Mine is mapping. I am a big OpenStreetMap contributor and I have mapped many towns near me that were previously completely unmapped.
I am a spring of knowledge about all of the domestic Real Housewives franchises (though I did just pick up Dubai recently).
I know all the lore behind all their relationships/alliances/enemies and off season shenanigans.
Its legitimately stupid how much I can talk about rich women who flaunt their wealth and then do trashy shit like throw wine in one another’s faces or flip tables (or scam the elderly out of their retirement funds to fund their own lifestyle).
So you’re like a modern TV sociologist.
Planes and to a lesser extent Cars and Trains. I just love travel, points hacking, and flying!
What is ‘points hacking’? Are you moving rails and sending trains off in the wrong direction?!
As someone who no longer commutes, this sort of chaos is deeply amusing. I hope it’s this.
I’m not so devious, it’s mainly just tricks to maximize the amount of points/miles you can get via credit cards and travel, which you can then redeem for travel. Usually in business class!
3d design & printing, electronics, cooking, in-person RPGs, woodworking, old time radio, sci fi, bookbinding, comedy… I got a million of 'em.
I also woodwork. Hand tools in the japanese style (im part Japanese). Are you a powertool user, hybrid or also hand tool?
Mostly power tools, but I’m decent with a few hand tools when necessary. Recently I mortised some door hinges with a chisel. But for the vast majority of my projects, renovating our house over 35 years, I wouldn’t have had the patience without power tools - I can barely hit a nail with a real hammer anymore lol. What kinds of projects do you do?
Tool making, and eventually furniture. Recently built a very large toolbox, chisel tray, lay out tools, marking gauges, couple plane bodies, saw vice, planing board (atedai) and saw horses.
Those sound like cool projects. Make any xmas gifts?
Some chopsticks, potentially a knife block and maybe some other utensils.
How did you start with that? I’ve contributed some via Street Complete, but I’ve never figured out how to contribute directly to OSM.
Contributing via StreetComplete is contributing directly to OSM, so good work. But like Interstellar said, you can just log in to openstreetmap.org, zoom in to what you want to edit, and click Edit.
You can edit from the OpenStreetMap website, zoom in on an area, click Edit, then it has a nice helpful tutorial. It’s very beginner friendly and easy to edit. There are also many other applications for a variety of platforms listed here https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Editors
I like making homemade bongs and water pipes specifically from reclaimed materials. I’m not strident about things, but it’s fair to say in a general sense that I need them to have $0.00 of material costs. I make “the best” in terms of performance, and people freak out when they use or see them. They are always a huge conversation piece, always creative, and I just give them away. People ask me all the time to make custom ones but I won’t. It’s free or nuthin’
I know people that still use water pipes I made for them 15 years ago! Sometimes they look a bit “trashy” but they’re crafted! And that’s the way I like em!
Remember when Homer Simpson made that misbegotten lump of shit called VunderBaat or something? I feel him man
As a long time, daily bong smoker you have my attention, got any pictures of your creations?
I have made a few in my time with varying degrees of success but I’m intrigued as to what variables you consider and what “best performance” looks like to you?
I can only show you the two I have left, because I give them away constantly. That’s part of the whole “must be recycled” thing… after this comment I’ll come back with some pictures just give me a moment…
In 20+ years of stoner engineering, I feel the most important thing is to keep the cloud chamber much, much, much, much smaller than you’d think.
We often see these huge “frat boy bongs” as I call them with huge bases and like 40cm tall throats. That’s an absolutely insane amount of wind to have to suck before you can even get the hit. Our lung capacity is limited, even moreso when we abuse them regularly with smoking. A hit from a bong is totally “broken” if the user has to stop, exhale to open lung space and keep going. That’s a fail.
The more time smoke has to sit around in or pass-through parts of a vessel that are colder than the smoke itself, you’re going to get a shitload of condensation. All that resin you see caked allll over your bong is evidence of excess condensation and reveals product being wasted. And that makes the hit wayyyy harsher too.
So the number one thing which runs counter to what people expect, is that “bong power” comes from keeping the vessel small, limiting the filtration, and ensuring the path from the smoke chamber to your lungs is a short as possible. When I say limit the filtration, passing the smoke bubbles through a few inches of water is sufficient, more than that just robs the smoke of its THC and defeats the point.
My homemade ones hit so hard people are blown away. It’s kinda crazy when you learn how to make them hit harder… the best one I ever made was made in a 250ml mason jar - it was tiny but hit like a TANK. Plus once you master the art, you discover you now need half the weed… not because it becomes “stronger” but now you find you’re smoking it at double the efficiency.
The other thing is NOT to select a vessel that is narrow on the bottom and widens as it gets to the top. There are some “fancy” bottles like from Crown Royal and such that just don’t work properly. There is something about fluid dynamics and how turbulence flows at boundaries… I don’t fully understand the hows/whys but I know the vessel needs to taper smaller. (The part with the water needs to be the big part of the vessel)
edit: Here are pics of the 2 I’ve still got. The one in the Crown Royal bottle is neat and it delivers good hits but my neighbor fucked up the bowl (and my cutting bit!) when I was teaching him how to cut glass. Also I’m going to throw this one away (keep the components just chuck the bottle) as it’s incorrect shape. I just wanted to play on this one because I found some discarded paint markers. The skull jar was given to me by the same alcoholic neighbor that wrecked the bowl and my cutting bit, and I’m just carving a nice custom tiny glass bowl for it now. The pieces on it were actually repurposed from the Mason Jar one I mentioned earlier.
Pics all out of order because I’m feeling lazy RN
Cheers for the detailed reply.
Although I haven’t probably made as many as you have in my life I couldn’t agree more with a lot of what you are saying particularly the size thing. So many people get these massive bongs that are just unwieldly to smoke and require such a huge amount of lung capacity to try and smoke.
I have found for me personally something around 30cm tall is my perfect size with a reasonable size chamber. I want to be able to comfortably rip the enitre hit without running out of capacity but to be getting close to my limit by the end of the rip so that it is a proper full lung full.
There is definitely a sweet spot for water too as too little makes it disgusting, hot and harsh to smoke too.
Ive never tried making or smoking something wider at the top however so that is good to know xD
Cheers for sharing your thoughts man.
Will look forward to some pictures, have a good one!
Thanks man! Pics are up and I’m game to share and compare! I love learning what other peeople do
Trying to learn languages, Linux, gaming, and music.
Levitation Wand!
I think it is pretty niché as most people that see it have no idea what is going on to begin with and if drugs are involved I love blowing peoples minds with it.
Okay, that was cooler than I expected going in. Now I want one. They’re so pricey!
The light up ones are fucking pricy although I have one that will display images and patterns etc when moving very quick and that adds a further level of what the fuck for observers which I enjoy.
However I learnt with a cheap one made of wood that cost me about £15. I would definitely start out there, it is not the easiest thing to pick up but with persistence the feeling starts to click and it becomes such a satisfying thing to do. They are called flow toys for a reason and when you are in a zone, feeling thst flow, it is amazing.
Ooh this is new to me! Very cool.
my hobby is collecting hobbies
if I could have a special interest for more than a week at a time I bet I’d be good at it …
I’m not sure about that, I have a lot of hobbies which I have for years like brewing beer, drying meat, making sausages, playing bass in a band, programming, and I’m not really good at any of them.
I think what defines a special interest over a hobby is that you’re good at it.
Been really looking at playing bass again …
I’m not good at it, but I like geocaching.
I just liked the trading of items.
Thank you for your contributions!
I just become “good” compared to someone who never tried and then lose interest and try something else.
I too am a master of none.
Same here
Hobbies, I have many interests each more important than the last.
What is involved with town mapping - do you have some kind of Google type camera rig on your car or a GPS device that automates the process and just drive through street, or what?
You use aerial imagery and trace the buildings, roads, and other features using points on a grid.
I watched the video you linked. So it’s enhancing existing maps - I was thinking it was building the maps themselves from scratch. A long time ago I worked with a small company that created digital street maps for cities to use for utility work etc.
It can be making maps from scratch. There are a lot of places where the map has no features, mostly rural areas.
Is that your own imagery, from drone footage for example, or are you basically copying Google Earth?
It’s from Bing and Esri. It’s not copying anything, as aerial imagery is a different thing than a map. Also Bing and Esri imagery is specifically allowed to be used for OpenStreetMap purposes, likely because companies benefit from OSM data.
Aztec history.
Here’s a good band name for ya:
Los NahuatlsOne time many years ago, I was at a beach right by the town of Maruata in the state of Michoacán, was extremely surprised and intrigued when I was told that the people of that town spoke Nahuatl as their second language, when everywhere else in the surrounding region spoke Tarasco as their second language.
If I had to speculate, I’d say Maruata was founded as an Aztec outpost at some point in time, then when the Tenochtitlán fell, they were left to their own devices, on their own. It has to be something like that, right? Fascinating little cultural/historical footnote, in any case.
Say what you want about the Aztecs, they had a lot of heart!
Fighting games and Riichi Mahjong.
Believe it or not, this venn diagram has enough overlap that we’ve got a running joke about how Riichi is becoming the new FGC Retirement Home. We’ve even got a few people bringing tiles to every major tournament to unwind before/after brackets. I’ve booked my trip to Frosty Faustings next month, signed up for six different brackets and I’ll try in squeeze in as much 'jong as I can too.
