Minecraft, I play it in a completely different way then when I was a kid but it’s still just as fun.

Video games for sure. Only difference is I play by myself instead of with friends nowadays.

Reading. I used to love reading, and could read a book in a day. Almost never read now.

• trail biking

• hanging out with good friends

• swimming at the pool on a hot day

• learning a new programming language

• cooking with my wife

• exploring mysterious alleys, sidestreets, and buildings and finding cool public art

• social dances

• summer picnics

• building snowforts with my kids

• thrifting a new outfit

I’ve played music for fun pretty much from my childhood and while now the nature of the fun is different, it is still fun and about as much fun as it used to be. (The secret in my case is to pick up new musical instruments along the way and rediscover the fun in new ways.)

Yes programming and dig elecrtonics. I made things in the Forrest and barn, attic and basement as a child, just dumb things which would break in an instant. Now I’m trying those things to stick and work for at least a couple of months.

For better or worse, most of my major hobbies are still similar. Reading, gaming, taking walks in nature. That said, I find that some key aspects to getting the kind of carefree fun I had as a kid are three things: going in “blind”, intentionally setting aside time for fun/hobbies, and leaving room for spontaneity during that time.

• Going in “blind”: Nowadays with how widespread the internet is, and the general attitude of over-analysis and data mining everything, it makes it very very easy to know damn near everything about something before you ever experience it for yourself. I find that when I cut off my exposure to details about a game (for example) once I hit the point that I know I’ll enjoy it, I can leave room for surprise and the unexpected. As a kid, I’d choose movies or games off maybe 30 seconds of an ad, the box, and on rare occasions a one page review from a magazine. Things could still have the magic of the unexpected, and I find it immensely rewarding intentionally making room for that again.

• Intentionally setting aside time: It can be hard to find chunks of time that aren’t “stealing” from other things you should be doing, like sleeping. But by making a point to set aside some, I can do a better job at getting my brain to shut up about all the responsible adult things I should/could be doing (but probably wouldn’t have used the time to do anyway). Kids don’t have nearly the same drains on their time, or responsibilities, as adults do. A big part of the “childlike fun” or things people tend to be nostalgic about, is the lack of responsibilities. There’s no big blanket of background stress from everything else you have to take care of looming about. So I try to set aside time where I can intentionally go “stop, all that stuff can wait until later.” Definitely easier said than done though.

• Spontaneity: Kid’s don’t go “oh no, I can’t play at the playground even though I want to.” For the most part, during play time they play how they want. So if I’m not having fun, I don’t try to force myself. I just move onto something else. Sometimes that means pre-planning. Getting a yearly membership to the arborateum or museum instead of just a day pass, so when I’m done I can just go and not worry about “getting my money’s worth”, and if the mood takes me I can go out there without having to plan a day around it.

Now before people start picking apart the generalizations I’ve made, I have first hand experience that many kids don’t get to be spontaneous, can’t do what they want, and can also often have blanket stress over things they “should be” doing. I’ve lived all that as a kid, and as an adult.

But my best memories growing up, as a kid, as a teen, as a young adult… they all have these elements in common of surprise/joy of discovery, not being weighed down by other responsibilities (or at least not feeling the weight), and having the freedom to do as I wanted.

I still absolutely love playing guitar. I’m not great, but if the younger me from back when I started could see how good I am now he’d be over the moon. Every so often I wind up listening to one of the songs that I really wanted to be able to play back when I started, and now it feels brilliant that I can actually just sit down and do that now

I also became keen on modding games (strategy games in particular, starting with Rome: Total War) quite early. I never learned enough programming to be really good at it, but I still do it pretty regularly just to make things for me and my friends. I take great joy in leaving easter eggs in there and waiting for them to find them

I’m fairly certain I would still get the same thrill from mountain biking as I used to, but I can’t really find out. My only bike now has road tyres and I am too out of practice and unfit to fly and up and down a hillside, and I also don’t have anyone to go with (important in case of injuries). However every time I have a downhill section of road on my bike or I see some mountain bikers out while I’m walking hills I get that deep urge to barrel along a trail as fast as my bravery will permit

• Reading.
• Sketching.
• Scale models, but I had to quit for health reasons.

Legos

Inline skating 👌

Sadly, no.

Nerf guns

Video games. Specifically I’ve started playing very retro games and emulating games from my childhood.

Beer brewing is kinda of doing this for me right now.

I’m getting excited each time I see the colour when I bottle it and then after a couple of weeks when it’s drinking time I’m like a kid of Christmas day to see how it tastes.

From a grown up perspective there’s legs to this as well. I can start off cheap, see how to improve, and slowly gather more equipment to do it better and better.

Butt play