What is a hobby you enjoy, but seems too quirky or obscure to bring up in most conversations?
Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.
I try to make something that looks good (or at least doesn't look like random static) by running pictures I've taken through audio editing software. There are some extra steps that go into it to "trick" the program into importing the picture as if it were a sound file, making sure the header (information that tells your computer that this is a picture) doesn't get fucked with, and then exporting the data in a way that it will be saved as a picture and not an mp3 or something else.
On the rare occasion I do bring it up, I can literally watch people's eyes glaze over. Until I show them a picture
Edit: internet is really bad right now, will reply with an image when I can
Edit2: picture was too big at 7MB. Hopefully a screenshot of the picture doesn't look too bad
Ok now that's really cool
I do a lot of photography and I've been trying to find something that I could do with some of my more experimental shots that makes them more... more‡. If that makes sense?
You wouldn't happen to have more details on how to do it would you?
Edit: ‡ My more experimental shots are more done as like experimenting with how a shot is taken for like evoking a specific feeling or doing something strange in camera or really any number of reasons. Hell some of my experimental shots were accidentally taken pictures that are disorienting or confusing. I don't share them often, because IDK it just seems like really personal sometimes. Those experimental shots feel less like photography and more like painting with photos.
Absolutely!
I have a bookmark saved on my computer at home to an old forum with the instructions I followed when I started doing this, and I can send that link later.
There are two programs that I use, and both are free.
GIMP - image editing software
Audacity - audio editing software
Here is the basic process from that bookmarked forum post that I can remember off the top of my head. If something is wrong (especially the Audacity import settings, since I don't ever change them), I will fix it later.
I believe the blue parking garage image uses reverb, or maybe a phasor... possible both to get that effect? But there are a lot of setting to mess with for each audio effect that can dramatically change the outcome. The trees picture was made by putting the original picture in the left audio channel, and putting a horizontally flipped copy of the image in the right audio channel. Delete the header from the flipped copy, and exporting the data smashes them together in this really strange mirror effect. Afterward, I would use GIMP for any color correcting, changing saturation/hue, simple stuff
Edit: spelling and formatting
That's pretty cool and definitely falls under the category of a hobby that you do because you can, although I'm sure there are people in the world who would pay for art like that (not suggesting that you do).
I have had the thought about trying to make money off of this, and some friends have joked that I should be making album art or something like that.
However, I don't want to feel like I have to meet a deadline or feel the pressure of making something that someone else wants/likes. I just want to make something I like
I just wanna know how people even came up with data moshing. It blows my mind that there's a thought process that incorporates these steps, and ends with awesome (sometimes) results!
How much tinkering do they require to make the final product look like you want?
Most of the time I don't have a plan of what I want out of something. Sometimes I can get something that looks interesting or cool right away, other times I have hundreds of files trashed over a couple of days and there's not a single one that I personally liked
Considering it's audio-software, I guess the changes are related to frequency changes. You should look up Fourier transform (the function that allows to see the sound frequencies of music, for example) applied to images and play with it. If you are not afraid to do a little bit of Python coding, you should be able to have much more control on the parameters responsible for the visual effects you're looking for.
The image equivalent of bass frequencies (long wavelength) are big details (ex: the trees) and high frequencies (short wavelength) are small details (ex: the leaves).
I haven't had to think about Fouier since college, so thanks for bringing up that trauma lmao. I do realize that there are ways to reliably get certain effects or even learn how to do this in Photoshop or GIMP, but I like the shotgunning, spray-and-pray of not knowing what the outcome will look like
I guess I find the process of going back to make small changes to the settings and then seeing how that affects the image more satisfying. Getting something that looks good is just a bonus
Is there a way to convert an audio file to an image? Might be interesting for album covers.
This is so cool
I used to do a similar thing where I saved photos as .txt files, but they were an awful lot glitchier, and usually split the RGB channels to look as if you had three eyes and were crossing them.
I am learning lockpicking for fun. It helps me relax. I used a practice lock at first, then a cheap real lock. I've just learned that my firearms lock...yup, can be picked open in about 10 seconds. Equal parts cool and terrifying. Locks are waaay less secure than people think.
It has the same "internet hacker" stigma so I avoid talking about it.
I miss lockpicking, it's so cathartic. I used to have a small set of picks and folks near my desk at the office would often try to pop a padlock I kept around when we were bored. I liked how everyone seemed so interested in the ease with which you can pop many locks.
So got a question for you. I have wanted to get in to this - just as a curiosity. Is there an inexpensive set of picks a person can buy to get started with to play around with?
I tried googling and ran across about a hundred different suggestions and Amazon was the usual (no help).
If you're familiar with the Lock Picking Lawyer, he has his own store and has some good kits.
https://covertinstruments.com/collections/lockpicks/products/learn-lockpicking-bundle
I'm not getting any sort of kickbacks from the link. I picked one of these bundles up and I like it. The lock it comes with is super handy because it's designed to be re-pinned. You can change the pins without disassembling the entire lock.
Covert Instruments sells a kit with a pick, rake, turning tool, and a practice lock for about $10
I've had this small 5 piece set in my backpack since before instructions for anything could be easily found on the internet. It had to have been $10 or less.
Check out toool. It's where I started when I got into the hobby.
I got into it a bit during COVID and practiced a bit on a practice lock that I could repin myself. After being able to regularly open it without too much trouble, I decided to try my front door lock - thinking it would be a much harder challenge since it was a real lock.
Nope. Shit popped open almost instantly. It blew my mind! After watching Lock Picking Lawyer, I figured that a skilled attacker could get into most locks eventually, but I didn't realize that most house locks require virtually no skill to open. And it's literally easier (and significantly less attention grabbing) than breaking a window!
Sorry police officer, but the door was open ajar so hrem I just wanted to check if everything was alright you see?
Had a guy just being mind blown for the whole evening lock picking my way into my apartment, and then open some lock he had on his luggage (all very basic).
Saw him a year later when I had forgot about it and he still was startled about the evening 😁😅
This right here is why electronic locks could be way more secure than mechanical ones, if only their manufacturers would hire well-trained programmers and not boot camp graduates to write the firmware.
If the Lockpicking Lawyer has taught me anything, is that a number of electronic locks tend to be easy to bypass via hardware rather than software
I love lockpicking! It's got a really nice tactile click when the lock opens. Too bad there's not a lot of locks to practice on (legally, anyways)
And yeah, I agree - locks are really more of a psychological hindrance rather than an actual hindrance. Although, for what it's worth, I don't know of that many people who can lockpick, so in that sense, a lock at least decreases the number of people who can get through
That's forbidden knowledge among the mechanics in my union local, lol. One of the shop mechanics at my training center was teaching some of my peers how to pick locks when we had completed our training and were just killing time helping the shop guys out. Had some downtime and he brought out a couple sets and some locks.
Apparently it's sort of an unspoken tool of the mechanic trade when you work around machinery like that. Never know what you'll have to get access to and you never know if anyone will have the right key. You'd think the ignition key would suffice to open, say, an access panel or storage cabinet, but some of these machines use a different key entirely for such a thing.
I'm a math teacher. I use my video game making knowledge from Godot to make little video games to review skills. Each takes a few weeks to make with game design, making all the art, programming, and making the worksheet.
Here is my Disco Dj-Demo if you were curious what I mean.
I think it's fun, it's not something I can really chat with others about.
You're amazing and your students are lucky to have you. Thank you for being you!
If someone I knew made entire freaking games and didn't tell me about it I'd be pissed! That's really cool and you should wear it on your sleeve, imo.
How the hell is this not the only thing you talk to others about‽ This is fucking cool!
You are awesome. Thanks for being a good teacher and making math as interesting as it is for your students. And your hobby is fucking cool too.
I am a programmer (as in it's my job) and I can't really program anything in Godot. I've done the dodge the creeps tutorial and did some more tries, but I don't really get game dev. It's definitely a unique skill.
That's amazing! I am really impressed.
I like learning about random ass hobbies without ever indulging in them.
I watch an ungodly amount of aquarium / terrarium videos, lurk a ton of aquascaping communities. I owned a betta fish in an empty bowl when I was 12 and that's it. (poor fish)
I read all you could know about book binding fanfiction, never done it.
I read a hundred pages long horse breeding guide for the game black desert online and I have no idea why. I only played the game for a month, spent most of it reading a google doc about horse. I'm not even sure I owned a horse in the game.
Sometimes I try the hobby, for example mini painting, and don't have the patience for it. But I still watch some random dudes on youtube paint for hours and sometimes they don't even talk!
No idea why I am like this
Model trains. I don't bring it up because it's obscure, but I've definitely found there's a stigma. "Oh he's the guy who plays with trains". Screw the haters, I like to relax after work and do a bit of escapism. Eventually I got over it though and talk about it with friends, but it's not the first thing I bring up either
Let’s see those train pics, my dude! Let that conductor-freak flag fly here.
Not quite ready unfortunately, still in the "lots of pink fiberboard and paper mache" phase, but oh I will when we're done. We're probably too small for a model trains community, but I'll probably be hanging out in !trains@lemmy.ml
Train gang needs no justification
As a grown man who still likes Pokemon, I understand. I’m sure lots of people assume you’re in a state of arrested development.
Ha, and judging by the avatar you play video games with trains too! I adore Satisfactory
Most hours in a game by far, I think I'm closing in on 2 thousand. I'm slowly trying to kickstart !satisfactorygame@lemmy.ml again, come and join us!
My dad has been into model trains since before I was born. We built a train layout in the early 2000s when I was in middle school or so. Working on that project helped get me into electronics as we made PCBs for signals and control circuits. Now, 20 some years later, I work in software engineering. My dad wanted to get back into working on the layout and I'm helping him with Arduino programming and Raspberry Pi stuff. He built a stepper motor controller for the turntable and then we built some turnout and light control boards that interface with DCC. We set up JMRI on a Raspberry Pi to drive trains from phones and automate stuff. I also got him into 3D printing and he's printed a ton of new scenery for the layout after buying his own Ender 3 after using mine quite a bit. We've learned various CAD/modeling programs to make 3D prints.
I also finally got to do something I always wanted to do as a kid, which is to drive the trains from a first-person view. We have gone through a bunch of different variations of putting a Raspberry Pi Zero and camera module on an HO scale railcar. We did some different designs. Our latest design uses an SG-90 micro servo to control the camera angle so you can look left and right. I also 3D printed an enclosure for a regulator, battery charger, and battery that takes track power and powers the Pi.
It's pretty fun to be able to sit on the couch with a phone, watching the view on the TV, and drive the train from the other room including operating turnouts. Haven't yet tried to drive the trains over the Internet yet but I want to, since I live a state away from my parents where the layout is.
Edit: Here's a video of the camera car in action! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls-Rg1TlDOA
Very cool! Sounds pretty much like what I have started on mine, I went the full DCC++ route, have an arduino and rpi running the whole layout, with a few other boards helping along the way. At some point I'd love to do full automation of the setup but that'll be a while. What camera did you use for the rpi and train? I'm running n scale so I'm assuming yours would be larger
this is a hobby I would absolutely love to get into but do not have the space (and renting a garage would probably not be realistic at this point for me). looks amazing dude I'm jealous of you! awesome hobby
It's definitely a space eater, it's currently taking up half of my bedroom as I build it. I probably should have waited for a bigger more dedicated space but then I'd be waiting another decade.
If you can figure out how to relate model trains to the average person, then it becomes really interesting.
Like if your experiences have showed to you about why a trip cross-country in 1 country is so long compared to another. Maybe city planning, or at-grade issues that need resolution are the culprit, etc.
I'm into model live steam engines, I've dreamed about a model live steam setup but never had the room (or funds) for such a build.
I've found the Kato setups to be a bit more friendly on the wallet and have great reliability. I'd recommend that, a small oval with a kato starter set
I think of trains as bullets flying on tracks and wheels of steel.
For me it's coffee. Most people see it as a daily need. When I say my hobby is coffee they always say things like "that's not a hobby".
You're being too broad. Gotta specify what you're doing with coffee at that point, and a slight expansion.
Basically, when bringing it up make it sound more interesting and mysterious, with the potential of a follow-up story.
For instance, people often ask me what brought me to Los Angeles. I tell them, "it's lady Gaga's fault". Hooks 'em every time.
It's absolutely a hobby and a huge money pit.
^Askmehowiknow
I like the secondary aspect of coffee, finding niche roasteries and indie coffee shops, talking to the owners about their passion for coffee and to keep buying the expensive beans from them and then drinking them.
Coffee brings up associations with hot swill at diners. Craft coffee or coffee nerd brings up a barista image, so maybe that's a good start.
Working on my (private) servers is a hypnotic activity for me. It can be interesting or I can hate it and still want to do it. It can also be relaxing. Last time when I was sick in bed I played around with wireguard VPN configs all day to get a routed VPN for my VPS. I'm going to fix it today because something doesn't work the way it should.
Also, I learn Japanese. 日本語が大好き！
Contributing to OpenStreetMap. I try to bring it up because it would be great to get more contributors to the project, but either I have to explain "It's Wikipedia, but a map" or they come out with misunderstandings about the project that aren't worth correcting. E.g not liking the icons used to display points on the map.
I have a hobby that I can't even truly mention the name of it because the name is shared with the book Lolita.
However the lolita fashion clothing I wear and collect from Japan and China has nothing to do with the book so I often have to refer to my hobby as "Japanese Street Fashion" and that actually covers the other J-Fashion I wear too, which includes lolita dresses.
They're just specific types of dresses with a certain cut, they are often described as cupcake dresses and were more popular in Japan during the Harajuku Girls craze, so like around 2010 to 2013ish. I actually picked up the hobby in 2015 and started building a wardrobe, learning how to use color theory to match pieces of clothing, learning about different fabric types and how to care for them, and even learning about how to import items from other countries like Japan where they have limits on what they want people in the US to be buying from them.
I'm not as into it as I use to be because I have less of a disposable income now and it's a very spendy hobby. Plus COVID made shipping more difficult and a lot of laws in other countries changed around shipping and prices increased for international shipments. I still buy a dress like every 6 months? I use to buy them more often and sadly I don't fit some of them anymore. I only gained a bit of weight since 2015 but the dresses are tiny and its hard to get them altered without the right matching fabric.
I'm currently trying to lose weight so I can get back into wearing more of my wardrobe again like I use to. Currently cycling as I write this.
I also use to go to meet ups for lolita fashion specifically but that community is unfortunately full of toxic people and I finally gave up on going to the meets not long after COVID restrictions were lifted where I live.
I've never let it stop me, but:
Very cool, just be careful not to become that "I am very smart" type guy who just wants to impress their friends. It's a fine line to walk, nobody likes that guy, but everyone likes the guy who actually genuinely likes their hobbies
Knitting - if you find the right audience, you can chat for hours, but it can also lead to blank looks or lots of assumption.
I'm into macro photography: Just taking pictures of tiny stuff.
Not micro-photography?
Nope, they're called macro.
I do that too. But when I show it to other people, I usually get "Eww why would you show me dick pics you disgusting pig I’m calling HR you twisted muppet"
We live in a society, etc.
I find pointless bugs in video games. I can spend hours trying to platform in a single spot the game doesn’t expect, like jumping from a fence to a windowsill to lamp post to a canopy to a roof.
I used to be a speedrunner and still have some of that blood in me, but I refuse to skip content in casual playthroughs. So the crazy part is if I find a way to skip an entire level, cool, time to go back and do it normally.
I kill and butcher animals for myself and sometimes friends together with my boyfriend. Mostly pigs, some sheep and goats, poultry. Sometimes injured animals who are too injured or in too much pain.
The idea is to save the stress of transport to animals who are raised in good conditions as part of diversified restorative small-scale agriculture.
The killing and butchering is just one part of a circle of activities around the farm throughout the year, but probably the most unmentionable in any social setting other than among meat fanatics.
Retro tech. It's not too obscure, especially nowadays. I could talk long hours about how mind fucking blowing was the Amiga and then still how it went down on the drain... tho I just see on the other people that this isn't really the topic that will kickstart (heheh) the party.
I need to find more friends...
I genuinely like to engage with video games as an art form and I think some of them are among the actual best works of art there is.
It lands like absolutely nowhere. EIther people see you as a capital G gamer, but even the capital G gamers hate you because they want to enjoy product, not art
What games you like? I do like indie artsy games but my favorites are games with it's medium in mind. Things like Undertale or oneshot, Or games that blend their motif wi incredibly well like the binding of Isaac.Or just extremely good ga like ultrakill and Skullgirls.
It's a sort of you know it when you see it (play it) thing. Something along the lines of becoming more than the sum of their parts and also using the interactivity that the medium provides.
When I played TLOU I enjoyed it but I kept thinking "this might as well be a TV show and lose nothing for it". It's a well made story, presented with technical prowess in an interesting setting, then it's also a sort of well made stealth cover shooter but it just doesn't come together. That's not to denigrate the individual efforts and art made there, I'm not saying it's shit, but there's just so much potential left on the table there. If you can 1:1 translate your game into a TV Show, like TLOU, why was it ever a video game to begin with, if you come at it from an art standpoint.
I don't know if you played Gothic or S.T.A.L.K.E.R., those are quite similar in how it's a great setting, well made (well, bar eurojank), the story is serviceable at best and for stalker especially veers off into nonsense at the end but crucially neither games would work as a book, or a film, or a visual novel. You could use the setting, sure, the art design and lore and stuff is solid enough to carry lots of interesting stories and have been used as such but it'd lose such a tremendous amount of what makes it great that it just doesn't work. The first episode of Gothic (TV Show) is a man who walks into a city after pullign some beets and buying his way in. Or possibly sneaking in. Or maybe he murders someone and steals the uniform. Sure, that can be well made, but the point of Gothic is that you have all these options, go nuts. Fuck, transform into a raptor and cause mayhem then revert to human in the confusion, game will let you, but that's the sort of thing that can't be translated to other mediums well.
I'm currently playing through Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor, that certainly goes more the indie artsy route, and I love it because again, doesn't work in another medium. What makes it great is that it hits the line between the trash collection being tedious and frustrating, but still engaging enough, that it conveys the feeling the little sanidrone would have through interactivity. It sucks, but it is your only hope. And then the rest of it is also just very well made.
What are some of your favorites?
You know, I went out with a guy recently who was like super into videogames, and we even went to like a barcade for our date. And then he says to me "I don't really like art"
like dude... videogames ARE art. So many artists work on them. My mind was blown that he saw it that way.
I really got into steve1989s mre videos. So I collect vintage military rations.
...1989..."vintage"...[cries in GenX]
Some of the rations he reviews are as old as from during the Civil War. I think 1989 has to do with the channel creator's birth.
That's just his name. He's had super old rations, like from the world wars and even older.
he doesn't eat rations from 1989
That is unique. Why do you find them interesting/ what is you favorite vintage MRE fun fact?
Looking for that "nice hiss"...
Nice!
Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. Usually gets an, "oh" and a sideways look
I actually came here to say it USED to be D&D, but now it seems like every time I bring it up it's followed by a full conversation about either them playing as well, them wanting to play, or questions they've always had about the game. It's a stark difference from what it was just 5 or so years ago.
Ugh, jealous. That's only happened twice for me. To be fair, I'm of an age that I started with BECMI, followed by AD&D. Took a break and picked back up for 5e
Maybe it's the age group...
Oh, that's safe. Try being into a more obscure ttrpgs like Mage The Ascension or worse, niche Powered by the Apocalypse games like Legacy.
I can't even talk about them to people already into ttrpgs.
I install and set up operating systems. It's something I do to my own computer regularly, but I'll cheerfully do for someone else because it's fun.
Linux is my favorite, but I can do Windows, Free/Open/Dragonfly BSD, Haiku, and given time to research others as well. I keep meaning to give NetBSD a shot...
It gives me a focused task with a specific end goal that requires some technical knowledge, but mostly preparation, research, and troubleshooting skills. The activity can sometimes lift me out of a depressive episode for a while.
I make music, but it's not really music anyone would want to put on at a party, so I don't tell anyone about it. There's nothing more awkward than standing there trying to explain to someone that what they're listening to is a chord progression played with each note slightly out of phase such that rather than distinct chord changes, you just get an overall impression of it as time progresses while they screw up their face in confusion and disgust. Not that everything I make is a conceptual experiment, but that's inevitably what someone will put on if they discover my music.
I was learning Gregg Shorthand at some point just for the fun of it and every time I brought it up people had no idea what I was on about.
I still dabble with orthic shorthand - it's kind of like seeing language from a different perspective.
I just looked that up. It does look like some sort of linguistic research.
I only know about it because of my fountain pen hobby; back in the mid 20th C, Esterbrook made fountain pens with replaceable nibs and offered a wide variety including a Gregg shorthand nib. I guess the Gregg shorthand people licensed the name for marketing. It was basically a normal non, but branded.
Is that how Gregg's remember which are steak bakes, and which are chicken bakes?
Hey! Someone left an old Gregg Shorthand textbook (anniversary edition, if I remember it correctly) in our house back when I was a child, and I tried learning it. Still kinda interested in it up until now.
Tried learning it again back during the lockdown days, but it went nowhere unfortunately.
Follow up with a small description, like a sub title. Like...
Gregg Shorthand: A Stenographer's Worst Best friend
Or some nonsense.
That's pretty cool. Basically the same as enciphering something nowadays.
And now that I've discovered it I'm going to add that somewhere in a secret society in my DND adventure
I have a perfectly accurate 1:1 scale lightsaber replica of Luke Skywalker. It turns on, it’s really bright, it reacts accordingly to how I swing it, can deflect blasters and makes tons of cool sounds…
I don’t bring it up in conversation, but when people find out they get really excited (well, boys mostly)
Geocaching used to be really big but now is pretty low key and niche.
A lot of people I talk to have no clue what it is, and the rest know what it is but have some wildly wrong preconceived notions about it. Stuff like "It's only for hikers" (no it isn't) or how the geocaches are only in the woods. I had a friend who literally did not trust me to go geocaching with her because apparently she thought somebody would be waiting at the location of the geocache to murder us. I had to sit her down and show her that a large majority of geocaches are located in bustling cities and on the sides of major roads.
Sucks that a lot of people also just did not understand it. I once told a friend that there's no monetary reward and they looked at me slackjawed. Like yes you just go find things and then when you find it you have the satisfaction of having found it and shared your find with your friends online. You don't make money doing it lol.
I don't have such a strange hobby, more that the subject for that hobby is strange. There's nothing weird about fixing up a 35 year old sports car or truck or something.
But I've been working on what I thought was a well-known model of 4x4, but now that it's running it draws a crowd of onlookers when I take it somewhere, and many people, even adults, don't know what a Suzuki Samurai is and have never seen one before.
I think you have to be part of the greater car community, at least, to know much about one, but probably a smaller niche of people looking for practical vehicles that are fun to know about the samurai.
I love the first gen RX7, and while far more well known (the FD anyhow), than the samurai, there is a LOT of confusion and misinformation out there about my car and the rotary engine in general. I feel your pain.
About 20 years ago I daily drove a 1979 Mazda Rx-7. It was pretty dependable with its carburetor equipped 12A rotary, and it was amazing fun in the corners. And it was such a pure sports car - two seats, four wheels, and an engine. No power steering, no automatic transmission, no traction control or ABS. I remember having to drive it while leaned over toward the passenger side so my head didn't hit the ceiling.
They're fun and pocket sized, almost edc. My neighbour had one and we used to make fun trips with it. Love it
Samurais (AKA Jimnys) are the shit
[…] many people, even adults, don't know what a Suzuki Samurai is and have never seen one before.
Where in the world is this!? I find it hard to believe that anyone anywhere, who cares enough about cars to take a look at yours, wouldn't be familiar with such a classic and iconic car.
For what it's worth, the people who see it and don't know what it is have all been born after the mid 1990s.
And I have just about the only one left anymore.
I'm super envious. I would love to have one of those as my extreme trail rig.
Suzuki Samurai
If you know, you know.
Weather watching (not the extreme kind) - I basically note down the current weather and interpret my own forecast then later see if I'm right.
Lockpicking - it's basically a tiny little puzzle and I can buy different solutions for a few bucks at any store.
Gardening - this is less obscure/quirky and more that I don't want people to think that I'm bragging about how many tomatoes I have because I will in fact brag about how many tomatoes I have.
Fountain pens. Honestly, most people look at me more weirdly when I mention a nib's feedback than when I mention the means of production.
Stand-up comedy. I love doing it and I'm a HUGE nerd about it.
It's not that I wanna hide myself, I'm just tired of all the "tell me a joke" or "let me tell you a joke" conversation that follows. If you wanna hear my jokes come see me on Friday and I've probably already heard your joke many many times and told 10 times better than you do.
I'm an amateur game developer. It's very, very rare I actually get to meet someone else who's into it. Everyone else is either overly impressed, thinking I'm some genius making COD or GTA in my spare time (I am definitely not), or some combination of thinking I'm lying/complete disinterest. It makes me quite sad to see that programming is still relatively niche.
I love fixing up classic iPods, and as much as I enjoy it, any mention of it comes with "but why?", then the person asking refuses to understand why I still like using iPods even in this time of streaming music.
I hate depending on an Internet connection and listening to ads (even as a paid customer), so local media is the only solution for me. And it's getting so hard to find phones with SD cards that I might have to start carrying around an MP3 player too.
I have a couple iPod classics, one has a dead battery but the other runs just fine. What all are the options for keeping these alive?
The repair depends on the iPod you have, but as long as it’s a Classic then it’s all much the same, and all pretty straightforward once you’ve got your head around it. The Minis are decent candidates for upgrading too, but you have to really careful not to damage the clickwheel cable. I did that on my first Mini, and almost threw it through the wall…
Watch some of the early Dankpods videos to get some idea of what you can do.
My next project is a 7th gen Classic that needs to be flashmodded. I’m planning on putting 512gb in that one.
so local media is the only solution for me
I'd recommend installing a Plex server at home and using it to manage all your music. You can use the Plexamp app (available on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac and Linux) to stream music from your server, and the mobile apps have the ability to download playlists for offline listening. The basic features in Plexamp are free.
IMO streaming your own media is the best of both worlds. Plexamp has a bunch of awesome features too.
I keep an old and battered iPod nano (4th gen, I think?) just because I kinda like how I have one device I can use for music and music alone. It's too bad that I don't have the skills and patience to make it decently usable again. It's technically still usable, but it runs out of juice before I can play a couple of songs. I guess the battery's on its way to completely dying, and I would likely have to go through much trouble opening it and finding a replacement battery.
I've never worked on a 4th gen Nano, but am led to believe they're something of an arsehole to take apart, particularly if the battery has swollen. You'll know if it has by a black blob in the middle of the screen. To dismantle them, you have to slide the inner gubbins out of the end, which is basically impossible if the battery is wedging everything tight.
It might be worth picking up a Mini or something. They're fairly easy to refurbish and flashmod. Mine has 128gb currently.
I dabbled in a bit of neography (creating your own writing system) and a hint of conlanging (creating your own language). I think I've managed to create a fairly decent writing system for myself, but the conlang went nowhere fast as I underestimated the effort required to even get started with it. I also attempted making fantasy maps, but it was all in paper and quite a while ago.
That's it, I suppose: neography, conlanging, and fantasy mapping.
I also spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at maps and making virtual road trips via Google street view, but that's way more mainstream.
Model Railroading. I went several decades without a layout. Then for whatever reason, I just recently started building an N scale railroad. I'm having fun remembering oops skills and learning new techniques.