# Odd pursuits



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Sometimes I get strangely interested in strange things, mostly shadows cast by my youth. Right now it's Spirographs. I'm haunting ebay looking for vintage sets, accessory gears, foamboard, colored pens, and the like. A cheap entertainment! There's even a 21st-century version, Wild Gears.

http://www.wildgears.com/

How about you? Do you have a hobby, permanent or transitory, that can entertain us?


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

My colleagues think I'm odd because I listen to classical music.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I thought you'd never ask....

http://www.talkclassical.com/groups/talk-nonsense-d1148-door-handles.html


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Sometimes I get strangely interested in strange things, mostly shadows cast by my youth. Right now it's Spirographs. I'm haunting ebay looking for vintage sets, accessory gears, foamboard, colored pens, and the like. A cheap entertainment! There's even a 21st-century version, Wild Gears.
> 
> http://www.wildgears.com/
> 
> How about you? Do you have a hobby, permanent or transitory, that can entertain us?


Sometimes I feel tempted to revisit the games of my mispent youth:










But it is probably best not to go there.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I have a deep and abiding interest in snails. 
And poetry, which is nearly as niche.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

I collect pocket knives and multi-tools:







I don't consider myself ready for the world without one or more of these in my pocket before I leave the house. It started at age 12 when I became a Boy Scout and got my first, a four implement Kamp King that I carried for the next 15 years until giving it to a woman friend who promptly lost it. Today, I have 70 of different types, mostly Swiss Army Knives and Leatherman Tools, although only a dozen that I actually use. The rest are those tried and rejected for whatever reasons, or that I bought on speculation for sale or gifting. I don't consider any of them weapons, and whenever heading into a potentially violent situation (quite a few of them in the 1960s and 70s, rarely now), I leave them home or in my car.

That was a sensitive issue. During a 10 year period from 1965 to 1975, I was caught up in more civil disturbances than I can remember, but 6 of them deadly, including the Watts riot of 1965 in which 26 people were killed and several city blocks burned out. Over those years I had 50 guns pointed at me (not 37, not 63, I kept careful count, but no shots fired), was rescued from mobs on four occasions, always by concerned locals, and I once rescued a police photographer from one. In Alabama I got chased down a country road by a man with a gun. People I knew got killed, including Ruben Salazar, a Los Angeles Times reporter, and Jonathan Daniels, my roommate in Selma. There was never an incident in which a weapon would have done me any good, and several in which one would have made things worse. Therefore, no knives to the party, not even of the Swiss Army variety.

I find these gadgets endlessly useful and don't understand why everyone doesn't carry one. I asked a knifeless friend once, and he replied, "There is always someone around with a Swiss Army Knife when you need one." :lol:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I got into hoarding motor oil that was on sale. Here is my stash about 2010. Some additives in the pink and black bottles on the upper left.









More recently, about 2014, it looked like this:









I still have 48 of the green quart bottles and four 5-quart jugs. It is mostly 5w30 and it does not get out of date because of five vehicles at my house, the newest is 2001.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Florestan said:


> I got into hoarding motor oil that was on sale. Here is my stash about 2010. Some additives in the pink and black bottles on the upper left.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Look like a episode of coupons


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2016)

Pat Fairlea said:


> I have a deep and abiding interest in snails.
> And poetry, which is nearly as niche.


Perhaps you could combine the two?


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

dogen said:


> Perhaps you could combine the two?


Snails
[HR][/HR]

Slimy and slippery,
Snails are such fun.
Slowly they move,
They can't even run!

Leaving their trail
Behind as they go.
You can see where they've been
And how very slow.

On their back is a shell,
It's really their home.
It's ever so small,
But it goes where they roam.

On stalks are their eyes,
That wave all around.
One can point up,
And one to the ground!

They eat lots of plants,
And all of the flowers.
Munching away,
Especially in showers.

Shiny and slippery,
Snails are such fun.
They eat and they eat,
They must weight a ton!

©2002 Gareth Lancaster


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

znapschatz said:


> I collect pocket knives and multi-tools:
> 
> I don't consider myself ready for the world without one or more of these in my pocket before I leave the house. It started at age 12 when I became a Boy Scout and got my first, a four implement Kamp King that I carried for the next 15 years until giving it to a woman friend who promptly lost it. Today, I have 70 of different types, mostly Swiss Army Knives and Leatherman Tools, although only a dozen that I actually use. The rest are those tried and rejected for whatever reasons, or that I bought on speculation for sale or gifting. I don't consider any of them weapons, and whenever heading into a potentially violent situation (quite a few of them in the 1960s and 70s, rarely now), I leave them home or in my car.
> 
> ...


I often carry one when I'm travelling, but if I don't have one with me, then I have a bottle opener on my keyring for emergencies.


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2016)

Hmmm...bottle opener...emergencies...

Your brave and public honesty is to be applauded.


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2016)

calmly
he gazes at the mountain -
the snail


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

Wood said:


> I often carry one when I'm travelling, but if I don't have one with me, then I have a bottle opener on my keyring for emergencies.


Surely the most useful implement for emergencies. Be Prepared! (Boy Scout motto)


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

From As You Like It:

*ROSALIND*Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight: I
had as lief be wooed of a snail.​*ORLANDO*Of a snail?​*ROSALIND*Ay, of a snail; for though he comes slowly, he
carries his house on his head; a better jointure,
I think, than you make a woman: besides he brings
his destiny with him.​*ORLANDO*What's that?​*ROSALIND*Why, horns, which such as you are fain to be
beholding to your wives for: but he comes armed in
his fortune and prevents the slander of his wife.​*ORLANDO*Virtue is no horn-maker; and my Rosalind is virtuous.​*ROSALIND* And I am your Rosalind.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

(retrieved from *STUPID JOKES* thread)

A snail staggers into a police station.

"Help," he cries, "I've just been mugged by two slugs."

The desk sergeant asks, "Can you describe them?"

"I don't know," the snail replies. "It all happened so fast."


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Wood said:


> Sometimes I feel tempted to revisit the games of my mispent youth:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not odd, sir! .... I'd happily join you to play anything like this :tiphat:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Hah! Just scored an original 1967 Spirograph refill kit, with 70 more designs and a new cardboard drawing board. And only $11, sealed! It even has the original Woolworth's price tag of 69 cents. My, how time (and the dollar) fly.

Was it really half a century ago? I'll try not to think about that part.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Hah! Just scored an original 1967 Spirograph refill kit, with 70 more designs and a new cardboard drawing board. And only $11, sealed! It even has the original Woolworth's price tag of 69 cents. My, how time (and the dollar) fly.
> 
> Was it really half a century ago? I'll try not to think about that part.


Good result Ken. these spirograph things looked slightly unfamiliar until I remembered that I was the recipient, on my fifth birthday, not of a Spirograph, but a Spirotot.


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## motoboy (May 19, 2008)

My wife and I have every MST3K DVD that has been released and almost all of the Rifftrax DVD's. Since our daughter came around we haven't had much time to watch them so we are simply collecting the new ones unwatched and saving them up for her first summer camp. That will be a fine week!

Edit: We also have all the Film Crew DVD's. Cinematic Titanic has not interested us much yet.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

OMG I've been replaced by a machine!


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Posting on internet forums?


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

KenOC said:


> OMG I've been replaced by a machine!


Yes, it's a real thing called a harmonograph. I've got a small book about it.
View attachment 88352


There's some musical connections, overtones and temperament. 
View attachment 88353


It looks like your image has a coupled pendulum. You can make your own harmonograph 
View attachment 88354


And make some impressive images
View attachment 88355


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Voting in America. 
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...tml?campaign_id=A100&campaign_type=Email&_r=1


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

starthrower said:


> Voting in America.
> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...tml?campaign_id=A100&campaign_type=Email&_r=1


That is the really sad thing. We have no choice but bad choice.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Florestan said:


> That is the really sad thing. We have no choice but bad choice.


But if the other 80 million people voted, we could elect more independent candidates. Time to bring back civics classes in public schools.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Wood said:


> Sometimes I feel tempted to revisit the games of my mispent youth:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I used to love Totopoly!


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Dr Johnson said:


> I used to love Totopoly!


Without looking it up, can you name any of the 12 horses? I can recall 7 of the them, from a game I last played maybe 44 years ago.

I must be Top Geek on this forum.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Wood said:


> Sometimes I feel tempted to revisit the games of my mispent youth:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Aw man I love old board games - I've played Risk, Totopoly and Colditz all in the last year. I like being the German officer in Colditz so I can be an utter b+stard and get away with it (because it's 'just a game')


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Merl said:


> Aw man I love old board games - I've played Risk, Totopoly and Colditz all in the last year. I like being the German officer in Colditz so I can be an utter b+stard and get away with it (because it's 'just a game')


Colditz was glamorous because we always aspired to it but never managed to buy it. I used to enjoy Cabbie.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

This was my favourite:


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Wood said:


> Without looking it up, can you name any of the 12 horses? I can recall 7 of the them, from a game I last played maybe 44 years ago.
> 
> I must be Top Geek on this forum.


Off the top of my head I remember Elton, Marmaduke Jinks, Jerome Fandor, Dark Warrior. a black horse beginning with D, Overcoat and a blue horse beginning with K.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Wood said:


> Without looking it up, can you name any of the 12 horses? I can recall 7 of the them, from a game I last played maybe 44 years ago.
> 
> I must be Top Geek on this forum.


I can't remember any of their names. The last time I played it was in 1970. A friend had it and I used to go round to play it and we'd listen to his older sister's copy of Abbey Road.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Merl said:


> Off the top of my head I remember Elton, Marmaduke Jinks, Jerome Fandor, Dark Warrior. a black horse beginning with D, Overcoat and a blue horse beginning with K.


That's pretty good Merl! Dorigen was the black horse. Overcoat was my missing red one, the other was LeonidasII. There was also Play On (yellow).

We are missing three now I think.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

'Pick up sticks' or 'spillikins':










and this, a Christmas present from my Gran.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

This is a fun one:


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Ingélou said:


> 'Pick up sticks' or 'spillikins':


I remember we called it 'Mikado' and that always the game ended in shouting, fighting and callings of 'foul play!'


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

TxllxT said:


> I remember we called it 'Mikado' and that always the game ended in shouting, fighting and callings of 'foul play!'


All part of the fun!
Seriously, it was a game I played with my girl friends when I was in my early teens, so it wasn't too violent an affair.
I bought a set again a few years ago & we enjoyed playing for a while & introduced my mother to it - she was quite nifty!


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> 'Pick up sticks' or 'spillikins':
> 
> 
> 
> ...


We had a similar game, but with points: Jack Straws


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

My odd hobby would be writing fanfiction. I've even written fanfiction about certain opera singers (I won't say which ones).


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

*Quality stuff from Russia*










Lesnoy Balsam - forest toothpaste



















Our continuous pursuit is finding products 'made in Russia' that are better in quality than their western counterparts. We already found a green toothpaste (very effective against periodontitis) and lots of jams 'like from your own mum!'


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