Special Interests

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This has probably been done but I thought it would be interesting, useful and cool to have a thread where we all list our PRIMARY special interest and state how it makes us feel. I think that, although most of us have different interests over the years, there is usually one that sustains all along. Maybe there'll be a lot of common threads. I'm curious!

Mine is TV shows in which people have "powers" like magic in Charmed or, of course, superness in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Those shows give me a world that makes sense where there are clear rules. To make them even cooler, those rules are usually not known by the leaders of society, the rich or powerful, but only by our special characters, who are usually from groups who are more often opressed. I like the idea of being one of a select few who know the true skinny on life and do something to fix it. I would kill to be the "chosen one". Y'know, one girl in all the world and all that. I also like shows in which people have more realistic special abilities like the ability to see the truth or do impressive maths or science stuff in things like The X Files or CSI.

What's yours?

Well, as you can obviously tell by my username, sig and avatar, my special interest is SpongeBob SquarePants. It kinda started 5-4 years ago, I wasn't so addicted to it at first, then it seemed to get funnier to me. I don't know why, but there's something about it that seems better than other cartoons , I like silly humour and good episode plots, which to me, SpongeBob has both. I guess it also calms me down after a stressful day, and it gives me something to talk about. (Heck, even my nickname is now "SpongeBob!" )

I have never felt my interests to be "special" as such, but over the years they have covered things such as, amongst others: competitive bodybuilding, the Scoville rating (hotness of chili peppers, in other words), certain video games, psychopathology, coffee (I am a trained barista). Right now I am reading a lot about theoretical megastructures, like Dyson Spheres and Ringworlds, space elevators, and so on.

But my main interest since late childhood has been words. I am not especially articulate in speech, or good at writing, but the size of my vocabulary is bigger than I dare to admit to most people.

I second that emotion, with the addition of MUSIC (records, Cds, MP3s, pop charts, etc)!

And tattoos.

And toys.

And comic books - well, books in general.

And movies.

And lists. Of categories. Of groups of things.

I'm stopping now. That's really all of the main ones. Mostly.

Except porn.

Right now it has to be hockey. When the season starts I watch every pre and post game show. 2 different late night hockey talk shows. Read a lot of articles and listen to 3+ hours of sports radio per day. I also try to go watch games around 5 times a year in person. I am also very excited about getting to watch the Olympic hockey tournament this year . It does kind of suck during the summer tho because there is barely any hockey news.

Fun topic!

My interests/obsessions are:
Dance (I either teach it, read out it, watch it, and/or do it every day of the week) and related topics such as anatomy as it relates to dancers
European history (though I never remember details)
Music (listening, playing it, singing, dancing to it!)
Language (words, grammar/spelling/punctuation, foreign languages and how they are related)
Art & design (particularly painting, web design, art history and photography)

Dance is my major obsession - even though I'm clumsy when I'm not dancing and even though I'm not a very emotive performer (I have am awful at making the appropriate facial expressions!) nor very good at picking up choreography, it makes me feel alive and makes everything else disappear. Technique is my strength. I love teaching because I make good use of all that stored-up knowledge and it's great to share my love of dance with others! It took me a few years to get over the nerves of teaching though.

Making Youtubes is a current special interest
The Sumner Brothers - current
Arabic and Aramaic music
The dictionary - ever since I could read
Saints - For many years
World Religions - on going
Philosophy - on going
Psychology -on going
Art - my own - on going
Writing poetry and fiction - on going
Collecting cobalt medicine bottles

My special interests now are:

Parrots
The human anatomy
Music

I was obsessed with airplanes starting at the age of 3. The obsession was so intense that I taught myself how to read (with minor adult help) at the age of 4 for the sole purpose to be able to read the "big airplane book" that had a lot of pictures of airplanes which my parents refused to read to me because I was too young. At 5, I set out to design and build an airplane myself. I wish I saved the airplane design plan I drew at 5 - I was planning to use industrial blowers instead of jet engines and mount them to provide vectored trust (not that I knew the name for it) for vertical takeoff from a tiny backyard...

Over the years, the fascination with airplanes evolved. The interest forced me to self-study subjects that were just outright crazy for my age. I built flying models, participated in some competitions, but never won any awards mostly because I had no access to proper tools and materials. My parents were destitute drunks, supporting an expensive hobby was out of the question.

Later the interests expanded into spacecraft and rockets. Yet later, I became interested in electronics, but primarily for aircraft control purposes.

Now I am gainfully employed in aerospace industry basically designing the same things I was obsessed with all my life.

Well, until recently - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (small world ) That was a special interest that lasted over ten years for me. When I wasn't watching Buffy, I was thinking about the Buffiverse - and when I absolutely had to be doing something else (i.e. "work"), a part of my brain was counting the seconds until I could be thinking about, or watching, Buffy. It was, for me, the perfect story/television program/universe (it still is.)

I totally agree with TouchVanDerBoom about "clear rules" in worlds such as BtVS. That clarity is extremely attractive to me. I contrast that clarity with the "real world" - in which the rules are made by NTs - who then proceed to break those rules at every turn, almost never getting caught or punished (if they are caught or punished, it makes the news - it happens that infrequently.) But if *I* ever venture to break one of these rules, it never seems to go unnoticed.

But I digress.

Unfortunately, I currently find myself between special interests. I still have plenty of "interests" - including music, fitness & nutrition, computers - and Buffy still figures into the mix - but nothing that rises to the level of "Special Interest." It actually bothers me - I feel as though something is missing when I don't have a really SPECIAL interest that completely consumes me.

YAY ANOTHER CHARMED FAN!

Ongoing obsessions since childhood:
Cats
The planet Saturn
Purple things

Current:
Charmed
Japan
CSI

I know exactly what you mean. Since I got bored with juggling (I used to spend 5 hours a day practicing/ reading /watching videos) I haven't found another interest that I can dedicate that much time to other than hockey. (and theres no hockey in summer). I do enjoy reading about nutrition and fitness and going to the gym , biking everyday but it's just not the same.

I've always had a special interest in Halloween and since about the age of 11 I've decorated the house for it every year
Another one is Eastenders (it's a soap opera in the UK) I got quite obsessed with it when I was younger, I still enjoy watching it but the obsession has faded

Noa x

My life long obsession is space. Ever since I was able to hold a reasonably complex thought in my head, I've asking questions.

"Mom... what's the sun?"
"A star. Now eat your dinner"
"How big is the sun?"
"Big. Just eat dinner."
"So if the baked potato on this side of my plate is a sun, this little baby pea on the other side of the plate is the earth... and this speck of cheese closer to the potato would be Mercury, since Mercury is so small..."
(mom's giving up by this point and wrapping my dinner up to be put back in the fridge)

It makes me feel better to know what lays beyond the feeble grasp of our medium sized sun. I've been all tingly with joy every since they started real research on magnetars and the watery inner mantle of Europa as a breeding ground for life. I can't wait until they get that thermal drill there to look under the icy crust of that moon! I recorded and watched the 'live' landing of the latest mars rover way too many times.

My other special interest is extinction of prehistory life. I like to know what tricks and interesting functions nature has pulled out of her magic hat in the bid for survival of the toughest. Unfortunately, this specific interest is purely memory storage and not terribly useful in any way. At least the space obsession is considered normal in the 'nerd'/science community at large. Even NT's go space crazy!

Mine is certain characters from certain cartoons. It's like I'll be interested in the same character for anywhere between a few months to a few years. I tend to draw that character a lot. Usually it's a secondary/minor character (rarely a main character; few exceptions). I sometimes get angry if my favourite character isn't in an episode. Right now, it's this guy: http://nerdarmada.blogspot.com/2007/07/gorgonzola.html

I really don't have a special interest at this time. I have some hobbies but nothing that would be catagorized as a special interest. A special interest would need to be 'abnormal in either focus or intensity' to fit the DSM. I don't think my hobbies catagorize as abnormal in focus or intensity.