tell me about your hobbies and interests and stuff

Epitome

I figured I'd make this because I know nothing about most of y'all (and because I'm super nosy). I've always wanted to have a super weird or quirky hobby so I could sound more interesting, but I'm really lazy and unmotivated. But! I do like hearing about other people's experiences. So tell me about your action figure collection, your trials in marching band, and how you're really into molluscs and nobody understands. I guess I'll start off.

A list of some stuff I'm into because mandatory:

• Reading (especially if it's somewhat surreal contemporary fantasy)  
• Creating characters (i was going to put down writing but honestly writing for school and its newspaper has taken away a lot of the fun from writing for me)
• Web surfing (wikipedia put it down as a hobby so it is one now)
• Very amateur voice acting
• Watching food shows
• Not sure how to put this, but I really like reading about different types of cultures? Both from other countries and subcultures from our own. I've spent hours reading about lesbian culture or riot grrls or people really into tattoos. Subcultures are rad.
• I also love going into antique shops/weird little novelty shops and seeing the weird stuff that are inside them and I wish there were more around. Also museum gift shops. Who needs plushies shaped like human organs or a cereal bowl shaped like a unicorn? I don't, but I'm glad to see they exist.

Obā-san

* curating my blog

* making music (which is an off-and-on thing for me atm)

* reading fashion garbage

* listening to music

* listening to magic the gathering podcasts

* thrifting

* reading (which i also dont do enough of)

Anonus

*graphic design

*type design

*writing

*collecting VHS tapes

Salix Babylonika

Not sure how to put this, but I really like reading about different types of cultures? Both from other countries and subcultures from our own. I've spent hours reading about lesbian culture or riot grrls or people really into tattoos. Subcultures are rad. 

I also love going into antique shops/weird little novelty shops and seeing the weird stuff that are inside them and I wish there were more around. Also museum gift shops. Who needs plushies shaped like human organs or a cereal bowl shaped like a unicorn? I don't, but I'm glad to see they exist.

these are good things

anyway I feel like most of the people here know all of mine because I talk about them nonstop.

Except gardening but I don't do that much anymore.

Crystal

A number of my interests have... ended up falling by the wayside as of late, because reasons. Nonetheless: I like to collect writing instruments (although it's extremely causally for now), off-and-on video gaming, reading (primarily about pet interests), following blogs and such (primarily about pet interests), watching anime and reading manga and reading droves of yuri fun. Also other stuff.

glennmagusharvey

I wish I had more outdoorsy hobbies.

I do have a tendency to snap photos of interesting insects and plants, but I suck at identifying them.

Imipolex G

Reading is traditionally a thing for me, but I haven't been doing it as much lately.

Listening to music and playing guitar (mostly "heavy" stuff in both cases)

Video games, but mostly just old-school ones, you kids can keep your fancy 256-bit consoles or whatever

bein' a cow

Sredni Vashtar

Making and listening to music is the glaringly obvious one, as is watching foreign animation (mainly anime) to the exclusion of the basically everything else. I also used to read a lot of horror fiction, dark fantasy, surreal and magical realist stuff, but unfortunately I haven't been reading so much anymore.

Less obviously, I like watching people on YouTube talk about stuff, sometimes in review form, sometimes just lectures or riffs or the occasional Let's Play. I find it oddly reassuring. Ditto podcasts, although I'm not sure what to do with the lack of a visual component without downloading it outright and listening to it on my iPod, which I don't do often at all...

I really, really like comics as a medium, especially somewhat unconventional, experimental flows and structures, and I really wish I could draw people well enough to make them—I'm good at landscapes and one-off weird shit, but to *repeat* a character design, it must be very simple, and I am often dissatisfied, and going through the sucking phase before getting kind of good at this point in my life scares me. I also don't read nearly enough weird comics at the moment, despite the fact that I have dozens bookmarked and a number on my hard-drive.

I find languages fascinating and have tried to incorporate that into my work but I am only really proficient in English. I can understand written French, for the most part, and bits and pieces of German, Spanish and Japanese leap out to me now and then, but I am bad with understanding spoken language much of the time and really byzantine writing systems like Japanese and formal Chinese often confuse me even when the base principles are clear. Incidentally, I find the writing systems for Armenian, Georgian, Arabic and pre-Soviet Mongolian quite beautiful, but I don't understand them at all. But I want to understand!

Sredni Vashtar

Oh, and cooking and baking and mixing drinks. I take those fairly seriously.

Yarrun XIX

If you give me a cool camera, I will do nothing but take weird auteur pics of everything and everybody

Sredni Vashtar

That is fun.

When I do that I immediately think of album art, however, so most of my less acute aesthetic interests tie back to my primary ones. For instance, video games? Storytelling. Lighting? Performance. Colour theory and room design? Visual art. It goes on. I like the idea of the aesthetic experience, I think is the key thing. And being the centre of positive attention, in an aesthetic context, which is very vague but I think also very specific.

glennmagusharvey

music theory and music composition

united states electoral politics, especially "downballot" (i.e. non-presidential) elections

some gaming

Tachyon

ALL of my hobbies have fallen by the wayside, i basically don't do anything anymore except eat, work, and visit heapers' hangout when i should be asleep

but the main ones i guess were

• reading (especially fantasy/SF, mystery, poetry, litcrit, philosophy, history and popular science)
  
• writing (poetry, fiction and non-fiction, i've also done quite a bit of worldbuilding)
• listening to music (mainly pop, some rap, some soundtrack music, occasionally prog and jazz, used to listen to a lot of rock)
• video games (with a preference for stuff with a story or a big world to explore)
  
• watching cartoons (mainly American cartoons though in the past few months i've been watching anime more often)
  
• languages, sort of (can understand written French, mostly, started to learn Welsh but only know very basic stuff)

i am boring

glennmagusharvey

i am boring too :(

Epitome

Jane said:

Not sure how to put this, but I really like reading about different types of cultures? Both from other countries and subcultures from our own. I've spent hours reading about lesbian culture or riot grrls or people really into tattoos. Subcultures are rad. 

I also love going into antique shops/weird little novelty shops and seeing the weird stuff that are inside them and I wish there were more around. Also museum gift shops. Who needs plushies shaped like human organs or a cereal bowl shaped like a unicorn? I don't, but I'm glad to see they exist.

these are good things

anyway I feel like most of the people here know all of mine because I talk about them nonstop.

Except gardening but I don't do that much anymore.

Uuuh, I know for sure music-making and video games. Is there anything I'm missing, Janey bo baney fee fie fo faney?

^ ^^ Hobbies like that are cool because y'all have knowledge about things a lot of people don't. Studying another language? Cool, a lot of people only speak one. Studying music? Cool.

@Sredni: I also enjoy watching people talk on Youtube. I'unno, I just like hearing people ramble on about subjects they're knowledgeable about. What type of food do you like to cook/what recipes do you find yourself coming back to again and again?

Salix Babylonika

I collect cassettes, which I have only just started doing.

Mostly stuff I find at thrift stores or for sale in the basement of the local library. I have found many greatest hits compilations of famous country artists.

I have noticed that these tend to lead with a patriotic song to bait the "the Iraq War was a good idea" crowd.

glennmagusharvey

I wish I did gardening but I have neither a place I can garden nor hand skin that goes well with getting dirty a lot nor time to actually do gardening

maybe i can grow some small houseplants as a hobby

Salix Babylonika

I used to grow sunflowers.

I haven't grown anything in a long time though and am not sure I'd even enjoy it anymore.

Tre

I scream about it a lot and you're probably sick of hearing it, but I'm a radio DJ, so there's that! It's pretty rad.

I used to collect Hot Wheels cars, though I stopped after the storm because they threw most of my stuff into storage and we never got them out. I should restart, it'd be fun.

I keep pretty much every glass bottle of soda I drink, unless it's a duplicate of a bottle I already have. The coolest entry in my little collection is probably a limited-edition UKY Coke bottle made for the university's 150th anniversary last year.

I really want to get into vinyl, especially now that my dad actually has a record player at home.

I've been fascinated by logos since I was a wee lad, which bled over into my eventual budding in graphic design and art. Mergers and acquisitions and the ownership/distributors of brands and products have also been one of the Things I've had that's stuck around for years, to the point where my family will just ask me who owns a company or product if they're curious in lieu of Googling it.

(I actually used to do the imaginary media company thing Anonus does too, complete with my own fictional TV shows and everything! I kinda drifted from it in my preteen years, though.)

Sredni Vashtar

@Epitome: Spicy things, mainly, especially stews. Also, cakes. My go-to ingredients are kind of idiosyncratic: Coffee, tequila, serrano and manzano peppers, hoisin sauce, almond extract, simple syrup, balsamic vinegar...

Yarrun XIX

Epitome said:

Jane said:

Not sure how to put this, but I really like reading about different types of cultures? Both from other countries and subcultures from our own. I've spent hours reading about lesbian culture or riot grrls or people really into tattoos. Subcultures are rad. 

I also love going into antique shops/weird little novelty shops and seeing the weird stuff that are inside them and I wish there were more around. Also museum gift shops. Who needs plushies shaped like human organs or a cereal bowl shaped like a unicorn? I don't, but I'm glad to see they exist.

these are good things

anyway I feel like most of the people here know all of mine because I talk about them nonstop.

Except gardening but I don't do that much anymore.

Uuuh, I know for sure music-making and video games. Is there anything I'm missing, Janey bo baney fee fie fo faney?

^ ^^ Hobbies like that are cool because y'all have knowledge about things a lot of people don't. Studying another language? Cool, a lot of people only speak one. Studying music? Cool.

@Sredni: I also enjoy watching people talk on Youtube. I'unno, I just like hearing people ramble on about subjects they're knowledgeable about. What type of food do you like to cook/what recipes do you find yourself coming back to again and again?

You're a musicmakey person too?

Crystal

I feel like I would be more into auditory works if I didn't value my personal silence so much; as a result I expect myself to be more into them in the future, when I have my own place in some capacity, and don't live with the parents anymore.

LPs are something of an exception, however. Listening to people speak happily about something that interests them is already nice, and if you combine that with games it's a win-win. That said, my LP tastes run more the direction of the NLSS and NL himself, than bisnap (another Isaac player except more focused on the details instead of rambling), or Lethalfrag (an FTL player I used to follow). Low-effort, don't require much focus, but if I do focus I can probably be entertained.

MadassAlex

Predominantly fencing in the most traditional sense of the phrase, which is combat with close combat weapons. I came for the ring of steel against steel, but stayed for the deliberation on strategy. Good fencing systems are genius; taking the Liechtenauer system as an example, some of your stances are also end positions for your techniques, but also double as parries. Since they keep the point aligned with the opponent, they're also positions to thrust from, but can easily be used to launch cuts. Many techniques are identical or nearly identical to other techniques with different names, but are executed within a different context. 

Imagine each technique as being a point on a graph, of which there are not a terribly large amount, and lines connecting each of these points in myriad ways. It's those lines that are so enthralling.

glennmagusharvey

I feel like I don't really enjoy people talking on Youtube videos, all that much.

It's certainly a thing that happens, but I don't go to Youtube to find people commentating on things.  I go to Youtube to find the things themselves.

One-Winged Eagle

My biggest hobby is playing and writing pen-and-paper RPGs. I'm somewhere close to one-quarter done with Sutra Stories, which I get to work on in my spare time. After that, I'll try my hand at making my own system, which Sutra Stories is not. 

Relatedly, I also like curating my Sutra Stories blog, which I use as a visual guide. I find that it takes up too much of my time, so I've been trying to cut down.

I used to read a lot, but I haven't read books in quite a while. I need to read more wuxia novels.

I rarely get to cook, but I think I'm fairly good at it. I like making big dishes of rice and meat.

Section42L

I don't really engage in my hobbies often enough, although I've been slowly trying to change that. Here's a list of hobbies I partake in currently:

* I like listening to music. I don't think I need to explain this one.

* I like reading Archie/Archie-style comics. I am beginning to endeavour to read other comic styles, too.

* I like watching cartoons, primarily Western fare with some anime sprinkled in.

* I like reading criticism, although I don't write enough of it myself at the moment.

* I used to play video games, but I let that fall by the wayside for a while. I've been slowly picking that particular hobby back up, however.

* I used to like swimming, and I wouldn't mind getting back into it at some point.

Alduin

I like video games, mostly RPGs with some action/fighting games mixed in.

I like anime made during the 90s and stuff, and watching criticism of anime.

Section42L

Edited my post because how did I miss adding the music thing?

MetaFour

* I work as an entomologist, so I'm lucky to have turned an old hobby into a career.

* Listening to music and seeking out new music. I can spend hours browsing the "used" racks at brick-and-mortar CD stores for off-the-beaten path stuff.

* Reading. I like "classics", novels with philosophical themes, historical fiction and non-fiction, SF, fanfiction, and a smattering of comicbooks and webcomics.

* Writing fanfiction.

* TV Tropes: browsing, editing, and creating articles.

* Jogging. I started because I needed to get in shape for my current job, but I've grown to enjoy it for its own sake.

glennmagusharvey

MetaFour said:

* I work as an entomologist, so I'm lucky to have turned an old hobby into a career.

* Listening to music and seeking out new music. I can spend hours browsing the "used" racks at brick-and-mortar CD stores for off-the-beaten path stuff.

* Reading. I like "classics", novels with philosophical themes, historical fiction and non-fiction, SF, fanfiction, and a smattering of comicbooks and webcomics.

* Writing fanfiction.

* TV Tropes: browsing, editing, and creating articles.

* Jogging. I started because I needed to get in shape for my current job, but I've grown to enjoy it for its own sake.

i wish i could work identifying insects

Hexartes

I climb buildings in the middle of the night sometimes

glennmagusharvey

Kexruct said:

I climb buildings in the middle of the night sometimes

urbex is really awesome

Sredni Vashtar

My friends and I used to explore weird, out of the way parts of our town when we had nothing to do some days.

Hexartes

It's not really urbex, I don't think? It's mostly places that are still running. Like, my most visited spot is these two schools that are right across the street from each other- Carpenter's Middle and Elementary school. We've been able to get into both of them which was cool. Fucking terrifying, but cool.