Please share your garden plans, ideas, and wildly overambitious green fantasies here!

Weird and treacherous climate change weather is distorting my garden sense. Normally, it's not a good idea to plant anything tender until late May here, but I'm betting we won't get frost past May 1 this year, or nothing that can't be handled with strategic use of row covers and cloches.

My fingers are itching to get the hot peppers started. I'm restraining myself from starting the tomatoes too early (again!), and the snapdragons and other slow annual flowers are starting to germinate. I could probably sow kale now.

We'll see which of last year's bulbs survived the critters until the spring. Reinforcement of the deer fencing is happening as soon as the ground is thawed deeply enough to set proper posts, and dry enough to work with wood frames and cattle panel.

I'm going to get a few logs set up for shiitakes, oysters, maitake, and maybe see if last year's happenstance wood chip pile morels can be encouraged. Fingers-crossed that December's wild garlic (ramps) test planting took hold - if that works, I'll get more slips and expand the patch in more of the shady areas that aren't suitable for much else.

Depending on how my hands and spouse's shoulders are holding up, there's a lot of digging in this year's permaculture expansion. A couple of Hugelkultur beds, some (mostly?) American chestnut trees, more berries and apples, planting the overwintered pawpaws, and another try at elderberries. I've got vague plans for building a grape arbor this year, but that's going to depend on availability of spouse's hands during the busy winery season.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

I have a teenage child. They're going to be doing "design and tech" at school, and they've shown an interest in light maker / builder projects.

I want to put together a small toolkit for them.

The difficulty I'm having is that when I look at precision screwdrivers I pick a Felco set for £80. For regular screwdrivers I pick either Felco, Wira, Wiha, or Sandvick Bahco. This is probably a bad idea - they're going to end up with a lot of very expensive kit that they will not appreciate yet.

The other thing I'm struggling with is knowing which bits of kit are essential and which are nice to have.

I'd be really grateful to hear your thoughts about this kit. I'm especially interested to hear discussion about balancing "good enough" with "avoid garbage" -- I do prefer to spend more on quality rather than buying cheap buying often.

Screwdrivers:

A handle and a set of bits to fit the handle - £10
A set of weird bits (security, hex, torx) to fit the handle £5
Screwdrivers - pz1, pz2, 4 flat head screw drivers in sensible sizes (still working this out) (probably stanley FatMax) - £30

Snips - they're getting my Bahco snips and my ancient lindstrom snips. I want to get them something they can destroy through misuse, so I'll buy something for around £15

Pliers - needlenose serrated pliers £10
Pliers - big pliers - they'll be getting my ancient RS pliers.

Wire strippers - I like the scissor type that have a range of holes. A nice pair is about £20.

Wrenches and spanners - I have three adjustable spanners in different sizes. I'm looking at micro-ratchets, so something like Kerr or felo (xs33) (but the felo is expensive!!) or Bahco 2058/S26 for £20

Soldering iron - I'm super tempted to just get Hakko's intro model for £100-£150. But I don't know whether I should go instead for some cheap thing like tenma. My own preference for me is strongly Weller - I used weller irons for decades and they were so solid and robust for what I was doing, but not a great choice for tinkering about. I'm struggling to understand the build quality of Tenma bought from a reputable company. I don't want my child fixing things in a mains powered box.

I need a tool box to put it all in.

I need some kind of cutting and filing tools - cheap set of files and a little handle.

I need some measuring equipment - I don't know whether to include a nice set of steel rules or a cheap digital calliper.

Alongside all this there will be a dremel multitool and some useful accessories for it.

And also safety equipment - dustmasks, eye protection (from a reputable supplier!!)

Kinda curious how many furries we have on Tildes. Personally I just got started with sewing and plushie making so I can make custom plushies of peoples fursonas. It's going well so far but it's convinced me to drop an absolute fortune on an embroidery machine so I can make better looking eyes and paws x.x

I got my friend a midi beatpad a while ago and he's about to start using it to experiment with music. Does anyone have any tips I can pass on? Any help with software/equipment would be greatly appreciated.

Is anyone here involved with archery in any way?
I've been thinking about looking for a local archery club because I've always had an interest in it, especially in a competitive context. As a 15-17 year old I spent many hours in the backyard coming up with wild trickshots and not stopping until I perfected them. I want that specific type of joy back.
I had a (maximum) 110lb youth model Diamond compound bow but it's the only bow I've ever owned. Also looking for reccomendations for my first adult sized bow. I don't care if it's an English-style longbow, compound, or a weird horsebow, I'd love the input either way.

I recently decided to get a new hobby and have been interested in RC's for a while. I wouldn't mind getting into racing buggies/truggies, however in order to see if I even like the hobby I decided to get and a decent used basher I can tinker with. I picked up a Arrma Kraton 6s V4 complete with batteries, chargers, and a few other extra's for a good price on FBMP.

I ran it for a few hours and loved it, right now it's tore down into the three major sections and I'm waiting on parts. Previous owner was a 14 year old and it appears it was a pandemic buy, so maintenance is lacking/non-existant.

Before I realized it between running it this morning, tearing it down, research on parts it was 10:00pm at night, lol. My pittbull is currently sulking because I'm late to bed.

First off, hello, I'm new here, and I hope this is an okay place to ask...what podcasts are you all into?

Here's some of my favorites:

Dispatches from Myrtle Beach:
Link from Good Mythical Morning has a conversation with his father. It's a strange mix of funny, heartwarming, raunchy, and endearing.

The Newest Olympian:
Mike Shubert from the Potterless podcasts reads the Percy Jackson books (I tried reading along with the podcast because I'd never read them, but couldn't put the books down, so I'm ahead of the podcast now). It's a funny podcast regardless if you've read the books.

RadioLab and the new season of RadioLab's More Perfect podcast
If you've never listened to radio lab, just pick any episode. They're interesting and weird and you'll learn stuff. They're just good. The new hosts are still finding their way, but it's still good, so maybe start with some of the older episodes.

Judge John Hodgman

• He settles stupid disputes between people...e.g., "Is a hotdog a sandwich" (No.)

Song Exploder

• Even if I've never heard of the song I listen. It's about how songs are made, and it's super interesting.

99% Invisible

• it's about recognizing all the fascinating things in the world around us that we pass by every day without noticing. Always read the plaque.

Oh No, Ross and Carrie

• they do non-sciencey things and then discuss from a science perspective. (E.g., joining a religion, going to flat earth meetings, visiting psychics, getting holistic medical treatments, etc)

This American Life
just interesting stories about people and things in life?

The Memory Palace
super cool podcast...usually pretty short that takes things from history and tells the story in just a unique and interesting way.

Science Friday
deep dive into science news for the week

Behind the Bastards
all about the worst people in history.

Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine
Hilarious podcast about medical history

The Adventure Zone
The McElroy family plays dnd and other role play games

The Moth
people tell personal stories to crowds of people.

The Daily
New York Times's podcast

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
news comedy gameshow

60-Second Science
as described

Good Job Brain
pub trivia podcast

A Hotdog is a Sandwich (but it's not)
Good Mythical Kitchen's Josh and Nicole debate food things

Dead Pilots Society:
really interesting. They take scripts from failed TV pilots and hire actors to do table reads of the script. Every other week is an interview with the script's writers too, so you can listen to those if interested or just the table reads if not.

Brainstuff:
just interesting tidbits. Short podcasts.

I'd love to hear your recommendations!

Edit: Thank you all for all the recommendations! I'm still reading all the posts and adding them to my list to give them a shot!

I've been looking for a community to interact in about toy collecting!

I used to frequent the collector circles on Twitter but bailed on that shortly after Skum bought it. And then I tried to get back into Reddit, and, well, that started circling the bowl, too.

I collect many things, but the big three are:

These just barely scratch the surface of what I'm into, but they're the biggest things I hunt for.

So, Is anyone here a fellow collector? What do you collect? How long have you been collecting? What do you look for in a toy? Do you open the package and appreciate the tactile experience, or are you purely MISB?

Is there per chance enough of a crowd for a toy collecting subsection of ~hobbies?

I’m having a lot of fun learning the recorder (cheap and relatively easy). I have to learn to read music too, and wrap my head around how rhythm works, but I’m finding that so much is just intuitive, even though I’ve never played anything. I like singing for fun, but that’s pretty much the extent of what I can do. (I now play a mean Hot Cross Buns though.)

Anyone else doing something similar?

For years people have been telling me I should get a hobby, something to occupy my mind with, something I enjoy.

I finally found one. I've always enjoyed aimlessly wondering about, seeing what I can see along the way, and now I have something specific to look out for on my aimless wanderings. It also helps document an aspect of our past that is rapidly disappearing as gentrification and redevelopment continues apace in all our urban and industrial areas.

The entry barrier is low as well. All you need is mobility of some form, and a camera capable of taking reasonably good images, something most smartphones have these days

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/features/ghost-signs/

I miss photography subreddits. I don’t miss Reddit as a whole at all though, and I think smaller forums like Tildes and a couple Discord servers have helped bridge the gap in a lot of other areas. But I just have not found a good replacement for r/analog in seeing other hobbyists’ film photography and share my own. Where should I be looking?

The growing season here in southeastern Australia is just kicking off, so I'd love to hear (and see!) your successes and failures, what you will repeat and what you want to change, what your future plans are, etc.

Inspired by this comment and a need to burn off some steam during dead time in my day, I figured i'd spin off and ask what everyone else likes writing with.

I have atrocious handwriting, but have found i'm more likely to take notes if I actually enjoy what i'm writing with, and then by extension I started looking at smaller pens so I wouldn't mind carrying them on me at all times. After diving down the rabbit hole a bit over the years I've got-

Fountain Pens:

Lamy Vista-
The first one I dived into. Everyone recommended the safari, and the vista looked cooler, so I went with that. It eventually got broken, but I thought it was a great starting point. I haven't gotten any more though simply because I don't love that they use a different cartridge than the vast majority of pens, and didn't want to bother with converters.

TWSBI Eco-
My first piston fountain pen and still one of the best. I love the look, I love how it writes, I love that it's cheap so if I do screwup (like say put it through the wash 4 times over the years.....) it's not a bank breaking expense.

Kaweco liliput in fireblue -
This was my treat for not losing/breaking the Eco for a few years, and because i've got a sling I carry with me and wanted something nice to write with that fit with a notebook (there's a wallet I use for that). Much more expensive than a normal liliput but it's gorgeous and I love it.
NOTE: I linked to the nibsmith because I do think it's the only spot you should buy this pen from. They let you choose some extra options for the nib at the bottom, and for no extra charge, they'll do a "tune & smooth" pass which I've noticed helps with this pens one flaw of sometimes struggling to get it started. Not the end of the world if you're buying it for the normal $55 price and need something small, but extra unacceptable at the price point of the fancier versions.

Other Pens:

Bullet Space Pen -
I've got one in black and one in brass. They fit in the same compartment as the liliput for when I don't want to be using a fancier pen, and of course write very well, in basically any condition, and are extremely cheap for the hobby at $36.

Contrail pocket pen-
Silly expensive, but this one clips onto my wallet, which also has a notebook in it, and thus has become the pen I use the most. Writes well (and since it's a ball point you can easily change the cartridge to whatever you want), looks nice, and is quick to get open so I can take spur of the moment notes. I can use the Liliput/Bullet as well with my setup, but the liliput's screw cap is a little slow/unwieldy for those scenarios, and the bullet clip kept falling off in my pocket.

Stuff I've had my eye on:

Honestly i've found a lot of fountain/fancy pens are quite over the top/large, when I really prefer a more sleek/small look. Still one of these days i'll probably get a Vanishing point fountain pen, because I do think that's really cool, but I haven't seen too much else that's really caught my eye.

That's it for my modest collection. I'm curious to see what others have.

I already play piano and guitar to some degree but never got to learn what I really wanted to play which was blues music.

I see ads here and there about “learn to play following this app!” and was wondering if people had any experiences or recommendations for app-based learning?

I've had an interest in 3D printing since first hearing about it many years ago, but at the time printers were expensive and learning materials and resources were scarce. Nowadays, it seems like 3D printing is as common as regular old 2D printing but I feel left in the dust.

What's really making me want to get started now is I've collected a lot of junk over the years that I've told myself I could repair, but a lot of the repairs would be much easier with a 3D printer and custom modeled parts. Dearest to me would be an old watch that my grandfather gave to me before he died. The part of the watch that connects the strap to the case (lugs, I think it's called?) has broken off and gotten lost, and it's a proprietary part with no replacement parts available. I'd love to just 3D-print a solution but have no idea how to get started.

I consider myself a creative person, I have plenty of experience with Photoshop and illustrator, but I have never once dabbled in 3D modeling software like Blender or AutoCAD. The closest I ever got was peering over the shoulder of an artist who was working on a video game character model in Zbrush, or maybe working on custom Half-Life maps in Valve Hammer. So I'm looking for the most basic, easy-to-follow set of instructions to get me from zero knowledge to successfully printing bespoke DIY repair parts at my local makerspace.

Would also love to have this be a discussion on 3D printing in general. How did you get started? How have the tools and techniques evolved over the years? What do you think are the next big things coming in the hobby? What are things you wish you knew when you started but only learned after mistakes were made? Share your thoughts and anecdotes, I'd be happy to read them.

I've been climbing for about 2 years now and yesterday I was finally able to complete my most difficult route yet without stopping for a break! I've tried this 6C about 15 times or so and only finished it twice, but I usually fall or have to stop to rest in the middle, so I was really pleased I did it in one!

What about you guys?

(P.s apologies if this is the wrong place for this. At first I was going to post in ~sport but that looked more like pro sport news)

Good morning everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster here. I'm a reddit refugee. The subreddit I miss the most is r/throwers.

Anyone else into yoyoing or similar hobbies? I've been yoyoing for about 15 years and have a collection of over 100 yoyos. I own a lot of YoYoFactory, probably because I was first getting into the hobby around 2008-2012 when they were super dominant and popular.

I'm also a big fan of plastic yoyos. I find myself throwing my Recess First Base more than anything else.

Hello ~hobbies, I've come to you in hopes of getting some guidance as a newbie.

I have never owned a camera before and am afraid of choosing the wrong one for my use case, so I was hoping some people could enlighten me, if not with model suggestions, then with what I should be looking for.

My main goal is to shoot video, not take photos (though of course I want it to take good photos but the primary use will be shooting videos wherever I go). And specifically 4k 60fps video. I have a 65 inch TV where I want to play these videos so that resolution is a must, as any picture quality flaws will be noticed.

I have a gimbal, a hohem iSteady MT2, which I use with my phone and would like to use with the camera, so whatever camera I get can't go above its 1.2kg payload limit. I really don't want to pay for a separate gimbal for the camera.

I plan on using a separate mic, probably the sennheiser mke 200 based on reviews I saw, so the camera must also be able to support external mics.

And lastly, the budget is roughly 1000€.

There are so many brands and models I really don't know where exactly to turn to. I've mostly been leaning towards cameras like the Sony ZV-E10L and similar as they seem geared towards vloggers and that's more or less the type of video I'll be making (not content creation though, these are just personal videos), but I'm wondering if I'm falling into a trap as the price is so much lower than say an A7 III.

Any advice, pointers, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated as I really don't know much about the world of cameras. I'm frankly not even sure what type of camera (DSLR, point and shoot, etc.) I should even be looking at so yeah.

Hi everyone,

So I'm thinking (haven't actually decided yet) about getting into CNC machining in a very hobbyist, fun-to-learn sort of way sometime in the next year. I'm trying to use this as an opportunity for some discussion around the current state of entry-level hobbyist CNC's. I have wanted to have a small CNC and the ability to use it for small parts for more than 5 years now. I think learning CAM would be very challenging but useful also. I wanted to ask if anyone is aware of any desktop CNC's that are priced reasonably (ideally in the $3,000 or less range) that are somewhat similar to Prusa. In being similar to Prusa, I mean built with good quality parts but also with a sizable community for support and the ability to repair it yourself for long-term use. I would only really be machining wood & aluminum, although if small and very simple steel parts could be occasionally machined at a slow feed rate that would be freakin' awesome.

So with all of that said, what is my background and experience?

• Not an engineer, biology/healthcare background. But am generally good with computers and technology. No programming experience at all.
• Have been 3D printing for about 5 years
• Comfortable with modeling in Fusion 360
• Do not have a workshop of tools. No table saw, no drill press, no lathe, etc. Just 3D printers and some handheld power tools. I have no desire to have a workshop with large tools like that, either.
• Generally only make small functional parts. The ability to CNC small aluminum parts to add significant strength to larger 3D printed parts would be useful. Also, would be useful to copy small aluminum/steel parts of things that break around the house like, for example, a small metal part in my washer that broke off recently.
• I also do not have a laser cutter, and am open to input that that might be the better thing to get before a small CNC.

Thanks for any feedback!

Hello, everyone!

I've been back into it for a little over a year. I started at an art camp when I was roughly 12 or so. I had someone I saw doing it show me a couple things and I still to this day remember every model he taught me. Unfortunately it didn't advance much further than that for another 16 years or so, but here we are.

There are so many communities out there for it, but I never seem to find one that's terribly active that isn't Reddit. I've found a discord that has some interesting challenges and prompts to stir up some discussions, except they usually are just individual answers. Hopefully I can drum something up here.

Currently I have two projects in the works that I still need to get myself to finish. I'm roughly "half-way" through Satoshi's Bahamut and working on a Saku B Monster Hunter Saltas Queen model that is nearly finished.(Just needs shaped)

So far my proudest is LQD's modular phoenix. (https://imgur.com/a/L527otB) It took me roughly 6 or 7 hours to make and put together, I think. I actually ended up having to fold 3 wings as I forgot to reverse the instructions to make the other. >.>

As part of the ongoing quest to turn everything I enjoy into an exercise in statistical modelling, I had a look around today for a way to track what books I've read and which ones I may be interested in. I found a bit of a jumble of things in various states of development, half of which are owned by Amazon (which I'd prefer to avoid) and the other half with incomplete, confusing, and opaquely sourced data.

I use this kind of service for a handful of other topics, mainly untappd, AniList, and last.fm. I'm only really interested in the ability to keep track of read/watched items - I don't find myself rating things or making complex lists unless I started my journey with a hobby by using one of these systems. Of course for this to work out, it needs to have a fairly comprehensive library. I was unfortunately disappointed with OpenLibrary, which would otherwise be my top pick. I found systems like readarr and calibre a little clunky for this in the past since they're so focused on file management, but I'm open to retrying them.

Does anyone here have any insights in this space? Not just limited to books, I'm also interested in trackers for TV/Movies. Preferably not owned by a massive company like Amazon, I know a lot of people were disappointed when they deprecated the Goodreads API.