MetaFilter posts tagged with Hobbies

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a flying puppet!

MrMoonPie — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 05:19:08 -0800

Carl Rankin builds awesome RC planes out of straws, plastic wrap, tape, and foam take-out boxes. (via)

Heaps and Heaps of Origami Designs.

Effigy2000 — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:27:35 -0800

Got some spare time? Then let's learn origami! Check out this large collection of origami designs (suitable for beginners too), and here's some instructional origami videos to help you along.

How feasible is building a gun?

avriette — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 12:29:03 -0800

Recent MeFi threads have suggested how easy it is (or not) to build a gun. The comparison to dynamite or ANFO is made, frequently, in these sorts of discussions, supposedly to illustrate another "weapon" which is in the public corpus but largely outlawed. [more inside]

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Paper Airplane!

amyms — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:11:16 -0800

The Online Paper Airplane Museum. Hundreds and hundreds of designs. Also check out The Paperang, which bills itself as "The Best Paper Airplane System In The World."

Can I have a keychain?

parmanparman — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 06:51:54 -0800

It's spring, and that means its convention time! In Las Vegas, tomorrow, don't miss the Virtual Air Traffic Convention in Las Vegas! Dusseldorf on Saturday? There's Top Hair 2007 wow! But wait there's more--- Perhaps you'd like to polish your skills in treating the multiple-disordered suicidal client! I know I would! Functional Foods? Learn why seawater has a salty taste at the Bagkok International Book Fair! Hot! Find your own convention.

Come fly with me

caddis — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 17:54:49 -0800

Flight simulator. As a hobby, this guy built his own Boeing 747 flight simulator. No, not just a PC simulation, but a full cabin with hydraulics motion simulation a correct control panel and the full works, just like the real thing. (via Neatorama)

Watchmaking is a hobby?

caddis — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 14:48:06 -0800

Making a watch by hand. In these days of “fast” and “convenient” I decided to commence a work of “painstaking” and “craftsmanship”, making my own wristwatch. I have had the idea for a certain arrangement of the watch dial, as on the image at the right, for a while now. My investigations into available movements showed that no production movement would give me this layout. After a long period of indecision and wondering what I was really getting myself into I decided to make my own movement, followed by the case and dial.

Penny for your thoughts?

lychee — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:42:19 -0800

Elongated Pennies. Pressed pennies, flattened pennies, squished pennies, smashed pennies, whatever you call them, they are an exciting, kid-enticing presence at any tourist attraction, amusement park, or museum. For two quarters and a penny (pre-1982 preferred by the serious buffs) you can legally flatten the lowest of our nation's currency (and sometimes Canada's) into a souvenir disk that's embossed with a picturesque reminder of your trip. But these pennies don't live and die by the child's pants pocket, pressed penny collecting is serious business. Heck, there's even a museum devoted to the hobby, as well as a thriving collecting scene. So next time you pass by one of these cool machines, pause, elbow the penniless kids out of the way, and get yourself a neat little trinket of remembrance.

Collecting Mania

tellurian — Sat, 20 May 2006 22:48:34 -0800

Beer Caps. With 12,568 scans available to peruse, Uncle Corkie is the winner in my books. Franco Ferretti may have the largest collection of bottle caps but it's not online. Collecting, a postmodern pastime?

geeks fighting geeks

the cuban — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 10:59:01 -0800

Gentleman's Fight Club.

I love beer mats

spock — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 10:53:36 -0800

I love beer mats. Those with a low tolerance for slow-loading pages with too many graphics on them - or pages that require horizontal scrolling need not click. Other tegestology pages. I had no idea.

Coleoptera and friends

Wolfdog — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 05:46:18 -0800

Big beetles (Breed your own! They're cuddly!), tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes, various butterflies and moths.

Chavs v Goths

lerrup — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 23:24:07 -0800

Teenage tribes and Council sponsored "mayhem".

Weasel-Girl is hot!

DeepFriedTwinkies — Wed, 11 May 2005 10:03:35 -0800

Welcome to Otter's Plushie Forest.

D&D gains another critic...

naxosaxur — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 11:51:57 -0800

Teens in Israel need to find a new hobby: Incoming recruits to Israel's Defense Forces (Tzahal) who divulge playing Dungeons & Dragons are being flagged with low security clearance and psychological disorders. New guidelines are in place that limit D&D hobbyists from being considered for sensitive army positions such as Sayeret Mat'Kal, one of the most elite designations of Tzahal. Why does the IDF believe the game is so dangerous?: "These people have a tendency to be influenced by external factors which could cloud their judgment, a military official says. "They may be detached from reality or have a weak personality – elements which lower a person's security clearance, allowing them to serve in the army, but not in sensitive positions." Many find this policy inexplicable, and are turning to humor to aleviate the ridiculousness.

Avertising Cover, Bisect, Cinderella, and so on...

taz — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 07:01:33 -0800

Dear M E F I, I just love Alphabetilately, and I think you will too! Yours sincerely, taz.

It's really remarkable how you have been able to show the key elements of the double helix with balloons. -- F Crick

anastasiav — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 10:16:55 -0800

Ballonmoleküle is a great primer on how to make shapes (be they molecular models or wiener dogs) out of balloons. Be sure to check out the gallery for some cool photos of balloon molecules and a comment from Francis Crick.

Being learned

badstone — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 20:30:44 -0800

Old River Bill really knows inland workboats. Besides exercising his novel system of punctuation, Bill makes model tugboats and is a part of an avid community of workboat modelers. You can find out everything you ever wanted to know about how real work is done on rivers on how the hell we move 100's of thousands of tons of crap around the country every day.

No excuse to be bored...

moonbird — Sun, 05 Oct 2003 18:42:46 -0800

Nothing to do but surf group weblogs? No worries, there's always some hobbies that you haven't considered. Try collecting sugar packets, fruit stickers, toilet seats, join a club, or just go for broke and cover yourself in porridge. There's no excuse to be bored...

plep — Mon, 28 Oct 2002 01:04:09 -0800

The Postage Stamps of Donald Evans (scroll down a paragraph or two) A rich and complex internal world expressed through postage stamp art.
'When Donald Evans (born Morristown, New Jersey USA in 1945) was a boy, he drifted from his hobby of collecting postage stamps to creating his own postage stamps of countries he made up in his imagination ... He left behind an astonishing planet seen through its nations' postage stamps, thousands of them, all drawn to postage-stamp size, with all the familiar periphery of postage stamps hand-done ... '

Blake — Tue, 27 Aug 2002 07:36:57 -0800

New Bog Snorkeling World Champion Crowned
People have such odd hobbies and collections.
I'm not talking about things like CrossStiching, or Air Guitar, or Naming Your Pens, but really strange ones.
Air Sickness Bags are art to some, so are Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts, and Nobs, always fun at parties there's collecting navel fluff, I'm not Sure What To Call This, there's Squirrel Fishing , collecting Odd Rod Cards, heck, Books Have Been Written, even The USAToday collects them.
I dunno, is Mefi a strange hobby?

jonmc — Sun, 07 Apr 2002 20:19:12 -0800

I'm here to tell you about the ultimate sporting clash of the titans-Air Hockey! That's right, the ultimate rec-room sport of the '70's is alive and well. There's leagues galore including one in Austin, Texas(home of numerous MeFite's.), and cool Flash animations of some slick moves. Ever since I bought my first table at age 10 at a yard sale, this has been my game. Nice to know it's still out there. There's even places to buy nifty tables if you're in the market. Me and the missus used to love playing at the local arcade on this beauty with the nifty flourescent puck. Now drop the puck and play!

skallas — Fri, 21 Dec 2001 08:25:29 -0800

New type of RC plane going for around $100 They're electric as opposed to gas powered, lighter than their gas powered cousins, and a fraction of the cost. I've always wanted to get into RC planes, but the cost was prohibitive until now.

GatorDavid — Tue, 04 Dec 2001 06:55:00 -0800

SpacecraftKits.com has an interesting way of keeping their costs low. They do it "through mass production, and by putting the extensive assembly instructions and fact sheets ... online, rather than mailing them to you." I think that's a great idea. That way if they want to revise some part of the instructions, or add schematics or notes or ideas from people who might have experienced problems, they can allow all customers to see the new instructions without having to send recall notices or try to track exactly who owns their product. This gives a company the ability to hyperlink instructions with tons of additional information, as well as definitions and photographs. I really think all toy manufacturers should do this. It would also be great for furniture makers - Sauder and those places that make built-it-yourself desks and bookcases, etc. That way you could order that missing bolt or screw or broken piece of shelving directly from the manufacturer ...

Geo — Fri, 23 Nov 2001 11:02:47 -0800

Not everyone understands the excitement of plane-spotting. Certainly not the Greeks [WSJ subscription link] who have jailed a group of plane spotters as spies. Asperger's Syndrome maybe. But spies? Ask the Romanians and Poles?