I have very unusual hobbies like breeding tarantuta spiders and scorpions. I have a small in house farm with hundreds of many species. Does anyone here have an interesting or unusal hobby to share?
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Well, your hobby is quite bizarre, aren't you afraid to those species. They are poisonous and can be life-threatening too. What made you loved having them as pets?
I think I dont fear them because I know how to handle them. You could just as easily be attacked by a dog and be seriously injured. It's all about knowing how to handle each animal.
While people fear what they don't understand, I would say there is more to it than that. Not sure what all the causes of fear are so much but in my case for a few months, I was petrified of lightening after being struck. In many cases I have run into people who are afraid of, to use your example, dogs as a result of having been attacked by them in the past. Unfortunately, it seems some people pass their fears on to their kids and because fear sells media tends to brain wash people making them fear certain things that media likes to sensationalize. Some people seem to fear things for subconscious reasons and to them it makes no rational sense as they can not explain why. Phobias are definitely complex. All that being said I can agree that a better understanding or more experience dealing with things can reduce fear. I used to try to help people get over their fear of heights and the best way was to put them in safe situations where they could gain experience being high up. Fear of heights can be paralyzing, it was amazing to watch people overcome their fears to me. I used to have a pet tarantula but I think what happens with most people who fear them when it comes to them is it can really creep them out gives the the willies sends shivers down thier spine ect.. ect... though some are actually afraid seemingly for their lives even though that makes close to no rational sense.
By the way have seen the Big Ass Spider movie? http://www.hulu.com/search?q=Big+Ass+Spider%21+%28trailer%29
I collect insects, draw and sketch, pay the flute, sing, hike, swim, and play pen and paper RPGs on occasion.
Walker, I am *never* going to your house! I'm terribly, irrationally arachnophobic. But I do understand the hobby of breeding, it's a beautiful thing! I usually confine myself to plants and non-animal experiments, just because they never really get loose or try to escape. No one really gets excited about my tomato breeding, but the glow in the dark e-coli created a bit of a buzz :)
@Unkowntyper - I have played a flute, but I was terrible at it. I also have played pen and paper RPG (Vampire anyone?) but was equally horrible at it.
Beyond that, I write, read, do a fair bit of acting, and basically just scheme away all day like a normal West Indian :)
My hobbies include motorcycling and restoring vintage Porsche's. I find that bringing them back from the dead is empowering and gives me a deep sense of accomplishment.
@Sammy- glow in the dark produce? Awesome!!
Wow! I'm sure your hobby gives you empowerment, accomplishment... and some super sweet cars :) That's pretty awesome! How far are you hoping to go with it?
The Porsche restoration is my actual business and that is what pays the bills.
That is a cool job to have!
The cool job is the guys that own five or more vintage and new Porsche's. I want their jobs! :)
Your hobby can make you earn lot of money too! Vintage cars can be sold in ultimately expensive price and there are lots of rich people who are wiling to pay high just for the restoration of their beloved car.
I think the most I have earned in the shop for one car was right around $32K. People do tend to pay a lot to have their babies restored even if the car is not really worth what they pay.
Cool, never thought of car restoration as zombifying. I have restored a few cars in the past and did enjoy doing it but find I needed a garage someday I'll have one and when I do I pick that up again.
Some of the cars are just that, zombies! People still want to open their wallets and have their cars back on the road. And yes, you do need a large space, I have a re-purposed warehouse that has two levels and both of them are accessible by car.
Cool, I noticed you are in the US! Where about? If it not to far perhaps I could swing by sometime. I had a friend named Tony who also restores porches. Are you far from Boston?
Quite a ways form Boston, in fact. My shop is in Michigan. We are considering a move to Florida within the next five years though.
So the shop is yours?
Before, my hobby is to stay in the roof and watch the sky from afternoon till night. It makes me feel relaxed and I could think a lot of things at the same time. I used to collect some receipts too as memorabilia. :)
That's indeed a relaxing hobby but I find my roof really hot during afternoon so I would prefer to gaze stars at night till midnight.
Clouds are nice I too like to watch them but I wouldn't call it a hobby, maybe if you were taking pictures of the clouds.
I spent many a night doing just that and looking down at the ants (people) below from the rooftops!
I used to have a friend like that :) I'd drive by just about every day, and there he'd be on the roof...
I'm mostly busy with schoolwork-I'm carrying 13 units this semester-but in my free time I like to read, play piano (even though I'm not very good at it), roughhouse with my dogs, and debate politics with friends. Sometimes I even crochet.
@ Walker: Your hobby sounds pretty cool, aside from the possibility of finding an escaped specimen in your bed *shudders*. Oh, and I ate a scorpion once. It was kinda gross...
@Sammy: In my bio class senior year we genetically modified E. coli to glow in the dark...our group's was the only one that worked! It was pretty awesome :)
@Unknowntyper: I tried singing in the high school choir...the result was horrible! Lets just say I now enjoy music rather than try to make it :D
The best part is running around the building in the dark with a can of Lysol trying to spray all the glowing spots :)
What are you studying?
And dogs are a great hobby :) I'd say I spend a remarkably tangible percentage of my day petting dogs!
Sounds like fun! Unfortunately, we had to keep our specimens contained in our Petri dish, but it was still pretty cool to see them glow :)
I'm an English lit major, but I'm currently working on my GE so I'm taking the boring classes first...
And I'd love to spend my day with my dogs, though it's great to see their happy faces when I get home at night :)
Dogs are great but if you have a dog they always know your cheating on them when you come home smelling on your hand of another dog, and the the benefactor of your cheating ways always enjoys it more when they think you belong to another dog if you are petting them.
@CookieMonster: I too am in the listening to music boat love listening to music but mainly finding new music that has not hit the mainstream yet. However not so good at making it though I did learn one thing, if you wanna play guitar banjo is harder so learn banjo and then try guitar and then guitar is easier.
Oh and someone has got to get that glow in the dark E-coli out in the wild. Can it reproduce with other E-coli it would be nice to know what waters were safe based on how much it glowed. though, lightening bugs are very poisonous perhaps its better we keep the glow in the dark E-coli in the lab.
Finally, when eating scorpions be sure you don't eat the head or stinger they produce the poison in their heads and obviously they have it in the stinger too. Seems to be a couple bug eater here. Did it taste like really chewy chicken?
lol Walker, your hobby cracked me up. Maybe I can buy some tarantulas from you? I am a developing entomophagist (I eat bugs). So far I have eaten scorpions, crickets, ants and silk worms. I would like to try a tarantula in the future...I have thought about breeding crickets to create a cricket chip dip but I have heard crickets are not the ideal insect to have scampering about because they feed on practically everything and can cause severe damage to a home.
Other than that I am an online broadcaster for a show called Enlighten Together. This is not a spiritual show! It is an educational show where people from all over the world come together to discuss documentaries, podcasts, interviews, etc. so it is a great learning resource. In fact it makes learning fun. We have discussed alternative housing structures, nuclear energy, permaculture and more, I am hoping for viewership to expand and to experiment with Google Hangouts.
I'm pretty sure I would pass out cold before I could ever get a bug into my mouth (knowingly... they say the average human eats 12 spiders a year), but I do have a question for you Lauren :)
Do bugs taste like shrimp? Because they kind of look the same... I love shrimp, but I can only peel about 20 or so before I start thinking of spiders and get skeeved out.
I do not have any bizarre hobbies, just common ones, one of my hobbies are:
- collecting old coins, cards and other old items
- using the internet/computer.
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