Things you love that no one else relates too?

[Absentmind]

Hardly anyone understands why I mess around with computers all day at work and then do exactly the same at home as a hobby.

They certainly don't understand why I like messing around with 50 year old electro-mechanicals like my jukebox and 8mm film loop projectors. https://brisray.com/house/jukebox.htm

Amazing, what a beautiful machine. I aspire to do stuff like this!!

My weird thing is that I like is Flags and Maps, I like drawing fictional maps with their own made up countries, flags and geopolitics, usually medieval themed. I also have a very small flag collection that I hope to grow soon, I really like the US state flags. Everyone thinks I'm well odd for it! . My friend from Venice bought me a Venetian flag and its my favourite one that I own!

[SilkSkull]

Amazing, what a beautiful machine. I aspire to do stuff like this!!

My weird thing is that I like is Flags and Maps, I like drawing fictional maps with their own made up countries, flags and geopolitics, usually medieval themed. I also have a very small flag collection that I hope to grow soon, I really like the US state flags. Everyone thinks I'm well odd for it! . My friend from Venice bought me a Venetian flag and its my favourite one that I own!

You can sometimes mail/email a country's embassy, hospitality service, tourism office or something like that and ask for them to mail you their flag. I've done it before to get a couple flags for my wall!

[Guest]

I actually wrote a blog article about this exact topic; about the weird relation I have to games and what I actually do in games being different to what everyone else seems to be enjoying about them. In short, I always was attracted to a specific kind of activity structure where you could immerse yourself in a world, customize some things and then let the game simulate your creation interacting with other things in a sandbox-like fashion. Like how Spore was one of my favorites, but I never cared about its moment-to-moment gameplay much, just the idea of finding my own meticulously worldbuilt creations pop up across the galaxy.

[Cobra!]

If you like Batman & Robin, I have a feeling you'll like Super Mario. They're very similar in tone. Kinda dark and grimy but not in a serious way, and everyone involved in making it was embarrassed by it later

Yeah, the Super Mario Movie is definitely on my to-watch list!

I also remember something else I am super fascinated by but have seen nobody else care about: UMDs! Specifically movies on UMD!

For those who have been living under a rock for the past 15 years, UMDs (Universal Media Discs) are what the discs the PSP used are called, the tiny discs inside caddies.

It’s like the latest technology I’d genuinely be excited to talk about but have nobody to discharge my obsession on! The idea of using tiny discs on a game console is unusual enough, though it made sense at the time, what didn’t make sense was putting movies on it when portable DVD players were a thing and iPods that can store and play video were just rolling around.

Despite this, just about every studio signed up for it, and you can find any film that was around during the late 2000s on UMD. I’ve been collecting them, and always jump at the chance to get my favorite films on the format! They’re also dirt cheap, mostly because I’m the only person in the world who actually wants them!

[Guest]

I thought UMDs were a really cool format. I love the form factor. It kinda reminds me of 3.5 inch floppy discs. Although I didn't think they'd catch on for movies, I thought they were a cool idea for portable games. Way neater than flash cards.

[Melooon]

I thought UMDs were a really cool format.

If UMD's, MiniDiscs and Hi-MiniDisc's had been the same form factor and properly interoperable instead of separate formats, Sony would rule the world today I'll never understand why they split their formats like that, it was such a foolish move!

[Guest]

If UMD's, MiniDiscs and Hi-MiniDisc's had been the same form factor and properly interoperable instead of separate formats, Sony would rule the world today I'll never understand why they split their formats like that, it was such a foolish move!

I actually wrote an essay in college for a media class about how badly Sony has mishandled their various media formats from Betamax up to Blu Ray. My conclusion was Blu Ray was destined to fail too based on precedent, but I turned out pretty wrong on that. I think it was mostly luck rather than good business sense on their part though. The PS3 probably helped, but it didn't sell like the PS2 did to push DVD adoption. The Xbox 360 not having a built in HD DVD player probably did more to help Blu Ray than anything Sony did.

[Frost Sheridan]

If UMD's, MiniDiscs and Hi-MiniDisc's had been the same form factor and properly interoperable instead of separate formats, Sony would rule the world today I'll never understand why they split their formats like that, it was such a foolish move!

man, if the PSP had used minidisc/Hi-MD instead of UMD, that would've been the coolest thing ever! it's pretty neat how there's a ton of different types of media available on UMD, but i've never really been a big fan of the physical format itself sadly. the big gaping hole in the caddy (instead of a shutter like all other caddied(?) disc formats have) makes me nervous - my fingers are naturally drawn to it - plus, unlike minidisc, there was never a user-writable version made, so you couldn't burn your own movie discs or anything.

[Cobra!]

man, if the PSP had used minidisc/Hi-MD instead of UMD, that would've been the coolest thing ever! it's pretty neat how there's a ton of different types of media available on UMD, but i've never really been a big fan of the physical format itself sadly. the big gaping hole in the caddy (instead of a shutter like all other caddied(?) disc formats have) makes me nervous - my fingers are naturally drawn to it - plus, unlike minidisc, there was never a user-writable version made, so you couldn't burn your own movie discs or anything.

I think if they used a similar format to (Hi)MDs, and could play those, that would have done wonders for the homebrew scene as well. People would figure out how to boot from regular MDs like how people figured out how to load Dreamcast games from CD or PS2 games from burnt DVDs! That would have been so cool!

Sadly, we have to settle for games on a memory stick.

[Melooon]

Something I do a lot that no one else in my family seems to appreciate :omg:k: I like going to the supermarket wine section and finding the expensive wine thats been there for YEARS because nobody wants it and its probably corked - usually they discount it to like 1/3 the original cost. I think its fun taking the risk; sometimes its truly awful, but sometimes you get an amazing bottle! I enjoy the variety!

[SilkSkull]

Something I do a lot that no one else in my family seems to appreciate :omg:k: I like going to the supermarket wine section and finding the expensive wine thats been there for YEARS because nobody wants it and its probably corked - usually they discount it to like 1/3 the original cost. I think its fun taking the risk; sometimes its truly awful, but sometimes you get an amazing bottle! I enjoy the variety!

I have never tried wine but that sounds fun! I might give it a shot

[xandra]

Hardly anyone understands why I mess around with computers all day at work and then do exactly the same at home as a hobby.

i've definitely encountered this as well  i have to tell folks, it's like someone who makes art for their work. of course they're going to go home and then make art that makes them happy! at least, maybe it's obvious to me.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

i've definitely encountered this as well i have to tell folks, it's like someone who makes art for their work. of course they're going to go home and then make art that makes them happy! at least, maybe it's obvious to me.

I'm so happy it's possible to do this! I live in fear that I'll stop enjoying animation as much as I do from working on it for a living. I've heard so many different opinions: from the classical making a job out of something you love so it doesn't feel like work, to people who became jaded to the very things they loved because of how grueling can that thing be in a working environment. Kinda like cooking at home for your family and friends vs cooking in a restaurant with all the rush and demands, you know? I even met a person the other day who is a local art and photography curator, who refuses to get paid for his job because "it'd feel like work, and I do this because I love it".

In short, it's good to know that there are many approaches to passion-work balance, and that being able to do something you love both as a way to earn money and just for the sake of it, for joy and fun, is feasible. Thank you for sharing your experience, I really needed to read that.

edit: oops quote failed so i made it up myself excuse me

[Tiffany]

i do! hey arnold: although there is a small community online i feel like it's a black sheep fandom, lmao.
i listen to a lot of music artists that most people won't recognize, like boy scouts, samia, arlo parks, and more (i'm so indiepilled and underground /s)
a lot of stuff i used to find myself alone in liking has grown over the years like milo murphy's law and eizuoken. however most stuff i like have communites (big or small) or are at least recognizable to others which is good!

I love Hey Arnold, I'm big into the fandom also. One of my favorite fanfiction is from the Hey Arnold fandom. 

Something that related to that and the topic, my favorite character is Lila, I related to her and Phoebe a lot as a child. 

[Snow]

Lots of things I enjoy listening to is stuff almost no-one else enjoys, extremely abstract "music" (if you can even call it that) of stuff like harsh noise, sound collages, field recordings, no-input mixing, microsound, data sonification, and just flat-out nonsense. I'm genuinely fascinated by this sort of stuff and greatly enjoy exploring truly abstract art in the form of unconventional soundscapes and bizarre auditory textures. If I ever find this stuff on YouTube it usually has less than 1000 views accumulated over a number of years, and that goes to show that not a lot of people seek out this kind of stuff to listen to.

Another one is studying objects in space - namely asteroids. Ever since 2012 I have followed NASA's JPL Small-Body Database and tried to piece together all the asteroids in our solar system. I find it fascinating comparing which ones are the biggest, which ones are the smallest that have been identified, which ones are at highest risk of making a close approach to Earth/other planets, and some of them end up lost would you believe? They can't keep track of all of them, but sometimes these lost objects are recovered! On the site I linked to, you can type in almost any number (from a single-digit up to six-digits long, I tried it and it looks like as of right now the highest number it goes up to is 623827) and you're guaranteed to find data on an asteroid that has been observed at some point. I find this so fascinating but I'm not entirely sure why, I just do.