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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   747 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 28, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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It is the day after Thanksgiving; and so I will oblige my Christmas-obsessed wife by bringing up the Christmas decorations from the basement. As I walk through the basement, I see the detritus of many things I tried and abandoned. Mottizens: what hobbies or activities have you given a good honest try, and concluded: "this isn't for me?"

For me we have, for example:

  • Golf: Tennis is the only sport to which I have ever devoted myself. However, a few years ago, I spent a large chunk of time thinking about golf, taking lessons, hitting balls at the driving range etc. Then I picked up a very aggravating hip injury that healed slowly. By the time I was back to normal, my desire to do anything relating to golf had dissipated to zero. I think with this one, I realized that starting at a later age, I would never realistically be able to put in the hours to hit an acceptable skill floor. Worth noting - in contrast to some other ball sports, I seem to have no natural aptitude for this one.

  • Photography & drawing: I took classes in each of these within the last five years. I do take my DSLR along if I go somewhere interesting, and I actually think I can take some good pictures; but that's all. I never come up on a random day off and think, "I'll get the camera out and go take pictures of things." Drawing is similar except I never did acquire facility at it. In general, I don't think I'm a very visual person; none of the hobbies that I have kept involve creating anything with visually pleasing outputs.

  • Scuba diving: I did all the classroom and pool portions of the PADI cert, and then got bored with it and stopped. I think this is just because I live in the Midwest; if I lived by a large body of water maybe I'd carry on, but as it stands, it's too inconvenient to pursue this. But I also don't think I was as into it as my peers in the class. As is, I suppose, typical for a hobby you try and drop, I only thought, "This is kind of neat," not, "I love this!"

Good post!

  • Astronomy: I bought a cheap telescope some time after graduating from high school. I put it together and had fun realizing I could look at the neighbors really, really closely. However, looking at the moon didn't go so well. I don't remember if it was blurry or if there was no picture at all or what, but I remember being dissatisfied, and the lens changes I could think of only made the problem different. I think I resolved to look further into the matter sometime, but in practice, the telescope has sat in the garage ever since. I wonder what I should do with it.
  • 3D Printing: I got really excited about making a FGC 9, so I bought an Ender 3 to make it happen. But the assembly got me. I spent a couple hours putting it together, but eventually, I had no idea how the wheels were supposed to be mounted. I took a picture and sent it in to reddit, and they were helpful, but they also said that I had marked the wheels up and that I now had to order new ones, because those ones were gonna hitch up when printing stuff. I ordered them, but as I waited for them, I lost my motivation, and that, too, just sat there. The outcome was different from the telescope, though. Because it was sitting in my room, I had a hard time looking at my failure every day, so I offered it to my geology professor, who I was pretty good friends with. I sold it to him for cheap, something like $40, and gave him all my filament. When I next checked in on him, he told me he actually had gotten it to work on some long Sunday. "I kept thinking 'there's no way I have the part for this', but every time, I would find the part in the box," he said. The difficulties he had putting it together made me think I never would have been able to do it myself; he described needing to shim it and measure things carefully. His wife was quite thrilled he got it working, though, and immediately started getting him to print out miniatures and card holders and whatnot for her tabletop gaming stuff. Finally, he handed me the only thing I requested, the only thing I had interest in besides guns, three really loud 3D printed whistles. While I didn't manage to put the 3D printer together myself, I do think it had a nice ending.

I found that a good pair of binoculars was a better entry point to amateur astronomy than a cheap telescope. They are more portable, you can still get nice views of things like Jupiter's moons or the Andromeda galaxy, and they are handy for other hobbies like birdwatching if you get bored and want a change.

Sounds nice! Do you have a recommendation?

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