Programming was my hobby, now it's my job so instead of having a hobby I just work too much

Studying rhetoric. It's hella fun sometimes and hella depressing others times.

The paradigm shift that studying rhetoric has caused for me will probably influence me for the rest of my life. I'm now agnostic about the truth and barely interpret rhetoric in terms of truth/lies. Like I feel this paragraph from Post-Truth Rhetoric and Composition:

...post-truth signifies a state in which language lacks any reference to facts, truths, and realities. When language has no reference to facts, truths, or realities, it becomes a purely strategic medium. In a post-truth communication landscape, people (especially politicians) say whatever might work in a given situation, whatever might generate the desired result, without any regard to the truth value or facticity of statements. If a statement works, results in the desired effect, it is good; if it fails, it is bad (or at least not worth trying again).

Everything about political rhetoric makes more sense to me when I think in terms of post-truth.

But also, rhetorical figures are cool af. The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase is one of the most interesting books I've ever read about how to turn a phrase. Plus, being able to name why a sentence like "The liberal arts are the arts of liberty necessary to the exercise of citizenship in a free republic" has a particular rhetorical effect is fascinating. And that sentence is a kind of chiasmus, my favorite rhetorical figure.

I enjoy programming. However this opinion varies wildly if my code works or not.

It brang me to develop photon!

I have two main categories, pleasant distractions, and screaming at the gods.

Pleasant distractions are things I enjoy in my free time like video games, reading, juggling, lock picking.

Screaming at the gods are things I do because I need something so physical and dangerous that it requires 100% of my focus. Skateboarding, snowboarding, long distance motorcycle trips. These are things I do to get work and other stresses out of my head for a time, as I can't afford to have my attention split.

I like to just browse Wikipedia. It's an endless wealth of knowledge that never ceases to impress me. It's like the modern library of Alexandria.

I also make cocktails for fun, target shoot, fish, ride trails (not trials), make pens, collect knives, play skyrim, and i cook too.

I bounce between what i focus on often.

Over the pandemic I picked up a hobby of digging really deep into the history of the Bible.

It's so much more interesting than I would have ever thought, and so opposite what everyone (on both sides of the topic) tends to think.

An early history of powerful women peeking through a patriarchal rewrite.

A likely foreign introduction of an Exodus tale from the sea peoples.

A famine story turned into a flood from Babylonian influence.

A generic 'adversary' term ('Satan') during conversion from a polytheistic story to monotheism leading to the most extensive fanfiction in history.

A version of Jesus referring to contemporary ideas around evolution and atomism in Leucretius being declared false heresy by the group that goes on to be canonized.

Yet again empowered women having their history rewritten by patriarchal opposition.

For someone who has always enjoyed solving little puzzles, it's been a gift that keeps on giving.

I am not in the tech field but I love coding and learning new languages. I have for the last 25 years. When my actual (blue collar) profession starts feeling drab or boring my mind naturally starts drifting to find some problem to solve or some way of automating things just to keep me happy and engaged.

Batch scripts on MS/DOS, my first (floppy disk installed) Slackware box. REXX in OS/2. I worked through the animal books and played with Java, Perl, C - actually building tools that work and accomplish things.

Diving in to a new language or project is like discovering a new author you didn't know about and the hours of joy it will bring me are fantastic and fulfilling. I guess you could say my hobby is learning.

I wrote a great iOS app to help me with things in my job and I use it all the time which saves me literally hours, making my work happier and more profitable. Best hobby ever and totally cheap too!

I sew. Specifically, I love sewing stuffed animals.

As a kid, I always wanted those giant stuffed animals, but it just wasn't meant to be. Now I can make pretty much whatever I want!

I love the colors, the feel of the fabrics.. but my favorite part is seeing my 2D drawings get turning into a tangible 3D object! Plus, it makes kids go "WHOOOOAAA" or smile or laugh when they see what I make. That really can't be beat!

Gardening. And ... yes!

I get up in the morning and the first thing on my mind is to go out and tend to the various veggies. The beans are flowering and the tomatoes are ripening and the herbs keep on herbing. Gonna pull out more potatoes in a week or so. Some rodent got to some of the lettuce recently, but not all of it. The fruit trees are having some trouble because they didn't get enough nutrients for a while, but they're getting better now and having new growth.

There's always stuff to do. The kitchen compost turns into healthy soil for the plants. A neighbor shares fruits they've been growing; I hope to give them a big pile of tomatoes in return in a few weeks. It's all good.

I've gotten into gaslands, which is a tabletop game you play with modified hot wheels cars.

I like taking things apart, putting them back together, and generally working with my hands so taking apart a bunch of little cars and gluing spikey bits and rocket launchers and stuff to them is up my alley.

And because it's a post apocalyptic setting, it doesn't really matter how good you are at painting and such, dirty, dinged up, messy, etc. is a totally valid aesthetic. That's kind of what you'd expect from some wastelanders slapping weapons onto whatever car they can get their hands on.

I started selfhosting just before the pandemic. I don't know that I'd say it's fun so much as sometimes satisfying.

I build loudspeakers, both home and car. But, mostly car subwoofers, amplifiers, head units etc. But also home speakers for home theaters.

I absolutely love it. Music is a big passion of mine (despite never learning to play an instrument). I love it because every project has so many challenges. I love electrical work and designing a system from scratch and then getting to see it actually work iis awesome. It's like little engineering challenges all throughout. Very engaging for me.

There's also a lot of wood working involved. Making a functional piece of furniture and getting to expirement with different techniques is a lot of fun.

Shaving with a safety razor is kinda a hobby for me. Its just feels like I'm treating myself.

Video game and weightlifting.

Video games are really fun for me, but weightlifting is like an addiction I can’t break. I rarely want to work out but if I don’t, then I end up feeling worse, and right after I do workout, it feels amazing.

Retro computing. Programming things like a Commodore 64 in Assembly on the machine. It's a wonderful experience and pretty removed from modern programming.

Building custom ROMs, it's satisfying AF.

Weightlifting -> Fun, health and strength Hiking -> fun, health, take a break from the noise in the world Reading -> fun, entertainment, helps to develop the mind Gaming -> just for fun Music -> kinda like a safe place (I’m kinda an audiophile, but a reasonable lol)

Barbershop quartet singing (ala The Barbershop Harmony Society). Instant friends and such satisfaction to hear yourself lending a note into four-part chords. (It's the basis of my username.)

Playing Music! I'm a guitarist primarily, but I've gained a diverse set of instruments over the years. I recently picked up an Accordion, they're a lot of fun!

Electronics and basically anything that involves electricity, i just love to find out how broken stuff works and fixing it, or just making stubborn equipment do what it's supposed to do; so yeah basically some people do crosswords, i make 1 working tv from 2 broken ones :-)

Magnet Fishing.

I'm not entirely sure why I enjoy it so much but I suppose it's a combination of different things. It gives me a dopamine hit in a similar way to opening a loot crate, the difference being I'm mostly getting rusty, muddy scrap rather than anything valuable, and some stuff can be quite interesting. It's very satisfying pulling out large objects like bicycles, or even just big pieces of iron. It's nice to feel like I'm cleaning up waterways too, but that's not what attracts me to it.

Also magnets are cool.

Cooking in general, and baking in particular. It is actual fun for me, and is actually stress relief as well, because it allows me creative freedom in a medium that I apparently have natural talent in. I make my own bread every week for sandwiches, bake snacks for my weekly board game meetup, volunteer to make birthday cakes for friends and family, and give out giant boxes of cookies every Christmas. I am always inventing and researching new recipes, converting recipes to accommodate various dietary needs, and trying to find ways to use ingredients I have lying around in a way that will ensure I don't have food going to waste. There is nothing better to me than when I figure out what each recipe needs at each step and why, and watching it all come together.

I grew up learning to bake from my grandmother, and I inherited her passion and apparently her natural talent for it. I have a lot of recipes memorized, can eyeball teaspoon and tablespoon measures of ingredients with good accuracy, and can somehow get anywhere from 5-10% more out of any given recipe. If a cookie recipe makes 5 dozen I get 6 or 7, even if I am not skimping on size. If I make bread, it rises quicker and larger, even if it is cold. Making cake, I always have extra batter for a couple of cupcakes. It works out though, because I can taste test everything and throw any extra cookies in the freezer so that way I am better prepared for Christmas.

It is always amazing to see someone's face light up when they get baked goods they love, especially if their diets mean they don't often get to enjoy them. For example, several of my friends have Celiac, and seeing how happy they are to get things like butter cookies, crinkly-top brownies, or gingerbread is just amazing. It is an easy way to make people feel included and happy, and I get to have fun in the kitchen while doing it.

I like video games. Good video game can transport me to a world that doesn't suck. Or at least a world where I can actually fix the problems in it.

Writing. I used to write short stories but recently I've begun work on a novel.

Video games

I like different video games for different reasons, but good gameplay is key. I enjoy some games because they're high octane, stressful, fast, engaging. But I also enjoy some games where basically nothing happens for long stretches. I loved walking around an empty world in Death Stranding listening to nice music just as much as I enjoyed brutally murdering demons to ardjent metal in Doom 2016.

Scale modeling, and miniature painting

I like making cool stuff. There really isn't much more to it. I have a little knack for it, and the patience to do it, and I enjoy the process. I do display my work but don't use it for anything, or come back to admire it. I just like making stuff, and this hobby is my outlet for creativity.

House plants

I used to be a bit more into this than I am now, but I still have about 30 houseplants, most of which are small. I liked getting the cool decorative stuff, and I like the color green. I grew fancy chilies a few times because I liked the reward of getting something out of my time and work. It's not a super high-effort hobby, and I can recommend it for people with not a lot of time on their hand. You can just grow stuff in pots and buckets. Just make sure to get stuff you have time for, and don't take it too harsh when something dies.

I compete in powerlifting and ham radio when I have the time.

Rocket League. The never ending journey of learning how to efficiently move a complicated 3D Pong paddle, just to hit a ball into a goal, will never not be fun to me. At least, it hasn't in 3,176 hours played so far. There is, and never will be, any other game like it.

Videogames, but specifically Rainbow Six: Siege. I and my stack are really really good. Not pros, but I play with some guys that could pretty viably go pro with the right support structure around them, and frankly, they consider me to be a large pillar for that support structure.

There’s no other game like it. The instant decision making, the endless possibilities and ways a round plays out. The absurd skill gap between someone good at just one aspect of the game and someone new. The tons of different aspects of the game you CAN be good at. It’s endlessly satisfying.

I act as a Flex-IGL for my stack. Basically, I tell them what to do, and pick whatever we need to make that a success. Some of them main Thermite, some pick good guns, I go for support or intel or vertical or secondary hard breach, or second entry depending on the needs of the round. We get into game and I make calls about the setup we’re attacking into and how we’re going to take a round. They play around that. I call for specific support, they rotate to make it happen. “One in Logistics, Jackal open the hatch, Sledge open Logistics-Construction wall, I’ll cut off the exit” and they just trust my calls and do it. Nothing in that game is anywhere near as satisfying as seeing my own attack plans pan out into a strong, attack sided win for us. On defense, I call site rotation and setups, if we want to do standard or weird shit we pulled from others or came up with ourselves. I play cameras to make sure everyone has all the info they need, and sit myself in the linchpin position for a defense win. My mechanics aren’t all that amazing, but guys who would be described as absolute gunners “if he sees you you’re gonna die” don’t just play with me but actively WANT to play with me because I turn their lethality into a true tool used to pry victory from any team we come up against