What are your hobbies/talents?

[Bentrovato 1,088]

12 minutes ago, Toast said:

 

Keep digging.

You wish. 

[Master Obit 831]

58 minutes ago, Bentrovato said:

You wish. 

This topic is not intended to be a medium of homosexual innuendo. Mind you, it is one of my hobbies. In fact, forget that, it's one of my fucking talents.

[gcreptile 10,978]

Well, I've said here before that I was a bit obsessed with chess about two years ago. At that time I miraculously made a jump in "score" from 1600 to 2000. I also played more - and still do! But the returns have severely diminished. I think you can only get significantly above 2000 (the ranks of a master start at roughly 2200) if you get more academic with it, i.e. trying to learn from mistakes, but I mostly just want to play. I think I have quite a few talents, but never focusses enough on just one.

Another thing I regularly do is karaoke, roughly once every two weeks. I almost never sing the same song twice and like to think that I've become good at it.

Reading and learning have suffered by the above hobbies, which is why I need that chess break.

I also travel and have a vague long-term goal to visit all UNESCO world heritage sites. I think my next trip will be to Belgium in August. There are a couple ones in a very dense area.

 

[Sinbabad 1,124]

I can name every country in the world and its capital, locate them on a map (except Oceania’s countries) and recognize their flags.

[jimbean1121 238]

39 minutes ago, Sinbabad said:

I can name every country in the world and its capital, locate them on a map (except Oceania’s countries) and recognize their flags.

a fellow neurodivergent whose special interest is geography, i see

[Sleepiestpeep 158]

Reading this thread is really making me understand why I like it here so much! I'm seeing myself in a lot of these, as another likely autistic forum-dweller...

 

for me - it's currently running (a hobby and not a talent - I'm training for my first half marathon and it's not particularly dignified), fanfiction (I have six unfinished writing projects and counting, and I have been known to turn myself into absolute mulch by reading 500,000 words in one sitting), and... selfies (I've taken a photo of myself almost every day for about fifteen years, and I'm really mad about the three days I've missed). 

 

The hobby graveyard also has cross stitch, crosswords, actual photography (as opposed to silly pictures of my face), and baking. 

 

In terms of talents, I'm definitely a memoriser (I can also do all countries and capitals, and I'm pretty decent at holding long random strings of information); and I'm acceptable at anagrams.

[ladyfiona 2,589]

I forgot another hobby:

 

Sudoko and other word puzzles (also jigsaw puzzles). I did do Wordle a lot until I forgot to play one day and my streak of 55 days in a row correct was broken. I am very much a problem solver and like those type of mysteries.

[Philheybrookbay1 247]

For my sins I'm a football secretary for my local step 5 non league side. It's a tough gig with all the paperwork but I got recognised as a making the club the most friendly to visit and I've got some brilliant friends as a result as far as Bristol out of it. 

 

With the players - sometimes I have to be tough and it can be like herding ferrets around an assault course but it's mostly good. I don't sack the managers - leave that to our chairlady who can be brutal if needed! 

[Master Obit 831]

On 25/06/2024 at 00:16, ladyfiona said:

I forgot another hobby:

 

Sudoko and other word puzzles (also jigsaw puzzles). I did do Wordle a lot until I forgot to play one day and my streak of 55 days in a row correct was broken. I am very much a problem solver and like those type of mysteries.

I love a sudoku! I actually wrote my dissertation on sudoku mathematics. 

[Master Obit 831]

13 hours ago, Philheybrookbay1 said:

For my sins I'm a football secretary for my local step 5 non league side. It's a tough gig with all the paperwork but I got recognised as a making the club the most friendly to visit and I've got some brilliant friends as a result as far as Bristol out of it. 

 

With the players - sometimes I have to be tough and it can be like herding ferrets around an assault course but it's mostly good. I don't sack the managers - leave that to our chairlady who can be brutal if needed! 

 

Yes sometimes you have to be really tough with the football lads. Mmmmm.

[The Great Cornholio 902]

My hobbies/interests are as follows:

 

-I'm a bit of a motorhead, my prized possession is my CLA Mercedes. 

-I am an expert in Star Wars lore.

-Watching cartoons like South Park and Beavis and Butthead etc (obvs from my profile).

-I also enjoy boxing, swimming, long walks etc.

[Master Obit 831]

8 minutes ago, The Great Cornholio said:

My hobbies/interests are as follows:

 

-I'm a bit of a motorhead, my prized possession is my CLA Mercedes. 

-I am an expert in Star Wars lore.

-Watching cartoons like South Park and Beavis and Butthead etc (obvs from my profile).

-I also enjoy boxing, swimming, long walks etc.

My avatar enjoys boxing as well. Every time I get a box, he puts himself in it.

 

I was about to say that I enjoyed the last activity there, then I realised that I had misread the last word.

[The Great Cornholio 902]

37 minutes ago, Master Obit said:

I was about to say that I enjoyed the last activity there, then I realised that I had misread the last word.

Oh yeah that too, even better when you bring a friend!

[Handrejka 1,904]

I am not sure what my talents are. I have a reputation among my colleagues for being able to read hard to decipher handwriting but I put that down to being older than them and more used to seeing handwriting. 

My interests mainly centre around collecting things, postcards mostly but other things too. I enjoy writing to pen-pals, I go to local  creative writing and philosophy groups. I like playing mah-jong on-line though I am awful at it. 

One interest of mine which may surprise people is cryptozoology.  I don't necessarily believe in it, but still find it fascinating. 

[Toast 16,143]

I can ring church bells.  Which is probably slightly unusual.  I wouldn't really claim it as a talent as I haven't done it for ages.

I could only ring the simpler stuff as "method" ringing is complicated mathematical patterns and my brain can't process it quick enough. 

[Handrejka 1,904]

3 minutes ago, Toast said:

I can ring church bells.  Which is probably slightly unusual.  I wouldn't really claim it as a talent as I haven't done it for ages.

I could only ring the simpler stuff as "method" ringing is complicated mathematical patterns and my brain can't process it quick enough. 

 

I have always quite fancied having a go at that. 

[Toast 16,143]

13 hours ago, Handrejka said:

I have always quite fancied having a go at that. 

 

It takes a bit of time and practice to master the technique.  There are two different strokes which alternate - you pull on the tail end of the rope, then catch the sally (the woolly bit) as it comes down and pull on that.  The bell is mouth upwards when you start and it turns in a full circle when you pull,  clockwise and then back again anti-clockwise. Once it's going, its own momentum helps send it round, so you don't have to be that strong to ring a fairly heavy bell.

[Master Obit 831]

I used to do bellringing in a church. Unfortunately, the vicar found out and banned my friend and I from ever going back. I was quite disappointed because I really wanted a go on the organ.

[ladyfiona 2,589]

Does anyone collect Beanie Babies? Mum just found my vintage collection in the attic and i'm currently making a word document for how much they each sell on Ebay, lol.

 

[Sir Creep 7,070]

On 27/07/2024 at 11:47, ladyfiona said:

Does anyone collect Beanie Babies? Mum just found my vintage collection in the attic and i'm currently making a word document for how much they each sell on Ebay, lol.

 

Back in 1995 or so I was given a red crab beanie baby because I’m a Cancer (save the remarks).  My soon to be ex expressed liking it, and so I said sure take it (on her way out the door).  Around a couple years later when the beanie baby boom really took off, I discovered my crab was one of the original 9 beanie babies, “Digger”, and was valued at $900 US. To be fair, I’m certain she had zero knowledge of the value either, it was just cute. 

 

[ladyfiona 2,589]

For those into coin collecting, you might like this. We found a load of old/foreign coins in the loft which must have been my grandfather's collection.

 

Some I took pictures of to show you:

 

Spoiler

 

We're not sure what language/country the first coin comes from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Clorox Bleachman 2,435]

22 minutes ago, ladyfiona said:

We're not sure what language/country the first coin comes from.

 

Google Lens tells me it's a 1960s one-baht coin from Thailand. That'll be our old foe Bumhole Adultparty Bhumibol Adulyadej.

[Paul Bearer 6,102]

I used to have quite a few of the ones you have. Long, long gone now though. Probably lost through various house moves. 

[theoldlady 2,305]

On 27/07/2024 at 17:47, ladyfiona said:

Does anyone collect Beanie Babies? Mum just found my vintage collection in the attic and i'm currently making a word document for how much they each sell on Ebay, lol.

 

I did not collect them, but a friend in the USA used to collect them. She wanted me to try to find Britannia Bear for her here in Norway — we never had Beanie Babies here so she never got it — from me anyway. Later I found out it was worth a lot of money and she thought she could get it cheap in Europe and sell it high in the USA (this was a long time ago though). It is worth a look anyway. 

[Master Obit 831]

6 hours ago, ladyfiona said:

For those into coin collecting, you might like this. We found a load of old/foreign coins in the loft which must have been my grandfather's collection.

 

Some I took pictures of to show you:

 

  Hide contents

 

We're not sure what language/country the first coin comes from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An interesting little accumulation - please share more!