The Great Canadian Hobbies Thread

[LightingGuy]

As per the title, what are some of your other hobbies outside the construction industry?

For me it's:

- Basketball, been playing since I was young, although I'm not particularly gifted

- Camping, usually in SW Ontario

- Business/Economics which I study a lot

- Personality psychology which I also study a lot

I'm not much of a winter sport guy, although I would like to do more snow shoeing.

[O-tacular]

I love horror movies. These days I'm very picky since my spare time is limited, but I used to waste tons of hours on B movies. So many horrible films indelibly burned into my brain.

I also am writing a screenplay.

Prior to that I spent too much time making Clockzilla photoshops. Also did a few logos along the way. This was the last one I did (the crow not the coffin):

http://horror-con.ca/about.html

[SFUVancouver]

-Waterfront walks and runs with my fiancé.

-Car camping in the summer (wherever there's a last-minute spot open somewhere in southern Ontario we'll jump on it and go somewhere new).

-Computer games (when I have a few spare hours every now and then).

-SSP!

[GeneralLeeTPHLS]

If I'm not working in a restaurant, getting angry, and more than likely burning myself in the process, I'm working on my drawings or paintings. I've been drawing for 8 years now, and am also an avid photographer, having done that for about the same amount of time.

I don't really have the time to go on big walks, but I do love hiking/ walking around.
Much of that involves a hobby called geocaching. Which lets me explore places I normally wouldn't in my neighbourhood.

Hmm...I'm trying to think of what else would be a hobby. I've had an unoffical coin collection for a number of years, but much of it was stolen years ago so I stopped checking on it.
I enjoy working out, just with a bit of a home gym set up in my living room. I've been trying to bump up my BMI, but lately I've put a pasuse on that sicne I had my wisdom teeth removed this month.

[SignalHillHiker]

My main hobbies are pretty obvious:

- Hiking
- Photography
- Music (especially Spanish/Portuguese, Balkan)
- History, politics... overall anthropology, I suppose
- Drag

I also love:

- Running (though what I can do, at my height, is technically a brisk jog lol I'm at about six-minute KMs)
- Gaming (mostly Overwatch these days)
- Board Games (mostly Catan)
- Reading (Hamnet by Maggie Farrell was my most recent fave)

And I also love painting drag queens and doing collage, as well as committing hate crimes through watercolour:

Trixie Mattel



Violet Chachki



Local queen Barbara Bardot



Juno Birch



And paintings of a couple of her sculptures



My hate crime against Jennifer Coolidge, my first attempt at water colour lol



And a few collages - original pic of mine first, and my attempt after













I also did the view from my kitchen lol

[MonctonRad]

SSP

Once upon a time, I had many hobbies (coin and stamp collecting, reading (sci-fi), drawing maps, general trivia, exploring), but, then I decided to go to med school, and this all consuming process and the subsequent work related chaos (as well as having a family) beat all the hobbies out of me.

Now that I am staring retirement in the face, it will be interesting to see if I return to my old ways. I hope so.........

[MolsonExport]

Hiking/exploring
SSP
working my ass off for career/family, endless house/yard work

I had a great many hobbies in my youth, but like MonctonRad, they were beaten out of me by the insane hours of PhD studies and the tenure-track hamster wheel. And once you climb to the top of the heap (I'm Full prof and a research chair), you've got to keep producing to maintain your place as alpha wolf (those younger pups are always nipping at my heels, and one day one of them will surely take my place). I take 10-20 minute micro breaks during the day, often wasted on SSP, just to keep my sanity.

[niwell]

I enjoy cycling a lot and managed to do 100km a week most of this summer. Photography is one that has died down a lot with good phone cameras, though I still take a ton of pictures. Having a 105lb dog is also a full-time hobby.

But I do have an actual legit nerd hobby that I got back into during COVID after a 20+ year break - scale modeling of military ships and planes. I was actually very good at it as a teen and won a few awards but also didn't have the patience. My hobby store paycheque was often split between model stuff and going out with friends. I didn't have the space in university and was too worried it wasn't cool enough to do and moved around too much for most of my adult life.

Started again during one of the lockdowns now that I have the money to spend on good quality supplies and accessories and fairly happy with the results. I alternate between 1/700 scale ships and 1/48 planes, generally either WWII or Cold War era subjects interest me the most, usually American (though I did make a RCN Sea Fury!). Unlike when I was younger and many people in this hobby I refuse to build up a stash of unfinished kits, and have been pretty good about building stuff as I buy it and only having one thing on the go at a time. Some people have basements filled with kits they'll never do, which also gets very expensive.

But I highly recommend getting back into hobbies!! WFH arrangements mean that I actually get a lot of this done during the workday during small breaks, and is a big part of the reason I post on SSP less.

See behind the spoiler:

[SignalHillHiker]

Gorgeous, niwell. The level of detail is intense - the rivets, etc. You could likely find an artist to take a bit of paint to those and make them Hollywood miniature worthy in terms of colouring. Someone like this dude (one of my many, many Youtube rabbit holes. I can breed tarantulas and critique the accuracy of historical fashion in film as well, despite never having done either lol): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDQ-sDDqWvk

[niwell]

Thanks!!! Just skimmed over the video and I do actually use a lot of the same techniques for weathering / to bring out detail.

Generally after the basic paint job the process goes: gloss coat, waterslide decals, another gloss coat, dark enamel paint wash to bring out details, flat coat, oil pastels to bring out more details and then a final matte coat. I don't like my models too dirty as I feel like a lot of people overdo it which is a bit overscale - though your point for film miniatures is definitely correct!

[GeneralLeeTPHLS]

Beautiful work niwell. I'd never have the patience for that sort of thing, but my drawings may say otherwise. I'll post one of them here after work.

[WhipperSnapper]

Yeah, those are incredible. I tried it once myself a lifetime ago. I don't have steady hands for it.

Pretty much the country's high rises have occupied my hobby time the past 3 years. I'm ready to start something new. I just don't know what.

[rousseau]

Aside from smoking glue and worshipping Satan, I got back into guitar and music after a long time away from it. My favourite thing these days is YouTube videos consisting of pastiches of old film or TV clips accompanied by whatever noise I feel like making.

• Video Link

• Video Link

It's great fun.

[Coldrsx]

Downhill skiing-Motorcycling-Playing hockey-Travelling for F1-Food-Wine-Espresso

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by niwell

I enjoy cycling a lot and managed to do 100km a week most of this summer. Photography is one that has died down a lot with good phone cameras, though I still take a ton of pictures. Having a 105lb dog is also a full-time hobby.

But I do have an actual legit nerd hobby that I got back into during COVID after a 20+ year break - scale modeling of military ships and planes. I was actually very good at it as a teen and won a few awards but also didn't have the patience. My hobby store paycheque was often split between model stuff and going out with friends. I didn't have the space in university and was too worried it wasn't cool enough to do and moved around too much for most of my adult life.

Started again during one of the lockdowns now that I have the money to spend on good quality supplies and accessories and fairly happy with the results. I alternate between 1/700 scale ships and 1/48 planes, generally either WWII or Cold War era subjects interest me the most, usually American (though I did make a RCN Sea Fury!). Unlike when I was younger and many people in this hobby I refuse to build up a stash of unfinished kits, and have been pretty good about building stuff as I buy it and only having one thing on the go at a time. Some people have basements filled with kits they'll never do, which also gets very expensive.

But I highly recommend getting back into hobbies!! WFH arrangements mean that I actually get a lot of this done during the workday during small breaks, and is a big part of the reason I post on SSP less.

See behind the spoiler:

Those models are awesome. I loved doing models when I was growing up in the late 70s, early 80s, but I fell out of the habit by the time I was 14.

[urbandreamer]

I've replaced sketchup fantasies/UT/real estate/architecture interests with driving around Ontario exploring small towns, hiking and working on my car. I've always liked true crime investigations & watching trials.

I've thought about learning how to play an instrument, probably a violin.

But for the rest of my active life I want to travel as much as possible.

I also enjoy cooking and baking, cleaning & organizing is very therapeutic.

[White Pine]

I like canoe tripping as much as my lazy, physically unfit self will allow So far that's been limited to places like Algonquin and Killarney. Also hiking and skiing, and trivia (haven't had much opportunity lately) lol

[GeneralLeeTPHLS]

I was unable to find any great examples of my drawings, but this will suffice. This is a scene of Toronto, looking toward Yonge street,
A Drawing by Draulerin Photographics, on Flickr
Below are close ups.

Continued by Draulerin Photographics, on Flickr
Continued by Draulerin Photographics, on Flickr

[jonny24]

I have a few, they tend to change around.

First and foremost is rugby. 2 practices a week starting in April, games on Saturdays late-May to mid-August, indoor touch November-March. Currently just a player with some minor involvement in running my club, but eventually I plan to transition to refereeing.

Not sure I'd call sports fandom a hobby but I'm a season ticket holder for the Toronto Arrows (rugby) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Do my absolute best to make every game for both.

My newest hobby is my project truck. Actually I have two now, a major restoration on a 1993 GMC Sierra, and this spring I picked up a 2002 Sierra to have a second driver / be on deck if I even finish the 93. So far I've just tackled a bit of paint/rust repair.

My main "indoor" hobby is homebrewing. I don't really do experimentation or curiosity anymore, I have basically dialed in 4 regular recipes that covers what I like to drink. I also dabble occasionally in making whisky, although it's dropped off since I don't drink whisky nearly as much as beer.

Have been doing quite a bit of smoking, curing, and BBQ. My Christmas gift this year for family/friends is going to be a freezer box of assorted meats, probably some combination of peameal bacon, belly bacon, Montreal smoked meat, or sliced Texas-style brisket. I have beef jerky kit I haven't gotten around to trying out, and I want to add sausage-making to my repertoire.

I used to be very into woodworking in general, and found my niche in making electric guitars. This was in high school and early college. I basically had to stop because I wasn't confident enough in my work / motivated enough to sell them, and I couldn't just keep making more. I also realized I liked building them a bit more than playing them... so both hobbies dropped off. I still have all my guitars, including the half-built ones that have been sitting for a decade. I only pick one up to strum very occasionally, although I did recently drag my amp out of storage to attempt to get back into it.

Next up on my radar is cheesemaking. I've watched a bunch of videos on the basics, and am about ready to start, just need to address my disaster of a basement brewery to make room.

[TimB09]

-Reading (nothing specific as I like a lot of different genres)
-Watching as much sports as I can consume
-Crave, Netflix, AMC Apps are my night time watch choices before bed
-Listening to a wide range of podcasts

Used to have a lot more but my kids take up most of my spare time now.