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Not Obsessions, Passions.

NateSean

Well-Known Member
There's a woman who ran her own blog for a while about her son with Asperger's. He was a big theater buff with a love of of both the film and stage. But she pointed out that this was not an obsession. Because an obsession is something that goes strong for a little while and then dies away.

Theater is her son's passion. And passion is a word I use to describe any interests that have remained with me from childhood.

So my passions in order:

Reading

Writing

Acting

Painting (art)

Ghost Hunting. I am a genuine ghost hunter and I have been on real investigations of places with supposed paranormal activity. No I have not yet discovered anything on those investigations, but the group I was with is now the household name in paranormal groups for the state of Vermont.

Video and photography: I bought a digital camera with video capability this past year. Best purchase I made all of 2011 not counting my new glasses.

So what do you feel are your passions?
 
"interests" as a kid...

Drawing... Used to do that a lot of things as a kid. I mostly did characters and a lot level design stuff cause I had minor aspirations to become a game designer, just like a childhood friend. He kept his part of the deal, lol. Still, I do some art, and such... but now it's more related to "creating a universe". So in a way I was more into "creating" and drawing was one of the tools to get it done.

Also, modellingkits. I used to do planes as kid a bit. I once bought a giant bag of toysoldiers and painted those with a friend. Now I'm still into tabletop wargaming. Did take a break from it a few years ago.

Writing... If I knew what to write about. But that's still the case.

Music... I was obsessed with music facts and music theory as a kid, and that still sticks. It did evolve a bit into getting into instruments as well.

Wrestling. I used to watch that as a kid a lot. I still watch it every now and then, but care more for backstage stuff instead of most actual "matches".

The concept Time travel/alternate timelines.. pretty much ever since I've seen Back to the future and Terminator.

As well as Back to the future III was my first exposure to "weird inventions" and that's where I got my first idea of Steampunk, before it was waaaaaay mainstream, lol. But I do share a common interest with Cyberpunk as well, as well as post-apocalyptic stuff.. probably from those darn Terminator movies, lol.

But some things aren't that prevalent that I start conversations about it that much. Stuff like wrestling is pretty specific. But that's pretty much things I can come up with right now.
 
So, passions are explained in terms of obsessions not dropping off in their intensity?
That being the case here are a few that stayed with me;

Monkeys
Collecting books, and the reading of them
Walking
WWF(E) wrestling (Grrrr, stoopid fund for wild animals, get your own Initialism)
 
So, passions are explained in terms of obsessions not dropping off in their intensity?

Essentially. For me another big one is the story structure of certain shows and books. I love a series like Babylon 5 where every minor thing that happens is a part of the over all story arc. From childhood I have always loved continuity in a TV series and I would get frustrated with reset buttons. But what makes that a passion and not just a passing obsession is that I will try to take this thing I love and apply it to all of my own writing, whether it's fanfiction or original work.
 
dragon ball, drawing them, making what if manga and i want to work with linkin park and akira toriyama, i am 30. and i draw good.
 
Reading, writing, acting, movies and linguistics

Plus, while we're on the subject of defining "obsession", I might add this question that Luke Jackson (Freaks Geeks and Asperger's Syndrome author) raises: When is an obsession not an obsession? When it is about football. - so true, isn't it?
 
My current passions are woodworking; wood finishing (i.e, staining, color-matching, wood repair); and airdale terriers.
 
My interests include:

Watching sports, esp. American football, basketball and soccer occasionally
Reading non-fiction books
Business, in general. I'm a student in a business-oriented place anyway
 
There's a woman who ran her own blog for a while about her son with Asperger's. He was a big theater buff with a love of of both the film and stage. But she pointed out that this was not an obsession. Because an obsession is something that goes strong for a little while and then dies away.

Theater is her son's passion. And passion is a word I use to describe any interests that have remained with me from childhood.

So my passions in order:

Reading

Writing

Acting

Painting (art)

Ghost Hunting. I am a genuine ghost hunter and I have been on real investigations of places with supposed paranormal activity. No I have not yet discovered anything on those investigations, but the group I was with is now the household name in paranormal groups for the state of Vermont.

Video and photography: I bought a digital camera with video capability this past year. Best purchase I made all of 2011 not counting my new glasses.

So what do you feel are your passions?

I was thinking about the difference between passion and obsession. Well i can say, i had a lot of passions. The only time it bordered obession description, wwas me saying to myself. Maybe it is more practical to do something else right now.

Now i am not a linguistic expert, so i do no know the correct terms. But i think obsession and passion, are basically synonims. But passion implies a positive emotion from the speaker. And obsession a negative. I am not sure if obsessions weaken over time. But i am sure that the speaker hopes it will. :p.

So if it is called officialy obsessions. I think it is societies way of saying, i don't like it. But i am trying to respect it.

By the way, i guess with the quoters definition i tend to have only obsessions. Everything goes weaker over time. Usually when i feel, i mastered it. I achieved what i wanted. I am happy. Now lets find something else to be passionate about. Weaker over time, doesnt feel the same right.

But iguess thinking over these things is sort of a passion. aBut there are so many things to think about, i never run out. :p
 
I differentiate passions as long term and obsessions as my short term interests. So my passions are earthquakes earthquakes and more earthquakes and computers. And short term obsessions are NCIS, the west wing TV show, writing, making videos and politics (though this is becoming more along the lines of passion)
 
Old things. Cemeteries. Archaeology. Nature. Paint chemistry. Taxonomies. Violin. Reading . Writing. (In no particular order.)
 
I don't think "obsession" has a bad meaning in its literal sense. It just means something that you are constantly thinking about. "Passion" is something that you care emotionally about. You might constantly think about that thing, or only think about it part of the time.

People speak as if an "obsession" is something bad, but I don't think that is necessarily the case. It kind of depends on what, exactly, is the object of the obsession.

It is true that obsessions can get in the way of accomplishing other things.
 
a palindrome...:smilecat:
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