion is netsuke. Which in FL is not that easy - travel and online stuff helps. Used to collect antique chess sets (lived in Europe at the time which made it easy), which is actually fairly similar. Have some old coin, stamp and other collections I probably should liquidate. It would help pay for the netsuke.

Digital photography and digital darkroom. You can spend unlimited amounts of money on this. But you don't need to do so.

BBQ. But I cheat. I use an electric smoker. And I get to eat the results, although generally it is just an excuse for a party. I have BBQ loving friends that are Yankees and Midwesterners who just seem to lack the skills . . . .

Other stuff too, but you have to know me, and know me well, before I'll cop to it.

[dimbear]

44. I've got an led project going right now too.

I went to the dollar store and bought 30 stickup lights, which contain 90 leds. And 30 ballast resistors. I wired them all together.

In my junk I have a brass ship's lantern which was originally oil fired, with the thick thick glass lens. I polished that up.

That's where I am right now. Just before first light.

[HopeHoops]

51. I learned how to solder in the early 70s when I took apart my RadioShack 30-in-1 kit.

I reused components so many times that I was putting solder over solder repeatedly. It was actually quicker than wiring up the springs on the kit and I could throw in other components as needed (like things I scavenged from broken radios).

[i_sometimes]

58. Til what netsuke is...thanks!

[Moondog]

72. They are small

carvings, usually from organic materials, historically used for a variety of practical purposes in Japan. Here is a more detailed discussion - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsuke

[applegrove]

35. I used to sew bathing suits. I'd read wedding magazines to get an idea of the bodices

that were coming into style. Then I'd get a pattern, choose colours and sew away. I was hoping to start a business online making homemade bathing suits. I'd sewn and worn a bathing suit for myself when I was in my early 20s and loved it. It lasted for more than a decade. The ones I made had really thick elastic and were substancial. So I developed my eye and made a few and gave them to people. Then all of a sudden, when I was wearing one, it split. The elastic stitch I had on my sewing machine was a dud and made enough holes in the material that it was really a 'tear here' seam. That was the end of that.

[Codeine]

36. World's worst bass guitarist. I paint miniature soldiers.

I spend between $40 and $100 a week at the comic shop. I'm a dork.

[HopeHoops]

52. I prefer the term "geek".

They don't have fantasy figures in the variety they did 35 years ago, and the ones they do aren't things I recognize (not up on my sci/fi characters anymore). We still play Magic: The Gathering and my wife is deadly with a griffins/vampire deck. My specialty is worms and elves that generate mana. Yes, we're geeks. We're both 48 and the kids are 16, 18, and 20 and all love to play Magic. Most of our cards are 6th edition and later, but primarily 6th.

I'm also a computer geek and have been playing guitar since the early 70's but still don't consider myself "a guitar player". The only instrument I can pick up and play without thinking is the sax. I still have my 75 or 76 Selmer Signet and it's the sweetest sounding axe I've ever played. My younger daughter plays it more than I do now - I gave it to her.

[Neoma]

37. Uhm...I'm teaching myself to animate.

[pamela]

40. I collect wind-up toys

The little cheap plastic kind.

[fizzgig]

41. i'm a pinball junkie

a pinball arcade just opened up in town. i've only been able to make it in once and i'm itching to get back in.

they have my favorite machine. i'm so screwn.

eta: i see nothing weird about collecting old computer components. my dad's garages is littered with them and he's got an old desktop or two solely dedicated to running seti at home.

[HopeHoops]

50. My favorite has always been "Flash" (late 70s).

The new ones are just too, not really complicated, how about "overdone". Balls drop in places and just appear somewhere else. All of the ramps are easy to hit even on the first play. The ball runs around for a long time so it's fun to watch, but I can just sit there looping through the same ramp for half an hour (and never missing a shot). I usually walk away with credits left on the machine. They're just not as much fun. Not enough bumpers, not enough targets, just weird shit all over the place. Then again, it is a tough market with all the 3D video games that are out now.

[ZenLefty]

61. Tameshigiri

I cut things in half with a sword. It's more of an obsession than a hobby.

[quakerboy]

62. Collecting

Business cards.

I have to restrain myself on going into one of those places with a bulletin board with a million stuck in around the edges, and only take the ones who left extra. I don't want to deprive some small business of their chance to reach a customer. But if there are more than one, its fair game.

[mysuzuki2]

63. I collect ear wax and make candles out of it.

Not really. My real hobbies are more conventional. I make beer and I collect cameras.

[jorno67]

71. I build and fly radio control airplanes

[libodem]

73. I collected old dolls

Doll clothes and old doll furniture. I love minutures. Have a little doll house full of Victorian furniture. Then there are the tea cups. Oh god, what have I done?

[madmom]

74. I collect rocks. Every where I go I get a rock to take home and put

in my rock garden. My daughter said when future archeologist study my garden they will be flummoxed by all the different rock types and wonder how they got there LOL

[era veteran]

75. I like to watch

[HopeHoops]

78. Ah, "Being There" - great movie.

[JBoy]

76. Scotch whisky tubes

I don't buy any Scotch that doesn't come with a tube, for me to put on the top of my liquor cabinet.

[pink-o]

77. I'm a geek for English Etymology and most word games.

I also like reading World History, fiction and non. And I write. I write a lot, but I don't consider that weird. The word origin obsessions are out there, OTOH.