Weird assed hobbies.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, what sort of weird assed stuff do you do, or have as a hobby?

Me?

Well, several, really.

But, as an example, I have the flags of all the nations of the world. In fact, I have them with me, most of the time. If not, then they are in my car. Only small ones, of course (Would have to be; my car isn’t big enough for all the full sized ones.) made of paper, on small bamboo skewers for flagpoles.

And they are quite accurate, by the way, including such things as the new Afghan flag, with the changes from the old monarchy flag from which the current was taken. And with the approved reverse for the Saudi flag, rather than just a mirror image. (Don’t want the words to be backwards, or the sword to be pointing in the wrong direction, you know.)

I even have a few non nations, like Hong Kong, or Macao, Puerto Rico, and such. There are about two hundred of them.

I generally give them to people I meet who are from other countries. It’s fun. Although I have learned that some folks don’t want the flag of the country they left. Kurds who came to the US are really not interested in an Iraqi flag. I haven’t been able to find a flag for Kurdistan. I have the old South Vietnam flag, and have found that most Vietnamese immigrants I meet prefer it to the current flag of Vietnam.

Of course I have learned to keep more than one of some flags, since there are a lot of immigrants from specific countries in my area. Peru, El Salvador, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Korea, India, and Guatemala seem to be the most represented. So, I generally have two or three of those. I replace the ones I give away in a day. Still, I run out pretty often, because people tend to associate in groups on the basis of homeland.

US flags, too, of course. I go through a lot of those.

Tris.

2

I do two things as hobbies that people consider wierd:

  1. Live Action Foam Fighting

  2. I collect signs and advertising posters, preferably from foreign countries, but a bunch from the US as well. And never reproductions. I’ve got street signs, signs for buildings, a sign for a biohazard lab, signs for political candidates, and tons more. Mainly they hang in the room where my pool table is, and many more in my office.

I also shoot pool, but that’s not weird.

3

http://www.metrodemontreal.com

4

I’m a fairly manly man (at least, I like to think so), work in construction, currently living down a “wild” reputation from my past… All this in order to set up the “weirdassness” of my hobby:

I collect stuffed animals.

New, old, valuable, cheap, realistic, stylized, whatever… I just can’t resist it!

My fave is an anthropormorphized tiger wearing a Nikon t-shirt. His name is: PhoTigerfer

Yeah, I’m sick, I know. But, I’ve been this way for a while. My friends even support this habbit for me. They bring me stuffies from vacation spots, get me 25 cent ones at garage sales…

I also chase planetary conjunctions, lunar eclipses, occultations, and other sky things and do astrophotography on them. Mmmm…, astrophotography.

(I’m waiting for Lieu to see the word “ass” in the thread title. Should be good.)

5

I collect plastic models (mostly aircraft) but be damned if I actually build the things. I probably have a few hundred of them now. My wife threatens me that “she’ll clean up the basement” from time to time… that almost keeps me in check for a week or two.

Not really a hobby, but more of a habbit: When I see something kind of neat or odd (or just a plain good deal) I try to always buy at least two. Why? I dunno. I usually don’t even end up using 1, let alone 2. I spend a lot of money that way.

6

I do Geocaching. I don’t think it’s weird, but most people I’ve mentioned it to do not see the point in it.

7

1.) I’m obsessed with armour, and spend much time making it, studying it, learning more about it.

2.) I beat up my best friends with big sticks, all the while trying not to be beat up myself.

3.) I collect…dolls! I have tons of McFarlane action figures, and several “Living Dead Dolls”. Basically, if its strange, creepy, and toy-like, I collect it.

8

I letterbox, which is akin to geocaching. I don’t think it is weird until I explain it to someone and they give me the “poor geek” look.

9

Like Woeg (I assume), I am a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

I collect and use tarot cards.

I read books for fun. According to many of my students, that’s one heck of a strange hobby.

10

You assume correctly, FisherQueen! Vivat!

11

Well, once a month of more I dress as an old west cowboy and take an alias, Morgan Randall, and get together with about 150 others and see how fast we can shoot steel plates.

12

Legomancer, what is geocaching? I’m a geologist and want to make sure I’m not missing out on something. Is this akin to a rock collection?

13

Nope. Check it out here.

14

Weird asses are my hobby, my friend. Just so you know.

15

Legpmancer OMG!!! I have had a GPS for over a year and I can not believe this exists. Geocaching looks like sooo much fun!! I’m off to start a thread on it in GQ’s because I have tons of Q’s about it!!

16

bernse, me too. Mostly model cars, something like 1600 of them last time I checked. Actually, I combine both of your quirks, since I tend to buy more than one of model kits I like (one to customize, and one to keep, and one for that '48 Studebaker project I intend to get to someday–you can see how that could get out of control pretty quickly ;)).

My completion rate is about four a year, so I’ve got raw material for about 400 years…

17

That does look cool. You ought to start a thread and describe some of your experiences.

18

Weird depends on your audience. I suppose my hobbies might be weird outside the people I know, who don’t seem to notice.

Board games, especially german ones.

Star Wars figure collecting (along with a few non-Star Wars lines)

Improv comedy.

Acting. (The latter two I haven’t done in a while, but I miss terribly)

Cross-stitch. (not usually weird, but unusual for a guy.)

19

Here’s my site on it:

http://www.legomancer.net/geocaching/

20

I’m one of those weirdos you see in the hobby shop inspecting all the new fantasy miniatures, often making little noises of excitement when he sees a mini that would be really REALLY cool to paint. I’ve probably painted a couple hundred fantasy minis; I’d do Warhammer 40K minis if they weren’t so darn expensive.