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New and Interesting hobbies!
Stuf
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello!
So, here's the deal: I'm in a very, very remote location with access to pretty piddly Internet and some very significant chunks of free time. I would like to develop some new hobbies, and I'm asking for some ideas on what would be easy to pursue without requiring a lot of supplies or money.
I've sort of run out of ideas at the moment, so I'm asking for a bit of help. The hobbies that I have pursued this year have been, in chronological order:
1) Reading! I love to read, always have; generally novels, but I've been engrossed in a few non-fiction books as well. I'm still reading - I haven't given it up - but I would like to expand my horizons.
2) Writing! Also fun, but I found that it is more of a chore for me. I would like to be more creative, though, so I might return to this.
3) Painting! Unfortunately, this required canvas, which I pretty quickly ran out of. Lame-o. Fun, though.
4) Watching TV! I bought a few DVD sets and devoured them, but it is too expensive a hobby to maintain. I do not have the option to get cable/whatever.
5) Piano! Awesome! Maintaining, but I can't focus on it for that long. I like to play for just a little bit, and then return to something else.
6) Meditating! Maybe not a hobby; still, it's something I've been inspired to do and have found to be very rewarding.
So, my hope is that some of you amazing forumers have hobbies that I can enjoy with only the simplest of supplies. All recommendations are welcome - tell me what you love to do!
So, here's the deal: I'm in a very, very remote location with access to pretty piddly Internet and some very significant chunks of free time. I would like to develop some new hobbies, and I'm asking for some ideas on what would be easy to pursue without requiring a lot of supplies or money.
I've sort of run out of ideas at the moment, so I'm asking for a bit of help. The hobbies that I have pursued this year have been, in chronological order:
1) Reading! I love to read, always have; generally novels, but I've been engrossed in a few non-fiction books as well. I'm still reading - I haven't given it up - but I would like to expand my horizons.
2) Writing! Also fun, but I found that it is more of a chore for me. I would like to be more creative, though, so I might return to this.
3) Painting! Unfortunately, this required canvas, which I pretty quickly ran out of. Lame-o. Fun, though.
4) Watching TV! I bought a few DVD sets and devoured them, but it is too expensive a hobby to maintain. I do not have the option to get cable/whatever.
5) Piano! Awesome! Maintaining, but I can't focus on it for that long. I like to play for just a little bit, and then return to something else.
6) Meditating! Maybe not a hobby; still, it's something I've been inspired to do and have found to be very rewarding.
So, my hope is that some of you amazing forumers have hobbies that I can enjoy with only the simplest of supplies. All recommendations are welcome - tell me what you love to do!
“There are... things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.†-Fyodor Dostoevsky
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As far as other hobbies go.
Knife making - Could be expenise. You can make a home made forge out of an old brake drum from a car. Getting the metal could be cheap though if you buy leaf springs from auto scrap yards. Plus metal forging is manly yes?
Leather working - Could make stuff for fun and profit. Make wallets. Sheaths for pocket knives, multitools, or what have you. After the initial investment for the tools and material you could turn a small profit to fuel the hobby by selling on ebay.
Along the lines of meditating I would recomend either Yoga or Tai Chi. I've heard both are wonderful routines to pick up.
Go to Ebay or somewhere similar and buy the sets second hand. People tend to sell after watching them to death. It's how I got The Wire, Pacific, and a few anime series awesomely cheaply.
I've always wanted/wondered to pursue glass blowing. How would a guy go about this? Is it ^$?
Also, if you really liked painting, you don't always have to paint on a canvas, as long as you can find a way to keep whatever you're painting on still and flat while you paint.
Gardening could also be an option?
http://www.mailleartisans.org/
You can buy craft matchsticks dead cheap online and make stuff out of those.
Do it :P you're in north america, so you can get supplies really cheap, and you can make useful things!
Or you can be like me and start with crochet - its honestly not quite as versatile for clothing, but pretty rad in its own right, and easy. Its great for homewares, and you can make awesome toys with it.
Otherwise I would suggest maybe some small-scale indoor gardening, if you have a space that could work as a hothouse?
I've found some "canvas paper" that's pretty inexpensive and stays pretty flat on it's own. Should be able to find it in any art supply store.
Do they have netflix in Canada? That would let you get TV shows through the mail for ~$10 a month.
I am going to second (third?) knitting.
Are you going to be there for a while? You could start raising some sort of animals. Or plant a garden. Both of these lead to homegrown food.
You could always get into Dwarf Fortress. You could then write about your fortress' misadventures, and paint scenes from its inevitable downfall.
Only downside is that they nearly universally have to be ordered over the net, and in a remote location might be a problem.
Here's a few video samples. These are videos I saw a while ago which actually sparked my interest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITGas0eHE5I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpHMD6k4vUM
And here's a couple videos of me playing, to show you whats achievable after about 7-8 months of playing (self-taught).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfsUW4q7sL4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfH30eE4C0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asu2czbNWtM
I'm going to try a bunch of ideas in here.
Also: Netflix isn't streaming media? It's actually sent in the mail? I had no idea.
Outdoor activities aren't an option right now - I'm up in far northern Canada. It's cold.
I'm reasonably close to a middle-sized-ish town, so I can pick things up.
I'm definitely going to be checking out that canvas paper, though; I mean, I'm a terrible artist, but it's fun.
Netflix is streaming only in Canada.
daaaaaaaaaaammmmmnnnn
Learn another language.
If additional degrees or certifications were in your plans, you could start studying those subjects.
For another creative outlet, you could try your hand at game design. Not necessarily video game development (I wouldn't recommend programming to anyone it doesn't click with), but maybe design a card or table top game?
It is a lot of fun, and you can make cool stuff pretty quickly without much practice.
Cycling
Yes, I know you're outdoors, but get a trainer (80-100 bucks) and you can ride it indoors, and get incredibly fit while the weather is bad. (I lose weight every winter from training riding)
PSN Hypacia
Xbox HypaciaMinnow
Discord Hypacia#0391
All you need is dirt, and the result is very very cool.
Nah, you don't need canvas, unless you have a specific reason for painting on canvas rather than another surface.
A good way to get a lot of good painting surfaces on the cheap is to go down to your local Home Depot/Lowe's/similar, pick up a 4'x8' sheet of masonite (This will run you somewhere between $8-12, IIRC), and have the shop dude cut it for you into painting-sized pieces. This will leave you with probably a lot more surfaces than you'll know what to do with, unless you are painting at ridiculously large sizes (something my college art professors tried to force on me, but frankly doing so when just starting out is a waste of time, money and paint.)
Then, go to your local/internet art supply store and get some gesso. Apply as such:
http://deadoftheday.blogspot.com/2009/08/materialsstudio-painting-part-2.html
(you can just use sandpaper if you don't have an electric sander)
Bam, you've got yourself probably a year's worth of painting surfaces for somewhere around $30 total. And if you do run out, they should be sturdy enough that you can scrape old paintings back down to the surface, and reuse them.
(Also, on the canvas papers- I can't speak with much authority because I only tried some of it back when I was just starting high school and was just dicking around with office supply store acrylics, but if you go that route, from what I recall you may have a problem with the surface curling when you apply paint to it. I would suggest picking up some white artist's tape and tape it firmly and tightly to a surface like a drawing board to mitigate that effect as much as you can. Note that doing this will leave an unpainted white border in your canvas when you remove the tape- which can either be cool or annoying based on your preferences.)
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Just a thought.
Ice Sculpture.
No seriously, build an igloo, that would be awesome.
Have you tried running? Especially trail running. If you live in a remote area I bet there are some gorgeous trails to run on!
People mentioned a lot of "arts and crafts"-like activities, but some physical activity can't hurt. Is there a rink near you?
Okay, maybe a better time would be well before St. Patrick's Day. This is still a good time though!
Always a fun time.
Trail runners are most likely to be attacked by bears and mountain lions. If he lives in the bear section of Canada, I would probably not do trail running.
Paintball is an amazingly fun hobby if there is a paintball area near you, that has lots of active people playing. However if there is not, you are required to find friends to do it with you, and after you spend $Quebec (since' he's in Canada eh) on gear and equipment, you find out none of your friends have time/schedules meet up/etc. to play, and you basically spent all your money on something to fill the closet with.
I second wood carving, its quite fun and relaxing, until you do something stupid and slice into your finger/hand/eyeball, but after it heals up, and you get back to it you forget about your injury.. until you do it again. Bonus points if you put a scar on your scar...
Disc Golf or Folf is reasonably fun if there is a course near you, but at least for me it got old. The upside is you can buy 1 $7USD disc, to start out with, to see if you like it or not. I got into it for awhile, and probably have about $200 worth of discs though
Also you could take up nose goblin collecting.