I’d love to be a philanthropist but just don’t have enough money.
Waiting until I get more free money in the future that isn’t going towards bills and such, but I wanna get some VR body trackers specifically so I can get a 3D model and try and see how I like it. Specifically waste up. I have wanted to try with a 2D model as well, but I haven’t done enough research nor had the motivation to try it.
Falconry. I mean, it looks bad ass but then you have to acquire maintain an avian predator that is expensive and likely hates you.
Dude, yes. This has been a secret wish of mine ever since I found out it existed, but I would have no idea where to start. It would be so cool though.
Gem cutting. Once you have a good machine it doesn’t cost a lot of money for raw gem quality rough.
I want to cut synthetics since I don’t like the idea of a hobbyist screwing around with non-renewable gems… Also synthetics are flawless and can have cool color shifting patterns like ametrine (amethyst/citrine) or even watermelon colored corundums.
I just want to make shiny jems to look at :( I want to cut giant Portuguese cut cubic zirconia and square cut color shifters :(
It’s like $2000-5000 for a decent lapidary setup… And that’s not counting abrasive wheels.
I often make the same argument against myself for limited resources but ultimately, if the resource is affordable, then it probably isn’t rare on the scale that hobbyists would affect it. But then there’s helium, which is somehow not anywhere near abundant enough for the low price they charge to fill a balloon. While hobbyists still wouldn’t affect the supply that much, I don’t like supporting balloons anymore. Weird hill to die on for 95% of people or greater.
Yeah I know and for certain gems like garnet or corundum we’re literally never running out. It’s things like tanzanite (my fave!) or emerald that are far more worrisome. With industrialized mining we can yank it all out of the ground way faster than we can find new deposits.
Tanzanite might only have the weird and oddly specific conditions necessary for it to form in this one rift in Tanzania.
Does it have a practical use? If yes, I agree with your reservations. If no, then someone is going to buy it to either look at or sell to someone else to look at. May as well buy it direct and preserve it respectfully. But I understand and I do appreciate the group-benefit mentality
I guess it’s an emotional reservation. It would be a bit like feeling guilty for eating passenger pigeons and contributing to their extinction, especially if you hunted them and left some to rot because it was so cheap and easy to get more. Once they’re extinct you can’t help but look back and wince or blame yourself for being part of the problem.
On the other hand, a skilled lapidary can cut a tanzanite with way more care and attention than some commercial gem cutters that are concerned with stone weight and production volume. A lot of big gems end up as windowed trash, where the center of the gem can be seen through like a glass window. No sparkle or reflections because the gem cutter preserved gem weight to charge more at the cost of beauty, and also making the gem lose even more mass later on if it needs to be recut to have proper angles.
If I screw a natural stone up I would feel horrible though. Synthetics are like “who cares you can buy them by the pound”
embedded programming, i love everything about it except cluttering my desk with electronics, breadboards and also wiring stuff to my desktop is annoying, or using UART to debug a microcontroller is annoying
love it, feel like life is too short and I can’t enjoy this one to the extent I want to
Just go work for some weird robotics startup or thelike. I have fond memories of my office desk slowly turning into a full blown electronics lab
Rally car racing. (or any motorsport that isn’t F1 or boats/planes, really) But I’m too broke for that.
Every time I see a race on TV, all I think it’s about how I could have aced every inch of every course in my 20s. Grew up tearing up dirt roads, and also never had the money to pursue it past pissing off neighbors. Rally cars always looks fun as hell.
Gaming. While I loved the arcade as a kid, I just cant seem to get into any modern game. Seemed like the more advanced they got the less I was interested. The last game I tried was RDR2 and gave up on the second mission. Just bored to tears.
Sounds like you need games that focus more on the gameplay loop and less on the presentation/story. Like someone else said, indies are kings in this regard.
Unfortunately I’d have a hard time recommending anything because they can be so wildly different in style.
It’s the go here do this, then go here and do that, Go over there and shoot them, over and over, that I find boring. The story I am sure is fantastic, the gameplay is what I dislike.
That’s fair. In my perspective, the “go here, do this, shoot that” is a symptom of needing to fill out the gameplay loop without investing heavily into world building or genuine reason, because that’s all being spent on the main story beats. But in some games, that’s all there is to do.
Perhaps you are looking for a game where either:
- the game is very focused on a single narrative, and never lets you waste your time
- the game has very little structure and asks you to create your own fun out of a big world
I can only really stick at sim racing these days.
No story, no fetch quests, no save scumming or p2w bullshit.
I feel that. It feels like many modern games put in features instead of pkay testing.
The modern indie retro game scene is absolutely great, right now, though.
I recommend starting with “Donut DoDo” or “Rogue Legacy 2” and then look for related titles, if you enjoy either.
Edit: Or “Horizon Chase Turbo”. It’s a great refinement on classic arcade racers.
Well open world sims might not be for you.
Arcade titles tend to have simpler stories and more immediate juicier primary gameplay loops. A very arcade-y game I like is Unrailed!. It’s always hilarious with a group of friends. You might also check out Vampire Survivors, it’s kind of a reverse bullet hell.
I really want to do archery. It’s not expensive to buy a starter recurve bow kit, but I’m worried I would buy it and never use it because of my procrastinating nature.
I also really want to join a martial arts studio, I found a place that looks like it teaches some interesting styles, but my fear of being the new guy makes it hard to put myself out there. One day though, one day I will do these things.
I’ve taught Jiujitsu for 20 years. I love it when new people show up and legitimately want to learn.
Any place that’s even halfway decent would have the same opinion.
Go check it out. Karate, Judo, Jiujitsu, doesn’t matter. Just stay away from woowoo places that pretend it’s magic, like Akido.
I kinda have this place picked out that teaches a bunch of different styles. I’m mostly interested in their blended class. Actually talking in this thread got me thinking about it again so I’m gonna go soon. First class is free so nothing to lose.
arts that come out of jujitsu like judo and akido have falls and that is an incredibly practical thing to learn. hopkido does it to but its very limited roll. jujitsu itself had the most with forward falls (which fyi is scary) and turn arounds.
Motorsport, specifically drifting.
Mucking around in digital audio workstations.
Motorsport CAN be done relatively cheaply… drifing is not one of the cheaper options unfortunately.
Theres a hillclimb circuit near me and I’ve contemplated buying a cheap hatchback just to have something to take out, abuse and upgrade as I can.
Yeah, me too (with learning how to drift). Looks so much fun to do. That, and learning how to drive a motorcycle too.
Ham Radio. The equipment is expensive and it takes time to learn. Then there’s the license – my body rejects taking exams after six years of college 😅
Swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck.
Oh, man. Why not? It’s great. Everyone should try it.
((Hopefully obvious) sarcasm, here.)
Filming and starring in porn and not just collecting it.
thats easy. all you need is a smartphone and a consenting partner or object.
Coding. I love gaming and I love mods for games, but even my best efforts don’t get me very far. I can’t fully grasp how it works, what it means, or how to ask for what I need to know. It’s not for lack of trying or exposure, I’ve been bullshitting my way through linux for about 16 years now and only recently learned how to use systemctl without without copy paste.
You want literally anything physical I’m your guy. This week I’m researching how to reflow the APU on a ps4 motherboard and it just makes total sense to me, but I’m struggling just to make the json files in a mod for vintage story. Totally lost when it comes to the C#.
CodeAcademy is pretty good for a free self-teaching tool, you should definitely take their course! The good news is that the stuff you learn in C# can easily translate to other languages like Java or Python. C# also has a lot of nifty synthetic sugar, it’s a fun language
It was an interesting thing and I imagine it works great for those it works for, but I couldn’t get into code academy or that gamified coding one. They move to slow for me and with all the plates I juggle it was hard to fmgive it the time it demanded without losing info in between.
I’m somewhat similar. I don’t think it’s impossible* for me, but it’s easy to run into issues and lose motivation or simply lack viable ideas for learning projects. Currently stalled due to multiple system-related issues**, and chilling effect of AI (copilot).
I have a YLoD PS3 I’ve fixed a few times before many years ago, though it likely was a capacitor issue that was only fixed accidentally. Don’t feel like spending money on caps/cooling stuff etc, not set up for soldering. I have another PS3 that currently works, not bothering to set up for firmware stuff for that either (slow internet, no easy way to monitor progress).
* I completed a sweeper clone months ago (in the one somewhat-niche language that I actually like) and that actually went great but I haven’t been able to share it. So haven’t done anything since then
** I probably need to use a different distro but not convinced by any, and probably need a better GPU to sidestep legacy driver issue (which could help w/updating my current setup) but everything seems like a side-grade or overpriced or both
yacht racing. polo. anything else that to do I would need to be wealthy. not that I want to do them I just want the cash.
FWIW apparently for polo it’s the people that own the horses that need to be wealthy, because horses, and you have to have a lot of horses. The riders are usually doing it for fun and/or because they’re good enough to get asked back.
This is going off the Jon Huertas episode of Once We Were Spacemen podcast so you know, grain of salt.
yeah I only thought of it because of one of the bs supplement with john walsh who is like. ooh after excersising my polo ponies Im in pain. my thought is. real great opening for making me think about you being like me. your polo ponies.
Machining. I have way too many hobbies already, no money and no space. But goddamn does creating things with my own hands scratch that ADHD itch for me.









