Obsessions with maps?

Post Reply New Topic

I can stare at a map for hours, taking in every detail.

I'm not obsessed or fascinated with maps at all, but I'm very good at reading them.

I took ROTC in college for fun, and I had never done anything like that before. We had learned map reading in one class at the college, then went on a field trip to Ft McClellan for the day. We had about two hours that morning of instruction, then we were given our maps, compasses, and full backpacks of stuff we needed along with an MRE and paired up with another student and driven wayyyy out, miles out, into the woods that is part of the Ft. We were dropped off and told to get back.

My partner had no clue about the maps. She tried to do it but couldn't so I was in charge of the map.

We got back first.

Even before the top student in the class, a boy who had taken ROTC all the way through high school, and was in Scouts as well. We got back a good hour before he did.

When he got back my partner and I were sitting out front in front of the office we were to report to, with our shoes off, fresh bandaids on our feet and hands, drinking cokes, eating chips, and smoking cigarettes and talking with our teacher. If looks could kill, she and I would be dead.

I don't feel that it took skill, I think it only took listening to what the teacher said and doing what he told us to do, and reading the map and compass exactly like he told us to read it. I think a trained monkey could have done it, but apparantly not that one dude.

_________________
I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

Yep, as a road geek and a transit buff I love maps!

I like to collect Bus & train timetables as well as maps of roads and highways.

From what I've experienced most people find maps interesting on some level.

I find fantasy maps fun too, but at some point it all starts to just seem like random blobs. Without a culture or some sort of history behind the geography it is mostly meaningless to me.. but if I let my imagination roam around it isn't.

Overall I think most people like maps, and that you are more interested in them than most. Enjoy

I am totally obsessed with maps, I always have been. I have a box full of them. I liove all kinds of physical networks. Roads, rail, wires, anything that can be mapped.
As a kid I would draw all over maps, imagining possible routes for light rail transit lines/subways, or future freeways.
Of course, Google Earth is my favorite program ever! It lets me do digitally what I used to do with paper maps & markers years ago.

Here's some pics of a few of my ongoing google earth projects...


^^This is my current one, highlighting primary roads(orange) & freeways(yellow) in North America.
I still have a very long way to go, but that's ok. I'm happiest in my little aspie bubble drawing on google earth.



^^Here is a color coded map of the interstate highway system, plus a few potential future ones (slightly thinner). Another WIP, eventually I want to fill in every possible numbered highway in the system including ones for canada & mexico.



^^This is the beginnings of a more detailed color coded map of the interstate system. Zoomed in one would find that all detail of the the ramps in interchanges are included. So far I just have the evens up to I-20 on this.



^^Here I wanted to see primary roads & freeways of asia. Freeways in China, Japan, Taiwan & S.Korea. Mixed in Thailand, & Malaysia. Then mostly just primary in less developed nations like Vietnam, Cambodia & Myanmar.


You might say, why bother??? Google earth already has the roads drawn on it.
...But not at every zoom level! I want to be able to see the overall road networks from higher up than the program will show me.

Yes, folks, this is what I do for "fun"
This is my primary aspie obsession. I couldn't even completely explain why I love doing this, just know I do.

I'm the exact opposite. I was 99th percentile in everything on my ACTs except for maps and diagrams, where I was 40th percentile. I am terrible with maps.

One of my BIG ones!

From the time that I was a kid I had an obsession with them! We had a family friend whose house we used to visit whenever we went to my parents' hometown outside of Chicago. She and her husband (when he was alive) had maps of the city - both old and up-to-date. I would pore over them every time we visited. I especially liked following the routes of the various rail lines (the "L" and commuter rail lines) as well as following the routes we take to various places, such as the airport, the Loop, and shopping malls. I loved collecting maps of all the places we've/I've visited. I had a drawer FULL of maps: DC, KC, Memphis, Chicago, LA, Tampa, New Orleans!

Then I got a cellphone with apps and WOULDN'T you know it - the thing has GOOGLE MAPS on it!

So I threw away all my paper maps because I'm a packrat with too much JUNK as it is! So now I can immerse myself whenever I want wherever I want...just NOT on an AIRPLANE!

Oh, how many times have I starred at the atlas as a kid.... I was always seeking some obscure island or country and litterally studied the history and geography of the place.

I know more about the topography of the Uruguayan countryside, Hokkaido or Iceland than I will ever need.

I absolutely love maps. I loved them so much as a kid that when my parents bought Christmas presents, my brothers would get "normal" toys and I would get atlases, globes and encyclopedias.

I would spend hour after hour on my own in my bedroom just flicking through the pages or spinning the globe and looking at the geography of the things. Just the strucure of a map with all the major towns, districts, roads and rivers marked had me grinning in ecstacy. I would then get the encyclopedia out (in the days before the internet) and read up about the places I'd found on the globe or the map and then memorise all that information too. Sheer bliss!! !

I still like maps now and much prefer to navigate with a map than use a sat nav. Luckily I have a job which requires me to look at and use maps quite a bit so it's a secret pleasure of mine to work on a case that involves a lot of map work

D.

I always liked maps, I was spending much time looking at them as a child.

Im much like the OP.
Loved maps as a child and would draw maps for fun. Both real and imagninary countries.
Saw an historical atlas and got turned onto how countries grow and shrink and devour each other on the map like a mass of ameobas.

Some people can match me in geography trivia, but if you add a time diminsion to it ill slaughter all comers. Many can name all the countries in africa but only I can name what european power colonized them for example. I can visualize the Roman Empire and tick off which modern nations in Europe, North Africa, and Middle East were once part of it- and which were part in and part out.

I'm at work right now staring at Google Maps in one tab while posting this on another

If you gave me an atlas I'd sit there and flick through for hours.

I thought I was the only one! I used to draw detailed maps of a fantasy world that I had when I was younger. I've always been good at geography without consciously studying it because maps just interest me.

Witt, you described me accurately.

Is this obsession a good thing or a bad thing?