Do you have any odd or nerdy hobbies?

DLacy · Dec 20, 2013

I do, and I can't just pursue one thing, so I have to divide my time (and money) between them.

My nerdy hobby list includes:
Doctor Who
pc gaming
reading the occasional manga or comic book
watching anime
listening to k-pop
oogling asian ball-jointed dolls
I also used to do RPG

How about you?

Xelebes · Dec 20, 2013

I build databases with fictional data. It's better than actually playing NHL14.

Pushingfordream · Dec 20, 2013

I like maintaining fish tanks. (though I haven't done it in awhile)

ZachJPayne · Dec 21, 2013

Sometimes, when I'm really bored, I'll crack open Finale and transcribe some pop songs from PDF. I don't know why the hell I do it, as I'm not a very good vocalist or anything (though I enjoy singing!), and most of these songs are so far out of my singing ability, it's pathetically funny.

I also love Doctor Who, Bones, Glee, Agents of Shield; and I may have a fixation with Judge Judy, who I share a birthday with (just the day, not the year

)

Caitlin Black · Dec 21, 2013

Past nerdy hobby: Warhammer 40k tabletop wargaming.

Lately, I've been wanting to learn how to build PCs. I think when money allows, I'm going to give that a good attempt. I don't really have hobbies right now. Not had much spare cash till recently.

DeadCities · Dec 21, 2013

I don't know if it's odd or nerdy, but Diablo 3 has taken over my life lately.

I used to make AMV's (anime music videos) and just recently I've begun investing in a serious book collection (by serious, I mean "more than I could possibly read in 3 lifetimes") but I think most people here share in that. I'm also a huge Game of thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire geek, I mean, I can spew the most meaningless trivia of any minor character you could name.

Scribbler214 · Dec 21, 2013

Oh wow...Well I used to play WoW from Vanilla all the way through to Wrath of the Lich King. I was an endgamer, but got tired of the constant reskinning of monsters for expansions packs.

I write for a nerd online zine: Searching For Superwomen - Geek Girls Getting Loud

I mostly do the fandoms. I'm a huge Supernatural fan, as well as Once Upon a Time and OUaT in Wonderland, Sleepy Hollow, Being Human, Lost Girl, Bitten by Kelley Armstrong is also about to be a TV series, Agents of SHIELD -

Oh that reminds me, I also love comics. I used to only read the dark ones such as Lenore the Dead Girl, but recently I've gotten into the new Hawkeye, Young Avengers, and X23 which chronicles the birth and life of Wolverine's daughter via cloning his DNA.

I love Archery - and this was before Katniss was even known. Though I haven't used my bow in about two years.

I also liked text based RPG on forums, mostly original fantasy or SPN fandom.

Annnd I think that's enough geekery from me.

regdog · Dec 21, 2013

Transformers, Star Wars, Lord of Rings are more than hobbies for me and they don't make me nerdy, they're what make me cool.

DGamelan · Dec 21, 2013

I like costuming, both historical and fantasy. I've begun my fifth costume and am just as excited for it as I am my previous ones.

Something I love doing is teaching myself to do things. HTML & CSS, PHP, knitting, nålbinding, sewing, pattern drafting, and so on. I try to keep up on practicing German. I also like to create art, but I haven't anything portfolio-worthy at the moment. I love stories with a lot of symbolism and the series/character essays that naturally come out of it. On top of everything I am a huge mythology nerd and love stories about gods (I sob while playing Okami every time).

Maggie Maxwell · Dec 21, 2013

Xelebes said:
I build databases with fictional data. It's better than actually playing NHL14.

I've built databases to track all the videogames I have. It puts the FUN in functional. :tongue

I enjoy web and database design/coding, reading comics (web or book) and almost anything Marvel related, video games, playing tabletop RPGs (pathfinder and D&D), and I'd love to get into cosplay but have no known skills for making anything at the moment.

Chase · Dec 21, 2013

We collect a regularly enjoy old black & white mystery movies with subtitles: The Thin Man, Charlie Chan, Nancy Drew, Perry Mason, Mr. and Mrs. North, Mr. Moto, This Gun for Hire, oh so many more.

More anti-nerd, we collect and refurbish old oil lamps and light them during power outages so our neighbors come and ask why we're lit up like Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Ken · Dec 21, 2013

... mutilated coins. Whenever I get one that is mucked up or bent or really grimy I save it. Got about two dozen all told.

Wicked · Dec 21, 2013

I raise tarantulas.

Chase · Dec 21, 2013

Wicked said:
I raise tarantulas.

You probably root for the spiders in old B&W horror flicks, Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Wicked · Dec 21, 2013

Chase said:
You probably root for the spiders in old B&W horror flicks, Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Doesn't everybody root for the underdog?

Ona Mission · Dec 21, 2013

I collect medieval weapons. OK, stop looking at me like that. I don't dress up and go to the battles or anything like that. But I love the weapons themselves. I've been dying to get a studded mace, but they're illegal here. Who'da thunk?

Siri Kirpal · Dec 21, 2013

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Spider Solitaire
Sudoku
And the really weird one: looking at house plans (no I'm not planning on building)

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Brightdreamer · Dec 21, 2013

Writing's about the only hobby I can afford right now... That and reading.

I've also been known to:
- Draw
- Make things out of Paperclay or other reasonably cheap sculpting media
- Play computer games
- Collect dragons and griffins
- "Play" the pennywhistle (what I do can hardly be called music proper...)
- Toying with websites
- Take pictures of things (again, what I do can hardly be called photography proper...)

DLacy · Dec 21, 2013

Loving you guys' hobbies and the variety! Regdog, you're right. They do make us pretty cool.

I knew, when I posted this thread, that I'd get some other gamer, Rper, comic-book reading people, but there'd also be the eclectic historic costume and weapon appreciators (I love old swords and daggers), the tech-savvy and the nature-loving. We are a really diverse crowd. I'm actually surprised there wasn't a thread like this on the forum already.

Some of my hobbies I don't pursue right now. I'm dying to game again in Fallout3, League of Legends (with the 13yo nephew), or Alice: Madness Returns. Plus I still haven't finished any of the Bioshocks. (yea, gaming has sort of gone on the back-burner)

I draw all the time, but I don't consider it a hobby. Still working on selling the sketches I did for my personal sketch challenge in November.

About once a year I get bitten by the BJD bug and have to go look at any gorgeous new doll sculpts or new companies. I just can't get as invested as the rest of the hobbyists. I can't afford to. (And I can't justify the expense.)

Is there a guilty pleasure hobby you do rarely because you simply can't afford it?

Caitlin Black · Dec 21, 2013

Siri Kirpal said:
And the really weird one: looking at house plans (no I'm not planning on building)

I, on the other hand, love drawing up house plans on the assumption that I'll build one day. Everything from a 3-storey mansion to an economic 2-bedroom flat. It's actually fun drawing up the plans and imagining living in those places.

(I don't add, like, plumbing and electrical stuff - just the floor plan.)

DLacy said:
Is there a guilty pleasure hobby you do rarely because you simply can't afford it?

Hmm. Collecting guitars? I know I *want* to collect guitars, but I can't afford them or justify the expense, and I've got nowhere to put them.

Also, the aforementioned Warhammer 40k. Last year I bought a starter pack for a new army, and would like to start collecting the new army some more. But it would cost thousands to get the army I want, which isn't happening. Plus, very rarely do I have the time to put the miniatures together and paint them...

Maggie Maxwell · Dec 21, 2013

Siri Kirpal said:
And the really weird one: looking at house plans (no I'm not planning on building)

Nothing so weird about that. My mother and I used to use a computer program to design house plans when I was a kid. Tons of fun.

A hobby I have always wanted to try and never done: dollhouse accessory design. It's just always seemed so interesting to make small-scale furniture and food and things, but I've never really looked into the required skills and tools.

I also collect old editions of famous books, for the "rarely done because money" question. Pre-1900s, or at least pre-copyright date requirements usually.

Siri Kirpal · Dec 21, 2013

Cliff Face said:
I, on the other hand, love drawing up house plans on the assumption that I'll build one day. Everything from a 3-storey mansion to an economic 2-bedroom flat. It's actually fun drawing up the plans and imagining living in those places. (I don't add, like, plumbing and electrical stuff - just the floor plan.)

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I used to draw them up too, but now prefer to do that in my head. And yes, we did plan to build once upon a very long time ago. But I started drawing up plans and poring over house plans long before I had any real thought of building. Like you, it was just so much fun to imagine living in someplace other than where I was. Now, I think it's a way for me to put my house in order. It's also not a bad hobby for a writer to have, useful to have those mental houses around for scene building.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Mr Flibble · Dec 21, 2013

Everyone I know does at least one of those (or other "nerdy" things)

so I don't consider them nerdy, I consider them normal

Caitlin Black · Dec 21, 2013

Siri Kirpal said:
I used to draw them up too, but now prefer to do that in my head. And yes, we did plan to build once upon a very long time ago. But I started drawing up plans and poring over house plans long before I had any real thought of building. Like you, it was just so much fun to imagine living in someplace other than where I was. Now, I think it's a way for me to put my house in order. It's also not a bad hobby for a writer to have, useful to have those mental houses around for scene building.

Mmm, I'm not sure if I will ever have a house built. The locations I want to live in (in this state at least) don't have many vacant blocks, and those are being snatched up quickly. So I'd likely buy an existing house, when I have such money. But still... It is fun to imagine different houses.

I actually have an old math notebook (no math in it - I just mean it has the graph paper with lots of little squares for plotting out things) with some of my designs in it. I've never quite managed to figure out the "perfect" design for me. It's usually the hallways that mess everything up, and doors. Like, "Oh, I want this room next to that room, and then the kitchen over here... But how do I move around in there? Oops..."

But you can see how my priorities have changed over the years by looking at the designs. The very first one had a bar area, but I no longer drink, so new designs don't need the bar.

And yes - I've used one of my designs for a character's house in a novel.

Actually, it was the one with the big bar in it.

Tazlima · Dec 21, 2013

At the moment, juggling and women's barbershop singing.

In my early twenties I also learned a wide assortment of freakshow staples (fire spinning, fire-eating, glass-walking, the human blockhead trick, etc). I'm out of practice these days, since I moved to an area with far less call for such skills, but I still have all my fire gear just in case there's need.

Do you have any odd or nerdy hobbies?

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