Adorable things (kittens, puppies, bunnies, cubs, stuffed animals.)
Video Games
Animations of any kind (2D, 3D, Claymation, Stopmotion)
Comic books/manga
Drawing
Reading
Singing to music
Dancing to music
Helping out people every once in a while
Giving someone a smile
Eating
EDM
Video Game Soundtracks
NEOGAF
Movie trailer music. Listen to it a lot while I work. If it's a song I like, sometimes I'll have it set to repeat and let it drone in the background while I work.
About 10 years ago I was in a curiosity shop and encountered a liquid-filled vial kaleidoscope and was blown away. The owner told me of a store up north that had thousands of scopes better than that one. Prior to this I only knew of the child toys in grocery stores and toy stores that had dry solid color items and cheap misaligned mirrors or taleidoscopes (a telescope with a prism or prismatic orb at the opposite end of the viewing end). Today, I own almost 10 scopes, 3 I've made from scratch from annual workshops and I'm periodically buying scopes that speak to my soul.
Mineral oil filled cells create slowly drifting objects that make scopes feel sentient. Different mirror systems create mandalas of varying fractions and dimensions. Ocular techniques allow for magnified or warped perspectives of items, giving a sense of microcosms and macrocosms. My first "splurge" scope was a 40$ oil-filled with near perfect mirrors. The next year I signed up for a 200$ workshop and made my own scope. I own a couple 100$ scopes and a few ~60$ scopes.
I plan on having one of every type of scope eventually. They are meditative experiences, especially oil filled ones. If there's any takeaway it is to at least experience the slow moving mandala of a well aligned oil scope.
- Reading Bagels threads.
- Cooking. I don't really like to bake (I have IBS with Gluten Sensitivity, so baking is just torture at this point), but just about everything else in the kitchen I am game to try making at least once. I really enjoy perfecting even the most simple things, like hard boiling eggs. Maybe that's strange, but eh.
- Finding the perfect gadgets for cooking. There's nothing like the beauty of a well loved and seasoned cast iron skillet, or that box grater that makes you happy every time you use it. I'm not big on "UniTaskers", but sometimes one of them is so magnificent that I just can't stop myself from buying two or three.
- Drinking tea, always want to try new varieties and brands. Unfortunately, I now drink a lot less than I used to (caffeine is bad for IBS and anxiety), but if I'm having a good day, I'm going to be drinking some. Usually iced with just enough sweet to balance it out without being overwhelmingly cloying. I grew up in Sweet Tea country, and I live in Arizona, so hot tea doesn't happen too often. I like to drink that without any additives when it does.
- Reading. Unfortunately I'm mostly into SciFi/Fantasy, so it isn't really bettering myself in any way by reading them, but I love my books nonetheless.
- Gaming. I was more passionate about it in the past, but if I find a game I love, that's all you're going to hear about from me for a week or more, guaranteed. (This one's probably a given.)
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Making the Mental Health OT2. I kid, I kid.
Unicorn, that's super-awesome. Your kaleidoscope instagram is crazy good.
Thanks man. I need to get better at updating with more images.
I also scour thrift stores for old projector slides. Sometimes they are commercial ones of common points of interests in cities around the world, or personal images. They are neat because they are about the size of postage stamps but seems so vibrant when held to the light. The hunt is most of the fun though as they are pretty rare to find these days.
