Really boring hobbies/interests: what's yours?

Dudess

Was watching a programme earlier featuring an enthusiastic member of the British Brick Society.
Naturally I sniggered at this "loser" but then I remembered I'm not really in a position to do so, considering grammar and punctuation hugely interest me - to the point where I asked for a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves for Christmas one year. I also enjoy watching shows like Balderdash and Piffle and a one-off programme called The Pedant's Revolt - about grammar purists like me (only I don't think I'm pedantic). It was repeated - I watched it both times.
I figure most people have at least one sad, pitiful interest, so Boards users: post 'em up!

o1s1n

My own secret shame is I was quite the philatalist when I was younger. Have a large and somewhat expensive collection of stamps. Went to conventions in Dublin and everything.

*hangs his head in shame*

Nowadays I collect Sega Megadrive games, Cels from Akira and am trying to get a complete 2000AD collection together. Not quite as boring as stamps but still pretty geeky :cool:


Oh! and then there's airsoft. But that's far from boring.

boneless

Voyeurism.... of the natural world, that is!! Birdwatcher and nature freak!

lemansky

Aviation to the point of obsession....but thats not relevant here as its gone so far so as not to be an interest...more a way of life!

I suppose I do have an obscure obsession with special police units around the world though,like the ERU or SWAT or CO19,or GSG9...oh god here I go...

Dudess

o1s1n wrote:

My own secret shame is I was quite the philatalist when I was younger. Have a large and somewhat expensive collection of stamps. Went to conventions in Dublin and everything.

Stamp-collecting itself isn't really anything to be ashamed of. It's one of those things that's considered geeky, but acceptable. I went through quite an obsessive phase of it myself when I was 10 or 11. But going to conventions... oh dear.

My brother collects football programmes from decades back - Sunderland v Preston North End etc.

o1s1n

10 or 11? ah here now, I was only 8 or 9..by 10 I'd seen the error of my ways and had started making up for it with heavy smoking and drinking

I remember some English group would send me out a little booklet full of stamps with a price list every month. You'd take out the ones you wanted to keep and send the book back with some form of payment.

Stamp collectors must be a trustworthy bunch!

Wishbone Ash

What about those who discuss wooden pallets in the The Pallet Board.

"Connecting pallet people around the world"

Dudess

o1s1n wrote:

10 or 11? ah here now, I was only 8 or 9..by 10 I'd seen the error of my ways and had started making up for it with heavy smoking and drinking

Yeah? Well my stamp-collecting phase lasted a few months. I bet yours started when you were like 4 or something, so boo hiss to you! No wonder you started heavily smoking and drinking at 10 with all those years of shameful memories to suppress.;)

o1s1n wrote:

I remember some English group would send me out a little booklet full of stamps with a price list every month. You'd take out the ones you wanted to keep and send the book back with some form of payment.

Stamp collectors must be a trustworthy bunch!

Bless 'em! I love that ever-so pleasant and polite breed of English people who have village fetes and say "more tea, Vicar?"

Earthhorse

I too have an obsession with grammar. So much so that the people in work pasted a photo of my face onto a cartoon superhero's body and put up posters round my desk captioned "Grammar Boy".

My boring hobby is that I play boardgames. Not your everyday Monopolys and Go For Brokes mind but more specialist hobbyist games like Tigris & Euphrates and Tikal. Not exactly how your average person spends a Saturday night.

Dudess

Wishbone Ash wrote:

What about those who discuss wooden pallets in the The Pallet Board.

"Connecting pallet people around the world"

Now THAT's the kind of thing I'm talking about!

Earthhorse, you've helped set that ball rolling nicely!

dermo88

Banknote collecting.

Judt

dermo88 wrote:

Banknote collecting.

So, like, you're just a pragmatic saver?

o1s1n

Well if you're looking for boring hobbies, I don't think you can do better than Pylon of the Month.

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/bigh/bigh/pylonof.htm

And no, its not something I'm into.

Wishbone Ash

dermo88 wrote:

Banknote collecting.

I'm a bit of a notaphilist myself!

Capt'n Midnight

I've always thought that necrophilia was dead boring.

445279.ie

I hate when people use double negatives. Like "it's nothing got to do with me" therefore it has something to do with me!!!

And I hate when people say "I seen it over there" :mad:

p/s I'm not pedantic either

Dudess

o1s1n wrote:

Well if you're looking for boring hobbies, I don't think you can do better than Pylon of the Month.

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/bigh/bigh/pylonof.htm

Oh wow! I love it!

And no, its not something I'm into.

Are you sure, o1s1n? I mean, you did find the link...

445279.ie

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

I've always thought that necrophilia was dead boring.

Wishbone Ash

Dudess wrote:

Now THAT's the kind of thing I'm talking about!

"Our staff including Dr. Ed Brindley, renowned pallet expert, and Jeff McBee, pallet market analyst, can help answer your questions."

Where else would you get it?

445279.ie

Wishbone Ash wrote:

"Our staff including Dr. Ed Brindley, renowned pallet expert, and Jeff McBee, pallet market analyst, can help answer your questions."

Where else would you get it?

Conversation around the dinner table must be rivitting (sp?)

challengemaster

rebel72 wrote:

I hate when people use double negatives. Like "it's nothing got to do with me" therefore it has something to do with me!!!

I think you got that one fairly.. wrong.. "it's nothing got to do with me" -> "it's got nothing to do with me" = correct / makes a bit more sense.. but no double negative...

Try, say... "It aint got nothing to do with me" ? (exsqueeze le grammar)

Shiva

o1s1n wrote:

I remember some English group would send me out a little booklet full of stamps with a price list every month. You'd take out the ones you wanted to keep and send the book back with some form of payment.

Sterling Stamp Service ?

They used to advertise in 2000 AD ...thats where I signed up for them.

I was big into stamp collecting too when I was a kid.
I used to try get all the local kids into it too, then sell them the stuff I'd get on approval that I didnt want. I was an entrepreneur even back then

445279.ie

also "I don't know nothing" therefore I know something

Think I'm starting to bug the people working with me cos they say I'm petantic :rolleyes: the cheek!!

Wishbone Ash

challengemaster wrote:

Try, say... "It aint got nothing to do with me" ?

That's no good for nothing!

RoundyMooney

This guy collects street lights.

The sad fact is, I used to be involved in this field to a degree, and referenced his site more than once. They say acceptance is the first stage and all that...

Dudess, kudos on being a stickler for grammar, there are all too few of us out there.

Shiva

RoundyMooney wrote:

Dudess, kudos on being a stickler for grammar, there are all too few of us out there.

Agreed.

The more people we can get to talk more properer than what they do normally, the better.

RoundyMooney

ITYM "agree'd"

I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen some post whore with nothing else to say chime in with that exact phrase

Ruu_Old

o1s1n wrote:

My own secret shame is I was quite the philatalist when I was younger. Have a large and somewhat expensive collection of stamps. Went to conventions in Dublin and everything.

*hangs his head in shame*

Nowadays I collect Sega Megadrive games, Cels from Akira and am trying to get a complete 2000AD collection together. Not quite as boring as stamps but still pretty geeky :cool:


Oh! and then there's airsoft. But that's far from boring.

When you said we had the same childhood, you weren't joking! :eek:

P.S Penny Black.

o1s1n

Shiva wrote:

Sterling Stamp Service ?

They used to advertise in 2000 AD ...thats where I signed up for them.

I was big into stamp collecting too when I was a kid.
I used to try get all the local kids into it too, then sell them the stuff I'd get on approval that I didnt want. I was an entrepreneur even back then

THAT explains how I came across them! Been wondering that for a few years.

Ruu wrote:

When you said we had the same childhood, you weren't joking! :eek:

P.S Penny Black.

One of my mothers friends had a Penny Black and always said she'd drop it around to the house for me. Never did :mad:

Yeah, Sega and stamps. What an age we lived in.

StephenC_IRL

I collect apple mac computers , i dont know why, I just love them, I have like 16, the oldest one is from 1986, its older than me. I have them all nice and working and clean, Im not ashamed

WindSock

I used to collect coins. damn that Generic Euro coming in, now I just sit at the internet and smoke crack* all day instead.

I love the really boring trainspotter type hobbies though, and more the people that know, and are not afraid to laugh at themselves.




*May not be true, I just said it to look cool and fit in

5starpool

I briefly collected stamps too, no idea why. Only lasted a few months though I think when I was around 10. Now football stickers, they were a different matter. Those and league ladders every week in the 80's. After world cup 90 though sticker collecting never seemed as good anymore.

Dudess

challengemaster wrote:

I think you got that one fairly.. wrong.. "it's nothing got to do with me" -> "it's got nothing to do with me" = correct / makes a bit more sense.. but no double negative...

Try, say... "It aint got nothing to do with me" ? (exsqueeze le grammar)

No, it's not a typo by rebel72. Given his/her pseudonym, I'm inclined to think he/she is from Cork (just a wild guess ), where "it's nothing got to do with me" is said all the time.

galactus

Have a lot of boring hobbies but will admit to stamp collecting in my younger years.

Was clearing out stuff in my parents place today and came across my old stamp books.Some of Hitler stamps, freaked me tbh.

Just think, could have been in the Nazi Youth if i was born 40 years earlier.
:mad:

TwoShedsJackson

Baseball statistics.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/b-pvb.cgi?year=0&n1=wiggity01#choice=&throws=&minPA2=0&minPA=0&n1=wiggity01&as=batter&year_game=career&opp_id=&orderby=Name

biko

Was in a UFO spotters club at 15. Sat out in fields with telescopes and all.
Never saw one.

ROCKMAN

I 'm a cheek ,I collect beer-mats .

Only one rule.

I must have used the mat or the bar personally that they comes from.
I have 1400+ from nearly every County and 12 different Countries...........




I'm not a alcoholic, I'm not a alcoholic

thefinalstage

I collect old coins from all manner of countries even new coins from other countries find their way in.

mikemac

I used to collect those Eircom callcards.
You know those ones you use in phone boxes instead of loose change.

Now due to mobiles they are hard to get and a lot of staff in newsagents haven't a clue if you ask for a callcard.

tampopo

boreds wrote:

I used to collect coins. damn that Generic Euro coming in, now I just sit at the internet and smoke crack* all day instead.

I love the really boring trainspotter type hobbies though, and more the people that know, and are not afraid to laugh at themselves.




*May not be true, I just said it to look cool and fit in

Have you seen the new '50 year anniversary of the EU 2 euro' coin? I've already got three of them.

o1s1n

micmclo wrote:

I used to collect those Eircom callcards.
You know those ones you use in phone boxes instead of loose change.

Now due to mobiles they are hard to get and a lot of staff in newsagents haven't a clue if you ask for a callcard.

I remember everyone was collecting them back when I was in third class. My stamp collection and I looked down on such a rabble of "fashionable" collectors.

Do they still make them? I thought they would have been discontinued years ago.

Dudess

My love of grammar and punctuation has led to another long love affair - typing documents. I'm always delighted to type for others, particularly friends' CVs and cover letters - for free! I just love laying them out and deciding where to use bold text, italics, underlining etc (I'm not joking). I love typing too - 70 words per minute last count.

No, I'm not a secretary - I work freelance in the media. But I often have to do office temping, so I get to live both dreams!

January

micmclo wrote:

I used to collect those Eircom callcards.
You know those ones you use in phone boxes instead of loose change.

Now due to mobiles they are hard to get and a lot of staff in newsagents haven't a clue if you ask for a callcard.

Same as me so. You walk into a shop and ask for a calling card, they ask you how much and print it out on a piece of paper like the mobile phone credit. It's crap these days.

little miss

Doing Jigsaws. Still love doing them...

DublinWriter

Dudess wrote:

My love of grammar and punctuation...

I was walking down Henry St. the other day and I saw the following sign:

"You're keys cut while you wait"

I felt so angry that I nearly tore the sign down and ripped it apart with my bare teeth! Like me, you've probably read "Eats Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss.

I also cut out and collect recruitment ads that really go beyond the pale. The best example of which I clipped from the Irish Times recruitment section a couple of years ago looking for someone to fill a secretarial post who must possess "excellent spelling and grammer".

I used to collect coins as a kid. Coin collectors always looked down at stamp collectors and I think everyone looks down at Callcard collectors!

The saddest hobby of all? I'm sorry if I offend anyone with this, but people past the age of 16 who still play Subbuteo. Sadder still are those who do so AND compete at European level.

I worked with a guy about ten years ago who used to do just that. He said he attented the European Subbuteo finals that particular year and the German contestant was dressed in a German National Soccer kit and was doing star-jumps to 'warm-up' before his match.

stovelid

Wouldn't call it a hobby exactly but I have always loved reading maps. Atlas maps, ordnance survey or street maps, whatever. Is that boring enough?

Dudess

I'm keys cut while I wait, eh? Interesting concept.

Yep, headline on a news in brief about flour in folic acid in Cork's Evening Echo the other day: "Flower contains folic acid".

I actually did a bit of sub-editing for a while - I thought it would be ideal work for me. In fact I didn't get on well at all. There isn't anywhere near the emphasis on grammar, punctuation and spelling that I thought there would be. It's really only about how fast you are - being meticulous (or would that be anal? ) just slows things down.

DublinWriter wrote:

Like me, you've probably read "Eats Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss.

I asked for a copy of it one Christmas!

Zaph

rebel72 wrote:

Think I'm starting to bug the people working with me cos they say I'm petantic :rolleyes: the cheek!!

Without being overly picky I'd just like to point out that the word is pedantic

I collected stamps. Still do, although to a much lesser extent than I did even as recently as 8-10 years ago and I really only specialise in a couple of things now, but my collection is worth quite a bit so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

kelle

I love knitting!

Dudess

kelle wrote:

I love knitting!

But knitting's cool now - Kate Moss went through a phase of it! :rolleyes:

Earthhorse

DublinWriter wrote:

"You're keys cut while you wait"

Similarly, the Spar in Ranelagh used to have (engraved in the marble doorway no less) the words "Were open 24 hours".

Oh, so you were open 24 hours but you're not anymore? Thanks for the tip!

Is it more boring to have a boring hobby or not have any hobbies at all?