[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka Are the soles reinforced?

[DracoTarot]

@DoctorEldritch In my opinion Tim Burton could have done better with Wednesday. The actors were not that bad but I really expected a bit more. Ricci plays a normie teacher and her role was like "MEH"

If Burton swapped Ricci with Catherine it would have been a whole different story.

Focusing on the original post and hobbies I took this photo of a Dragonfly with my phone today and did some editing. I also have a photo of a spider I'm still busy with.

[DoctorEldritch]

@DracoTarot what is it sitting on?

[Saka]

About active sports and gaming, sometimes playing a game can be so stressful that it actually burns a ton of calories. I sometimes ended up raiding the fridge after an in-game raid because pushing to squeeze out the most performance in order to defeat a boss made me starve. Since I quit mythic raiding it's not often that I get this situation anymore, but it happens.

Regardless of calories burned on try-harding, obviously hours spent still at the desk are not without impact on the health. It's good to keep that in mind and remember about breaks and simple exercises to keep joints and ligaments from locking down and getting strains or injuries. To maintain shape, some sort of moving around is required. In my case it is kendo, currently I train three times per week. Right now I still have trouble with my stamina. It was drained to nil when I was bedridden for a long time last year and while my muscle tone has been restored rather quickly, I still get exhausted easily. I love kendo because it allows me to work on my inner self. It has gotten me through rough times in the past and that's one of the reasons I resumed it recently. I am forced to discard unnecessary thoughts, little intruders devouring me, and focus on the sword in my hands, as well as the opponent.

I also do biking. I was able to get reunited with my old bike last summer and was able to use it a little bit before my health deteriorated. Finland has a lot of nature just a step away from the roads. Some people use bikes all year long, but I am not the type of person who would enjoy suicidal trips on ice and snow.

I guess this also counts as an active hobby: I am renting out a small plot from the city. My free time in the spring involves a lot if shoveling and digging up weed. The annoying grass can have roots reaching to Australia and the only way to kill it for real is to use aggressive chemicals, which I'd rather not do. So brute force it is then. I am very meticulous when it comes to weeding. I find this activity sort of cathartic. Last year I had various sorts of potatoes. I tried to have zucchini too, but ran out of time and just ended up with the zucchini as pot plants on the balcony. I still had some harvest that way. Did you know that tiny zucchini actually have the most aroma? It's just more economical to sell a lot of large, bland fruit instead.

I must admit that I haven't actually had the opportunity to draw for the past two months. My dislocated thumb also caused some tendon injury and my hand is not yet back to normal. I had two separate professionals take a look at it and it probably just needs more time, it doesn't seem to have any fractures. However, for the meantime I am stuck with limited range of motion and lack of proper grip. It's very annoying. At least it doesn't hurt anymore when doing daily stuff, so that's fine. My handwriting suffered though, it's very shaky and it's similar with drawing lines. Last night I had a very vivid nightmare about writing an essay where my hand just refused to cooperate. I struggled so hard to keep the writing legible and it was slow enough to make people around me very annoyed at my slow pace. I do plan on resuming drawing and painting soon though, I have a big backlog in my journal as I haven't been able to add any art to it. So I need to fix it. I've been also building some LEGOs, hoping it helps with restoring the fine control in my hand. I once used to do photography, but I haven't had the stamina to carry around my heavy DSLR camera lately. Sometimes I take pictures with my phone, but even the fanciest post-processing can't really compensate for the limited physical properties of the lens in a phone camera. I loved macro photography with my 2.8 lens, what I get on my phone is very artificial looking compared to that.

I read books, sometimes they end up being books about weird topics and accidentally end up expanding my knowledge. I try to keep up with the hardware news and enjoy watching or reading detailed in-depth reviews with a lot of tiny (or big) numbers. Maybe it is ironic that right now I have just a laptop, but it was a choice based on the economy in 2021 and normally I am someone who builds her own desktops, overclocks them and helps others build and maintain stuff. It is a shared passion I have with my partner, but sometimes I surprise him with my insight - and I have to compliment him, he does take my feedback seriously. Recently he was fixing a laptop of some relatives of his, tried to add a ram stick salvaged from another corpse and it wouldn't work. Only the original stick worked, none of the salvaged stuff did. I mentioned that maybe they had different voltage. I recalled from the depths of my brains that DDR3 SO-DIMMS had a default 1.5V version and a low voltage 1.35 version. And that it isn't a thing anymore because the memories run much lower voltage nowadays. Some searching of the serial numbers later it turned out I hit the nail on the head.
Sometimes I do like a programming challenge, but it is not so much of a hobby for me rather than profession. But on the other hand, sometimes I just decide to solve some issue/mystery not because anyone asked me about it, but it got my interest one way or another. And then it is a matter of pride to solve it. It's especially satisfying to reverse engineer legacy code with no documentation.

About mindset expansion... I guess some of my hobbies that I already mentioned can qualify as that. Even kendo does that to a certain degree. There is focus on working on one's self.

I don't have any money-making hobbies though. Sometimes I bake delicious stuff, but they are for own consumption only. I've been thinking of streaming games, but even then it wouldn't be on professional level where it'd generate any income. I wish I could be an influencer to advocate better for accessibility and the rights of people with disabilities, but I might not be loud enough to actually have my voice heard anywhere. So I am happy if I can push for even small changes to make things better.

Oh and @DoctorEldritch only the heel of the socks is reinforced. My problem is that the skin below the toes is hardened due to years of blisters. Sometimes I manage to salvage the sock by cutting off the upper part and getting the bottom remade. That depends on the sock though, if they were made with fancy multicoloured yarn then it's hard to get a fitting replacement.

[DracoTarot]

@DoctorEldritch the Dragonfly is sitting on a washing line in our backyard. One of those multi-coloured ones.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka To lose calories while playing is almost a dream. I wish gaming could train not only motoric but also muscles. I guess dancing games do that, but it'd be nice is playing Among Us could get you abs of steel. Maybe some say.

I try to combat the sedentary lifestyle with hiking, but also, my desk is one of those that can move up and down, so I can adjust it and I can spend some time standing and working/gaming if I so wish, I think I can recommend one of those.

I like biking, and I want to pick it up again, but I need to buy a new bike in order to do that. I am looking for one (not actively searching, but keeping an eye out) right now.

I am not much of a gardener myself, when I live alone, I have nowhere to do that and no pot plants even. I would not mind having one, but I occasionally visit my parents for long periods of time, and I fear plants would die of neglect if I were to have one. And I am not fond of cactuses. But when I visit my parents, we have a large yard full of trees and flowers and vegetables and berries, and there is also a greenhouse, though it is mainly my mother who likes to plant. I prefer mowing the lawn, it relaxes me.

And this past summer we had a lot of zucchinis, so many we did not know what to do with all of them, and after baking, preserving, pickling, fermenting, drying, and using other methods of cooking (and gifting some to my aunt), we ended up composting some of them, there was just too much.

I do not draw or do photos, but having a problem with a thumb sounds tough. LEGO is a nice idea, did you come up with it yourself, or was it medical advice? Can you draw in some other way while you're recovering, maybe using a different instrument or even just fingers in the meantime?

I am afraid I am too far from any form of engineering, hardware, or software, but it is very nice that you share the hobby with your partner. Do you ever work on something together as a team, like building something together?

Money making hobby is a tough one, to be sure, and not everyone wants to do them either. Ever thought about trying to monetize your drawings?

Maybe there is a way to reinforce the whole sole of the sock?

[DoctorEldritch]

@DracoTarot ah, I dry my laundry indoors, so am not familiar with the types of outdoor wires.

But it is inspiring how beauty can be found in everyday objects and habitual scenes.

[DracoTarot]

@DoctorEldritch my main goal is to capture the beauty in the most simplest things. In the summertime, we hang our washing outside and the extreme temperatures are ideal to dry clothes in a fraction of the time. From washing, drying folding and hanging it takes me three hours or less and the washing is finished. Today is 37 degrees Celsius. I'm not coping in this heat. 😭

[DoctorEldritch]

@DracoTarot 37 sounds brutal. Is it dry heat at least?

[DracoTarot]

@DoctorEldritch yes most of the time we have a dry heat. Occasionally it will rain in the evenings.