I love fixing up classic iPods, and as much as I enjoy it, any mention of it comes with "but why?", then the person asking refuses to understand why I still like using iPods even in this time of streaming music.

I have a perfectly accurate 1:1 scale lightsaber replica of Luke Skywalker. It turns on, it’s really bright, it reacts accordingly to how I swing it, can deflect blasters and makes tons of cool sounds…

I don’t bring it up in conversation, but when people find out they get really excited (well, boys mostly)

I'm an amateur game developer. It's very, very rare I actually get to meet someone else who's into it. Everyone else is either overly impressed, thinking I'm some genius making COD or GTA in my spare time (I am definitely not), or some combination of thinking I'm lying/complete disinterest. It makes me quite sad to see that programming is still relatively niche.

Jacking off. I'm really good at it and have a lot to share, but every time I've tried the police get called.

I was learning Gregg Shorthand at some point just for the fun of it and every time I brought it up people had no idea what I was on about.

playing in a symphonic orchestra. sure, it sounds cool, but most people don't know much about the topic and feel intimidated by it, so the conversation is just me attempting to convince them that it's not just for rich nerds and you can be casual about classical music.

Model Railroading. I went several decades without a layout. Then for whatever reason, I just recently started building an N scale railroad. I'm having fun remembering oops skills and learning new techniques.

Guns. People assume I'm a Republican

I absolutely love working on photocopiers, even though it's my job.

My friends say I'm a hoot in the discord!

I like collecting old 2000s handhelds. PDAs and the likes! Even daily driving a real beauty, a Sony Clié PEG-UX50 (catchy name as always, Sony!)

This is totally fascinating reading all the replies.

I love making bleeps and bloops using VCV rack and Mirack on iOS. The flexibility of modular synths in the digital realm is so much fun! And no one can do 5 minutes of conversation about it. Admittedly it’s pretty dense.

I dabbled in a bit of neography (creating your own writing system) and a hint of conlanging (creating your own language). I think I've managed to create a fairly decent writing system for myself, but the conlang went nowhere fast as I underestimated the effort required to even get started with it. I also attempted making fantasy maps, but it was all in paper and quite a while ago.

That's it, I suppose: neography, conlanging, and fantasy mapping.

I also spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at maps and making virtual road trips via Google street view, but that's way more mainstream.

3d printing

In general most people have a total misunderstanding about the whole process and it's boring explaining the basics

Pretty much all of them at this point, I'm in the construction industry. Video games, reading, computer repair, anime, dungeons and dragons, miniature painting, watch making, chess... There are a few brave exceptions, but most people give me that glazed over look when I bring it up.

Technology, open source software, operating systems, retro technology, furries

I play Mahjong. If I try talking to most Americans about it, they'll think I'm talking about Shanghai, or Mahjong Solitaire.

I actually play 3 forms of it:

Riichi: Standard Japanese rules. This is what you typically see in anime and mahjong games from Japan.

CSM: Competition rules for Chinese Mahjong. This what you'll typically see played in tournaments outside of Japan

American Mah-jongg: A ruleset with a lot of unique features. An AMJ set contains jokers that can act as any tile in the set. The game is played without being able to call "chow"(taking a sequence of 3 pieces), You "Charleston" for the pieces you need before the round begins (pass pieces to the right, left, and across from you), and the standard hands you can make change on a yearly basis. This is the version you often see played by the American Jewish community.

I love playing all three, but it's hard to play them in person, because you need to find at least 4 people who can play by the same rule set.

Riichi is easy enough in Japan, but it's seen as kinda a sketchy game here, and most places you can play it are at expensive and seedy mahjong parlors. Luckily there are a flood of video games based around it that make it more accessible.

Chinese Mahjong is very regional, and each area can have its own variation on the rules, scoring, accepted hands etc. When playing with Chinese friends, I just kinda roll with whatever variation they're playing.

For American Mah-jongg, because the standard hands change year to year, you have to buy a new card from the National Mah Jongg League yearly in order to keep up with it, so it's the only mahjong game with a subscription cost built in. Also as mentioned, the game is very community specific, but also the majority of players are often senior aged women, usually making me the youngest at the table by far.

I love playing all three, but it's hard enough finding someone else who also likes Mahjong, let alone find someone who doesn't confuse it for the solitaire game. I'm not saying Mahjong solitaire ruined my life, but if I could Thanos snap a game out of existence...

I need to find an offline hobby, something that doesn't involve a screen

I don't usually mention embedded programming, electronics, vintage stereo hi-fi, home automation, and fountain pens, among a few others. Of course finding someone who is into any of that could lead to some fun conversation.

I collect lewd anime figures. They sadly have tonspend their existense in a closet.

Making gaming terrain out of household junk. Hey, wanna hear about the combat tiles I'm making out of cardboard and hot glue? No? No, I completely understand...

I like making things. I'm mainly into making costume props and decorations. Basically I'm into making interesting things exactly once, learning a bunch of lessons on what to not do, but never do it again. I'm not a skilled wood worker or metal worker. But! I bound a book myself, coffee stained it, and made the cover out of sewn together leather scraps. It's a Necronomicon. I made a lightsaber almost entirely out of junk from ReStore (mostly plumbing parts). I made an EL wire tree with a dried tree branch about 6ft tall, a spool of decent gauge metal wire, and 50 10ft EL strands. Sanded and painted toy guns. Made a James Webb looking wall decoration out of black foam board, gold hexagons, and an NFC tag. Semi related, I modified an IKEA table to be a vaulted board game table where the tops mount on the wall via French cleat and it has cup holders to keep drinks out and away from spilling on the inside of the table. I have 3D printed some minor costume bits. Made a bunch of wizards wands out of paint, hot glue, and chopsticks. Made a float lamp (tie a bunch of annoying knots around a sphere). Currently trying to modify toy Poke Balls to have a functioning LED button but I really hate soldering.

I'm a programmer by trade so I also tinker with Home Assistant far too much. I have a jellyfish lamp with an RGB bulb that tells me the weather when I wake up. Just made an LCARS (Star Trek UI) dashboard for decoration.

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

i used to be really really into fingerboarding / fingerskating. made my own wooden decks and stuff

I've got a shit ton of hobbies thanks to my ADHD, but I think my most obscure one is Reef-keeping. Also the most expensive.......

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

Be vewwy vewwy quiet. We're hunting cell towers.

"You know Pokémon Go? It's like that."

Knot Tying. Sure, there's an International Guild of Knot Tyers, but it's a rather small group.

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

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

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

I have quite a few obscure hobbies due to ADHD...

I'm super into collecting vintage analog music equipment. Old analog synthesizers and reel-to-reel tape machines to be exact. I also make music on them, but to be honest that's kind of a secondary thing haha.

I play a little bit of everything. Drums, guitar, keyboard, bass, etc. I'm probably best at drums though and have been playing for the better part of 25 years. Currently in a punk band and a desert rock band.

I'm into programming (web dev is my career) and embedded systems. I make a ton of various things with arduinos/raspberry pis. Often I'll try to combine the two and make midi/cv controllers for my synths.

I got into 3d printing a couple years back and have since been going down the rabbit hole of CAD with fusion 360/blender/etc.

I also got really into making video games for a bit in Unity. Started work on a VR game and have been meaning to get back to it.

Speaking of VR, I'm not a huge gamer but definitely love playing Beat Saber and Pistol Whip (both VR). I'm in the top 1000 or so in beat saber, but I was #1 globally in pistol whip for quite a while. I imagine I'm probably still top 10 at least.

And probably my most obscure hobby: Poi

Most people have no idea what it even is, and once they find out, just assume I'm a rave kiddie. I mean, I kind of am, but I legit love the art of poi.