I'm wondering what everyone here does for fun outside of their writing? I enjoy computer programming and have since I was 10-12 years old. Now-a-days I guess I could classify it as my job since I do freelance work, but I still enjoy doing it in my free time so it's a hobby as well. I also play games a lot. Since I hope to make a career in the gaming industry I classify it as research. I've always loved games, and I don't see the love ever fading. It's a truly incredible medium, and to anyone here who doesn't partake, I recommend giving it a try. Especially with virtual reality around the corner, it's a great time for gaming. So, I ask again, what do you enjoy doing outside of your writing?
I love exploring. I also have more than a few science-like hobbies: I have a collection of rocks, shells, fossils and a few meteorites. I treasure hunt in thrift stores but that's on hold while I sell the clutter in my house on eBay. I have vowed not to step in a thrift store or go to a garage sale until I get the garage and den back.
Jesus Christ, Marie, they're minerals! (Breaking Bad reference) That's really cool, though. I've always thought about collecting crystals, but have no where to put them. Same thing with fossils. I also have an odd fascination with radioactive materials which you can buy online. I think people would look at me weird if I had a bunch of uranium in my house, though.
I think I have a piece of uranium in a vintage rock collection, the kind where a bunch of rocks are glued to the cardboard with names underneath. It's in a box around here somewhere. For fossils I found some dinosaur bones at a garage sale. I took them to the Burke Museum (U of WA) where they have artifact day once a year. One of the museum experts took me downstairs into to area closed to the public so he could get a better look at them under a microscope. They are hadrosaur bones, part of the jaw with teeth and some very large toe bones. They probably came from North Dakota.
I love playing guitar, singing, and writing songs. That's my main hobby, I guess. I also like collecting slide rules and other pre-electronic calculating instruments. Also, navigation instruments such as sextants, ship's compasses, old charts, and the like. Unfortunately, I have no more space at all in my house and I'm going through a rather inconvenient dip in my cash flow right now, so my collecting activities are on hold.
I collect baseball cards very passionately. I also play guitar and sing, but play the guitar loud enough so that people don't have to hear me sing. I love sports as well, especially soccer. Arsenal Football Club is my team.
You collect vintage rocks? Rocks that have been well-aged in oaken casks? Or do you just mean rocks that are old? As opposed to modern, newfangled rocks?
Outside of writing I'm not very exciting. Collection wise I hoard rubber duckies and old music boxes. I enjoy raiding antique stores and thrift shops for either, but I'm always on the lookout for a treasure. I dabble in photography, anything artsy really, and pinterest has left me under the severe (and false) delusion that I can DIY just about anything. Aside from those quirks, I breed goldfish and dream of creating my own breed. Someday. Yeah.... Now that I'm writing it, I'm kind of a weirdo....
I found a ship's compass. A neighbor had a free outdoor glass table by the street and I drug it home only to find out in the center was a ship's compass. It says, "U.S. Navy BU. Ships. Mark 1 [there's an N with a circle around it] 2421 1941 The Lionel Corporation N.Y." around the edge. I wish I knew which ship it was from. It's really heavy and it's about 10 inches in diameter. The compass moves freely inside brass and cast iron casing with a glass face on top.
I mean a vintage rock collection a kid before me owned, the commercial kind one would buy a kid with the rocks already collected. This isn't it, but this one has pitchblende which is what uranium ore was called in these old collections:
I'd love to play the guitar, but my hand-eye coordination leads me to believe I would be horrible at it. I try playing piano because I have one, but I can't get both hands to do separate things at a respectable pace. This leaves me playing songs that you'd expect a 6 year-old in piano lessons to accomplish. Absolutely love baseball. I Became very ill at 14 which halted my ability to actually play, so now I live vicariously through the pros. Losing the ability to play baseball right before high school was one of the more depressing moments in my life so far. We're all a little weird, aren't we? I feel like collecting rubber ducks is fairly common, but I could easily be wrong. And music boxes can be kind of creepy, but they're cool, nonetheless. My grandparents have a few around their house. I would love to travel and photograph the amazing landscapes and locations the world has to offer. It's one of many things on my bucket list. Crossbreed a goldfish with some form of tiger fish, thus creating a Golden Tiger Fish. That sounds pretty awesome.
Writing is my number one hobby, but in addition to that I enjoy all kinds of sports. There are the ones I do regularly, like boxing, free running, and gym, but I also like to try out new things (this spring e.g. scuba driving and fencing, and this summer's project is gymnastics). I also go to the horse stables one or twice a week, sometimes to ride, sometimes to just do stable work and tend to the horses. With my hubby, we go to the shooting range every now and then as well. So yeah, I like keeping active. I get fidgety if I don't work out every day. I must be super non-exciting myself 'cause I think breeding goldfish and collecting rubber ducks sound sufficiently outlandish. I've never had either... or a bath tub, for that matter. I don't even know anyone with a tub.
I'm an Antiquarian, and collect old books. I have a few dating from around the middle of the 1800s, or 1900-1910. I also like to collect replicas of art I like - I have a print of a few Van Gogh's on my bedroom wall. I also enjoy learning languages. I also play guitar, but not so much now. And occasionally I play video games, though to show how little I play them I'm still obsessed with Skyrim on the Xbox 360. And drinking myself into an early grave. That's a fine English hobby.
I play drums and guitar. I also enjoy cooking. I find it's very helpful to have creative interests other than writing. That way, if you need to get away fro writing for a while, your creative impulses don't have to suffer.
I'm curious. What does this mean in practice? How do you mean they suffer? They're left unused at that given moment 'cause you don't have any other creative interests, or..? 'Cause I also like to draw and play a bit of guitar, but if I get a creative impulse, it's usually a specific one, like "I wanna draw, now!" And if I can't, I haven't noticed that impulse could be "used" e.g. to writing.
@KaTrian I think I know what EdFromNY is saying. Personally I've had "creative slumps" where I don't apply myself at all. This has been from being unsatisfied with my work--writing, drawing, crafting, etc--or simply not feeling inspired and taking a break from arts. When I get flustered with one art form, I tend to jump to another. If my writing muse takes an unscheduled vacation, I switch to another medium. Go on pintrest for a few (hours), raid the DIY section, and find something new. More recently, I bought a few terra cotta pots, painted them up with Ghibli characters, and started a little herb garden. After that I made a cardboard playhouse for my niece's upcoming birthday. Went thrifting, found some cute(ish) clothes, took them home and modified them to my tastes. As long as I'm doing something creative, no matter the medium, I feel like I can keep the creative juices flowing, and I find it easier to take that creativity and channel it to other things. I suppose it boils down to not letting your talent stagnate. At least that's how I see it. Just my two cents.
You would hate being pregnant... totally immobilises you Is it just Helsinki due to lack of space or do Finns in general only shower? I've noticed recently in Hong Kong it seems to be the norm to not have a shower unit or tub - they just have a shower head and boiler attached to the wall When I lived there as a kid we had a tub with shower - makes me wonder if by HK standards we actually had a pretty big flat, even though it was only 2 bedrooms... Anyway to the question! I enjoy origami - have been doing it since the age of 9 I go through phases. I'll spend a week or two watching origami tutorials and making stuff and memorising all the folds and then I'll leave it for months and months. I also make polymer clay ornaments/jewellery. I've abandoned drawing for a good 7 years but recently drew a tiger for my husband's birthday It's pretty good, I think, and makes me wonder where I could be now if only I'd spent the past 7 years developing that rather than writing... I've often wondered about opening some Etsy shop with polymer clay stuff and/or selling prints of my drawings, but always lacked the dedication lol. I've dabbled in other things too that I'm not terribly good at or know much about, but the outcome is usually presentable - beading, needle-felting, ceramics, and I tried and kept forgetting how to crochet lol. Basically anyting artsy is up my alley I also sing, and sometimes enjoy baking cakes cus I love desserts. Growing up I used to sing while my sister would play the guitar or piano. Oh and reading! How could I forget reading? lol
I find that if I'm stuck on something I'm writing, or just dissatisfied with it, working on some other piece of writing doesn't always help me, because as soon as I'm facing that screen again, I'm obsessing over whatever the problem is that I'm trying to forget for a while. Doing something else allows me to feel creative while at the same time giving me a break from writing. YMMV.
Nah, not a question space; there has to be space for a sauna, after all, and they take more space But I don't know why tubs have declined since the '60s or thereabouts. There's the shower (and often the sauna), and that's about it. I've always disliked tubs. I don't like the idea of floating in my own dirt and the hole at the bottom (whatever it's called) creeps me out. I don't like showering in them either.
So having a sauna is the norm in Finland? Interesting! I don't like saunas though - makes me feel like I can't breathe A nice hot bath is sooo nice though, esp when you're exhausted with aching muscles. (and yeah I remember your fear of the drain from some other thread on here!)
I'm also a frequent practitioner of origami. It's probably my primary hobby besides video games; I always come back to it. For whatever reason, folding paper is incredibly relaxing to me, and after hours of folding an intricate model, your time has been well spent.
You made that? Awesome!! Mine are not so elaborate. I'm kinda at intermediate level - so roses and snowflakes and I can follow slightly more complex models. But that one you made with all those layers... phew I can cope with it, but it takes so long I often do it once and then forget about it lol. I feel obliged to share now An origami piece and a polymer clay pendant
I collect things. Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I worked at an antiques auction house. The desire to collect things from the past has never left me. I once collected and refurbished vintage fountain pens from the turn of the 20th century up through the 1950's. I have hundreds and hundred. I now collect vintage Science Fiction paperback novels from the 50's and 60's, mainly for their cover artwork. I try to get ones in fine to very fine condition, unread, and keep them sealed in plastic for posterity. You'll see me post my latest finds from time to time in the Taverns Member Picture Gallery. I even have a super nerdy facebook page for my book collecting, if anyone wants to give it a "like". https://www.facebook.com/AceDoublesSciFi?ref=hl
