What are your hobbies? Genuinely trying to find something new for myself.
Right now my free time mostly goes into watching series and checking trades, and I want to add something that actually feels productive or fulfilling instead of just passing time.
Curious what you’re into, and honestly, why you got into it in the first place. Doesn’t need to be impressive or unique, just real.
I speak ill of foreign countries’ presidents (so many choices currently)
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.
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.
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
I loved my fish tank. I gave it away when I moved cities and my current home doesn’t allow for it.
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.
I resist training, that has to count for something.
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.
ya sure , im having dell xps > If you want, I can offer some suggestions based on what devices you own and what you’re interested in.
Since you’re using a laptop, I’d recommend some less demanding games. To check if your laptop can run specific games, use this site here. Below are a list of some I think you should be able to play:
- Stardew Valley: one of my absolutely favorite games ever. There’s so much to do and you play however you want. There are also a ton of mods for quality of life improvements, graphic changes, and expansions
- Portal 1 and 2: super fun puzzle games with a great story and memorable characters
- Skyrim: there’s a reason this game has become such a meme and had been released on every system for the past like 15 years
- Fallout New Vegas: this might be optimistic to run but it’s a great first person role playing game set in a post nuclear war apocalypse
- Terraria: like a 2D Minecraft that has a simpler crafting system and more boss fights. I actually prefer this to Minecraft
- Celeste: fun and challenging platformer. You will die a lot but the revives are so quick and the controls so smooth it isn’t too frustrating when you need to start over
- Balatro: card game where you make poker hands to attack your opponent
- Slay the Spire: another card deck building game but you use your cards to take turns attacking your enemies
There are some online games you could play too, but for beginners I would avoid them since the communities can be toxic. However, if you don’t mind, you can try out League of Legends (will run on a potato), Rocket League, or CS GO.
There are also emulators you can download to play old-school games like classic Pokémon or Mario. There are too many of those to list and it’s a lot more complicated to download and install. So I would recommend checking out videos on how to do that and what games/emulators people recommend.
Cs:go was one of the first online games, even if you can’t play competitive, you’ll probably have fun in the community servers play Surf maps or hide and seek or something
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 👍
I think people sell themselves short when it comes to hobbies too. Like think about what games, movies or even youtube videos you specifically enjoy engaging with. True Crime? First Person Shooters? Romantic fiction?
Take one of those, and then you can really guild it as a hobby by taking your interest across multiple mediums and talking about it with others. I was into city planning games and maps, and then i got into historical architecture and the history of towns, then started to actually explore this via photography, and it informed what i decided to study at university.
Therefore this one interest is tapped into via video games, research (reading + writing), photography, discussion with other people.
some people might not see or understand that as a valid hobby or interest, i don’t really give a fuck because it literally is and I know how much it connects across multiple things that i do and how much effort can go into it. when i feel like it, lol.
another example:
as for music, i just happened to have access to a piano in my childhood home and i was interested in seeing how good i could get without lessons - which leads to being made to take lessons, by your parents xD. I might have been lazy and left it there, i’m not as rigourous as other musicians, but because what i really enjoyed as a kid was videogames I got into trying to figure out some of that music by myself, and that reinvigorated my love of music and re-affirmed my own creative ability after the rigour of just learning from set pieces in books squashed it a little bit.
All music listed online tries to charge you money for looking at the sheet music so in order to better have access to new songs to play I started transcribing, and musescore made that easier. Now i can write my own stuff if i need to.
Photography and walking influenced one another and i got into them around the same time as covid so it was pretty easy, and then because i had access to walking it helped me get into fitness in other regards e.g running. (usually have to know where you’re gonna run before you run)
See - hobbies work in loops. It’s not about one thing you mind doing repetetively but something you’ll carry across multiple areas of life. You probably already have your hobbies, question is what’s the next step that relates to them? I would recommend getting into online discussions about your favourite shows. TVtropes is a good place to start
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
I want to do urbex but around me, there’s nothing abandoned
Doesn’t have to be an abandoned building…
A train tunnel perhaps?
Many places have culverts.
Can be historical - what was your country like during ww1 and 2? Any heavy industry?
Be careful about going underground though
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.
Canyoneering is on of the best things ever. If anyone reading this is remotely tempted, find a way to try it out safely. It’s a complete blast!
I really wanna do canyoneering but got nobody to do it with
I would try looking for canyoneering groups in your area. I know there are a few active fb groups - the ones in your area might host trips, or you could post asking for friends who want to bring a newbie along.
And no surprise, climbing and hiking share a lot of overlap - so going to hiking meetups or climbing gyms might get you the connections you are looking for.
Often, people are hesitant to bring along a stranger who might not do well in a canyon. But previous experience in climbing, hiking, or caving will improve your odds of getting invited out, since it implies that you already have some of the skills needed to canyoneer successfully, like techical rope skills, endurance and athleticism, a willingness to get a bit dirty and try hard, the movement vocabulary needed to move efficiently, and a comfort with moderate exposure. You could even organize trips with friends to do Class 1 and 2 canyons!
If those arent panning out, there are several annual canyoneering festivals you could check out. Easy to find a crew there!
And if you just wanna jump right in, you could always try to rally some friends to pitch in and hire a canyoneering guide.
Unfortunately, I don’t wanna subject myself to facebook
I mean, unfortunately I don’t wanna subject myself to the Walmart experience either, but I do it anyway because they have cheap groceries.
I get your metaphor but there isn’t really a shortage of cheap groceries where I’m at either
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.
This year:
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Picking and processing psychedelic mushrooms -cheap
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Replacing phone & tablet screens -surprisingly cheap
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Mountain biking - not cheap
Do you have any legit resources for the first one? How did you get started?
Check out erowid
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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.
- Radio nerds- all they want to talk about is ham radio.
- Old guys who want to talk about their medical issues.
- 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.
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.
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
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.






