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DeLoreanDude
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16 Dec 2008, 1:53 pm

Acacia wrote:
I'd like to hear your opinions on what characterizes an "obsession", in contrast with simple "interests". I feel like some of the responses here have been lists of interests, versus an overwhelming obsession, which is what this thread is supposed to be about.

I'm certainly not judging anyone here. I have interests too. Heck, I like ancient Greece, cooking, volleyball, cats, Ireland, swimming, and Rage Against the Machine. Those are interests. I'm not obsessed about them.

As I mentioned previously, plants are my obsession, with music occupying a secondary focus. I think about plants all the time. These thoughts intrude on ordinary working consciousness on a regular basis. I ignore other responsibilities and then spend time in the garden or go to a nature preserve, so I can be around plants. When I'm immersed in the obsession, I feel vibrantly alive, happy, and energetic. When I'm not, I always feel "off" in varying degrees.

I think that is the heart of the discussion here. The characteristic of Asperger's which involves a heavily-focused obsession to the exclusion of most other things.

What you think?


DeLoreans are my main obsession at the moment, I think about them all the time and spend a lot of time on DeLorean related sites.

Same with Asperger's.



Modality
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
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16 Dec 2008, 3:58 pm

Longtime obsessions spanning many of my years (I am 22 years old):

The music and life of Beethoven
The philosophy and life of Wittgenstein
Philosophy of mathematics
-First-order logic
Philosophy of language
-Modal logic (System K)
Modernist literature

There are corollary interests but I would not label them obsessions.



Palmans
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16 Dec 2008, 4:47 pm

I obsess about poetry. In my own language (dutch). I love puzzling with thoughts and words, creating new concepts. Not to many people understand my writings, but those that do often say it's amazing. When I read other poets I either fall in love with them or hate them. I dispise poets that write about obvious things or supperficial emotions, I consider them childish, not to be understanding what poetry is about. Luckily most poetry that is considered 'big', I like, and I understand. This supports me when others, that don't understand my writings, are tearing me apart. For years I did not publish, now I do. On the internet. It's very disappointing to see a lightweight (to me stupid) poem getting 5 times more votes then my own work, but I've learned to accept it.

I obsess also about coding (software). I don't make full functional software though. At this moment (and since the last 2 years) I've been exploring the possibilities of the 'propertygrid' object in the dot net framework. I've built a control that inherits from the propertygrid control and that takes select statements (SQL) as parameter, and displays the data (editable). I'm handling collections, primairy and foreign keys, complex data types, etc. The goal is to use the propertygrid instead of creating forms to edit data. (using type editors and type converters, and property 'bags' that work through reflection). I had the idea after reading some articles on the code project (its a site, but I'm not allowed to post the link here) a few years ago (Tony allowat : Bending the dot net propertygrid to your will). I realise i'm telling you this much to detailed, sorry if it bores ya. In any other case : please contact me ;)



HowlingMad1992
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16 Dec 2008, 4:59 pm

Led Zeppelin songs & Jennifer Beals :D



richardbenson
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16 Dec 2008, 5:36 pm

it rotates, right now its fire agates. but in the past its been rocks, sportscards and music.


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