Gardening / container gardening. I like being able to wake up, go water some plants, and over time they get bigger and bigger. And then eat them. :) I’ve been having a bit of a rough time since we moved - I’ve not figured out the best place to put the plants yet. Even still I’ve gotten some tomatoes, a bunch of lettuce, and the start of two catnip bushes for the local cats. We also converted one of our flower beds into a wildflower garden and that’s really nice.

I love pickleball. Social, active, easy on the body, and loads of fun.

I’ve taken up cycling recently, it’s a great time to think about absolutely nothing and clear my head, while also getting fresh air and exercise.

Reading, knitting, crochet. Also journaling! I like gaming sometimes too.

Solo boardgaming: tons of cooperative games can be played solo. At the moment, my main games are Marvel Champions and Arkham Horror LCG.

Cross-stitching: maybe the easiest kind of embroidery, perfect for pixel art patterns and you don’t need expensive stuff to get in.

I’ve gotten into writing with fountain pens lately. It’s been pretty fun!

skateboarding, smoking weed, weed edibles, ketamollycaine, nitrous oxide, eating food, watching tv, video games, dubstep, hot tub, snowboarding, disc golf, music festivals

Something I have recently been trying to get into is sewing. I am still working on making it a daily routine, but I have enjoyed it so far. It is rewarding, relaxing, and a great way to get off the phone.

Playing games. I like games because they catch my attention for a long time. I enjoy card games, action games, driving simulators, RPG, platformers, arcade. I’m starting to get interested in TTRPG and I found a community you like that talks about playing them solo: !solorpg[email protected] or you could go for [email protected] I also read, do crossword puzzles, and do puzzle games on the computer. I think gaming, doing puzzles, and reading are good because they keep my mind working. I also like to doodle. I have a book about keeping a doodle journal that I like called Doodle Art and Lettering with Joanne Sharpe: Inspiration and Techniques for Personal Expression I like doodling and lettering because it’s a nice way to get my thoughts out of my brain and into some other space. I also like walking and hiking, which combine well with reading.

• TTRPGS, especially pathfinder 2e: A fun way to stay in touch with distant friends
• Gaming, though I find it less interesting as time goes on
• Programming: I can always find something I meed automated, and I just simply like writing in Rust
• Homelabbing: i got some cheap servers on ebay and I like tinkering with them. The more enterprise-y and difficult to set up, the more rewarding it, even if I nuke that setup in a few days. Also, my home network is really capable now.
• Cybersecurity: hacking labs, CTFs, reading papers, and malware analysis are just simply fun and interesting to me, and it has the bonus of being practical experience
• Coffee and Espresso: Good coffee and a peaceful activity is fucking wonderful. Highly recommend if you already drink coffee. I started off with an aeropress for $30. Then I got a decent espresso-capable hand grinder for around $60. I got started with espresso for around $100, and that was easily one of my best purchases in the last year.

Oof, there’s a long list and I wish I had time to do them all properly … my advice would be to find out what’s happening close to you that includes a social element and go try that. That’s how I got into archery and I’m really enjoying it because when I go to the club there’s always some friendly chatty people there :-)

Sim racing. There’s an initial expense to buy the wheel and pedals, but it’s a really fun hobby and if you find the right people a great community. I recommend starting with a Assetto Corsa which is an older game with an amazing mods. Avoid the temptation to get into iRacing until you’re sure you like the hobby.

My new hobby is watching Asian drama series over the internet. The cliches and conventions are new to me and I like how the series are longer so they can do more than is typical in shorter UK and European ones. They also tend to cover a much broader range of the emotional spectrum and with greater depth. A lot of drama addicts tend to go racing on to the next one but when I stumble into one which puts me in a better head space, I’ll let it linger. So from that, my second current hobby is learning the words (in Mandarin, Korean or Thai) to some of the theme songs. My different approach leaves me feeling like a bit of an outsider in the fan circles but it’s what’s working best for me.

This has been a gey dreich not-summer for gardening here so that feels like more of a albatross than a hobby right now. I listen to opera, traditional musics from around the world and try to read a fair bit too, but just getting through the day takes up so much of my energy it doesn’t happen as much as I’d like. I used to do a lot more things and be a lot more interesting. I miss that.

Good luck with all of yours :)

I have a wife and a three year old, so I don’t have a tremendous amount of free time these days. Still, I fill what I can with PC gaming (wife and I are playing Valheim together currently), reading fiction, and occasionally writing. Occasionally.

Programming used to be my hobby. Unfortunately I went and turned that into a career, so I had to get some new hobbies. :)

Fishkeeping. I have 2 aquariums currently - a 20 gallon with freshwater tetras, and a 6 gallon shrimp tank. Moving to a new place soon, and bought a used 120 gallon tank (that I need to set up).

Videography. Ever since me and my wife had kids I’ve been using GoPros to film events and vacations, and then putting together video collages. Recently I got a real camera (Fuji X-T3) and kitted it out with accessories to make better home movies.

Homelabbing. It started out with a single external HDD enclosure with 2 disks for backups. Many years later it turned into a 12U rack with a network switch, firewall/VPN, 50TB storage server (for umm… Linux ISOs mostly) that runs various VMs and Docker containers, and some other machines like Plex server and game servers for my kids. I’m slowly learning about self-hosting things like photos and other media.