Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.
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I try to make something that looks good (or at least doesn’t look like random static) by running pictures I’ve taken through audio editing software. There are some extra steps that go into it to “trick” the program into importing the picture as if it were a sound file, making sure the header (information that tells your computer that this is a picture) doesn’t get fucked with, and then exporting the data in a way that it will be saved as a picture and not an mp3 or something else.
On the rare occasion I do bring it up, I can literally watch people’s eyes glaze over. Until I show them a picture
Edit: internet is really bad right now, will reply with an image when I can
Edit2: picture was too big at 7MB. Hopefully a screenshot of the picture doesn’t look too bad
This one looks amazing
Thanks!
Ok now that’s really cool
I do a lot of photography and I’ve been trying to find something that I could do with some of my more experimental shots that makes them more… more‡. If that makes sense?
You wouldn’t happen to have more details on how to do it would you?
Edit: ‡ My more experimental shots are more done as like experimenting with how a shot is taken for like evoking a specific feeling or doing something strange in camera or really any number of reasons. Hell some of my experimental shots were accidentally taken pictures that are disorienting or confusing. I don’t share them often, because IDK it just seems like really personal sometimes. Those experimental shots feel less like photography and more like painting with photos.
Absolutely!
I have a bookmark saved on my computer at home to an old forum with the instructions I followed when I started doing this, and I can send that link later.
There are two programs that I use, and both are free.
GIMP - image editing software
Audacity - audio editing software
Here is the basic process from that bookmarked forum post that I can remember off the top of my head. If something is wrong (especially the Audacity import settings, since I don’t ever change them), I will fix it later.
In GIMP (or other software of your choice) convert the image to a bitmap (.bmp). This step is very important!
Use the option to import raw data as A-law with “little endian” (I have no idea what those setting do, but I assume it’s for keeping the header intact)
Change the timeline in Audacity from time to samples and select everything after the 34th sample to edit and add effects (samples 1-34 are the information that tells your computer that this is a picture CHANGING ANYTHING IN THE HEADER WILL STOP YOU FROM OPENING THE IMAGE AFTER THE EDIT)
Export the audio using the raw data option, selecting A-law again. This should re-save the “audio” as a bitmap image as it will not add an audio file header to the data.
I believe the blue parking garage image uses reverb, or maybe a phasor… possible both to get that effect? But there are a lot of setting to mess with for each audio effect that can dramatically change the outcome. The trees picture was made by putting the original picture in the left audio channel, and putting a horizontally flipped copy of the image in the right audio channel. Delete the header from the flipped copy, and exporting the data smashes them together in this really strange mirror effect. Afterward, I would use GIMP for any color correcting, changing saturation/hue, simple stuff
Edit: spelling and formatting
Thank you so much, I’m going to have to give this a try when I get home from work
Here’s the link to the forum post!
https://empireminecraft.com/threads/tutorial-editing-images-with-audacity.81959/
That’s a name I haven’t seen in a long time
Thank you so much, I’m so looking forward to giving this a shot (too much OT this week so far)
Fun fact: Lightroom has no idea how to process the image results in any semblance of consistent way, so literally which sliders you mess with first changes how the image as a whole is effected. And sometimes even moving the slider vs typing a number in does different things. Which leads to more and stranger distortion.
I’m really digging this way of editing pictures
source image
edited result
Hell ya dude, that’s awesome!
I’ve done experimental image editing (not like yours) and I appreciate the process.
That’s pretty cool and definitely falls under the category of a hobby that you do because you can, although I’m sure there are people in the world who would pay for art like that (not suggesting that you do).
I have had the thought about trying to make money off of this, and some friends have joked that I should be making album art or something like that.
However, I don’t want to feel like I have to meet a deadline or feel the pressure of making something that someone else wants/likes. I just want to make something I like
I completely get that, adding a timeline or even someone else’s opinions changes things
I just wanna know how people even came up with data moshing. It blows my mind that there’s a thought process that incorporates these steps, and ends with awesome (sometimes) results!
Looks pretty good, like some Rorschach test. War sit a picture of trees?
It was! Taken during the winter so there were no leaves, and at night too
Do you have the original?
Here is the original. Just a picture from my backyard looking at the neighbor’s house and then i did some cropping after the audio software fuckery
Not at the moment, but it should be floating around somewhere on my computer at home. I’ll try to remember to find it after work
you just post the link to image hosted on imgur.com or catbox.moe, don’t really need to upload to lemmy itself. Like this -
What’s it sound like lol
Very unpleasant, basically just high pitched static. 1/10 wouldn’t recommend
What about going the other way and turning sounds into images?
I did try that yesterday, and it looked like TV static. Kinda disappointing, but I’ll try some other songs and see if I can messing with some settings
I feel like there is a middle ground where an image looks decent and sounds decent. Probably be really hard to find though.
Autechre
How much tinkering do they require to make the final product look like you want?
Most of the time I don’t have a plan of what I want out of something. Sometimes I can get something that looks interesting or cool right away, other times I have hundreds of files trashed over a couple of days and there’s not a single one that I personally liked
Considering it’s audio-software, I guess the changes are related to frequency changes. You should look up Fourier transform (the function that allows to see the sound frequencies of music, for example) applied to images and play with it. If you are not afraid to do a little bit of Python coding, you should be able to have much more control on the parameters responsible for the visual effects you’re looking for.
The image equivalent of bass frequencies (long wavelength) are big details (ex: the trees) and high frequencies (short wavelength) are small details (ex: the leaves).
I haven’t had to think about Fouier since college, so thanks for bringing up that trauma lmao. I do realize that there are ways to reliably get certain effects or even learn how to do this in Photoshop or GIMP, but I like the shotgunning, spray-and-pray of not knowing what the outcome will look like
I guess I find the process of going back to make small changes to the settings and then seeing how that affects the image more satisfying. Getting something that looks good is just a bonus
This is so fucking cool. Where can I learn more about this??
edit, I see your other post explaining!
The search term to start you with is Glitch Art :)
oh yeah! I have heard of that before. I’ll look to add some tags to my tumblr to follow, thanks!
<3
This is so cool
I used to do a similar thing where I saved photos as .txt files, but they were an awful lot glitchier, and usually split the RGB channels to look as if you had three eyes and were crossing them.
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I am learning lockpicking for fun. It helps me relax. I used a practice lock at first, then a cheap real lock. I’ve just learned that my firearms lock…yup, can be picked open in about 10 seconds. Equal parts cool and terrifying. Locks are waaay less secure than people think.
It has the same “internet hacker” stigma so I avoid talking about it.
I miss lockpicking, it’s so cathartic. I used to have a small set of picks and folks near my desk at the office would often try to pop a padlock I kept around when we were bored. I liked how everyone seemed so interested in the ease with which you can pop many locks.
So got a question for you. I have wanted to get in to this - just as a curiosity. Is there an inexpensive set of picks a person can buy to get started with to play around with?
I tried googling and ran across about a hundred different suggestions and Amazon was the usual (no help).
If you’re familiar with the Lock Picking Lawyer, he has his own store and has some good kits.
https://covertinstruments.com/collections/lockpicks/products/learn-lockpicking-bundle
I’m not getting any sort of kickbacks from the link. I picked one of these bundles up and I like it. The lock it comes with is super handy because it’s designed to be re-pinned. You can change the pins without disassembling the entire lock.
Covert Instruments sells a kit with a pick, rake, turning tool, and a practice lock for about $10
Covert Instruments FNG
Thanks! I will check it out.
I bought the Covert Instruments FNG (* new guy) set for $10. The Genesis set is $28 and is more full featured.
You almost only need the tension prybar + like 2-3 pins IMO. U bought a whole kit (cheap) and I use only the orybar + one of the pins.
Well…I enjoy what I have. Some locks are smaller so smaller rakes and torsion bars would help.
I’ve had this small 5 piece set in my backpack since before instructions for anything could be easily found on the internet. It had to have been $10 or less.
Check out toool. It’s where I started when I got into the hobby.
I got into it a bit during COVID and practiced a bit on a practice lock that I could repin myself. After being able to regularly open it without too much trouble, I decided to try my front door lock - thinking it would be a much harder challenge since it was a real lock.
Nope. Shit popped open almost instantly. It blew my mind! After watching Lock Picking Lawyer, I figured that a skilled attacker could get into most locks eventually, but I didn’t realize that most house locks require virtually no skill to open. And it’s literally easier (and significantly less attention grabbing) than breaking a window!
Sorry police officer, but the door was open ajar so hrem I just wanted to check if everything was alright you see?
Had a guy just being mind blown for the whole evening lock picking my way into my apartment, and then open some lock he had on his luggage (all very basic).
Saw him a year later when I had forgot about it and he still was startled about the evening 😁😅
Lol that just reminded me of something only vaguely related. Back in the day I used to play a lot of World of Warcraft with a friend. One day in the middle of a gaming session, he went “HOLY SHIT! There’s a naked guy sleeping on my couch!”
A couple things to note:
My friend woke naked guy up, who was very drunk and confused. Apparently my friend kept his apartment door unlocked and naked guy stumbled in at some point, thinking it was his apartment, stripped down, and then passed out on the couch. Still don’t know how long he was there for, but probably several hours before my friend noticed
So yeah, lock your doors people. They might not keep out a thief, but at least you won’t have a random naked dude pass out on your furniture.
This right here is why electronic locks could be way more secure than mechanical ones, if only their manufacturers would hire well-trained programmers and not boot camp graduates to write the firmware.
If the Lockpicking Lawyer has taught me anything, is that a number of electronic locks tend to be easy to bypass via hardware rather than software
I love lockpicking! It’s got a really nice tactile click when the lock opens. Too bad there’s not a lot of locks to practice on (legally, anyways)
And yeah, I agree - locks are really more of a psychological hindrance rather than an actual hindrance. Although, for what it’s worth, I don’t know of that many people who can lockpick, so in that sense, a lock at least decreases the number of people who can get through
The lockpick known as 4Chan
I’m a math teacher. I use my video game making knowledge from Godot to make little video games to review skills. Each takes a few weeks to make with game design, making all the art, programming, and making the worksheet.
Here is my Disco Dj-Demo if you were curious what I mean.
I think it’s fun, it’s not something I can really chat with others about.
You’re amazing and your students are lucky to have you. Thank you for being you!
If someone I knew made entire freaking games and didn’t tell me about it I’d be pissed! That’s really cool and you should wear it on your sleeve, imo.
How the hell is this not the only thing you talk to others about‽ This is fucking cool!
You are awesome. Thanks for being a good teacher and making math as interesting as it is for your students. And your hobby is fucking cool too.
I am a programmer (as in it’s my job) and I can’t really program anything in Godot. I’ve done the dodge the creeps tutorial and did some more tries, but I don’t really get game dev. It’s definitely a unique skill.
That’s amazing! I am really impressed.
Model trains. I don’t bring it up because it’s obscure, but I’ve definitely found there’s a stigma. “Oh he’s the guy who plays with trains”. Screw the haters, I like to relax after work and do a bit of escapism. Eventually I got over it though and talk about it with friends, but it’s not the first thing I bring up either
Let’s see those train pics, my dude! Let that conductor-freak flag fly here.
Not quite ready unfortunately, still in the “lots of pink fiberboard and paper mache” phase, but oh I will when we’re done. We’re probably too small for a model trains community, but I’ll probably be hanging out in !trains@lemmy.ml
Sounds silly but there’s definitely an audience for steps of the process as well as the final product
So when you’re ready to share the final results I know (at least me) some people who would love to see progress shots too
Train gang needs no justification
As a grown man who still likes Pokemon, I understand. I’m sure lots of people assume you’re in a state of arrested development.
Ha, and judging by the avatar you play video games with trains too! I adore Satisfactory
Most hours in a game by far, I think I’m closing in on 2 thousand. I’m slowly trying to kickstart !satisfactorygame@lemmy.ml again, come and join us!
My dad has been into model trains since before I was born. We built a train layout in the early 2000s when I was in middle school or so. Working on that project helped get me into electronics as we made PCBs for signals and control circuits. Now, 20 some years later, I work in software engineering. My dad wanted to get back into working on the layout and I’m helping him with Arduino programming and Raspberry Pi stuff. He built a stepper motor controller for the turntable and then we built some turnout and light control boards that interface with DCC. We set up JMRI on a Raspberry Pi to drive trains from phones and automate stuff. I also got him into 3D printing and he’s printed a ton of new scenery for the layout after buying his own Ender 3 after using mine quite a bit. We’ve learned various CAD/modeling programs to make 3D prints.
I also finally got to do something I always wanted to do as a kid, which is to drive the trains from a first-person view. We have gone through a bunch of different variations of putting a Raspberry Pi Zero and camera module on an HO scale railcar. We did some different designs. Our latest design uses an SG-90 micro servo to control the camera angle so you can look left and right. I also 3D printed an enclosure for a regulator, battery charger, and battery that takes track power and powers the Pi.
It’s pretty fun to be able to sit on the couch with a phone, watching the view on the TV, and drive the train from the other room including operating turnouts. Haven’t yet tried to drive the trains over the Internet yet but I want to, since I live a state away from my parents where the layout is.
Edit: Here’s a video of the camera car in action! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls-Rg1TlDOA
Very cool! Sounds pretty much like what I have started on mine, I went the full DCC++ route, have an arduino and rpi running the whole layout, with a few other boards helping along the way. At some point I’d love to do full automation of the setup but that’ll be a while. What camera did you use for the rpi and train? I’m running n scale so I’m assuming yours would be larger
We built the layout when DCC was first coming out after going to a train show. We ended up picking up one of Digitrax’s first systems (Empire Builder IIRC, with DB150 base station). That’s still what we use for DCC. I designed a LocoNet to serial adapter (MS100 compatible, but very cheap and simple) in college (2010 ish) and we’re using that to connect it up to a Pi 3 running JMRI. Our layout is HO scale. N scale is probably too small for even a Raspberry Pi Zero with camera module, as the setup barely fits on an HO scale car.
I have set up a DCC++ Ex setup at my house for testing and experiments. Just got a loop of EZ Track on the floor with an Arduino as the base station and another Pi with JMRI that is configured similarly to the real layout.
Here is an early picture of the camera car design with the servo. I’ve since condensed everything on to one car with a custom 3D printed design. I want to publish it eventually but haven’t had time. I even 3D printed trucks with power pickups in my latest design (just had to buy metal wheel sets to put in them). I also made a tiny Python webserver that has buttons for different servo positions so you can easily move the servo from a browser.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/456/482/672/249/884/original/398d0e7f581517cf.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/456/483/176/756/180/original/3434f015434fb542.jpg
https://mastodon.social/@CalcProgrammer1/110456485998532640
For the DCC controlled turnouts, lights, and turntable, I built up an Arduino Nano based DCC decoder from a design I found online and a DCC decoder library that is available in Arduino. Since the layout spans multiple tables, instead of putting a DCC decoder for each table/PCB I just had the one decoder echo the DCC commands as serial messages over a serial bus that spans all the tables. The other boards (turnout controllers, light controllers, and turntable controller) all just have their RX pins wired to the decoder’s TX and can receive commands that way. Turnout controllers are a mix of SG90 micro servo based ones and L293D motor drivers for Tortoise switch machines. Light controllers use transistors to switch 12V outputs on and off to drive bulbs and LEDs. Turntable controller is an EasyDriver based stepper controller with some pre-programmed position offsets for each turntable track (each track position is mapped to a DCC function address).
this is a hobby I would absolutely love to get into but do not have the space (and renting a garage would probably not be realistic at this point for me). looks amazing dude I’m jealous of you! awesome hobby
It’s definitely a space eater, it’s currently taking up half of my bedroom as I build it. I probably should have waited for a bigger more dedicated space but then I’d be waiting another decade.
If you can figure out how to relate model trains to the average person, then it becomes really interesting.
Like if your experiences have showed to you about why a trip cross-country in 1 country is so long compared to another. Maybe city planning, or at-grade issues that need resolution are the culprit, etc.
I’m into model live steam engines, I’ve dreamed about a model live steam setup but never had the room (or funds) for such a build.
I’ve found the Kato setups to be a bit more friendly on the wallet and have great reliability. I’d recommend that, a small oval with a kato starter set
I think of trains as bullets flying on tracks and wheels of steel.
I like learning about random ass hobbies without ever indulging in them.
I watch an ungodly amount of aquarium / terrarium videos, lurk a ton of aquascaping communities. I owned a betta fish in an empty bowl when I was 12 and that’s it. (poor fish)
I read all you could know about book binding fanfiction, never done it.
I read a hundred pages long horse breeding guide for the game black desert online and I have no idea why. I only played the game for a month, spent most of it reading a google doc about horse. I’m not even sure I owned a horse in the game.
Sometimes I try the hobby, for example mini painting, and don’t have the patience for it. But I still watch some random dudes on youtube paint for hours and sometimes they don’t even talk!
No idea why I am like this
I do the same! And you know, I think this is a hobby by itself. It’s also very useful when talking with strangers if they tell you they practice one of the hobbies you’ve binged on. You can ask them more pointed, interesting questions and it makes for great conversations!
Ever been screened for ADHD by any chance? I do this same thing. I call myself a serial hobbyist because I just bounce from one thing to the next. I’m always glad when I lose interest before I spend any money.
Nah, I did well in school and it’s almost impossible to get that diagnosis as a adult around here. I do find the adhd memes relatable tho lol.
Same situation here. Never got diagnosed as a kid because I did well in school. Then going through the process for my own kid, it all clicked.
Everybody finds those memes relatable. Most of those memes are just regular human things.
I also did well in school (have my Masters too!) and I got diagnosed with ADHD at around age 30 (I’m female so that made a difference in people’s expectations of how it presents). Totally no need to pathologize a trait or to pursue a diagnosis even if the traits do fir you, but I did just want to chime in that there are plenty of us who managed to defy the trope of “doesn’t apply themselves”.
For me, I totally do what you do with hobbies! It’s actually why I went into library science - ADHD is my superpower that allows me to be a generalist :P
I spent last night learning about wood pit clay firing techniques and learning about table saw safety. Why? Idk. I have Ehlers Danlos and I’ve had to give up sewing, spinning, etc, so it’s not like I’m going to be out there making slab tables or digging my own clay but… It’s REALLY fun to imagine and learn all about!
I love learning about new hobbies and I so rarely find the hobbiest of… Hobbies! Thanks for sharing :)
I also keep acquiring hobbies and also have ADHD but spend way too much on it all.
My hobby is collecting hobbies. Under my desk at home is a pile of various “projects” most of which I cannot seem to finish.
Well I guess you are acquiring knowledge, and that too is a hobby :-)
Found it hard to parse, and my mind immediately went with “Yeah, of course people have written fanfics about book binding,” foolishly extending rule 34 to cover it. Of course, there might have been that one fanfic about bookbinding.
But yeah, of course people have printed and bookbinded (bookbound[ed]?) fanfics. But for that to have a community? That’s unexpected.
And you know what? It shouldn’t be called rule 34, but rule 69. Would be much easier to remember that way.
Makes me wonder why they (the anons who’ve compiled such lists back in the day) didn’t make that way. Perhaps it’s too obvious of a joke, I guess?
I would be immensely amused if “bookbinding fanfiction” was called Rule 69.
I know that’s not what you meant, but it’s where my mind went, haha. Fanfiction is all about the weird insider eccentricities, and this sounds like it could be one of them.
I know it doesn’t have to be, but that sounds like what world builders or authors do, dive very deep into a topic for research.
I do this too! I love watching like videos where people make jewelry or phone cases using resin. It requires a ventilated area though and I live in an apartment with no patio so I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to.
I also watch nail polish videos cause nail painting is an amazing artform that is really difficult to do because its painting with material that hardens when exposed to oxygen or UV lighting. It also takes a ton of skill to get really good at it and people use all kinds interesting methods to get different results or looks. But yeah, I don’t have the patience to learn that beyond just painting my own nails and maybe some decals but that’s all I could handle.
mini painting and ADHD is a funny one. I can have months of ultra focus and paint a whole small army up, then I have tiny bursts and it takes months just to finish a few models. I currently have 8 guys I’ve been working on since June about 50% done and I’m no high level painter
Recently I’ve been looking at a guy that makes Damascus Steel weapon. Not that I’m gonna buy a sword or an axe anytime soon, nor am I going to make it
I write sci-fi/fantasy stuff, and I do this too, but mostly so I can gift this or that character with some plausible insider info on a hobby THEY have.
The trick with creating a fantasy/sci-fi universe is to sprinkle true/plausible things all around the little details, so the obviously fantastical that doesn’t have grounding in reality will be accepted by the reader.
For me it’s coffee. Most people see it as a daily need. When I say my hobby is coffee they always say things like “that’s not a hobby”.
You’re being too broad. Gotta specify what you’re doing with coffee at that point, and a slight expansion.
Basically, when bringing it up make it sound more interesting and mysterious, with the potential of a follow-up story.
For instance, people often ask me what brought me to Los Angeles. I tell them, “it’s lady Gaga’s fault”. Hooks 'em every time.
This is accurate, I am hooked, please explain.
This will have to be quick and ugly, because I’m on a phone:
Just explain that if cooking can be a hobby, so can coffee.
Or beer. There are levels of interest, research, and enjoyment.
I am definitely a beer nerd, but quite a lot of people are interested in those conversations.
Might be more like baking bread
Right? Mixology is a thing. There’s gotta be a similar word for coffee making.
you could call someone who makes coffee a barista.
True. And there’s mixologist. What’s the name for what baristas do?
I googled and only found “coffee preparation” lol
It’s absolutely a hobby and a huge money pit.
^Askmehowiknow
Working on my (private) servers is a hypnotic activity for me. It can be interesting or I can hate it and still want to do it. It can also be relaxing. Last time when I was sick in bed I played around with wireguard VPN configs all day to get a routed VPN for my VPS. I’m going to fix it today because something doesn’t work the way it should.
Also, I learn Japanese. 日本語が大好き！
Messing around with my server is so much fun! I’m always on the lookout for something new to self-host.
I just hosted paperless-ngx some days before. Great thing so far. Also renewed my jellyfin server, it’s kinda slow sadly.
I think, at last count, I had something like 50-60 docker containers running. I’m starting to hit the limit of what my 10-year-old hardware is capable of, so i’ve started saving for an upgrade. Lol.
Learning Greek is (very casually) one of my hobbies I wanted to try, because it has a different alphabet.
Foreign Alphabets are also great for obscure math variables. I like to name things よ
That’s true, it makes my everyday math look fancier
I study Vietnamese because it has the same alphabet.
Tôi học tiếng Việt.
“the same alphabet”
Δεν χάνεις κάτι να προσπαθήσεις :)
I’m also interested in learning Chinese for the same reason, I downloaded a good app for basics and have learned a bit but it’s a long long way from anything actually useful.
I am also learning Japanese. I fine it hard to think of the sentence structure as different than English. In my mind I find myself daying the sentences the way Yoda from star wars does and it makes more sense.
Yoda I am–>Yoda desu
I’m currently only doing (a lot of) kanji learning, with wanikani
Any good ressources you used for the wireguard VPS stuff? Still on my bucket list.
I found this software to fit my purposes: wg-gen
You configure your wireguard stuff on your host and this is just a web ui that can show current peers and generate new ones.
That is useful for more complex configs. I only connect to specific servers and address spaces with the VPN, I also Support ipv6.
For that kind of configuration, I found it necessary to host a DNS server for the network, so that I can access the reverse proxy of my Homeserver.
If you’re only looking to warp your device into a different network, that’s more straight forward. I suggest to take a look at wg-easy if you want a web ui for that scenario.
Also, Caution: Some wireguard containers that use your hosts config love to delete them, so make backups. I’m looking at you, wireguard-ui.
Starting and abandoning hobbies.
OK but you didn’t have to call me out like that in front of everyone.
I used to hate this about myself until I briefly took up photography.
“I have to take 100 pictures to find 1 i like!” I lamented. “Just like my hobbies!”
Then it clicked. Im not abandoning all my hobbies. Im auditioning them for the role.
Abandonned Project this year:
Technically stopped:
In a way, my interest in internet privacy is almost always met with uninterested “ah” IRL. Even when I dont come off as preachy, when I just try to sell it as “watching YT without ads”, people often don’t care.
There was a time that I thought people didn’t understand the consequences. Now I realize that most people are just entirely apathetic.
I am quite preachy about it and am universally met with “but why does it matter?” The future is gonna suck.
Knitting - if you find the right audience, you can chat for hours, but it can also lead to blank looks or lots of assumption.
Weather watching (not the extreme kind) - I basically note down the current weather and interpret my own forecast then later see if I’m right.
Lockpicking - it’s basically a tiny little puzzle and I can buy different solutions for a few bucks at any store.
Gardening - this is less obscure/quirky and more that I don’t want people to think that I’m bragging about how many tomatoes I have because I will in fact brag about how many tomatoes I have.
How correct are you usually with your forecasts?
Are your forecasts just based on life experience or some weather research or some kind?
Also talking about your garden in any positive way just automatically sounds like bragging. For example my beans are monsters and are growing so tall and tying to take over the whole garden. I didn’t really do much, they just are.
I use resources on weather.gov for most of my personal forecasting. I know there are forecasts on there but I usually only need it for readings like pressure, humidity, and wind speed. Also I don’t own a Doppler radar which is a very useful tool for figuring cloud density and shape. I do want to get a lightning detector though. That sounds neat.
As for your beans, if you got some spare cans and like pickled things, assuming they are green beans you could pickle them and they’re pretty good. I like em that way at least.
Edit: I forgot to mention the accuracy of the forecasts. I have precipitation down pretty good. That’s just pressure, wind direction, and cloud cover/type of cloud. Temperature is effectively magic where I live so it’s hard to pin down. Still haven’t figured out that one yet.
Not that having a lot of tomatoes is a bad thing but it seems every beginner gardener’s first mistake is planting too many tomato plants
No no, you misunderstand. The plants have so many tomatoes that the cages are bending. There are so many tomatoes.
I don’t think those things are obscure/quirky.
Weather prediction - Do you have any knowledge about how weather works or are you just random guessing? I would love to know more about how to predict weather, based on current and past weather.
Lockpicking - are you also trying to pick an actual lock. I am watching LockPickingLaywer on YouTube, it’s really fun to watch, because it’s really easy for him to pick a lock. But I don’t know where to start. I would love to at least try to pick some lock. Just for fun.
Gardening - that’s actually good experience to have. It’s not so easy to know how to garden and if you know that, good job. 👍
| Weather watching - I’m by no means a meteorologist but I understand a bit of cause and effect for most weather patterns in and out of my area. I mainly use weather.gov for my informational resources and they also have guides on a lot of weather related stuff.
| Lockpicking - I started before lockpicking lawyer popped off but I deeply appreciate him for making fun videos about the subject and bringing it out of obscurity. He definitely is much better than my amateur self and makes it look easy in general. As for starting out, check your state and local laws because in some places possession of the tools is illegal if you don’t have the right licensing, in others intent is critical but possession is not. Don’t break into anything you don’t own is an obvious one. Finally you can get a set of hooks, rakes, and torque wrenches online for $15-30 (prices may vary) and key locks are pretty cheap.
I kill and butcher animals for myself and sometimes friends together with my boyfriend. Mostly pigs, some sheep and goats, poultry. Sometimes injured animals who are too injured or in too much pain.
The idea is to save the stress of transport to animals who are raised in good conditions as part of diversified restorative small-scale agriculture.
The killing and butchering is just one part of a circle of activities around the farm throughout the year, but probably the most unmentionable in any social setting other than among meat fanatics.
You do realize this reads like the prolog for a serial killer novel. Innocent couple with a slightly odd hobby attracts the attention of a league of serial killers?
It’s probably why they can’t mention it typically.
Spoken like someone who would rather their meat come plastic wrapped on a foam tray, where they can pretend that these exact things didn’t happen in a much less humane way for their convenience.
I know you’re just trying to be funny, but it’s like drawing an equivalence between grilling meat and torture.
What part of ‘prolog for a serial killer novel…’ makes you think there’s anything serious about my comment?
Almost all meat is factory farmed. Almost all meat animals are killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan. Almost all meat is procured unsustainably, at the cost of the destruction of the biosphere.
Sure, grilling meat is not equivalent to torture, but in >99% of cases it absolutely is.
I really enjoy getting the most out of a computer/mobile device that I have. I love trying out different OSes, messing with a video game to squeeze as much as performance possible etc.
I feel like this is a lost art that was huge in the late 90’s. Everyone wanted to see how many fps they could get out of their toaster. Now, it’s not just the users but even the developers don’t care about optimization anymore.
I partly blame the manufacturers for this. With the turbo boost, CPUs and GPUs basically came pre-overclocked out of the box. You’ll just put a beefy cooler so that the turbo boost can be maintained indefinitely.
I still remember when I fried my dad’s CPU because I read a guide in a magazine on how to overclock a CPU.
Guessing you spend a lot of time on XDA as well?
I’m into macro photography: Just taking pictures of tiny stuff.
Not micro-photography?
Nope, they’re called macro.
Macro is fun. Would you want to share any of your favorites?
I never post OC on this account, but it’s out there. I appreciate you asking though!
No problem. Enjoy your shooting
I do that too. But when I show it to other people, I usually get “Eww why would you show me dick pics you disgusting pig I’m calling HR you twisted muppet”
We live in a society, etc.
Where are some fun places to shoot? Do you go out in nature or stage things?
I’ve never let it stop me, but:
ethical philosophy
social dance, especially contra and square
chromosomal / genetic inheritance simulations
Very cool, just be careful not to become that “I am very smart” type guy who just wants to impress their friends. It’s a fine line to walk, nobody likes that guy, but everyone likes the guy who actually genuinely likes their hobbies
Oh believe me, the more you get to know me the less impressive I am.
That depends on your dance skills