I finally know why I am the weirdo at parties.

Cooking: I love having friends or family come over for lunch or dinner and serving them something that they rave about.

Hiking: The quiet, still moments when there's no-one else (other than my wife who I usually hike with) around and we can absorb the sights and sounds of nature.

Role-playing games: When the story we're all creating together comes together perfectly.

I wouldn't call model railroading my main hobby, as I only touch it once in a while. But that's also what I do love about it. You leave it packed away in a closet for YEARS, then one rainy day you stumble across those boxes & decide to unpack them. And they still work like you remember as a kid. It's like reconnecting with an old friend.

I basically unlock new superpowers as I work on self-servicing infrastructure

The people.

Boardgame fans are often very smart and aware.

I can make up my own songs with lyrics that I want to sing.

Lately I've been working on one called "these people are nuts".

How cool some origami figures look once finished, specially those that can be folded in less than one hour.

I find amazing how all those shapes can be achieved just by folding.

It's so ruinously expensive that I can't afford any vices.

I've been golfing (yea, I am aware that the majority of Lemmy hates golf) a lot more recently. I enjoy that it's something that can be done with people of varying skill levels while still being fun. Ultimately, the competition is just with yourself to keep improving.

Plants don’t have opinions and flowers are pretty.

Sailing, because it's dozens of hobbies in one: It's a competitive sport either with a team or solo, or it can be a relaxing diversion, or it can be a terrifying personal challenge. It can encompass skills such as sewing, woodworking, machining, plumbing, physics, mathematics, design, navigation, radio communication, astronomy, meteorology, geography, geology, environmental sciences, electronics/electrical engineering, history, linguistics, culinary skills, and more. You can basically always be thinking about it!

The primary technique is stabbing.

I make felt sculptures.

One of my biggest hobbies right now I'd better explain before I answer. I make Saturday morning cartoon clipshows for my wife and kid, which has been going for about a year and a half. I have a whole spreadsheet of almost 90 shows and a roughly equal number of indie animators I follow. I also grab occasionally like, old Fleischer studios stuff. Last weekend I included "Bimbo's Initiation" for example. My spreadsheet tracks what episode we're on, when it was last shown, and various notes for when I want to arrange shows together by some theme, e.g. giant robots or animal characters. I also sometimes sneak weird little videos into the commercial breaks. I have a media server with about 6Tb of shows, shorts, music videos, and misc footage.

My favourite thing about it is a bit of two different things - I get to share my TV with my kid, and I also end up seeing a lot of new shows and gaining an appreciation for the great work being done still, which keeps me from being jaded. It tends to concentrate nearly all our screen time into a single block during the weekend, so the TV we do watch is extremely varied, thoughtfully chosen, and always fresh. The first season of Owl House took us about a year to get through. Even though we could, we do nearly zero binge watching. My kid's media diet is probably more interesting and varied than anyone's I've ever met, and it's because I spend hours every week gathering, planning, editing, and rendering highly curated content. And we make it an event, with big bougie brunch style breakfasts and a projector that takes up the whole wall. It's fucking peak, man.

Researching arcane historical facts, to help make plot twists more plausible.

It saves me thousands of dollars that are immediately spent on tools!

Well I got to play my synthesizers on stage last night so that was cool

The strategy (billards).

It’s how I’ve made like 80% of my friends.

It's straight forward you just run

Gooning? It's just a nice, relaxing way to spend 8 hours

I get to escape the real world

The way it combines most of my autistic predilections; the collecting aspect, the sheer history of the objects, the cultural implications, and last but not least, shiny. My hobby/hyperfixation is ancient coin collecting.

I really get to know the geography of neighbouring cities when looking for places to hide the bodies. I also get great exercise shoveling at night, I don't need a gym membership and I love the fresh air.

It takes me outside and helps me relax and it pushes me to focus on healthy food, good rest and recovery. Plus I can do it all alone or with friends depending on my mood.

So many people aren't listing their hobbies (though many of them are guessable).

Gaming has been a hobby of mine for decades now. I love that it pushed me into other relevant niche hobbies, like mechanical keyboards, audiophile/headphones, desk accessories, and other random tech, though these were mostly only to a beginner's level.

I also learned how to do basic soldering but that's more being interested in electronics than in gaming. You could make the argument that gaming made me interested in technology in general.

If I see it, there’s a good chance I can make art of it, if the conditions are right.

The thing I love most about drawing is the ability to visualize the silly ideas and characters in my head exactly the way I want it to. I love seeing my pieces and the characters come to life in such a vibrant way. And I absolutely adore the entire world of character design, being able to tell so much with just the way a character looks and is presented is so magical, definetly my favorite part of the process.

The explosions.