Your old enduring obsessions

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Hi
Has anybody got such enduring obsessions as this one.
Perhaps my oldest and most enduring obsession was an obsession for snakes.


The snake obsession is of particular interest because I happened to be overly obsessed when I first discovered the word autism in a library in 1974. I would go to every library and soak up as much as I could on the subject herpetology, especially venomous Australian elapids. Sometimes I would use the slightest chance to sidetrack to the subject herpetology or one of my other narrow interests. Given the chance to speak on herpetology I could go in to very great detail such as the comparative LD50 ratings of venom toxicity and the inland taipan at 0.02 milligrams for kilogram of body weight and then move on to quote the common taipan's venom's toxicity at 0.06 mg/kg when tested on lab mice or rats and would go on and on. I even knew the scientific names of them such as the common taipan's scientific name is "oxyuranus scutellatus" the inland taipan "oxyuranus microlepidotis" and the common death adder "acanthophis antarcticus". I learnt that ventral scales were the broad belly scales. Even studied the scale count which helps to identify some species (that is the scale count around the circumference of the snake starting from the ventrals and finishing at the ventral scales) of say the taipan with a scale count of 23 and copperhead of 15 and tiger snake 17. And others terms to identify snakes like the rostral, nasal, internasal and temporal scales. Yes I researched snakes in very great detail. I left the library after wasting away hours time feeling as though I had a good hearty meal at a top restaurant and be walking around in a non stop trance thinking about my snakes all day long.

I was most obsessive about snakes in my late teens and into my 20’s and going out with girls when I had such a fixation about snakes was not easy. It was really hard to strike up a conversation about anything much else other than herpetology in those times. I did not occur to me the very last thing she would be interested in was whether the anal scale on a red bellied black snake was divided or not. I just assumed she would think exactly the same way about snakes as I do. How dare should she think otherwise. Even if not given the chance I may sometimes but in and talk about herpetology regardless, even if it has nothing to do with the general conversation. Although I do I lot less of that these days as I am older and wiser. My guess the reason why I find dangerous creature like snakes so fascinating is because they fantasize so much about flirting with danger.


These days I am not as obsessive about snakes as I used to be as I have picked up a keener interest in other things such as photography and cosmology. I still think a lot about snakes from time to time and I love to see a documentary on them every once in a while. I certainly no longer run up to handle them like I used to. I have become older and wiser for that, and my interest has become purely academic.

Cheers
Paul

I know there are a lot of things I'm still very interested in, yet rarely look into or get back into them-I'm always finding new stuff to focus on

One thing I used to do is buy seed beads-the little teeny tiny ones, and sort them by color, endlessly. I'd buy the mixed bags off of the shelves just for this purpose (never used the beads for anything though). I don't know how it became an obsession, but I'd sort them by color, type (clear, solid, pearl, clear with silver through the middle, etc.) ALWAYS. I actually thought about getting a bag of beads the other day just to sit down and organize 'em-wound up putting the beads back because I had already gotten too much embroidery floss that I had to do the same thing with and that alone takes plenty of time.

It's definitely a thing I think about going back to once in a while though.

Weird obsession, I know-I also play World of Warcraft just to master the professions/farm (if you know what I mean at all)-I could care less about the rest of the game, lol.

I've been heavily into the Oldsmobile brand and its models since getting my first one in 1991. People say i'm crazy and obsessed, but it's what i love.
I have a few animal likes as well, and snakes fascinate me but I don't know too much about them except I do know how to recognize the venomous snakes we have in florida. I almost caught a non-venomous racer a few weeks ago but of course i was too slow. We have many reptiles, including snakes, in florida.
My roomate keeps lizards and she was thinking of getting a snake. what would be a good snake for her to begin with?

I've been obsessed with dinosaurs since I was but a wee slip of a boy, over two-score and five years ago. A quarter of a century has passed, and I'm still as in love with those scaly old relics as I ever was.

Why, I went to the Natural History Museum last year and I felt like a child again, surrounded by so many things that I loved.

Weather, weather, weather. It's very changeable where I live, which probably has led to the fact that it's so enduring for me. But it fascinates me, always.

Cats! I have been a cat lover since early childhood and will always be one. I can't imagine my life without cats.

History is my oldest obsession. Then cats.

I've been obsessed with Routemasters since 1980, when I was five and a half.

I've been obsessed with London since I've found out that I have an accent. That was in the spring/summer of 1986, at the age of eleven and three quarters. London became my "Safe Place".

I was obsessed with Austin Powers from the May of 1997, until the Valentines Week of 2007. It was that last lonely Valentines Day that did it to me. That's the past. I'm a Punk Rocker, now.

I have had the herpetology obsession too, but with all reptiles, not just snakes. It's a branch off my general zoloogy obsession I had have since I was 4-5 and hyperlexic. Animals were my favorite thing to read about, and draw, and collect. When i was a kid I collected bugs, frogs, and salamders. I was also obsessed with cats and horses. When I was in my late teens I started collecting reptiles. My first snake was a blue racer (Coluber constrictor foxii), and I had various other snakes, turtles/tortoises, lizard...even a couple caiman over the next few years, until it was too expensive and I tired of the upkeep. My last reptile was a Uromastyx aegyptia microlepis, a herbivore desert lizard from the Middle East, which died about 4 years ago.

I've always been intrigued by venomous reptiles, but I wasn't quite as obsessed with them. Even though I don't collect or study reptiles anymore, I still am very fond of them and they can evoke some strong emotions in me.

My other big obsession is music. I had a huge obsession with rock music from about 9 years of age, including an obsession with indie, punk and post-punk rock was well as a another one with metal rock that lasted while into my mid 20's. Also during college, I was became obsessed with jazz, buying as much as I could, and spending hours in my college music library listening ot old jazz LPs, often when I should have been in class. I also had obsessions with 20th centruty composers (Bartok, Stravinsky, Berg, etc.), early music (medieval, Renaissance) and fingerstyle guitar at various times. By the mid 90's I was having a very hard time - I had become very depressed, very withdrawn and unable to function in most cases, including doing things like listening to music. I eventually got rid of my excessive metal collection around 1996, as well as my entire LP collection.

In 1997, I found a new musical obsession - Elliott Smith. My obsession with Elliott's music revived my obsession with indie/punk/post-punk. I spent a few years and a lot of money trying to replace a lot of my LP collection with CDs and tracking down stuff I wasn't able to get when I was a kid. While my recorded music collection isn't as big as it had once been, it's still embarrassing large.

Right now I think I've got my obsessive CD collecting under control. I've been able to channel my music obsession into very specific areas - some jazz, some classical, fingerstyle guitar (mainly Leo Kottke) and Elliott Smith. The rest I do my best to leave be. LOL.

I have had the herpetology obsession too, but with all reptiles, not just snakes. It's a branch off my general zoloogy obsession I had have since I was 4-5 and hyperlexic. Animals were my favorite thing to read about, and draw, and collect. When i was a kid I collected bugs, frogs, and salamders. When I was in my late teens I started collecting reptiles. My first snake was a blue racer (Coluber constrictor foxii), and I had various other snakes, turtles/tortoises, lizard...even a couple caiman over the next few years, until it was too expensive and I tired of the upkeep. My last reptile was a Uromastyx aegyptia microlepis, a herbivore desert lizard from the Middle East, which died about 4 years ago.

I've always been intrigued by venomous reptiles, but I wasn't quite as obsessed with them. Even though I don't collect or study reptiles anymore, I still am very fond of them and they can evoke some strong emotions in me.

My other big obsession is music. I had a huge obsession with rock music from about 9 years of age, including an obsession with indie, punk and post-punk rock was well as a another one with metal rock that lasted while into my mid 20's. Also during college, I was became obsessed with jazz, buying as much as I could, and spending hours in my college music library listening ot old jazz LPs, often when I should have been in class. I also had obsessions with 20th centruty composers (Bartok, Stravinsky, Berg, etc.), early music (medieval, Renaissance) and fingerstyle guitar at various times. By the mid 90's I was having a very hard time - I had become very depressed, very withdrawn and unable to function in most cases, including doing things like listening to music. I eventually got rid of my excessive metal collection around 1996, as well as my entire LP collection.

In 1997, I found a new musical obsession - Elliott Smith. My obsession with Elliott's music revived my obsession with indie/punk/post-punk. I spent a few years and a lot of money trying to replace a lot of my LP collection with CDs and tracking down stuff I wasn't able to get when I was a kid. While my recorded music collection isn't as big as it had once been, it's still embarrassing large.

Right now I think I've got my obsessive CD collecting under control. I've been able to channel my music obsession into very specific areas - some jazz, some classical, fingerstyle guitar (mainly Leo Kottke) and Elliott Smith. The rest I do my best to leave be. LOL.

Peter Pan. I'm still writing papers on the subject. Why not? If I can get it to work for me...

i have several obsessions that move into first place everyso often right now its blackmetal and sportscards

writting I've been doing it since grade 3

That's funny, I had the same thing about snakes, and at the same time too. In my early 20's they were all I could think about, I had quite the collection, and my room was basically a zoo, with pythons, boas, and some cool lizards thrown in for good measure. A clear obsession. Now? I don't give them a second thought. I still retain all the knowledge I obtained, but I don't have the burning interest.

It's funny, there have been passing fads such as the snakes, as well others that may last for a year or two, but there are also permanent ones. My guitar is permanent, and the others come and go (snakes, English soccer, motorcycles, etc)

Theology, but not because I'm religious. I find it fascinating.

History.