A lot of pastimes now involve staring at a screen, and while I’m the last person to comment on what “too much” screen time is, I’ve found myself not wanting to look at a screen more often these days. Which, considering what a geek I am, doesn’t mean I want to take up hiking or meditation.
No, instead I’m looking for yet another nerdy hobby, just one that doesn’t necessarily involve screens, and there are a few candidates that seem promising.
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HAM Radio
I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of amateur or “ham” radio. This is basically where someone becomes a radio operator for fun as a hobby. You need an amateur radio license which does require passing a test, but other than that and the equipment you need, there’s nothing special you need to do.
Ham radio operators get to play around within designated amateur radio frequencies, and use it to talk to distant operators directly, or to have a way to communicate when commercial systems go down. You can even use ham equipment to talk to the International Space Station.
I don’t have the space or finances to get into ham just yet, but there’s always the option of joining a club to learn and have access to their shared equipment, so put this on the list of definite “maybes” for me.
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Model Kits
OK, I’ve actually already started this one. I’ve always wanted to do model kits, but I was never confident in my ability to paint, or glue small bits together properly. Now, well, I don’t care if I mess it up, I just want to have fun trying. I started out with some gunpla (Gundam model kits) which just snap together and don’t require paint, but now I’ve actually started doing proper models.
I’ve always wanted a nice model of the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, which is my favorite heli design of all time, and so I bought a few discontinued kits, giving me more than one chance to get it right.
So far, I’m really enjoying the process of just putting on a TV show or some music, and spending a few hours trying to make something that I’d actually want to keep and display.
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Amateur Astronomy and Astrophotography
My wife has been asking me to consider getting a telescope we can use to do some home astronomy, and we live in a part of the world with low levels of light pollution, so I’ve been seriously considering it. I’m interested in space, and basic telescopes have gotten a lot better, so it might be a great time to get some fresh night air, and look out into the universe.
What really interests me though, is how easy it is to hook up a digital camera or even a smartphone to a telescope these days. The idea of taking detailed photos of the Moon, or of other heavenly bodies from my own garden is very cool.
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Pen and Paper RPGs
I’m a video game guy, but I’ve dabbled in tabletop gaming over the years, and I’ve never been that interested. My wife bought me a lovely Dungeons & Dragons starter kit for the holidays a few years ago, and I never actually got around to running a game, because it’s just so much faff.
However, there’s a lot of software and technology out now that make the more tedious parts of tabletop gaming better, and people are using the internet and apps like Zoom to get around people having to travel, and scheduling problems.
I’m still not completely convinced that I want to get into it quite yet, but I have seen some interesting solo TTRPG adventures, which are basically “Choose your own adventure” books with more fleshed out systems, so maybe I’ll try one of those first. Sure, I’d still be playing by myself, but I won’t be looking at a screen!