November 18th, 2007
How to sound like a broken record
I realised this morning that making this comic has become an obsession.
I know that doesn’t sound like a good thing, but it is; I make this comic because it is what I do, rather than something I am doing for any reason in particular.
It’s a liberating feeling as an artist, to have no need to reason why you create something.
So, including television and washing my hands, that brings my total to three things that I consider an obsession…
What about you?
Philip J Schadenfreude on 
Obsessions? you mean minor, or major?
I have some funny little things I always have to do, although I suspect I would count as having minor OCD. But big obsessions, like your cartoon one, would be going on my laptop to read webcomics and go on msn, listening to music and eating whenever I can.
little obsessions: Putting the Aces “in order” in solitaire (My dad does it too!), leaving the house at 8:20, not 15 or 25, 8:20 every weekday morning for school, and opening that door at school by putting my left hand between the peice of metal that substitutes a handle and the push sign, thus turning my hand sideways.
Yes, I am aware it’s weird. But any of them I can manage not to do, so it’s not really OCD, just minor weirdness.
I put both Aces and Kings in order while playing Solitaire. They don’t necessarily need to be in the same order, but if the colors aren’t alternating I start freaking out.
I have this thing in my head where the suits are “odd” and “even”. diamonds and clubs are “odd” and spades and hearts are “even” so my Aces always have to go (left to right) Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts, Spades.
and then if i can, queen of hearts will go on king of spades etc. i have been known to sit and move all my cards so clubs and diamonds are together and spades and hearts are together. it’s sad, i know. but i was addicted to solitaire on the first, second and third computers we had. i’m now have my own laptop, with internet, so i find webcomics to get addicted to instead.
In solitaire, I have to put them in proper order: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs. That’s literally the order they go in, according to bridge and other games where that matters. So I have to put the Aces in that order.
Also I do this with my Tarot Deck (Swords, Cups, Coins, Staves). Bad idea? Perhaps.
No, don’t prove my order of suits wrong!
hmm, ordered tarot deck….interestinnngggg…I don’t think it’s a bad idea. it sounds awesome
Don’t do it unless the deck is giving you trouble. I got mine at a bookshop, and not a psychic one either, so it is all ’stained’, if you will. I spoke with another person who does cards and he suggested putting the deck in order and leaving it in a spiritually neutral place for a while.
Essentially putting a Tarot deck in order ‘resets’ it; and you don’t want to do that normally.
Hmm. Tarot cards sound interesting.
i always find myself walking funny on patterned tile floors.
You too?
Obsessions:
1. Television
2. Playing guitar
Also I actually do have (arguably mild) OCD so I tend to obsess about lots of things.
When I read the title of this my first thought was “Cover yourself in grooves, stick a needle in one, then rotate at 45 rpms.”
haha
ouch
You forgot step one: flatten out into a rough disc shape.
I actually think I have minor OCD, too, but that’s more like I start doing some odd repetitive thing and I have a really hard time forcing myself to stop. I would say that my biggest obsession is music. I don’t even care what kind it is. I spend at least two hours of my day (I really should be spending more time, but I just don’t have it) practicing music, and I pretty much have it playing constantly. If there’s no music playing I tend to freak out a little bit. I’m also a bit obsessed with television. And the internet. I love the internet. I spend way too much time on here.
Writing is about it for obsessions.
But what an obsession…
Ah, i have a writing obsession as well! unfortunatly, i am dreadful at remembering to do stuff regularly, so my stories end up often being left unfinished, and my poems remain ideas in my head more often than not. *feels ashamed*
My advice…
Nothing is wasted, finished or not, the fact that you have made a start is the key thing.
Some of these strips are lifted directly from ideas I’ve had from other things I’ve not finished; The title, ‘The Flowfield Unity’ actually belongs to a very different graphic novel I was working on, but I couldn’t seem to finish (or really start) it, so I stole the title for this instead.
Similarly, the first strip on this site (and the post) is directly lifted from the opening lines of a short story I tried to write.
Recycle.
Wow, that’s good advice. Thanks Adam.
Nothing is wasted…that’s nice idea, isn’t it? think if that idea appled to everything, anything you did, saw, heard…if nothing is wasted, finished or not, then the World would have a lot more..point. everything would technically have a reason to exist. and no one would feel useless.
wouldn’t that be wonderful? but alas, people are stupid, and outside of Art, many things are wasted…How sad..
ok random moment of thought is now over. you may continue exsisting etc.
You’re very right, Maddie.
That’s because it’s not september any more!
(September was officially, “maddie can’t be right about anything month”. it sucked)
but anyways, thankyou. i like people believing i am right.
Obsessions: My comic obviously. I can’t tell if on-balance it makes me more stable or emotionally unstable. I only have room for one obsession at a time, or I’d have a breakdown.
Oops, there’s also Second Life. I’m broken, I guess.
I’ve deliberately been avoiding Second Life, I just don’t have enough time for for my First one.
A good idea, Adam. If you don’t have enough
time in Real Life, you won’t have time in Second
Life either. It’s weird how it mirrors everything.
You know, I don’t think I have an obsession.
The only thing I am really anal about is grammar in sms’s.
Tho I do listen to music at every chance I get and I feel weird if I go to sleep with out some ambient beats in my headphones.
1. Sorting pens, crayons, and coloured pencils that are not mine by colour.
2. Sorting things on a shelf or desk that are not mine by colour and size.
…but I’m getting much better about my OCD. It’s the mood stuff that I need to work on.
Oh, on an artistic level: I write and tell stories because it is what I am. I sing because I have to, it’s the only way to bleed out my emotions and calm down. I think my obsession with getting all my facts straight, whether the story is fantasy, fanfic, or whatever, also counts. I even spent an hour looking up a year near the French Revolution that had a Friday the 13th! That is crazy. But I know that if I were to pick up a book and look up all the facts and find them correct I would think, ‘Wow this author ROCKS!’
Melanthios-You are awesome. seriously. if there was a list of awesome people, you’d be on it.
i sort coulouring pencils out, and i got a new pack recently, and i am determined to keep them in the order in the box they came in.
That author would rock indeed, a factually correct book is an awesome thing…
i remembered another one of my obsessions-words. every now and then i get a new word obsession. currently, as you may have noticed, it’s awesome. has been for a while. but it changes sometimes.
i have the same thing with music. i will listen to the same song over and over and over again, then suddenly stop and find a new song.
hmm, has anyone else noticed i am accumalating a fairly long list of obsessions throughout comments on this post? i started at like 3, and am now at at least 7… i don’t reckons that’s so normal…hmmm
Seven!
It appears that obsessions are your obsession.
Either that, or you’re a little bit barking…
Hmm. I’m gonna go for the second one myself, after all, with a name like MADeline WILDing, how can i not go cuckoo? it’s almost against the laws of..well..everything!
A little bit barking. thats a good way of describing me actually.
“Hey, this is Maddie. she’s a little bit barking…”
well, i always said i was a dippy.
We’re all mad here. =^__________________^=
‘Melanthios-You are awesome. seriously. if there was a list of awesome people, you’d be on it.’
Aw! I feel LOVED! -^____^-
‘I sort colouring pencils out, and i got a new pack recently, and I am determined to keep them in the order in the box they came in.’
I have to have them in chromatic order. Usually that is not how the box has them–though Crayola is pretty awesome like that, so I keep theirs in order. Markers, that is. I only sort the pencils and pens of other people, for some reason. Like, they can’t do it for themselves, so I have to help.
‘That author would rock indeed, a factually correct book is an awesome thing…’
^_^ I’d plug my NaNoWriMo, but I’m not sure you’re old enough to read it yet. (Nor am I sure it’s your cup of tea, really)
‘I have the same thing with music. I will listen to the same song over and over and over again, then suddenly stop and find a new song.’
O! Me me I do that! I spent a whole train ride listening to nothing but ‘Cuz I can’ by P!NK and ‘Dole Dagga Buzz Buzz Ziggety Zag’ by Marilyn Manson.
Quoting you has pointed out another obsession: I correct people’s grammar all the time. Just stealthy. I am a GRAMMAR CORRECTING NINJA!
Yat, Melanthios feels loved!
Ooh, i correct people’s grammar and spelling even though mine is rubbish. it’s just the way i was brought up. And that takes my obsessions up to 8.
Hmm. *note to self-buy crayola pencils*
“^_^ I’d plug my NaNoWriMo, but I’m not sure you’re old enough to read it yet. (Nor am I sure it’s your cup of tea, really)”
Wow, you do NaNoWriMo? I haven’t done one as of yet, but I will next year. Are you a member of TheMuse writing website?
And you’d be surprised how many things i’m too young to read that i’ll have already read. I like many things, i am sure it would be my cup of tea. except i prefer drinking out of mugs
Wow, Melanthios, we share quite a few obsessions! You certainly are a most awesome person.
Yay. that’s supposed to say yay. it really is….
If you correct other people’s grammar, Maddie, how can yours be rubbish? It doesn’t make any sense! ;3
Yes, I do NaNo. I’m finally doing it with some success this year. It’s a steampunk thing, very dark and twisted. I’ve never heard of The Muse, could you link me? I don’t usually join writing sites, I don’t even go to the local NaNo gatherings since I don’t get on with other writers most of the time (I think the Victorian prose that most consider ‘purple’ is the most beautiful, among other tiffs that are waiting to start. However, I find comfort in that I know for sure that James P. Blaylock likes my writing. ^_^ I just wish I could contact him again…).
Because I am in the habit of having deliberatly bad grammar, either to annoy parents or cos i thinks it sounds cool. (theres an example for ya :p)
TheMuse:
http://www.themuse.net/index.php
You may not like writing sites, but i hope you’ll like this one. it’s amazing. I’m known as “misunderstood” on there, check out some of my work if you want, and give me a yell if you join! it would be great if you did!
I actually have a minor OCD to admitt to.
I analyze phone numbers for patterns and prime numbers.
Actually any number that I need to remember, I will work into prime or functions there of.
I hate Optimus Prime cos he has nada to do with prime numbers.
Like the number 40 is 2.2.2.5=40
My mom does that. She tries to help me memorise numbers that way, but I have to picture them or sing them in a song.
Personally, i just look for little patterns.
The end of my phone number is 624, and 6-2=4, so i remember it.
Simple, just like me :p
In simplicity there is wisdom.