For most of my adult life, I didn't really have any "hobbies". I spent most of my free time watching TV, reading books, hanging out with friends, or improving my programming skills. I didn't consider any of these activities to be hobbies, and always wondered if I was missing out on the fun others had with their hobbies.
A couple of years ago, when I quit my job to take time off work, I made an effort to develop some hobbies. I took sailing lessons, and joined the local sailing club. I got into digital photography, taking pictures of my young nieces and messing around with the pictures in Photoshop. I tried creating music using Cakewalk's SONAR digital audio production product.
I didn't really stick with any of those hobbies, but they were fun and led me to try some other things:
- home-brew beer
- self-taught piano lessons
- juggling
- RC helicopters
- electronics
I came pretty close to getting into aquariums a couple of weeks ago. I was going to create a mini-reef marine aquarium, one of the most difficult to maintain. After reading a couple of books, I finally decided against it. The helicopter hobby is pretty expensive, and this marine aquarium thing looked like it could be even worse. So I've decided to put it off until I buy a house or until I give up the helicopters.
One concern about my choice of hobbies is that none of them involve other people. Sure, I "chat" with other hobbyists online who share these hobbies, but I never actually interact with anyone. I need to find something that interests me that will get me into groups of people.
All these hobbies are really cutting into my TV-watching time. And one of these days, I may need to re-classify house-cleaning as a hobby so that I can find time to do that.