Share a Hobby?

[Amethyst]

I remember hot-desking in an office where the office manager had a whole collection of little bottles of sand, labeled "Some of a Beach from [name of beach place]."

Amethyst

OK, here's an odd hobby and cost me very little and takes almost no skill. Back in the late 70's, the DW and I were on vacation in Daytona Beach with another couple. I was drinking a Corona Light beer and admiring the white sand, among other things on the beach. When I finished the Corona, I filled it with some of the white beach sand and took it with me. The DW wouldn't let me take anything else from the beach. Anyway, I didn't know it then but that bottle of sand turned into a little hobby for me. Over the years, as I traveled around the country I started collecting the local beach or river bank sand and put it in Corona Light bottles (and put the cap back on). It made a nice inexpensive souvenir from the "visit". Also, it was a great excuse to have another beer! I wrote the name of the location and date on the bottom side of the bottle so I could keep track. Years ago, I told a few of my friends about this and they started doing it too. For those who don't drink beer you need to know that Corona Light beer bottles are clear. The older bottles are better since the labels were all in one color and didn't cover much of the bottle. I guess any clear bottle would do but I like beer too.

Now I have about 25 of them. Interesting to recall the visits and see all the different types of sand. From fine powder to very course gains, Sand colors range from bright white, to brown and even light red... Didn't take any real effort (I was there anyway) cost nothing (I was going to drink the beer anyway) and didn't take any skill. (except getting the bottle caps to stay on).

I started this long before Corona beer commercials on TV were set on the beach (I think). Maybe they should pay me for my collection?

 

[eytonxav]

Reloading straight-wall pistol cartridges is about the easiest reloading there is. And .38 Special is a great round to start with. The same die set will let you do those, plus your .357 Mag.

The one piece of advice I'd offer is to buy a carbide die set rather than the standard steel dies. The carbide die allows you to resize your cases without first lubricating them, a benefit you'll come to deeply appreciate.

+1 the other advice I'd give you is buy a Dillon press

 

[poorcarver]

I am a wood turner and a wood carver. Between that and the Boy Scouts and Freemasonry I keep busy.

 

[ERD50]

Hi Sarah,

One of the quick disadvantages of fountain pens is ...

In my view, 'disadvantage' isn't a word to be used with a hobby. Once someone says 'hobby' (myself included), all thoughts of efficiency, economy, rational thinking are thrown out the window. A hobby is something we do because we enjoy it. We don't have to be able to explain it, and it makes no difference if anyone else enjoys it, thinks we are nutty, or whatever. As long as you aren't taking food from your kids mouths to fund your hobby, anything goes, in my book.

With that in mind, I really can't understand any interest in fountain pens, other than as a hobby. But I'm always curious, so I watched one of those videos, and was surprised at the end, the owner of this pen company swapped out the nib, then tested it, and said 'excuse my poor handwriting'! So that even had me scratching my head - what's the point of a fine pen w/o fine penmanship?

Hmmm, OK. I've got a couple guitars that are far better guitars than I am a player. But a cheap guitar is hard to play... ok, now I'm rationalizing my hobby

-ERD50

 

[Revlefty]

I remember hot-desking in an office where the office manager had a whole collection of little bottles of sand, labeled "Some of a Beach from [name of beach place]." Amethyst

Those of us who collect sand are called "arenophiles." It comes from Greek -- lover of earth. I have 650 different samples from around the world. 150. Countries and all 50 states. Sand is not limited to beaches, but my collecting began on the beach in Cancun.

 

[redduck]

Now that I have more time, I decided to sign up for ESPN Pigskin Pick'em. You only need to pick the winners of the weekly football games. So, it's much, much less complicated than fantasy football. For someone who has never done this before, I find that I am quite good at it. Through week three I'm very close to being ranked in the top ten as I am currently ranked 105, 537.

 

[NanoSour]

My hobby is almost exclusively flight simulation. I'm constantly amazed at the advancement in the current simulators (both X-Plane and FSX) and the realism they portray. I can fly anything from a Cessna 172 around the Puget Sound, or a Boeing 777 from Dublin to Boston depending on my mood. It just keeps getting better and better. Here's a sample.

 

[Car-Guy]

Those of us who collect sand are called "arenophiles." It comes from Greek -- lover of earth. I have 650 different samples from around the world. 150. Countries and all 50 states. Sand is not limited to beaches, but my collecting began on the beach in Cancun.

That's a lot of sand and a lot of countries. I limited my collection to US beaches and river sand. I had thought about collecting sand on my international business travels but I was typical just too busy on those trips to stop by the local beach. (Work just got in the way sometimes)

Anyway, as I mentioned in my original post, I also like to drink Corona beer and then fill the "clear bottles" with the local sand. When I traveled internationally, I would drink the local beers and/or Tiger beer whenever it was available. (Work didn't get in the way that much). Tiger beer typically comes "dark bottles" which wouldn't display the sand very well.

Speaking of beer, I wish I could buy Tiger beer here in the US that's been brewed with the Asia/Pacific recipe. The Tiger beer that's sold here in the US must be brewed with a different recipe. It's just not the same.

 

[Rick_Head]

I don't do anything listed up-thread. I do:
- restore old British sports cars
- play competitive duplicate bridge

I think I'm fairly good at both. Anyone else do that?

 

[Walt34]

My hobby is almost exclusively flight simulation. I'm constantly amazed at the advancement in the current simulators (both X-Plane and FSX) and the realism they portray.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRWqQB15SN4

Y'know, I am actually afraid to try one of these after looking at the youtube video that you posted. You're right, the realism is amazing. I haven't used a flight simulator since I ran a few on my 386 PC with it's whopping 4MB of RAM and that was almost an addiction. Those, and a couple of other games like Doom. I started getting pains in my hand/wrist, an early warning of carpal tunnel syndrome, and deleted them. I've stayed away from flight simulators and shoot 'em up games since.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

Lots of hobbies. The main ones:

- Tournament chess

- Sailing

- Baking "artisan" breads and desserts

- Writing (mainly essay and creative nonfiction)

- Angel investing, entrepreneurial activities

- Day hiking

- Online courses

- Surfing

- Reading

Would love to get into woodworking in order to build small sailboats, canoes, and furniture. Have researched it but haven't taken many steps down the path. Just don't have the time!

I would also like to try out metalwork, EG making handcrafted armor and weapons, such as swords, likes, etc. I think that wold be really cool.

 

[braumeister]

I was happy to see all the reloaders here. I do that too, but am hardly an expert. I initially started doing it so I could make a bunch of light .38 Special loads for DW when she was getting started as a shooter. It was fun, so I kept at it for other calibers.

I have a friend who is a serious bench rest competitor, and the care he takes with his loads is simply amazing.

The only other hobby of mine that is even slightly unusual is fly tying. Again, I'm no expert but it's a great way to fill a winter evening.

 

[FIREd]

My hobby is almost exclusively flight simulation. I'm constantly amazed at the advancement in the current simulators (both X-Plane and FSX) and the realism they portray. I can fly anything from a Cessna 172 around the Puget Sound, or a Boeing 777 from Dublin to Boston depending on my mood. It just keeps getting better and better. Here's a sample.

Flight simulation is a hobby of mine too. I used to have a pretty sweet setup when we lived in a house and had room for it. FS9 has been my simulator of choice for the past 10 years.

 

[Car-Guy]

I was happy to see all the reloaders here. I do that too, but am hardly an expert. I initially started doing it so I could make a bunch of light .38 Special loads for DW when she was getting started as a shooter. It was fun, so I kept at it for other calibers.

I have a friend who is a serious bench rest competitor, and the care he takes with his loads is simply amazing.

The only other hobby of mine that is even slightly unusual is fly tying. Again, I'm no expert but it's a great way to fill a winter evening.

Maybe we (the reloaders here) should start a thread on reloading? I don't reload a lot of rifle ammo anymore (but I did back in the day). I would agree that you can really get into many more details reloading that stuff. I even reloaded shotgun shells for years when I did a lot of trap shooting and dove hunting. However, I do still reload a lot of handgun ammo. Mostly 38's, 357's, 44 Specials and 44 mags. Happy to discuss if anyone is interested.

 

[OBXretire]

Not retired 'til next July (sooner depending on the employer and next project) but I do have hobbies that I have just never found enough time to truly enjoy.

Kayaking, fishing, SUP, metal detecting (I live on the Outer Banks of NC) but it seems that the best day for any of those happen to be the day I'm at work. So, in retirement I'm looking forward to having my choice of day.

Over the last ten years I've been involved in dog sport training. I have two German Shepherds that I train in what was known as Schutzhund sport and now known as IPO.

https://www.pedigreedatabase.com/articles.html?s=what-is-schutzhund-and-ipo

I have obedience ratings on both (BH), and a Tr1 tracking title on one. In RE I'll have the time for a proper daily training regimen instead of the weekends.

 

[Sarah in SC]

OBX that is really cool about the dog training! One of my border collie fosters has been working in tracking a bit, and she and her owner love it! They also do fun stuff like dock diving, but the tracking has been super interesting for both of them.
I've seen local demos of shutshund type training and really was impressed. Hope you get to do more when you retire!


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[48Fire]

When my did retired he got into some goofy hobbies. I recall he was into making lights that he would make a lampshade from an upside down white plastic bin drilled full of holes and insert these colored plastic nubs that provided color when the light was on. There is still one hanging in the laundry room at my Mom's place. If I start doing that, please just shoot me.

haha that's funny!. pretty amazing what people do.

Worse though is my MIL who has no hobbies, doesn't read, or do anything really.

Golfing is my biggest hobby, although my wife is teaching me to fish

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

haha that's funny!. pretty amazing what people do.

Worse though is my MIL who has no hobbies, doesn't read, or do anything really.

Golfing is my biggest hobby, although my wife is teaching me to fish

I think I would prefer making lampshades to golfing!

 

[Meadbh]

My hobby is almost exclusively flight simulation. I'm constantly amazed at the advancement in the current simulators (both X-Plane and FSX) and the realism they portray. I can fly anything from a Cessna 172 around the Puget Sound, or a Boeing 777 from Dublin to Boston depending on my mood. It just keeps getting better and better. Here's a sample.

That is amazingly real! Such a smooth flight too! The credits at the end suggest you have a lot of equipment. If not for the entry costs, this is a hobby I might enjoy.

I had the original commercially available MS Flight Simulator (3.0?) way back, but without a joystick I crashed so many planes that I gave up on it.

 

[MRG]

Maybe we (the reloaders here) should start a thread on reloading? I don't reload a lot of rifle ammo anymore (but I did back in the day). I would agree that you can really get into many more details reloading that stuff. I even reloaded shotgun shells for years when I did a lot of trap shooting and dove hunting. However, I do still reload a lot of handgun ammo. Mostly 38's, 357's, 44 Specials and 44 mags. Happy to discuss if anyone is interested.

Check out 'TheHighRoad.org' or 'BrianEnos.com'. Enos is mostly competitive shooters. He used to, and still might offer free shipping on Dillion presses. The high road is very diverse in what folks are loading.

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[FIREd]

That is amazingly real! Such a smooth flight too! The credits at the end suggest you have a lot of equipment. If not for the entry costs, this is a hobby I might enjoy.

I had the original commercially available MS Flight Simulator (3.0?) way back, but without a joystick I crashed so many planes that I gave up on it.

At a minimum, I think you need a yoke, throttle, and pedals to really enjoy the game (mine are from Saitek). You also need a decent computer to run those simulators without hiccups, especially if you have a lot of add-ons.

 

[Meadbh]

At a minimum, I think you need a yoke, throttle, and pedals to really enjoy the game (mine are from Saitek). You also need a decent computer to run those simulators without hiccups, especially if you have a lot of add-ons.

Thanks! Where could one find a basic list of must-have specs?


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[Free To Canoe]

I know it's a joke but even though the stumps are dried out they are really heavy. Add the weight from the stakes, vise and hammers and they aren't going anywhere.



This is so much fun. You can make planters, troughs, leaf castings for stepping stones or birdbaths or jewelry, fountains. One drawback in our area is the weight of the Portland cement. It comes in 47 & 94 lb. bags but they only carry the 94 pounders. They weight almost as much as me and I have to struggle to move them. The bags of builders sand weight about 50 lbs. Helps keep me in shape.
These leaves are cement. I use them for necklace pendants. I paint them and some like these I seal in resin.

Neat stuff. Thanks for the info.

 

[FIREd]

Thanks! Where could one find a basic list of must-have specs?


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First you need to determine which simulator you want to run. I have tried both Microsoft Flight Simulator (on Windows systems) and X-Plane (on a Mac). I have a personal preference for Microsoft flight simulator.

Those are the minimum requirements for the last version of Microsoft flight simulator, FSX, which dates from 2006:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925724
and for the version I use, FS9 or FS2004:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823627/en-us

Here is the minimum required system for X-Plane:
http://www.x-plane.com/desktop/system-requirements/

However, if you plan to add a lot of add-ons, like custom airplanes or scenery, you definitely want to have a system that exceeds the minimum requirements.

 

[Meadbh]

Thank you! MS is no longer making Flight Simulator; I believe they sold it to a small company. It's interesting that the "best" flight simulator is still Windows based. I now have a MacBook Air and my old PC laptop has died. Unfortunately I can't justify buying a PC and all the trimmings for a hobby that might be short lived. At least, not until my car is paid off. But I will file this for future reference.


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