Golf. I understand the image it has, and it's somewhat well-deserved, but the munis are teeming with fascinating people from all walks of life. I've made more friends in the past 5 years since I picked the game up than I did in the previous 10+ years of my post-college life combined. I love the ego check it gives me while rewarding real practice and patience. I also carry my clubs every round which makes it effectively a 5-7 mile hike each round.
I picked up golf in March with some second hand clubs from a car boot, I've probably played 50 rounds since then and I love it. I've been asked if it's boring and it's anything but , Hitting a clean flush is the best feeling ever even if i only hit a handful over a round the satisfaction of improvement is huge. I try not to carry if i can for courses with lots of walking. I want to invest in a trolley
I like thinking and blogging [1] about electronic circuits despite lack of formal education. It being a hobby, I must concede that my involvement and proficiency remain well below industry standard.
This looks like some creative effort, are you building lots of prototypes?
When I can, I tend to use the guitar as my equipment so I can get creative with my instrument; the amplifier.
And of course the soldering iron.
It took years but within a certain range of audio circuits including the relatively high-voltage vacuum tubes and associated components I worked with since childhood, I trained myself to design with the soldering iron until satisfaction has been achieved, then document later if at all.
Using surplus or scrap components which I might have unsoldered by hand before being able to recycle them, in advance of taking the risk with relatively expensive new components :)
You come up with all kinds of things when you concentrate on getting the most out of what you have an abundance of, even if it is far from perfect.
More complex things, I'll study drawings or make my own crude schematics for more than one session before accumulating specific parts and plugging in the soldering iron.
I had a lot of math & theory as a kid, which I've forgotten most of, but came out pretty good when you look at it and apply it like "tin/lead sculpture" ;)
No PCB lots of times so with point-to-point, more than one prototype per day was common, or for pedals I would make a PCB in the wet lab because it was more of a chem lab anyway.
I had scopes and test gear and it was all mainly needed for troubleshooting & repair, not design. A huge milestone was to go from components to defect-free operation, consistently the first time you plugged one in, using only a minimal DVM along the way. You can't expect connoisseur sound the first time at all, but as long as it works and nothing smokes you can go from there.
I have said before that you can't start building proficiency early enough, and it's never too late, especially for detailed traditional discrete analog component work.
Once we have kids we are now more involved with our kids. For better or for worse. We sacrifice time so our kids can have hobbies and extra curriculars. We work hard so we can afford it all. Violins aren't cheap.
- making music, making musical tools (soldering together pedals, making VCV rack modules etc.
- Longboarding
- Gaming (Minecraft, MiniGolf Games, and RoR2, mostly - all socially)
- Writing, mostly for my website ( opguides.info ) but the ocassional fiction story too
- Fursuitting and attending furry events
- Projects? Just like, generally making things. I'm always happiest when I have a few things in the works. It's usually one-off. Like, recently I did acrylic pour art. I'll probably never do it again, but it was fun.
I don't think hobbies are in decline. Anywhere I go, anything I do, it's packed with people, with a backlog of reservations that spans months. So I guess it's the "doom and gloom" of MSM.
As for me: programming, hiking, board games, reading, blogging, sports (martial arts / gym). And I'm trying to pick up some more.
Creative writing! I mainly do scifi & fantasy (I love combining my technical background with artsy stuff). I'm currently working on a silkpunk (Ancient China setting + retro-futuristic technology based on Ancient Chinese science) science fantasy multimedia webnovel. I'm in the middle of inventing my fictional computing system (tentatively named rune engines) that ties into the magic system. I think, for a lot of science fantasy, the creators tend to keep the science and magic quite separate (ex: the science and magic of Star Wars is pretty clearly distinct) and I'm trying to create a system that combines the both of them. It's been super fun to prod at the question "how would I approach this fantastical universe using the scientific method".
I've been thinking about getting into writing and I'm really not sure where to even start. Did you just dive in? Or did you take any courses, consume resources etc... to learn?
This is gonna sound super pretentious, but I genuinely don't remember a time in which I wasn't into creative writing, haha! I still have little scribbled pages from toddler-me's stories. Writing is just something I can't stop doing, and my brain will leak out of my ears if I don't get the ideas out of my head and onto (metaphorical) paper somehow
I have no formal training, but I've watched a lot of writing-related YouTube videos and read books on writing. For you, I recommend just opening a blank doc (digital or just normal paper) without thinking about all that. I think consuming a lot of writing instructional resources up front is pretty paralyzing and demotivating, because it's easy to overthink. A trap a lot of writers (including me! Been there, done that) fall into is thinking about writing instead of actually writing.
If you have any ideas at all you wanna explore, just don't overthink it and get some words out (without worrying about stuff like prose or characterization or anything else). When I was younger, I'd browse https://www.tumblr.com/writing-prompt-s a lot as they have really interesting ideas.
Hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions; I could write about writing all day.
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[1] https://blog.georgovassilis.com/category/electronics/
This looks like some creative effort, are you building lots of prototypes?
When I can, I tend to use the guitar as my equipment so I can get creative with my instrument; the amplifier.
And of course the soldering iron.
It took years but within a certain range of audio circuits including the relatively high-voltage vacuum tubes and associated components I worked with since childhood, I trained myself to design with the soldering iron until satisfaction has been achieved, then document later if at all.
Using surplus or scrap components which I might have unsoldered by hand before being able to recycle them, in advance of taking the risk with relatively expensive new components :)
You come up with all kinds of things when you concentrate on getting the most out of what you have an abundance of, even if it is far from perfect.
More complex things, I'll study drawings or make my own crude schematics for more than one session before accumulating specific parts and plugging in the soldering iron.
I had a lot of math & theory as a kid, which I've forgotten most of, but came out pretty good when you look at it and apply it like "tin/lead sculpture" ;)
No PCB lots of times so with point-to-point, more than one prototype per day was common, or for pedals I would make a PCB in the wet lab because it was more of a chem lab anyway.
I had scopes and test gear and it was all mainly needed for troubleshooting & repair, not design. A huge milestone was to go from components to defect-free operation, consistently the first time you plugged one in, using only a minimal DVM along the way. You can't expect connoisseur sound the first time at all, but as long as it works and nothing smokes you can go from there.
I have said before that you can't start building proficiency early enough, and it's never too late, especially for detailed traditional discrete analog component work.
Cooking is sort of my everyday hobby, climbing & skiing are my weekend/seasonal hobbies.
- Longboarding
- Gaming (Minecraft, MiniGolf Games, and RoR2, mostly - all socially)
- Writing, mostly for my website ( opguides.info ) but the ocassional fiction story too
- Fursuitting and attending furry events
- Projects? Just like, generally making things. I'm always happiest when I have a few things in the works. It's usually one-off. Like, recently I did acrylic pour art. I'll probably never do it again, but it was fun.
Coding.
Twitter. Facebook used to be here but I got suspended unfairly so I no longer use it.
Working out.
Watching movies, TV shows, Ufc. Used to watch Rap Battles, but my interest died.
Reading about drugs.
Listening to podcasts.
Edit: Writing too.
I'm increasingly thinking about mowing the yard and managing the garden. That's a hobby, right?
[0] e.g. http://bcmullins.github.io/research-from-1825/
As for me: programming, hiking, board games, reading, blogging, sports (martial arts / gym). And I'm trying to pick up some more.
I have no formal training, but I've watched a lot of writing-related YouTube videos and read books on writing. For you, I recommend just opening a blank doc (digital or just normal paper) without thinking about all that. I think consuming a lot of writing instructional resources up front is pretty paralyzing and demotivating, because it's easy to overthink. A trap a lot of writers (including me! Been there, done that) fall into is thinking about writing instead of actually writing.
If you have any ideas at all you wanna explore, just don't overthink it and get some words out (without worrying about stuff like prose or characterization or anything else). When I was younger, I'd browse https://www.tumblr.com/writing-prompt-s a lot as they have really interesting ideas.
Hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions; I could write about writing all day.