A long while ago, a wise old woman told me to always keep a collection of something I find valuable. Hubski, what collections do you have?
Maps. From SEPTA transit, to topographical Australia and New Mexico, to LotR and Redwall. All over my walls, lots of fun to look at and study.
Great question. PLEASE, PLEASE listen to the following podcast. I recorded it FOREVER ago and it features cliffelam, mk, cW, caio and bgood79 among some non-hubskiers. Because it was maybe my first or second podcast ever, I don't think it was ever listened to much. The pacing is so much slower and the sound/music mixing is so much worse, but still it's fun to hear now. I wanted to have the music be a part of the podcast and I way over-did it which made for some awkward pauses. I love mk's bit about the satin bowerbird -My description in the podcast is ridiculously slow... pains me to listen to. What do I collect? I guess I collect records and musical instruments. I can't go to a thrift/pawn store without buying a guitar pedal or something...
Theater ticket stubs. Been doing that for 5 years now. All pinned on my wall. Oh! Used to collect pokemon cards. Got some pristine, in plastic japanese shit from the 90s. Might sell that off. Sold my in plastic holographic charizard for like $200, it was awesome.
Watches. I really like watches. I recently picked up a Longines Legend Diver for example, and can't get enough of it. Hasn't left my wrist in at least a month now. I have other watches of varying quality. Everything from a Casio G-shock for yard work, to Omegas... Nothing too pricey yet though, I'm married and have a baby... Most people don't "get" my hobby. They just see the pricetags and think it's shallow, but it's not. Fine automatic watches are some of the most complicated non-electrical feats of human engineering. Their movements are beautiful, and there's a refinement to a good watch. Plus, it's a callback to a long gone era before people just used their fucking cellphones to check the time.
I like to collect fairy tales! (And some mythology, which feels contextually similar to me.) For a long time I would actively buy any decent collection of fairy tales I could find. Eventually I realized that such anthologies are pretty limitless, as everyone can tell a fairy tale a dozen times, (the anthologies are limitless but quickly repetitive) so I guess I am more interested in collecting fairy tales from different cultures now. It has been a while since I have added to my collection. One day I would like to own all the Andrew Lang colored fairy books. I grew up reading them. Right now I have two, pink and red I think. I could just hop on Amazon and buy them all but there is something much more satisfying to the organic collection via "chance sightings in used bookstores" than "Imma just order all this shit and then have it!"
Abacuses (or abaci, both are acceptable plurals). I've got them in wood, brass, jade, ivory, one over a meter long, a usable one that's 5 cm, silver cufflinks that are just 2 cm (and not usuable, except with a toothpick perhaps). I've got some very old ones and very modern ones. I've got 5-2s, 5-1s and 4-1s (number of beads on each rod), a few big russian ones with 10 on each rod. My favorite is one used by the blind, with felt backing so that the beads stay put so you can feel the position without disturbing where they are. I was really into the about 20 years ago. I don't play with them much anymore, but they are great decor and will soon be decorating my math park (former viking camp).
Two best ones: The one on the left is Misty, the second of the NRO's two stealth satellites. More here. Its mission has probably been superseded by the X-37 The one on the right was the patch Ted Molczan used to predict the orbit of NROL-11. I recognize how deep of a dork this makes me. I've already copped to the weather station.
I can't really collect it, but I seek out novelty. There is no doubt in my mind that laughter and the subsequent dopamine and endorphin releases are the brain's way of reinforcing behavior that is conducive to novelty. Oh, how I enjoy laughing. You don't necessarily need to present me with novel information in a "funny" way for me to recognize that I'm learning, and gain my appreciations. Conversely, if you just repeat Anchorman quotes for months, we're not going to get along. I certainly hold the Hubski community's originality in high regard.
I've been collecting keychains since I was a little kid. I have a whole drawer filled with them now. Though I've been considering getting rid of them as I adopt minimalism. I don't really do anything with them, and there's no much point to having them (I really only need one :P). But they kind of serve as mementos for places I've been and things I've done. So it's pretty cool to look back and see all those points in history all in one drawer.
I'm collecting (more or less) mechanical keyboards! Gotta catch 'em all, so to speak :D Not really collecting, but you kind of want one for all switches.. and there are so many! And then you need one in a smaller format.. maybe one without a numpad.. but a seperate numpad might be handy... and so it continues. I wouldn't call it collecting (like for example stamps or anything) but I think currently I own about 6 keyboards, and I already know which one I want next (haven't tried Topre yet, so obviously I have to!)
mk have you found pennies for all 100 years, starting in 1900 and ending in 2000?