Your most unusual obsession and/or interest...

[unsurewhattoname]

Let's see.

- The way toilets flush. When I went to America your toilets weirded me the hell out. I couldn't understand it so of course I had to get obsessed with the different flush mechanisms you have over there, the ones we have here, the ones on boats, trains, planes, buses and how they vary around the world. Watched videos on YouTube by people who have entire channels of videos of them flushing different toilets they find.

- Bears. The idea that these huge things just sort of coexist with you over there weirded me out, so then I learned about all the different bears and their variations and such. Huge documentary binge on bears. Watched every one I could find on YouTube.

- The depth of this one particular well somewhere in the north of England

- Different regions in Europe and how the classifications vary by source

- The states of America. I learned them all for no reason.

- The countries of Europe. Same as above.

- Extreme weather and how it's classified. Like the different wind speeds for tornadoes, what damage they can do, that sort of thing.

- Rainfall in the UK - how it varies depending on location

- What causes floods - since the UK has been underwater this winter. Particularly obsessed with the one called Desmond and what happened.

- Climate around the world - the classification systems there are

- Dinosaurs. Learned about where every skeleton has been found and learned all the dinosaurs. I was intending to refresh my knowledge before I watched Jurassic world but became obsessed.

- Eye colour - made a thread because I made my own eye classification system.

- Cars - different specific things at different times

- How there's 3 different types of twilight and how in summer we don't get night, we only get twilight with no dawn or dusk. How day lengths vary throughout the year, but also how it varies in other places too. How some places have no sunrises or sunsets in winter and summer respectfully. That sort of thing. Completely obsessed, found the U.S. Navy's site that has a tool for calculating it based on coordinates.

I could be here all day because none of my interests have ever been normal.

 

[Beverly]

I suppose my oddest thing is buffalo/bison I like coins and replicas of coins with buffalo or bison on them.

 

[Jonathan Lees]

Mongolian throat singing.

 

[Jonathan Lees]

- Dinosaurs. Learned about where every skeleton has been found and learned all the dinosaurs. I was intending to refresh my knowledge before I watched Jurassic world but became obsessed.

are you sure you know them all, i think there are far to many (tens of thousands), im not sure anyone on the entire planet knows it all, im sure you have a great knowledge on the subject though. I've been doing a lot of palaeontology as part of my course so im very interested in dinosaurs and have a fair knowledge if you ever want to talk about it. i walk past a T-rex almost everyday at university (even though they are only found in north America).

- Eye colour - made a thread because I made my own eye classification system.

sounds super interesting, i will be looking your thread up, I've always loved my blue eyes, wonder where they come in your classification.

 

[unsurewhattoname]

Only the bones that have been identified as being a species, of course I don't know about bones not yet uncovered or bones where they're not sure what dinosaur or anything like that. Only confirmed cases. My interest was in every currently identified type (Tyrannosaurus rex, brachiosaurus etc) and where in the (current) world they were found, what it ate, how tall and long it was, how much they suspected it weighed, and what they suspected it looked like. Of course this will change over time and if I become interested again I'll update it, like if they discover that two previously thought distinct species were actually the same, or if they uncover something new.

 

[Jonathan Lees]

Only the bones that have been identified as being a species, of course I don't know about bones not yet uncovered or bones where they're not sure what dinosaur or anything like that. Only confirmed cases. My interest was in every currently identified type (Tyrannosaurus rex, brachiosaurus etc) and where in the (current) world they were found, what it ate, how tall and long it was, how much they suspected it weighed, and what they suspected it looked like. Of course this will change over time and if I become interested again I'll update it, like if they discover that two previously thought distinct species were actually the same, or if they uncover something new.

but that's still thousands of bones and fossils all over the world, if you know all that im very impressed, did your interest include flying reptiles of the same period or swimming reptiles like the ichthyosaur. i have had a couple of lectures on the topic and read a couple of books on it, generally though the dinosaurs are largely ignored in the basic study of palaeontology because despite them being widely known in the public perception and really cool, in terms of the grand macro evolutionary history of life they are rather unimportant compared with many other extinct/extant organisms. there is a module entirely dedicated to them in the third year which i might take, generally though it seems most of the study on dinosaurs comes from museums (as dinosaurs are famous and make them money), whereas palaeontologist in university's focus generally elsewhere on other more important life. saying that the first sample with supposedly (there's debate) preserved pigments (indicating colour in dinosaurs) is proudly on display in Leicester university. i would love to talk more on this pm me if you want to though as i don't want to hijack the thread.

 

[unsurewhattoname]

Nope, just the dinosaurs. And there are, but I'm only going by continents and where it's been confirmed and that's far less information. And it was at the time I made it, so stuff has probably changed. And it probably is missing some with no documentation. The nature of it means there's bound to be ones missing. But some ultrarare type wasn't exactly going to show up in Jurassic world and my interest didn't stay for too long afterwards (about a month).

 

[Madotsuki]

*I love to listen to racing cars engines instead of music, it makes me feel elated. I try to analyze in my head the frequencies, guess the revs, current speed, horsepower...but I have no interest in cars, and I can't drive
*have my own ways to write alphabet (latin and cyrillic)
*fascinated by LEDs
*Can guess the current ambient temperature, with a precision of 1C and analyzing/guessing the tempo of every song on my music player, I'm not even a DJ.

 

[watersprite]

It's not exotic or anything, just enjoy repacking food, art supplies and other stuff into neat nifty containers and organizing them in my cupboards, shelves &/or cabinets.

 

[ancusmitis]

It's not exotic or anything, just enjoy repacking food, art supplies and other stuff into neat nifty containers and organizing them in my cupboards, shelves &/or cabinets.

I thought that was normal....

 

[Jonathan Lees]

*Can guess the current ambient temperature, with a precision of 1C and analyzing/guessing the tempo of every song on my music player, I'm not even a DJ.

a useful skill, wish i could do that, great party trick

 

[Hayden]

For years and years it was synesthesia. I happen to have it, but that was the smallest part of my preoccupation. Just loved going through the list of possible subtypes and interviewing everyone I met to find out what types they had. And making lists, mental and physical, of exactly what each manifestation of each type was for everyone I knew who had it to the greatest extent possible. Honestly just thinking about it makes me excited, even now.

But I'm always obsessed with something(s) strange.

 

[Myrtonos]

Let's see.
How there's 3 different types of twilight and how in summer we don't get night, we only get twilight with no dawn or dusk. How day lengths vary throughout the year, but also how it varies in other places too. How some places have no sunrises or sunsets in winter and summer respectfully. That sort of thing. Completely obsessed, found the U.S. Navy's site that has a tool for calculating it based on coordinates.

I've had a focus on daylength and it's seasonal variation since coming back from a bad holiday in Tasmania. I live in Melbourne Victoria and I think I found their slightly longer summer days a bit tiring. Here in Australia, including Tasmania, and even nearly all of New Zealand, we do always get night, we never have a time of twilight with no dusk or dawn, and we certainly don't have a time when Golden Hour continues through high (solar) noon, I call those Golden noons.

 

[Maelstrom]

mine is reading the winds of the world so it can not surprise me, and positioning my self with the perfect counter to whatever evil ambush the world has in store for me. This means I study survival patterns for any bad patterns that may be headed my way. It covers anything from knowing how to survive at sea, forest farming, nomadic survival farming, to winning a full scale thermal nuclear war. If I see a bad future like a Russian doll I likely have a brilliant plan hidden away in me to face it.
Now if only I could be as brilliant at handling the present.

 

[Crossbreed]

If I see a bad future like a Russian doll I likely have a brilliant plan hidden away in me to face it.
Now if only I could be as brilliant at handling the present.

In that case, just frame your present as another possible "bad future...?"

 

[Maelstrom]

In that case, just frame your present as another possible "bad future...?"

Yes but my autism trips me up in real life....everything somehow slides into Hell some how like a slow motion train wreck....the weirdest things go wrong....I'm like a black hole sucking in bad luck sometimes it seems.

But I'm overdue for a very large win.... maybe this is my lucky year and I get to be Clueso, (in the pink panther movie), and the rest of the world gets to step on black cats and have buckets of paint fall on their heads....

 

[Crossbreed]

To the untrained observer, I am a 53yo man who "plays with" Barbies & GI Joes.

Just to sound even weirder, I have more bras & panties than my wife & daughter do...!

My photo albums have been moved since my previous post.

 

[tlc]

Old thread but I see it's been brought back to life.

I have had many different obsessions that are common, but I'll list some of the more unusual ones.

Let's see.
- The way toilets flush. When I went to America your toilets weirded me the hell out. I couldn't understand it so of course I had to get obsessed with the different flush mechanisms you have over there, the ones we have here, the ones on boats, trains, planes, buses and how they vary around the world. Watched videos on YouTube by people who have entire channels of videos of them flushing different toilets they find.
- Cars - different specific things at different times

These yes. I'd memorize the pattern of water squrts on every one. There was one I saw once, it sloshed very high up the sides when it flushed. That one scared me.

The various paths of stairways in people's house. Whether the upstairs had slanted walls or not. Then trying to either go in, or ask odd questions, to see if I am right.

Various parts of cars. My grandpa built me a train of about 20 gears on pegs when I was 5. He also gave me a huge tin of locks and keys to mess with, which I had up until a few years ago.

He also built me a makeshift car shifter I could play when in bed when I was 5. But to me it was lacking a chunk of rubber that would allow the stick to lock into the gears. The thought and work was still amazing, as was the drawbridge with functional crossing gates he built me when I was 7. RIP grandpa.

Along the same lines as shifters and toilets, come toilet plungers. For awhile I always wanted a reason to use it. Also while I was poopin I'd play with it like a shifter or a big CV axle.

CV joints and driveshafts. When I discovered front wheel drives I was all over it. Wondering why they never made them with Legos in the 80s. So I came up with a few of my own designs. I'd go crawling under cars to look at the their driveshafts.

Car exterior lights and dash lights. I'd kill the battery in our car from screwing around with the lights. I'd look in people's cars with the sun shining just right and imagine what lit up and what color. When I was 4 I would go around wiping off people's exterior lights. Some of them got mad.

Later on, maybe 10-15 years ago, the light thing resurfaced. This time it was RV taillights. I noticed how so many RV manufacturers used lights already produced for cars and trucks. I was always looking for the most odd combination.

I used to want to collect all of the metal Spartan spice containers. Not only did they smell good, but they had such a lovely tactile feel.

 

[Aspie_With_Attitude]

Made it to the age of 38 and I had decided to go back to Lego building and I forgot how fun it was to play with Lego. Been at it again for about 3-4 weeks after watching the Lego documentary on Netflix.

My other is what I love doing for sport is pool aquatic exercise. I love water and I had always been drawn to water all my life. I love swimming with my T-shirt and sweatpants (covering my legs) on due to my sensory processing disorder.

 

[tlc]

Made it to the age of 38 and I had decided to go back to Lego building and I forgot how fun it was to play with Lego. Been at it again for about 3-4 weeks after watching the Lego documentary on Netflix.

Got my first Lego set at 6. Still have the thousands of pieces I've collected over the years. My daughter and I would play with them maybe 8 years ago. They're in the back corner of the garage now, would like to bring them in here sometime.