Hobbies/interests you have that keep awful company?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’m a poker dealer at a dog track. I hate those players too.

I despise playing poker, or talking about poker,or watching poker on television,but I love dealing it.

I don’t gamble at all.

I live on the internet (no,I said I don’t play poker!) and love boardgames. I’ve recently joined a local board gaming group that has a couple of grade A geeks, but they aren’t as odd as the folks at the X-Files conv. I went to years ago. Yes,you read right, I am a girl and I love games. My husband doesn’t play board games. I’m a chatty cathy at work,but love peace and quiet. I am an avid reader. I like learning about odd things. (Thanks SDMB!)

In the world I work in this makes me a grade A freak. I can’t remember the last time I had a real conversation with someone at work.

22

Yes, nearly forgot that one!
I sew as well, but the thought of sewing paper makes my pillows and curtains shudder.

And don’t get me started on the staple craze…

23

SMDB. Yep. All y’all.

Trying to explain to *others * (read: my parents) the level of connection that I feel to an internet message board and the faceless minions who there abide… Everyone thinks I’m nuts.

But I love you guys!

24

Motorcycling.

Most other bikers out there assume that the fact that you’re riding a cruiser means you’re a rabid libertarian who hates Hillary Clinton with a passion. Bikers also spend a lot of time talking about how ‘riding shows that they’re independant’ which is hilarious since bikers depend on every other driver on the road not to hit us.

Shortly after I bought my first bike, I was in a group of bikers when someone mentioned that I could easily remove the baffles from my exhaust. My response of “Why in the world would I want to do that?” stopped all conversation, while everyone turned and stared. One of them slowly explained, as if he was talking to a child or a mentally deficient person “So it can be louder.” My response “I think it’s loud enough, I’d rather make it quieter!” caused jaws to drop.

I further believe that almost all motorcycle fatalities result from the biker culture’s determination to ride as dangerously as humanly possible. When I got sick of being repeatedly told I rode too defensively, I gave up hanging out with other bikers.

25

I think all of my hobbies fall into this category.

Video games - console and PC, including World of Warcraft. When I play WoW, I turn off all the chat channels because the idiocy in there makes me crazy.

Roleplaying - table top and live action. I play in one live action game and help run another, and I’m playing in one tabletop game (down to one for the first time in YEARS.) I’ve also helped run a weekend-long LARP at a roleplaying convention, and will likely do so again next May.

I would say knitting, but the stereotype of “knitter” as “60-year-old grandma knitting gawdawful itchy sweaters for her grandkids” is wildly untrue anymore. The vast majority of the knitters that I know (95% of them I met through knitblogging) are young, stylish, modern, and funny as hell. Knitting is actually the hobby that has introduced me to the friends I love most. Go figure.

26

I love sailing but yacht clubs are just not for me. I learned to sail through a Girl Scout program and was very active in that for years – donated equipment, volunteers, state park lake and camping. I moved away from that area and am in no position to own my own boat, so I need to bum rides and crew if I want to get out on the water. Luckily it always seems like there are a handful of others around a club that just love sailing enough to almost tolerate the exclusivity and pretentiousness, but I’d really love to find a different way to get out and sail.

27

I used to be a furry.
Please don’t spit on me.

28

I collect, display and actually dress up (in vintage clothing) old Barbie dolls. I sell some. I keep the ones I like or whichever remind me of my childhood dolls. I style their hair. I talk to other collectors, and have loads of media and books about vintage Barbie. My sons think I am a very strange person for doing this at my age.

I’ve also attended, with my best gay friend and his mother, a “Dark Shadows” convention. Only one. In 1997. It was unbelievably great however and I will treasure the memories of that trip forever. I never went so far as to write fanfic about this old TV show, but I did contribute to a planned website which was to present in-depth synopses of each episode of the show, including the ones from the series beginning in 1966. The website never came about, however I enjoyed the challenge of writing the articles and I kind of miss it to this day. When I think about it, which actually is pretty seldom.

Wish I did something normal like knitting or sailing…Spoons, are you sure you are not living in Michigan right now? I have a good pal from late college days who could be you! He’s a horseplayer from way back…

–Beck

29

Count me in as another “all of my hobbies have heaps of socio-baggage.”

Comic Books - I absolutely adore the medium of comics and the multitude of genres and forms and modes that appear in it. I read everything from collected 1920’s serial strips to fan-translated japanese manga to traditional american spandex-clad superhero books to artsy-fartsy indie comics - whatever - I love it all. Yet the community is predominantly made up of super-stereotypical comic nerds, complete with all of the social issues and irritations. But worse than anything is how divided the different camps are; the superhero geeks would never ever pick up an issue of Love and Rockets though they’ll indiscriminately buy new X-men miniseries, while the Daniel Clowes fans would never pick up the amazing Ozu-esque first six issues of the recent Wolverine series.

Video Games - I’m an avid, intensive gamer. I usually own every system on the market at any given moment, know the release dates of titles I’m looking forward to, read a multitude of gaming news sources, like to talk about them, follow the industry, etc. But, well, previous posters have covered how 99.9% of gamers out there are, and it’s true.

by extension -

Paper and Pencil RPG’s - I absolutely love traditional RPG’s - I’ve loved them since I was a kid. I love the getting together, the fun social atmosphere, the intense concentration and dice rolls and all of it. However, this love is only outmatched by how weird, creepy, and irritating 99.999999% of other paper and pencil RPG players are. More than anything, what kills me is just that goofball nerd humor; any time - and I mean any time I’ve tried to get together with any groups in the past 20 years - it always devolves into a nerdo joke fest with honking nose laughs, quotes from Monty Python (or more likely “Family Guy”), and Linux jokes. I’d love nothing more than to meet a group that takes the game seriously. Although, I do think that the whole MMORPG trend has sort of skimmed off the most offensive layer of these guys, leaving the more dedicated and die-hard for the paper and pencil set, so maybe we’ll see a renaissance.

and finally, a more rare one -

Synthesizers - I’m really, really into synthesizers. I’ve spent most of my disposeable income on vintage pieces and modern innovative synths. I build synths and modules in my spare time. But all guys into synths are either middle age prog nerds who play in Yes cover bands on weekends and only care about re-creating that classic Rick Wakeman lead patch, or younger techno guys that only care about making dance music and could give a crap about the history and future of synthesizers and synthesis. Yuck.

30

Have you seen that magazine by Vogue, Knit.1? Talk about some funky knitting designs! (targeted for 18-35 year-olds–so funky you need to be of age!)

31

What if the awful company is what draws you to the interest in the first place? I think half the fun of Harry Potter fandom is the nutters marrying Snape on the astral plane and writing bad snuff porn about Hagrid and the Giant Squid. Heck, it may even be three-quarters of the fun!

Ah, fandom. Never change.

32

I’ll put my atheism in with these.

I’m an atheist and have been for over ten years. I joined a couple of atheist clubs and hung out on a few atheist messageboards and chatrooms, but I didn’t stay in them for very long.

Maybe I encountered too many Marxists slouching around the meetings. Maybe I spoke with too many “hard” atheists who were as dogmatic and priggish as any Cardinal in Rome. Maybe I witnessed one too many flames of people who refused to take the atheists’ stand, even when the point was indefensibly absurd. Even today, some of the glurge posted by atheists on the net makes me want to puke, and quite frankly, I prefer the company of born-again Christians to that of people who identify primarily with their atheism. They’re far too defensive and humorless for me, and some of them are damned downright insane.

33

I play Magic the Gathering. I have for over 10 years, and I love the game. But the majority of magic players I’ve encountered are not people I would otherwise voluntarily spend time with. Luckily, the local players in Santa Barbara are not as bad as in some places I’ve lived, but so many players are just complete jerks (aside from the minority that are unwashed and completely socially inept).

I play reasonably competitively, but it’s still a game. You’re supposed to have fun. And every once in a while I just have a very bad experience and wonder if it’s worth it to keep playing, like that kid who was so full of trash talk at the start of the match, but dissolved into a sobbing, accusatory mess when he lost. It was like watching someone grow up into an asshole.

34

Hell, I was a con chair once. But then, I’m at the top of the Geek Hierarchy.

But I’ve rarely met a fan at a con who wasn’t a perfectly nice and intelligent person, with wide-ranging interests outside SF. There were a few weirdos, but very few.

And I hung out with the writers, anyway.

35

I have a new one for the thread.

Custom Action Figures. Not only do I collect action figures… I chop them up, paint them, and resculpt them.

I’ve been a customizer for a decade now I’ve done, super heroes, wrestlers, fantasy, Star Wars, GI JOE and now video game figures.

For the most part we are an affable nerdy lot.
We constantly surprise eachother with our MacGuyver like solutions to customizing problems.
There is however a wicked conservative streak in the base that I’m uncomfortable with.

36

I used to show my dogs. No, really. Best in Show is true. I only ever showed in my home town (pop 100K), only for fun, and only for six months or so - and in that time, I never met a single human being whom I liked.

Some nice dogs, though.

37

I’m a big fan of the Lord of the Rings and the whole mythos Tolkien created. Yeah, I’m sure you can imagine some of the freaks who take it too far, like claiming they are channeling a dead hobbit or something. Not that I’ve met any, only heard about it on the internet.

Hmm, I’m also on livejournal. I swear I am 50% less whiny than most of the other LJ people. Plus I also post to message boards. Now there’s a bunch of antisocial weirdos. :wink:

38

Well I got your usual sci-fi and comic books thing going. And I do like fetishwear - that attracts some odd types. I also like Firefly, and have found many of the fans I met to be extremely dorky and cliquish. But the worst, by far, are my fellow Dune fans.

I love Dune. I love to talk about Dune. But I’ve been totally disgusted by nearly every single Dune board out there. What a bunch of assholes. I suspect they are all 14 year old boys, because that’s about the level of maturity that’s going on. I’ll just take my Dune books and read them over here. By myself.

39

Never been to the dogs, but always wanted to. Dog racing is illegal in Canada, for betting purposes anyway, and the charity races that occur from time to time aren’t in proper venues.

Any time I’ve been to a jurisdiction that allows dog racing–such as Florida–I’ve never been able to go. Love to try it though.

No, not living in Michigan, but I have passed through the state once or twice. But you’re right, I think; it’s one of those things that you have to cultivate from “way back,” from before the days when government-run lotteries became popular and casinos began popping up in every jurisdiction, making racing pretty much the only legal gambling opportunity in many jurisdictions.

It’s not that solely the gambling aspect that attracts me, since I find that being able to understand what is in all those charts and numbers in the Daily Racing Form is equally as compelling. Heck, I can spend a whole Saturday afternoon with the DRF, happily handicapping Sunday’s card, and comparing my selections with the results that occur the next day. My selections are usually good, though let’s just say that there is room for improvement. Anyway, making selections (and playing them as time and funds permit) is a pleasant enough hobby, and an innocent pastime, really.

Still, it’s the gambling aspect that attracts the undesirable elements, I guess, and if I’m going to enjoy it as I do, then I’ll have to be prepared for the drunks, the touts, and the degenerates when I go to the track. I’ll also have to be prepared to lumped in with them even if I just express an interest in racing.

I’ve digressed a bit, but your friend may well be the same way. If he is, he’s still not me–but I’m sure we’d have a blast if we were to sit down and swap stories aout our adventures at the racetrack! :smiley:

40

Not a hobby, but I like Rocky Horror Picture Show, as a movie. I pop the DVD in once a year or so.

I’ve never gone to see it in a theater.