• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Multiple Obsessions/Hobbies/Interests

Sometimes I wonder if it's multiple interests, or simply one obsession based in learning/understanding of the world around us.
 
Sometimes I wonder if it's multiple interests, or simply one obsession based in learning/understanding of the world around us.
In my case, I am a bit pick-&-choose, so it isn't a blanket interest. (I would spread myself too thin if I tried to go down every rabbit hole. ⧭)

Even in linguistics, I am only interested in certain facets of it, and not others,
  • etymology/onomastics (mostly Japhetic* & some Semitic),
    • incl. morphemes
  • neology,
  • phonetics** (primarily American English) &
    • incl. International Phonetic Alphabet
  • humor.
  • (Cryptology is, at least, 50% linguistics.)
I had French in high school which I don't get to use very often. I'm not really interested in learning other languages and skills that I won't get to use anywhere.

I am not very good at chess and have no particular desire to learn it, either.

*I know that Proto-Indo-European is, technically, more accurate, but I find Japhetic to be more succinct.
**I only spent time on phonetics while I was programming speech synthesis, but a lot of it stuck.
 
Last edited:
  • Programming in many different languages (but mostly java/c#)
  • Learning japanese and watching mystery or adventure anime
  • Doing a task over extended periods of time and getting really good at it
  • Solving everyday mathematical/logical problems by writing short programs (I like to call them scripts)
  • Watching scientific youtube videos on a daily basis (holy moly is my subscription box filled with edutainment channels)
  • Testing the limits of how far I can get under sleep deprivation (lol)
  • Inventing somewhat cheap jokes on the spot to hide the fact I suck at communication
  • Trying to find a middle ground between being scientifically & grammatically accurate thus unmisunderstandable, and not sounding too much of a nerd
  • Listening to relaxing, inspiring music, including asmr, ambient, trance, touhou (it feels like a genre if you ask me). Not only these types of music ofc
  • Everything touhou related, it became a part of me after I learned about it. You like touhou? - I like you as a person:tongueclosed:
  • Learning bottom-up (every. single. detail. first, then broaden the scope). I freakin' love interesting details and edge cases
Haha... I am taking a break from coding C# right now at work. I started professionally coding in VB 7 followed by Java and now I am primarily in the JS-C#-SQL stack. I am writing code for..... robots! (it sounds cool but it is just pharmacy automation... not like Kraftwerk Roboter)
upload_2020-11-14_10-29-42.png


日本に年間住んでいた... 僕の好きなアニメはアキラです :) 東方は面白そうね!

Here is picture of my old crawler.
upload_2020-11-14_10-35-14.png
 
In my case, I am a bit pick-&-choose, so it isn't a blanket interest. (I would spread myself too thin if I tried to go down every rabbit hole. ⧭)

Even in linguistics, I am only interested in certain facets of it, and not others,
  • etymology/onomastics (mostly Japhetic* & some Semitic),
    • incl. morphemes
  • neology,
  • phonetics** (primarily American English) &
    • incl. International Phonetic Alphabet
  • humor.
  • (Cryptology is, at least, 50% linguistics.)
I had French in high school which I don't get to use very often. I'm not really interested in learning other languages and skills that I won't get to use anywhere.

I am not very good at chess and have no particular desire to learn it, either.

*I know that Proto-Indo-European is, technically, more accurate, but I find Japhetic to be more succinct.
**I only spent time on phonetics while I was programming speech synthesis, but a lot of it stuck.


Semitic languages are very interesting :) I love the way vowels change the meaning of the consonant "backbone". I am fascinated by phonesthemes.

ns, sn = nose (snuffle, snort, snout, snooze....)
fl = movement through air? (flutter, fling, flurry...)
gl = light (glitter, glow, glisten...)

I really think it is cool that this mechanism is very similar to Semitic languages. I also like that sounds and words can flip over time:

for example French blanc is cognate with black.

When I lived in Thailand many towns had the suffix buri... Chonburi, Lopburi, Petchaburi... buri is from Sanskrit "High Place". In PIE this is bhṛghos. So...the burgh in Edinburgh is cognate with buri in Thailand. This went through some very basic meaning changes... A high place -> Mountain... a Fort can also be associated with high place. In the end, the meaning becomes more like "town" probably from borrowing the names of towns in high places. Language is soo cool.

So what happens in cryptography when someone combines multiple languages and grammars then encrypts the result?
 
So what happens in cryptography when someone combines multiple languages and grammars then encrypts the result?
I haven't done anything like that.

Cryptology = cryptography + cryptanalysis

In cryptanalysis (like cryptogram puzzles), a fair vocabulary & understanding of syntax helps.
 
I am fascinated by a lot of things- too many to list honestly, but topics and hobbies that are obsessions that I actively research, or engage with in some way on a nearly daily basis are:

Mythology
Symbology
Etymology (I love words!)
Languages (currently trying to learn Cree, Japanese, and French)
Painting (mostly acrylic)
Sewing
Philosophy
Anime (its become a problem :tearsofjoy:)

Cree? That is so cool! When I was in the linguistics program in college, I got to study Warm Springs Sahaptian and translated several myths into English. Of course I never learned to speak it... just understand the grammar and vocabulary just for those myths. I was also told by the professor to never try to speak the language as it would cause offense because the languages are not spoken by many of the young in the tribe. A white dude speaking the language would be very insensitive. It is so sad that such a beautiful language is dying. It is infuriating why this is happening.. because of "white dudes".

I love the Cree orthography!
 
I have a few interests and most have been with me for most of my life, though a new one will sneak in once in awhile and they include:
Drawing
Doll collecting
Animals
Mythology (especially Greek, Celtic and Norse)
Anime
Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
Lego
Chernobyl
Makeup
Comic books.
When I was in 12 grade I was on an exchange program to Germany. We were preparing and then Chernobyl happened. One of the parents was very concerned and withdrew her son from the program because she worried he would become "Radioactivated" :rolleyes::D
 
Too many to count/name over the course of my lifetime.

Some current ones are:

History (specifically history of electrical engineering)
Vintage quack medical devices
Radiation detection equipment
Uranium glass and glazed pottery
Fluorescent minerals
Antique radios
Short wave radio
Psychology
Rock climbing
Classic cars
Watch out! You might become "Radioactivated" with such interests! Have you ever built a cloud chamber? I did this with my son a couple of years ago using Americium from an old Fire Alarm. Seeing trails left by alpha particles is a total trip.
 
I love haiku, do you?
I do :) I lived in Japan for several years and became quite interested in it. It is a good mind trainer :)

Here is one from right now:

Cold damp winds blowing
Grey sky boils with intention
Rain falls on red leaves
 
Cree? That is so cool! When I was in the linguistics program in college, I got to study Warm Springs Sahaptian and translated several myths into English. Of course I never learned to speak it... just understand the grammar and vocabulary just for those myths. I was also told by the professor to never try to speak the language as it would cause offense because the languages are not spoken by many of the young in the tribe. A white dude speaking the language would be very insensitive. It is so sad that such a beautiful language is dying. It is infuriating why this is happening.. because of "white dudes".

I love the Cree orthography!

That is super neat- college is actually where I started learning Cree as well. I'm Metis (descended from Cree and European fur traders) so it's close to my heart though I definitely need to work on it more, lol.
For native languages in Canada there's a bit more funding going into saving them, but it's still pretty bad. It really is heartbreaking, but it seems like this generation of youth are more intent on salvaging what knowledge remains :)
 
Watch out! You might become "Radioactivated" with such interests! Have you ever built a cloud chamber? I did this with my son a couple of years ago using Americium from an old Fire Alarm. Seeing trails left by alpha particles is a total trip.

I did build a small one, but it didn't work very well.
 
That is super neat- college is actually where I started learning Cree as well. I'm Metis (descended from Cree and European fur traders) so it's close to my heart though I definitely need to work on it more, lol.
For native languages in Canada there's a bit more funding going into saving them, but it's still pretty bad. It really is heartbreaking, but it seems like this generation of youth are more intent on salvaging what knowledge remains :)

That is hopeful! Language death is something that really bothers me. The US is horrible in its treatment of the 1st peoples. I live in Oregon which was a place where several major language families met. It led to a jargon language called chinook jargon. All of that is mostly gone now :(
 

New Threads

Top Bottom