Boobs.
dorodango, Japanese mud balls.
kettles, rock kettles, so odd, where do they come from?
very, very small houses. Think gypsy caravan small.
Life. What is it? How is it measured? Take a tree, how do we know when it is dead? I know a guy who had a fence-post take root and grow. It certainly seemed to be dead. But somewhere life found a way.
[ul]
[li]I want to learn how to play the bass.[/li][li]I’ve never had one second of musical training, and now as an adult I’m trying to wrap my head around concepts like pitch and tone.[/li][li]I’ve gone from knitting from a pattern to making my own (with mixed results, but the learning curve is fascinating).[/li][li]I’m trail running more these days, and want to really get technically good at it.[/li][li]the French Revolution - a few things caused my interest to reignite lately, and I’m trying to read all that I can about it.[/li][/ul]
I love this thread!
Thank you! I was feeling kind of shallow for thinking the same thing…
I’m beginning to think we need an omnibus thread for great username/post combinations…
My current fascinations:
[ul]Biographies detailing personal relationships between famous people. (Just finished reading one about Grant & Sherman, am reading one about Buffalo Bill & Annie Oakley, recently read a Kit Carson biography that placed him in close proximity to a lot of other famous people, etc.[/ul][ul]Based on the last fascination, I guess I’m currently caught up in a lot of western American history. I attended school in the southern US, so we didn’t cover much western history in school. A lot of what I’m reading about is new information to me…[/ul][ul]Musical harmony. Because my kids both study music, I’m learning a lot while trying to research answers to their questions.[/ul][ul]Environmentally-friendly cleaning products/methods. [/ul][ul]Dog training and the “why?” of how dogs understand me and act.
[/ul]
The mechanics of breastfeeding and birth
The health care reform debate
The social structure of high school, and how it relates to the military and other conformist organizations
The legal issues of inheritance and genetics, and how the two relate, if at all
backrubs and footrubs, when I’m on the receiving end
**Tattoos, their history, how they’re done in different cultures, etc;
**Abandoned places like steel mills, houses, hotels, and the like;
**The DUNE universe.
Right now I’ve been really reading up on Charcuterie, blacksmithing and vintage teardrop trailers.
Learning Mandarin Chinese (very slowly…).
Winemaking.
Catching up on electronica/techno I missed during the 90s when I wasn’t in to it at the time.
- If by “currently fascinates” we mean “constantly distracts and becomes my central focus for as long as they are in line of sight” then, yeah - I’m with you. Man genes - what can you do?
In terms of other stuff:
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Philosophy and Brain Function - reading a lot of books on these topics right now as part of refining my own worldview and thinking about the basic human condition
-
Building a Business - I am an executive at a small publicly-held company that is going through growing pains - evolving from entrepreneurial company to stable concern - and need to build out the infrastructure required for scaled growth. Frankly, the philosophy and brain function stuff is very helpful here - if people tend to behave X way, what kind of business structure should I put in place that exploits strengths and minimizes risk?
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Guitar - building an electric (when I get the body back from being finished - grr)
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Guitar - learning to play slide
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Guitar - learning hybrid picking - holding pick AND using middle and ring for finger picking at the same time. Weird, but for me kinda more natural than just flatpick or straight fingerpicking. But between that and slide, weird learning new stuff after playing for 30+ years…
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Politics and world affairs - as we emerge from 8 years of Bush and 30 years of the Conservative shift and this Great Meltdown - lots to pay attention to
Lots of other stuff, but this is a start…
My actual thinking was that “currently fascinates” == “is the primary thing that occupies my mind and has been since I was 8.”
So, yeah, po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
Immigration
The human response to severe trauma and its corresponding best treatment
Psychosis
Existentialist literature, esp. Nietzsche
Surrealist art
Religion and spirituality
Social psychology
Neuropsychology, insofar as I understand it
Human sexuality
In no particular order.
[ul]
[li]Mark Ryden[/li][li]cookbooks[/li][li]volunteering[/li][/ul]
I’m between fads at the moment. Most recently, I have been fascinated by Latin and mediaeval history.
I wonder what’ll be next? I might go back to gardening. Haven’t been obsessed by that in quite a while.
Over the years I’ve been fascinated by: perfumes; life in medieval times; World War I; British literature/movies/television. Some of these interests have waned a bit, but one of my odder fascinations is with saints. Their names, their gory stories, their symbols, their patronages. One of my favorite books is the irreverent and amusing “The Birthday Book of Saints” by Sean Kelly and Rosemary Rogers. What some of them have said or done to deserve sainthood is beyond me!
Everything including why my drop down list of recent Google searches is 9/10 things relating to the treatment of suicidal patients in English mental hospitals. (Which unfortunately I am still clueless about. Google fail.)
Images of the Apollo landing sites by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Anything and everything kites (i.e. the “tethered aircraft” types of kites–not kiting checks, etc.)
Aircraft of all kinds (besides kites)
Geneaology (finding living relatives I didn’t even know I had)
Smooth Jazz
The Arabic Language (spoken and written—especially spoken)
and other languages I’d like to learn
Prehistoric Life
Life elsewhere in the multiverse