I feel like a loser compared to some of these other commenters lol. I sometimes like to play retro games on my handheld emulator. Those usually get boring pretty fast. I like to watch YouTube videos about really old computers & try to figure out how they work. Like vacuum tubes and stuff - really simple computers. I also watch videos on repairing old electronics and computers too. But I can’t really justify any investment into that hobby so I just live vicariously through the videos. That’s about it.
And any chance I get I like to disconnect from society completely and go backpacking in the woods either by myself or with a couple really close friends! But that could never happen often enough.
Those don’t sound like things a loser would do.
I like to explore hobbies, and I’ll have phases where I’m really into something. That helps me unwind. I’ve done pottery, soapmaking, knitting, etc. Working with my hands really lets me blow off steam.
I too like to get my feet wet with different hobbies and bounce around between some ‘test’ hobbies to see if they’ll keep my interest for long.
A big part of the fun is trying something new. Sometimes the hobby sticks and sometimes it doesn’t. But exploring is always great. What kind of hobbies have you tried out?
I bury my face in my large friendly dog and cuddle him. It’s amazing how relaxing that is. And he likes it too.
- I play beat saber.
- watch TV
- draw
- play video games
- crochet
- build robots
- organize
- compose music on the piano
Whatever I can focus on, it helps me release the day
You build robots?! That’s fucking sick! What have you built and how did you get into that hobby!
If you don’t mind a long-ish story:
I have always wanted to get into it. My dad was an RF engineer, but he never would teach me anything.
I moved to Seattle in 2010 (I was about 25yo) and I learned about maker spaces.
Well a guy at that maker space didn’t mind showing me the basics. So he taught me briefly how solder works and then asked what I wanted to make. I said, “I want things to light up”
So he gave me a breadboard, LEDs, resistors, wire and a battery and said, “Figure it out”. Pretty quick I got them lit up. So I went back to him and said, “I want them to change brightness when its dark or light out.”
So he gave me a photo resistor (when there is no light it slows/stops the current of electricity), and he said, “Figure it out”. So I learned how to use the photo resistor to make the lights brighter when the ambient light was brighter. Then I told him, “I want them to light up when it’s dark out, not light”.
So he gave me a transistor and said, “Figure it out”. This took me 3 months, all alone, to read the schematic of that transistor. But EVENTUALLY I got it working.
Since then I have learned to create my own PCB’s, programmed line followers and have built robots that move around and do image recognition!
I haven’t done much as of late but I want to get back to that! (I have moved a lot in my life so the second to last move I did, I had to donate ALL my robotics so I am starting from scratch)
I would look up maker spaces in your area. You can use them to do more than just robotics. The one I went to also had engravers, 3D printers, and knitting machines (or crochet? can’t remember)
That’s awesome. But the part that your dad was an RF engineer but never took the time to teach you makes me sad. My dad is an elec tech and some of my fondest memories are of him teaching me electronics.
I guess the take away is if you have kids make sure to take the opportunity to teach them things you’re passionate about! (As long as they show interest of course)
Yeah,… my upbringing was not normal. Lots of abuse. So that’s why. If he was healthy and had the support he needed I would have learned! But I think that is why I seeked it out later.
And YES, if you have kids, absolutely teach them what you know. Don’t force them to keep learning but an introduction is a great idea. Like I wish my parents had taught me how to cook!
Drink whiskey and check out lemmy.
Smoke a bowl, catch up on notifications I missed at work, play some Diablo, and listen to podcasts
seconded
smoke, eat, panic when I get an after-hours work message, play some dota with buddies and then log off and go to bed.
Damn that anxiety of the after hours work messages when I’m stoned and can’t figure out how to reply!
Thank fuck I’m not high enough on the totem pole to worry about after hours messages
But then again I already work stoned so I guess it wouldn’t matter much
Run.
It absolutley sucks at the time and can be a bit demoralising depending on your climate, but it’s nice to catch up on some podcasts or albums when it’s just you vs the stopwatch and nobody else.
It feels great when you’re done too - even if you’ve got a list of things to do as long as your arm, it feels good that you’ve ticked something off and it’s done you some good too.
Without getting too gatekeeper-y either, I don’t mean run in it’s purest sense - I mean getting out there putting one foot in front of the other with the heart rate up - jogging, sprinting, whatever. I’m a 10min/mile goon - I ain’t setting the world on fire with that pace but it makes me feel like I’ve put a shift in after six and a quarter miles.
Dude I like running too but I can’t for the life of me run on a treadmill or circular track or anything repetitive like that. It has to be some kind of trail. But the summers here suuuuuuuuuuucccckkkkkk it’s so fucking hot I can’t imagine running at all!
I usually go for a walk, helps me clear my mind
I can walk for hours listening to audiobooks on Libby
