People do the strangest things in their spare time to give their lives some sense of purpose. And in a time of video games, the Internet and more movies than you can ever watch, it is quite surprising to still find people who do very weird stuff for fun. Here are some hobbies you surely have never heard about (I know I haven’t):
1. Cosplay for Dogs (Competitive Dog Grooming)
Cosplay is in the up in up, especially in geek-culture, but now there are people who are taking impersonations to the next level. They call it competitive dog grooming and instead of dressing their dogs up in weird costumes, they actually groom them to look like other animals or cartoon characters. People put a lot of time and effort into making their dogs looking like tigers, pandas, Sesame Street, Ninja Turtles and even dragons or Yoda. Whether the dogs are as enthusiastic about this whole spectacle as their masters is a different question altogether, but hey – anything for some extra attention, woof!
2. Dirt Polishing
Image source: Dorodango.com
Some people enjoy polishing dirt, or even dung, and transforming it into glossy spheres. The hobby is called Dorodango. How they do it? Basically by creating a ball of mud, drawing the moisture out of it and then coating it with more, very fine, soil. Once the artist is happy with the size of the sphere, he polishes it by hand into a high-gloss ball. The results are quite astounding. More info on how to make them at Dorodango.com.
3. Tape Art
There are several types of tape art people love to indulge in. One is scotch tape art, where this very sticky material is used to create the most amazing sculptures like the one below. People do similar things with duct tape and packing tape as well.
Image source: Off The Roll
Cassette tape art is another obscure tape-related hobby. The artist unravels a cassette tape and somehow arranges the mess into a pretty decent looking portrait or other picture. Quite impressive, like this one by Erika Iris Simmons.
4. Collecting Body Pieces
No, I am not referring to actual limbs (although it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the serial killers out there are limb-collectors) but more replaceable human body pieces, such as hair, toenails, fingernails and even navel fluff. Graham Barker, for instance, has been collecting his own navel fluff for over 20 years, and has been keeping it in neatly labelled jars…
5. Bending Forks
Image Source: Forkbend.com
This is not only a trick magicians do to impress their audiences, but some people have made a hobby out of bending forks. Some do it as an art form, where they reshape the forks to look like little figures. Forkbend.com claims that you can bend a fork, mostly with your minds' energy, with only a bit of physical strength and even gives instructions on how to do it. Apparently a fork turns all soft and gooey when you concentrate on bending it hard enough.
6. TV Bombing
So what do you do if you are not rich or famous, but you love to be on TV? You follow a news station around and be in the background "accidentally" all the time. One guy who has been TV bombing Sky News for quite a while is Paul Yarrow... he has been featured in quite a couple of live news reports, as seen in the video below.
7. Playing Dead
Image source: Deadbodyguy.com
Chuck Lamb wanted to star in horror movies very badly, but realized that he had no acting skills. He went for the only non-speaking role he could think off: playing the corpse. In order to further his horror career, he regularly started posting staged photos of his "death"
8. Tree Shaping
Image source: Pooktre
Tree Shaping is actually a cool hobby, but you need to have a lot of patience for it - as it takes years to shape a tree. Tree shaping involves "training" a living tree to grow in a certain way - to shape a chair, for instance, or a beautiful piece of art.
9. Competitive Duck Herding
Believe it or not, people actually get together to see who can herd ducks the best. Check this video to see how it's done.
10. Boob Knitting
Image source: My Mummy Does
A Sussex woman, Audrey Horncastle, knits boobs for fun - and for the greater good. Her daughter, Rhona Emery, is a community nurse and uses these woolen breasts to help teach women how to breastfeed. Apparently the knitted boobs are helpful in teaching new moms about attachment. If you want to try your hand at it, you can download the pattern here.
11. Extreme Ironing
Extreme Ironing is quite a dangerous hobby - depending on where you decide to do your ironing. People find all kinds of weird and unusual ways to set up their ironing board and iron and take pictures of themselves "ironing a shirt" while hanging off a cliff, for instance. Some do take this hobby very seriously, which is why there was even a world championship for extreme ironing. Check out the video for some more extreme ironing examples.
12. Sending (or taking) Toys On a World Trip
Feel like one of your toys needs a getaway? You can actually send it on a vacation, using the website ToyVoyagers.com. Through the site, people volunteer to host toys and take them sightseeing or help them with so-called Life Missions. A travel log is created for every toy and appears on the toy's profile, where both the owners and the hosts can post updates.
13. Geocaching
Geocaching is exactly like treasure hunting, but then using your phone instead of a metal detector. There are small containers hidden in over 2,000,000 spots worldwide - and it is up to the geocachers to find them. Have a look at the geocaching website to learn more.
14. Beetle Fighting
Beetle fighting involves choosing different types of beetles to fight one another. People are so serious about this hobby that you even get beetle breeders, who breed certain beetle species to have a better chance in the fights. There are plenty of beetle fighting videos online.
15. Suing Others
Many people tend to sue others way too easily for everything and nothing and some have made a lucrative living from winning lawsuits, but there is at least one guy who has made filing lawsuits a bit of a hobby. Jonathan Lee Riches made the Guinnes Book of World Records for the person who has filed the most lawsuits in the world. He retorted by suing Guinness. Some other famous people he decided to sue include former Pres. George W. Bush, Britney Spears, Nostradamus, Plato, the Eiffel Tower and many more.
