You forgot this part:
- Steven Wright
Joey, I’ve been meaning to mention this. I saw some kids trying to pilfer some stuff from your collection last August. Don’t worry, I chased them off. But if they come back, you’ll have to handle it yourself - according to the lifeguard, I’m not allowed on the beach anymore.
I collect windup toys in a small way. Almost all of mine are plastic non-antiques. My best one is a 9.5" tall Bender robot with a shiny metal ass. I like windup toys because they don’t need batteries.
I play hacky sack, also known as footbag.
I play poker, golf and softball. I teach baseball and softball to kids and coaches at schools around the southeast. I’ve pretty much raised my kids (must have been a hobby, sure as hell didn’t get paid for it!), next will be grandkids (one due next spring). I like DIY, both around the house and on my cars. I would like to say playing banjo is a hobby, but honestly I haven’t put any time into that for years.
I’ve had numerous debates with people over the semantics of what is considered a “hobby”. IMHO a “hobby” requires a significant amount of time (almost to compulsive levels) collecting, trading, analyzing and discussing the minutiae of some eclectic (almost pointless) topic (wine, stamps, Star Wars action figures, etc), so I suppose I don’t really have any. At best I have various “interests” and “activities” I do regularly.
My two main forever hobbies are illustrating and playing video games. (I don’t mean I illustrate video games, I just mean I like to draw and I also like to play video games). I fall in and out of things like baking, knitting, and cross-stitch. My latest foray into a new hobby has been collecting figures of characters I like, now that I have the money.
Given opportunity, time, and money, I would gladly get into a dozen different craft-type hobbies if not controlled. And I should be controlled, because you can’t do that many hobbies consistently and without making tons of clutter.
I walk for an hour a day, which I enjoy. I knit. I piece quilt tops, and do little crafty sewing projects. I read.
Probably what qualifies by msmith’s standards is writing adventure-fantasy novels. I think my husband would agree that I’m near-obsessive about that.
This.
Also, I’ll try to salvage parts off of things that have to be thrown away to try to make something useful from them.
I’ve given my hobbies a break recently. In the past I’ve been into Ham Radio, Rocketry, R/C aircraft, and electronics tinkering. I do still geocache some though. Maybe when I retire in a few more years I’ll cycle through them again.
I have often heard the phrase that people sometimes take their hobbies beyond the hobby stage into a full blown obsesion. How could you differentiate between a hobby and an obsession. Too much money, too much time, relationships suffer, career suffers, personnal hygiene suffers etc. I think addiction would be a fair term.
I throw pottery and act in local theatre.
If this is correct (and I’m not disputing it) then I have no hobbies. I enjoy boating, which is probably the only “activity” I do besides exercise, yardwork, and real work.
Golf
Playing drums in our garage band
Philately (although I do not collect stamps, I collect covers i.e. the envelopes that carried the mail).
Hockey (but no longer as a player)
Hmm. I certainly qualify when it comes to guitar, both playing and geeking out about specific gear, in my case old acoustics and electrics. Don’t know if they are eclectic and pointless, but playing them is fun, and geeking out both scratches my geek itch and helps me get better tools to use when I play.
Deer hunting, photography and watching old movies.
Not sure playing tennis is a hobby, but outside of work and sleep, it’s what I do the most. I play usually three-four times a week. I am on various teams throughout the year and much of my social life revolves around friendships made through tennis.
I homebrew on occasion; somewhat frequently before the birth of my first son, but extremely infrequently since.
My wife and I garden too- vegetables, herbs and berries. Neither of us has really got much motivation to put that kind of effort in for strictly ornamental reasons.
I also am something of a food hobbyist; I tend to like to cure, pickle, smoke and ferment things at home. I’ve made pickles, sausages, hams, bacon, corned beef, etc…
One of these days I’m going to do dry-cured sausages and make my own fermented pickles, but I haven’t got around to it just yet. I also want to make my own hot sauce - I have the book, just haven’t grown the peppers yet.
I tend to try and combine the hobbies when I can; growing my own hot-sauce peppers is an example, as is growing the herbs and veggies I pickle/ferment. Eventually I’m going to try and grow my own hops and brew with those.
I have a very modest collection of fountain pens, including three that I keep on me pretty much at all times. I enjoy reading about pens, and dicking around with calligraphy. (“Hobby” implies a certain degree of competence, “farting around” is a much better descriptor of my level). I also like to watch calligraphy videos on YouTube. Dorky as hell, I know, but remarkably soothing.
Oh, and I also enjoy arguing with strangers on the internet. And correcting their grammar.
For me it’s always been a remarkably complicated and difficult question. There’s interests that tend to ebb and flow (or disappear completely). I don’t have a collector urge. I rarely meet the level of commitment of self labeled hobbyists in any one area. There’s themes that stick with me for long periods but they can morph or cross hobbies. I tend to be more a generalist with wandering attention.
Hobbies? I’d have to say none.
Well, it gets you out of the house.