An intrest in researching

Hi All

Autism is a wonderful condition that so many people are getting gifted these days, as the lovely condition present strange interest and fictions on certain subjects as well going through phases. 

I'm one of those all through my life where I have gone through phases and strange intrests and I do alot of database work on subjects you can readily get hold of on the internet.

I have done research on Closed Pubs, Lost Streets, Mills, Bus Routes and plenty more weird and wonderful research database but my current fication and interest is Women Fashion no not the clothing items themselfs but I'm sure that will come at some point but where you get your fashion from. I'm creating a database to help in the future to deal with another human inside me that waiting to be relased I covered this in another post where I detailed my journey from fadopation and daigninoses to now. 

i was wondering what are other peoples strange researching interests or phases your are going through at the moment 

  • Thanks Duck, I will loving this safe space where we can just be us and flourish without scoiety tutting every two minutes and I always been curious to see what other people weird research and phases people have and a place to share my weirdness 

  • I got a new version of the DAW (digital audio workstation) I use, with a bunch of new instruments, effects, and devices thrown in. I'm actually scared to look at it at the moment. Last time I updated I spent days just messing with the new features, hyper-focus kicked in! I'll probably end up fixated on it when I finally get down to it, fiddling with the new stuff as opposed to making any music!

  • I forgot to mention literature - I got particularly hooked on Harry Potter, but I love reading the classics too. I actually read pretty much anything.

  • This is a great thread! I love having lots of random knowledge. I have very in-depth knowledge of dogs and I memorised the breeds at a young age; I even know a lot of the terminology for the different types of snouts they have, or what each dog was originally bred for.

    At the moment, I'm researching autism a lot, mainly because I want to be able to understand myself better.

    Aside from that, I seem to retain really odd facts. I have a book that covers 1001 of the key inventions, theories and concepts (e.g. in engineering, psychology, theology etc.) from primitive times to the modern day. I love things like this - collecting random knowledge is a passion of mine. I sometimes find myself drawn to a specific topic as a result.

    I love hearing about other people's special interests (and being able to talk about my own!), so thanks for starting the conversation :)

  • Yes - I know - the printing takes ages - but I'm looking at the fact that all the errors and mistakes can be ironed out on a screen without wasting material.    And I'm not in any special hurry so I can set it running overnight if necessary.

  • my nephews, who model, use these a lot to produce life-like components.  Some take hours to print. 

  • Hello Thejollygiant,

    I thought I was the only one that collected information/items on eclectic subjects! 

    Since my diagnosis, I have found that Autism allows an individual to have many different interests throughout their life. Sometimes, they may temporarily drop one subject, to take on another.

  • One I almost got into, triggered by memories of the "I Spy" series of books from childhood, was creating a taxonomy of different types of Gargoyle / Sculpture of Mythical Creature / Grotesque, and then gathering pictures from online to "spot" one of each type. Inertia stopped me, primarily the difficulty of settling on a pleasing taxonomy :-)

    One that I've kept up is a spreadsheet recording all of my significant life events in a parallel diagram, so that I can remember for e.g. when X happened, I lived at *that* house, was driving *that* car, and my hobbies were P,  Q and R. I've sometimes thought about turning this into a database so that I can query it, but sometimes that seems too geeky even for me :-)

  • I'm getting into 3D printing.    It seems like a useful way for me to make all my model boat bits under my own control of quality & detail & price - so I'm just getting up to speed with the cad systems available - so many options, so many possibilities.

  • Maps, satellite images, Google Streetview and Google Map to figure out old photolocations and disused railway lines. I also got interested in genealogy for a bit. Other that, almost any subject under the sun that has recently grabbed my (somewhat limited) attention span. Decades ago, I had a rather unconventional Special Branch member as a neighbour. Probably having heard that no one was really sure what to do with me for a career, he told me that I would make a good detective. My response was OK, but I don't think they would accept me initially as a police cadet because I had zero interest in sports and fitness activities. (I prefer physical work.). Now that seems to be yet another blindingly obvious giveaway sign.. But that was long before the movie Rainman began the process of giving autism a little catchet. Sure though, I probably would be good at the painstaking sifting of evidence. Another old classmate became a police forensic scientist.

    Repurposing and recycling items that people want to throw out, is another one.