What are your unusual interests?

[abigaillmartin]

Harry Houdini and thinking he’s super cute.

That later part… well. Not a lot people knew he was so good looking. ️

Alright what’s another weird interest? I collect metal objects I find on the sidewalk, the road, anywhere. For no reason. I just really like shiny metal objects! 🤣 I still have the pot of my collection of shiny metal objects.

[abigaillmartin]

Okay but dolls are another interest of mine! I love dolls!

[abigaillmartin]

I mean… look at him! ️

“May my likeness conjure up pleasant thoughts.” - Harry Houdini

[ThunderChicken]

Steam locomotives. They fascinate me. Also, airplanes, specifically WW2-era fighters and bombers. I can watch youtube videos on steam locomotives or read about airplanes for hours. What makes this so unusual, you ask? I have never laid eyes on a steam locomotive in person, and I have never been on an airplane, though I've read enough about them and understand how they work well enough that with a minimum of training I could probably fly one.

I drew this image of my MC, Daecon, driving UP-4014 "Big Boy", the world's largest-ever steam locomotive. Big Boy has been restored and is still in operation in the midwestern USA. Some day I will ride on it. This forum will strip the image of all of its detail (the original is 10,000 pixels wide), but you can see how big this thing is by looking at how tiny Daecon looks way back in the cab (this is drawn to scale).

[Wolsal]

Ok so I’m very autistic, that’s important to know. So just know there is honestly and truly a laundry list of things.
- Reptiles, just anything about them
- The ability to tell you a strange fact about any animal you give me off the top of my head. Any animal ever. Try me.
- History in general, recent and ancient
- Fun useless facts
- Picking 1 video game and only playing it for years
- Trying to get bitten by as many (non harmful) wild animals as possible. It’s not that I can’t stop them from biting me because I’m trained in the field, however I think it’s cute and the bite marks can look cool (I mainly catch snakes, I don’t hurt them or move them, I put them where I found them unharmed. The bites also don’t hurt and they don’t scar.)
This is a very very small sample of the crap I’m interested in, but these are the main ones?

[abigaillmartin]

Did you say… history?

And fun useless facts?

YAAAAAAY! ME TOO!

And Minecraft! Minecraft is the only game I ever played for 10 years!!

[Wolsal]

Helllll yeah! You get it.
Did you know that the phrase “you can’t have your cake and eat it” isn’t a nonsense phrase, the linguistics around it have just changed.
Back when this phrase was made, the words “have” and “keep” meant the same thing.
So, in the modern day, the phrase is actually “you can’t keep your cake and eat it”.
Hope this useless fact was as useless to you as it was to me!

[2DLenzy]

Every "unusual" interest of mine has somehow been injected into /or inspired an entire story

My current interests
-Chickens...and birbs in general. Facts, classifications, diseases, etc
-Mythology - various cultures, sacrificial rituals and such, and how chickens/birds (if any) are involved. Balinese cockfighting is an example
-USDA and FDA food safety/regulations, HAACP, WHO, and org stuff like that
-how chickens are "processed", yeesh
-Bugs, various kinds - really wanna do an anthro bug story some time

In the past:
-Poisons, at one point (wrote an unfinished medieval murder mystery), medieval serfdom/lords/feudal system and rules/conduct, etc.
-Penguins! (yep, wrote another book, historical fiction)
-History - particularly WW1 to pre-WW2 India as it gained independence from British rule

I also collect globes, metal/shiny objects, rocks...pet hair (I got 7 dogs XD)

[abigaillmartin]

has a notepad ready to write about food safety and regulations

Info dump! This is for my character Wellington!

[hamzeh-a]

small campfires that go for 40 minutes or so

[abigaillmartin]

You collect shiny metal things too?! Ahhhh!

[2DLenzy]

has a notepad ready to write about food safety and regulations

Info dump! This is for my character Wellington!

Lol, okay! Here are the principles of HAACP in the poultry industry:

HAACP (Hazard Analysis and Control Point)

Principle 1: Conduct a Hazard Analysis, list steps in the process and all potential risks and describe preventive measures
Principle 2: Identify Critical Control Points (CCP) in the process.
Principle 3: Establish Critical limits for preventative measures associated with each CCP.
Principle 4: Monitoring. Using results to adjust process and maintain control.
Principle 5: Corrective Action
Principle 6: Recordkeeping that documents HACCP
Principle 7: Verification that HACCP is working properly (testing samples, lesser instances of contamination)

For chicken slaughter:
-example of CCPs are places where workers may cross-contaminate raw and RTE(Ready to Eat) areas, so traffic flow must minimize risk.
-solutions: different colored frocks/utensils for raw vs cooked, implement gloves/handwashing, foot baths to employee areas such as rest areas and to outside (they put their shoes in a chemical bath for 20 minutes, fun)
-Sanitation: microbiological monitoring, environmental testing for listeria species, visual inspections
-zero tolerance policy of feces on carcass (or eggs, I imagine)

That's the very tip of the iceberg cause I don't want to type too much XD I have a whole slideshow with a lot more crap. Wonder how egg-washing is done.