Subjects of obsession

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Like many with AS, as a kid I would study and learn everything I could find about whatever subject had taken my interest at the time. As a result, I have extensive knowledge of things like birds, dinosaurs, Star Trek, Star Wars, and Martial Arts. My most intense object of focus was probably the card game Magic: The Gathering. I read articles on how to improve at it early on, memorized literally thousands of cards, and eventually became good enough at it to win invites to professional tournaments in Osaka and Prague.

What obsessions have you guys had in the past?

(A lot of this was copied directly from my posts on other threads - "Special Interests" is a topic that comes up quite frequently on WP!)

Around age 4-5, I was completely obsessed with Roy Rogers - I had some cowboy boots that I absolutely HAD to wear (even though I had outgrown them) & a bouncy rocking horse that was "Trigger" (upon which, I spent hours a day - I think this was a combo between the Roy Rogers interest & general stimming.)

About 6-7, I was fixated on "The Man from UNCLE"

Between the ages of 8 & 12, rockets & the space program were my passion. It was all I wanted to think about - my subsequent love of science fiction grew out of teachers' attempts to get me to read something besides non-fiction books about the space program.

From 12 on, it was Music, Music, Music (at least, until it became clear - around the age of 40 - that I didn't have the social skills to get jobs as a professional musician - or as a full-time teacher, for that matter.)

For a number of years, while I was in the Army - just after I had gotten my first computer - I was consumed by role-playing video games (starting with text adventures, like Zork, progressing to Bard's Tale & other dungeon-type games.) I loved charting the mazes & problem-solving. I would often stay up most of the night to finish a level - which made it challenging to stay awake at work the next day, on two-hours sleep. I stopped playing them when the graphics got more realistic & real-time (it just created too much anxiety for me.)

Also along the way, I developed a burning special interest for Doctor Who. That flamed-out after about 8-10 years, when I started to realize that I was taping episodes, but not watching them later. (Strange how some special interests just end.)

Then there was Buffy. I'm pretty sure that not a day went by between 1997 & 2008-9 that I didn't watch at least one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. When I wasn't watching Buffy, I was thinking about the Buffiverse - and when I absolutely had to be doing something else (i.e. "work"), a part of my brain was counting the seconds until I could be thinking about, or watching, Buffy. It was, for me, the perfect story/television program/universe (it still is.)

Recently, interests include Asperger's Syndrome (and the autistic spectrum) and fitness/nutrition. I don't know - these don't seem to rise to the level of SPECIAL INTEREST - I spend a lot of time thinking about them, but they don't "consume" me they way other interests have.