I apologize if someone's already started a thread like this. I'm wondering, what's your narrow interest du jour--or should I say, de l'anee? You know, the thing that you've got a bee in your bonnet about and makes NT eyes roll.
Lately, it's been contra dancing. I can't miss a single contra dance and whenever I get the chance I try to get people to go, and tell people all around it. I've even added a thing or two to the Wikipedia contra dance entry!
It's a really neat dance form, full of complex patterns that appeal to my aspie brain. Plus it's a great way to meet my "type". And it's good therapy, insofar as it helps with my dyspraxia--I think of it as a mirror neuron workout.
OK, so what's your narrow interest? We'll all pretend to be interested. After all, who ELSE will listen to us?
Ha Ha--great thread
I also like contra dancing, by the way, but was never obsessed with it.
Current interest--enneagram
I've learned to tone it down with respect to talking about my interests. It's only occasionally now that I get the "can we please talk about something esle?" plea.
Mine is chemistry and the synthesis/testing/pharmacology of novel psychedelic drugs.
Computer...err.....security arrangements, form another of my "narrow interests" as the OP put it, alright, lets see what the rest of you get up to behind closed doors
Okay I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my (main) special interest before, but anyway... Makes my mum's eyes roll a little but if I have to listen to her gardening stories then she can damn well listen to me, as far as I'm concerned.
Ancient scholars counted 115 extra marital affairs committed by Zeus alone. Wish I had that much time on my hands, I'd try and see how many I could count.
I love reading authors such as Joseph Campbell (And his "Hero with a Thousand Faces") where the journey of the hero is compressed into a few key moments. -- From the safety of their original environment, they are sent into a far more dangerous world, and have to face near-impossible challenges, and at the other end they will be grown.
But what makes legend particularly interesting to me is that the stories do not always end up happily. And "tragedy" in the Greek sense -- literally, tragoediae or "Goat Song" -- does not always end up in that sort of Shakespearean blood-bath that people find, for example, in Hamlet. And contrary to what some people believe, it isn't all about people bedding various immediate relatives either. (Oedipus and Jocasta - incidentally - had four children.)
Although some of the coolest stories are those that really wouldn't be suitable for an audience under thirteen -- although some would be a delight to pre-pubescent boys. (Bits about people cooking each other's children or getting mauled by supernatural bulls or having sexual relations with every imaginable animal although said animals were apparently really gods so it was all okay.)
-- Ariadne, the girl who helped Theseus escape from the labyrinth of Minos, was actually the Minotaur's half-sister. Because her mum got impregnated by a bull. hehe.
Well, you said bore us to tears!!! Anyone crying yet? NyanChan stops now.
Hey, Pakrat - a fellow rat-lover! We currently have two females, an albino called Rosie and a black-and-white hoodie called Emma.
About 10 years ago I had a pair of males, and when one died I took to carrying his elderly twin around in my taxi (he was lonely). Of course, when I was at the airport to collect passengers I couldn't leave him in the taxi so I would put him in my pocket. It was highly amusing when he poked his head out to see people's reactions. You could
see the thoughts - "I'm sure I DIDN'T just see a rat's head poke out of the suit pocket of that smartly-dressed woman".
European royalty.
I'm probably the only person in England who was thinking last week, what a pity the Concert for Diana clashed with the christening of Princess Isabella of Denmark
As an ex-Taswegian I must confess, I am pretty well fed up hearing about the Danish royals. (Since Prince Frederick married Mary whats-her-face it seems that New Idea and all those magazines I can't help seeing in every supermarket and dentist's office in two countries won't stop talking about them.)
I do like the history of European royalty, though -- and I guess in one way history is really just gossip with hindsight.
Preparing to do paper collages. I'm accumulating material from magazines. Lots of material. There's colors with no patterns, colors with fabric patterns, colors from pictures of nature, picture of people, buildings, cells, etc. Text, numbers, signs. Hair, jewelry, valentines, images related to time and place. Art. Pop art. Food. So I cut out all this stuff and then I have to sort it. For just plain colors, I'm up to thousands of little sandwich baggies because it drives me nuts to mix different hues together. And depending on the light, time of day, season, I get different answers, so I'm always having to re-sort colors I've already sorted.
Some day, I'm really intending to make collages. Someday....someday.
And I'm facing a major problem of: a) where do I put these sorted papers and b) how do I find what I'm interested in?
if autlang ever catches on (so far I have my doubts) it may evolve into something less like English and more like its own language. In the same way that Sign Language is not the same as Signed English, although it started as something for which the syntax was very similar to spoken language.
I like making up languages too.
I got a new obsession recently but I'm not telling what it is because I've learnt that telling other people about my obsessions just ruins the fun.
I always think it is such a shame that a) English speaking countries do not have good language programs, and b) That English speakers do not get enough opportunity to practise other languages.
I hate the way that people treat me the first time they hear me speak Japanese -- almost like the furniture has started talking. It's off putting, to say the least.
(Does that count as a rant? I don't know. I like other languages, and always wish that it could be easier to find the opportunity to practise.)
European royalty.
...what a pity the Concert for Diana clashed with the christening of Princess Isabella of Denmark - another missed opportunity for Will & Harry to get to know their continental counterparts.
So did any Euro royals go to the memorial service?
SPOKANE!!!!!!
BENNY & JOON!!!!!!!!!!
Faramir from LOTR is so sexy. I think that anyone who prefers Legolas is insane; I can't stand the elves in LOTR, they think they're so perfect and Legolas is the most annoying of all the elves; which is some feat, as they are all very annoying. Especially Elrond, smug git. I don't like the way Arwen's role was exaggerated in the movies, either. But Faramir is so brave, as well as being good looking; that scene where his father sends him off to his almost certain death makes me cry in the movie.
Check out the movie "Cosi" -- it's got the same guy in a really funny role!!
I loved "Funky Squad" too!!!! 
-- Ethel which one is your favourite character, if you don't mind me asking.
LOTR = "Lord Of The Rings". I like the hobbit best. Hobbits are cute because they have furry feet and no doubt furry chests too. But I bet they cop a lot of short jokes such as when they are in the pub and someone orders for them "and I'd like a half-pint of ale and an order of short ribs for my hobbit friend here".
Re: gibbets and such - I heard that drawing and quartering was done in England hundreds of years ago. I can't imagine doing something that barbaric but I think the idea was to scare people off from angering the king or queen of the day.
Also, in France when they had the Guillotine, there was a harpy who used to watch all the executions while she did her knitting. She was called Madame La Farge. One night, I was knitting furiously because of being in a bad mood and mum likened me to Madame La Farge. She said I got very cross with her.
Hang = hang until not quite dead.
Draw = draw a person's innards out of their body (usually while they were still conscious.)
Quarter = generally beheaded first, and then the body cut into quarters, and scattered in various points all over the kingdom.
Yes. Very yucky. Mostly reserved for those committed of treason.
Braveheart and Guy Fawkes were among those who ended up hung, drawn, and quartered.
Someone was telling me about these things the other day. I couldn't believe anybody could be so inhumane and barbaric but unfortunately, this kind of thing or equally horrendous punishments have not been exactly rare during recorded history.