Which Hobby Attracts The Most Tedious Wankers?

[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
And here I was thinking that coin or stamp collectors would be nominated much sooner than this in the thread…I mean, just how excited does most of the nation get about finding some cancelled stamp, or a shiny piece of copper?
[/QUOTE]

See, coin and stamp collectors usually know that others aren’t the slightest bit interested in their hobby, so if they have any social skills at all, they don’t go on and on about it.

I think the ones that get to be the most tedious are the ones who are obsessed with stuff that you DO have some level of interest in. Many of these types have been mentioned in this thread. Examples:

Audiophiles. Yes, I do like music. Yes, I do like it to sound good. No, I don’t want to hear about your cables, and I don’t want to improve my cables.

Bodybuilders. Yes, I am concerned with exercise and nutrition. Yes, I would like to get in better shape. No, I don’t care about your affection for Super-Mega-Pumparoid powder.

Oenophiles. Yes, I do like wine. Yes, I would like to learn more about wine. No, I don’t want to know the difference between a 2001 Chateau Sceubideaux and a 2002 Chateau Sceubideaux, especially given that I’ve never tasted either.

You get the idea.

The ones I find to be the most tedious wankers are Foodies. And I’m a bit of a foodie myself. But jeez! With some of them, everything has gotta be so perfect and so wonderful and so authentic and so fresh! AUGH! SHUT UP! I just want to sit 'em down and make 'em eat Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for a week as punishment.

We’ve gotten this far and no one has mentioned bikers?

I just want to mention that I’m considering putting the term “Deluded Wankery” on my job description. It’s so appropos.

[QUOTE=dalej42]
We’ve gotten this far and no one has mentioned bikers?
[/QUOTE]
Did you mean motorcyclists or bicyclists? I met a guy once who had to drop his girlfriend because she was cutting into his bike-riding time. How messed up is that???

Not so much nowadays that computers have become a commodity item, but computer hobbyists used to be terribly tedious and painfully prolix. I remember, 20 something years ago, being cornered at work by someone who thought I was interested in his new DOS machine and having to chew my own leg off to escape.

[QUOTE=threnodyangelfire]
I find your average D&D player really hot. It’s that whole geek thing I think. Same goes for WoW’s and Eqers. Hot. There’s just something about a nice geek fellow who knows the rules of D&D I find irresistable.

On the other hand, who give me the synposis of movies that I’m never going to see and go into minute detail, you’ll have me tuning out in seconds. And for that matter never verbally replay any kind of sport. That polite half smile I have? I’ve tuned out. It’s not for the game.
[/QUOTE]

[rolling]

Fails saving throw vs charms

Falls in love with threnodyangelfire, and charges in to take on Onyxia alone to get her something shiny to wear.

Dies happy.

“Gamers” win by a mile. By two miles, even. I’d rather spend time with whoever has the biggest porn collection than the guy who owns the most Magic cards.

[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
Anyone who collects things that I’m not interested in are boring wankers when they talk about them.

But people who are interested in the same geeky pursuits that send me into paroxysms of joy are scintillating raconteurs!
[/QUOTE]

Just what I was going to say, only more incoherently and with a worse vocabulary.

[QUOTE=Malacandra]
Right, that does it. Make a saving throw. :mad:
[/QUOTE]

[wanker]You clearly aren’t a gamer. Not only did you neglect to specify what kind of saving throw, but the standby phrase is “roll for initiative!”. It’s a pet peeve of mine that whenever someone mocks D&D, they invariably get something wrong (with the possible exception of Patton Oswalt). A word of advice: It’s way, way funnier if you get the terminology exactly right.[/wanker]

Much like Priceguy, I make an effort to refrain from talking about D&D and so forth with the uninitiated. I know for a fact that you wouldn’t care that [wanker]my gestalt drow wizard//swordsage has three levels of swashbuckler so he can apply his Int bonus to damage rolls with his elven courtblade[/wanker], so if D&D ever comes up in a conversation, I ask “you don’t play D&D, do you?”; if the answer is no, you can bet that I’ll be mentally screaming at myself to change the topic of conversation ASAP.

People who obsess about television picture and sound quality. Typical conversation:

Obsessor: “Man, I saw <random movie> on my HDTV XFC3000 Super Fat Millicent with 6 million watt surround sound last night! The picture was sharper than anything you’ve ever seen! The sound
was like the war cry of a million Zulus!”
Me: “So… how was, you know, the movie?”
Obsessor: <blank stare>

From these people, you never ever hear how good Kill Bill was or how much Metal Gear Solid 4 kicked ass. They only ever talk about the picture and the sound. Now, I may be overstepping the bounds here, but to me, that is kinda missing the point just a little bit. If you’re not going to enjoy the movie or game, what the hell is the point of all that hardware? If all you care about is picture quality and not what the picture is actually of, I can recommend something whose picture quality gives a Chuck Norris style roundhouse kick to any ass you may point out.

It’s called reality. Go look at it.

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Oh, guys. You don’t even know. Audiophiles? Oenophiles? People who play World of Warcraft like it’s a second job? Amateurs. You know who’s obnoxious?

Gene-fucking-alogists.

Nobody, yet NOBODY, will tell unsuspecting librarians quite so much about their hobby. Yet nobody’s hobby is that uninteresting! I love looking at old newspaper microfilm. I hate looking up your great grandmother’s obituary in it. You know why? 'Cause it’s boring. The front page? Fascinating. The ads? Enormously entertaining. Great Aunt Mary? Shoot me now before you tell me all about her, thank you very much.
[/QUOTE]

Oh God, I think you win. I live in Utah. Gene-fucking-alogists are every-fucking-where. Salt Lake City is like a Mecca for those people because of the Genealogy Library here.

“Guess who I’m related to!”
“The Emperor I-Don’t-Give-a-Fuck?”

“Guess where I’m from!”
“The shores of I-Don’t-Give-a-Fuck?”

I don’t actually answer that way, because I’m polite, but man, do I wish those conversations would end quickly.

[QUOTE=elmwood]
I’d like to add Japanophiles. The people I’ve met who are really into Japanese culture and language, anime, manga and the like tend to be the geekiest of the geeky; the most socially inept, doughiest or skinniest, borderline Asperger’s-ish geeks of them all. Despite their admiration for a culture that values cleanliness, Japanophiles also don’t seem to bathe too often, based on the funk that permanently wafts forth from the anime/manga section of the local Borders.
[/QUOTE]

Heh. I seem to have struck a rich vein of hatred for audiophiles.

As for Japanophiles, I spent about seven years living and working there, and nobody gives a shit about Japanese popular culture. Plenty of people come to learn the language, you meet quite a few who are there to practice their martial arts, but almost everyone sane combines it with having a life: you’re there to pick up a few bucks, polish your Nihongo a bit, see some of the country, meet the locals, have a couple of beers and maybe meet some girls. Learning Japanese in order to understand the intricacies of J-Pop or Lupin Sansei is rather like learning English in order to wank over old Porky Pig catoons and The Spice Girls.

Speaking of genealogy

Did anyone see/hear the flap a few years ago when the movie Alexander came out, and a woman on one of the fandom sites started to complain about how it was besmirching the memory of a very important man.

Who just happened to be her direct ancestor. :rolleyes:

She ended up deleting her account, and her posts, after several people pointed out that none of Alexander’s acknowledged children survived to adulthood. Let alone the absurdities of claiming a 2000 year genealogy.

[QUOTE=Green Bean]
No, I don’t want to know the difference between a 2001 Chateau Sceubideaux and a 2002 Chateau Sceubideaux
[/QUOTE]

Wouldn’t that be Chateau Sceubidoux?

I’m not very keen on people who are into outdoor sports who have to have all the most up to date gear. I don’t mind skiers and golfers who do that so much because those sports have been associated with conspicuous wealth for about 100 years. But walking, cycling and camping are supposed to be about getting away from materialism and getting closer to your inner self (yes, I know I’m sounding like a tedious wanker myself). Outdoor shops are full of over priced rucsacs, jackets and stuff made by cutesy little brands that make money by pretending to be somehow outside or above the grubby capitalist system.

How could I forget FANTASY sports players? I’m so sick of hearing about people’s fantasy teams.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
Model train people are really dull, except when they get excited over really petty little things like new shrubbery to glue in place. .
[/QUOTE]
You hurt my feelings! :frowning:

:stuck_out_tongue:

Conspiracy theorists.

They start off with some kernal that does not square up, reject the 99.9% of confirmed information, and then just batter your head with quotes from papers of unverified and dubious sources, and if you refute one point, they have a dozen more.They expect every single detail will tie up perfectly and when it doesn’t, there’s some major international conspiracy.

Actulally, I don’t give a flying fuck why any Kennedy died, nor Kurt Kobain, who gives a fish’s tit about the Knights Templar, the Hildeberg group, Illuminati, Princess Diana, Bruce Lee or some engine that runs on water that the big companies bought so they could carry on selling oil.

You get intellectual midgets trying to big themselves up with so-called facts and hidden agendas, when actually all they can do is repeat the same old tired dross, instead of doing some real research for themselves, but worse, worse by far, are the idiots trying to follow some secret code or instructions written using ‘forbidden’ knowledge like the Da Vinci code or some offshoot.

If you are unlucky enogh to be caught out at a social gathering and get pinned into a corner by one of them, no one rescues you for fear of either being caught themselves, or giving any semblance of credibility to the nutter that is somehow connected to one of the guests.

Have to go with the sports fans. Model railway enthusiasts, audiophiles … at least they do something. Sports fans just sit around watching other people do things - if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, they’ve memorized the damn statistics.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a model railway enthusiast. But I would far rather listen to one of them talk about miniature scenery they’ve made, than to a sports fan talking about someone else’s batting averages or best times or whatever else they drone on about …

[QUOTE=Priceguy]
From these people, you never ever hear how good Kill Bill was or how much Metal Gear Solid 4 kicked ass.
[/QUOTE]
If my A/V setup allowed me to travel into the future to play MGS4, I’d brag about it too. :wink:

To quote from the American Radio Relay League 1991 Handbook for Radio Amateurs, from “The Amateur’s Code” in the frontpiece,

“The Radio Amateur is:

Balanced… radio is an avocation, never interfering with duties owed to family, job, school or community”

Yeah, but it’s balanced BECAUSE THE HANDBOOK SAYS SO?