Top Stories

People Share The Telltale Signs That Someone Is New To Their Hobby

It's always best to keep trying new things, or so I'm told. Knowledge is power and we're here to constantly be learning. We're all students of the universe and every second is a new class and blah blah blah.

Ok, yes there is truth a lot of truth there. And I do like to learn new things, but it can become overwhelming. I hate starting something new because I loathe beginning stages. I always want to be great from the start. Some people are geniuses that way, alas, I, am not.

I feel you can always tell when someone is starting something new. And thanks to what we're about to read, I'm right. Everybody is always watching.

Learning requires a lot of patience from several parties. So let's begin...

Redditoru/danielstoverwanted to discuss all the ways one often screams "newbie" to everyone, by asking:

What is a sure sign that someone is new to your hobby?

Fumbling is inevitable. And sometimes it never goes away. I swear one day I'll play the guitar. It's only taken five years to get one song, but its a song.

Be Quiet...

is this thing on mic drop GIF by Mr. ParadiseGiphy

"Them: I got a mic. I'm just going to do it on the side. Make some extra money."

"Me: Okay, do you want to do ads or something?"

"Them: No, I want to voice anime and cartoons."

"PSA: Want to make money at voice-over? Do ads. Want to voice animation? Get an agent and good luck."

- WitchoftheWilde

I have a fish!

"People buy fish the same day they buy their tank. Unfortunately, to start a fish aquarium, you need to cycle your tank (grow bacteria that will eat the poison ammonia that fish poop causes and turn it into nitrate). This is best done without fish and can take a few weeks to a month or more. However, most people come into the hobby saying "I have a fish! Now what?" You learn that fish keeping is more about maintaining water that fish just happen to live in. It's a lot like learning chemistry more than just feeding fish."

- AGrainOfSalt435

Research First...

"I have a hobby goat farm. I say hobby because I got them all as babies, so they're just money pits at the moment (all about 8 months old right now). In the meantime, I've damn near made a career out of clipping hooves for other people who got a ton of goats and didn't know that they required hoof maintenance. The poor things are usually in a lot of pain by the time I get to them. Research your animals, people."

- CautiousShower

Swords Away

"Blacksmithing: "I've never forged anything, but I found some great spring steel so I'm going to make a sword. What else do I need?" Ummmm… First you need to forge 200 nails so you can learn proper hammer swings. After that you're ready to make a bottle opener."

- Crux1836

"I've scrolled so far for blacksmithing. I'm new, just took a class and built my own brake drum forge with a rail anvil. The first thing I'm planning to try to make with the forge is some for tongs out of mild steel bar stock, then it's tons of hooks and nails (which I've made already) before I get close to anything else. I'm thinking skewers for something to up the skill."

- beoheed

Less is More

Angry Mess GIF by The Drew Barrymore ShowGiphy

"They want to make incredibly overly complicated recipes, OR they want to 100% exactly replicate one of the best beers in the world. They're almost paralyzed by fear of infection/contamination."

- Thirty_Helens_Agree

Lesson one... never lead with attitude. Unnecessary attitude is always a dead give away. And then people will be adverse to empathy and assistance. Smile and keep it simple.

Never "Ass"ume!

GIF by VH1Giphy

"They ask one of the 10 or so questions that get posted almost daily to r/writing, or they just assume they know everything already and their first draft is brilliant and won't hear anything to the contrary."

- SpookyGeek

CAUGHT ON FIRE

"First project! I'm making a baby blanket!" Crochet. And I can say this because I did this as well. It takes much longer than it seems like it should to make a blanket."

- angelerulastiel

"The first project I ever attempted was a blanket. Not a baby blanket. A full freaking blanket. I probably would have successfully finished a baby blanket, but my full blanket literally CAUGHT ON FIRE (unrelated to the crocheting process) 3/4 of the way through, and I've never attempted a blanket again lol."

- przybylowicz

People Explain Which Expensive Purchases Paid For Itself In The Long Run | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

While we all love a good deal, sometimes you need to spend a little extra to get your money's worth. The people of Reddit amassed to answer the question: "Wh...

Art Games

"I have a great idea for a new board game. I have never made a board game before. It's like a combination of Monopoly and Risk but I don't want to give more details because I don't want someone to steal my idea. Can anyone make art for my Kickstarter? I'll give you credit!"

- Drab_Emordnilap

How do you create this scene?

"Tales from r/blender... I'm still quite a beginner myself but some will just go: "How do you create this scene?" and show really complicated compositions with countless models and complicated materials that an artist must have spent weeks on. Some of them feel like downloading the software is already most of the work done. But this probably goes for most digital art forms."

- TINY-jstr

Black Thumb

My Pretty Animation GIF by Jason ClarkeGiphy

"Why do my plants always die in a few weeks? I water them every day!!"

- floralinsight

Do Something...

"They talk about turning the hobby into a business."

- electrosonic37

"I'm a woodworker that's right there with you. I started selling stuff because I had to in order to make another thing, and now I'm looking to upgrade and reconfigure my entire shop so I can be more efficient, take on more work, and see if I can't take this thing full time. That's a scary jump, though."

- mypostingname13

Just leave it in the oven!

"Underbaking bread because they're afraid to burn it. It won't burn that fast! Just leave it in the oven!"

"ETA: I just want to say, for all the droves of people saying "undercooked is better than burnt" : the window between undercooked and burnt, with bread, is vast. If you like raw dough, sure, good on you, but bread doesn't go from undercooked to burnt in a split second the way other things do. If your bread is still pale on the outside, you can leave it in for at least another 10-15 minutes without it being "burnt" and that's being really conservative with my timings."'

- collinsvillain

"earned"

"Was never one to buy the whole get up before I felt I "earned" to look the part. I do Brazilian jiu jitsu, when it's time to spar I'll see someone dressed head to toe like a pro jiu jitsu grappler and I'll be intimidated… then we start going and I realize oh… this is their first day."

- checkyblecky

Material Items

Cat GIF by happydogGiphy

"Bulk acrylic yarn. It's cheap and great for practice, but you quickly learn that it's not particularly comfortable."

- snarkybat

"sell it and buy the V8"

"If they ask how to swap an engine into their car or how to turbo their car, it's a sure sign that they're new to working on cars. The questions aren't necessarily bad, but there's so much work involved in the answer that those questions are way too vague. They're trying to get in way over their head if they don't have the basics figured out before hand. Ditto on people asking how they can add a lot of power to a base model Mustang or Camaro."

"There's nothing wrong with the base model, but there's a good reason that the answer is usually "sell it and buy the V8." You'd spend just as much money modding the V6 or turbo 4, and wind up with a vehicle that has maybe the same power output as the V8 at best, but significantly worse reliability. If you're trying to make power, your money very often is best spent starting off with the model that has the better engine."

- TheBertinator3000

Walmart Wilderness

"Hiking. New hikers do one of two things. They either load themselves down with 100 pounds of gear they will never use or they think they can survive a week long hike with nothing but a granola bar and a Walmart pocket knife."

- Frosty_Fox_5552

"Hikers in Arizona, "we're just going for a quick hike, this water bottle will be fine" *freaking dies because it's 118°f and they didn't bring enough water. Also hikers in Arizona, "it's hot... i'm gonna bring 3 gallons of water" 10 minutes into hike "forget I'm so tired, this crap weighs a ton."

- seuche23

100 Proof

"Talking too much to prove what they know. I have been very guilty of this. someone who is experienced and skilled at a given activity will tend to just shut up and do it, whatever the activity may be."

- smegmaroni

"I've noticed I do this in a relatively new career with a different company. I know I don't know a fraction of what I eventually will but damn if I don't talk like I do. Knowing your flaws is the first step to overcoming them."

- llcolinj

Drow Rogue

"My character is a drow rogue. They are chaotic neutral and stick to the shadows."

- metalmuzic

"Remember running my first ever campaign with my friends (also their first time playing DnD) and they all told me their alignment was somewhere on the good scale (mix of neutral and chaotic), only for them to bully every shopkeeper, guard and child they came across."

- Just_Here_For_A_Wank

be best

schitts creek dance GIF by CBCGiphy

"They google "the best..." and then they try to explain to you why that manufactured product listed in half of the links from the first google search results page is "the best."

- BusyPooping

Music Theory

"Frequent post on r/musicproduction:"

"Hi everyone! I'm new to all this and I have zero experience making music. Never had any kind of lessons and I've never touched a keyboard and really all I've ever done with music is bob my head along with it in my car. I've never heard of music theory and I'm not really interested in it. So I bought a MacBook Pro and Ableton 11 and the best interfaces and microphones and midi keyboards I could afford. I'm going to make sick beats and change the music industry. How do I get started?"

- X_PRSN

What have we learned?

Learn. Research. Know why you're doing it. Be prepared to fail. Good luck.

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

People Who Actually Died And Were Revived Share Their Experiences

"Reddit user AlaskaStiletto asked: 'Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?'"

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.

In 2017, I returned to my office after my lunch break to hear my supervisors discussing Tom Petty. This seemed like a random topic to me until one of my supervisors told me Tom Petty had passed away. He was a huge fan of Petty and spent the next hour or so combing through the internet to get more information.

He came back into the room my other supervisor and I were working in and announced that Tom Petty wasn't dead after all. News outlets had jumped the gun to announce his death, but he was actually still alive.

The next day, I came in to find out that Tom Petty was dead; the news may have been premature, but true.

This is a classic example of the rumor being started on the internet. Sometimes, like with the news of Tom Petty's death, the rumor can run wild and appear everywhere. Other times, the rumor can be seen by just a few people and dismissed. However, a lot of times, these rumors turn out to be true.

Redditors know a lot of internet rumors that turned out to be true, and are eager to share.

It all started when Redditor strakerak asked:

"What started out as an internet rumor that ended up being infamously true?"

The King Of Pop

"Michael Jackson writing the music for Sonic 3."

"He actually did, but was never credited on the game because it would breach his contract with his record label."

– -WigglyLine-

"He did the same when he appeared on The Simpsons. He appeared under a pseudonym, and the Producers said it was an impersonator."

"Only years later they confirmed it really was Michael."

"His singing voice was actually done by an impersonator, though."

– given2fly_

The Truth Comes Out

"In 1998, US Men’s National Team captain John Harkes was shockingly cut from the team right before the World Cup. The coach claimed it was because Harkes wouldn’t fit into his new preferred formation, but rumors flew on the early internet that it was actually because he had slept with his teammate Eric Wynalda’s wife. The rumor was so well-known in soccer circles that Harkes expressly denied it in his autobiography the next year."

"Fast forward 12 years to 2010 and Wynalda admits it’s true. The coach then came out and admitted it was why he dropped Harkes, but that he’d planned to keep the secret as long as Wynalda did."

– guyfromsoccer

Video Evidence

"The Tim Burton Hansel and Gretel that aired once on halloween in the 80's."

"I heard for years that it was fake but I knew it was real because my dad recorded everything in the 80s and he recorded that. We let a good friend of ours borrow it and switch it over from VHS to DVD and soon after that it made its way on to the internet , and there it is now. I know it's our copy because the tracking in the beginning is screwed up. Still have the VHS."

– Frozenthickness

"There was a similar story with a Nickelodeon movie called Cry Baby Lane. It was supposed to be so scary that Nickelodeon got complaints and denied its existence for years. Someone uploaded a taped copy to youtube about a decade ago."

– PattiAllen

The Movie Business

"That North Korea hacked Sony Pictures because of The Interview movie."

"I worked in the movie business at the time and the account managers at Sony all basically needed to get new identities as all of their personal information got leaked online."

OldMastodon5363

"My partner worked on that movie and the production bought all the crew 1 year of an identity theft tracking service."

CMV_Viremia

Keep Away From The Ears Of Kids

"Some banned episodes or scenes of cartoons."

"For example, I remember there was a Dexter’s Lab cartoon where he clones evil versions of DeDe and himself and they swear like every other word (censored of course), and people debated whether it even existed cause they only aired it like once. Now it’s pretty accessible online."

– Spledidlife

Yes, It's True

"Echelon, a massive electronic espionage system by the US and allies to intercept all electronic messages, especially emails."

"In the mid-nineties it was a topic on conspiracy BBS boards. A lot of people in my bubble at the time (mainly uni students in Europe) were including fake threats to the US in the their email signatures as a way to "protest" and "fill the system with false alarms" (obviously useless)."

"Then, in 1999-2000 came out to be true and a lot of security service agencies from UK and other US allies started to admit they were part of the espionage network."

– latflickr

How The Mighty Fell

"John Edward’s love child."

– ACam574

"A reminder that he was cheating on his wife while she was hospitalized for cancer treatment."

– Fanclock314

Ugh...

"Carrie Fisher's heart attack. Some a**hole who was on the same flight was livetweeting the whole medical emergency and justified it by insisting she was just making sure the family was informed."

– everylastlight

It Actually Happened

"Every year around her birthday there was a rumor that Betty White died. When I heard she died, I scoffed, saying that dumb rumor is back.... then saw it on the news. I was in shock."

– Known-Committee8679

"The fact that Betty died literally right before she turned 100 is such a Betty White way to go out."

– Paganigsegg

Big Actor, Small Roles

"I distinctly remember some rumors about the reason why Bruce Willis was taking so many roles in sh*tty movies before it was announced he has dementia."

– KampferMann

"RedLetterMedia did a deep dive on his recent movie activity to try and work out why exactly he was taking part in basically scam-movies. They noticed he had an earpiece in one of the scenes and joked that the director was feeding him lines. I remember they even disclaimed over the rumours at the time, and possible made a follow-up vid when it was revealed to the public."

– CardinalCreepia

What To Do Next?

"That the writer of LOST were making it up as they went."

"Turned out to be absolutely true."

– homarjr

That last one was kind of obvious!

Do you have any to add? Let us know in the comment below.