Hobbies, what do you get up to in your spare time? Options

[Izzy]

Aw, thanks. Now I kind of feel obligated to learn it, even though I don't like Green Day very much at all.

Naw, it's cool. If you don't like Green Day don't learn it.

[froggle-rock]

I climb too, frog! Do you happen to know what a 4c is in US terms (because I am scratching my head)?

elphaba2, a UK 4C is a US 5.8 according to this link.. What kinda climbing you do, indoor/ outdoor? if outdoor what kinda rock?

I also did my first 4A lead climb last week (indoor), which is bit more scary because you have to clip rope into secure points as you ascend, and also the potentiality for falling further distance is greater.

[elphaba2]

elphaba2, a UK 4C is a US 5.8 according to this link.. What kinda climbing you do, indoor/ outdoor? if outdoor what kinda rock?

I also did my first 4A lead climb last week (indoor), which is bit more scary because you have to clip rope into secure points as you ascend, and also the potentiality for falling further distance is greater.

I am a lame wuss and do 5.7-8 indoor climbing--I have a few friends who got huge ugly fines from Parks Services for climbing in a big hiking park nearby and it's kind of scared me off of the whole outdoor business. But I'm helping a friend build a climbing wall in his backyard that transitions to a cliff face, so it might be legal for me to start pretty soon! I think the rock is granite--there's quite a lot of it around here.

I've never lead climbed, just lead belayed. It looks like a lot of fun; I need to kick myself over to the rock gym soon so I can learn how to do it properly. Argh, stupid busy.

[Mata]

I have discovered recently that my life appears to have been consumed by Rock Band. Today I'm buying Rock Band 2, so I await the demise of all my spare time with eager anticipation. Hooray!

I've also started very occasionally going indoor climbing. I have learnt basic fencing too. Life is fun.

[Yannick]

I've also started very occasionally going indoor climbing.

Best use of your time ever. It's nicer hitting up natural rocks though.

*edit* Woah, totally just realized the start-date of this thread.

[voices_in_my_hea...]

When I can get my hands on them (the lack of a TV in my house prevents that from happening often) I enjoy playing video games.
I'm hesitant to call art (Painting, drawing, writing, photography) a hobby because that's really something I base my life around. Not so much something I just do in my free time.
I listen to music and dance around to it often.
Recently, I took up going on bike rides (my bike is almost as old as I am, and therefor it is now a 1-speed bike instead of the 18-speed it was meant to be.)
I create fashion design sketches.
Occasionally, I sew.
and I read, a ton.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

I've also started very occasionally going indoor climbing.

Best use of your time ever.

Wrong. The best use of his time is making animations (and novels I guess) for our amusement

I play go, and I'm also a diabolo-ist and occasional juggler

[Yannick]

Wrong. The best use of his time is making animations (and novels I guess) for our amusement

Heh, yeah. Second best then.

[Eli]

Crazymat: Diablo, the game right? Best one ever.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

no
this kind of diabolo

[Pixelgoth]

We've got a lot of musical people. There should be a Matazone band!

I could bring my Guitar Hero World Tour band stuff to the next meet?

I like to play the violin in an orchestra, I play on the Wii (both with myself and mates), I like to read in bed, watch TV, surf the internet. Do those last ones count as hobbies? What the actual definition? I would say my work is my hobby as I love visiting heritage sites and looking at their digital interactives so I suppose I'm kinda lucky in that aspect

[Mata]

I very rarely get to do any of the circus stuff these days. I do more over the Crawley Circus Weekend than I do for the rest of the year!

Watching TV feels like a null activity to me, something to be done when there's not anything better to do, but that's for general programming. If I've downloaded a series or I'm watching a film then those feel more hobby-esque because there's been some input into the process. Even then, I'll often be playing a puzzle game on the DS or doing sudoku while watching TV.

And don't worry, I do spend a fair portion of my time working on my novel. You'll get to read it eventually! It has taken up the time that I would previously have spent animating, but it lets me tell stories in ways that would take a vast amount of time to do with animation. I'm vaguely thinking about doing a Little Goth Girl book to tell the story from beginning to end, but I'd need to rework it all quite a lot. That's only a vague idea, so don't get too keen because I highly doubt that will actually happen.

[Eli]

no
this kind of diabolo

Oh I've seen some kid with that at school before, cool stuff.
Edit: Like half of all those people are from the Netherlands. : O

[Yannick]

Oh I've seen some kid with that at school before, cool stuff.

Yeah, I remember that from 5th grade. Ana-lee or something? Ana-belle? Something like that. Anyway. I was picked on to try, and failed epicly.

[Mata]

You just didn't have a good enough teacher then. Diabolo is one of the easiest circusy things to pick up. It's got a really gentle learning curve for the first few months, then becomes immensely difficult when you get onto the advanced stuff. It's sort-of the opposite of the devilstick, which is very hard to begin with and plateaus out at 'everything is pretty tricky' after a while.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

I agree! Also, with diabolo, it's really easy to do stuff that looks impressive to normal people. I can do some basic devilstick tricks, but hitting a stick back and forth is pretty unremarkable

I'm looking forward to reading your novel Mata - good to know the editing is going well

[mooooooooooopo]

This will probably be a big list. I seem to have spread myself a bit thinly over far too many hobbies.

Up until about a year ago I was going indoor climbing regularly and really getting into it. I really want to get back into it but the people I used to go with have moved on. Would like to move onto real rock at some point too.
Music is one of those things I dabble with but never seem to devote enough time to get really good at. I can play a few things on the keyboard and ukulele but very roughly. Synthesisers and other electronic music kit are fun to play with. Weird noises is in my Livejournal list of interests as a result.
Recently I got into miniatures painting and wargaming. Building or scultping my own figures and working on bigger and better custom projects is always great fun.
Have been playing various boardgames weekly with a group of friends and would like to get back into tabletop RPGs if I manage to get people interested.
I play video games but usually go in cycles of playing a lot of games for a few months then playing hardly any games for a while.
I do quite a bit of coding in my spare time but work has dampened my enthusiasm for that a bit. Still, I'm getting towards my eventual goal of a working game engine. It grows bit by bit with each little project I make.
Other sports I partake in when I get the chance are badminton and mountain biking.
Circus skills, specifically diabolo and juggling. I'm stuck with 3 or 4 balls for juggling but I am getting on to the advanced diabolo tricks. Similar to Mata, generally I find myself practicing in the few months running up to Crawley and then stopping again when the weather gets cold.
After 3 years I still don't have my TV antenna hooked up. Watching TV feels like a time suck when I could be doing more interesting things. Vegging out on the internet is a fine use of time however.
Making things and other crafty things, from painting to electronics happens from time to time.
Reading when I get the chance. Unfortunately getting less frequent recently.

[I_am_the_best]

I don't think I've changed at all. My only real hobby is music. Mainly piano, in the hope of getting into a decent music college, but horn too (a potential back-up plan?). I've given up the other instruments, which is a shame, but inevitable to an extent. I reckon this also includes listening, and concert-going too (admittedly mostly classical and jazz concerts). I also like painting, but I'm not very good and am always scared of starting in case I mess it up. I'm currently pondering and gathering materials for a large canvas based on 1001 nights, stories within stories, middle eastern patterns... these kinds of themes. Sewing too, I like sewing. I've made lots of pencil cases - possibly the easiest thing there is to make; most of them are panda-related for no particular reason, and a few kite-related ones too. I like walking too. As in... I like to leave the house without carrying anything at all, and just going somewhere. It's a nice free feeling. I dunno... perhaps I'm just a loser. I don't really do anything apart from that... do pubs count as hobbies? probably not.

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

At the moment, I have a lot of ex-hobbies. When not working, I generally spend time with my friends or family. My other two time sinks are studying to become an electrician (which involves more reading than you'd think), and a certain MMO that shall remain nameless. There's the usual music and movies which I tend to enjoy on the merits of their production values as much the actual content, I also occasionally read.

Speaking of ex-hobbies, I used to play guitar, collect miniatures, I've learnt and forgotten how to handle and care for birds of prey, I used to be a Sea Cadet through which I did sailing and was part of their band (and was part of larger bands that played for the Queen personally, in the Royal Tournament and in a carnival in Wiesbaden, Germany). There was also competitions that took up a lot of time.

[Aislinn Faye]

Concerning one of my hobbies (all things Suikoden), I feel happiness and shame at the same time. Happiness because there is a new Suikoden game on the DS, and shame because I did not know of this until I went into the old video game store i worked in. I just needed to share, even though only 539 people know of this game, which also saddens me.

And for the record Mata, don't buy Rock Band, it will consume your life. Much like Fallout did.

[Mata]

Too late, I've already got Rock Band, and I've already had to put in my order for my second drum pedal! (This time I've gone for an expensive metal uber-pedal that won't break in two months.) Learning to drum is fun!

If you like great puzzle games, I highly recommend PicPic on the DS. It's hard to find, but well worth it. There are three types of puzzle and MagiPic mode is the best, but the other two are fun as well. Magipic is a bit like minesweeper but without the annoying instant-death thing, and it gives you lovely looking pictures at the end. It's a brilliant time sink, and usually play it while watching TV.

SPS, I didn't know you were in the Royal Tournament. That's really cool. I went to that a few times when I was a kid.

[catbells]

I started voluntary work in an animal charity shop, something to do in my spare time

[TigerLily013]

Long story short, I've been collecting virtual pets roughly since 2005. Last time I counted them back in 2008 I had 107 I think. Haven't counted yet, but sure I'm up more than 107 lol.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

I hope you are taking good care of them all!

[TigerLily013]

I hope you are taking good care of them all!

Well obviously I do not have them all running at once else my head would explode LOL. Right now I have 6 activated.

Seriously though yes I do my best to keep them in decent condition. Some virtual pet enthusiasts are a lot more into keeping everything with the mint packaging and all that, but I generally do not keep the packaging and play with them as well as keep them in drawers and a jewellry box I got second hand.