My interests and obsesssions - unusual for Asperger's even?

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Hi there everyone

I'm so sorry for my last post regarding pacifiers/thumbsucking and Asperger Syndrome/Autism, that my message wasn't typed right so that when I posted it, it was like one word was on one line then there would be a whole sentence and then just one word again on a new line. I don't know what created that, maybe it was the computer I was using. Hopefully, this next message doesn't end up like that

I have been looking around the message boards on obsessions and interests, and I've noticed that I have interests that are clearly different from other people with have Asperger Syndrome. Am I strange, or is it something else?? No one seems to have my interests, Asperger Syndrome or not. I really do feel like I'm from another planet or something!! I do not have much interests in computers, but I noticed a lot of AS people do.

Here are my interests/obsessions:

1). maps and geography - I have about 300 maps. I get them from all over the place, from AAA (American Automobile Association), from chamber of commerces, convention and visitors bureaus, from restaurants, and my last resort is getting them from realtors (people who sell houses), who usually actually have very good detailed maps. I have so many maps that I have spent hours sometimes digging up all my maps
trying to find the one that I want. I am also like a walking atlas, I know where EVERYWHERE is virtually. I can tell what is wrong on a map just right off, I can see it automatically if a interchange ramp on a freeway is drawn incorrectly, I know it when I see streets that are mislabeled, and I find lots of little mistakes on maps. I really should be a map editor. My areas of special interest include: Oklahoma City; Norfolk, Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; the whole Hampton Roads area of Virginia from Williamsburg to Norfolk; Baltimore, Maryland; Charleston, South Carolina; Oshkosh, Wisconsin (yes, Oshkosh B'Gosh!);
Amarillo, Texas; Ashland-Medford, Oregon; and other places. In all likelihood, I know every street in these listed places, better than people who have lived there for 20-25 years!! With me in the car, you could never get lost. And I know every little town and hamlet in California, even those towns with only 10 people living there. I was a finalist in the California state national geography bee in 1990 when I was in 8th grade, and I won a geography challenge bee at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, California, in 1998 when I was at a state university about 40 miles south of Stockton. I have a BA degree in Geography.

2) My next obsessional area of interest is oldies music from the 1950s and 1960s. I noticed no one wrote about this under obsessions, so I thought that was interesting, because I read in an article that a lot of Aspies have interests with 1960s music like Manfred Mann (they sang "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" back in 1964). I am a walking oldies encyclopedia. I not only know oldies though either, I also have a good knowledge of soft rock music from the 1970s to the 1990s as well. And I dislike rap, or alternative, or
hip hop, and I'm 28 years old!! Amazing, huh? I know who sang every oldies song virtually. Ask me who sang any song and in likelihood, I could immediately tell you who sang it, what record label it was released on
as a 45 rpm record, and what number it was too, AND what year/date
was it released as well as well as biographical information about the singer (ie. when was the singer born, or the group from). I love virtually all oldies music except I'm not too big on Motown and I don't really like the Beatles and Rolling Stones all that much. I love British Invasion music from 1964-1966. Examples of this would be like Gerry and the Pacemakers (who did "Ferry Cross the Mersey"), Manfred Mann (who I mentioned), the Honeycombs (who did "Have I The Right?"), The Tremeloes (who did "Silence Is Golden"), The Hollies (who did the "Air That I Breathe" and "Carrie Anne"), Dusty Springfield (who did "I Only Want To Be With You" and "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me"), and Petula Clark (who did "Downtown" and "Don't Sleep In The Subway").
But I love doo wop music from the 1950s too as well (ie. Thurston Harris, Danny and The Juniors, Billy and Lillie, Ray Peterson, Shep and the Limelites, Jimmy Jones, The Five Satins, etc). I have about 150 45 rpm records, and well over 1,300 (Yes, I did say 1,300!) mp3s that I have downloaded off from Napster, Kazaa, and various other places.
I virtually have more songs that some radio stations have. And I do like 80s pop music too like Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Wilson Phillips, Human League, Tears For Fears, Naked Eyes (remember "Promises Promises"??), and so on. Anyway if you like oldies music that is rare, in all likelihood I have anything that you could be possibly looking for.
I have many CDs as well too, about 60 or 70 maybe. But most of my stuff is on Mp3s.

3) Finally, I have one more unusual hobby/collection. I just happen to collect children's dress shoes from the 1980s and 1970s. And I only collect two types - t-strap buckle shoes and Mary Janes. Most of the time, the ones that I collect are in toddler sizes 5-10 (what a 1 year old to 4 year old would wear), but occasionally I do go over if it is something that is rare. These kinds of shoes are mostly for baby/toddler girls, but if you go to the Deep South (ie. Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama, and even Virginia), there are quite a few little boys who wear such shoes too (usually only t-straps though), and usually they will wear them with pretty little rompers (for example, Kelly's Kids rompers, Bailey Boys, Ashton Connor, Wish Upon A Star, BT Kids, Fast Friends, etc.), sometimes to church. I have probably about 60 pairs of t-strap and Mary Jane shoes, some in boxes, some not in boxes. Most of the stuff I have I have gotten from Ebay (a large market for me), or from mom and pop family shoe stores, or maybe from a thrift store, but thats about it. Usually people don't keep children's shoes that are THAT old. I have shoes that are probably older than some of you who are reading my post - I mean, I have t-straps/Mary Janes from the early 1980s and
late 1970s - some of them are almost older than I am (I was born in 1976
in Dallas, Texas). Believe me, it is NOT a easy hobby because as I said most people do not keep their old children's shoes or shoes that their children wore when they were toddlers about 20 years ago. Most specialty children's shoe stores don't keep things over 3 years old at the most. If you want to look for old children's shoes at a store, your best bet would be a mom and pop family shoe store, which is far and few in between. Sometimes I am so frustrated that I can't find anyone else who collects children's dress shoes the same way that I do, but I should probably be thankful that there isn't, in a way. I already have such a hard time finding this stuff. If everyone had my interest, then I probably would see auctions on Ebay bid up to a very high price, or I wouldn't be able to find any shoes at all because everyone else would want them!! I wish I could find someone like me though. I have every name brand of children's shoes that you could think of, and some of these shoe companies that made
shoes for children no longer even exist anymore, went broke or folded long time ago. I have old Stride Rite shoes, Buster Brown shoes, Jumping Jacks (nothing beyond 1993 unfortunately - that seems to be the only brand of shoe that I cannot find anything from the 1980s!) , then I also have Amilio (which still exists), Mother Goose (which folded), Lazy Bones (which folded), Baby Deer, Baby Jacks (which was a part of Jumping Jacks), Wee Walker (which was a part of Baby Deer), Alphabets,
Toddletime (a JC Penney brand), and I could just go on and on. I have so many shoes, I have almost run out of places to store them. I have 6 or 7 containers (Sterilite and Rubbermaid both make these large containers;
you can get them at Wal Mart or at other places like that) and they are all filled to capacity with maps, shoes, and 45 rpm records and compact discs. I virtually don't have any more room in my closet for all my stuff - I'm a real packrat!! ! You know that song that Olivia Newton John sings in Grease "You're The One That I Want"?? The first verse she sings is "I've got chills, they're multiplying", and I'm singing "I've got SHOES, and they're multiplying!! !". I know so much about children's shoes that it makes presidents of children's shoe companies wonder if I am from another company trying to get their secrets or something!! LOL. I don't know what ever made me get interested in t-straps and mary janes, but I think I always have been, even from the time I was in kindergarten. It was just that I never bought any back in the 1980s, because obviously I didn't have money then because I was just only a little boy. I started collecting shoes about 8 1/2 years ago, back in early 1996 or late 1995.

Well anyway thats enough of my rant. I just wanted to share some of my hobbies with you.

Some of my obsessions/hobbies from the past and present that I could also include (some of these I no longer have an interest in)
- road tunnels (I love taking pictures of road tunnels, and on the inside of the tunnel I have to use a camcorder because a regular camera is too sensitive to light and the picture won't come out right)
- BMW Isettas (you know the car Steve Urkel drove on sitcom "Family Matters, right? Very adorable! I like adorable things!)
- BMW 2002s, Porsche 356s, VW Beetle convertibles from the 1970s with
their back air cooled engines
- studying toddlers and their behavior and coming up with new theories on the way that children behave and learn (even now I have this interest)
- toddlers, and toddlers, and toddlers, and toddlers
- old TV sitcoms like "Family Ties" and "Full House"
- old game shows from the 1980s like "Press Your Luck" and "Card Sharks" and "Tic Tac Dough"
- the Oklahoma City bombing disaster of April 19, 1995, and the toddlers who died in it (that was very very very sad, and traumatic for me)
- Matchbox cars / Hot Wheels, back in the 1980s
- baby dolls (when I was eight years old)
- pacifiers (soothers, dummies they are called in England, binkies, suckies, baboo, nummy, nukkie, mammy, and many many other names they are called by). I've had a pacifier (of course, you saw this in my last post regarding pacifiers) since I was in high school and I'm 28 now. I think this has to do partly with my Asperger Syndrome and partly do with the fact that I am like an eternal toddler. Sometimes I act like this normal
28 year old, and sometimes I just act like a 2 year old, all of a sudden with no warning.
- TELETUBBIES!! I love Teletubbies! I have about 5 different Teletubbies backpacks from England, Canada, Australia, and so on.
- EBay
- Oshkosh B'Gosh overalls
- trains, railroads, scale railroads (ie. Traintown in Sonoma, California,
which has a website at www.traintown.com), engines.
- geography, maps
- weather (I used to forecast weather in high school on the PA system - I was the school's weatherman).
- and many others I can't think off the top of my head right now

Do any of you have any of the interests that I have??
You can write a message back to me here on this message board, or you can email me at [email protected].

I talk a lot, but I've seen other people write equally as long posts and messages on this bulletin board!! A 6 year old once asked me why I talk so much!! ! And 6 year olds are VERY talkative. And strangely, I have no
problem with empathy, I am a very sympathetic person who responds
to things very emotionally, and I also LOVE to hug and pat other people,
which a lot of autism/asperger's people don't like. Plus even stranger perhaps, I'm Chinese American, and Chinese people are very cool (stoic), and they are not emotional people nor do they go and hug people. At my grandfather's funeral in 1997, only me and my grandma cried. The whole family other than me and gramma were very stoic and had no tears in their eyes, and we are talking about 20 some people!! So I'm VERY emotional too.

Well take care of yourselves and hope to hear from you all soon!

Warm regards
Preston from Central California
(geowhizkid26)

I show many of the same interests as you. I tried to stay out of the obsession threads as my obsessions are time consuming and didn't want to reignite the ones that have smoldered over time. I also know that many others on wrongplanet.net share your interests as well. I would point them out to you but I am sure that they will make themselves known to you here. I too do not share all the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome as intensely as others on this site. That's the one thing that I have definitely found out about Apies, thanks to my experience on wrongplanet, none of us are exactly alike as people or with our AS issues. Sometimes I feel like I am in the middle between the accepted normal and severe AS. I feel like this gives me the oppurtunity to be an interpreter for those struggling more with certain traits. I think that you will find that you are not so different from the other members here, just that the particuliar intensities of your condition are not exactly represented in one other person.

Geowhizkid26,

I am also a map fan. Currently I have only a measly collection of 60 maps, but I have many more in my sister's home (which was our parent's home in the past). I once knew a map collector who had several thousand maps; definitely I am not that obsessed. Nevertheless, when I put my hands on an interesting map, I can spend whole evening studying it and trying to visualize places and geographical features. I like maps for their visual/spatial contents, and find verbal information not so interesting. I guess if a map were misprinted and missing all proper names, I would barely notice! My only feat in geographical rote learning was to memorize list of all countries in the world and their capitals. But I can't really brag as all other students in my high school accoplished that too, and geography teacher made sure that we all give good workout to our memories. In addition to reading maps, I have spent good part of my childhood drawing maps of imaginary lands (usually lacking city/town names, but complete with highway numbers) and cities (again, without street names, but with numbered bus routes).

If you say that you know all streets in a city, do you know their location, where they begin, end, and how they interconnect? Do you remember thousands of little streets that meander their way in residential areas?

Seeing as how one of my obsessions was once land fills, I'd have to say that being a map junkie would be one of the more *normal* things an aspie could be obessed about.

I'd like to get my hands on old video equpiment, but as of right now, I can't since it can be a very space demanding, and cost prohibitive hobby.

I listen to my local Oldies station all the time and my favroite genre of music is the British Invasion

By the way, I'm 30

1. I used to be obsessed with maps/geography, but now, I'm not. I don't have any OBSESSIONS now, but I have interests.

2. Not currently obsessed with that, but sometimes oldies music plays on Vh1 Classic (but I haven't heard it on there yet). I like the alternative music they play on Vh1 Classic. Well, most of it. But I don't know NEARLY as much about anything as you do.
I don't have any mp3's, but once I listened to a song called "DiStOrTiOn" (an mp3 alex [I think.] wrote). I didn't hear anything, but keep in mind my speakers tend to get unplugged. Maybe after I'm finished typing this message, I'll listen to it.
I like most '80's pop music. They also play it on Vh1 Classic.
I'd say I have about 6 CD's (not counting CD-roms) of my own and, like, at least 10 tapes (but I don't listen to them since they mostly have kiddie songs on them).

3. I don't collect children's dress shoes, but I do have 1 or 2 pairs of shoes that I wore when I was little (in the '90's), but they're mostly tennis shoes (I think.).
I usually store stuff in Model Magic boxes, like these people I made out of paper and tape. My closet is almost full to compacity (and I'm still waiting for my dad to put in the new attic entrance so we can make more room in my closet).

I watch old sitcoms sometimes, especially The Addams Family. I watch Full House occasionally, but recently, I've been watching more Green Acres and Addams Family than it. But that's the only note I have about the other obsessions/hobbies.

Oh, and I'm also VERY emotional. I like to exaggerate, as you would probably know by some of my posts.

Mich

ok geowhizkid, without googling it, tell me about the original of 'i put i spell on you'.... who it was written by, when it was made and where it was made

It's never been an obsession but I love maps. Anyone interested in maps should check out The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.Only visit when you have a lot of time though because he has over 10,000 maps online

As for oldies, I'm 23 and listen to them almost exclusively. My collection isn't nearly as impressive as yours but I have about 30-35 CDs, a few MP3s and a bunch of 45s and cassettes (not sure on the exact number) covering the 50s & early 60s

Oh dear! You appear to be a Flaming Aspie (as in shining brightly)! Therefore, yes you will at times be seen as strange (or worse), even by others who share your same interests. I'm of the opinion that is why it is said that those of this persuasion never really "fit in" anywhere.

It is my presumption that obsession is simply another way of seeking something. The problem comes if it impacts ones life so greatly, usually not being able to find what you are seeking right away. Then, there is too much time taken up, or too many interests and obsessions to be an expert on all of them. It is good to pick one as you get older, that you like the most, have the talent or ability to amply develop, and has a probability to become a way of employment. The rest can still be hobbies, less concentrated on, and used as a back-up if the first area of employment should fail.

The manner of being a "chatterbox", can come for many different reasons. The length of writing too manifests for many ways and means to communicate effectively. As in the fewer and more direct words that are used, the higher the probability of not being understood, or hurting someone's feelings.

The manner of drifting off topic, seemingly from cues that are oblivious to others, is said to be how those of intellect communicate. Sometimes in a group, social, or work situation, you can have someone you trust give you a friendly cue when you are drifting off topic or ranting (I don't like this word but can't think of my favorite one at the moment).

Love, Peace, & Auspie Rock,

LadyBug

Wow, this is a fantastic link! I added it to my bookmarks already. Thanks, Rogue!

Geowhizkid26 you sound pretty normal. By our standards anyway. I have a weird hobby/interest/obsession to watch every single movie ever made. I haven't run into anyone else with this particular interest, but it's not like we can all be the same.

My interests are geography, travel, language, 50s and 60s oldies (particularly "beat music" from Europe, Asia, and Latin America), DVDs, books, and painting.

As for oldies, my "obsession" is foreign-language covers of English-language songs. For example, say I heard the song, "Sad Movies Make Me Cry" in a restaurant, I'd say, "hey! I know that song in French!" or whatever. I've heard English songs that sound even better in a foreign language.

I love geography---the stranger the place, the better I like it.

I also understand 8 written languages---Catalan, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, and, with difficulty, Danish, German, and Dutch.

Do you have any 'south up' maps? Those are really great.

Let's see. hmmm.

I guess my first hobby/interest would be movies and soundtracks. I'm in love with a lot of the older movies (1940s-1990s).

I also love Geography

I'm kind of a history person (especially with the Holocaust)

I do travel a lot, but it's mostly through the USA. With my travels, I always try to get to all of the historic sites in that area

As far as music goes: I listen to music from the 60s, 70s, some 80s, some 90s and today, country, and of course anything by Josh Groban.

My geography teacher in my GEO123 class showed us one of those once. It's odd to look at North America at the bottom of the map and upside down, but the text being right side up.