embedded programming, i love everything about it except cluttering my desk with electronics, breadboards and also wiring stuff to my desktop is annoying, or using UART to debug a microcontroller is annoying
love it, feel like life is too short and I can’t enjoy this one to the extent I want to
Just go work for some weird robotics startup or thelike. I have fond memories of my office desk slowly turning into a full blown electronics lab
Gem cutting. Once you have a good machine it doesn’t cost a lot of money for raw gem quality rough.
I want to cut synthetics since I don’t like the idea of a hobbyist screwing around with non-renewable gems… Also synthetics are flawless and can have cool color shifting patterns like ametrine (amethyst/citrine) or even watermelon colored corundums.
I just want to make shiny jems to look at :( I want to cut giant Portuguese cut cubic zirconia and square cut color shifters :(
It’s like $2000-5000 for a decent lapidary setup… And that’s not counting abrasive wheels.
I often make the same argument against myself for limited resources but ultimately, if the resource is affordable, then it probably isn’t rare on the scale that hobbyists would affect it. But then there’s helium, which is somehow not anywhere near abundant enough for the low price they charge to fill a balloon. While hobbyists still wouldn’t affect the supply that much, I don’t like supporting balloons anymore. Weird hill to die on for 95% of people or greater.
Yeah I know and for certain gems like garnet or corundum we’re literally never running out. It’s things like tanzanite (my fave!) or emerald that are far more worrisome. With industrialized mining we can yank it all out of the ground way faster than we can find new deposits.
Tanzanite might only have the weird and oddly specific conditions necessary for it to form in this one rift in Tanzania.
Does it have a practical use? If yes, I agree with your reservations. If no, then someone is going to buy it to either look at or sell to someone else to look at. May as well buy it direct and preserve it respectfully. But I understand and I do appreciate the group-benefit mentality
I guess it’s an emotional reservation. It would be a bit like feeling guilty for eating passenger pigeons and contributing to their extinction, especially if you hunted them and left some to rot because it was so cheap and easy to get more. Once they’re extinct you can’t help but look back and wince or blame yourself for being part of the problem.
On the other hand, a skilled lapidary can cut a tanzanite with way more care and attention than some commercial gem cutters that are concerned with stone weight and production volume. A lot of big gems end up as windowed trash, where the center of the gem can be seen through like a glass window. No sparkle or reflections because the gem cutter preserved gem weight to charge more at the cost of beauty, and also making the gem lose even more mass later on if it needs to be recut to have proper angles.
If I screw a natural stone up I would feel horrible though. Synthetics are like “who cares you can buy them by the pound”
Parachuting bc I might die
Ham Radio. The equipment is expensive and it takes time to learn. Then there’s the license – my body rejects taking exams after six years of college 😅
3D printing. Part of the issue is my main filament-based project needs to be ABS so I don’t have much interest in a starter printer. I also have enough finicky devices that I really don’t want to figure out another. So I landed on the prusa mk3 when that was still the current model and havent committed the money to it. It’s not like I’m starved for solutions given that I can make widgets from wood or aluminum. I even ramped up my steel fab capability with a nice welder that cost half a prusa. So buying a printer has been on a perpetual backburner.
Plus I know solidworks well and the work flows in every other cad infuriates me.
Many public libraries these days have 3D printers, and some of them are pretty nice. You could always check out your local ones to see if they have one you can use for your project ideas to avoid the investment.
Cross country horse eventing. She’s too old, and I can’t afford the expenses.
I really want to do archery. It’s not expensive to buy a starter recurve bow kit, but I’m worried I would buy it and never use it because of my procrastinating nature.
I also really want to join a martial arts studio, I found a place that looks like it teaches some interesting styles, but my fear of being the new guy makes it hard to put myself out there. One day though, one day I will do these things.
I’ve taught Jiujitsu for 20 years. I love it when new people show up and legitimately want to learn.
Any place that’s even halfway decent would have the same opinion.
Go check it out. Karate, Judo, Jiujitsu, doesn’t matter. Just stay away from woowoo places that pretend it’s magic, like Akido.
I kinda have this place picked out that teaches a bunch of different styles. I’m mostly interested in their blended class. Actually talking in this thread got me thinking about it again so I’m gonna go soon. First class is free so nothing to lose.
arts that come out of jujitsu like judo and akido have falls and that is an incredibly practical thing to learn. hopkido does it to but its very limited roll. jujitsu itself had the most with forward falls (which fyi is scary) and turn arounds.
Gaming. While I loved the arcade as a kid, I just cant seem to get into any modern game. Seemed like the more advanced they got the less I was interested. The last game I tried was RDR2 and gave up on the second mission. Just bored to tears.
Sounds like you need games that focus more on the gameplay loop and less on the presentation/story. Like someone else said, indies are kings in this regard.
Unfortunately I’d have a hard time recommending anything because they can be so wildly different in style.
I feel that. It feels like many modern games put in features instead of pkay testing.
The modern indie retro game scene is absolutely great, right now, though.
I recommend starting with “Donut DoDo” or “Rogue Legacy 2” and then look for related titles, if you enjoy either.
Edit: Or “Horizon Chase Turbo”. It’s a great refinement on classic arcade racers.
I can only really stick at sim racing these days.
No story, no fetch quests, no save scumming or p2w bullshit.
Well open world sims might not be for you.
Arcade titles tend to have simpler stories and more immediate juicier primary gameplay loops. A very arcade-y game I like is Unrailed!. It’s always hilarious with a group of friends. You might also check out Vampire Survivors, it’s kind of a reverse bullet hell.
yacht racing. polo. anything else that to do I would need to be wealthy. not that I want to do them I just want the cash.
FWIW apparently for polo it’s the people that own the horses that need to be wealthy, because horses, and you have to have a lot of horses. The riders are usually doing it for fun and/or because they’re good enough to get asked back.
This is going off the Jon Huertas episode of Once We Were Spacemen podcast so you know, grain of salt.
yeah I only thought of it because of one of the bs supplement with john walsh who is like. ooh after excersising my polo ponies Im in pain. my thought is. real great opening for making me think about you being like me. your polo ponies.
Falconry. I mean, it looks bad ass but then you have to acquire maintain an avian predator that is expensive and likely hates you.
Dude, yes. This has been a secret wish of mine ever since I found out it existed, but I would have no idea where to start. It would be so cool though.
Blacksmithing. Just don’t really have the room in the backyard.
Not one day goes by where i think about just going to a smith and begging him to teach me his craft
If you think about it a closet is really just a burned down yard anyway
Start small with silver smithing!
Same, I even met with a few smiths and really enjoyed the process. Ultimately, not enough time/space/money to get into it, so I just do chain mail instead. Makes a good stim.
I wish I had the time to get involved with the hobbies I already have
I don’t think I’ve had a decent chunk of a few hours of time with the energy to actually be creative in like a year now…
I hope I’m on the other side of this soon, life is supposed to be for living
Swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck.
Oh, man. Why not? It’s great. Everyone should try it.
((Hopefully obvious) sarcasm, here.)
Magic the Gathering. Seems fun but I can’t justify new video game prices for individual cards
You could play MTG: Arena for free, but I’d understand if online play wasn’t your thing.
You could also have a look at pauper decks, which are focused on being very affordable.
I must also admit that, as a longtime player, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the hobby right now due to how the game is managed and the insane amount of releases they put out.
I can’t keep up at all either. I still watch content about it but I haven’t bought cards in a while. The release pace is insane.
I gave up on Arena too because a few months without playing results in most your decks being unusable due to updates to the formats and often new mechanics to learn.
Neither can I, and I have 9 Commander decks. Very rarely do I spend more than a few dollars on a single card, and even then it’s been maybe $15 at most.
Those cards that are that expensive are good (provided they aren’t just special printings of cards that are otherwise less than a dollar), but they’re absolutely not necessary in casual formats. Most of the time, there’s a <$1 card serves the same purpose. There’s even a format called Pauper where only commons are allowed.
Standard is where it gets excessively overpriced, and it’s a big reason for its decline in players over the past few years. If you want to play it, play Arena, which is F2P.
I have an aversion to spending more than a few dollars on a single card and rarely buy any singles. I do buy boosters to fill my collection out and just make decks out of whatever I have on hand.
At work a long time ago they played mtg with fake cards, like home printed.
I don’t know if they had the same or whatever extra rules surrounded it, but I sure do know that the scarcity thing is just a dark pattern to rob players of their money.
I mean, you don’t have to buy those absurdly expensive single cards to have fun. I bought my first cards in 1997 and have been playing on and off since then. I have only ever bought pre made decks or booster packs, not once have I even been tempted to buy some stupidly expensive single card.
You can buy a starter pack that comes with two decks for you and a friend to learn to play with for like £15 - 20.
I won’t deny some of the shit it out of control expensive but you don’t need any of that trash to both learn to play and have fun with it!
The joke about drugs being cheaper isn’t a joke. The joke is the pain your wallet feels
I joking tell parents to get their kids into Warhammer 40K, Magic the Gathering or PC gaming, that way they wont be able to afford drugs.
If you don’t care about tournaments and want to play with your closer friends then you can all build simpler decks with budget restrictions or you can even prepare a “cube” which is just basically an independant game that uses MtG rulesets. There’s tons of cheap cards.
Proxies my friend.
I’m in this same sort of boat. It’s not that I really want to play but I have a friend who wants me to play and I’m happy to go along with it. So like you, I can’t justify the prices for something that I might (and probably) won’t even like.
What I’ve found is what are called “proxys”. Basically you can just print the cards you want for free off the internet. I’m sure there are groups out there that aren’t approving of playing with proxies but if your group falls more on the side of playing and having fun rather than collecting and you’re not trying to pass off proxies as real cards then you should be fine.
It seems to me like a great way to get started and see if it’s something you like without much investment at all
Yeah. I limit myself to sealed tournaments, Jumpstart, and a casual commander deck.
Not everyone needs to do the tournament thing. There is a format called booster draft where knowing how to build a deck matters as much as how well you actually play. But it works like poker in the sense that you buy in with a sealed booster pack and you keep the cards at the end. Depending on the local format, it can be winner takes all.
MTG is a complete meme game. There is so much OP stuff it doesnt matter about certain cards becaus you can just play a different format.
HEMA. The gear is expensive and the nearest club is over an hour away
