Ask Lemmy

I garden poorly and do canning! I got into gardening because last year (technically two years ago) my mother for purim gave me a bag of things and one was some san marzano like seeds. So last year's growing season I planted those and it worked! I can because we use to can growing up. I've been canning before the garden but they're a natural fit.

OpenStreetMap editing, photography for Panoramax

board games, not only its nice way to get to social gatherings, but theres bunch of games with solo mode. So instead of spending tons of hours on your computer you can play some board game

Photography. I bought a second hand camera body, a couple of adapters and have been building up a roster of cheap old 70s-80s lenses. I can bring my camera whenever I go out, or go on more specific photography walks. It makes me look at things more closely, and therefore enjoy them more.

Whenever I've brought my camera to events and gatherings, the response has been very positive and people really enjoy the photos being "artistic" and "dream-like" (on account of the imperfect vintage lenses and my often poor manual focusing).

It's been a fun journey of discovering what lenses I most enjoy using. For me it's been either 40-45mm for walking around snapshots or 180-200mm for portraiture.

Maybe I'll get some more modern gear some day, but then I'll know exactly what I want, and have the skill to use it to the fullest.

Archery.

Fursuiting is something I have very alowly been getting into, as in have had 2 chances to do it safely. Wouldn't recommended unless interested/curious, furry or not, and you don't have any health issues stopping you from doing it. Suit heads get hot, airflow can sometimes be an issue, and vision can be a big problem. It's why I recommend fursuiting's cousin cosplay more for more people.

I got my head/paws ( separate purchases ) because I was going with a college club I'm a part of to an anime con and have wanted to do this for a long time, as a furry. Got a tail at that con. Seller told me he just finished that tail that morning, so I got lucky. Still learning my limits in suit, especially with regards to vision.

Thought about going to my cities local pride parade with my suit, but didn't feel like getting heat stroke. Also thought about going to the local comic convention in suit with my non-furry non-cosplayer dad, but I didn't know it was happening the same weekend as the parade, so I missed my opportunity because I looked it up the Monday after, curious when it was gonna be.

I have also been in the process of trying to get back into writing. Specifically by rewriting/updating some old fanfiction. I know a few people who think fanfiction is nothing but slop, bit I absolutely disagree. It's no different from fan art: another way to show appreciation for a show/book/franchise/whatever you like.

Kinda really got into fanfiction writing back in 11th/12th grade and started getting back into it more now because I think more people should appreciate and write it because it's fun and it's rewarding to read in general, fanfiction or otherwise.

This comment excludes the normal stuff ( gaming and watching shows ).

I’ll bite because I haven’t seen it yet!

Seems like everyone has taken up climbing which is awesome! Always love more people in the sport.

The one I haven’t seen is autocross. It’s a big empty space (usually a parking lot) with cones and your car one at a time. See how fast you can make it through the course. No, you don’t need some awesome car to participate! In fact, the more shitbox the better! We see old police interceptors, Miatas, Honda Fits, Chevy Volts, Porsche GT3’s, and everything in between.

I enjoy track driving as well but autocross is way more fun. You get out and learn the limits of your car and your skillset in a super safe and inviting atmosphere. No matter what you’ve brought everyone is excited when you get faster. Events are almost always run/work so half your time is spent chatting and setting cones back up when someone inevitably commits cone genocide.

Autocrosses always have instructors as well that are happy to ride along and give you pointers. If you’re comfortable, they’ll often even be willing to run a lap in your car to show you what it’s capable of. Usually going 80% of what they can do so it’s even more safe.

I got into autocross back when I was 17 and bought a $2000 Porsche 914 when they were highly undesirable and Porsche was almost bankrupt. I raced motorcycles after that for some years then got married and decided to give up the bikes. I wanted some more (safe) speed in my life about five years ago and found the local Porsche club running autocross in my area. No Porsche required! I took my Cadillac for the first few years and managed a third place finish overall my last year of driving it. Got the bug bad and a dream car crossed my path (Lotus Elise). It’s punishing and the electronics were horribly unreliable. I love it more than any other car I’ve owned.

Don’t be like me. Go buy a Miata like a sane person if you decide you want a dedicated autocross car! Parts are endless and cheap. Plus the car is near bulletproof to start with.

And that’s where we stand and how I got into then back into autocross!

Do you have any bodies of water near you? You could buy an inflatable paddleboard for ~$200 and just float in the middle of a lake reading, listening to music, or meditating. Or smoking weed. I’ve tried them all and they’re all great!

I play guitar and make music. I love it. It soothes my soul and I'm actually creating something instead of consuming. It's very fulfilling.

I speak ill of foreign countries' presidents (so many choices currently)

Barebow archery, penspinning, homelab / home network, misc. coding projects I rarely finish.

Penspinning started as a kid as a selfstimming activity since I annoyed people with bouncing leg and table drumming. Looking back, I don't know why it took 30 years to get ADHD diagnosis.

Barebow archery started by doing a team activity intro archery and I noticed it immediately cured my chronic shoulder pain. It turned out to be inferred pain from Infraspinatus, not shoulder per se.

Homelab/network just stem from my desire to have a carefully controlled environment due to deep distrust in... well, everything.

Coding projects usually start by me having a specific need or problem, then I start fixing it, and generally end up over-engineering it.

Archery, penspinning and coding are relatively cheap hobbies. Homelab/network doesn't need to be expensive either. All of these CAN absolutely be money sinks, especially homelab/networks and archery, but starting out is affordable.

I woodwork, set up servers, build guns, garden,play guitar, design furniture, and teach others to do each of those things.

I try to do anything that regular people have figured out on their own. If someone can do something without training, I can probably figure it out in a few weeks.

I don't watch things, and I don't use social media outside of Lemmy on occasion. Because of that, I seem to have far more time than the average person.

Resistance training is probably the biggest one currently. At first it was just for health reasons as i was getting overweight, but over time(almost a year) i started to like it more and more until now it could be qualified as a hobby.

I really like that it's something that heavily depends on me and has very little luck in it.

Fish tank, houseplants, vacuuming the floors, doing the dishes.

Two are passive hobbies that require more work but only once in a while

Two are things that need done that i treat like hobbies so something fucking gets done around here

I might have ADHD

photography, video games, film review, writing, cooking + making preserves, reading, book reviews, walking, running, genealogy, listening to music, transcribing on musescore and playing music.

if that sounds like a lot bare in mind i tap into each one on an ad hoc basis rather than scheduling it out. the only ones i technically do regularly is walking, music and video games, like most people.

also going to art galleries + theatre 👍

Been playing video games pretty much all my life. Like with all forms of popular entertainment, there are so many genres that I'm sure there's something out there for you. If you want, I can offer some suggestions based on what devices you own and what you're interested in.

Other than that, learning to cook new recipes is always fun and pretty much essential to live haha. I've tried a few Ina Garten recipes and they've been relatively easy and tasty.

I like exploring abandoned buildings, it's called Urbex (portmanteau of Urban Exploration) but not all the sites are in urban environments.

Photography also goes hand in hand with that.

Here's a website to see the sorts of places people do

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/

Baking. It can be as simple and inexpensive, or as elaborate and costly as you want. It's very beginner friendly. And even most of your failures end up delicious.

Hiking - got into it because I was in the scouts as a kid. I found it boring and exhausting and onerous as a kid, until I went on my first backpacking trip. For me at least, feeling committed to a multiday journey from A to B kind of removed the distractions and what-ifs, and allowed me to really sink into the experience of being outside like nothing else had. Going backpacking is my number one trick for becoming a happier human - exercise, in nature, good circadian rhythm, disconnected from the internet.

Climbing. Got into it because I was looking for friends to go backpacking with in college, and they were into climbing, too. While backpacking can feel very relaxing, climbing feels very in-the-moment. A difficult route will challenge you in any number of ways - physically, as your lungs burn and your forearms start giving out; mentally, as you try to figure out a sequence of moves to make it up while managing the risk of falling; and emotionally, as you work through your fear of falling off and balance your mind between focusing on the task at hand and being open to all possibilities. You develop great friendships, since you tend to get comfortable with someone you are trusting your life with pretty quick. There is always something new to learn, as there are many disciplines from gym to outdoor, rock to ice to aid to mountain, and boulder to sport to trad. And it takes you to amazing places - sure, you can plan a trip to Chamonix or Thailand to go skiing or hang out on the beach. But when you make plans with a climbing partner, you actually buy the plane tickets. You fly in and immediately depart from the normal tourist circuit, getting a much better feel for life for the people in the areas you are travelling in. Then you show up in your destination, and you don't just look at the beautiful scenary - you are part of it. You don't just look at the mountain - you are perched on a tiny ledge on the side of it, watching the birds hover next to you while your partner cruxes out on the next pitch above.

Canyoneering. Similar to climbing, but easier to do with lots of friends of various skill levels. While climbing is often a fairly serious endeavor with defined goals, a canyon just has a single general goal that the whole group works on together: get out of the canyon. Thus, canyons tend to be a lot more fun and social, and often involve silly shenanigans like throwing a bag over a wall to have a rope to climb, or standing on a friend's shoulders while another lets you grab their foot to lower yourself over an edge.

DIY. I dunno, I just intrinsically like the idea of being able to build and fix all my own shit. Sometimes this feels less like a hobby and more like a job, but it is hard to beat the satisfaction of finishing a project that then makes your life better every time you use it.

This year:

• Picking and processing psychedelic mushrooms -cheap

• Replacing phone & tablet screens -surprisingly cheap

• Mountain biking - not cheap

Reading (it takes the right book), stargazing, fixing things, breaking things when I thought I was fixing them, hiking, sitting on logs, weed/music, biking, dancing. It's mostly stuff I did or was exposed to when I was young. It's all most average skill levels at best. At some point, I realized my time is limited and it could end any moment. I stopped worrying about being maximally productive and stopped worrying about not maximizing skill/avoiding things I'm not good at. Do whatever brings you joy. I've tried to spend less time bumming on my phone since it's so easy and so empty.

I liquidated my investments years ago for a cash need. It's cool to be part of some money-making scheme, but I'd say in total, I don't miss addiction of checking performance of the rollercoaster through the casino. I felt bad when it was red, felt like I didn't bet enough when it's green. It never actually moves fast. Things improved when I limited myself to checking weekly. On average, the line will go up and to the right. I'll feed index funds eventually again, but for now, I'm just holding in a high yield savings.

Gardening and hiking - both get you out into nature and are good for your mental health.

I paint minis, focusing mostly on Warhammer right now and I'm telling myself I'm going to start playing.

I started with the Reaper minis learn to paint sets, they do a pretty good job of teaching you the basics, give you a couple minis to start with and a workable if somewhat limited set of paints and brushes.

It sounds a lot harder than it actually is. If you dilute your paints down right it kind of tends to flow exactly where you want it to.

Sourcing minis to paint can get pricey depending on what you like and where you get them from. To support that hobby I've also taken up 4d printing, if you hunt around a bit you should be able to get a used resin printer for pretty cheap (but don't skimp on proper PPE and ventilation, liquid resin is pretty nasty stuff)

I dabble in a little bit of woodworking. Nothing too fancy, I'm not doing intricate carving or anything, but once in a while I find a problem in need of a solution and think of a way I could build that solution myself from some boards and hardware and while I may not be saving any money over buying some off-the-shelf solution to that problem, I do think a lot of those thing I've made have ended up being better than anything I could have bought and they are certainly more satisfying to use knowing I made them myself.

I camp, hike, and fish a lot. These can get pricey if you let them, but you can probably get enough fishing gear to go catch some fish for like $50. Depending on where you live, you can hit a lot of trails with just a sturdy pair of sneakers, a water bottle, and maybe a pocket full of snacks. And you can probably outfit yourself for some decent weekend at a state park campground for about $100 worth of Walmart gear (tento sleeping bag sleeping pad,) and some stuff you probably already have at home (flashlight, matches/lighter, first aid kit, some pots and pans)

Reading of course is always a worthy hobby, and you can pair it with some of the others. (I sometimes joke that the reason I fish is because it sounds better than saying ”I'm going to go off into the woods alone to sit on a bucket by a stream and read a book”)

I also enjoy cooking, trying out new recipes and such.

I've dabbled in a little ham radio. It didn't particularly hold my interest, I liked tinkering with radios and it's cool being able to talk to people far away with your equipment, but that equipment can get really pricey (there are often good deals on used stuff but you need to know where to look for them and be patient) and at the end of the day you can really only talk to other hams, and they mostly fall into 3 main categories.

1. Radio nerds- all they want to talk about is ham radio.
2. Old guys who want to talk about their medical issues.
3. Weird paranoid prepper types.

And since the whole point of radios is to talk to other people, and I don't particularly enjoy the kinds of conversations those people want to have, I never really got too into it.

I had been sort of curious about weightlifting for most of my life. But was kind of intimidated by the prospect. Eventually I set my mind to it and it turns out that learning how to lift a barbell was easier than I imagined. Now I have home powerlifting gym and I've never felt better in my entire life. It's challenging and oh so rewarding, I recommended it to everyone

My hobby is collecting items for new hobbies, lol. Mostly board games and various arts and crafts (miniature painting, clay sculpting, felting, watercolor, knitting, etc.).

Knitting: I knew a lot of people who did it and I wanted to fit in, plus it was something to do blindly and with my hands.

Mini painting: started from unpainted minis in a board game I bought. I fell out of the habit due to constant blurry vision for a couple years, but now my partner and I have friends who love mini painting so they came over once a month or so and we paint together.

Watercolors: I loved the fun and messy chaos I saw some artists make and wanted to do that. Instead I learned I’m way too much of a “color in the lines” person. But before learning that, I painted a pet portrait for my niece for Christmas and she loved it so much she asked for a new one every year. So a hobby I probably would have totally stopped has continued with at least one painting a year for five years now, and I have to admit I’m pretty good at pet portraits.

Felting: washing my cat’s favorite blanket once produced little felt balls of her fur and one looked like a little creature. I just had to put eyeballs and a tongue on it so I learned the basics of felting.

Clay sculpting: I wanted to make a figure of my then-boyfriend’s favorite LoL character for him. I’ve picked it up again whenever I’ve had a vision but it’s rare.

Climbing/bouldering. As a not overly sporty nerdy type, I found this to be amazing. All the climbs are called problems and require you to think about how you're using your body to solve them.

99% of the community is amazing because it's not really a vs sports in a traditional sense. It's you vs the wall and even if you do something that is 'easy' for someone else if they can see you tried hard they will be pysched for you.

There are lots of beginner groups and meet up days or if you go on regular days, you'll end up talking to the same people about the climb you're doing so you build friendship as an adult which is difficult otherwise.

Also it's not in front of a screen which I love.

I'd try looking for your local gym and doing the intro course and seeing if it vibes with you.

Playing guitar, cooking and recently started to learn chinese as a challenge to an aging mind.

Drugs and video games, always have been.

You could check out this thread for inspiration

Drawing, model kit building, crochet, knitting, sewing, 3d printing, fishkeeping, plants/ terrarium keeping, games, homelab....

Lots of these have overlap. Drawing and model kit building started as a kid, and 3D printing (resin) is a natural progression from that, because I can build custom parts or scenes or whatever.

Fishkeeping / terrarium keeping came about a few years ago when I was living in a pretty shit place. I saw a video online of shrimp being chill and just eating algea and I went huh I wonder how hard it is to get shrimp. Went to the pet store and got some shrimp, failed to keep them, and researched how to properly care for shrimp and snails. That evolved into fish keeping, with multiple large tanks. Then I found serpa designs on YouTube and became hooked. From there I tried making moss terrariums and I want to branch into vivariums when I'm in a place to do so. I want to implement some of my modeling skills to make living scenes with things like moss and other plants.

Homelab came naturally to me after wanting to figure out how people did piracy nowadays and learning about the arrs stack. Taught myself docker and started tinkering with other containers and programs, which got me into learning programming.

Crochet and knitting are my weakest hobby - I was moving between countries and wanted to learn something I could do in my downtime that was travel friendly. Hooks / needles and some yarn can fit in a small carry case. I want to make stuffed animals but I need to learn more to get to that point.

I have a ton of abandoned or occasional hobbies but the main one I have atm is leatherwork.

Honestly I don't fully understand what lead me to it but I saw some videos and it was like, not only do I want to do this but I want to do it properly.

So I didn't do my normal thing of buying a ton of equipment, getting in way over my head and abandoning to the pile of failed hobbies. I booked a beginner course at a place near me and the rest is history. Been slowly building up my skills and techniques and getting really good feedback from people. Some of my recent items even have people saying that if I was to open a shop then they would be interested in buying or commissioning...

If you want to see my stuff then just have look at my post history, I should really just make a site or something at this point... Most of my stuff is small goods, accessories etc. but be warned I've just created a new community to have somewhere for the darker side of crafts (mildly NSFW) - but if anyone is interested in the spicier side of crafting then come join me there!

Hunting.

Got into it via family that hunts, but I live in a part of the country where I'd eventually have slipped into it no matter what.

You never learn as much about nature as when you're out there. And then you never know if you'll be lucky or your prey will be.

Dude I have too many. You asked for it:

• Balisong flipping
• Begleri
• Yoyos
• Airsoft
• Watching hockey (go Ducks) and do a little ice skating
• Archery
• Rock climbing
• Hiking/backpacking
• Scuba diving
• Geocaching
• Kite flying
• Rubiks cubing
• CS:GO
• Linux and FOSS stuff
• Other tech related things
• 3D printing
• Good quality pens and pencils
• Lockpicking
• Disc golf
• knives and metallurgy

My passion is horses and horseback riding, but it's dangerous and expensive so I don't recommend it to folks unless they have money and are into taking risks lol.

I love cross stitching and writing as well.

Self teaching myself piano - been going a little over a year now and I've made a ton of progress! It's a lot of fun to hear myself play some of my favorite video game songs and songs I grew up around.

Homebrewing meads and wines (haven't tried beer yet) - super simple to get started but lots of variables you can tweak to get something tasty. Takes a LOT of patience though.

Making homemade bread - it's like 10 minutes of actual work but it tastes so much better than store bought.

My three long term hobbies: reading, crochet, partner dancing.

I also have a number of hobbies that I either cycle through or that were a part of my life for a while but I don’t do anymore for whatever reason: other partner dances, knitting, tropical fish tank, paint by numbers, dog sport agility (would love to get back into it but really don’t have the space or time), camping, hiking(in a meandering sort of way), embroidery, letter writing.

ETA: I have a "fermentation" hobby too. I brew beer with my in laws about 3-4 times a year and have a constant kombucha SCOBY in my pantry.

Birding. Gets you outside and is healthy for mind and body. To get started, download the Merlin app (*or whoBIRD on FDroid) and walk outside. If you start getting into it, maybe buy or borrow some cheap binoculars. Meet up with a local Audubon group for a social outing with some generally chill people. And your observations can help gather data for science using eBird from the Cornell lab of ornithology.

Martial Arts, weight training,long distance rifle shooting, riding motorcycles (I have seven currently), gardening and growing my own food, fermenting. I used to hunt, but no longer have access to land to do so.

I do martial arts, play (and think about designing) boardgames and ttrpgs, historical reenactment, crafting (mostly sewing and leatherwork but I've been branching out into chainmail), play video games and poi. But all of these come in waves where I'm more active, I don't do everything on a weekly basis. But I still try to remain active in the communities I'm part of. It is a lot, but I've landed more in "I can't stop myself" over "I have to do this".