Special Interests and Hobbies

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As Aspies we have obsessions and interests. My main special interest is doing puzzles. I do crosswords, Sudokus etc and buy puzzle books. My other special interests is surfing the Internet and eating as well as looking at WP!
What special interests do other WP members have?

I'm a language grammar nerd. Specifically I like to read on as many language grammars as possible (Wikipedia is a great resource for that). Learning about a language's grammar (especially if it is quite unlike Indo-European languages) is an endless delight for me. I'm also a linguistic hobbyist with quite a broad (if shallow) knowledge. And I am also a conlanger (i.e. I create languages), which I see as a natural extension of my interest in grammar (I love designing grammars). However, I only speak 3 languages fluently, and 3 more at conversational level.

My second main interest is in computer-aided graphical design, whether in 2D or 3D. I love to read about it, although I don't do much with it (I do try though ).

Finally I'm a tech geek in general, with a special interest for Free Software.

I don't have a diagnosis, so I don't know if my love of video games classifies as a "special interest" or not. It's been my main interest that has dominated my thoughts almost my whole life. It sounds like most people define "special interests" as more unusual interests (like, things that to someone else, it's hard to understand how anyone could be interested in it), and also, it sounds like some people change interests every few years. The reason I think it's a special interest is because not many people seem to enjoy games in the same way that I do, but I do wonder why many people here change special interests, while I do not.

Hi,

Math and Physics is my bag, it's just like falling off a log to me and doing thought experiments in my head using associated facts is the strange way I have always thought.
When you are self taught and come to certain conclusions and get excited thinking you have had an original thought only to find a famous person in 1890 has already come up with it, suggests to me they must be one of us.


Regards
Chris

Ahem...

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Thanks for typing that up for me, hope you don't mind me stealing your answer but mine is exactly the same.

Playing games, watching movies, reading, listening to music.

In that order really. I always liked playing games, then got into watching movies as i got older, got into reading at about 8 when i realised that books were just movies in slowtime, music at about 14-15 because i was sick of having nothing in common with anyone.

My special interests are anime/manga and Tim Burton's movies. They take turns being my dominant interest.

I have been obsessed with anime ever since the Pokemon craze of the 90s. My anime-watching used to be limited to whatever aired on Cartoon Network, but thanks to the Internet, I have gotten to dabble in anime of all different genres. As such, I don't really have any anime that I could call a favorite. I like different series for different reasons. This summer I have completed 3 series: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Steins;Gate and Tiger & Bunny. If you're an anime fan and haven't watched them yet, you're in for a real treat if you decide to give them a shot. Oh yeah, and I bought a digital manga creation software called Comipo, and I'm using it to create my own manga. I'm working on one called My Brother's Secret which is a comedy/drama, and I already have another one planned which is untitled at the moment and will be an action/comedy.

I have always liked Burton's stuff too; I was a big fan of Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice when I was a child. However, I didn't become super-obsessed with his movies in general until January of last year. I could tell you the release dates of all of them, as well as various trivia facts about them. My favorites are (in no particular order): Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, Sleepy Hollow, Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride and Beetlejuice. And next year is going to be a great year to be a Burton fanatic, because he's releasing two new movies: Dark Shadows (May 11th) and Frankenweenie (October 5th). Oh yeah, there are also rumors of a Beetlejuice sequel, so I'm pretty excited about that if it turns out to be true.

Last edited by IdahoRose on 21 Sep 2011, 12:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I think that special interests and obsessions are a good thing and that they should not be dampened by the NTs in our lives. Too many parents are very concerned about making their autisitc children as normal as possible and raising the autism out of them. They put limits on how much their children can talk about their special interests, or they might try and take them away from them all together. I also feel that we should all accept the special interests that our fellow WP members have. We should also accept the intensity of the special interests that the more aspiesh WP members have, as well. I see special interests and obsessions as gifts that play a big part in the personalities of a lot of the members here on WP and we should all be given a chance to post about our special interests as much as we wish, while learning to talk about a variety of other things that the other members are posting about as well, as a means of connecting to our fellow WP members. Every WP member has a story and people act the way that they do for a reason.

My special interest is The Kinks, which is a bi product of a special interest that I had with Swinging London and Carnaby Street in the Mid-90s.

Special intrests/obsessions have and will always be my strongest autistic trait.

My main special interests are roller coasters (amusement parks) and house plans. By the time I was in high school I had memorized (without trying) the statistics of every roller coaster in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. And if I look at house plan books, I can often tell who the architect of a house plan is just by the way the house rendering is drawn and by certain aspects of the room arrangements and style of the house. I am also heavily into music, but I will let that stand as a talent here. However, when I was in my early 20s, I became so obsessed with vintage synthesizers that I collected around 30 of them. I used them as collateral when I got married to get a house loan.

I really like this. I'm trying to come up with a language for my book.

My main interest is creative writing and science fiction. I watch and read a lot of different sci-fi but my favourites are Star Trek, Stargate, Sanctuary and Doctor Who. Currently I'm getting through the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov and reading some Neil Gaiman to help with my writing style.
Then there is my growing interest in the Air Force. I like to learn the specs of various aircraft. My favourites so far being the MiG 21, Sukhoi SU 15, F/A 18 Hornet, F22 Raptor...and I should stop there. I could be going all day once I start listing the WW2 planes.

I've been drawing since I was two or three so at certain times in my life I've been obsessed with that. Now, I just draw when I need to design something, like cover art or technology from my sci-fi book. I do photography for the same reasons too. I won't just to it for fun or whatever people do it for. I need to do something practical with it. The last project I did was family photos and got paid for it.

Then there are my interest in physics, astronomy and neuroscience which I get back into from time to time. Been thinking about taking my telescope out and doing some stargazing before I move to the city and have light pollution as a bedmate.

Oh yeah, there's also an interest in Area 51 and the CIA.

Interestingly, all the interests I've listed (except photography) are used in great detail in my sci-fi book. So, I've really got to be thankful for having such intense interests due to my autism, otherwise my book wouldn't be as good, and I'd have to admit it, wouldn't even exist.

Vintage cameras and analog photography. I keep buying cameras, but I only ever shoot a handful of them. I also get way too excited when The Impossible Project has a sale on Polaroid film. Really, I spend more time reading about cameras and tinkering with my collection than I do shooting, unfortunately.

Every once in awhile I get interested in vintage cameras. I have a few old ones in my collection including some Argus bricks and a near mint condition Rolleiflex twin lens reflex from the early 1950s which I have never taken a picture with.

Oh, my! I seem to get a new one every three or four years or so -- the old ones don't disappear or get lost, they remain interests, just not Special, when they're all that I want to think about.

The earliest that I can remember are horses and Indians, Vikings, Mythology (of the different varieties and cultures). Around high school time it was science, math and Science Fiction, and I spent hours upon hours making a card catalog of the stories (by author) in my collection of SF magazines. All that tiny printing was how I got to have good, precise handwriting, I suppose. Then it was Anthropology & Archaeology (with mythology again). Then cooking and nutrition, health food style. Then the New Age, including Astrology, and headfirst into the Age of Aquarius, with world religions and the occult. Then knitting and crochet. Gardening, especially herbs. Then Christianity, for years, especially The Episcopal Church, including History of Christianity and Theology (for about three years in the middle of that, it was Saints). And, since my diagnosis, it appears to be Asperger's and Autism.