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crocus
Deinonychus
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Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Age: 62
Gender: Female
Posts: 352
Location: Canada

26 Apr 2010, 10:55 am

These are some of my special interests starting the first ones I remember having:

colour (colour mixing and colour theory)
crayola crayons
paint
spelling and word meanings
reading encyclopedias
maps
design, architecture and interior aesthetics
photography
reading biographies
marilyn monroe
sewing (designing clothes)
vintage fashion
history (esp. 1940 - 1950 and WWII)
true crime and detective stories
theater
light theory
film noir
bridges


I have a few more present day special interests (on top of the ones I already listed), but I don't feel comfortable sharing them publicly.



Cuterebra
Deinonychus
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26 Apr 2010, 9:09 pm

So how many hours devoted to a particular topic is enough to call it a special interest?

For example, recently I spent about ten hours over the course of a week or two reading about the Google search algorithm. I'm guessing a lot of people would think it a little weird, but I wouldn't say that's nearly enough hours to qualify as a special interest. But since then, I've been occasionally following up it up with some related material like Bayesian probability and other search algorithm AI stuff. At what point do I add it to my long list of special interests (current, former, and extinct)? How many hours, how many months?

I've had many over the years, and many are the same as people have already mentioned. Egyptology, snakes, Linux, medical equipment from earlier eras, immunology, the Fibonacci sequence, Medieval literature, Marcus Aurelius, to name just a couple.

If only "professional dilettante" were a career option!



aspie_giraffe
Snowy Owl
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27 Apr 2010, 3:58 am

under 6
dinosaurs
how things work
human body
medical research
reading
chemistry
physics
rock collecting
stamps
pastel colours
soft fuzzy things
animals
plushies

6-12
dinosaurs
how things work
human body
medical research
reading
chemistry
physics
rock collecting
stamps
pastel colours
soft fuzzy things
animals
plushies
pokemon
sailor moon
cardcaptors
dragon ball z
beanie kids
unique clothes

12-now
dinosaurs
how things work
human body
medical research
reading
chemistry
physics
rock collecting
stamps
pastel colours
soft fuzzy things
animals
plushies
pokemon
sailor moon
cardcaptors
dragon ball z
beanie kids
unique clothes
1950s
music(jazz, swing, classical, electronica, some pop, some rock, alternative, anime, gaming)
anime!! !!
dango daikazoku
giraffes
teacups
collecting things for my bedroom
pandora bracelet
shopping
gaming
hello kitty
kawaii everything



Dots
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Age: 40
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27 Apr 2010, 3:17 pm

I was obsessed with Nancy Drew when I was a kid. That and musical theatre, and Sarah Brightman.
The ones that are still with me now are:
writing music
Sarah Brightman
Kristin Chenoweth
musical theatre
Toronto Island
painting
rabbits


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tomboy4good
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29 Apr 2010, 1:21 pm

I have been interested in a lot of things over the years:

As a child:
stuffed animals
music
art: drawing & coloring
reading: everything from nursery rhymes, Aesop's Fables, encyclopedias, & stuff on wild & domesticated animals
Tonka trucks/boys toys
dinosaurs
Lassie: I wanted a collie like that!
dogs: loved them & wanted to be one
ponies/horses
early anime: Kimba the white lion, the Amazing Three
Warner Bros cartoons
Star Trek: my fave show from the age of 4 to the present
programs about nature, especially African wildlife (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom)
climbing trees
bicycling
skateboarding

teen years:
art: drawing/painting/ceramics/jewelry making
reading: science fiction & mystery were my fave genres
horses: I collected Breyer models, had tons of books, everything but the real deal :-(
dogs: started collecting glass & porcelain figures, had several pet dogs, & read lots of books
Star Trek: Spock became my fave character, although I loved the interplay of all the main characters
skateboarding
photography
CB radio
ghosts/paranormal stuff
music/radio broadcasting

Adult years:
reading
music: mostly Irish
dogs
languages
Star Trek: until Voyager
Medieval history/Renaissance fairs
learning how things worked
psychology
photography
nature & the interplay of the earth & different species
gardening
raising children

The present:
reading: mostly self help stuff, but also about AS
gardening
photography
dogs: just adopted a dog last year, 1st one in 18 years
Wrong Planet


LOL after looking over my list, what I realize is that most of the things aI have enjoyed doing most are solitary activities.


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DX: Anxiety plus ADHD/Aspergers: inconclusive


astaut
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30 Apr 2010, 2:38 pm

Kid years:
anything related to animals
horses
dog breeds

Teen years/fairly recent:
(Horse related) barrel racing, roping, rodeo events
Asperger syndrome
Journaling
Psychology (some Freudian stuff)
Motorcycles

College years/now:
Still animals (herptiles, parrots, etc)
Neuroscience
Colleges
Adrenal insufficiency (diagnosed recently)
Different careers



pippilngstkngpr
Sea Gull
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Location: New Jersey

02 May 2010, 3:00 am

This will be 13-21 years old (now) and they will be all together:

- Cats
- Art especially paintings and drawings.
- photography
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
- Pippi Longstocking
- Bounce Balls
- Squishy things
- Balls
- Swings
- Slides
- Asperger Syndrome
- Aspie Women
- Autism
- Gifted Visual Spatial Learners
- Medications ( as I have been on so much in the last 3 years)
- Books ( I have so many and read 97% of them. They are all about real life things)
- Real life stories and movies.
- The Brain
- Careers
- Exercises
- Healthier Eating Lifestyles
- Toys ( for 13 years old and younger)
- Writing letters in snail mail
- Plaid
- Mental Illnesses (Bipolar, Depression, Severe Depression)
- Self- Injury (cutting)
- Stuffed animals
- Music
- Drawing, Painting, Taking Photographs, and writing especially poetry
- When I get a diagnoses from a doctor, come online and search up and down until I find out what I have if I don't think their right. (Happens a lot)
- rock collecting ( 10-13 years old)

Sometimes I go in and out of my special interest. I am so interested in them so hard like 10 hours reading online than I move on to something else but eventually I do come back to it.



Whangdoodle
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05 May 2010, 4:07 pm

In more or less chronological order:

Child
Hippos
Medicine, hospitals
Homesteading: building log cabins, growing food, solar power etc.
Tolkien/Middle Earth
Astrology
Making clothes (knitting and sewing)

Teen
Beatles, George Harrison, 60's and 70's
Meditation & yoga
Music composition & audio recording
Psychology

20s/early 30s
Wicca
Homebirth, attachment parenting, continuum concept etc.
Gardening
Myst, especially Myst III and Narayan
Catholicism
Edgar Allan Poe
Tolkien again
German language
Modernism (literature)
Fat acceptance
Existentialism and deconstructionism
Autism



Eve01
Tufted Titmouse
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Joined: 28 Apr 2010
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Location: Europe

08 May 2010, 4:09 pm

I'm glad to see this post. When I read about aspies and special interests it seemed suggested that aspies only have ONE special interests (by several authors of autism books). I was beginning to think I'm once again a freak among the ASD population as I've always had several interests at the same time. I see so many interests described here that I see it isn't true.

Anyway some of mine are/were:

Primary:

Movies
Barbie dolls
Animals (especially dogs)
The universe
Nature disasters (volcanoes, tornado's..)
Spice girls

High school:

Wanting to be an actress
Several TV shows
The internet
How people work
Scandinavia

Later on and now:

Other countries and cultures
Reading informational articles
Music (history)
Piano
Psychology


Just some of them ;)



starygrrl
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10 May 2010, 3:22 pm

puddingmouse wrote:
Primary school (age 5 -10)
Aldous Huxley

I once vacationed on the Huxley Ranch in Vermont. Aldous bought it in his later years and passed it on to his children and they rent out one of the cabins to locals (who were my friends). It is a beautiful place right on a small mountain.


New obsession for me: Classic Lolita Fashion and Victorian and Edwardian fashion.



wendigopsychosis
Velociraptor
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10 May 2010, 7:25 pm

I love the format of this thread. :)

Preschool
- animals
- the ecosystem (food chain, water cycle, other interconnected natural occurrences)

Elementary school
- animals
- biology
- wolves
- werewolves
- dragons
- mythology
- pokémon
- video games (namely Jak & Daxter)
- forensics
- autopsies

Middle school
- wicca / pagan religions
- fairies
- medieval fantasy

High school
- anime
- art (drawing, painting)
- biology
- human anatomy and physiology
- 4chan (...shame)
- german

College (aka currently)
- osteology
- forensic pathology/anthropology
- disorders (birth defects, diseases, mental illnesses)
- politics
- biochemistry (specifically the nervous system, psychoactives etc)
- murder, serial killers
- gore (as in, I have a vast collection of photos of dead people on my computer...)
- Asperger's/autism
- autopsies

hurr hurr.


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coconapple
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
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25 May 2010, 4:54 pm

Hey OP, I'm going to format this the same way you did yours.

Pre/Primary school:
* Liked reading encyclopedias, graduate(?)-level medical books, computer programming even though I hadn't ever touched a computer.
* Learned playing piano by myself. Couldn't master guitar, though, too clumsy and couldn't remember well.
* Could draw extreemely well.
* Learned English through RPGs and books

Middle school:
* Loved Math of all sorts, often helped my oldest sister (She's 35 and I am 23 now) with Calculus, while she helped me with History, at which I was helpless.
* Crazy about Physics

High school:
* Learned Japanese
* Badminton

College age:
* Reading as much as I could about child-rearing, child birth and such, even though I was not pregnant, and
* Learning as much as possible about real-estate, mortages, and DIY remodeling.
* Painting
* Researching as much as possible what could be wrong with me, brain injury, multiple-sclerosis, etc.


Currently:
* Kick-boxing, swimming.

Funny thing is nowadays I can't do math to save my life.



fobfan123
Snowy Owl
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07 Jun 2010, 3:45 am

Obsession with popularity and or being liked
old school wrestling
Reading odd titled books ex: the farting dog... recently curse of the campfire weenies
Old school televison: Nickelodean/cartoon network, saturday morning cartoons
teenybopper magazines
sci fi shows: dollhouse, the ex files
Livejournal. the first thing I do on the computer .
Social networking sits probabaly face book so I can keep tabs on what people are doing and that who I would like to know better.
Guys who are like spencer reid.
popular melodramic song and electro indie music
expressing my self in drawing
improving my social life and destroying it much of the time
feminism
creative writing
food
baking
free games database installed on my computer



RainSong
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10 Jun 2010, 10:25 pm

Past:
Horses
Native American culture
Creative writing
Forensic anthropology

Those all cycled, though the latter two were closer to the present than the first.

Now:
Crime


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bookwyrm
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
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Location: away with the rabbits

16 Jun 2010, 7:43 am

books - would you believe?
horses - as a child/teenager, I would love to revisit that now
rabbits - horse substitutes - their ears are nearly as good, especially the giants :heart:
physics/astronomy - I especially loved theoretical physics: tensors and QM made me so happy, but my children got in the way :evil:
children - it was their turn....
home education - still their turn
games programming - had to give it up due to lack of time - the rabbits' fault this time
autism - I have one son with severe autism, another with AS, then theres me....



gemstone123
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19 Jun 2010, 2:19 pm

On and off interests I've had for ages:

Weather
Natural disasters
Fitness
Languages
History - Especially revolutionary history.:)
Books
Comics
Baking
Cooking

Current interests:
University
Finding a new hobby :lol:
Books
Comics and graphic novels
History
Politics
Economics
Philosophy (Mainly knowledge and understanding of the world.)
Chaos theory


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