Woodworking and just making shit in general. It’s the main reason I’m so frustrated about not being able to own a house. I’m constantly thinking about things I’d like to build or learning about methods of doing things I’d like to try and I just can’t. Closest I get is fixing shit for my friends sometimes.
Here in portland OR they have places with all the tools for hobby woodworkers. Not sure what it is called, but it’s whole purpose is for people who don’t have a shop of their own to still be able to do stuff. And it comes with a whole community of people to learn from.
I think some are called “maker space” and I think it’s like a membership you pay and you gain access to a full shop of tools.
I want to get into rock climbing but I feel like I just don’t have the build. I’m 6’5 260 lbs with size 16 feet. I climb around stuff at work sometimes and really enjoy that. But the one time I did go to a rock climbing gym my dumb feet were barely able to get purchase on the rocks. I lift weights 2-5 times a week depending on my work schedule but body weight stuff has never really been on the agenda. I still think I’d probably really enjoy it.
yeah rock climbing is really hard for big guys but its still enjoyable. You wont be doing crazy walls but you can have fun at any level
That’s something you could train. Gotta develop those mountain goat feet
Maybe if I did it barefoot.
Proper shoes for climbing are basically bare feet. You’re issue will be your weight, but you’ll lose that the second you start climbing. Go to a bouldering gym and give it a go again. It’s extremely fun and sans the cost of the shoes cheap to do.
What? I tried climbing in toe shoes, would not recommend. Climbing shoes are designed to allow you to concentrate your weight onto the very tip of the toe. They’re basically the opposite of barefoot, closer to ballet shoes.
Hi! Lifelong climber (grew up on doing free climbs) and I have some thoughts.
First off, please go to a climbing gym or two and take a beginners class. I can’t account for someone being an asshole but I can tell you that older climbers are definitely excited when someone’s interested in their thing, like most usually are. With that said, I want to give you a fair warning. My number one concern for someone of your stature would be foot/ankle injuries and pulley injuries (fingers) with rotator cuff being second.
With that said, I completely think you could do bouldering and frankly the fact that you’re already a frequent gym goes/weight lifter means you have a, forgive the pun, a leg up on most who are gonna walk in that gym. Take it easy, don’t try and do anything absurd, and have a good time. If you’re renting shoes from the gym then keep in mind that climbing shoes are a WHOLE thing and finding a pair that work and don’t completely murder your feet is a project in and of itself even with average sized feet, your size 16s might be a bit of a secondary project tbh. But spend some time on a wall and see how you feel about it truly after having someone give you some pointers as it’s an activity that is closer to 75% technique and 25% strength so knowing some beta (climber speak for “meta” - knowledge of a route/problem) actually goes a long ways.
Thats great advice thanks! Im heavily considering getting into it. Like I said I have to climb random shit at work sometimes (power plant) and its always fun/exciting. I’ve only been to one climbing gym once though and it was for a party type thing. I didn’t do well haha.
You’ll learn footwork over time. I would absolutely recommend going back a few more times and maybe sign up for a beginners class. I started climbing a few years ago and it has been the best decision I’ve made in a while
Blacksmithing. Just don’t really have the room in the backyard.
If you think about it a closet is really just a burned down yard anyway
Not one day goes by where i think about just going to a smith and begging him to teach me his craft
Start small with silver smithing!
Same, I even met with a few smiths and really enjoyed the process. Ultimately, not enough time/space/money to get into it, so I just do chain mail instead. Makes a good stim.
I’m now of the age where building a miniature railroad city seems interesting, but I don’t have anywhere near the space.
Make it really mini.
N scale is pretty small though there’s not as much available as HO scale.
Coding. I love gaming and I love mods for games, but even my best efforts don’t get me very far. I can’t fully grasp how it works, what it means, or how to ask for what I need to know. It’s not for lack of trying or exposure, I’ve been bullshitting my way through linux for about 16 years now and only recently learned how to use systemctl without without copy paste.
You want literally anything physical I’m your guy. This week I’m researching how to reflow the APU on a ps4 motherboard and it just makes total sense to me, but I’m struggling just to make the json files in a mod for vintage story. Totally lost when it comes to the C#.
I’m somewhat similar. I don’t think it’s impossible* for me, but it’s easy to run into issues and lose motivation or simply lack viable ideas for learning projects. Currently stalled due to multiple system-related issues**, and chilling effect of AI (copilot).
I have a YLoD PS3 I’ve fixed a few times before many years ago, though it likely was a capacitor issue that was only fixed accidentally. Don’t feel like spending money on caps/cooling stuff etc, not set up for soldering. I have another PS3 that currently works, not bothering to set up for firmware stuff for that either (slow internet, no easy way to monitor progress).
* I completed a sweeper clone months ago (in the one somewhat-niche language that I actually like) and that actually went great but I haven’t been able to share it. So haven’t done anything since then
** I probably need to use a different distro but not convinced by any, and probably need a better GPU to sidestep legacy driver issue (which could help w/updating my current setup) but everything seems like a side-grade or overpriced or both
CodeAcademy is pretty good for a free self-teaching tool, you should definitely take their course! The good news is that the stuff you learn in C# can easily translate to other languages like Java or Python. C# also has a lot of nifty synthetic sugar, it’s a fun language
It was an interesting thing and I imagine it works great for those it works for, but I couldn’t get into code academy or that gamified coding one. They move to slow for me and with all the plates I juggle it was hard to fmgive it the time it demanded without losing info in between.
D&D. I’ve tried a few times, but I have no imagination so I can never really get into it.
Let me tell you, you dont need imagination. But a fun group is everything
I have the imaginations, but I have some total mental block on “role playing”. And I have kids, so no ability to be part of a regular group for anything.
music making with sunvox
i dont know how to get started with musicmaking in such way i can also get better. Also i have imagination for it only in dreams or when i’m trying to sleep. when i open the program i dont get any ideas.
Sunvox takes a lot of time in comparison to other DAWs. This kills the initiative.
If you want to write music, I would suggest forgetting about DAWs all together for a start. Get an instrument instead. Piece of paper and a pencil.
Only open your computer when you have something that you want to put in it. If you start with the DAW you’ll be twitching knobs all day without getting anything done.
i can’t play any instrument at all and dont have extra money to throw on something that i’ll drop soon anyway. with sunvox i can at least sidestep it since all you need is ear for notes and rythm. My main problem is that i just dont get ideas about what to do. I already have tons of samples and instruments as files, so at least i dont have to create those from 0.
Ok, so Sunvox is also an instrument, and can be used for jamming. Sometimes the simplest sounds can inspire you to make more.
It is a lot like trying to write the first words on an empty page. However once you get started, one sentence leads to the next.
I like to draft a track by using a basic sound. Build up more stuff around it and eventually remove the draft. Like, the important part isn’t the sound design, it’s the structure and progress of the music, and just getting started on something that is more than a one pattern loop.
Gardening.
I love plants but I dont have the time to micromanage. Ive set up automatic systems in the past, and found that the plants that want to live will live. And just propagate those to hell. I have loquat trees that love neglect. I have grapes that are WAY overgrown that need trimming each year and produce way too much. Ive tried other things but one hot 110F+ (43-44C) day and most plants die. And we get months of that kind of weather.
I agree it’s really frustrating at times. And the more you micromanage the more it seems to fuck something else up. I started during the pandemic with a little balcony and a ton of containers, filling gallon jugs of water in the sink or tub, filling the watering can, and then watering. It took tons of time, but I had tons of time. I’ve since moved into a place with a yard and now have a 4x8x4 in ground raised bed, but I’m also now in a place where it will get to 110 F so I put up a shade and the bed is around trees. I’m curious to see what survives once summer hits hard soon. Also in the side yard there’s no hose bib, so I had to buy a 100 foot house and run it from the front yard. It’s a total pain.
All this to say I have six pots of potatoes, for tomatoes plants in pots, squash, strawberry, basil, thyme and cilantro in the raised bed. It’s totally a huge pain in the ass. It’s taken me years to learn what to do and what to avoid, and inevitably something gets fucked by bugs or whatever, but it truly is rewarding to have a meal with a bunch of ingredients you grew yourself. The amount of money I’ve put into it would buy bushels of what I’ve grown at the store even at current prices, but it brings me joy to go out everyday and look at progress, try different things, and learn from mistakes. I’ll be doing it for the rest of my life I’m certain. Planting all natives may be easier for you. I hope you don’t give up and end up enjoying one day!
I mean, that is gardening though. I can’t baby things (well, except the jaboticaba I’m trying to bonsai), I just plant things and figure out what works. Winners stay and eventually you get a garden.
Okra and watermelon love the heat here, and the trees do fine. Most food plants I grow in winter though. Well from October through April.
I have LGB trains from my youth.
I always dreamed of setting up a garden railway. When I bought my house, I expected to do it.
We’ve been here 29 years. No railway. No time.
If I can ever retire…
Diving, partly because of money, but I’m also not sure about the medical requirements.
Also flying, same reasons but money is a bigger factor there.
22 years ago I went to Madagascar as part of an organised group. We were scuba diving off the reefs in the south, cataloguing and counting fish and coral species.
I racked up over a 100 hours underwater in 2 months. I loved it. I was going to get my PADI training, then spend the rest of my live living in the tropics taking tourists our on boats.
I got back to Scotland and I haven’t even snorkelled since, let alone scuba’d.
Knitting. I’ve always loved wool sweaters, and would love to be able to knit my own patterned cowichan sweater for example. But it seems quite intimidating and difficult, and honestly a touch embarrassing since I’m a big bearded dude, although that last one is all in my head
My wife is a knitter and has been for decades. She literally has a closet full of sweaters that she and her mother knitted over the years. At one point she got a bit burned out, but still wanted to knit, but not commit to something complex like a sweater. A friend of her’s, whom my wife actually taught to knit, told her to knit socks.
Socks knit up quickly, so they are satisfying to make and they are easy, especially compared to something like a sweater.
I’m a bearded guy too and love to cook. So knitting isn’t a stretch, my wife loves to do it and it is very relaxing after a long day.
I’m a big bearded dude who plays in punk bands, I learned how to knit from my mom when I was a kid and picked it back up in my mid twenties. I’m in my late thirties now and every winter I start knitting, like clockwork. Last year I got crazy into gloves and socks, this year I made slippers and gloves and a big old colorwork lusekofte sweater. I was even going to knitting nights at my local yarn stores and taking my knitting to movie nights with my buddies and stuff.
I highly recommend you do it and live your warmest life.
Exercise. Even a little bit makes me miserable. And I’m not even physically disabled.
Honestly, I find it to be miserable at first too, which really sucks. I’ve stopped and started exercising multiple times in my life and it’s always difficult for me to get back into for this reason. However, I’ve found that if I comfortably push through I get to a point where I’m struggling less and it becomes more satisfying. That’s when I start enjoying it because I can start setting specific goals and working towards them.
The secret to it is to learn which kind of misery to keep pushing through and which kind of misery is an emergency stop. You gotta get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Then… It kind of becomes more comfortable.
I wish I had the time to get involved with the hobbies I already have
I don’t think I’ve had a decent chunk of a few hours of time with the energy to actually be creative in like a year now…
I hope I’m on the other side of this soon, life is supposed to be for living
Fishing. I live just miles from world class surf fishing. And even if you don’t want to make that short trip there are tons of amazing fishing opportunities just outside my front door.
The learning curve is just too steep. I know I’d enjoy it if I got good at it but the learning curve is just too steep and I can’t make it to that point where I have that positive feedback loop and get addicted to just the hope of catching something.
Fishing doesn’t have a learning curve. It’s not learn as you go. Nobody in my family fishes but I’ve gone and sorry of slowly figured it out. I’m not super into it, my kids are more curious than anything so I’ve sort of just based what I’ve done off a few movies lol. Were just doing it in rivers and ponds though, nothing crazy. Catch and release while camping.
Have wondered about that too. Caught crabs a few times which I think is a lot easier. Even got a spider crab with just a bit of twine and a hook.
But I don’t really know where are good or bad places to go to spread out across wider areas. Swimming out to place nets could be an interesting thing to try, at that point you are getting to some pretty expensive and bulky equipment though.
Would be more interested in doing it to get food rather than as a sport. Most information, especially in the UK, treats it entirely as a sport.
Grab a cheap rod from a store or on Craigslist and some tackle you’re good to go.
Fishing (at least for me) isn’t about catching anything necessarily. We bring beers and just hang out.
I would like to get a motorcycle or a vespa to wander around, but the little savings i have are for everyday needs and university linked expenses. I would also like to get some old weapons and go shooting sometimes, but they are as expensive as bikes. If i had some spare i would upgrade my gaming pc but i have not turned it on in months so i cant say its somethinng i would absolutely do if i had the possibility.
