I had a friend (still have the friend, though we don’t have regular access to each other anymore) who liked to “show off” how obscure some of his possessions were, possibly to achieve the “wanderlust effect” (i.e. the reaction of “how did you get these here”). Something about the anticipation that his inventory was alien to whoever he showed.

One day, he was asked to bring games and a console and he brought one of those extremely rare knock-off bootleg gaming consoles they sell in Asia, which we’re not even remotely near.

“What the heck is that” asked my other best friend?

“It’s the Mega Duck. I brought CFGP with me too.”

“Why can’t you be a normal Upstate New Yorker? We literally got Playstation.”

“What fun is that?”

It wasn’t some small quirk either. One day he took a long walk and came across a part of the area nobody had been to in decades and took pictures with my camera which he happened to have. Also having hyperthymesia, he came back and was all like “I took these photos of a place that seems like it was out of a fantasy painting and also recognized someone there who was on the missing persons list when I came back”. Like a boss.

In contrast, alas, ever since moving, my possessions have become overwhelmingly mundane enough you’d expect most of it to be in an 18th century post-colonial American home, the exception (if you could call her that), ironically, being my dog who is of a rare breed.

What’s the most wanderlusty thing you own, something that would be the absolute opposite of mundane if in your possession?

  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    16 days ago

    A pre-prohibition bottle of creme de menthe shaped like a giraffe.

    It’s a bit higher proof than creme de menthe typically made today, not that you should drink it because it probably has dangerous chemicals coloring it green.

  • Wugmeister@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    I hoard weird dice. I’ve got crystal-shaped dice that roll like pins, dodecahedral d4s, dice with Roman numerals, two d30s, two d60s, a glow-in-the-dark d100 slightly larger than a golf ball, and I have spherical dice that I pull out when i want to give somebody an aneurysm. The only ones I regularly use is my glow-in-the dark sets and my liquid core sets with a floating eyeball inside them.

    Next up is metal spinner dice and roulette wheel dice, since regular metal dice are kinda loud when you chew on fidget with them

    Most relevant to your post is that i have dozens upon dozens of d10s. I have more d10s than d6s (and I used to play 40k as Orks so that says a lot). This sometimes gets reactions out of people when they see my dice box. I wish there was a cool reason, but the reason for it is that I ran a short campaign in Engine Heart as a high schooler and got a little too excited about its dice pool system.

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
      0·
      16 days ago

      Nice.

      I just bought a set of weird dice, and they’re a bit of a disappointment. Someone made them by carving the right number of facets off a sphere at random and numbering them. They couldn’t possibly roll fairly. Not what I expected from the photos.

  • blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk
    0·
    15 days ago

    Can’t think of anything too outrageous. I have a 24U server rack in my garage which fits with mm perfection under the stairs.

  • batmaniam@lemmy.world
    0·
    15 days ago

    I have some computer memory I’m still learning the the right terms to describe. It’s a criss-cross of wires with spinning ferro magnetic beads. I also know it’s not only volatile (the information gone on power down) but destructive (information gone on read). It’s about the foot print of an index card, with a ton of connections on every side, maybe 1.5-2cm thick.

    Neat little bit of how it used to be.

  • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    Some of my favorites are sailmaking tools, like the lignum vitae seam rubber, or the ebony fid. Even the rest of the ditty bag is fun—the sailor’s palm, the tarred marline, the triangular-shank hand needles, et cetera.

  • Aggravationstation@feddit.uk
    0·
    15 days ago

    A round wall plaque of Mao Zedong. My Dad found it buried in a garden he was working on here in the UK. It was in great shape. No idea if it’s Chinese or a copy.

  • owenfromcanada@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    15 days ago

    I’ve got a small volcanic rock from Mt Vesuvius, a Polaroid Land camera 95A from the late 40s or 50s, and I built a magic mirror (which isn’t that obscure, but lots of people find it fascinating).

  • lime!@feddit.nuEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    i have a replica PDP-11 that i built from a kit. i think it’s very cool looking.

    i also have the first version of the espruino. it’s a tiny microcontroller (a computer on a chip) that can only run javascript (the thing you build websites with). and not modern javascript either, the wonky 2010 kind. it’s completely useless.

  • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
    0·
    16 days ago

    I’m currently building a Guzheng out of wood from the cherry tree I used to hang out in as a kid that got destroyed in a fire with only part of the trunk remaining. Maybe only 4/10 interesting but if this were a fantasy setting that’s at least a +2 magic instrument right there for the backstory its got.

  • 2ugly2live@lemmy.world
    0·
    16 days ago

    I went to the Ghibli museum and watched a short while I was there. The ticket to the short was a from strip from one of the movies. I have it framed.

    • Uranium 🟩@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      17 days ago

      Huh, I’ve got a collection of not necessarily dangerous, but hard to find chemicals. DCM (methylene chloride) is still something I’ve been unable to find. It’s an incredibly useful solvent especially for adhering bitumen felt to itself.

      • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        It’s not an element. It’s a chemical that was used for stripping paint, but the government banned selling it to the public as a paint stripper just because people kept dying.

        I’m a spiteful libertarian so I bought a gallon of it from a chemical supply company. (Why did I think I would need a gallon?) I tried to make my own paint stripper from it but I couldn’t get it to form a gel. (How could I have known that randos on the internet could provide wrong directions?)

        I haven’t gotten rid of it because it was expensive so now it just sits in my freezer.

        • BreadOven@lemmy.world
          0·
          17 days ago

          I don’t know if it still is, but it was a suspected carcinogen at some point. It also isn’t great. For the ozone layer (but better than CHCl3 or CCl4). I think that’s the main reasons it isn’t widely available for the public now.

          It also easily permeates nitrile gloves. Can’t remember if it’s the same for latex.

  • 0x30507DE@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    2.5 MEGA65s (R3A, R5 and R6), several vacuum tube oscilloscopes (including a 535A I restored), and a Vectrex.

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
    0·
    13 days ago

    Hmm. I have an original copy of the Space Child’s Mother Goose, and a gun cabinet my dad turned into a shelf cabinet, and a collar necklace from the 1940s from Tunisia. I think that’s about it. Unfortunately tossed the shirt I bought from Kurt Cobain when Nirvana came down here in I think 1990? 1989? From their little white van. I had no idea they would get famous!

    • Professorozone@lemmy.world
      0·
      17 days ago

      I MADE a clock with nixie tubes. I gave it a friend who is notoriously difficult to buy for. It was the only thing I’d ever heard him express an interest in that I knew he wouldn’t buy for himself. We both talked about how cool it was.

      Now it sits on his entertainment center and every time I visit, I’m envious that I don’t have one. How stupid is that? I have to get around to building one for myself.

        • Professorozone@lemmy.world
          0·
          15 days ago

          You can watch some videos on it but generally it’s not too hard. You buy the circuit board and solder all the parts on according to the instructions. The nixie tubes must be bought separately. They were only ever made in the USSR so most come from Russia. Buy extras because they are so old some fail. Then just power that sucker up. The tubes are quite fiddly and there are different types and sizes so you have to buy the board for the type you are building. The real fun is building the case of your choice.