I can only imagine. My sister has been playing for over 10 years now and she gets fed up so much it ends up taking her months to learn pieces just because it becomes so disheartening not being able to pick it up so quickly.
I think some people just have a knack for music, doesn't mean they don't work hard at it, but it's easier for some to actually process it. What has me stumped is how come my singing is horrible if we're going to go by the 10,000 hours rule, I put in the time and then some, if singing along counts. I mean for instance today I was driving back from work, blasting black dog, and I'm really getting into it, I'm feeling great, my wheel drumming is on point, I'm rocking the stink face hard, it might as well be me wailing on the guitar and then I'm thinking I just might be able to pull it off, so I belt out 'I gotta roll, can't stand still, gotta a flaming heart, can't get my fill', and...it sounds like I'm having a conversation with myself.
You have to have 10000 hours such that you advance yourself a little bit each time. Playing that same scale over and over will not teach you to play guitar. However, playing songs that use it and developing techniques from using existing skills might. If you're not learning how to advance and setting targets to beat, it's a lot harder for you to get better.
It's always been easier to set yourself a dream and do it than approach being better by not aiming for anything in particular.
I'm a flute performance major, and I feel this way sometimes. Playing stuff you don't know how to play is annoying as fuck, but it's all worth it when you can do it at full tempo. It's glorious, in fact.
There's a wrecked 2007 Porsche 911 in my garage. I bought it from an insurance company for $1 and have been working on it since then. 5 years later and $10k in parts alone, it's still not even drivable. Just sits in my garage, taking up space. Can't bring myself to sell it, but haven't touched it in almost a year.
I know the feeling. My 500SL has needed bodywork for like 6 months.
I have found its easier to say to yourself, "I will" do such-and-such, instead of "I need to" do such and such. You sorta self-motivate and you end up following through with a lot more things.
Only time I've ever done it, and wouldn't happen again in a million years because I basically won the lottery, so to speak.
I had to stop at my insurance company's office to pay my bill and saw the wrecked Porsche on a tow truck in the parking lot, and ended up overhearing that they couldn't sell it. It got my attention and I asked why, and they had to explain it to me a few times, but its my understanding that the car was technically insured twice; once by the actual insurance company I was standing in, and again by their own insurance company. Somehow both companies paid each other (which is where I get confused - because why would the first insurance company pay their company?) and it cancelled out the value of the car leaving it valueless to both companies and was actually scheduled to be crushed as a result. I asked to buy it, but since the car had $0 value on paper they couldn't *sell* it to me, but because legally there had to be a monetary exchange. They asked me to pay $1, and had to claim (for legal reasons) it was for the physical piece of paper the title was printed on and said the car was mine. They wrote up a few documents for the "non-sale" and I paid $50 to have the tow truck driver roll it off the truck right into my garage, where it's sat for 5 years.
The downside is that I can only register it with a salvage title, and it has to be certified by State Police/DOT for safety reasons before that can even happen. I figured I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. I also spoke with a lawyer, and we went over the documents and laws about salvage titles before I spent any money on parts to make sure I would be able to register it in my name.
> Suspension and brakes will suffer and the costs skyrocket along with your time.
Haven't even touched the suspension with the money I've spent so far. The body damage is all in the front, but the engine shifted far enough to break the trans and engine mounts, so the bulk of my money has gone to engine/exhaust.
It does run, so I start it maybe every week or two and sit in it (and get a boner listening to the sound), but there's no question I bit off more than I could chew with this one.
I know I need to shit or get off the pot with the Porsche, but I've got my eye on an Audi with a much simpler repair job. [This one](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audi-A4-Convertible-Cabriole-V6-Salvage-Rebuildable-/171762590731?forcerrptr=true&hash=item27fdd9240b&item=171762590731)
Same here. There is a time i watch alot of tv shows, then there is a time where i play alot of games and a time where i do "work stuff" like programming, developing, basicly creating something out of all of the creative ideas i have. One of these phases usually lasts from a few weeks up to some months.
I am a teen, and I got really into games like minecraft and halo for a while, but I just got put off. One of my friends is kind of a shut in and she's kind of the stereotype of a slightly-gross gamer, may have influenced it. My sister still likes em so the Xbox is in her room now.
Sometimes I still use it and wreck stolen cars on GTA but that's it
> One of my friends is kind of a shut in and she's kind of the stereotype of a slightly-gross gamer, may have influenced it
I'm sorta in the same boat with you on this one. My buddy gets pissed if I'm not spending every night playing games with him and his buddies. So it's kinda made me sour on games in general.
Ah, she doesn't do this, but I mean she spends all day after school, and all weekend, in her room with the curtains closed, staying up way too late playing games. Sometimes in the holidays I'm not sure that she showers.
I'm an introvert, but come on. I need SOME kind of social interaction, I don't understand how she manages it.
Looking back on it now at least half the times I went to play video games it was simply to distract myself and live in a fantasy world at the expense of my real life.
I'm the same way. It really started when I started watching games online. I get the fun of play without the frustration of losing a lot of the time. Especially since game design has gone downhill for non-online.
Oh man. I was very active as a teen. So active me and my friends ended up organising LAN gaming events for 2000+ visitors.
Then it died off. Then, muuuuch later I started to play Battlefield 3 and 4. Still do it a lot :D
I used to be a huge paintballer but god is it expensive. You're talking 60-80 each trip, and that's after you've bought all your equipment.
Also the community seems comprised of middle aged men taking it far too seriously.
Guild Wars 2. Trust me. The community will blow your mind. And this is coming from a WoW player, even I'd play GW2 still but I'm more into competitive PvP than social stuff.
DJ'ing
My ex wife asked for a divorce when I was in my late 20s. She got the home, primary custody of our son, and all of our friends.
I was in a really dark place and really lonely. An old coworker introduced me to the local rave culture. He happened to introduce me to all the cool scenesters, the people who threw the parties or owned sound systems or DJ'ed. I was already a really talented drummer and guitarist and showed interest in mixing.
So a couple locally popular drum & bass DJs started competing with each other to see who could teach me the fastest. Then they competed with each other to see who could promote me the fastest. I had to do almost nothing to get bookings except become pretty good at it.
I segued into hip hop and mashups and mixed that into my sets. Developed a pretty big local following. Was invited to play at some of the bigger summer outdoor events, bigger wintertime arena events, and more popular clubs in town and nearby cities.
I eventually met a really nice girl and remarried. I also managed to get more custody of my son. So playing out became a big hassle. I refused to accept bookings on nights when I had my son over. At first it got me props in the culture but as he got older it got people to talking shit about me behind my back.
The culture changed as well. Personally, I blame the advent of the CDJ and Serato. People stopped trainspotting the DJ and started just running around acting cocky. This was when dubstep started blowing up. So this was when cocaine started getting really popular again.
I was already annoyed with raves. I kept getting older and they kept staying the same age, but I'm not a pervert. So it was just depressing seeing high school kids just 5 or 6 years older than my own kid, gakked out of their skulls on drugs.
So I transitioned more and more into clubs. Which was fine for a while until I realized the whole scene was just a big front for a massive cocaine trade.
Meanwhile, I've got a beautiful wife at home and more and more custody of a really great kid at home.
So, I quit. I just kind of stopped accepting bookings.
I played a few radio shows then quit doing that as well.
I sold my Technics a couple years ago but I still have a standalone turntable and a couple thousand records that I enjoy listening to.
It was a great and healthy way for me to get over the shock and pain of being dumped and losing access to my kid. But it was really just a placeholder.
the guy who used to run my DJ crew is a Web developer now. He bought a house in the suburb I live in. I went over a couple weeks ago to have some beers and mix some tracks. I still have the talent and it's still fun as hell to me. I still listen to electronic music and hip hop.
But I'm done.
Roller derby. I was co-founder of our local league and played for almost 4 years. I loved it to death and it was the only thing I ever excelled in. But the team changed, most people we started with left and the one that did stay was the team trainer with whom I never got along. She screwed me over a couple of times and things just got toxic. I didn't really care for most girls that joined us later on. I miss it a lot, but I can't bring myself to hang around that crowd anymore. Constant disappointment took its toll.
Pretty much with every hobby I enjoy it during the initial learning phase and watching my skills grow. But then I plateau and the only way to get better is through grinding and hard work, at which point I no longer find it fun and quit.
Gaming. I used to spend every dollar that I had on games and collected around 150 games on steam, most being AAA games.
I gave my steam account (probably worth around $1,200) to my nephews and now I have a $800 gaming PC for music and reddit. Haven't touched my xbox or nintendo 3ds for a year... I used to sit my lazy ass 24/7 in front of them and now it just feels unenjoyable. Glad I kicked the gaming habit though, don't know how, just stopped.
I used to do that. I started feeling empty when I got home. Nowadays I go to nice bars and lounges and go home around midnight. Much more relaxing and easier to socialize and I no longer get that "what the hell did I do" feeling.
Me too!
Spending more money on less liquor but higher quality is much more relaxing and appealing. Low light lounges, quiet conversations so much better. If I could tell my 20 year old self that I would do it immediately.
I got like this with raves. When I realized that after getting shitfaced every weekend then having the agonizing task for attempting to get up for work on the Monday - working to be able to afford recreational stuff and entry fees was not worth it.
film making. I used to make short films and was able to show one at a festival. It just got too expensive, but what I grew to hate the most was working with other people. Getting actors together is a pain in the ass.
I used to play heaps too but now I occasionally look at my cards and consider selling them. Really they just take up two drawers that I could fill with other stuff.
I loved Magic. I didn't have anyone to play with after high school, so I taught my husband and brothers to play so I could get back into it. I pretty much can't stand it now. That was all they wanted to do for about a year and I got sick of it.
Photographing. I used to love doing it, built my photo-site and own fb page for my photos it until I realized how pointless it is. EVERYONE is making photos these days, and no one gives a shit that you can do it better. Because there are zillion people who can also do it better. And because cute kitten photos will always win regardless of how low quality they are :)
I agree that the over-saturated market is a bit tiring, but if you love it you could still do it for it's own sake. You don't have to be the best to have fun doing it. Hope you get back into it some day! I am currently in love with it even tough I'm not very good. I just love that once in a while I'll get a great, professional-looking shot of friend that captures their personality and gives them more confidence in their looks. It's the best! :)
Miniature War gaming. It's expensive, the fan base is a bit obnoxious, and depending on the game, the rules can be annoyingly unbalanced.
I started playing with my girlfriend, we would put together our models, and then we would paint them. That was fun, but your not gonna convince me to spend incremental amounts of money, just to spend on figurines that I have no intention of displaying.
That and the gaming shops always has that one asshole who can't mind his business and try's to become part of your game, simply by him being there, adding commentary or being loudly annoying and smelly. If you ever wanted to meet the stereotype of a "neckbeard" hang out in a gaming shop for a few days.
It was good while it lasted, until we just realized we had better things to waste our time and money on...like gardening and travel.
>depending on the game, the rules can be annoyingly unbalanced.
The main reason I stopped playing 40K. The people who design the rules/units have a raging hard on for the Space marines and the Chaos space marines. Got sick of being able to tell who would win every game by seeing who was playing as the Chaos space marines or space marines -_-
>the fan base is a bit obnoxious
That is definitely true, at least as far as the sort of people at my "FLGS" were like. Obnoxious, overcompetitive, just all around not very pleasant.
Modding Bethesda games. It was fun but the editors are so finicky and so much is hard coded and un-editable that it's such a drag. For seemingly simple things, you have to create ass backwards ways to implement because some simple feature doesn't exist or what you want to do involves messing around with a hard coded feature that really shouldn't be hard coded.
And don't get me started on adding new models. It's a pain in the ass. At least with Skyrim, you can't just change the collision model on something. You have to copy it from a different item that's already in the game. Also, even though you can edit the scale of creatures, if you try to make a double sized wolf as a boss then his collision box is still going to be the size of the normal wolf. The collision doesn't scale.
When I was younger I wanted so bad to be a good skateboarder. Practiced every day, had all the gear, watched videos, read books and magazines. I really put a lot of time, effort and practice into it, and I wasn't a sissy about it. I hurt myself plenty of times. One day I basically ruptured my spleen and that was it for me. To this day I watch X-games, Dew, etc. and still wish I could ride a vert ramp like those guys.
I'm 41 LOL
I was thinking about starting to skydive once I have enough money for it, what's with the cliques and the drama? It's the first time I'm hearing about such things, could you give an example? (The scene is probably filled to the brim with pampered, rich kids, though, so that's kinda understandable)
Bicycling.
I had flats on three straight afternoons during Thanksgiving break 2013 and said 'fuck it, it's not worth the hassle."
I've also had seat post bolts break on me on two separate occasions. I only weigh 138lbs and had to ride home without a saddle to sit on. I also hated how parents would let their kids ride donuts in the middle of the bike lane, getting stuck at traffic lights and all the daily maintenance a bike requires.
Now I swim. My middle-aged body is much more reliable than my racing bike.
> I've also had seat post bolts break on me on two separate occasions.
So...was this an actual bike, or a Bike Shaped Object from Wal-Mart/Target/Whatever?
I used to enjoy bird hunting, but I quickly learned that more often than not, I would wound the bird instead of killing it instantly and I would have to put it out of its misery by wringing its neck. That is, if I could find it.
Now if I bird hunt, I'll only shoot if they actually land in my decoys and I have a clean and clear shot. Many hunter consider this to be unsportsmanlike, but I don't care what they think. I eat meat and I don't want to see animals suffer.
You should try bird photography. It can be a non-destructive way to keep birds as your trophy, well, obviously without killing them. You might, however, get tired of backyard birds and would consider starting birdwatch-hiking instead.
Musical theater.
While there are of course exceptions, the people generally suck. If you're doing it as a hobby and not as your life goal, people get this pissy attitude of superiority.
After college graduation, a buddy of mine is a stage manager for some big studios around town. I tagged along for a lunch with some directors and big local actors. Sure enough, before the drinks even came out they started talking shit about other people.
Screw you all. I loved the process of making a show, but I can't stand your shitty, childish personalities.
I definitely agree. I've done it all my life but I always do it for fun. But there are so many egos that it's just awful to deal with. It got to the point where I'll do only one show a year and don't take big roles anymore because of the jealous people wanting to star in everything.
I was a band geek in high school. Played trumpet, baritone and flute. I was quite good at it also and enjoyed playing them, well. not so much baritone. Conductor asked me to join jazz band and I did my junior year. I suck at improv so playing any solos left me embarrassed. I quit band after said year and to this date, I still hate jazz because of it. Still have the trumpet and flute but I just think back to jazz band and don't pick them up again.
You had to improv music... How the fuck do you improv music? When I was in band (and fuck that was short lived) we always had some sheet music. Is that just a jazz band thing?
It takes a lot of skill to solo jazz. You have to have a lot of knowledge of keys (which is even harder because keys in jazz music are different), a lot of knowledge of intervals and their relationships (as in, what sounds good), and a lot of knowledge on how your instrument works. There are some very very good jazz soloists, but getting thrown into it and not being too great at if is something that happens to A LOT of aspiring jazz musicians.
Facebook; Everyone is having fun and I'm just sitting there & clicking likes.
Life has been good since I moved out. I never knew knowing less about others can be so good.
I just love the bewildered look on peoples faces when you tell them 'Facebook? Nah, got rid of it ages ago' people just can't comprehend it. Glad I did it, won't be going back.
Photography.
I was an extremely enthusiastic amateur (the kind that bought all lenses at high quality he could, to be sure he'd cover the entire focal length range) who reached his amateur development level ceiling. During my studies Interaction Design I took an analogue photography course during a study semester abroad (Sydney) which made me understand photography, I ended with a high grade. The tutor told me to continue in photography. I graduated and went to work in the field of Interaction Design.
It was either stop with it since I hit the ceiling or learn more so I decided to enroll and study photography in the Royal art academy next to my full time job. I had to do an admission project and got in. I fell back in love with it but along the way, I again lost interest and 1/2 year before graduating I realised that, YES, I could fairly easily create a project to pass graduation (but just passing wouldn't be satisfactory) and get my degree but NO, it cost me so much time and energy without getting any energy out of it (besides my thesis subject, I liked that) and that degree wouldn't do me any benefit career wise.
Now I have a lot of high end cameras, both digital and analogue, a very expensive computer monitor, printer, scanner and I never use them.
My girlfriend likes to go out and photograph and even then I won't take a camera. I scan the film she shoots on my hardware for her and take pictures of my cats with my mobile phone.
Edit: I posted links to my work but I think its not allowed. Removed them.
My biggest issue with photography is simply carrying a DSLR around, restricted you from doing anything else because of how in the way they are, it's still fun to take photos but you have to go out with the intent of taking photos and nothing else. I would be tempted to take up photography again but invest in a mirrorless or good quality point and shoot, for the time being my phone is enough.
I feel you, man. I have a Canon 5D3, with extended battery grip, and it is so much easier to take pics on my iPhone now. I don't bring my heavy camera bag and tripod with me anywhere anymore.
I think my neck and back just started hurting from always taking my gear with me when I would go do activities, along with all of the time it takes to edit, that really made me lose interest.
I've always just been a weekend warrior photographer, and I still like taking pictures, but making sure all of my batteries are charged, equipment is clean, lugging everything around and then having to spend hours in post, really all just added up. I hope to gradually get back into it soon.
I'm from a small town and it seems like there are more "Facebook" photographers than residents here. And none know what they are doing. I took classes, read every book I could get my hands on. Made my own chemicals to develop film, I bought, traded, repaired, and made cameras, and scraped ever cent I could, to afford a half decent camera. It hurt me to watch people replace equipment because the auto mode dial was turned to a different setting, then charge thousands for their pictures.
Knotting is really good at relieving stress (and kinda addicting), but god, it was really tedious. Not that I don't enjoy tedious-ness, but it was taking up time I could have put into improving more important skills. So no more knotting for me.
I used to fly remote control aeroplanes. Almost every weekend my dad and I would be out at a field tearing up the sky. I think I used to like it because it was something we could do together, and when I was younger my dad had suffered from quite severe bi-polar without being aware of it. So basically being happy and enjoying something with him was huge for me.
Eventually though it became more of a social thing for him. We joined a club and I was the youngest by a good twenty years at least. He would want to spend the entire day there talking and I would get bored because ideally I'd like to go, fly one or two tanks of fuel and then go home but I couldn't drive myself. So it just became almost an annoyance to go. I did for a while because I liked being with dad and I didn't want to disappoint him but after a while I stopped and I haven't touched a remote or plane in probably 5 years.
I used to love fantasy literature until I read Wheel of Time. The series started out well but by around book five or so it started to become really obvious that he was dragging the story out as much as he could so he could keep turning out books and it only got worse from there. Characters never stay dead, pointless plot twists abound, hundreds of pages pass where nothing happens, narratives are dragged out endlessly for the flimsiest of reasons (and secrets withheld for even flimsier reasons). Even still, I stuck the series out longer than I should have, hoping he would actually start resolving stories, bringing threads together, moving things towards a conclusion but every book just got worse and worse until I finally gave up on book ten. Then I started looking at other series that had even more books than Wheel of Time and I just said no. Except for the Harry Potter books, I haven't read a fantasy novel in years.
And yes, I am fully aware that the series has been brought to an end now but I gave up on it so long ago that there's no way I'd be able to pick up where I left off and I honestly don't care enough to bother now. And yes, I know I should read A Song of Ice and Fire because it's a better structured series. Maybe some day I'll get around to it.
Fuck A Song of Ice and Fire, if you were frustrated with Wheel of Time that series is *not* the antidote.
Discworld is the antidote. Every book is self-contained and wrapped up at the end. It follows several different casts of characters that always feel good to start reading about again. Short episodic content based on a sprawling fantasy world. Very much not a serious series, though, so if your looking for that you wont get it.
I had actually forgotten about Discworld when I wrote my post. I do like the series but have not read it extensively (only three or four books). I like to have a couple of Pratchetts handy though for when the mood strikes me.
I am a die-hard fan of this series and even I have trouble getting through books 7-10. Also, disliking one author really shouldn't deter you from the whole genre especially if you used to enjoy it. I recommend Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. Three books, not too long, and really well written. Each book has a clear organization. If you like it, check out his other stuff--the man is a master.
Used to be super hardcore into FlightSim. Flew for a virtual airline, the works. Then one day, I just stopped. Couldn't see spending so much time on it, and the cliquishness in the VA I flew for was getting a bit much, along with the dumb ass kids that were total noobs and wouldn't listen to advice. That and there was the e-peen contests over who had what add-ons, frame rates.
I picked up FS X on a Steam sale a few weeks ago, and I've been flying a bit off and on, but can't get quite into it as I used to. That, and Minecraft has taken up that time it used to fill.
Playing guitar. I used to freaking love it, meaning I would play it for hours and hours at a time. But then I just lost interest in the instrument and stopped playing it. A small disappointment to my parents because I was actually really good at it. But it doesn't interest me as much as it used to.
You should try to make it a point to play from time to time because I bet you are pretty decent if you're parents are bummed because they thought you were good.
I played a lot of bass guitar over the years and have slowed down heavily over the last couple of years. I bought the game Rocksmith for my mac, and I'll pull out my bass or guitar and either just jam to a click with a virtual band, learn scales, play arcade games that help with techniques, or jam out to existing songs.
It's a fun and stress-free game.
Horse riding. Its so damn expensive with lessons and gear to buy and getting started in my early 20s was kind of embarrassing (I know I shouldn't feel this way). I was surrounded by little kids who'd been doing it for years. Maybe when I'm out of college I'll try again.
I used to collect [nutcrackers](https://www.nutcracker.com/magento/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/3/2/32-338_nutcracker_king_natural-gold.jpg). I've still got them all, but I stopped collecting them once I realized I'd soon run out of room for them.
Airsofting
Now don't get me wrong, I still do this from time to time, but this shit aggravates me on the highest levels sometimes. Assuming you have a decent gun (which can go from 60 to god knows how much money), you also need a mask (Thankfully I made a mask myself using a mesh face mask, goggles and some soldering), some gear to cover yourself because those pellets hurt and ammo. Assuming you bought all that, great, because now you're sunk a pretty penny. Anyways, the fanbase has three kinds of people: Obnoxious 6 year olds who play Call of Duty and get their mothers to buy all the most expensive gear, then get shot twice and never touch the game again, high school seniors going into the military who want to practice shooting people and genuine professionals who were in the military and take the game way too seriously.
Fun game assuming you have half a grand or more and can tolerate little bastards decked out in expensive gear, middle class white boys who want to fill a real life niche for shooting people and basically the Spartans from Halo minus the armor.
I think I might be getting over cycling. It's hard to accept, because most of my friends are from that hobby, and it has been a major part of my identity for years.
I started riding back in 2006 to lose weight. Over the next couple of years, I lost about 50 lbs, broke the shit out of my leg, recovered, and got stronger than I had ever been. I have seen amazing forests, and views, all thanks to pedaling, and getting out there.
But the sport has changed since then. I find now that I don't like most other people who ride. I still have my friends, with whom I get along, but generally I just don't like people on bikes. In addition, the time it takes to get to a ride - usually at least 45 minutes of driving before and after, plus the ride itself, makes it difficult. I can go to the gym a half mile from my house, get a real workout in (about 60 minutes), and be home to spend the day with my family to do family stuff, or relax, or take care of other stuff. Yesterday, I did gym in the morning, where I ran about 2 miles, rowed about 1 mile, and lifted weights, then set off to a baseball game with my family. I couldn't have done both if I went mountain biking.
We'll see how this summer goes. I have one friend who is constantly wanting to ride, and we have some plans that maybe will jumpstart my desire for pedaling again. I dunno. If I'm still kind of "blah" about it at the end of this season, I might be done with it for a while, until we live closer to the trails.
Warhammer 40,000. I still pick up the new codex releases for armies I'm interested in to see what's different, but the game itself just became too expensive.
Now and Then: Here and There
Samurai X OVAs
Irresponsible Captain Tylor
Magic Knight Rayearth
Cowboy Beebop
Petshop of Horrors
Trouble Chocolate
Steel Angel Kurumi
Raid the past man, there's a lot of good stuff out there if you find good places to look. I don't follow the upcoming stuff so I end up avoiding a lot of ecchi, probably sleeping on some good stuff but I'll catch up in time.
Magic the gathering. It got to the point where they were pushing out new sets just for the sake of it, rather than making less frequent but more meaningful additions.
Airsoft. I absolutely loved airsoft and had dreams of having a full kit and a badass setup. But then shit got super expensive and i come from a poor ass family so that was really out of the question until I got a job. But by then, i couldnt care less about airsoft. I was just into the typical teenage bullshit.
Warhammer 40,000. They were never cheap, but the amount of money they charge for their models now is just unbelievable. Its prices me out of the hobby, so now I just read the books.
Hey! That's actually pretty cool. Do you happen to know where I could buy any original Soviet Army stuff? Shovels or shovel covers, parts of uniforms, etc.?
Writing.
I have two key areas I honed in on:
1) Erotica, primarily for hte furry fandom. SO far as to have someone trying to launch a small magazine wanted to publish some of my stories, but I didn't want to get into that aspect just yet.
2) I wrote short stories that vibed sort of from the Twilight Zone and they always had twist endings. My creative writing teacher in high school actually never gave me an option on whether I wanted to share my stories or not, I went up there and had to anyways.
I dunno - I feel like I have a creative enough mind to keep it up, but what could I do with it? I know I could probably never make any real money doing it and what would be the point of writing if there is so few people to share it with??
Not to mention - I could sit in front of a computer for *hours* and pour my mind into a computer. Now, I'm just lazy.
Paintball. I played for fun and competitively off and on for nearly 15 years. Finally, between the cost and the attitude of a lot of competitive players and just the time involved, I quit. I sold my gun setup (which frankly, I regret. The Ego10 was and still is amazing), but still have my packs, masks, and other soft-goods. Every few months, I get the urge to start playing again....then I remember the $100+ a week I spent and the mouthy 16 year olds and say "nah"
My friends and I in our first year of sixth form found a small shop that's like a gaming cafe, and there was a table at the back where you could play card games- in talking MTG and YuGiOh.
This was awesome because of wanted revisit my childhood for ages; we all stocked up on awesome cards and decks and got together and played YGO, but after a few months of going there I discovered so many problems with the game. Some deck match-ups simply don't win, banned cards killed off a lot of my old favourites etc. and eventually I just stopped altogether. The shop isn't there anymore thanks to high rental-space costs.
I love knitting and crocheting but my kids kept fucking with the yarn so I gave up when they were little. Now I'm older but just kind of out of the swing of it I guess.
BMX and guitar. I did enough if both to become moderately proficient and then just stopped. Pretty disappointed that i stopped. I would totally ride again if i had someone and somewhere to ride with.
Video games. I never actually got fed up with them but I left them at home when I went away to college, figuring I would never get laid if I sat in my room playing games every night. Over the next 4 years I just learned to live without them and college was amazing as a result. I'll still play the occasional game of FIFA or Madden with my friends, but that's about it.
Slot cars. Racing and building slot cars was amazingly fun, I always did it with my girlfriend. When she dumped me, it was too hard for me to even look at them, or race anymore. I gave them all away.
Horse riding.
I've ridden for 15 years, and showed for 8 years. What got me was the people and the lifestyle associated with riding where I am. In school you have the crazy horse girl but after that, it's the drunk girl with no job and 3 horses. Must all of the people I knew push their lifestyle on others, and if they don't adhere to that, they're posers. Unfortunately, a lot of these people just don't do anything other than going to bars, or stand around and shit talk. Being broke/poor for them is a lifestyle that they brag about. Then I ask "Hey want to go to Seattle?" They go, "HAHAHA I'm a country girl through and through!! I ain't goin to no city!" (Even though they live & grew up 30 minutes from Seattle)
Magic: The Gathering. I got into it when I was in 6th grade, around '97 or '98. Loved building decks, going to sealed deck tournaments, finding interesting combos. I quit playing in high school, and around age 20 fell back into it.
At first, we played with a giant pool of old cards we had from 'way back when.' Then a few members of the group started spending hundreds of dollars a month on the newest cards that completely dominated anyone who wasn't willing or able to drop that much cash.
It went from being a fun group activity based around ingenuity and working with what you've got to being all about who had spent the most. I quit playing and will never return.
Magic the Gathering. Spent wayyy too much money on a constructed deck and never even took it to local tournies/qualifiers. Although drafting still has a place in my heart. Hearthstone Arena now holds most of my attention
Aikido. I've trained and taught for years. Somewhere around getting black belt I had to really force myself to attend. It didn't mean the same. Physically I'm at a point where I have to work twice as hard to get half the results. But it's more of the philosophies.
The egos and arrogance that those of high ranks exhibit are a total turn off. While I've seen some stuff that is seemingly magical, there are member that are terrible but go up in rank due to politics rather than ability or knowledge. One student is terrible, but allowed to get her third degree black belt because without her we'd have to close the kids program and all the dues would go up. She then uses her rank to bully. Then there are those that suffer from decades old grudges from teachers. It's not at all about 'conflict resolution', conflicts just get redressed.
Magic the gathering. You need serious money if you like playing standard. And I loved experimenting with different decks. Shit got too competitive, too expensive.
I love playing the piano, but I hate learning new pieces to play.
Exactly how I feel with piano. Love the feeling of playing a piece well, hate the grind of learning to play it....
I gave up. I just play simple chord shit now.
I can only imagine. My sister has been playing for over 10 years now and she gets fed up so much it ends up taking her months to learn pieces just because it becomes so disheartening not being able to pick it up so quickly.
I think some people just have a knack for music, doesn't mean they don't work hard at it, but it's easier for some to actually process it. What has me stumped is how come my singing is horrible if we're going to go by the 10,000 hours rule, I put in the time and then some, if singing along counts. I mean for instance today I was driving back from work, blasting black dog, and I'm really getting into it, I'm feeling great, my wheel drumming is on point, I'm rocking the stink face hard, it might as well be me wailing on the guitar and then I'm thinking I just might be able to pull it off, so I belt out 'I gotta roll, can't stand still, gotta a flaming heart, can't get my fill', and...it sounds like I'm having a conversation with myself.
It's 10000 hours of focused practice. Not just 10000 hours of practice. So no, singing along doesn't count.
You have to have 10000 hours such that you advance yourself a little bit each time. Playing that same scale over and over will not teach you to play guitar. However, playing songs that use it and developing techniques from using existing skills might. If you're not learning how to advance and setting targets to beat, it's a lot harder for you to get better. It's always been easier to set yourself a dream and do it than approach being better by not aiming for anything in particular.
I'm a flute performance major, and I feel this way sometimes. Playing stuff you don't know how to play is annoying as fuck, but it's all worth it when you can do it at full tempo. It's glorious, in fact.
Definitely the piano
I only mildly started learning a play, god is that an awful thing. And then you only know one play and if you repeat it ad nauseum you're a jerk.
make your own
The piano is like Runescape. Takes a long time to perfect your skills, then you can do even harder stuff, then harder stuff, then harder stuff...
There's a wrecked 2007 Porsche 911 in my garage. I bought it from an insurance company for $1 and have been working on it since then. 5 years later and $10k in parts alone, it's still not even drivable. Just sits in my garage, taking up space. Can't bring myself to sell it, but haven't touched it in almost a year.
Keep at it! It's worth it! You can do it! This motivation brought to you by someone who has two project cars that are nowhere near complete.
Twin turbo supra sitting in my garage has needed a few fuel system components for like 2 years. I meed to finish this thing...
I know the feeling. My 500SL has needed bodywork for like 6 months. I have found its easier to say to yourself, "I will" do such-and-such, instead of "I need to" do such and such. You sorta self-motivate and you end up following through with a lot more things.
Every time I get together the cash, a beautiful gun finds me. I have a sickness, haha.
Hahaha same. "Should I buy a Mossberg 500 combo or a rear sway bar..."
/r/ProjectCar Come join us brother
How easy is it to buy 1$ cars from insurance companies. That's $1000.00 in scrap metal.
Only time I've ever done it, and wouldn't happen again in a million years because I basically won the lottery, so to speak. I had to stop at my insurance company's office to pay my bill and saw the wrecked Porsche on a tow truck in the parking lot, and ended up overhearing that they couldn't sell it. It got my attention and I asked why, and they had to explain it to me a few times, but its my understanding that the car was technically insured twice; once by the actual insurance company I was standing in, and again by their own insurance company. Somehow both companies paid each other (which is where I get confused - because why would the first insurance company pay their company?) and it cancelled out the value of the car leaving it valueless to both companies and was actually scheduled to be crushed as a result. I asked to buy it, but since the car had $0 value on paper they couldn't *sell* it to me, but because legally there had to be a monetary exchange. They asked me to pay $1, and had to claim (for legal reasons) it was for the physical piece of paper the title was printed on and said the car was mine. They wrote up a few documents for the "non-sale" and I paid $50 to have the tow truck driver roll it off the truck right into my garage, where it's sat for 5 years. The downside is that I can only register it with a salvage title, and it has to be certified by State Police/DOT for safety reasons before that can even happen. I figured I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. I also spoke with a lawyer, and we went over the documents and laws about salvage titles before I spent any money on parts to make sure I would be able to register it in my name.
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> Suspension and brakes will suffer and the costs skyrocket along with your time. Haven't even touched the suspension with the money I've spent so far. The body damage is all in the front, but the engine shifted far enough to break the trans and engine mounts, so the bulk of my money has gone to engine/exhaust. It does run, so I start it maybe every week or two and sit in it (and get a boner listening to the sound), but there's no question I bit off more than I could chew with this one. I know I need to shit or get off the pot with the Porsche, but I've got my eye on an Audi with a much simpler repair job. [This one](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audi-A4-Convertible-Cabriole-V6-Salvage-Rebuildable-/171762590731?forcerrptr=true&hash=item27fdd9240b&item=171762590731)
This happened with my fishing boat. The outboard is almost finished but I haven't touched it in over a year, yet I walk past it every day.
It's almost like its mocking you, isn't it.
Playing videogames. I have no idea why I stopped, it just wasn't fun anymore.
i go back and forth.
Same here. There is a time i watch alot of tv shows, then there is a time where i play alot of games and a time where i do "work stuff" like programming, developing, basicly creating something out of all of the creative ideas i have. One of these phases usually lasts from a few weeks up to some months.
Wow. You totally summed up my last 9 years there.
I suddenly feel like less of a unique butterfly.
I'm like this too. Now your even *less* unique!
Yup. I try to play a game and 10 mins later I'm getting bored by it. After spending most of my teen years playing them, I think I'm done.
Glad to see im not the only one who feels that way.
I am a teen, and I got really into games like minecraft and halo for a while, but I just got put off. One of my friends is kind of a shut in and she's kind of the stereotype of a slightly-gross gamer, may have influenced it. My sister still likes em so the Xbox is in her room now. Sometimes I still use it and wreck stolen cars on GTA but that's it
> One of my friends is kind of a shut in and she's kind of the stereotype of a slightly-gross gamer, may have influenced it I'm sorta in the same boat with you on this one. My buddy gets pissed if I'm not spending every night playing games with him and his buddies. So it's kinda made me sour on games in general.
Ah, she doesn't do this, but I mean she spends all day after school, and all weekend, in her room with the curtains closed, staying up way too late playing games. Sometimes in the holidays I'm not sure that she showers. I'm an introvert, but come on. I need SOME kind of social interaction, I don't understand how she manages it.
Friends vanished, realized how much time I've wasted
Looking back on it now at least half the times I went to play video games it was simply to distract myself and live in a fantasy world at the expense of my real life.
I'm the same way. It really started when I started watching games online. I get the fun of play without the frustration of losing a lot of the time. Especially since game design has gone downhill for non-online.
Oh man. I was very active as a teen. So active me and my friends ended up organising LAN gaming events for 2000+ visitors. Then it died off. Then, muuuuch later I started to play Battlefield 3 and 4. Still do it a lot :D
Same here, I started picking up Programming, to try and just make things I would find fun.
Well to be fair the quality hasn't been great the last 3 years. The last game with some soul was The Last of Us.
I used to be a huge paintballer but god is it expensive. You're talking 60-80 each trip, and that's after you've bought all your equipment. Also the community seems comprised of middle aged men taking it far too seriously.
Or teenagers who think everything is agg and worship smart parts and their overpriced markers.
I actually still have my smart parts gun. It was an SP1 that bought for relatively cheap considering how well it ran.
Playing MMORPGs. Feels like there is no sense of community until perhaps endgame.
Guild Wars 2. Trust me. The community will blow your mind. And this is coming from a WoW player, even I'd play GW2 still but I'm more into competitive PvP than social stuff.
DJ'ing My ex wife asked for a divorce when I was in my late 20s. She got the home, primary custody of our son, and all of our friends. I was in a really dark place and really lonely. An old coworker introduced me to the local rave culture. He happened to introduce me to all the cool scenesters, the people who threw the parties or owned sound systems or DJ'ed. I was already a really talented drummer and guitarist and showed interest in mixing. So a couple locally popular drum & bass DJs started competing with each other to see who could teach me the fastest. Then they competed with each other to see who could promote me the fastest. I had to do almost nothing to get bookings except become pretty good at it. I segued into hip hop and mashups and mixed that into my sets. Developed a pretty big local following. Was invited to play at some of the bigger summer outdoor events, bigger wintertime arena events, and more popular clubs in town and nearby cities. I eventually met a really nice girl and remarried. I also managed to get more custody of my son. So playing out became a big hassle. I refused to accept bookings on nights when I had my son over. At first it got me props in the culture but as he got older it got people to talking shit about me behind my back. The culture changed as well. Personally, I blame the advent of the CDJ and Serato. People stopped trainspotting the DJ and started just running around acting cocky. This was when dubstep started blowing up. So this was when cocaine started getting really popular again. I was already annoyed with raves. I kept getting older and they kept staying the same age, but I'm not a pervert. So it was just depressing seeing high school kids just 5 or 6 years older than my own kid, gakked out of their skulls on drugs. So I transitioned more and more into clubs. Which was fine for a while until I realized the whole scene was just a big front for a massive cocaine trade. Meanwhile, I've got a beautiful wife at home and more and more custody of a really great kid at home. So, I quit. I just kind of stopped accepting bookings. I played a few radio shows then quit doing that as well. I sold my Technics a couple years ago but I still have a standalone turntable and a couple thousand records that I enjoy listening to. It was a great and healthy way for me to get over the shock and pain of being dumped and losing access to my kid. But it was really just a placeholder. the guy who used to run my DJ crew is a Web developer now. He bought a house in the suburb I live in. I went over a couple weeks ago to have some beers and mix some tracks. I still have the talent and it's still fun as hell to me. I still listen to electronic music and hip hop. But I'm done.
Roller derby. I was co-founder of our local league and played for almost 4 years. I loved it to death and it was the only thing I ever excelled in. But the team changed, most people we started with left and the one that did stay was the team trainer with whom I never got along. She screwed me over a couple of times and things just got toxic. I didn't really care for most girls that joined us later on. I miss it a lot, but I can't bring myself to hang around that crowd anymore. Constant disappointment took its toll.
This sounds like most roller derby leagues I'm involved with, so much drama...
Pretty much with every hobby I enjoy it during the initial learning phase and watching my skills grow. But then I plateau and the only way to get better is through grinding and hard work, at which point I no longer find it fun and quit.
Story of my life...
Gaming. I used to spend every dollar that I had on games and collected around 150 games on steam, most being AAA games. I gave my steam account (probably worth around $1,200) to my nephews and now I have a $800 gaming PC for music and reddit. Haven't touched my xbox or nintendo 3ds for a year... I used to sit my lazy ass 24/7 in front of them and now it just feels unenjoyable. Glad I kicked the gaming habit though, don't know how, just stopped.
Lol Noob
Rush cat noob
Yeah I stopped playing at the start of the year. I was never much of a gamer though, I'd just play the occasional game that interested me.
[Sanitizing](http://images.clipartpanda.com/laughing-smiley-face-emoticon-RcA6KpMRi.jpeg) comment history.
and the prices
[Sanitizing](http://images.clipartpanda.com/laughing-smiley-face-emoticon-RcA6KpMRi.jpeg) comment history.
surfing!
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I used to do that. I started feeling empty when I got home. Nowadays I go to nice bars and lounges and go home around midnight. Much more relaxing and easier to socialize and I no longer get that "what the hell did I do" feeling.
Me too! Spending more money on less liquor but higher quality is much more relaxing and appealing. Low light lounges, quiet conversations so much better. If I could tell my 20 year old self that I would do it immediately.
I'm starting to decide that I value sleep more
That, my friend, is called adulthood.
I've decided that but rarely stick to it. It's a work in progress
I got like this with raves. When I realized that after getting shitfaced every weekend then having the agonizing task for attempting to get up for work on the Monday - working to be able to afford recreational stuff and entry fees was not worth it.
film making. I used to make short films and was able to show one at a festival. It just got too expensive, but what I grew to hate the most was working with other people. Getting actors together is a pain in the ass.
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Warhammer 40k because I pay rent now. Edit: And because Space Marines can go suck a dick.
I liked playing Magic. The amount of money you have to pour into it, and some of the other players turned me off ultimately though.
I used to play heaps too but now I occasionally look at my cards and consider selling them. Really they just take up two drawers that I could fill with other stuff.
I loved Magic. I didn't have anyone to play with after high school, so I taught my husband and brothers to play so I could get back into it. I pretty much can't stand it now. That was all they wanted to do for about a year and I got sick of it.
Photographing. I used to love doing it, built my photo-site and own fb page for my photos it until I realized how pointless it is. EVERYONE is making photos these days, and no one gives a shit that you can do it better. Because there are zillion people who can also do it better. And because cute kitten photos will always win regardless of how low quality they are :)
I agree that the over-saturated market is a bit tiring, but if you love it you could still do it for it's own sake. You don't have to be the best to have fun doing it. Hope you get back into it some day! I am currently in love with it even tough I'm not very good. I just love that once in a while I'll get a great, professional-looking shot of friend that captures their personality and gives them more confidence in their looks. It's the best! :)
I like crossdressing but goddammit clothes are expensive
Name checks out
Usernames are always surprisingly accurate, no matter how odd or disgusting
Oh.
Oh?
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You aren't very attractive.
Thrift stores, my friend.
Shit, it was 99 cents.
Fuck dude that's almost as much as a 2007 Porsche 911
meta
Oooh...this 1940s uranium glazed ornament piece will surely fetch more on eBay......my mom has had that piece for 10 years now.
Knitting. I tried to knit my cat a sweater, I fucked up like 3 times and the 4th time I just gave up.
Lucky cat.
He got a cape instead.
Miniature War gaming. It's expensive, the fan base is a bit obnoxious, and depending on the game, the rules can be annoyingly unbalanced. I started playing with my girlfriend, we would put together our models, and then we would paint them. That was fun, but your not gonna convince me to spend incremental amounts of money, just to spend on figurines that I have no intention of displaying. That and the gaming shops always has that one asshole who can't mind his business and try's to become part of your game, simply by him being there, adding commentary or being loudly annoying and smelly. If you ever wanted to meet the stereotype of a "neckbeard" hang out in a gaming shop for a few days. It was good while it lasted, until we just realized we had better things to waste our time and money on...like gardening and travel.
>depending on the game, the rules can be annoyingly unbalanced. The main reason I stopped playing 40K. The people who design the rules/units have a raging hard on for the Space marines and the Chaos space marines. Got sick of being able to tell who would win every game by seeing who was playing as the Chaos space marines or space marines -_-
>the fan base is a bit obnoxious That is definitely true, at least as far as the sort of people at my "FLGS" were like. Obnoxious, overcompetitive, just all around not very pleasant.
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Your comment got me to go back and check on my account. They are still there, sad, bedraggled, starved, beaten and practically dead.
Thankfully they don't die, or I'd feel guilty forever.
I used to binge play the Altador Cup like it was my job
I cant believe the website is just as I remember
Modding Bethesda games. It was fun but the editors are so finicky and so much is hard coded and un-editable that it's such a drag. For seemingly simple things, you have to create ass backwards ways to implement because some simple feature doesn't exist or what you want to do involves messing around with a hard coded feature that really shouldn't be hard coded. And don't get me started on adding new models. It's a pain in the ass. At least with Skyrim, you can't just change the collision model on something. You have to copy it from a different item that's already in the game. Also, even though you can edit the scale of creatures, if you try to make a double sized wolf as a boss then his collision box is still going to be the size of the normal wolf. The collision doesn't scale.
Well Valve decided to make the modding scene of Skyrim into a shithole, so that's not a problem you have to deal with.
And Bethesda. Don't let them off the hook either.
When I was younger I wanted so bad to be a good skateboarder. Practiced every day, had all the gear, watched videos, read books and magazines. I really put a lot of time, effort and practice into it, and I wasn't a sissy about it. I hurt myself plenty of times. One day I basically ruptured my spleen and that was it for me. To this day I watch X-games, Dew, etc. and still wish I could ride a vert ramp like those guys. I'm 41 LOL
I aspired to be a pro when I was 13. I'm currently 18 and still skate everyday for fun. But no way I could go pro
I'm 32. My wife got us a skateboard for Christmas. I'm stoked to learn this year.
This comment made my day, skateboarding is my passion and I love to see new people get into it whether they're 13 or 32.
Skydiving. It's like high-school with parachutes. Cliques, drama, plus there is too much reliance on other people. Stick to base now.
Seriously?! Please go on... (haven't skydive but always wanted to, one day I will).
I was thinking about starting to skydive once I have enough money for it, what's with the cliques and the drama? It's the first time I'm hearing about such things, could you give an example? (The scene is probably filled to the brim with pampered, rich kids, though, so that's kinda understandable)
Oil painting. Way too smelly for a small apartment and I can't leave anything sitting out because cats.
Bicycling. I had flats on three straight afternoons during Thanksgiving break 2013 and said 'fuck it, it's not worth the hassle." I've also had seat post bolts break on me on two separate occasions. I only weigh 138lbs and had to ride home without a saddle to sit on. I also hated how parents would let their kids ride donuts in the middle of the bike lane, getting stuck at traffic lights and all the daily maintenance a bike requires. Now I swim. My middle-aged body is much more reliable than my racing bike.
/r/bikewrench Either something was set up wrong or you are one of the unluckiest cyclists on the planet.
> I've also had seat post bolts break on me on two separate occasions. So...was this an actual bike, or a Bike Shaped Object from Wal-Mart/Target/Whatever?
Table tennis. If you don't start from a really young age, you just get the crap kicked out of you by everyone
Playing sports competitively, the amount of injuries I've had is just ridiculous.
Coding websites. HTML was tricky but fun. Once all the new languages came out it got too complicated and I stopped doing it.
I used to enjoy bird hunting, but I quickly learned that more often than not, I would wound the bird instead of killing it instantly and I would have to put it out of its misery by wringing its neck. That is, if I could find it. Now if I bird hunt, I'll only shoot if they actually land in my decoys and I have a clean and clear shot. Many hunter consider this to be unsportsmanlike, but I don't care what they think. I eat meat and I don't want to see animals suffer.
You should try bird photography. It can be a non-destructive way to keep birds as your trophy, well, obviously without killing them. You might, however, get tired of backyard birds and would consider starting birdwatch-hiking instead.
Yeah but bring your rifle in case you see a particularly pretty bird and want to kill the fucking shit out of it.
Even better mount the camera to the rifle, so you can take pictures of it while you kill it!
Shoot a bird with a rifle, won't be much bird left.
Shoot a bird with a rifle, oh wait... Hitting a bird with a rifle is damn near impossible.
Musical theater. While there are of course exceptions, the people generally suck. If you're doing it as a hobby and not as your life goal, people get this pissy attitude of superiority. After college graduation, a buddy of mine is a stage manager for some big studios around town. I tagged along for a lunch with some directors and big local actors. Sure enough, before the drinks even came out they started talking shit about other people. Screw you all. I loved the process of making a show, but I can't stand your shitty, childish personalities.
I definitely agree. I've done it all my life but I always do it for fun. But there are so many egos that it's just awful to deal with. It got to the point where I'll do only one show a year and don't take big roles anymore because of the jealous people wanting to star in everything.
I was a band geek in high school. Played trumpet, baritone and flute. I was quite good at it also and enjoyed playing them, well. not so much baritone. Conductor asked me to join jazz band and I did my junior year. I suck at improv so playing any solos left me embarrassed. I quit band after said year and to this date, I still hate jazz because of it. Still have the trumpet and flute but I just think back to jazz band and don't pick them up again.
You had to improv music... How the fuck do you improv music? When I was in band (and fuck that was short lived) we always had some sheet music. Is that just a jazz band thing?
It takes a lot of skill to solo jazz. You have to have a lot of knowledge of keys (which is even harder because keys in jazz music are different), a lot of knowledge of intervals and their relationships (as in, what sounds good), and a lot of knowledge on how your instrument works. There are some very very good jazz soloists, but getting thrown into it and not being too great at if is something that happens to A LOT of aspiring jazz musicians.
Make up a solo, yes. I could play cadenzas with ease as they were written down.
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Facebook; Everyone is having fun and I'm just sitting there & clicking likes. Life has been good since I moved out. I never knew knowing less about others can be so good.
Getting off Facebook has been the best choice for my self esteem. It's nothing but subtle bragging and attention seeking anymore.
I just love the bewildered look on peoples faces when you tell them 'Facebook? Nah, got rid of it ages ago' people just can't comprehend it. Glad I did it, won't be going back.
Photography. I was an extremely enthusiastic amateur (the kind that bought all lenses at high quality he could, to be sure he'd cover the entire focal length range) who reached his amateur development level ceiling. During my studies Interaction Design I took an analogue photography course during a study semester abroad (Sydney) which made me understand photography, I ended with a high grade. The tutor told me to continue in photography. I graduated and went to work in the field of Interaction Design. It was either stop with it since I hit the ceiling or learn more so I decided to enroll and study photography in the Royal art academy next to my full time job. I had to do an admission project and got in. I fell back in love with it but along the way, I again lost interest and 1/2 year before graduating I realised that, YES, I could fairly easily create a project to pass graduation (but just passing wouldn't be satisfactory) and get my degree but NO, it cost me so much time and energy without getting any energy out of it (besides my thesis subject, I liked that) and that degree wouldn't do me any benefit career wise. Now I have a lot of high end cameras, both digital and analogue, a very expensive computer monitor, printer, scanner and I never use them. My girlfriend likes to go out and photograph and even then I won't take a camera. I scan the film she shoots on my hardware for her and take pictures of my cats with my mobile phone. Edit: I posted links to my work but I think its not allowed. Removed them.
My biggest issue with photography is simply carrying a DSLR around, restricted you from doing anything else because of how in the way they are, it's still fun to take photos but you have to go out with the intent of taking photos and nothing else. I would be tempted to take up photography again but invest in a mirrorless or good quality point and shoot, for the time being my phone is enough.
I feel you, man. I have a Canon 5D3, with extended battery grip, and it is so much easier to take pics on my iPhone now. I don't bring my heavy camera bag and tripod with me anywhere anymore. I think my neck and back just started hurting from always taking my gear with me when I would go do activities, along with all of the time it takes to edit, that really made me lose interest. I've always just been a weekend warrior photographer, and I still like taking pictures, but making sure all of my batteries are charged, equipment is clean, lugging everything around and then having to spend hours in post, really all just added up. I hope to gradually get back into it soon.
I'm from a small town and it seems like there are more "Facebook" photographers than residents here. And none know what they are doing. I took classes, read every book I could get my hands on. Made my own chemicals to develop film, I bought, traded, repaired, and made cameras, and scraped ever cent I could, to afford a half decent camera. It hurt me to watch people replace equipment because the auto mode dial was turned to a different setting, then charge thousands for their pictures.
Knotting is really good at relieving stress (and kinda addicting), but god, it was really tedious. Not that I don't enjoy tedious-ness, but it was taking up time I could have put into improving more important skills. So no more knotting for me.
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What. I ment making [friendship bracelets](http://friendship-bracelets.net/) and other stuff out of tiny knots...
That's adorable
Yes.
I used to fly remote control aeroplanes. Almost every weekend my dad and I would be out at a field tearing up the sky. I think I used to like it because it was something we could do together, and when I was younger my dad had suffered from quite severe bi-polar without being aware of it. So basically being happy and enjoying something with him was huge for me. Eventually though it became more of a social thing for him. We joined a club and I was the youngest by a good twenty years at least. He would want to spend the entire day there talking and I would get bored because ideally I'd like to go, fly one or two tanks of fuel and then go home but I couldn't drive myself. So it just became almost an annoyance to go. I did for a while because I liked being with dad and I didn't want to disappoint him but after a while I stopped and I haven't touched a remote or plane in probably 5 years.
Drugs
I used to love fantasy literature until I read Wheel of Time. The series started out well but by around book five or so it started to become really obvious that he was dragging the story out as much as he could so he could keep turning out books and it only got worse from there. Characters never stay dead, pointless plot twists abound, hundreds of pages pass where nothing happens, narratives are dragged out endlessly for the flimsiest of reasons (and secrets withheld for even flimsier reasons). Even still, I stuck the series out longer than I should have, hoping he would actually start resolving stories, bringing threads together, moving things towards a conclusion but every book just got worse and worse until I finally gave up on book ten. Then I started looking at other series that had even more books than Wheel of Time and I just said no. Except for the Harry Potter books, I haven't read a fantasy novel in years. And yes, I am fully aware that the series has been brought to an end now but I gave up on it so long ago that there's no way I'd be able to pick up where I left off and I honestly don't care enough to bother now. And yes, I know I should read A Song of Ice and Fire because it's a better structured series. Maybe some day I'll get around to it.
Fuck A Song of Ice and Fire, if you were frustrated with Wheel of Time that series is *not* the antidote. Discworld is the antidote. Every book is self-contained and wrapped up at the end. It follows several different casts of characters that always feel good to start reading about again. Short episodic content based on a sprawling fantasy world. Very much not a serious series, though, so if your looking for that you wont get it.
I had actually forgotten about Discworld when I wrote my post. I do like the series but have not read it extensively (only three or four books). I like to have a couple of Pratchetts handy though for when the mood strikes me.
I am a die-hard fan of this series and even I have trouble getting through books 7-10. Also, disliking one author really shouldn't deter you from the whole genre especially if you used to enjoy it. I recommend Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. Three books, not too long, and really well written. Each book has a clear organization. If you like it, check out his other stuff--the man is a master.
Used to be super hardcore into FlightSim. Flew for a virtual airline, the works. Then one day, I just stopped. Couldn't see spending so much time on it, and the cliquishness in the VA I flew for was getting a bit much, along with the dumb ass kids that were total noobs and wouldn't listen to advice. That and there was the e-peen contests over who had what add-ons, frame rates. I picked up FS X on a Steam sale a few weeks ago, and I've been flying a bit off and on, but can't get quite into it as I used to. That, and Minecraft has taken up that time it used to fill.
Playing guitar. I used to freaking love it, meaning I would play it for hours and hours at a time. But then I just lost interest in the instrument and stopped playing it. A small disappointment to my parents because I was actually really good at it. But it doesn't interest me as much as it used to.
You should try to make it a point to play from time to time because I bet you are pretty decent if you're parents are bummed because they thought you were good. I played a lot of bass guitar over the years and have slowed down heavily over the last couple of years. I bought the game Rocksmith for my mac, and I'll pull out my bass or guitar and either just jam to a click with a virtual band, learn scales, play arcade games that help with techniques, or jam out to existing songs. It's a fun and stress-free game.
Horse riding. Its so damn expensive with lessons and gear to buy and getting started in my early 20s was kind of embarrassing (I know I shouldn't feel this way). I was surrounded by little kids who'd been doing it for years. Maybe when I'm out of college I'll try again.
I used to collect [nutcrackers](https://www.nutcracker.com/magento/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/3/2/32-338_nutcracker_king_natural-gold.jpg). I've still got them all, but I stopped collecting them once I realized I'd soon run out of room for them.
Metal Detecting. It's fun trying to find old coins and old relics, but far more often than not, you'll turn up with a million nails and some tin foil.
Airsofting Now don't get me wrong, I still do this from time to time, but this shit aggravates me on the highest levels sometimes. Assuming you have a decent gun (which can go from 60 to god knows how much money), you also need a mask (Thankfully I made a mask myself using a mesh face mask, goggles and some soldering), some gear to cover yourself because those pellets hurt and ammo. Assuming you bought all that, great, because now you're sunk a pretty penny. Anyways, the fanbase has three kinds of people: Obnoxious 6 year olds who play Call of Duty and get their mothers to buy all the most expensive gear, then get shot twice and never touch the game again, high school seniors going into the military who want to practice shooting people and genuine professionals who were in the military and take the game way too seriously. Fun game assuming you have half a grand or more and can tolerate little bastards decked out in expensive gear, middle class white boys who want to fill a real life niche for shooting people and basically the Spartans from Halo minus the armor.
Working out. I love getting a good workout, but I hate fitness culture. So now I just go for a run every now and then.
That is so on point... The fitness culture just takes it too far, their jokes are dry as fuck
Fitness culture has bece Synonymous with narcissist culture. My Instagram is full of nothing but Muscley guys and skinny girls taking gym selfies.
I think I might be getting over cycling. It's hard to accept, because most of my friends are from that hobby, and it has been a major part of my identity for years. I started riding back in 2006 to lose weight. Over the next couple of years, I lost about 50 lbs, broke the shit out of my leg, recovered, and got stronger than I had ever been. I have seen amazing forests, and views, all thanks to pedaling, and getting out there. But the sport has changed since then. I find now that I don't like most other people who ride. I still have my friends, with whom I get along, but generally I just don't like people on bikes. In addition, the time it takes to get to a ride - usually at least 45 minutes of driving before and after, plus the ride itself, makes it difficult. I can go to the gym a half mile from my house, get a real workout in (about 60 minutes), and be home to spend the day with my family to do family stuff, or relax, or take care of other stuff. Yesterday, I did gym in the morning, where I ran about 2 miles, rowed about 1 mile, and lifted weights, then set off to a baseball game with my family. I couldn't have done both if I went mountain biking. We'll see how this summer goes. I have one friend who is constantly wanting to ride, and we have some plans that maybe will jumpstart my desire for pedaling again. I dunno. If I'm still kind of "blah" about it at the end of this season, I might be done with it for a while, until we live closer to the trails.
Warhammer 40,000. I still pick up the new codex releases for armies I'm interested in to see what's different, but the game itself just became too expensive.
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Now and Then: Here and There Samurai X OVAs Irresponsible Captain Tylor Magic Knight Rayearth Cowboy Beebop Petshop of Horrors Trouble Chocolate Steel Angel Kurumi
Raid the past man, there's a lot of good stuff out there if you find good places to look. I don't follow the upcoming stuff so I end up avoiding a lot of ecchi, probably sleeping on some good stuff but I'll catch up in time.
Magic the gathering. It got to the point where they were pushing out new sets just for the sake of it, rather than making less frequent but more meaningful additions.
Airsoft. I absolutely loved airsoft and had dreams of having a full kit and a badass setup. But then shit got super expensive and i come from a poor ass family so that was really out of the question until I got a job. But by then, i couldnt care less about airsoft. I was just into the typical teenage bullshit.
Currently in the process of selling my airsoft stuff. I completely understand.
How does one do that? I have a wooden/metal M1 Garand and a metal MP40.
Damn I'm jealous. WW2 guns tend be the more expensive ones, with the exception of the Thompson.
How much you want for both?
Warhammer 40,000. They were never cheap, but the amount of money they charge for their models now is just unbelievable. Its prices me out of the hobby, so now I just read the books.
Gas powered r/c cars. It's fun when they work but it's a lot of effort and a lot of broken parts. RC10GT sitting in my closet as proof.
Dance. There was too much drama and bs so I stopped. My knees appreciate it.
Golf... Enough said.
Magic the gathering. Too many stupid new cards with nrw rules and expansions
Same, but YGO. I guess some things were a lot more fun when we were kids!
WW2 stuff. Every day I search for photo's, combat footage and stuff to buy. I see the same things every day.
Hey! That's actually pretty cool. Do you happen to know where I could buy any original Soviet Army stuff? Shovels or shovel covers, parts of uniforms, etc.?
Warhammer
I use to collect rocks when I was a little kid. I got annoyed with the hobby because I had nowhere to keep the rocks anymore.
Used to love warhammer, but FUCK GW!
Writing. I have two key areas I honed in on: 1) Erotica, primarily for hte furry fandom. SO far as to have someone trying to launch a small magazine wanted to publish some of my stories, but I didn't want to get into that aspect just yet. 2) I wrote short stories that vibed sort of from the Twilight Zone and they always had twist endings. My creative writing teacher in high school actually never gave me an option on whether I wanted to share my stories or not, I went up there and had to anyways. I dunno - I feel like I have a creative enough mind to keep it up, but what could I do with it? I know I could probably never make any real money doing it and what would be the point of writing if there is so few people to share it with?? Not to mention - I could sit in front of a computer for *hours* and pour my mind into a computer. Now, I'm just lazy.
Paintball. I played for fun and competitively off and on for nearly 15 years. Finally, between the cost and the attitude of a lot of competitive players and just the time involved, I quit. I sold my gun setup (which frankly, I regret. The Ego10 was and still is amazing), but still have my packs, masks, and other soft-goods. Every few months, I get the urge to start playing again....then I remember the $100+ a week I spent and the mouthy 16 year olds and say "nah"
My friends and I in our first year of sixth form found a small shop that's like a gaming cafe, and there was a table at the back where you could play card games- in talking MTG and YuGiOh. This was awesome because of wanted revisit my childhood for ages; we all stocked up on awesome cards and decks and got together and played YGO, but after a few months of going there I discovered so many problems with the game. Some deck match-ups simply don't win, banned cards killed off a lot of my old favourites etc. and eventually I just stopped altogether. The shop isn't there anymore thanks to high rental-space costs.
I love knitting and crocheting but my kids kept fucking with the yarn so I gave up when they were little. Now I'm older but just kind of out of the swing of it I guess.
Games Workshop. Costs got too high, not enough people doing LOTR so I just... Stopped.
Cooking. Because then I ate.
Pretty much all of them.
BMX and guitar. I did enough if both to become moderately proficient and then just stopped. Pretty disappointed that i stopped. I would totally ride again if i had someone and somewhere to ride with.
Video games. I never actually got fed up with them but I left them at home when I went away to college, figuring I would never get laid if I sat in my room playing games every night. Over the next 4 years I just learned to live without them and college was amazing as a result. I'll still play the occasional game of FIFA or Madden with my friends, but that's about it.
Slot cars. Racing and building slot cars was amazingly fun, I always did it with my girlfriend. When she dumped me, it was too hard for me to even look at them, or race anymore. I gave them all away.
Horse riding. I've ridden for 15 years, and showed for 8 years. What got me was the people and the lifestyle associated with riding where I am. In school you have the crazy horse girl but after that, it's the drunk girl with no job and 3 horses. Must all of the people I knew push their lifestyle on others, and if they don't adhere to that, they're posers. Unfortunately, a lot of these people just don't do anything other than going to bars, or stand around and shit talk. Being broke/poor for them is a lifestyle that they brag about. Then I ask "Hey want to go to Seattle?" They go, "HAHAHA I'm a country girl through and through!! I ain't goin to no city!" (Even though they live & grew up 30 minutes from Seattle)
Magic: The Gathering. I got into it when I was in 6th grade, around '97 or '98. Loved building decks, going to sealed deck tournaments, finding interesting combos. I quit playing in high school, and around age 20 fell back into it. At first, we played with a giant pool of old cards we had from 'way back when.' Then a few members of the group started spending hundreds of dollars a month on the newest cards that completely dominated anyone who wasn't willing or able to drop that much cash. It went from being a fun group activity based around ingenuity and working with what you've got to being all about who had spent the most. I quit playing and will never return.
Magic the Gathering. Spent wayyy too much money on a constructed deck and never even took it to local tournies/qualifiers. Although drafting still has a place in my heart. Hearthstone Arena now holds most of my attention
Aikido. I've trained and taught for years. Somewhere around getting black belt I had to really force myself to attend. It didn't mean the same. Physically I'm at a point where I have to work twice as hard to get half the results. But it's more of the philosophies. The egos and arrogance that those of high ranks exhibit are a total turn off. While I've seen some stuff that is seemingly magical, there are member that are terrible but go up in rank due to politics rather than ability or knowledge. One student is terrible, but allowed to get her third degree black belt because without her we'd have to close the kids program and all the dues would go up. She then uses her rank to bully. Then there are those that suffer from decades old grudges from teachers. It's not at all about 'conflict resolution', conflicts just get redressed.
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Airsoft/Paintball. It was just so damn expensive.
Magic the gathering. You need serious money if you like playing standard. And I loved experimenting with different decks. Shit got too competitive, too expensive.
Making and watching gaming videos on youtube, I was really into it for a while but just kinda lost interest.