What strange and unusual obsessions do/did you have?

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The following is an article about an obsession with appliances:

Kristyn Miller’s son Jaxon was turning 2, and instead of a more traditional treat, like perhaps a zoo animal or car-themed birthday cake, she decided to get something that really spoke to her son’s unique interests: an Instant Pot.

“Over time, Jaxon started mimicking the sound of the pressure release and it got to the point where he would patiently wait for the recipe to cook and throw a tantrum if I removed him from the kitchen while we waited,” she told the Kitchn.

In a Facebook post, Miller, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, shared a picture of the flawless cake and noted that her son is “obsessed” with the kitchen gadget. She actually said he's been enthralled with the family's Instant Pot for a while, which prompted the idea for the unusual cake.

“He has been OBSESSED with the instant pot for many many months. In fact, he used the box to learn to walk,” Miller wrote on an Instant Pot Community Facebook group page.

“He makes a brilliant pressure release sound that he loves, as well as all the beeping and counting down,” she added

Source with a photo of the Jaxon's birthday cake: Mom orders Instant Pot-themed birthday cake for 2-year-old 'obsessed' with the appliance

What strange or unusual obsessions do you have?

Shower heads. I don't know for sure why I came to choose shower heads, and it was nothing to do with having water spraying out of them. I think they were one of the first "grown up" things around the house that I worked out how to take apart and put back together again, and maybe also that the bathroom was the only lockable room, so I wouldn't be caught. I'd sometimes pretend I was going for a dump just so that I could strip and reassemble it a dozen or more times in a row. AFAIK, you are now the only people in the world who know this - I never did get caught out.

From there I progressed to retractable ballpoint pens, and I still can't resist those. Never lend one to me - I will ping the spring across the room and lose it eventually; though I'm not sure whether how many strip/reassemble cycles I get through first is a useful performance measure for anything!

I'm so boring. I can't think of any. I get preoccupied with this and that at times, but never quite becomes an obsession and nothing strange or unusual. Although I really should ask someone else who knows me. They might have a different opinion.

I love watching a washing machine work.

I guess it would be possums. I would love to rehab them. I've rehabbed squirrels, bats, baby hamsters (the runt). But, I love possums.

I need information to memorize or puzzle-solving.

It soothes my brain by engaging my brain.

Often, I have spent 10+ hours consuming esoteric information, like tax policy in different locales.

Insects and other arthropods. My parents say one of my earliest words was "caterpillar" and one of my earliest memories is of trying to get a spider to crawl onto a book I was holding and calling to it, because I wanted to hold it but didn't want to get bitten.

And also the supernatural and other strange things, with focuses like wendigos and Hellraiser. And, more recently, body horror.

VP shunts to treat hydrocephalus.

At the time, other kids in my year obsessed over Hunger Games and Harry Potter.

Over the years I have had many different types of special interest and collections. If I go back to the very first collectible, I would have to say it was snakes. As a boy of around 5 years of age, I dug a pit and went into the woods and collected snakes and brought them back to my pit. I would feed them. Unfortunately they kept escaping. I really loved the multi colored ones.