Short-term Special Interests

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Simply post your current short-term special interests here. Too many special interests is not necessarily a good thing, and most of us with AS have only 1-4, "slots."

* Mathematics
* Philosophy
* Psychiatry

[A part of this is selfish, in that I am attempting to shake existentialist philosophy off my list.]

I have a lot of them and it usually works this way: I start something and then it leads to something else, kinda like association.

Currently it's

cell biology and music theory

[If it happened 5 weeks ago, we would be sharing a full interest and a partial (long-term related) interest!]

The association part is probably how I figuratively pick up special interests from exposure. I did not realize how relieving philosophy could be, but existentialism had to come along and ruin everything.

Tell me about it You make some construct of the world, yourself and your relationship between the two. Then that Sartre guy comes along and throws you into existentialist oblivion. That is why I stuck with Kierkegaard...though he is, I think, basically a proto-existentialist.
Philosophy may lead to nervous break downs, they should print disclaimers on them and MPAA rating too.

P.s. I find your avatar rather interesting.

Short term would be hognose snakes (and /some/ other animals but mainly that), league of legends (again, /some/ other games but mainly that) and sexology.

I know absolutely nothing about philosophy, I'm afraid - what's existentialism?

The last couple of months I've been fascinated by sacred geometry.

My interests are long-term at the moment, but in the past I've been obsessed with colourblindness, asthma, the menstrual cycle and pregnancy, Spain, pianos, pubs, snooker, Sweden, and Tescos. Those were very short-term obsessions. But I stopped having short-term obsessions when I was about 16, and now they are long-term.

I have one long-term obsession (which is a bus company), and 2 other minor obsessions that come depending on the time of the year - moths in the summer and weather in the winter. So at the moment my obsession is the weather, but my more severe obsession is the bus company, which I have all year round.

Maths

But I am not sure if it is a short term interest yet.

I had to take a maths module for my natural science course and, unexpectedly, I have fallen in love with it. Now I am considering a maths degree instead of a sciences one. But as I am not presently sure if I will stay in love with it, I have arranged my modules to give me time to decide so that if I do switch to maths from earth/natural sciences my modules are set up in such away that they count towards either degree...

So I have 11 months yet before I need to make up my mind as the next module I register for after the ones I am doing now will need to be different depending on which degree path I follow.

Ie my degree is part time so I needed to register for two modules this year. The two modules I picked are Discovering maths and Using maths (for maths, science and technology). The first module will be from my free points from either degree, and the second is either taken from any remaining free points if I go the earth science route or will be the first compulsory module of the maths degree. After these two modules I will need to pick my pathway as the next module I need to take will depend on which degree I decide to do...so Exploring Science which is a compulsory module for the earth sciences degree or Exploring mathematics (the follow on module for Using maths) which is a compulsory module for the maths degree.

I have time to see how it goes.

Which ever degree I do I need to plan it so that I can do a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education which qualifies me for teaching) in either maths or science afterwards, so I am taking my time to make my decision lol.

^One of my short term Special Interests was the Open University, so I can tell that's who you are almost certainly studying with.

Although that was part of a very long term interest in university courses, which started when I was about 13-14.


Most of my short term interests link in some way to either religion, history, animals and natural history, or collecting. Courses is a kind of collecting to me.

On discovering the Open University my interests were going to go the route of collecting qualifications with them. Alas though, they are now changing the cost of all modules and funding rules. As I registered for my BSc before the changes take place (they are due to take effect next September) I am classed as a transitional student for the time it takes me to complete my degree and will continue to get funding and module prices at the price they were before the change over. However, afterwards I will have to pay full prices out of my own pocket and as I am presently not working and the module prices are going up to £400 (previously £170) for a short course, £1250 for a 30 point course (previously around £400) and £2500 for a 60 point course (previously around £700) I am not sure I am going to be able to do any more modules after I finish my degree. It will depend on my financial situation in the future.

There will also be no future funding for those on a low income

So unless I strike it rich in the future I will have to settle for just the one degree from the OU. Other qualifications will either require me to save up or try to find courses with funding available.

And yes you are right, I am with the Open University lolol. You know your interest well.

Edited to add: For those who want to do free courses just for the sake of doing them (you don't get credited for them but they are useful for improving any skill you want to work on for yourself), if you are in the UK, you can go to www.openlearn.open.ac.uk.

I am having a ball in there at the moment! So many interesting options to choose from lol.

Titan A.E. and Invader Zim

Childfree life and their attitudes on parents.

Palaeogeography, recent autism studies, satanism, Christmas (this one is periodic actually), Schloss Neuschwanstein, wide-angle lenses
And whatever is it that I'm doing in my field. Most of my interests are long-term and very abstract.

Here's an embarrassing one for a man in his 60s that I certainly hope is temporary: dollhouses.

This sounds like a viable and interesting substitute for philosophy.


I know I should have stayed inside metaphysics and epistemology (Grr, WikiPedia for offering links from the Descartes page!). When the extra factors were added to Nicomachean Ethics (for learning about society), I got more than I wanted. Fortunately, the ideas presented will probably keep me distracted from the mess the later existentialists (Kierkegaard was fine, I agreed with most of his views about society). Determining the day of the week for the Gregorian calendar will probably push excessively heavy philosophy away until school closes for two weeks.
* Weekday determination (currently ~29s/date)
* Japanese abacus (1/4 abacus with 3 digits for the above)

Going back and remembering my previous interests, just for the sake of nostalgia.