I don't know... recently I've started to think that I might actually have some sort of undiagnosed but very real obsessive disorder. Any time I find something that I really like, I dig myself down into it as deeply as I can afford to go. Right now my two big obsessions are my Sephiroth cosplay costume and my plushie Nyan Nyan Nyankos. But I've had others in the past that I've sort of moved on from now, although I still really like them - I'm just not psychotic about them anymore. So this tendency to obsess over very specific things isn't new in the slightest. In particular, I seem to focus on the collection of things I like and/or the acquirement of knowledge about them. There's been a definite progression in my life from one obsession to another. But I guess its not such a bad thing really. When all is said and done, I'm left with well-constructed and valuable collections if nothing else.

I'm trying to see if I can think of the progression of these obsessions throughout my life. I think it started with the Marx Brothers. I absolutely love those guys! Especially Harpo. I read his autobiography about four times, I think? I was in my early teens then, so I didn't have the resources to go out and mass collect Marx Brothers stuff. Also, the internet was vastly different from what it is today. Around about the same time as that obsession, I got an obsession for X-Men comic books. So I've got several really big boxes full of them, almost all of them being stored properly in plastic sleeves and such. I seem to recall buying about 40+ back issues of one of the series just so that I'd have all of them that had been published to date. And then at some point, there was Monty Python. There wasn't a whole lot of Monty Python stuff available at the time, thank goodness... but that didn't stop me from practically memorizing my favourite sketchs from the script books I had bought. Or collecting trading cards... oh yeah. I collected X-Men trading cards as well!

Sort of related to the Marx Brothers, I got quite obsessed with the Animaniacs. I think the two were definitely related, but the Animaniacs were just different enough to completely renew the obsession. I've always had a great affection for animation in general, which I'm sure started as a child and continues to this day - but I don't know if it qualifies, since my knowledge about it wasn't obtained in a very short space of time and fixation. I'm sure there are some other obsessions mixed in next that I've actually forgotten about - except for the fact that I'll still have a LOT of random information about them floating around my head. There have also been a bunch of mini-obsessions along the way, but I don't know if they really count. They may actually have been normal...

Somewhere in my mid to late teens, I seem to recall having a really big thing for BlackAdder, but I can't quite remember the timeline. But I know that directly after that the next really really big obsession was Sting. To this day, about 40 slots in my 300 disk CD changer are dedicated to Sting albums. That doesn't include the piles of really rare books and vinyl records taking up space at my dad's house. Or any of the other random Sting stuff I picked up along the way. Oh and we can't forget the absolutely massive Sting picture archive I hosted on the internet.

Next was..... anime cels, I guess? That lasted for quite a while and I still have the best of my collection online. Its also one of the collections I brought with me from the US. I still absolutely love them and whenever I see a cel I really like, I can still feel that tug to go ahead and buy it. I've been pretty good about that though. I think it was a bit lucky that the selection of available cels has really dwindled down since all anime has gone to CG now. There are still sketches to collect but they're very hard to get a hold of.

From there I moved directly on to kimonos. I'm not browsing the kimono websites like I used to, but I still really love them. I don't know what caused me to stop obsessing about kimonos, because there's always new gems popping up on the internet and you have to be quick to catch them. Maybe its the cost - even cheap ones are still pretty expensive, especially by the time you add on shipping. Or maybe I'm just happy with the collection I've built. I guess now I'm more of an appreciator of kimonos. I know a lot about them, I can appreciate a beautiful design or a rare motif. And I really resent being hustled towards the cheap $30 yukatas in the kimono sections of the Japanese department stores. But I think that if I saw a kimono or kimono accessory that truly grabbed my attention, I would still buy it and add it to my collection.

And well... so now we're at the present day. I'm completely psychotic about my Nyan Nyan Nyankos. And about my cosplay costume. But at this moment, particularly the Nyankos. I just love them so much. I want to have all of them! I'm even planning on painting them in my bathroom. I put the bulk of my collection in one place the other day and took a picture. They're just so cute... and disturbing at the same time. Just like me!

But so yes... all of this does truly make me wonder if my obsessiveness is actually some sort of disorder. I don't know anyone else who is like me. I don't know anyone who gets the same way about things as I do. Its not hurting anyone or anything, so its not as if its dangerous, but it is strange. I guess it keeps me well and truly occupied. I don't know if I can imagine life without an obsessive focus actually. What would I ever do with myself if I didn't have one? How would I spend my time? I just don't know.

PS - Why isn't my weblog displaying correctly? :/