I’ve always loved flashlights. Yes FLASHLIGHTS with an A!!! Anyway, apparently not many people share my rather niche interest.
So I ask you, fellow Lemmites, what are your hobbies and weird obsessions that you can ramble on about for hours?
Please feel free to ramble on about your passions here. Maybe you’ll find some likeminded individuals!
I love radio control trucks, but not for competition or to go fast. I like taking them for a walk like one might walk a dog … it’s just fun and a bit silly.
I get walking them. Sometimes it is just fun to watch things like that work.
Falconry. It’s really more of a lifestyle than a hobby now though. I’ve been doing it for a little over 10 years now and am currently flying a cast (group of birds flown together) of 3 Harris’s Hawks.
Quick faqs:
- I use the glove and everything
- It’s a hunting sport, we catch rabbits 3-5 times a week
- We all go out together, I flush they catch
- No, they do not bring what they catch back to me, I go to them
- They don’t eat the whole rabbit, I trade them a small reward
- They are completely free flighted when doing this
- I’ve trained them just enough to get them back and work with me, they know how to do bird things naturally
- They don’t really go for your eyes, and getting bit hurts 50x less than getting footed
- They are not rescues and are perfectly healthy
- Mine are captive bred, but some are wild trapped
- Wild trapping has 0 effect on native populations, 50-90% of raptors don’t make it through their first year
- Even though mine are captive bred they are still wild animals, they are just tamed.
- This is the most regulated sport in the US
Birbs:
Look at dose birbs!!
Thanks for paying the bird tax!
Amazing!!!
Who owns the birds? Are you tired of eating rabbit? It’s a really cool hobby!
Technically the US government owns the birds, but two of these are mine and one is my wife’s who is also a licensed falconer. We purchased them from licensed breeders. They are from, left to right, Nevada, Washington, Louisiana. They were shipped to us on an airplane and we picked them up at the airport.
Most of the rabbit goes back into feeding them over the summer when they are molting their feathers. I do make 2-3 rabbit dishes a year though. Last year I made sausage which was pretty good.
Does the government own ALL raptors, or are yours part of something like an airport bird removal project?
Idk if own is the correct term but the US regulates most native birds through the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Falconry has a special exclusion from that act. But it’s along the same lines as just because a deer is in your yard it doesn’t mean you own that deer. You need permission from the government to take it.
Looked into this for a hobby. Was amazed at how well regulated it is and such a big commitment.
Do you like owls? How smart are the birds? Are they as smart as a talking raven?
I like owls but they are not used for Falconry because they have poor lateral thinking (Owl knows how to jump to the glove inside, take them outside owl knows nothing) and because we have to follow all hunting laws (can’t hunt after dark). But for people who can hunt after dark, using an owl sucks because it’s dark and you can’t see anything that happens. Most falconers just love to watch their birds fly and it’s hard to see them fly in the dark!
Harris’s hawks are one of the smartest hawk species but I’m sure ravens are smarter. I think they’ve gotten HHs to use a simple tool but they are not as proficient as ravens. But in my observations it only takes one single bad experience for most raptors to never want that experience to happen again. And on the flip side, if they get rewarded doing something once they will remember that for a long time
Owls sound a bit dumb. Though they’re still cute. I plan on training a local starling population to fetch me money and attack my enemies. I’m training them with Gregg’s. They’re already taking food from my hands.
You may like c/superbowl
vacuums, why would I spend 100€ on a shopvac when I could do it myself for 200€ or even more?
A true DIYer!
Though, sometimes you get lucky and despite it costing more… you end up with a better product, say worth £150 but also gained at least 50¥ in knowledge and entertainment/joy. A worthwhile investment. Sometimes.
- Packing: backpacks, bags, organizers, compression sacks, all kinds of things like this. People loathe packing while I just love to play Tetris with my perfectly organized stuff. I have too many bags.
- Role-playing games: it is weird because I mostly collect them since there’s no time to play (nor to learn new rules).
- Automation: why spend 2 minutes manually something when I can spend 2 hours failing to automate it?
Hah yes. Packing.
We were allowed one trunk to take to school. Regardless of weight, you could take whatever you could fit in the trunk.
Needless to say, that when a family member complains they can’t fit any more into their bag, generally I’ll be able to repack it with loads of space left.
I too, have too many bags. And I managed to get my camping base weight down to about 8kg. Am not rich enough (or mad enough) to go full ultralight. This is with creature comforts.
Oh man do I feel that roleplaying one. That was me for like 8 years until I got a new play group again. We don’t meet as often as any of us would like but when we do meet up that’s when the shenanigans start. Now I could gush for hours about various DnD stories I’ve gotten with this group
Also the automation one is great too, I spent 2 hours setting up a spreadsheet that tracks my finances (mostly) automatically. It will even tally up totals for the whole year. It’s great.
Role-playing games: it is weird because I mostly collect them since there’s no time to play (nor to learn new rules).
Im the same, I love a good universe. Im not so enthralled with the game or the system, but the worlds they are in get me every time.
bought myself a magnet for magnet fishing, hopefully that’s fun
Oh man I did this and thought I caught the mother load. Me and my friends labored so hard to pull it up onto the end of the pier. It was so heavy. Ended up being a park bench lol
I mean that’s a hell of a thing to throw in the garage
Haha it was super gross. Just left it leaning on the pier. Thought the park people would want it back haha
Magnet fishing is basically litter collection, isn’t it? What is the best thing you’d hope to find?
A safe!
True, it could be fun to find some stolen goods!
someone fished out a stolen motorbike in Dublin a couple years ago and there was an article about that
Just make sure to post about it on an Internet forum and then never show anyone what’s inside the damn thing
Apparently it’s pretty common to find guns. There was a video floating around a while ago of some guys that pulled up a gun and called the cops to report it and turn it in. The cops were mostly annoyed about the whole thing though.
pulling out a gun would be kinda exciting
big metal bar could be useful. pulling out a shopping trolley would be funny but idk what I’d do with it after
My latest obsession is sashiko, a Japanese form of embroidery with beautiful repeating geometric patterns. It’s a folk art that evolved to strengthen cloth, extend its lifespan, and repair torn clothes. Rather uniquely it’s also intended to be stitched with the fabric in your hands rather than in a hoop.
One thing I really love about it from a technical sewing standpoint is that traditionally you don’t use knots at all, but it’s still a strong stitch. Quilters do something similar with what’s called a waste knot that gets snipped away, but this skips the knot step entirely.
There are specific paths you follow while stitching these patterns so that you don’t waste thread. They vary in complexity from simple lines, triangles, and curves, all the way up to tiny repeating patterns that practically replace the cloth with thread.
I don’t have nearly enough patience to do the complex ones like that, but the more simple stitches are so relaxing.
I’m so looking this up. I love crafty stuff but it’s ages since I’ve done anything.
Info dump incoming:
It does require a bit of speciality equipment compared to regular embroidery, I thought I could get away without the sashiko thimble but it kills your fingers after a while. It’s a ring that you wear at the base of your middle finger with sort of a shield that the needle is braced on. Sashiko needles are longer and thicker than a typical sewing needle as well, because sashiko thread is fairly thick. You can get away with substituting sashiko thread with size 8 perle thread or something similar in size if you can’t find sashiko thread locally. But I like using the sashiko thread because it’s wound so that you can make a single cut in the skein through all the threads, and then they’re all a good size for stitching! It’s super convenient, just yank and go.
I definitely recommend watching some people on YouTube do it, it’s very different from what I think of as a typical embroidery technique. You sort of pleat the fabric onto the needle and then pull the needle through when you can’t really fit more fabric on the needle. I found this video pretty useful when I was figuring everything out.
There are also a lot of cloth kits with preprinted designs that wash out after you’re done. There are a few good companies but Olympus seems to be the most popular. Coaster kits or hana-fukin/handkerchief kits are great to dip your toes in.
If you try it out I hope you enjoy it!
But the specialized equipment can be obtained for less than $20 and then you’re set for a while! I love sashiko, for all the reasons you listed. I have a pair of project jeans, but now I’ve mended all the holes in my clothes and need to make more I guess.
I’ve been out of it for a while now, but I spent a number of years Nerfsmithing. Which is to say, I modified Nerf blasters. I upgraded the internals to get longer range and higher rates of fire. My real fun, though, was modifying the exteriors to see just how silly I could get. I made a lot of different designs, but below is my masterpiece.
I attached a real red dot sight, after carefully painting it to look like a Nerf accessory. I attached a real laser sight and tactical light, after mounting them inside the case of what had been an official Nerf light. The 10-round straight magazine was replaced with a 35-round drum magazine. A rifle strap (in bright yellow) and a Nerf bipod finished off the main unit (a Nerf Stampede).
Then I attached a Nerf Magnus pistol, still fully functional, as a front grip. And I attached a Nerf Zombie Strike Machete under that as a bayonet.
It looks overbuilt and ridiculous, which is what I was trying for, but it was also an absolute terror in the office Nerf wars. I had a lot of fun building it.
My weird hobby is reading textbooks on forensic medicine and other forensic sciences. Like how to perform an autopsy, how to identify the cause of death, how to take and interpret fingerprints from different surfaces and such. I am a trained toxicologist but unfortunately only had basic training in forensic toxicology as part of my curriculum (and not working in that field now). 🙂
That is actually really interesting. Would you ever consider going into the field or will you remain all hobby? I’m studying basic forensics in my criminal law pathway in High-school but it is VERY surface level.
I’d love to but would need a lot more training to do so. Which I fear I won’t get due to time and financial constraints - you know, being the bread winner of the family, full time job, a child… But on the other hand, I do love my current job and it earns me the money to buy all the expensive text books, so I won’t complain. :D
What do you do at your current job if you don’t mind me asking?
After spending a bit more than a decade in academic research, I am now a regulatory toxicologist in biocides assessment at a national authority. Sounds boring but comes with much work in international committees which is fun (and oftentimes restores my faith in humanity) and we do some research and teaching, too. Plus, it is a nice job in terms of doing something for society, making the world a safer place… 🙂
Increasingly, mini painting has been eating my life. I tried to fight off 40k obsession but it’s been slowly pulling me in for a while now. But probably the weirder part is, I haven’t actually played the game yet. Still trying to get everything tabletop ready.
When I ready mini painting I though you were talking about doing normal paintings on tiny canvases. 😅
Leather working. I inherited my grandfather’s old hatchet and knife from when he was a boy scout, these 80+ year old relics had their original leather sheathes that were totally disintegrating and stiff. After looking fruitlessly for replacement sheathes I decided it couldn’t be that hard to make my own, and now I’m hooked. I have leather cases for all of my devices, leather bags for different traveling needs, and leather wallets and trinkets make the absolute best gifts. People are always blown away by hand made leather products.
Got any pics? That sounds cool!
I second this request
