Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.
Listening to jpop.
Contributing to OpenStreetMap. I try to bring it up because it would be great to get more contributors to the project, but either I have to explain “It’s Wikipedia, but a map” or they come out with misunderstandings about the project that aren’t worth correcting. E.g not liking the icons used to display points on the map.
I’ve spent a good chunk of the year making ebooks from out-of-print dead tree books. Proofing and formatting takes a ton of time. Nobody reads them but me.
You’ll be that guy that records old shows on VHS and when he died the only record of old shows was donated to an archive/museum. A priceless contribution to humanity.
I try to make something that looks good (or at least doesn’t look like random static) by running pictures I’ve taken through audio editing software. There are some extra steps that go into it to “trick” the program into importing the picture as if it were a sound file, making sure the header (information that tells your computer that this is a picture) doesn’t get fucked with, and then exporting the data in a way that it will be saved as a picture and not an mp3 or something else.
On the rare occasion I do bring it up, I can literally watch people’s eyes glaze over. Until I show them a picture
Edit: internet is really bad right now, will reply with an image when I can
Edit2: picture was too big at 7MB. Hopefully a screenshot of the picture doesn’t look too bad
Ok now that’s really cool
I do a lot of photography and I’ve been trying to find something that I could do with some of my more experimental shots that makes them more… more‡. If that makes sense?
You wouldn’t happen to have more details on how to do it would you?
Edit: ‡ My more experimental shots are more done as like experimenting with how a shot is taken for like evoking a specific feeling or doing something strange in camera or really any number of reasons. Hell some of my experimental shots were accidentally taken pictures that are disorienting or confusing. I don’t share them often, because IDK it just seems like really personal sometimes. Those experimental shots feel less like photography and more like painting with photos.
Absolutely!
I have a bookmark saved on my computer at home to an old forum with the instructions I followed when I started doing this, and I can send that link later.
There are two programs that I use, and both are free.
GIMP - image editing software
Audacity - audio editing software
Here is the basic process from that bookmarked forum post that I can remember off the top of my head. If something is wrong (especially the Audacity import settings, since I don’t ever change them), I will fix it later.
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In GIMP (or other software of your choice) convert the image to a bitmap (.bmp). This step is very important!
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Use the option to import raw data as A-law with “little endian” (I have no idea what those setting do, but I assume it’s for keeping the header intact)
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Change the timeline in Audacity from time to samples and select everything after the 34th sample to edit and add effects (samples 1-34 are the information that tells your computer that this is a picture CHANGING ANYTHING IN THE HEADER WILL STOP YOU FROM OPENING THE IMAGE AFTER THE EDIT)
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Export the audio using the raw data option, selecting A-law again. This should re-save the “audio” as a bitmap image as it will not add an audio file header to the data.
I believe the blue parking garage image uses reverb, or maybe a phasor… possible both to get that effect? But there are a lot of setting to mess with for each audio effect that can dramatically change the outcome. The trees picture was made by putting the original picture in the left audio channel, and putting a horizontally flipped copy of the image in the right audio channel. Delete the header from the flipped copy, and exporting the data smashes them together in this really strange mirror effect. Afterward, I would use GIMP for any color correcting, changing saturation/hue, simple stuff
Edit: spelling and formatting
Thank you so much, I’m going to have to give this a try when I get home from work
Here’s the link to the forum post!
https://empireminecraft.com/threads/tutorial-editing-images-with-audacity.81959/
Fun fact: Lightroom has no idea how to process the image results in any semblance of consistent way, so literally which sliders you mess with first changes how the image as a whole is effected. And sometimes even moving the slider vs typing a number in does different things. Which leads to more and stranger distortion.
I’m really digging this way of editing pictures
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Contributing to localization in my language. (I use Localizor or weblate) I’ve helped translation for the Godot Engine and many released games. It’s a free hobby granted you have a PC and some knowledge. I’ve always liked translating stuff for those who can’t speak English. And it keeps my language skills sharp in both.
Pretty much all of them at this point, I’m in the construction industry. Video games, reading, computer repair, anime, dungeons and dragons, miniature painting, watch making, chess… There are a few brave exceptions, but most people give me that glazed over look when I bring it up.
Model trains. I don’t bring it up because it’s obscure, but I’ve definitely found there’s a stigma. “Oh he’s the guy who plays with trains”. Screw the haters, I like to relax after work and do a bit of escapism. Eventually I got over it though and talk about it with friends, but it’s not the first thing I bring up either
In a way, my interest in internet privacy is almost always met with uninterested “ah” IRL. Even when I dont come off as preachy, when I just try to sell it as “watching YT without ads”, people often don’t care.
Talking to people I know about Window and Googles intrusive software they just go “Oh they know everything anyway” like just try? simple things like switching browsers, using frontends and alternative/opensource software and using https://justdeleteme.xyz/ to get rid of unneeded accounts is easy but effective
I like learning about random ass hobbies without ever indulging in them.
I watch an ungodly amount of aquarium / terrarium videos, lurk a ton of aquascaping communities. I owned a betta fish in an empty bowl when I was 12 and that’s it. (poor fish)
I read all you could know about book binding fanfiction, never done it.
I read a hundred pages long horse breeding guide for the game black desert online and I have no idea why. I only played the game for a month, spent most of it reading a google doc about horse. I’m not even sure I owned a horse in the game.
Sometimes I try the hobby, for example mini painting, and don’t have the patience for it. But I still watch some random dudes on youtube paint for hours and sometimes they don’t even talk!
No idea why I am like this
Downloading and occasionally playing games from the flip phone era (j2me games). They seem to be mostly forgotten. They’re basically the best alternative to the ad ridden, micro-transactions galore of today’s android games and there’s a surprisingly high amount of very high quality games.
NGL I think the best option for mobile gaming is just to buy a cheap ds/3ds and either hacking or using an r4 card, and have a dedicated device for gaming, this both gives higher quality games and a dedicated gaming device so you don’t get distracted on your phone.