Sunday 29 November 2009

Unusual hobbies

A lot of people have hobby - something what they like to do in free time. Somebody likes riding bike, somebody cooks etc. Your hobby should be ideal for you – then you can forget about your work and school and you can evolve. Hobbies are divided into four large classes: doing things, making things, collecting things, and learning things. There are some hobbies which we can called unusual hobbies. They really can make us surprised, shocked or scared.

Taphophilia
Taphophilia should not be confused with necrophilia, which is a sexual attraction to corpses.
Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile. It involves epitaphs, gravestone rubbing, photography, art, and history of (famous) deaths. An example of an individual’s expression of taphophilia is the character Harold in the movie Harold and Maude (1971).



Pooktre Art
Pooktre tree shaping is a unique eco-art form created, developed and perfected by Peter Cook and Becky Northey in South East Queensland, Australia. Pooktre is a dream made into a reality through inspiration, love of nature, tree finesse (see the photos), persistence and understanding trees and how they grow.



Cryptozoology
Cryptozoology refers to the search for animals which are considered to be legendary or otherwise nonexistent by mainstream biology. This includes looking for living examples of animals which are extinct, such as dinosaurs; animals whose existence lacks physical support but which appear in myths, legends, or are reported, such as Bigfoot and el Chupacabra. According to Ben Roesch and John Percy Moore: "Cryptozoology ranges from pseudoscientific to useful and interesting, depending on how it is practiced." They further note that it is "not strictly a science", that "many scientists and skeptics classify cryptozoology as a pseudoscience" and that "papers on the topic are rarely published in scientific journals, no formal education on the subject is available, and no scientists are employed to study cryptozoology."

The Chupacabra

Noddling
For those of you not familiar, noodling is basically fishing with your hands. A noodler feels around the snake infested water with his hands and feet for a large hole. Then usually goes underwater to ram their fist down a catfish’s throat. The catfish (the largest of which can be 50-70 lbs.), will latch on to the fisherman’s hand, trying to protect it’s comfy home. The noodler then has the task of dragging their catch (still latched onto their arm) out of the water and either onto shore, or into a boat. On the plus side, if they manage do all of this before they run out of air, and then retrieve their arm from the grip of the catfish’s many teeth… well, they’ve got dinner for a week.

Ghost hunting
Ghost hunters are typical people with typical jobs hunting for ghosts in their spare time. Ghost hunting shows have become quite popular in the last few years and have brought this hobby to the publics attention the most recent being TAPS Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State. There are many types of hauntings that ghost hunters investigate. Hunting for ghosts is not that difficult. If your hunting real life ghosts many cities have groups of people who do just that and go out weekly or monthly with their tools and electronic gear to hunt or detect ghosts, orbs or paranormal activity. Equipment usually consists of EMF meters, film or digital cameras, cassette or digital voice recorders, video cameras and sometimes more exotic equipment such as a thermal imaging camera or Faraday box. Usually just doing a search for a local ghost hunting group for your area will bring one up. Ghosts are more likely found in older buildings and cemeteries but this is not always the case. The reason is that the older the location the more likely it is to have "history" a place where more people have passed through.




Carving Egg Shells
Egg art is one of the earliest forms of art. There is something fascinating about the shape of the egg, and the idea of making this into art. Many early civilizations regarded the egg as a fertility symbol and decorated it as part of their fertility rites. But modern man still values egg art, possibly because it has become ingrained in our nature, or because we are amazed that art can be made from something as fragile as an empty eggshell. Whatever the reason, there are many artists throughout the world that paint, decorate, and even carve shapes into eggshells.
Eating glass
"I used to work as a driver for a school. I've bitten and chewed on glass bottles for 15 years. I started doing this because it was interesting and now it's become a habit," says glass eater Kishan Das Suryavanshi. He wants to make a living out of his unusual diet. The resident of Chhatisgarh in central India crunches a glass bottle every alternate day. He has even tasted light bulbs and spectacles, and says he enjoys the awestruck audience that gathers to watch him. Suryavanshi is ambitious; he has set his sights on eating the windscreen of a supersonic aircraft. Unique, quirky or strange - for these Indians, the pursuit may not be practical but nothing will deter them from spending time, money and sweat on it.
Enyoy your meal!

45 comments:

  1. In my opinio the best unusuals hobbies is pooktre art. It is funny but another side sie good for healthy and for our mood. We can be on the free air and we have "connect" with nature. Wild word is pleasure for me. When we do strange form with tree we can relax and we can stimulate our imagination.

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  2. These egg shells are really works of art... They're beautiful and amazing... I'd like to be able to make such things ;)
    I think that all of these unusual hobbies are interesting and original... If someone enjoys them it's great. I'm not sure if eating glass is good for our health, I'd definitely not try doing it ;) I'm not crazy and brave enough ;)
    I think that I also have an unusual hobby - I love musical "The Phantom of the Opera" - I've seen it in the Roma Musical Theater about 20 times :D I know that it sounds really crazy but I love it and this is my original hobby ;)

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  3. All of this hobbies are very interesting and fascinating. It has to be very difficult to catch fish by hand... I've seen programme abut this at the Discovery channel. Young man try to catch catfish using his finger as a decoy. And he was success. I also enjoy Pooktre art. That what is so exciting in it is time which have to lapse. Creating figures using living tree demands lot of patience.

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  5. For me, Pooktre Art is the most interesting hobby from the list. It is a great idea to use trees to make art. Moreover, it is ecological and, in my opinion, quite difficult to make such forms from trees. However, very interesting and ingenious.
    Also Cryptozoology seems to be engaging. I have heard legends about Bigfoot and el Chupacabra and who knows if they are not existed?;]
    I find Taphophilia as quite strange. Maybe it is because I don't like cemeteries but I cannot imagine myself how people can be passioned in it.

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  6. Hello everybody,

    As my opinion is concerned, I think that Carving Egg Shells and Pooktre Art quite interesting. Its really beautiful what people can show through those items. Some of them are really for me very difficult to be done. So I really admire those hobby.

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  7. All of these hobbies are inspiring. I have never thought that most of them actually exist. If I had to choose the most interesting, I would decide on carving egg shells. It is fascinating, that from something such fragile we can make art. I would definitely like to try to do that someday, but I'm afraid I am not so talented..Taphophilia on the other hand, doesn't appeal to me. It's too scary for me to wander around the cemeteries, especially through the night.

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  8. Carving egg shells must be really interesting! I think that making them is difficult but the result is definitely worth this effort. I would like to have this piece of art!
    On the other hand ghost hunting would be more exciting than carving egg shells especially if you have this possibility to meet a ghost ;) I think that's in human nature to seek for paranormal activity and try to find out what exactly it is.
    I think noddling would be a great experience. Trying to cath a fish your own hands can be hard. You havet to be fast, have a good reflex and patient. I'm very impatient person so I probably wouldn't try it.

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  9. All of those hobbies are really interesting. I would want to create such beautiful eggs shells, or be such fit to catch a fish using only hands. Also cryptozoology might be interesting , and I wouldn't agree that it is pseudoscience. There are many spicies which were considered to be only the legend (eg. okapi), and probably next are still undiscovered. Besides those hobbies there are many other which are strange, for example I lastly heared about people who are taking proffesional, artistic photos of ruined houses or factories. Beyond satisfaction from good photos it is the way to keep fit for them, as they often escape from security of interesting them areas.

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  10. Yes, those hobbies are really extraordinary and interesting, especially - in my opinion - carving egg shells. It's fascinating for me, thet some people can do such precise things of such brittle mattery as shells of eggs. I look up that artists and find their works as little masterpieces.

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  11. When I read about taphophilia I immediately thought about all these old people who loves spending their free time at cemetery and comparing gravestones. But it's hobby as fascinating as another. Ofcourse there are more dwon-to-earth hobbies, but if you are intereste4d in sth it's good for you.

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  12. Wow, these hobbies are great :D Very interesting.
    Pooktre is something I would like to try if I had a place to plant a tree.
    Noddling seems also very interesting, it's like a sport, I have to try it :)
    I know one hobby that fits to this list - suspending. People pierce they body with a hooks, and suspend themselves on them.
    Have you ever heard of it?

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  13. For me pooktre is the most amazing hobby. I admire everyone who can do something like that.
    I really want to try it some day.:)

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  14. Taphophilia - sounds a bit strange, but I think it might be interesting, especially in the hot summer nights, when the Moon lights. Carving eggs is a beautiful hand-made art. Unfortunately, I have not got abilities do doing something like that - but it looks amazing! In my opinion, crytpozoology is quite interesting hobby - connected with this, we must learn and read a lot to do our job properly. The Chupacabra - very good movie - big plus for the author. I enjoy fishing but I have never heard that some group of people getting "fish such this in the photography" - but definately it's not a hobby for me :P Hunting ghost are rather stupid idea - every child know that ghost aren't exist.

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  15. For me really unusual hobbies is pooktre art, i didn't heard of it. I think that the most exciting must be cryptozoology and ghost hunting. Besides that i admire people who can do such amazing and incredible things with eggs. The Carving Egg Shells it's just cool:)

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  16. All of this hobbies are unusual and realy interesting, it is also extraordynary that some peoples have such a lot of persistance and pasion to do something like this, especialy Carving Egg Shells and Pooktre Art. I think that I haven't got so much patience to do something so beautyfull like this.

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  17. I like very much the idea of pooktre tree shaping. I've seen the other examples of this couple's works and they are really amazing. I'd love to have such art in my garden but unfortunately I don't have the garden in Warsaw.. I had an episode in my life when I was collecting the flints but it's not very unusual.

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  18. My favourite hobby from those presented is Pooktre Art. I admire the patience and imagination of such an artist and can somehow understand his passion as for some period of time I tried shaping a bonsai tree . Unfortunately, I don't have green fingers and little time to spare for attention to plants (my bonsai died).
    Those carved egg shells are also amazing. Think how much precision one needs to make such beautiful thing.

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  19. I think every hobby can be fascinating. For me the most interesting is here carving eggs shells. They are beautiful and amazing. Someone, who done it, must be very accurate and have fantastic ideas, to make this decorates.
    Some of this hobbies are a bit strange for me (eg. taphopilia), but I think, some of my hobbies can be for someone also stranege. It depends, what we like and what we are interested in.

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  20. I must say that carving eggs shells is vere impressive. Surely it requires a lot of patience and accuracy but seeing such things you can admire the beauty of humancraft. And pooktre tree shaping -that it is terrific. I would also like to have one of these in my garden if I had one. Still no matter how spookey those hobbys are, I find them interesting.

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  21. This examples of unusual hobbies are very interesting. I think that the strangest hobby you have the more valuable person you are. The strangest hobby I've ever heard is harvesting potatoes on the dawn of Decembers moon.

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  22. For me the most interesting was Pooktre Art and Carving Egg Shells. It very interesting what people can do when they have some free time. Unfortunately I don't have such as interesting hobby :-(

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  23. Taphophilia for me sound great, I very like a graveyards. The atmosphere there are always quite. In the old cemetery we may notice very interesing graves, monuments and statues. They all may have unusual shape or interesing design. Next time when you will be visting graveyard look around and try found something interesing I'm sure you find something.

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  24. For me very interesting is Carving Egg Shells. If you want do this, you must have precision in hands! But, unfortunately, I don't have... I will try this so, so much!

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  25. All of these hobbies are very interesting. However, the most interesting to me is Pooktre art-it's amazing what man can do. Carving Egg Shells and Noddling requires extraordinary precision and quiet - I admire those people

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  26. Pooktree art seems to be quite interesting for me. Sometimes walking in the forest we can find interesting forms of trees or bushes but the idea to grow trees and give them special, sometimes very useful shapes is worth popularity.If I had my own garden I would plant a tree in a shape of a horse.

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  27. the most interesting is Pooktre Art. You have to really like it, because you must wait a very long time to see your special tree, it's not enough go to the cementary and look at the tombs

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  28. I don't know before that people have such original hobbies.The best is carving eggs shells.There are the most beautifull eggs I've ever seen.

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  29. I must say that these hobbies are really amazing and extraordinary.That's really fascinating that people can do such strange things...

    For me,the most interesting hobbies here are:Carving Egg Shells and Pooktra Art.These hobbies are really great and in some way 'beautiful'

    But I don't understand Taphophilia and Ghost Hunting.That's too weird and crazy...

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  30. I also think that carving eggs shells and pooktra art are the most interesting hobbies, because this is very creative and beautiful.These eggs looks like laces. It's amazing.
    I don't see nothing strange in Ghost Hunting. A lot of people like horrors and other scary and paranormal things. Why can't they like hunting for ghosts.
    Eating glass... I don't understand why?

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  31. I agree, Pooktra is really cool. Although others hobbies from the post would be such a waste of time for me! Maybe because I don't really belive in ghots etc.
    But if it brings joy into someone's life then it's okay, I guess. That's what hobbies should be all about.

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  32. I like people who have their own hobby or way of spending time. They are unordianry creative and they own undependent way of thinking. I am over the moon when I meet such kind of people. They are under attack of my questions amolst all time of our meeting. Especially I am interested in cryptozoology. I find it funny when somebody proves that other (all-knowing) scienists were wrong :) Thanks to all this activities we can take distance ;)

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  33. I think it is really good when people have hobby,passion,something what they like to do,even if is unusual and,in some way,not useful in normal life...For me the most exciting and fantastic hobby it is ghost hunting I think it can be not only interesting but also scary a little,with shiver of emotion.This hobby can bring interesting adventures which we can remember on whole life and on senility tell grandsons :)

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  34. In my opinion the most interesting hobby is Pooktre Art and in addiction the most ecological:)
    But I like to Carving Egg Shells. Pooktre Art and Carving Egg Shells require a lot of the ability, precision, time and patience.

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  35. These people have a very original hobbies. I admire persons, who can find a bit free time and who can devote their interests. I like carving eggs shells, it's beautiful and people, who make it, are real artists. Pooktre Art is worth interesting for me, because I think we must respect nature and we should promote ecologgy.

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  36. All of these hobbies seem great but I like cryptozoology the most. You're looking for something new, something that no one realy discovered. And most people don't even belive these creatures exist. I hope some day I'll find el Chupacabra ;)

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  38. All of these hobbies seem great but I like cryptozoology the most. You're looking for something new, something that no one realy discovered. And most people don't even belive these creatures exist. I hope some day I'll find el Chupacabra ;)

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  39. Although I found this hobbies unusual, they aren't anything for me. I need something what would make me feel the increase of adrenalin. But I admire people who are interested in Taphophilia, Pooktre Art, Carving Egg Shells, etc. For doing this they have to found much spare time, what is impossible in our speeding life. Sometimes this hobbies may even become someones meaning of life. Do you understand what does mean? It means being patient whole live long.

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  40. Three best: Pooktre Art. I think that it is very much a difficult task, but when I imagine the entire garden decorated in this way, it is delightful. Chairs, the table and the bar from natural branches, and farther the swing and the merry-go-round. It was in order to beautiful.
    Noddling. Very difficult. It is necessary well to dive. And I apologise, what around so with wet fish which is moving in our hands? Probably, unforgettable emotion. Muck:)
    Carving Egg Shells. I used the ones method for building rose windows to instruments, working hours are giving wonderful effects. Three-dimensional, straight, laborious, pleasant. Biggest the fact that cutting out is teaching patiences is a virtue!

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  41. I suppose that taphophilia was quite popular in England in the mid-19th century. In "Three Man in a Boat" (probably one of the funniest novel ever) is a short story titled "The man who loves not graves and coffins and skulls". Narrator says in it:
    "I shock respectable sextons by the imperturbability I am able to assume before exciting inscriptions, and by my lack of enthusiasm for the local family history, while my ill-concealed anxiety to get outside wounds their feelings." Then he describes how difficult is it, for the locals, to understand that somebody isn't interested in cmentaries. I hardly recommend "Three Man in a Boat" and this short part (from "Harris wanted to get out at Hampton Church, to go and see Mrs. Thomas's tomb.").

    http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Three_Men_in_a_Boat/VII

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  42. Definietly the most interesting hobbies out in this presentation is Noodling. Never had a sezure so I did not hear, it must be amazing to catch fish with their hands. Need for this much patience and calm, reflexes and agility. A few times in my life I tried to catch fish with my bare hands but... I naver have a succeed ;p

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  43. For me carving egg shells is the most interesting...because I'm artistic soul :)It's amazing what can you do with egg... ;P
    This eggs looks beautiful...I'm impressed :)))

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  44. Yeah, I agree! And it's a part of our traditional culture-like painting eggs during Easter. I saw some yaes ago in Etnogrfaic Museum some eggs carved and decorated with hot wax. Impressive.

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  45. All of these hobbies are amazing and very unusual. The most surprising and even scary for me hooby taphophilia, ghost hunting and eating glass. For it is very nice hooby Carving Egg Shells. while I do not have, any unusual hooby.

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