What new hobbies have you developed in the last two years?
I got into cycling and whiskey drinking. Both are going to stay with me for the next decade.
I've started doing breathing exercises by wim hof.
Also started doing ice cold baths and now i can stay in the chilled water for many minutes without feeling any cold. It feels soóoo good.
I also feel so much happier and energetic and no longer take any meds or ssri like before.
I think wim has discovered something really amazing and I have so much gratitude that he shares this knowledge on yt.
Focusing on life itself and what comes after it, the big picture. Reading ancient scriptures, occasional meditation, walking in nature, thinkering about the multiverse theories, post-materialist science, holographic universe, simulation theory, electric universe, time-space relativity, letting go of the ego, stereotypes and all kinds of dogma. Also, lots of physical pain and regular illness, which strangely enough helps with these kinds of things.
Beat Saber. Anybody who fenced with a stick in their childhood is bound to love it.
I also lost more than a few pounds thanks to it.
I have moved beyond hobbies into METAHOBBIES. Specifically: Collecting Hobbies. I find that following my ADHD hyperfocus until the next shiny thing comes along has led to a massively diverse array of introductory knowledge and mediocre skills (as well as a garage stuffed full with bins of unfinished projects). Specifically in the last two years I have dabbled in; home automation (incl. Node Red, LoRa, MQTT on Raspberry Pi), terrariums, greenhouse climate control, making wooden boxes, Minecraft, mechanical pencils, fountain pens, notebooks, bookbinding, weather stations, Dungeons & Dragons ... Oooh look, a programming language called Rockstar? I'll finish this comment up in a bit. Be right back...
Listening to audiobooks while playing American Truck Simulator. It's like taking a road trip without leaving the house.
Drinking whiskey and bourbon and growing mushrooms.
Electric and gas powered bicycles. I gave up on the electric bike because of problems with the battery but definitely would get another one if I could afford to get a different brand. Right now im working on building a gas powered bicycle. I live in a small town with a not so great public transit network and don't own a car.
Virology. Having coffee in my kitchen.
What are your favorite whiskies? I like most Scotch (particularly peaty ones) and Rye. Don't really like Bourbon and other non-Scotch whiskies. A particular treat is Rye and Sweet Tarts. Great pairing. :)
Cooking, video games (normal for tech people but I used to never play any; I finished Spiderman and Ghosts of Tsushima, and played a bit of City Skylines and Valheim).
And I bought a car so I could do more exploring of the broader NYC metro and go hiking more easily. Lots of trips out to Long Island (Huntington, Stony Brook, Cold Harbor, and the Hamptons and Orient Point), Connecticut (Litchfield County is beautiful) and the Hudson Valley. I've visited most of the big parks in every NYC borough but I haven't been to Pelham Bay Park yet.
I started bouldering. I’m getting old and have started to notice my recovering times (about to hit 30) were getting longer. So I started to look for low impact sports (due to knee injury) I could still master in my 30s. I have a high strength to weight ratio and after trying bouldering I figured it was almost perfect for me .. develops torso muscles.. quick work-to-reward feedback loop and so on…
I’m planning to keep on practicing for a few years and then start Brazilian juijitsu as I get even older :)
I've been doing rock and roll cross-stitch. Keeps my hands busy during online D&D sessions. I've finished Freddie Mercury and The Ramones. Next up is Spinal Tap.
I note that you seem to prefer Irish whiskey to Scotch. Would you like to expand on which whiskies you tasted just for some inspiration? Ref. your question, I have not taken on any new hobbies but continued with the ones I was happy with e.g. mountain-biking, kayaking, tree-climbing, chess, puzzles that sort of stuff.
Expanding my workshop where I build stuff out of wood and metal. I can now 3d print parts and cast them in metal (including gold), build furniture out of wood, fix just about anything. Started a youtube channel, so video/sound/lighting has now become something I think about. I need more time.
Metal work, and I further developed cycling as a hobby by getting serious about MTB. I started language learning as well. I started with German but switched to Japanese as I visited in 2019 and figure I may as well learn a language that is entirely different to English, rather than another romantic language.
Learning bass guitar. Building a self bow (flat bow style, low draw weight, now I need to build a better one). Not completely new, but started growing mushrooms inside (previously foraged and grew some on logs, so an expansion of that).
Powerlifting. I used to workout without any goal just bodybuilding style. Having clear goals and metrics due powerlifting helped me to progress a lot even if I'm now +40 years old, most important I enjoy it.
Racing/Freestyle FPV Drones. It's a wonderful fusion of building them, electronics, software (betaflight is open source), cinematography, and just tinkering in general.
Decided to build (and have been building) an amateur space telescope CubeSat.
It’s been one of those projects that spawns sub projects and and has overall been quite rewarding.
Cooking at home daily and got one of these desk bikes that I ride for a few hours a day. Lost 20lbs in a month after gaining my COVID 15
I play poker now. I really enjoy it as a leisure activity and I feel like it has improved my critical thinking and decision making.
Fermentation and mycology.
Indoor bouldering.
Only crossfit (no veredict yet). Thinking about trying BJJ next.