Mine is mapping. I am a big OpenStreetMap contributor and I have mapped many towns near me that were previously completely unmapped.
I have a weird obsession with fonts. I love a good, well designed font. How it looks on the screen, how it looks in print. Nothing too gaudy or showy, but a really good League Spartan or Lato Light. (Not a fan of serifs)
Other than that, normal stuff; 3D modelling, writing, etc…
My other interest that might fall “outside the norm” is that in University, if I had continued beyond my bachelors my primary focus would have been studying the Bronze Age Collapse, and that topic still fascinates me to this day.
Edit: Oh…and spreadsheets. There’s no problem in the world that can’t be fixed with a well designed spreadsheet. All problems come down to data sorting.
I’ve had several multi-year long ones:
- As a child: Stargate SG1
- Adolescent: paraphilias
- Young adult: the care of high violence risk and cluster b psychiatric inpatients
- As I’m entering middle-adulthood: western esoteric spiritual tradition and philosophy
Fountain pens and inks
Picking up new hobbies, investing in them far beyond what would be considered a casual interest, then getting bored or disillusioned with the community after 6-24 months.
See
- Foam dart blasters
- yo yos
- magic the gathering (This was like 15 years)
- coin collecting
- juggling
- pocket knives
- archery
- running
- Currently working on 3D printing, though that’s been more of a means to get back into foam blasters because it’s far cheaper to print your own blasters and mod parts.
This week? AuDHD doesn’t let me have one for long.
What are you doing with your time this week then? 😬
We love OSM for finding gravel routes for our bikes. However, since no bike maps ever say the state of the gravel, and mark many as paved, we’ve been pre-driving and contributing. It’s fun!
In any event, my interest is serial hobbying. I’m a maker, so my site is full of random projects. I’m in a techy phase right now, so just released some Steam Deck accessories, the Only Sensor, and am now working on a DIY solder extractor and building a Voron.
I love learning about Chinese culture both real and mythological. I am learning some mandarin on the side and hope to take a trip to mainland China someday.
Do you have any favourite facts or stories?
Learning about Chinese culture is lowkey a little hobby of mine too, I’m mainly into it for the cuisines and food side of things though.
Journey to The West was my gateway into Chinese mythology. It has been retold many times in many different ways and languages. It was an introduction to a fascinating world very different than (for me) worn out western tropes.
Aztec history.
Thank you for your contributions!
I’ve been pretty into four things lately:
- Healthy cooking, from scratch as much as possible. I got into a rut trying to maximize protein intake, so now I’m trying to find different recipes that don’t compromise on macros but still offer variety in flavors and textures and won’t bother my IBS.
- Nail polish and nail art. I have probably about 300 polishes at this point, which sounds like a lot to most people, but it’s a tiny collection compared to some I’ve seen! Last year I got really into nail stamping, which lets you create neat little designs, and you can get really creative with it.
- Working out. I recently moved, and designed a power rack for my basement which is pretty fully featured. My goal was to be able to do all the exercises I could do at my previous fitness club (within reason - no way I’m buying a tank sled and a billion 45 lb plates!). I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, and so is my husband, which I’m glad about because he’s a tall dude and working around the low-ish basement ceiling was a challenge.
- Indie makeup! Holy Moses I love makeup, and indie brands are killing it. My most recent favorite palette is the Cosmic Brushes Winter Wonderland palette (which came out last year, but is new in my collection). Just look at her!:
Gorgeous, right? No way I’m ever going back to boring neutrals.
Are there any good nail art or makeup communities on the fediverse yet? I love seeing how creative people get with these art forms.
Those iridescent shadows! The teal/purple shift is so pretty!
I wish! Every now and again I search “polish” and “lacquer” hoping a new community will have been made, but so far no luck, though it’s been maybe a month since I checked. I keep trying to talk myself into starting one, but I don’t know if I have the patience for modding.
My most stereotypical special interest (in that it’s something really random that you might assume there’s not a lot of depth to) is artificial lighting technology.
But I have a lot of stuff I could infodump about: computers, video games, TTRPGs, world building, neurology, etc.
Could you tell me some cool stuff about artificial lighting technologies? That sounds interesting!
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My main one is vegan food. Before I had access to a kitchen to make my own food, it used to involve collecting, curating and creating recipes, but has since moved onto creating (and endlessly recreating, adapting and morphing) certain flavour and texture profiles.
The current big one I’ve been very obsessed with making and eating for the last few years, is variations on hoisin mock duck wraps.
The latest iteration is a salad wrap, with leaves of nappa cabbage as the wrap, a layer of vegan garlic mayo with chilli crisp, mock duck, green onion, cucumber, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, hoisin sauce, corriander leaves, and another cabbage leaf to cover/ close the wrap. This probably has the best textures so far and tastes really good!
Making/eating kimchi is a similarly intense interest/obsession. So is hotpot. I fucking love hotpot.
My secondary major interest fluctuates between several different things, but is currently perfume.
I’m very into creating (and endlessly recreating, adapting and morphing) certain scent profiles, and collecting perfumes.
I like to do this through layering different perfumes on my skin and clothes, so I can highlight certain notes/sensory aspects for myself (that may not be apparent on other people’s skin chemistry, so this, like with my other interest, is a very subjective fascination!).
Over the span of three days (between showers) I like to start in one place with my layering combinations and go on scent journeys as the notes morph and fade, and I add to them with other complimentary scents and see how far I can go. Notes linger on clothing longer and differently to how they do on skin, so as I’m layering over several days it builds up in fascinating ways. It’s very interesting to me too finding which layering combinations work one way but not the other.
Lately I’ve enjoyed starting with a base combo of Mauboussin Mauboussin (resinous yet juicy plums and lots of ylang ylang) and Musamam White Intense by Lattafa (juicy spiced oranges and too much ambroxan)- and then taking that in interesting directions as it fades over the day, like layering on more spices and wood notes, and then when that fades, onto various ouds and roses.
Or adding a Stronger With You flanker (sweet and aromatic with chestnuts + individual flanker variations), then when that starts to fade leading it with fragrances full of ginger, vanilla, lactonic nutty notes and patchouli.
Being enveloped in layers of beautiful fragrances is such big sensory good times for me and discovering new combinations is so pleasing.
Also before anyone comes at me for this, I live alone and don’t wear any fragrance when I go outside, so I’m really not hurting anyone with this hobby!
Oh man I’ve recently started getting into fragrances… I’d never realized how complex (and expensive) they can be! I discovered Kayali’s Yum Pistachio Gelato from a makeup youtuber I follow and it’s all been downhill from there. Lately I’ve been layering Ellis Brooklyn’s Super Amber with Phlur’s Heavy Cream, and I keep sneaking little sniffs of myself throughout the day… and sniffing my bra when I take it off for the night… send help!
What are some of your favorite unexpected notes to combine?
Ugh, I know right?! All my spare coin is going towards perfumes!
Yum Pistachio is gorgeous! I love all the dupes of it too, all the Arabic houses are on top form lately.
Your combination of Super Amber and Heavy Cream sounds hella sexy!
Ok, so here’s a REALLY strange but beautiful scent combination I’ve found, let me try and set the scene it makes for you first:
You’re in an coastal pine forest during a lightening storm. It’s night. You can smell the wet earth underfoot and the forest behind you. Just before the rain starts up again, you’re looking out over the sea as it crashes against the cliffside, sea water mists the air and sheets of lightening illuminate the world.
This was from about 5 spritzes of Vanilla Vibes by JHAG (salty non-gourmand vanilla) with a modest spritz of Quorum by Antonio Puig (beast mode aromatic oakmoss) over it. Encre Noir by Lalique could probably be substituted for the Quorum for a similar affect, but you’ll need to spray a lot more of it as Quorum is very, very strong.
The way the sea salty solar notes of Vanila Vibes play against the dank mossy woods and grapefruit of Quorum, it’s so visual for me. And there’s this ozoneic smell they form together that isn’t constant but is electric and kinda how I imagine lightening smells.
Do you have any unexpectedly beautiful scent combinations? Please share if so!
Oh man, you hooked me from
You’re in an coastal pine forest during a lightening storm
and it just got better from there. I’ll have to try this!
I’m still building up my collection, so so far the most interesting I’ve come up with is Super Amber / Heavy Cream. I’ve been ordering a bunch of sample vials of things that sound interesting, trying to pin down what notes I like best and which I don’t. So hopefully soon I can come up with creative combos like yours!
Don’t be afraid of just amassing a bunch of ‘cheapies’ to start with, there are so many fantastic fragrances made by renowned perfumers/houses, that you can buy for under £50 (€/$/etc) to train your nose on and figure out what you like.
That’s actually how I have Vanilla Vibes and Quorum, I literally just blind bought a load of cheaper perfumes going by what looked interesting on Fragrantica or was recommended on youtube, and I would likely never have bought or learnt to pick out and enjoy their notes had I gotten tiny testers first.
Also many cheap Arabic perfumes (originals and dupes) are surprisingly good, don’t be too afraid of exploring that side of this world either! Al Rehab is a great place to start if you’re unsure/skint, Choco Musk is quite possibly the best milk chocolate perfume in the world and you can get a 50ml bottle for like £6. The rest of their scents are similarly priced and pretty damn good too from what I’ve tried do far.
What do you use for the fake duck meat?
I’ve gotten pretty obsessed with making good seitan, but there’s just so many variables. I’m mostly a texture person, and I find that the place where lots of vegan recipes fail is in the texture department. So that’s where my passion for vegan cooking leads me.
The Linda McCartney Vegetarian Shredded Hoisin Duck have been my go to for a while as they’re in most of the big supermarkets here and I can get them delivered to my house.
I like to defrost them and use them ‘raw’ (they’re already fully cooked) because I find the texture gets weird when they’re prepared according to the package instructions.
Any Asian superstore will likely have many varieties of better, and probably cheaper, mock duck though. If I lived near one I would be so fat!
I had a seitan phase a few years back, I got really into finding good spice mixes to include in the dough for maximum ‘meatiness’.
I made and tried to like the ‘lunch meat’ style seitan a few times, but memories of being a kid having to eat actual lunch meat (and how slimy and sometimes gritty from gristle it was) really put me off it.
Texture wise with seitan, I liked gently beating the kneaded dough flat with the end of a rolling pin, and then tightly rolling and coiling it up, wrapping it tightly to steam, and then shredding it and adding bite sized bits to hotpot.
What’s your current favourite seitan recipe? What texture do you like your seitan?
Levitation Wand!
I think it is pretty niché as most people that see it have no idea what is going on to begin with and if drugs are involved I love blowing peoples minds with it.
Ooh this is new to me! Very cool.
Hedge laying. It’s a technique where you almost cut through the stems of the plants in a hedgerow in order to bend them down. This promotes the growth of new shoots and results in a very dense hedge, which historically was done to make sure animals didn’t escape or enter pastures and fields.
Wonderful! I’ve been hoping to learn to do this to replace my neighbor’s vinyl fence. What’s your preferred style? Do you recommend any resources for learning the skill?
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