What are your special interests?

Recently I've been doing the National Cipher Challenge and someone posted a link on their forum about another cipher challenge that you can work through at your own pace instead of having to wait a whole week for the next challenge.

I've become a bit obsessed with doing the new challenges over the last few days which can be seen at:

https://cipherchallenge.pythonanywhere.com/challenges

Although they are in a similar format to the National Cipher Challenge so far they have become more difficult a lot quicker than the National Cipher Challenge.

I'm currently half way through the new challenges and am having a bit of a break today as the weekly National Cipher Challenge gets posted today at 3pm and I wanted to save my energy to have a go at that when it gets posted.

I've always loved reading (mainly coming of age fiction and autobiographies) and my Kindle is never far away from me. Currently my other interests are researching my family tree on Ancestry, doing word searches, creating Diamond Dotz diamond art pictures and watching Big Jet TV and Hobbycraft TV.

It'll use quite a bit of electricity I expect.

I used to be really interested in Hitler and that period too.

Learning about it helps understand history and why it’s important to remember.

Downloaded it, cheers

You can try Shifting if you like. That’s the last album he released and his best effort IMO. He’s about to release a new one at any moment though.

I have interests, like cooking, gardening and history, but I would go so far as to call them special interests, the only thing I feel uncomfortable about if I can't do it is reading, I love a good book and a good cat.

My only real current interests are nuclear related and WW2, especially Anne Frank and the death camps. It’s all very morbid I know but it needs to be heard. 

Thanks, i will check him out

Yes. Teho. By the way, he’s currently touring with Lane 8. He will be in London next month. Amazing artist. Check it out.

Got any melodic house suggestions? Check out lane 8 and Le youth.

I like watching TV shows especially when there’s loads of seasons, loads of episodes in the seasons and the episodes are really long. 

I’m also into making lists of themed stuff and then trying to go through them. For example, because it’s autumn at the moment, I have a list of shows and films I can watch during then and I also like to dress all autumnal. I love it when other people make lists like this as well and I try to go through every single one. 

I’ve had a hyperfixation in the past where I try to do my makeup based on characters from my favourite games and also dress up in their colour scheme, while keeping it casual, if it’s their birthday lol

I’m still kind of trying to figure out what other special interests I have had in the past though because I’m newly diagnosed. 

I love 18th,19th and early 20th century history, archeology, ancestry, true crime (especially historical true crime), neuroscience and yes I am a cliche - steam trains!! I want to get into metal detecting but wouldn’t know where to start and presume it’s expensive for the equipment?

If you like podcasts (I listen to podcasts whilst walking my dog) try AfterDark for folklore and Uncanny for ghost stories, they are also on YouTube I think

I’ve never really felt comfortable sharing my interests with the world for fear of judgement, but here goes:

History: Specifically 18th century/Napoleonic military history/sailing ships, 19th-20th century social history, WW1, genealogy 
Classic literature: Brontes, Austen, George Eliot, all that good stuff. I love to collect books, they make me feel all happy happy
Journaling, writing fiction and fan fiction.
TV: My current favourite TV show is the Canadian historical crime show Murdoch Mysteries. This show is my ULTIMATE comfort show. I’m pretty sure annoy everyone in my vicinity talking about this show. I just love solving mysteries. Plus it’s a great show, highly recommended!

Aspeth said:

hyperfixations/special interests

I veer - might do something for months or years then leave it and try something new. 

sailing ship terminology e.g. 'splice the mainbrace ' and names of parts of ships - absolutely no practical use as I don't sail and never intend to!

eighteenth century social life and aeronautics 

writing - written journals since age 10. Published age 45 - useless at marketing but enjoy the process and learning to write in new genres

baking - my day to day cooking is not so good but I've just mastered the whisked sponge. Practical - at least you can eat the results

archaeology - too old and bad knees so no longer a volunteer but watch TV docus and read

cleaning - daily chores, of which I set limits every day - about 3 items. Enjoy sitting with a glass of wine or cup of tea and admiring something I've just cleaned. Get huge satisfaction from this.

Aliens and space, I love reading, listening, I write my own sci fi stories and draw pictures related to them. It's been around 3 years with it.  Before I had some other hyperfixations, some of them saved my life. It was Russian (lasted 10 years and was so intense, that the menu language in my devices must have been always Russian otherwise I had meltdowns) and tgere was Graphic designing (long hours without bathroom,  eating or drinking) just me and the pictures and animations. That was wonderful. I remember being very active in a forum where there were more people like me and with the same hobby. Hobby is an understatement in thus case. 

In my childhood the first hyperfixation I had was quite stereotypical (city trams) I used to draw tram lines in my imagined cities and also made a model of a tram. Its in my profile description. I also used to drive my bicycle around the area and in my imagination it was the tram and I was the driver. I lived it, I only hated being bullied by my peers.

I've had several special interests over the years. I love collecting things, especially pebbles and nature things. I have lots of jars full of them. Some of my other interests include:

Foxes

Tomb Raider (especially the earlier PS1 games)

Tim Burton films

Books books books, reading and books. 

Memorising lists of things

My current hyperfocus is British folklore and ghost stories

How atmospheric! 

I saw a heron standing on a rock in shallow sea water yesterday, but it was too far away to get a decent shot with my phone.

I spy on my neighbours with my telephoto lens.

Here is the latest visitor to the stream outside my flat.