Your obsessions

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I often have short lived, intense obessions with quite a bit of things in my life. Once I get stuck on something, I live it and dream it until the obession dies out. Just a short list.

-The planet Saturn
-Our betamax VCR, which I wrecked
-Our first C-band satellite reciever, which I wrecked
-turning my bike upside down and spinning the wheels
-Our washer and dryer
-Small engine governers
-The 1987 stock market crash, and how computers almost casued the second great depression
-The RCA TK-41 color television camera
-Electromechanical telephone switching system
-the DV format and it's inferior 4:1:1 sampling scheme
-GOP sequences in MPEG files
-Video switchers
-Homebuilt jet engines
-The WSR-74 weather radar
-The Whicita Falls Texas tornado diaster of 1979
-The Intel 8086 CPU
-The Intel 80486 CPU
-The Motorola 68000 CPU
-Modifing old VCR's so they can do slow motion
-Well pumps
-AC induction motors
-The saticon imaging tube
-The Ford 3.0 Liter Vulcan engine
-QuickBasic

Thats about all I can think of for now. What do the rest of you obsess about?

My Past Obsessions

• outer space
• Mulan (the Disney movie)
• Hercules (another Disney movie)
• Pocahontas (still another Disney movie)
• Lion King (Disney again)
• Lion King 2
• Curtis (some boy in preschool)
• Dylan (another boy in preschool)
• Cody (another boy, but not in preschool)
• Anastasia (another movie)
• Toy Story (Disney-Pixar movie)
• Toy Story 2
• A Bug's Life (another Disney-Pixar)
• Nicktoons
• Veggietales
• Land Before Time (videotape series)
• Timmy the Tooth (another videotape series)
• Emily (a girl I was friends with)
• Harry Potter
• Mario games
• Sonic games
• Dexter's Lab
• reading non-fiction books
• Egypt

(NOTE: Not in order. [And I also think I might have had others that I can't remember.])

Mich

When I was growing up, it was...

Antennas
Antennas
Antennas
Astronomy

When I was a kid, and to a lesser extent today, I LOVED antennas. During art class in 1st grade, I would draw houses so I could draw antennas.

When I payed with Legos, I made houses with antennas.

Thats all antennas. TV, radio, ham, etc....

I also read all the books on astronomy in the library as a kid, both the adult books and kids books. I was in the astronomy club in High School, until I attempted an unsucessful (but legal) coup to achieve the presidency.

Noone ever said I has Aspergers when I was a kid in the 70s. But if I were a kid today seeing a shrink, they would certainly suspect it. I was weird enough in High School, that some people thought I was smoking pot, which I was NOT doing.

Currently trying to learn all I can about computers
Discovery channel
Autism, Aspergers research
Self teaching books ( would be better together with a self teaching program software )
Auto racing
Electronics and new technology
Research. I love learning new things!

When I was little I was all about space.
Horses, specifically Arabians. My parents spent a whole lot of money for me to go to special camps and lessons to learn how to show and care for horses. Then I got bored of that. Oops.
Puzzles of ANY kind. Taking stuff apart and putting it back together is fun for me. I've learned that people get really displeased when I use something electronic as puzzle.
Orchids. I don't really care much about any other kind of plant but I'll carry on and on about orchids.
Zombies. I'll watch any movie or play any video game that has a zombie.
Modded cars (actually a housewide obsession)/Hyundai Tiberons.
I can't think of any else right now but the list is a long one.
We won't even get into the numerous catagories of junk I collect.

Discussion a couple of months ago:
Me: "These days I can only survive on the hard stuff."
Coworker: "Really, Magic?! What stuff? Drugs?" *
Me: "No, quantum physics."

* I don't even touch alcohol!

Actually I have five areas of interest, unchanged since my early teens:
1. Computers (and computer science, esp. programming languages and all kinds of indeterministic computing)
2. Physics (nowadays mostly quantum mechanics)
3. Linguistics (especially grammar)
4. Rail transport (trains, subway etc.)
5. Maps (and, of course, SimCity)

I admit, sometimes they do become "abnormal in either intensity or focus". If I have a good book on physics, I would take it with me everywhere and read it while stopped at red lights. However, contrary to experiences of most aspies (if I get this right), my interests are parallel. For example, if I stumble on some difficult problem in quantum physics, I would often seek lighter entertainment, for example one provided by the grammar of Basque language. (I really do such things for fun, isn't it weird? People think I am teasing them when I thruthfully answer a question "How did you spend your weekend?".)

Nowadays I am also learning what I can about the Asperger's Syndrome. I hope that this obsession will somewhat diminish, as I need time for other things.

Obsessions - infinitum!

*Cemeteries - Past

*Elvis Presley - Absolutely past - I was a particularly stupid child

*Judaism and Holocaust History - Present

*City Bus Service - Past (only because I relocated to an area without one)

*Coca-Cola - Present (I'm not allowed to drink it currently though, preclusion through medication).

*Lift Softdrink - Definitely present.

*Reading - present, at least a novel a day.

*Pizza - Present, same deal as with Coca-cola.

*Qualifications - PRESENT - I know the NZ tertiary education system like the back of my hand!

*British Accents - Present - I interact better with people from the U.K.

*Buying books - Present!

Last edited by TyroneShoelaces on 09 Jul 2004, 8:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Current obsessions:

X-Men

Asperger's

Autism

The buttons on my TV remote (we just got a new tv, with extra buttons)

Guitar

The Beatles



Past obsessions:

Inspector Gadget (I thought I was going to be just like Penny if I thought about it hard enough)

Horses ( I wanted to ride, but I have severe acrophobia and can't sit that high off the ground)

Biology (That was in grade 6. As a result, I have basically a first or second year university education in human anatomy and genetic makeup and I'm only in grade 11.)

Stenosing Tenosynovitis (I have it.)

Ummm... I know there were more.... I just can't think of them.

It seems you were asking about Asperger's-type pervasive interests, rather than OCD-style obsessions. My list is very long and probably not 100% inclusive:

Insects/Arachnoids (when I was a kid)
Maps and Geography (also more when I was a kid)
Video/Computer Games (haven't been into those much for a few years)
Science (more when I was a kid; I liked learning the principles of science but I didn't like working the problems)
History (especially of ancient and medieval Europe; I liked learning about the different ancient peoples and also liked to form general impressions of different eras)
Politics/Current Affairs
Political, Social, and Moral Philosophy
Economics
Sociology (interested in social classes, economic differences, social trends, etc.)
Psychology (why I and others think as we do; interpersonal interaction; behavioral tendencies; etc.)
French Language
English Grammar and Usage (I used to be a grammar nazi)
Linguistics
Microsoft Windows (when I got into computers, Linux was almost unheard of)
Programming (haven't done much recently)
My Website and Its Many Writings

Another current perseveration of mine is Asperger's syndrome, autism, and the things Asperger's syndrome and autism can be confused with: schizophrenia, depression, ADD/ADHD, OCD, psychopathy/antisocial personality, narcissism, dissociative identity disorder, etc.

Yello... me is obsessed with the following things at present. They're all connected, somehow :

NOT-LIVING THINGS
techno/electronica/electronic dance music (too much)
Stargate SG-1 (Premiere on TONIGHT)
Joan of Arcadia
Danse Macabre, aka the art of horror
X-Men (mainly because of the parallels it draws to us)
Asperger's and neurodiversity (what else?)
quantization of time
Cheez Whiz & Cool Whip
Vector cereal (really good)
exercise and good physical health
new albums from my fave artists coming out soon (although music is "alive" to me)
Donnie Darko (Director's Cut)
nature sounds like a soft babbling brook
the question, "why are weeds called weeds, and why are they so unwanted?"

LIVING THINGS
Amber Tamblyn
Sasha Cohen
Donald Trump
Stephen King
Cameron Diaz
Alvin Toffler
Michio Kaku
Amanda Tapping
cats and kittens (want to adopt one <3)


I used to have a crush on Penny, her and her pigtails and her computer book.

Funny you mention that last bit... before I had ever heard of Asperger's, I was going through psych textbooks trying to figure out if I had some sort of personality disorder. I linked one thing to another and soon found out about AS. I like connections.

Here are a few of mine:
-Dogs (big time stinker for rescues)
-Horses (I looove riding, will get my own asap!)
-Drawing (horses, or course!)
-Sculpting (dogs)
-Photography (animals)
-Studying psychology/ sociology
-Music (country, in particular)

Yup, I am obsessed with animals.

For me, it was my mom who made the connections. Before she heard about Asperger's syndrome and autism in Time magazine and such, she attributed my "bad behavior" to ADD, a prior diagnosis I had received. She went through phases of wanting to find some label and probably some "cure" for the way I was. She eventually got the school district to diagnose me with autism, although Asperger's syndrome is more accurate (the people making the diagnosis treated the various terms as almost interchangeable, and I wanted no part in it at the time). Years ago, when I saw a psychologist and psychiatrist, I was only vaguely aware of the psychiatric disorders they were treating me for (I remember denying that I had ADD because I didn't consider myself to be one of those hyper Ritalin kids).

Anyway, Donnie Darko is a great movie. I've got Gary Jules' "Mad World" in my MP3 collection.

Yeah, it is a mad world, isn't it?

hmmm... obsessions? Painting, designing, reading, owning books, tabasco, chilli, purple, working, autism, aspergers, psychology, physics, computer graphics, semantics and semiotics, painting walls, clothes and furniture, paper maché, chinese history, my son, tom waites, primus, salvador dali, brett whitley, frida kahlo, blue velvet, betty blue, dennis hopper, dr crippen, psychopaths, amnesty international, suffering, bad punctuation, carving, building, avoiding stuff, typing, confusing other people, avoiding other people, telling everyone they have aspergers (as a compliment), defending my dress sense, being different, electronics and wires, sounds, writing obscure poetry, rain, computers, this website, getting angry with george bush and john howard, and that other english bloke, death, life, the bits in the middle, getting angry with the yanks cos they invaded iraq pleading human rights atrocities and weapons of mass destruction, while they politely ignored north korea when they really had it all - and boasted....dictionaries, gabriel garcia marquez, doestoevsky, borges, animals, kebabs, ... I'm sure I'll think of more - i'm just getting warmed up

I've got more. I had to ask. I always forget when I'm actually thinking about it:
abandoned places, action figures, fonts (I collect them obsessively and annoy people by pointing at signs on stores and telling them what font it is), old asylums, horror movies, hooded sweatshirts (which I wear regardless of the temperature.), David Lynch movies, piercing, Quentin Tarantino movies, Tim Burton movies (I like weird movies), ornamental boxes, lights (string lights, luminaires, etc), notebooks - which I never write in since I do all my writing via Office, forensic/law stuff - courtTV shows are my friend, and any music made by Bt (also known as Brian Transeau)