Interests related to other interests

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Do you have any interests that are somewhat connected to certain interests of yours? I do; not only do I like newspapers from other cities, but I also like newscasts and news personalities from other cities. For instance, not only do I like the Houston Chronicle, I also like the Eyewitness News format of KTRK channel 13 (Houston ABC station); that, and the personalities thereof (Dave Ward and Gina Gaston). I'm not from Texas, of course, but I have these interests because both the paper and the local stations where I live in SC are, IMHO, very horrible (outside of FOX Carolina, of course).

I now play 6 instruments, compose music and write lyrics. Started with lyrics, then guitar (of which I have three kinds now!), then bass (two kinds!) started the rest. It snowballed, for sure.

All of my interests are connected. History led to costumes, which led to clothing, which led to sewing (which I sucked at), which led to knitting and jewelry-making. And history led to historic/fantasy fiction, which led to acting and writing. Oh, and cats led to history, and clothes led to history. And clothes led to India for a while when I was a kid. And clothes and history led to opera (because of my mom's interests, she had lots of records).

Ah, that's what you meant. Yeah, I branched out from just listening to music to all that other stuff then visual art inspired by music.

That Eyewitness News interest of mine came about because at one time, the local CBS station, WSPA channel 7, was like that. Now, it's 7 On Your Side (an awful name, IMHO). Also, the local NBC station not only has annoying personalities, but less-than-stellar presentation. This is why I mostly am a fan of ABC stations.

Also, the big-city paper interest of mine is because the local paper here (the News) has gotten awfully thin lately (whodathunkit, paying $1 daily for a less than 20-page paper?). The Sunday one, you're paying close to $3 for less than 100 pages, so I don't think that's worth it. The Houston one that my nephew got me, on the other hand, had plenty of interesting stuff in it for much the same price.

All my interests are related to each other but in the end most come from my special interest "game development" (except for drawing which I used to do as a little kid before I was all that familiar with gaming):

I was drawing a lot as a very small child, the creativity of (old) games inspired me when I was more grown up. I am still drawing today, drawing can be used for game development too (concept art).
Since we had a SNES I was fascinated by video games, they were like a door into another world. I decided very early I want to make an own game sometime in the future (game development is my main special interest since a long time now).

I started to learn level design for different genres in my spare time starting with RTS level editors (KKnD: Krossfire, StarCraft), later a bit of an RPG level editor (Neverwinter Nights) and then moving on to an editor for one of the most used engines worldwide (Unreal Engine) and have lots of fun working with it because of all the freedom one has (not restricted to any tiles). Even nowadays I prefer pure BSP-mapping, even though it tends to have certain BSP-errors resulting in a "Hall of Mirror"-effect or corrupt collisions.

When I got a better PC, I could run the second version of the engine which made use of static meshes (ready-made objects that could be placed within the map) which were affecting performance less and were less limiting than the default toolset of the editor (additive/subtractive CSG brushes), you could create them in an external modelling program.
I installed the open source program Blender and am learning modelling, it is very interesting and lots of fun (but the *.ase-exporter I need for my works doesn't seem to work with my current version, still waiting that a user makes a new version ).
At about the same time I was remastering textures for a community project for a game (textures and models were ported from the console version of the game) which pushed my interest in digital art, I started learning how do draw with my mouse (I still need a decent tablet since my old one is very old and inaccurate because the tip of the pen is quite flat meanwhile).

Modelling then again pushed my interest in drawing, I was making sketches of perspective, front, side and top view of objects, scanned them and imported the picture(s) into Blender and build the model based on it.
This shifted my focus on drawing humans (since I try to make my organic modelling skills in relation to human anatomy perfect), observe movement and so on and try to recreate the poses as naturalistic as possible. For this I even bought a wooden mannequin.

Game development also created an interest in photography, since I need photos that inspire me and so that I can use them as reference for styles. I also need textures for what I do, so I take photos of the ground, walls, etc., which I then learn to edit in the open source drawing program GIMP. I still need to figure out how to make proper-looking normalmaps for the (at the moment) latest engine generation. However, I also take normal photos with a passion now, I do not use any aftereffects in my photos because they're unnatural and raising the standards making real nature look boring. With aftereffects, they're fake. That's like make-up on a woman, I prefer the natural look, the natural beauty.

Since I was a little kid I had a certain feeling for music, I learned to play a few instruments - often it was a video game soundtrack that I tried to cover just for fun and this sparked my interest in music. I first learned to played flute at the additional music class at school (the teacher said I learned it very fast, but she hated how I chose to play christmas songs in summer ), later keyboard by myself, then accoustic guitar, e-guitar, western-guitar. A violin is on my to-do list.

Due to my interest in game development, I signed up at certain forums that deal with that engine through which I met other people with similar interests, so I basically have a small set of internet friends now. When talking with one of them, that one pointed out that all those "issues" and quirks I have could have to do with Asperger's, he understands me because he has it himself. I started with my research on Asperger's Syndrome and autism, I took a look at quite a few disorders other than AS but none fit as good as AS does.
I mentioned this to my psychologist/debugger, she said that it would explain a lot, but to be sure, she gave me a book written by an aspie (Nicole Schuster), so I could see if it fits and yet again, the suspicion seemed to be justified. Now I intend to get an official diagnosis (for several reasons), my debugger supports me.
I became a bit obsessed with AS and autism and like to read lots of articles about it, I guess because I wish to understand myself better.

You can call it a network of interests which all start (or even end) in game development (nowadays) or come from it.

I have an interest in dying... which via deliberately ironic application of the golden rule, led to an interest in wanting to kill everyone else too.

Ain't gonna happen though.
I mean I am gonna die, and so is everyone else... but only in the regular course of events.

My interest in the character of Edward Scissorhands eventually led to an interest in Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, because the first time I saw a picture of Lisbeth, my first reaction was: "she looks just like a female Edward Scissorhands!"

Additionally, my interest in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland has led me to seek out other versions of Alice in Wonderland, such as American McGee's Alice/Madness Returns and the manga Alice in the Country of Hearts.

Art, BMX and Old School & New School bmx bikes and Skateboards, and finding random "junk" as others refer to it. Then possibly making something art out of the "junk". Also dirtbikes, quads, minibikes, things with motors.
Almost forgot the video games! Video games can lead to all sorts of artistic ideas

I've become interested in John C. Reilly and his movies and songs since I became interested in Wreck-It Ralph (he happens to do the voice of the movie's titular character).

Have you seen Step Brothers? I watched it last month and thought it was cute/funny. I loved how Will Ferrell's and John C. Reilly's characters acted like manchildren. They reminded me a little of male versions of myself.

I haven't seen the whole movie yet, but I've seen clips from it on Youtube....and it looks HILARIOUS. I love the "bunk beds" scene, and I really want to see the whole thing when I get a chance. Whenever I watch the clips on Youtube, I keep imagining Dale as Ralph. I would so love to hang out with Dale and Brennan, too. xD

I have that I like electronics so with that I like Computers and Radio like CB and Ham Radio. I eventually want to get my Ham Radio License.