My two are:
Making sourdough. I personally always heard like this weird almost mysticism around making it. But I bought a $7 starter from a bakery store, and using just stuff in my kitchen and cheap bread flour I’ve been eating fresh sourdough every day and been super happy with it. Some loafs aren’t super consistent because I don’t have like temperature controlled box or anything. But they’ve all been tasty.
Drawing. I’m by no means an artist, but I always felt like people who were good at drawing were like on a different level. But I buckled down and every day for a month I tried drawing my favorite anime character following an online guide. So just 30 minutes every day. The first one was so bad I almost gave up, but I was in love with the last one and made me realize that like… yeah it really is just practice. Years and years of it to be good at drawing things consistently, quickly, and a variety of things. But I had fun and got something I enjoyed much faster than I expected. So if you want to learn to draw, I would recommend just trying to draw something you really like following a guide and just try it once a day until you are happy with the result.
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Blender. Not great at it, but there’s so many fantastic tutorials on YouTube. I can use it good enough to design and 3d print simple things. Of course, there’s may aspects / layers to it. It’s both broad and deep. So it’s good to kind of focus on one thing at the time, and then break that down even further.
Man, I tried to get into this. Spent months running through the tutorials. I just couldn’t grasp how they design flow of creating a complex shape from scratch. It just didn’t “make sense”.
I’ve found parametric modeling programs like Solidworks far, far more intuitive to use - it’s easier for me to grasp “okay, this thing is a combination of added shapes, extrusions, negative spaces, revolved outlines, etc” than what Blender wants you to do. Unfortunately, most parametric programs really don’t offer good skinning/texturing and only mediocre rendering options.
I totally get that. It’s like finding a programming language or personal information manager app that you like. Have to try a bunch out to find something that works for you.
A long time ago I dabbled in script-generated ray tracing. That was fun, but I never got great at it.
I also learned PostScript for a while, because I wanted to create some very intricate printable forms. Using WYSIWG tools was just not cutting it. I ended up with some large 300dpi forms that I liked, whuch were perfect for the assignment.
Sometimes a different model or approach can make a huge difference to your work flow.
I’ve been wanting to learn blender for the same reason. Complicated models are an absolutely bitch to work with in parasolid modeling engines.
However, for simple designs, parasolid modeling is spectacular for designing models for printing. Fusion360 has a free tier for hobbyists (they hide it and you have to go hunting to find it, but it exists), and I’ve done most of my designs there.
I’ve also used tinkercad for really simple edits. I’ve heard great things about solidworks, but it’s expensive af, even for a hobbyist account.
Not sure exactly what you consider ‘expensive’, but there are ways to get a student edition Solidworks account for $100/year. I consider that a pretty reasonable price.
Personally, I find it infinitely more usable than Blender, but that may just be my personal biases in play. Your mileage may vary.
That’s absolutely reasonable, but I’m not a student. Is that required by the license agreement?
Reading
Thanks to e-books and the Libby app you don’t even have to physically go anywhere or pay anything to find a good book these days.
Playing older video games via emulation. The barrier to entry gets easier and easier as time marches on. And as long as you have disc space to download the games, you’ll likely find a repository somewhere on the Internet.
Oh yeah some even let you play in browser now. Crazy how it takes seconds, and most peoples phones can even play most everything game cube and earlier.
That is a particularly handy feature for older computer games from DOS and C64.
And if you don’t flash drives/micro SD cards are dirt cheap and stupid fast these days. May as well be external storage in an easy to loose stick or microSD card.
I’ve never had a problem playing my collection of old games I used to own externally.
Anbernic handheld consoles are awesome and inexpensive.
I recommend the RG35XXSP. It’s shaped like a Gameboy Advance SP and plays lots of Dreamcast & N64 games plus everything below that.
$60 + Shipping Directly from Anbernic
or
$90 with free 1 or 2 day shipping from Amazon
The bizarre culture (pun intended) around sourdough is maddening. The obsession over the “ear,” bannetons, lames, daily feeding: all bro club bullshit. This is the bread humans have been making for millennia; the only tools you need are one hot rock and one not-hot rock.
There are some serious differences between a badly made loaf and a well done one though. You never stop learning. But yeah, it’s easy to get something passable.
None of the differences have anything to do with the Bro Method.
making mead:
honey, yeast, water, shake the carboy, pop on the airlock (fancy cork), wait two weeks.
wine making:
juice, sugar, yeast, water, shake the carboy, pop on the airlock, wait two weeks.
No camden tablets for sterilization?
I’ve never found them necessary.
I use a baking soda/water combo to clean out carboys between uses, and ill dip the airlock stopper in boiling water before attaching it, any cloth i use to wipe things down is boiled beforehand.
as long as everything is clean before the carboy is sealed, you’re good.
I’ve never lost a batch.
knock on wood.
Sewing! My girlfriend is into it and had some machines already. It’s way easier and more fun than I expected.
Making desert coffee at home. I got a French press because i drink one cup of coffee a day at most and I wanted make sweeter more rich coffee.
I now can use all cream line milk or oat milk, soak my fresh ground beans (and chickary root sometimes), add sweeteners to taste.
Blame better coffee than most coffee shops (for me). No 1000 dollar machine
I got tired of paying $20 for affogato out, so i bought a moca pot for like $20 online and some preground espresso. Now I can make it whenever i want and it tastes basically the same. Fully automatic espresso machines are overrated.
Sorry, I’m european.
Do you mean the little conical pot with the long handle you use to make mokka?
Or an italian bialetti ?
Because mokka and espresso are quite different.
If you mean a bialetti, I absolutely agree and I recommend to buy an original ‘bialetti’ brand, because they will last you several lifetimes. It’s worth it. I’d find it a bit weird that you call it moca pot, when it makes espresso.Turkish or Greek mokka is also awesome, but you need to know how to poor the coffee so you don’t have your mouth full of coffee grounds. I never mastered this.
I’d find it a bit weird that you use mokka to make affogato, but that might be a question of taste…Don’t let an Italian catch you calling a Bialetti coffee an espresso.
If I’m understanding though it is closer to espresso because of the higher pressure, right?
It comes out dark and flavorful enough for my affagato, that’s all i care about. 😆
I’m talking about the bialetti.
Soak grounds in milk? Then just press the milk with no water or anything? Never heard of doing this.
Yeah! I started it because I partner wanted a more latte like drink, and I like a very creamy coffee.
I will say contrary to what I expected, I had to lower my soak time because it gets bitter faster, but I still prefer it.
My first thought was sourdough too, and making fermented foods in general. I wanted to get into making my own sourdough bread for a while, but every time I started researching I just gave up. A lot of recipes out there make it look so intimidating and honestly, most of the steps are just not necessary for a basic loaf. Been making simple bread in loaf pans for months now and loving it.
Same! Some of the recipes make it sound like you need 6 special tools and a climate controlled area. Freaking internet blogs trying to justify their existence by over complicating things.
Kayaking was easy. Get one you can afford on FB Marketplace and go. Cheap paddles are just fine to start and are $3 thrift life vests, maybe forever. Next thing you know, you’re scanning Google Maps for water and new adventures.
Game Mastering for TTRPGs. Set up can take some work, but it’s a great creative outlet and, once you find the right group, soooo much fun. I personally started off with Paranoia XP and moved from there to a couple different systems before landing on D&D 5e. There are some great rules-light systems like Kids on Bikes/ Kids on Brooms or Paranoia Perfect Edition if the behemoth of D&D (with its multiple text-book sized rule books) seems daunting.
ETA: there’s also entire libraries of advice on GMing out there for assistance if you need it.
I played D&D for 10 years before I seriously tried DMing. I’m now a year and a half into a 5e game with 4 other players and it’s been great. It helped that YouTube kept sending me Matt Colville videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8
Nice! I’m a big fan of Ginny Di, she’s got some great tips for DMs and players.
This was awhile ago, but playing dungeons and dragons! I showed up one night at the local gaming store, asked the group playing that night if they had space, and bam! I’m playing a terrifying monk in World’s Largest Dungeon!
Fly fishing
Got yelled at as a kid for playing with your pole too much? Then it’s the hobby for you. Can practice in your backyard and it’s fun just to whip shit around
The cost barrier of entry is decently high though. Fly fishing is a huge rabbit hole for sure. I’ve never been but one of my coworkers goes almost weekly.
You can buy like $50 kits or go on Craigslist and look for someone selling their impulse bought gear.
Add in a license fee and even then it’s not too bad for time killing hobby.
I think when I first got into it I was put off thinking I’d need like the finest $3k in orvis gear and I’d need to buy $10 flies at my local shops.
Like there’s a weird bougie-classist feeling I think a lot of people have which turns them off of trying to get into the sport.
Cycling
I started biking to work after we moved closer and next thing I know I’m into mountain biking and have built 2 bikes
Wine. Not making it, but just enjoying it. Trips to wineries, wine clubs, tasting rooms. All it requires is money.
I don’t even like red wine, but the hobby aspect of it all is very simple.
Woodworking! Yes, you can obviously spend lots of money on equipment, but you’d be surprised by how nice furniture you can build with just a track saw and a trim router.
Only thing that sucks about woodworking is unless you have a house of your own, it’s very difficult because of how much dust and noise is produced. Woodworking in an apartment is very frustrating.
I get that. In my city there are at least 2 makerspaces and 1 communal workshop where you can use all their tools at any time, for a monthly membership fee. I would totally use that option if I didn’t have my own house. Not sure how common that is around the world though.
