Ever pursue a trivial obsession?

[Bullgrit]

Have you ever pursued a trivial obsession? Are you a total expert on something trivial? Like:

Figured out a pattern for a video game?

Memorized everything about a TV show?

Found every hidden easter egg, (like every "hidden Mickey" at Disney World)?

Memorized every stat for a sport?

Mapped out a 30-level dungeon for D&D?

Read every book, short story, and/or author interview for a particular universe?


I'm not meaning just watching every episode of a TV show in one week. I'm not meaning just regularly going on discussion boards for a topic. But really going to an extreme in something.

Bullgrit

 

[Zombie_Babies]

I tend to find an author I like and then read everything they've written. I do it more for convenience than obsession, though. I read a lot and I need a lot of books so doing it this way keeps me entertained.

 

[sabrinathecat]

I collected comic books for 10 years. Marvel liked to scatter stories across multiple lines in order to spread the wealth and make people buy all sorts of other comics they weren't planning on in hopes of getting them hooked into other series.
But then, I had lots of collections.
I used to try to get 3 complete sets of Star Wars figures: one for me to keep sealed, one for my brother, and one to open. Then I gave up on trying to keep my own set of sealed. Then my brother didn't really need them either. Then I just stopped, since all they seemed to be doing was re-releasing the same characters or rehashes of them. I sold all of them on ebay and was lucky to get $1 per figure (even the sealed ones). I laugh when I walk into the local comic store sometimes and see them trying to get $10 for figures that were peg-warmers when they came out, and certainly not in demand now. I still have pictures of the dioramas and play-sets that I built for them though...

 

[ExiStanc3]

I tend to find an author I like and then read everything they've written. I do it more for convenience than obsession, though. I read a lot and I need a lot of books so doing it this way keeps me entertained.

I have the same habit, but for movies (I cover everything from a director when I discover one). That said, that's a lot of stuff: directors, actors, writers ... And at some point, before you know it, you get really good at this. I wonder how come I can process and store that much information.

 

[Bullgrit]

Back in high school, my friend figured out the Pac -Man pattern. Whenever we went to the arcade, he'd play it for about an hour, then get tired of it and pass it off to anyone who had been watching him.

Bullgrit

 

[Jhaelen]

Back in high school, my friend figured out the Pac -Man pattern.

Ha! That's something I figured out, too
Back in the days (i.e. when I was still at school) I obsessed over lots of video games. I was drawing maps, calculating odds & statistics, searching every pixel for secrets, testing every permutation of starting parameters, etc.

Actually, as soon as I learned to read, when I obsessed about certain topics, I'd absorb every tidbit of information about them and memorized it. It's an ability that proved useful at university.

These days I'm drawing most of this information from the internet, i.e. from people with more time but the same kind of dedicated obsession. I'm still having fun searching for 'secrets' in a game and keeping statistics for a select few games, though. And if some (mathematical/programming) problem intrigues me, I cannot let it go until I have it solved.

I suppose, I have a certain tendency to behave like someone with Asperger syndrome at some times.

 

[Herobizkit]

As a kid, I memorized the Greek alphabet for no reason other than it was in my dictionary and it looked interesting. I could tell you what the letters LOOKED like and I'm still not 100% sure of the pronunciations, but I know all the names in order...