Saturday, April 12, 2014

hobbies on the cheap

Cheap gets a bad rap. Although not as bad as being called miserly.

Hobbies can often become very expensive. For example, Hugh Hefner had one of the most expensive hobbies (maybe dangerous too) there is - women.

Now I have never even considered an expensive hobby. I did enjoy a glider ride once and while I might do it again, it’s just too expensive as a hobby.





Blog writing (hey I consider this writing) is a fun inexpensive hobby. Having some type of hobby becomes more important when you retire.

In addition to my hobby of taking a long damn time getting to the point, I enjoy electronics and making gadgets. At various times in my career I was employed both as a soldering iron brandishing tech and a software coder. Let me tell you it’s easier to burn things with a soldering iron than a piece of software code. However, either task can burn out a circuit.

More to the point now. Last fall I picked up a popular (if you ever heard of it please let me know since I’m curious how popular) hobbyist device called the Arduino. It’s a microcontroller board with a big community of support. I’ve programmed it to control things from displays to a camera.



Not surprisingly the Arduino website has a blog about the various gadgets being created with the Arduino system. It was on that blog where I found this mermaid.  Yes, a mermaid!  She goes by "Glimmer the Mermaid" and has an entertainment business.  Glimmer illuminated her fin with multicolored LED lights controlled by an Arduino board.




Afterthought (after I clicked publish button)  -   I don't plan on making any fins but I consider the multicolored LED devices as one of the best inventions.  I suspect the mermaid suit was quite expensive in both time and money.  Very unusual too.

13 comments:

Dawn Saros-Kirk said...

LOL! You're living dangerously with your Hugh hobby comment. I think you have quite a few women readers. But I think we all enjoy a good sense of humor too. :-) Never heard of that thing-a-majig so I wouldn't know if it's popular. Not in my scope of hobbies. I could see the mermaid tail as being popular for kid's parties when the The Little Mermaid movie was out. Depending on how expensive it is.

lisleman said...

Was that a dangerous comment? One of my points that I didn't write, but had in my head, was that relationships should NOT be a hobby. It does seem that guys with "trophy wives" don't understand that. This relationship stuff was certainly a tangent to the topic so I didn't share my thinking on it. Maybe I shouldn't knock Mr. Hefner since I don't even know him. Since he is a celebrity who has shown off on TV in the past I figure he is fair joke target.
I imagine those mermaid fins would certainly be hundreds or more dollars. But it is just a guess. She might have info on her website about the cost. I didn't plan on making a set myself.
thanks

Joanne said...

For cheap and miserly, blogging takes the prize.

Joanna Jenkins said...

I went hang gliding once.... Once was enough for me ;-)

Hobbies can be expensive. My sewing hobby has become more of an addiction and I'll never use all the fabrics I seem to not be able to stop myself from buying.

As for Glimmer... I wonder what her resume says. Ha!

lisleman said...

I would say inexpensive and practical.
thanks

lisleman said...

Let me see if I understand. Hugh was a serial womanizer (is this a new term for casanovas? Is there a non-serial womanizer?) that figured out a way to make money and womanize at the same time?

I really don't know but suspect she does other costumes (princess) for most parties. Yeah it does look like movement would be difficult wearing long fins.
thanks

lisleman said...

My glider adventure was in a two seat glider pulled up into the sky by a small plane. After a certain attitude (3000, 4000 ft?) we disconnected and floated around catching up drafts.
Never had tried the hang gliding but good for you. I did the parachute behind the speed boat once. I was not impressed.

You should check out Glimmer's web site. The post has the link.
thanks

Cheryl P. said...

I think we can assume that there are womanizers that don't equal Hefners level of promiscuity. I can't think of too many (well none really) men have admitted to sleeping with over 1000 women and having relationships with up to seven woman at the same time. OK...let's just call him a serial lech.

Bearman Cartoons said...

How much does a glider ride cost...I think I would be claustrophobic

lisleman said...

When I stop to think about it, I think it was 10+ years ago so I suspect prices increased some. I went soaring around for about 20-30 minutes for less than $100. ($75-$80?)

lisleman said...

One lesson I learn long ago was not to keep count. If you are counting and then telling everyone about the number then you have a very distorted view on relationships and life. I didn't know about this extremely high number. I do recall hearing that some NBA brag about high numbers. Lech fits well.

Mrs4444 said...

I've never heard of it, but I enjoyed this post all the same. i think it's great that you've found something that keeps you happy out of trouble.haha

lisleman said...

The arduino gadget hobby is a safe one but my blogging hobby does offer the potential of trouble for me. thanks

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