Popular Hobbies and addictions

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For me, it's always been forms of transport, especially anything that runs on rails (including roller coasters, whether it's a 300 foot Intamin hyper or a classic-style GCI wood coaster). I grew up near Wellington, NZ, and was fascinated with the NZR EM class EMU (electric multiple units) and the commuter rail system we had there. My favourite toy at the time was my Duplo train set (I graduated to a Lego train later).

I was afraid of being in small boats, but loved big ships. The one I remember the most growing up was the road/rail ferry Arahura we traveled on between the North and South islands. She's still in service today after nearly 30 years

Planes are also an interest of mine, especially the big airliners. When I travelled from Sydney to Christchurch at the age of ten, I was so excited about flying in a 747. More recently I started learning to fly.

Road vehicles aren't as much of an interest, except for maybe buses (thanks to WP, I have a book about Routemasters)

It varies. The latest two years, it has been constructing online forum role-playing games. Sad thing is that the majority of the players are either insane, stupid or inactive.

Anything with wheels - cars, buses, bikes. I know my classic Toyotas as well as I do AC Transit/Muni's bus fleet. Bicycles are fun, simple and more friendly on the Earth than a friggin' Prius. I can also work on motorcycles too, I'm helping my neighbor out with his Honda VFR700R Interceptor and I had to revive a 09 Yamaha YZF-R6 after some kid dropped it while running from the cops...
Photography, even though I don't have the chance to take my camera out.
Computers - more fixing them and solving problems with them. I want to dabble in databases and some programming even though I suck at programming them. I also know a good bit about networking and VoIP, I played around with Cisco gear.
I also play plumber/painter if I need to at home.

Heh, yeah, I know that one. And there's no easy way to play against yourself; you can't hide the tactics of one side from another. I can think of limited ways around it but never really explored them; and then the development of computers has raised my expectations above what a boardgame can provide. My usual cycle these days runs like this:

"Oh, I have an idea for a game that might be diverting... hmm, could make it on computer. No, I'd have to remember / learn how to program again. Paper then. *scribbles stuff down* Nah, this is too complicated, would need to be done on computer after all... ahforgetit."

I absolutely love floor plans too!
I'll make my own or transfer ones from books onto graph paper. I have pages and pages...

And I also love drawing maps, and designing towns or cities.

And pretty much anything science or medical related. Anatomy, surgery, diseases... whatever. They're all interesting.

Everything I do turns into an obsession. I can't be moderate. Currently I have nothing on my hands except occasional writing and drawing. Some special 2 euro coins fascinate me. I feel terrible if I spend them by accident.

In the past I had episodes of passion for:
Thousands of caps from beerbottles. Drawing/painting. Chess. Magic the gathering. Reading (science)fiction. Philosophy and buying second hand books about philosophy (I love second hand books, if i see older editions i need to have them) World of Warcraft. Art-history. Genetics. Economics. Poetry. Language. Photography. Nature/Biology. Architecture.

Recently my wife told me I gather small objects which I tend to leave lying about the house. If I don't move them for two weeks she throws them away. I am still bogglin' my mind over which things she has thrown out. I can't even remember collecting them.

Drugs.

Before I start this I want you all to know that I'm incredibly nonviolent, I wouldn't hurt anyone, for any reason ever. And if I was forced to I'd still despise it. The very thought of it disgusts me.

Anyway now that that's out of the way ^^

I love weapons, ooohhh do I love weapons. The gleam of steel and iron. The sound of a crossbow thwacking and steel clashing, the smell of gunpowder, the texture of the grip of a katana, the roar of a tank engine, the thunder of a battleships cannons, the shriek of rockets, the distant rumblings of artillery, the stretching and moaning of twisted threads of a launching catapult. I can name off the model numbers of the individual parts used to assemble an M16A3. I can recount the exact dates of the introduction of different fuel tanks for tank destroyers. I can disassemble and reassemble my Beretta M9 blindfolded in less than 2 minuets. I have a carbon steel, hand forged katana done inn the old style hanging over my bed (sheathed of course.) My favorite pastime by far is taking a bag of soda cans and water jugs down to my range and slicing, shooting, and otherwise obliterating them. It's so much fun to see a pumpkin or a watermelon explode after it's been hit with a 1oz slug from a 12 gauge. Or cut a gallon water bottle in half with one swing from my katana. Theirs absolutely nothing I love more than going out to my range... Well nothing right now... Not an object or action because if we take people into consideration my honey comes first and it's a close second

For me it would be:

1. Video Games. (GTA4, Fallout 1/2/3, etc)
1a. Minecraft (Its LEGOs for adults, essentially.)

2. Flight Simulators
The usual FSX and what not, but in particular the Orbiter Space Flight Sim and the add-on for the Mercury and Apollo missions. Extremely accurate, even have the original Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) software running on it.

3. True Crime novels/programs/articles.

4. Building computers.

I went through a period starting at age 10 when I was obsessed with floor plans and I designed my own house layouts. It never really went away, as today when I play The Sims I probably spend more time changing the house layout than actually playing the game. The same goes for games like Doom, when I spent a lot of time with the map editor as well as SimCity and Roller Coaster Tycoon, which are built around that concept.

My obsession with how the human body works peaked around the age of 6-7

Maps are also up there. I consider Google Earth to be quality entertainment, as well as maps of buildings, towns, subways, and amusements parks. I have poster size prints of the London Underground and Cedar Point

My addiction has to be Monty Python, really, but I've always collected music and books, especially ones that are hard to find/out of the mainstream. I also find equations to be an addiction, I feel that there's something really soothing about mathematical and physical equations. Aside from that, I dunno, I end becoming really obsessed by a specific for a short amount of time, and then move on to something else.

Music is the thing that's bitten me the hardest and it's an obsession which I came back to some 12 months ago and now encourage in myself. Years ago I used to worry that I practise too much, I'd do extra tunes and not tell my music teacher about them - but I didn't know about AS then. I've since realised that the fact that I can sit and play for hours and hours on end is a huge advantage as that's what holds most other musicians back. My current teacher knows about my AS and that playing is an obsession of mine, I now don't consider 8+ hours a day practice time to be anything to be concerned about and my progress has been exponential.

I like music because the playing is an excellent stim (stops me drumming my fingers or pulling my beard), I can dig into the history of the instrument etc. and learning new tunes satisfies my desire to collect things without spending money on something (CDs, playstation games), just some time to learn it. I also have an excellent memory for tunes.

I'm so pleased I don't play World of Warcraft anymore...

I forgot Pharmacology. I love it, it's really exciting. It was my special interest in High School. So it was as obvious, as I forgot it

My longest standing special interest is medicine and anatomy. I love anything to do with things that happen to the human body, such as surgery, broken bones. I am also interested in disabilities and how they work and affect people's bodies. It's kind of embarassing to be interested in it.. It's difficult not to stare when I see people in the street using crutches etc.

I've also always been interested in other countries, and their national costumes.

My interests are

Trains

Cricket

Flags

Maps

Music

TV Idents

Film is my biggest hobby at the moment. For several years I've been fixated on films, film criticism and analysis, etc. and tend to read everything I can on a particular film that happens to interest me at the moment. Lately I've gotten the tools to make a film (well, technically video/digital) and just thinking about it, mapping out an idea or a scene gets me into that obsessed, intense frame of mind where I can't get to sleep cause I'm thinking about it endlessly.

In the past it was music, and I'm still totally into music, but I guess my iPod failing and my computer crashing (no huge iTunes library now; I mostly listen to individual songs on youtube) has lessened my intensity. But when I get into it I really get into it, and there's few things more fun than jamming with a couple friends (I play guitar).