My day job is code monkey, but my favorite hobbies are low-tech.
 
Postcards are my #1 hoard! Six-year-old me would be so. proud. of my collection. Sometimes when I need to feel quiet and calm I sort my postcards into different subcollections based on theme.
 
I crochet off and on and I've been at it again lately, working on a bunch of Star Wars amigurumi. I knit poorly but it's a good fidget while I watch TV or visit with family. My knitting is limited to simple 10x16 security blankets for the local cat rescue. Maybe someday I'll try knitting a hat (but probably not).
 
Art journaling is another minor hobby of mine. I'm not the most original (most of my ideas come from Pinterest and Youtube, and I still do the found poetry thing) but it feels nice to play with techniques. I try not to worry about whether my pages are too basic, dated, or derivative. For me, making mediocre art in private is a radical act. By the time I graduated college, my instructors had started preaching the importance of choosing only one hobby, excelling at it, monetizing it, and using social media for self-promotion. So accepting that I have too many interests, and simply enjoying the act of doing them, is a way of rejecting hustle culture.
 
I also enjoy penpalling, so feel free to drop me a message if I seem like your kind of people!

Lately I've been enjoying mysteries and Japanese novels, with an occasional Star Wars new canon novel mixed in here and there. A while back I read a listicle recommending several novels/authors from cultures other than my own, which got me back into the habit of reading. Now I read a bit every night as part of my bedtime routine. My Goodreads queue is intimidatingly long and keeps growing all the time.

Some books I've particularly enjoyed are Convenience Store Woman, Earthlings, The Midnight Library, There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job, the Aunty Lee mystery series, The Marrow Thieves, Jennifer Government, Real Food/Fake Food, The Dorito Effect, Civilized to Death

The Handmaid's Tale, Game of Thrones, The Blacklist, The Walking Dead, The X-Files, Firefly, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Into the Badlands.

I also like anime, although I don't watch as often as I'd like. My favorites are Aggretsuko, Africa Salaryman, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Uchuu Kyoudai, Panty & Stocking, Beastars.

• sticky notes
• washi tape samples
• cute notepaper
• postcards
• cartoony aliens/little green men
• yeastken, rilakkuma, tarepanda, pompompurin
• squirrels
• cats
• journaling cards
• notecards (handmade or purchased)
• galaxy/space themes
• lime green, silver
• metallic colors
• recipes that don't rely on "tingly" ingredients... I manage a health issue by abstaining from foods that tingle on the tongue (like pepper, ginger, clove, nutmeg, mustard, etc)
     

• scents
• tea
• candy/food
• religious items
• ribbon
• friendship books
• kids' stickers
• glitter
   

Favorite Themes

• art
• weird
• funny
• inappropriate
• cats
• squirrels
• raccoons
• feminism
• US state maps
   

Prefer to avoid:

• ad/free
• handmade, unless that's what the swap is
• real photos of sea creatures (illustrations like Dory and Nemo are OK!)