Niche hobbies you have/had.

[VernalLapin]

I’ve had lots of niche/specific hobbies throughout my life, such as:

• As a kid I used my mom’s computer a lot, but barely used the internet. I enjoyed listening to the stock audio files on there.
• I had an art CD ROM called Creativity Express with little penguins and a polar bear who’d teach you about art topics like history and color theory, etc and then flash games related to it. I found the files for the videos and speed them up and pitch them down millions of times. I also did this with home movies and would color shift them, I thought it was so cool that my clothes were different colors and stuff.
• I would take screenshots of famous places around the world on google earth and edit this one picture of my dog into them and send them to my family.
• Speaking of google earth, I used to use it all the time. I’d draw random regions around my neighborhood and give them names. I also gave a lot of nicknames to the nearby houses, i forgot most of them but it was stuff like “the fish house” or whatever.
• When I was even younger (like first grade) I used to send so many emails to my relatives for fun because i was fascinated the with fonts. Most of them were complete nonsense in rainbow letters and wingdings. They're honestly champs for putting up with all those XD
• Making up names for the people who took photos in books, photos of dogs in books, and people in imaginary movies based on books i read.
• Nowadays I like taking fake reviews other people write of remote uninhabited islands on google maps and putting them all in a my own map to sort of build a world out of all of them. There are ones about penguins running restaurants, people teleporting, etc.

I know this will probably seem extremely strange to many people, but I’m wondering who else had/had niche hobbies like this XD I think a lot of these came from not using the internet much as a child (being intimidated by it) and finding alternatives.

 

[cornimer]

I watch Bollywood movies and rank them in a spreadsheet based on different criteria (e.g. score out of 10 for how good the songs are, score out of 10 for how good the plot is, etc). In the final column I explain why I scored each movie the way I did, even though I'm the only one who reads the spreadsheet

 

[Reginald Fairfield]

I've built a few model kits. Some level 1 Gundam kits of the Shuffle Alliance from G Gundam, a Medabot and some DBZ figure kits. If I wanted to do that again, I'd have to import something, or go for something car themed.

I do recall seeing some Wacky Races themed Model Kits at Walmart.

 

[Beanz]

-wii research, looking at betas and technical stuff about it.

-taking photos with an old ass camera. ok, it’s not that old, it’s an elph 180 from 2016. but most people might think that’s weird because of how good cellphone cameras are now.

 

[Yanrima~]

Looking/researching at old magazine ads or old commercials are the weirdest niche hobby I had. I was so fixated on these old advertisments that I have to look up on the history behind it, also to look at what the household product bottles or packaging used to look like before or how they changed the product design all these years.

It's a silly niche hobby, i know.

 

[chocovelvetcake]

I like to research lore about politicians, old hollywood celebrities, and old school bands/musicians. I usually just watch video essays and read up on articles online about them.

It's kind of a weird niche, or at least in my opinion.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I collect music boxes and I am very specific about which ones I add to the collection. I also collect porcelain dolls but mostly from one specific company and the artists that designed for the company and are musical.

 

[Suguri]

I used to watch videos of production company logos like Klasky-Csupo and Sony Wonder haha. Sometimes I'd watch them with these weird video effects, like "G Major" and stuff. I remember there were these "scary" logos, like Viacom's "V of Doom" and the Screen Gems "S from Hell"? Not sure if I got those names right, it's been too long.

I would also draw on my brother's Captain Underpants books too. I'd put this little stick person next to the main characters, and he was like George and Harold's friend or something. I don't think my brother liked that LOL

 

[QueenCobra]

Maybe not THAT niche, because it’s kind of connected to true crime, but I find unidentified decedents interesting. It’s sad to think there are people looking for them for so many years, but whenever someone is identified, it brings a sense of peace. When the person is a Jane or John Doe I had known about, it’s especially interesting.

While still unidentified, I find the little details fascinating. Like, for example, one woman who was recently identified wore a T-shirt that said “Kiss My A , I’m on Vacation”. I thought it was funny, and jt gave you a glimpse into the kind of person she was, but still a tragedy nonetheless.

When I was younger, I used to go down Wikipedia rabbit holes of European royal families, so all the Habsburg memes just feel kinda “been there, done that” to me. Some of the inbreeding stuff was creepy…Charles II’s parents were literally uncle and niece.

Also…a current one…minor Greek goddesses! Like Pheme, the goddess of fame and gossip, Tyche, the goddess of fortune, Adephagia, the goddess of gluttony, Palaestra, the goddess of wrestling, etc.

 

[Croconaw]

My niche hobby is that I love the Amtrak train and Greyhound bus. I love looking up reviews of the latter. The reviews from first-time riders are hilarious. You can always tell who has never been on the bus before and is expecting plane travel. You pay for what you get here.

 

[SkyKnight03]

I'm really into maps and geography.

I like to learn about the sizes of different places in the world too. I also like to learn about different cities and capitals.

 

[Neb]

I look at population statistics and census data for every city and town I hear about, just for fun. I love seeing how population growth and decline, ethnic diversity, population density, and housing prices differ in various places and over time. I can name the exact statistics for many places right off the top of my head. For example, the largest town in square miles is in Alaska. The most ethnically diverse state is Hawaii, while the least diverse is Maine. I could go on for quite a while.

 

[-Blue-]

I’ve had lots of niche/specific hobbies throughout my life, such as:

• Nowadays I like taking fake reviews other people write of remote uninhabited islands on google maps and putting them all in a my own map to sort of build a world out of all of them. There are ones about penguins running restaurants, people teleporting, etc.

Not that this applies, but this reminds me when I came across this cheese wheel on Amazon and everyone made a review that was just wildly fake. All 5 stars. One was how it gave them immorality from the cheese gods. Another said their car tire blew up and they slapped the cheese wheel on the rim and drove safely home. I had a little too much fun reading those reviews lol!

I'm kind of drawing a blank on anything that I used to have but I do like experimenting with food and I always like reading up on recipes people have made for works of fiction and wanting to try it myself to see how bad or good it is. Or trying to research the work of fiction myself to see if I can come up with a recipe. Sometimes its a success sometimes it's not, but it's still fun to do.

 

[lasagne_of_death]

I don't know if this counts as niche, but in primary school, my friends and I used to play with rocks and pretend they were potatoes, and have adventures with them. Looking back on it, it was kinda pathetic lmao, but it was fun. We used to kick them through puddles, pretending the puddles were oceans.

I used to try learn all the country flags I could. I still remember a fair amount of them, but mainly the European and South American ones. I always found the African flags hard, and I only remember a few.

Researching as many English words as I could was my most recent one. Every time I'd go to write a word, I'd look up synonyms and use them instead. It really helped me to expand my vocabulary and it comes in handy during pop quizzes, reading Shakespearean plays in school, and also French and Latin, because a lot of words in English are derivatives of those, and it helps me remember the words easier (or make a guess. On a French exam I put down "lethargique" which was just "lethargic" with Francization on it).

I wouldn't say I have any niche hobbies at the moment though. Maybe just collecting pens from different places even if they don't work.

 

[QueenCobra]

Maybe not THAT niche, because it’s kind of connected to true crime, but I find unidentified decedents interesting. It’s sad to think there are people looking for them for so many years, but whenever someone is identified, it brings a sense of peace. When the person is a Jane or John Doe I had known about, it’s especially interesting.

While still unidentified, I find the little details fascinating. Like, for example, one woman who was recently identified wore a T-shirt that said “Kiss My A , I’m on Vacation”. I thought it was funny, and jt gave you a glimpse into the kind of person she was, but still a tragedy nonetheless.

When I was younger, I used to go down Wikipedia rabbit holes of European royal families, so all the Habsburg memes just feel kinda “been there, done that” to me. Some of the inbreeding stuff was creepy…Charles II’s parents were literally uncle and niece.

Also…a current one…minor Greek goddesses! Like Pheme, the goddess of fame and gossip, Tyche, the goddess of fortune, Adephagia, the goddess of gluttony, Palaestra, the goddess of wrestling, etc.

OK, don’t judge me y’all, but I find “circus freaks” interesting, too. I have a book about Chang and Eng Bunker (“Siamese twins”) and their life was fascinating, as they settled in North Carolina, had kids, and some of their descendants are still alive today.

I also like reading about ones who aren’t as famous, like Ada Briggs who was “as big as she was beautiful” and the “Woolly Girl” (condition with hair growing all over her body.)