Ask Lemmy

For those who jump around too much like I do, remember:

Does raising and training ducks count? I'm really good at it. I have care down to a science and I've done quite a bit medically because there aren't any vets that treat ducks around me. I've rehabilitated crazy injuries, performed minor surgery, treated severe malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies.

I have trained all of my birds to listen to basic commands and they know their names and respond to them.

Hedge laying. It's a technique where you almost cut through the stems of the plants in a hedgerow in order to bend them down. This promotes the growth of new shoots and results in a very dense hedge, which historically was done to make sure animals didn't escape or enter pastures and fields.

Retro gaming, data preservation, and open-source software. I'm a maintainer of several open-source retro gaming data preservation projects so go figure lol

I just become "good" compared to someone who never tried and then lose interest and try something else.

I grow bonsai trees.

Puzzles.
And everything is a puzzle to a degree. I love to collect information in my head and use it to solve other things. I used to try to solve them for the cosmos or for the world but I didn't get paid very well to do that and I'd rather just solve little ones.

Be it literal puzzles, trivia, cooking is often a puzzle of balancing flavors and combining them in unique ways. Software and computers are just puzzles on finding how the functions work and solving through it until you find that part that doesn't solve right.

I make my own furniture pieces occasionally or garden. All of it is just puzzle solving for what my soil can grow, what do I need for the household or what can be done with the odds and end items I have left.

It's fun to repurpose items, fix broken things and build new stuff and I bet it's how lots of other people who can't focus on things feel as well. It's just another puzzle.

I have a weird obsession with fonts. I love a good, well designed font. How it looks on the screen, how it looks in print. Nothing too gaudy or showy, but a really good League Spartan or Lato Light. (Not a fan of serifs)

Other than that, normal stuff; 3D modelling, writing, etc...

My other interest that might fall "outside the norm" is that in University, if I had continued beyond my bachelors my primary focus would have been studying the Bronze Age Collapse, and that topic still fascinates me to this day.

Edit: Oh...and spreadsheets. There's no problem in the world that can't be fixed with a well designed spreadsheet. All problems come down to data sorting.

What is involved with town mapping - do you have some kind of Google type camera rig on your car or a GPS device that automates the process and just drive through street, or what?

Low level coding and free open source software for me mostly.

I've met some people who like to map areas on OpenStreetMap and I'd be interested in trying it myself but like with contributing to anything I'm new to I'm scared of doing something wrong. I understand that with OpenStreetMap there's a sort of discussion of changes like on Wikipedia?

When you started what resources helped you, did a friend show you? Is there a tutorial you recommend for starting off? (If you explained some of this somewhere else please feel free to link to it or tell me, I haven't read through all the comments here yet.)

Picking up new hobbies, investing in them far beyond what would be considered a casual interest, then getting bored or disillusioned with the community after 6-24 months.

See

• Foam dart blasters
• yo yos
• magic the gathering (This was like 15 years)
• coin collecting
• juggling
• pocket knives
• archery
• running
• Currently working on 3D printing, though that's been more of a means to get back into foam blasters because it's far cheaper to print your own blasters and mod parts.

Trying to learn languages, Linux, gaming, and music.

3d design & printing, electronics, cooking, in-person RPGs, woodworking, old time radio, sci fi, bookbinding, comedy... I got a million of 'em.

Urban planning and old architecture. I could spend an entire evening just walking around older neighbourhoods looking at the level of detail put into the buildings

I am a spring of knowledge about all of the domestic Real Housewives franchises (though I did just pick up Dubai recently).

I know all the lore behind all their relationships/alliances/enemies and off season shenanigans.

Its legitimately stupid how much I can talk about rich women who flaunt their wealth and then do trashy shit like throw wine in one another's faces or flip tables (or scam the elderly out of their retirement funds to fund their own lifestyle).

Well thank you very much Emerald for the mapping and the great question.
For me, it's something much more modest:

• Amiga, or retro-computing in general. Not just for gaming. There's something deeply inspiring about browsing the web or creating spreadsheets with entirely different hardware and software. Hoping to get an Alpha CPU and/ or an Atari soon.
• Dreaming of a better world.

Low level C programming.

And also I know a lot about breaking video DRM.

Philosophy and some sciences, but I'm not very knowledgeable. I know people say you don't need to be an expert in order to enjoy things, and I agree, but then those aren't special interests either, right? I love my music, but I know few bands. I love singing, but I lack technique. I like horror stuff, but I'm pretty picky. I'd like to be fit and practice sports, but my health is an issue. I like some beauty topics, but I'm not interested in applying them. I enjoy eating, simple food though. Some games are fun, but I mostly repeat the same ones. I like mountains and forests, but just for a day or two. I'd like to read more...

I'm really a master of none.

Hobbies, I have many interests each more important than the last.

Levitation Wand!

I think it is pretty niché as most people that see it have no idea what is going on to begin with and if drugs are involved I love blowing peoples minds with it.

Here is a video that demonstrates what it is.

I've had several multi-year long ones:

• As a child: Stargate SG1
• Adolescent: paraphilias
• Young adult: the care of high violence risk and cluster b psychiatric inpatients
• As I'm entering middle-adulthood: western esoteric spiritual tradition and philosophy

I'm not good at it, but I like geocaching.

I like making homemade bongs and water pipes specifically from reclaimed materials. I'm not strident about things, but it's fair to say in a general sense that I need them to have $0.00 of material costs. I make "the best" in terms of performance, and people freak out when they use or see them. They are always a huge conversation piece, always creative, and I just give them away. People ask me all the time to make custom ones but I won't. It's free or nuthin'

I know people that still use water pipes I made for them 15 years ago! Sometimes they look a bit "trashy" but they're crafted! And that's the way I like em!

Remember when Homer Simpson made that misbegotten lump of shit called VunderBaat or something? I feel him man

I have at least a couple.

3D printing. But I mostly design my own models and mostly for utilitarian purposes rather than artistic. For instance, my mother's into quilting and wanted a very specialized die for a Sizzix die cutter to use to cut quilt pieces, so I applied my amateur 3D printing, CAD, and mechanical engineering skills to the problem and designed/printed a die. The process also included making a custom tool for precisely bending the die blade.

Second, studying U.S. intellectual property law. I just dig it. And it's relevant to me because I frequently publish software and models for 3D printing under permissive licenses. And I like having at least some amount of understanding of what the licenses really mean and what people will be able and not able to do legally with the works I'm publishing.

My main one is vegan food. Before I had access to a kitchen to make my own food, it used to involve collecting, curating and creating recipes, but has since moved onto creating (and endlessly recreating, adapting and morphing) certain flavour and texture profiles.

The current big one I've been very obsessed with making and eating for the last few years, is variations on hoisin mock duck wraps.

The latest iteration is a salad wrap, with leaves of nappa cabbage as the wrap, a layer of vegan garlic mayo with chilli crisp, mock duck, green onion, cucumber, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, hoisin sauce, corriander leaves, and another cabbage leaf to cover/ close the wrap. This probably has the best textures so far and tastes really good!

Making/eating kimchi is a similarly intense interest/obsession. So is hotpot. I fucking love hotpot.

My secondary major interest fluctuates between several different things, but is currently perfume.

I'm very into creating (and endlessly recreating, adapting and morphing) certain scent profiles, and collecting perfumes.

I like to do this through layering different perfumes on my skin and clothes, so I can highlight certain notes/sensory aspects for myself (that may not be apparent on other people's skin chemistry, so this, like with my other interest, is a very subjective fascination!).

Over the span of three days (between showers) I like to start in one place with my layering combinations and go on scent journeys as the notes morph and fade, and I add to them with other complimentary scents and see how far I can go. Notes linger on clothing longer and differently to how they do on skin, so as I'm layering over several days it builds up in fascinating ways. It's very interesting to me too finding which layering combinations work one way but not the other.

Lately I've enjoyed starting with a base combo of Mauboussin Mauboussin (resinous yet juicy plums and lots of ylang ylang) and Musamam White Intense by Lattafa (juicy spiced oranges and too much ambroxan)- and then taking that in interesting directions as it fades over the day, like layering on more spices and wood notes, and then when that fades, onto various ouds and roses.

Or adding a Stronger With You flanker (sweet and aromatic with chestnuts + individual flanker variations), then when that starts to fade leading it with fragrances full of ginger, vanilla, lactonic nutty notes and patchouli.

Being enveloped in layers of beautiful fragrances is such big sensory good times for me and discovering new combinations is so pleasing.

Also before anyone comes at me for this, I live alone and don't wear any fragrance when I go outside, so I'm really not hurting anyone with this hobby!

How did you start with that? I've contributed some via Street Complete, but I've never figured out how to contribute directly to OSM.

Thank you for your contributions!