Asklemmy

Seems like every hobby is too obscure for most to care at the level I do. Sim racing, rtlsdr, self hosting, ANY kind of motorsports, home automation, blogging, DND, video games... At the surface these are not too obscure but I find very few people in my day to day life that care about them in detailed way

Marxism

I collect wrist watches and intend on learning watch repair soon ish

Fixing small things. My friends or family need something fixed that doesn't require a professional. I like figuring out how to fix things or at least providing a temporary solution. I do it because I'm helping someone, also I'm building my skill set. A basic search of answers and videos teaching me how to do it properly most times is easy to find. If not I find a way to create a safe temporary solution until they can have one come in. Very fulfilling, especially if you like a challenge.

Sim racing isn't necessarily too quirky or obscure but I do it to maintain some sort of maybe possibly ADHD. Doing laps around a track really helps with getting myself used to focusing.

It's especially helpful because each lap around a race track tends to be only 1 - 2 minutes, which is a relatively easy amount of time to keep focus at any one point in time, but keeping it up for consecutive laps and remaining consistent as time builds up in small increments is a different kind of joy to me.

I am something of a skills collector: Bicycles (roadie/former amateur racer), cars (mods/engines/paint), composite prototyping, metal machining, home foundry metal casting, embedded programming, analog and digital electronics design, reverse engineering, KiCAD, PCB etching, motor controls, python, CPP, Forth, woodworking, Linux desktop, Linux kernel deep dives, computing hardware, open source software, Dune, Asimov, SciFi, astronomy, telescopes, designing and building optics, 3D printing, CAD design, FreeCAD, Blender, cooking better than the best restaurant foods, Asian cuisine, psychology

I am a generalist, but a swiss army knife, I know about and do a lot, but I am like the worst scissors you've ever attempted to carry and use. I can get the job done, but am well aware I am not a master of any of these.

I build and optimize molecules using computational chemistry software for fun.

Sim racing.

It’s difficult to talk about it without people dismissing it as just a video game with a steering wheel.

Hah, I like your hobby actually.

I've actually managed to upgrade Cistercian Numerals from decimal to hexadecimal, while still being backwards compatible.

https://youtu.be/9p55Qgt7Ciw

In addition to general learning which might be my favourite, I have multiple.

Maybe the most niche is a historical reenactment and historical costuming. Latter usually based on extant garments or garment finds. I try to get as close to the original in techniques, tools and materials using the best evidence I can find.

I also plan things that will never happen. I decorate houses and apartments on paper. I make extensive plans for travel that I can never afford unless I win in Lottory. Which I even never play.

I spend absolutely too much time playing with spreadsheets.

Handspinning. I do a lot of fiber crafts.

I'll say me writting my homebrew DnD world. It goes in pair with me using ObsidianMD, I love the tool i'm using and i'm having fun specifically in the making of polical cities more than in the making of combat senarios. My mom knows about it and sometimes asks, Dad finds it stupid, and I don't talk about it with anyone I used to atlk about what I write to two friends, but they are coming to my session in september so now I have no one esle to bring it up

Writing fanfiction

Similar to another reply about shorthand, I practice with my own steno-typing keyboard I 3D printed as a hobby. I'm steno-typing this very message! (Very slowly)

Lockpicking tends to be my most misunderstood hobby/interest.

listening to number stations

Running. Ok, I know it's not obscure, however, if you say you're a runner, or that it's a hobby, you're frequently met with hostility, or people trying to talk you out of it. The amount of times people have said "running is bad for you, you need to stop" is insane.

I love plushies. I have an ever growing collection and love just browsing plushies of all sorts when I'm online. I just really like cute things. But as a 28 year old man with a beard, it's safe to say I'm not exactly the spiting image of a plushie collector, and most people are definitely not interested in talking at length about it with me.

I race RC cars.

Seems simple enough but there’s always follow up questions that inevitably take the conversation from interesting to ‘in the weeds’.

!micromobility@lemmy.world is my latest obsession: Friends, family, and colleagues are tired of hearing me talk about ebikes.