/hob/ - Hobbies

I thought it would be nice to have this thread here to collect the crossover between raccoons and the extremely introverted to share tips, stories, musings, whatever. Personally I only go out after dark, and my impulse for freedom is always fighting the fear of being watched and talked to. I especially wouldn't know what to say to a cop, the one time I've had trouble from one I nearly talked him into arresting me.

>>68769
Half the white is shaded over in the first but I didn't do the same for the arms and legs

>>68770
I see now thank you

>>68771
Then all is well

>>67111
And now for someone to either bump a thread or interrupt with something for ultimately insufferable means…

>>68839
Nothing is insufferable and all is well (drawing by George Romney c. 1780)

>>68701
Infinity. It is possible to learn Blender, but true understanding is only forever approachable, never attainable

>>68702
If it was infinity hard to learn to use than literally no one anywhere could use it.

>>68703
Literally no one anywhere can use it.

>>68701
3 maybe? Depends on how familiar you are with 3D and graphics stuff in general. >>68702 is also right. It's kinda like Photoshop, it's so complex and has so many features that it's impossible to fully "learn it." It's a journey, you start by learning and consolidating the basics and then continue learning what you need as you go along. The good news is that there are a lot of tutorials available for pretty much anything, both free on YouTube or paid.

>>68750
I think the problem is confusing learn to use with complete mastery of 100% of the features.
Photoshop generally isn't hard to use at all.
Mastery of all the features is borderline impossible but also for most totally impractical of a goal anyway since the vast majority of the more obscure features are extremely niche.

>>68589
>university textbooks also obtained cheaply, especially second hand
It's incredible how the current schoolbook system is allowed to operate. Someone could discover that mixing blue stuff with red stuff actually goes more efficiently at 30.3ºC instead of the 30.0ºC that the textbook says. So now they need to update the textbook and all of next year's students must buy the new one for $499.99 (it cost $2.10 to print). It's a scam, but the high turnover rate really does put a lot of good books out to market.

>>68590
It's rarely even about updating any facts. They just reword it a little, change the color of the cover a little, change some of the practice questions. Everyone knows it is a scam and the universities are in on it, tied into the corruption

>>68591
Don't forget changing the formatting around a bit to make it difficult to use older copies in courses using the newer ones despite the info being exactly the same for 99% of the book.

>>68590
Yeah, it's pretty incredible. In a sense I hope it never changes even though it's a byproduct of a seriously ill society. Over the years I've bought 100+ hardback textbooks for little more than £700-800 in total, many still offered new on scamazon etc. for 10-20 times the price. A couple of extremely obscure books (catalysis A to Z etc.) are 50-100 times lower than the price if bought new. Competely broken system built on asymmetry of information and in the case of the book market, designed arbitrary obsolescence. Some medical textbooks I've procured have been flawless with a single hospital library stamp on the inside page.

A tip for anyone interested in getting into this is patience. Ebay has such a fast turnaround that within a month or two, half a wishlist can be obtained at stupidly miserish prices. It is also a buyer's market, due to low volume sales and small sellers aggressively undercutting each other, probably just trying to scrape by a small living. However this seems usually only the case with less popular pursuits - education, obscure hobbies, laboratory gear that no formal laboratory would deviate from buying from a sole distributor. "Watching an item" will often yield a discounted offer from the seller, making a silly price flatout ridiculous. But it is a dangerous game to play, as anyone else might snap it up for the listed price. WorldofBooks is a favourite seller of mine, but there are many other huge outlets that seemingly don't know the value of anything either. It's very odd.

With regards to buying laboratory and production-line equipment I've never had a problem to date. The microscope and other items along with it retailed at approximately £2500 and I spent £224 in total. This is for a reputable dark field, polarising petrological microscope with waveplates, plan-achromat objectives all in as-close-to-brand new condition as I could have cared for. I bought it primarily to test multiple samples for asbestos, needing accurate polarisation and quarter-wave retardation, but ended up going deep down a path of plant biology and medical studies that has stolen a lot of my time. I've not seen another come up in months however while trying to track another one down for a family member, so this might sadly be a very rare find.

If you don't know much about ebay, there are both 'auctions' and 'buy it now' options. AuctioPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>68596
Are you doing all of this as a hobby, or did you go through university and work in a field related to that?

>>58298
It's been over a year since I wrote this post and I still haven't gotten a new job and still haven't restarted this fun hobby yet.

I remember in 2019 and 2020 I enjoyed getting brand new quarter rolls, because some of the new ones had the West Point W mint mark, rather than the P or D mark. I had relatively good luck finding at least one for every handful of new quarters.

In 2021 I probably could have found more if I had kept up with the hobby. Now in 2022 I haven't encountered a single one. I regret not coin roll hunting these past two years, I could have built a good collection of those W quarters (which I think can sell for $5-10 on Ebay a pop, depending on their condition).

I mentioned in my previous post that I liked collecting paper currency with interesting serial numbers. Well I went broke recently and finally had to spend these bills. I should have tried to at least sell them on Ebay. But the same depression/anxiety combo that prevented me from keeping my job and going to banks for coin rolls also prevented me from even bothering to try. And the fact that I no longer have those neat bills makes me hate myself even more. I had a $10 with a number 01000010, a $1 with number 66606660, and a $20 with number 45454455, among others. And a couple dozen rare star notes. Now they're all gone because I'm a lazy, mentally ill retard.

>>63131
I've spent every single wheat penny, every silver quarter, every silver dime, even the neat silver proof quarter I had. Spent that one on ice cream for my mom.

The last cool coin I had was a 1885-S Morgan dollar coin. A few weeks ago I pawned it for $20 which I then spent on an ounce of kratom and a benzedrex inhaler and a Coke.

I only bump this thread in the hopes that maybe I'll eventually be inspired to fix my life, and then reignite my interest in coins, and then as I rebuild my collection I'll actively post in this thread and get other people interested as well.
But I'm much more likely to kill myself before anything like that ever comes close to happening.

This was the best hobby I ever had and the only silver lining is that it wouldn't technically be THAT hard for me to rebuild my collection. Given enough time, I could get 95% of it through coin roll hunting and would have fun doing it. I could use my electronic microscope and upload closeups of neat coins and show differences between things like, 1982 small date and large date pennies.
But I'll never do anything ever. Never have never will.

>>65424
Updates, mage?

I might as well share that I have a 1928 Peace Dollar, I am kind of proud of that. I also have every 5 oz Silver Quarter 2014-2021 before the swapped them out for the succubi of color quarters (which will never become valuable, at least for the foreseeable future, since numismatics is a hobby with a lot of conservatives).

>>68173
>1928 Peace Dollar
That's neat, I looked in my old "red book" (bought it when I was collecting coins several years ago), and only like 360k were minted that year. Apparently, even in relatively-low-quality, it could be worth over $200. Whereas the ones minted for like 4-5 years before that one would be between $20-40 in the same condition.
(You probably already know all that about your coin though…)

>succubi of color quarters
So THAT'S what the new designs are on the reverses of my new quarters. I noticed they weren't doing states or national parks now but couldn't figure out what was going on.
Also, why did they change the Washington portrait on the obverse of the quarter? The older portraits look better!

>Updates
Well, I still have no job and still am broke and still haven't gotten back into collecting. But I have a glimmer of hope; every month my family gives me a little bit of cash now. I think I'll buy a box of pennies or something soon: pennies would be only $25 for lots of rolls, and I always enjoyed penny-hunting because of all the different changes in composition over the past century.
I used to collect the pre-1982 copper pennies, too. I know it's not really a *good* "investment", I just thought it was fun amassing rolls and rolls of older, slightly heavier copper pennies.

I also had a dumb idea for a project I will most likely never work on: some kind of weekly coin-related video series or podcast or something. Every week I'd take a coin (US or foreign) and would research it and give interesting facts. BUT, not JUST facts about the coin itself! I'd also talk about where the coin was made, how its design was chosen, other history about its place of origin, AND maybe some other events that happened in its year-of-mintage.
I'd never bother trying to monetize this hypothetical series so I guess I could say whatever I wanted and make each installment as long as I wanted.

But, such a possibility would probably have to wait until I have a job some day.

I need the coin with the Jersey flag to complete my gibraltar Charlemagne collection, don't know which coins I'd like to collect next

>>68724
>>68725
>>68726
God fucking damn it.
Why can't you be normal?

>>68727
this isn't exactly the place to say that

>>68729
This also isn't the place to lust over some raggedy children cartoon character like a degenerate.

Click CC for subtitles

I started self-studying math 3 years ago, have read many books already, started with basic pre-calculus stuff and now Im reading my 2nd book on differential geometry. I've found it made me sharper and helped revert actual cognitive deterioration.
How is the study going for you wizs? Have you found any benefits besides enjoyment?
>>66210
Don't be shy to look at solution online, then write them down (important) while making sure you understand each step, at the start you will do it for most excercises and you will slowly develop technique.

>>67895
I made this post >>64921 when i first started to study math seriously, I am now able to understand General Relativity quite well, only because of Eigenchris's youtube channel.
>Have you found any benefits besides enjoyment?
Understanding 'advanced' physics concepts which I previously had to read pop-sci to learn about, and pop-sci is horrible at explaining anything. The explanations of general relativity and black-holes are so stupid, saying things like 'time and space switch in a blackhole' when in reality its just the tangent space of the observer being affected by the intrinsic curvature of 'space-time.'

How do you guys get through texts? I am currently trying to get through "The Book of Proof"

bump
>>68091
>read chapter in x days, page by page until I understand each theorem and its proof
>do at least 30% of the proposed exercises

>>68091
Creating Anki decks of the books I read as I go along have been a huge help in allowing me to grab concepts and make connections. Had I started doing this in undergrad, classwork would have been trivial. So I have been working through new stuff and also re-examining my old textbooks related to what I use in my work.
It takes some practice to make good cards for mathematics, it took me about 3 months of making cards for an hour a day before I really developed a sense of what to do.
I reference the 20 Rules from SuperMemo a lot. https://www.supermemo.com/en/blog/twenty-rules-of-formulating-knowledge

2) Focusing
The ability of focusing is lost in the 21st century. Learning without focusing is time wasted so you have to improve your ability to focus. Average attention span of a young adult is 72 second[1].

Benefits and use of focusing skill:
-High level of productivity
-The ability to learn hard things faster

So, how do we work without distraction? There are various methods:
-Pomodoro Technique: A good technique for entry level and quite popular. Work for 25 minutes without any distraction (no phones, and if possible no internet). Give a 5 minute break and again no phones, no social media no music.

Even though pomodoro is a nice technique, it doesn't improve your focusing skill, you can't work 25 minutes for your entire life. Thinking deeply means working with the same focus by constantly increasing the hours. which brings us to monastery technique.

-The Monastic Approach: Study like a monk, without internet and any sort of social interaction. For most of you this is not a viable method, you shouldn't have any other responsibility than your main focus.

A more viable approach that is better suited for most people is to study like a "monk" for 3 or 4 days of the week and use internet moderately the rest of the days. Still requires very careful planning.

-The Rhythmic Approach: Determine the time and the place you will work. Examine a week of your life and determine the best time for study, and work in those hours every week. I think this is the best approach for beginners.

-The Journalistic Approach: Switching into deep work mode whenever possible, even with an unpredictable schedule like you are a journalist. Requires a high level of discipline and mental agility. This is very hard for beginners.

Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

one thing i realized about "learning" is that it's not a simple linear process and usually the most mainstream "common sense" approach is always misguided in some way and you have to tinker and experiment and dig deep into successful people's descriptions of what they did in order to find what exactly got them to that point. the reason people fail to learn is because the instructions are generally bad, they're based on some idea of how things are supposed to be learned. you sit down, open a textbook or go to class and then you learn, but it's never as simple as that. to learn math, you need to go beyond the textbook and really gain an intuition of the objects themselves and then, if you're successful, the formal crap takes care of itself because it flows downstream from a good intuitive understanding. if you want to learn how to play an instrument, you don't start by memorizing a bunch of music theory, you have to ultimately tinker until you find a feedback loop that actually works and lets you improve. if you want to learn a language, you don't study grammar, you gradually build an intuitive understanding by exposing yourself to simple sentences and working your way up to more and more complex language until you acquire it subconsciously. that's the kind of shit that you only figure out through trial-and-error and experience.

which leads me back to focus and discipline, things that people try to brute-force even though a lack of focus and discipline just means that your "learning" method is frustrating and isn't bringing you tangible results. once you find the right method, the work becomes natural and compelling, no need to fight yourself and keep hitting your head against the wall. when things work, it's easy. when things do not work, change your approach until it's easy.

>>68096
I dunno setting concrete goals only makes me less motivated generally. I will just look at it and think "woah I have to do that much?" and lose heart. If I just keep it vague I will feel okay as long as I make any sort of progress, instead of comparing with the specific end goal.

the whole of clavicula salomonis, which I think is just what the wiz above posted

>>68607
>going uphill momentarily?
yes, a river crossing a mountain going uphill and then go down

>>68607
like this

Some dharma studies can be quite esoteric, very practical in use especially when dealing with suffering and loss in life. -

From experience I suggest just read up and apply the basic teaching and master that. The basis of dharma is practical life advice that can bring you to a state of skillful means and attunement with subtle magic.

>>67595
As for today nobody has been able tell how kabbalah could ever best this.
>yea i'm shilling
>thanks to this i lost the anxiety for getting a slaveplace
>i stop chasing their crap
>after they told me stupid rabble like "why do you want to work with us" or "i don't see you quite motivated"
>i even had to publicly scorn a mid-management sucker in front of everyone because he mobbed me
>it felt damn great, i even got paid and extra not like normies who stayed there sucking cock or just resigning because they could stand the douche
>and i got paid after being fired for that
>still running on this, it's lifechanging
>you can tell it's great because of much hatred it gets from wizmods and soyfags around here

>>68675
I checked this Human Design thing out, and it seems that the only thing that matters in this is your date and time of birth? That's really not convincing, it's just a different kind of astrology. What about early births, or medical situations where the child had to be prematurely extracted through c-section? Does Human Design account for that, or should those people add a few days or weeks to their date of birth?

Just like with astrology, the info they give is applicable to almost everyone, I mean everyone will think "this about me so much fr fr" upon reading the results. And if a trait doesn't match, you could make the argument that it's a hidden trait that hasn't yet manifested itself.

Sorry, but no.