Axis Mundi X discussion

Yes. I have obsessions I'm afraid of sharing. Yes. Eventually I may be foolish enough to share them anyway.

Far too many obsessions to list. Listing things is one. Bookface is another. I have an unhealthy obsession with people who like American Psycho (I hate them and want rats to eat their faces). I have various musical obsessions - the term is "completist" - I'm a John Fahey and Incredible String Band completist. But not as bad as my pal David who collects all the vinyl variations of John Fahey as well as all the bootlegs. That's expensive. With the internet music obsession can become very florid - check out this book for a very funny account

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92...

or for a glimpse into the horror of John Fahey obsession check out this site

http://johnfahey.blogspot.com/

I develop temporary obsessions, one current one is to reread all the Pan Book of Horror Stories series which I have (vols 2-14 published in the 60s and 70s) in an attempt to find out what "horror stories" do (are they like porn? are they like romance? what do the readers get from this stuff? I'm beginning to form a few ideas) - after I get through these I need to read a few modern collections to see if horror has changed. I'm also obsessed with trying to get believers in God to tell me what they mean by God but they never EVER do. I long ago realised I couldn't ever do any job that was particularly time consuming (having to work overtime, taking work home with you) because I need a lot of free time to devote to my very numerous obsessions.

This is an interesting question. I have fears and addictions, but I don't think those quite qualify as "obsessions." I also have some things I'm really, really into (temporary obsessions, as Paul said, a great term) but I'm not quite sure if they qualify as full-on obsessions. Let me throw some out there.

1. I was and still am, I guess, obsessed with Alice in Wonderland. Not the girl, you pervs, but the story. I re-read it once or twice a year and have maybe fifteen or twenty Alice-related art pieces in my home office. I think I love the story so much because, when I was very young, it keyed me into a world of possibility at a point when I felt pretty hopeless. As I get older I still find I can return to that place of possibility when I re-read the book.

2. Odilion Redon...I talked about him in the art thread. I was temporarily obsessed with his work. I have a few of his prints scattered throughout his house. I guess some of #1 applies here. Redon's work is all about possibility.

3. Would music in general be too broad of an obsession? I'm not sure.

I find completist collectors a bit weird. There are eels fans who will fight with each other over auctions for obscure Japanese cassettes of whatever that only contain songs they already have. I don't get that at all.

Ok...that's it for now. I want to think about this more.

Here are a few weird ones

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbod...

The music completists I don't understand are the ones who pay big bucks for the Japanese cassettes or the 1962 Elvis album on an orange label (rare) as opposed to red label (common). My music obsessions are strictly about the music - even if it's an unlistenable Incredible String Band audience tape recorded from inside a duffel coat right at the back of the hall, if it's got an otherwise unavailable song on it, I want it. Badly. But the variations in sleeves and labels are meaningless froth to me. Likewise I have no idea why anyone would fork out for a first edition of a book. Who cares so long as it's readable (not too many wine stains, no large insects crushed within its pages) and not abridged (all abridgers should be shot).

Yeah, I'm with you, Paul, on all accounts. I don't get the first edition thing either.

That web site is creepy. I feel badly for those people.

obsession:

Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety.

Hm. I've never really thought about it before. But I think you could safely say that I sometimes have obsessive thoughts about death. I imagine scenarios in which I die horribly, and then who would come to my funeral. Or, just get horribly maimed, and then who would come to see my in the hospital. I sometimes obsess on what if my daughter died. Whether I would survive, or burn my house down, or become a bum, or walk into the sea. Sometimes I obsess about stupid things I have done in my past... like in grade school or something really pointless... and make myself feel like a complete cretin. I try not to do that anymore. That's a really bad obsession. I also obsess about past relationships, the ones where I was desperately in love and things didn't work out for one reason or another, and where those people are now, and how I will always kind of love the idea of them if nothing else.

Yeah, I think you could safely say I am a tad obsessive.

I am obsessed with:

Alphabetizing things
Books
My own space...and nobody screwing with my space, or anything in it!
Paint brushes...don't touch those either!
Black socks
Clothes folding...no one else does it right!

Oh, I forgot to add one of the most obvious. I've become somewhat of a workaholic and I'm trying to break that obsession. It's not easy.

My office at work, Amy, is "my space" and nobody better screw with it. I hear you on that one.

My Obsessions:

Cattle people.
When people are walking in a group would it be too much to ask, to just walk instep. It looks like a herd of cattle stampeding around when everyone is just letting their feet fall whenever! Did we climb to the top of the food chain to act like our food sources? It doesn’t have to be military grade lock step, just something that say’s “we are together and talking fuck off.”

Fresh towels:
I own just shy of a million towels, if I use it once, it goes in the laundry bin. This drives my wife nuts. I just can’t re-use a towel. All I think about is the dead skin cells and soap scum or whatever that I am now wiping all over. Yuck. I’ll just use a new one thanks.

After meal mint:
Whenever I eat anything, I have to have a smoke afterwards. If I don’t I get really bitchy, this is so obsessive that I am unable to quit because of it. I was down to like 4 smokes a day, guess how many times I eat a day…

There are more but I have a little work to do so… I’ll be back with more obsessiveness.

For a second there, Anthony, due to the syntax of your last sentence I thought that you had named your office "Amy," and then I was a little weirded out. Now that would be a weird obsession.

Ha, Kelly. I think you're right...the structure lends itself to the appositive, e.g. "my friend, Dan, is a teacher."

No, my office does not have a name, although my students call it "the dorm room" because it's dark and shabby. I love my office, though.

Two pictures, one of each side of my office, the second a bit blurry, my apologies:

http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i19...

http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i19...

That is a very clean office....*feeling the need to straigten up my desk all of a sudden*

There's that tell tale Diet Coke!

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk...

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk...

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk...

MY space...

The book shelves are fuller now...thanks to goodreads!!!

Amy, now that's a nice room. What's that right outside the door in the second picture? Ornamental grass?

It's a stand of bamboo that takes up one end of the patio.

Anthony: I love the wall entirely filled by bookshelves. When I have an office: WANT.

Like Paul, I have temporary obsessions. I put a CD in and listen to it repeatedly for a week or more. Drives my husband insane. Someone will ask me a question and I research it so thoroughly you'd think it was actually significant in my life. Last week it was pistachios. My daughter and I were devouring a bag of them and she asked where they came from. I had to admit I didn't know for sure. Now I do. I know pistachios inside and out.

My longer lasting obsessions:
cows
lists
order - chronological, alphabetical, numerical...
texture - I'm very tactile
really nice paper - I lust after it
song lyrics - I can't touch that thread. I would never leave the computer. I would go insane. Google would overheat and catch fire from me obsessively looking up lyrics to songs I half remembered.

If you saw my desk you'd know how funny that order thing is. I obsess over wanting order though. Most of me is completely random and all over the place. Then there's that little part that wants to tidy it all up. Make some sense of it. It feels very superior when it succeeds.

I generally have a number of interests that can be considered obsessions of one sort or another. They fall in and out of favor, but I eventually come back to them all.

Most people call them 'hobbies' however. ^_^ Or, at least they're components of hobbies.

When I get interested in a series, I get a little obsessive with it. Generally, I don't crazy with it, but I'll stick with it long after the point where it's obvious that the good qualities that started it are gone, but its obvious that they'll never come back either.

I play a number of different games. Some of which are very big and complicated. At times I'll get so wrapped up in one of them that it's the major thing I'm thinking about all the time, and I leap into any forums or other communities around them. WoW would be culprit most familiar to you, though Star Fleet Battles and Advanced Squad Leader are the more usual suspects.

The same type of thing can happen with role-playing settings. I find myself obsessing over the Traveller universe about once every five years, and am thankful that Mystara and Forgotten Realms haven't sucked me into that cycle.

And then there's books. I have a lot of books. I'd like to have more. And it's very hard to get rid of any despite not having room. I'm also all too aware of how many worthy things are never reprinted, with the number available slowly falling to attrition. So I try to keep them in good shape. I've had a person tell me he can't tell anyone's picked it up after I'm finished reading a book. And no, I don't write in them.

I was not seeing it post at all.

Silly malfunctioning post.

Grrr!

And since I'm chewing up this space anyway, here's some links I'd meant to provide, and forgot:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1589
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fle...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/243
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced...
http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Main_...