Talk to me about your current obsession!

I think that with my depression and anxiety (and possibly BPD??? Not diagnosed yet tho, but hinted at by my psychiatrist) I only feel alive when I have some kind of obsessions. 

Momentarily it's this website, the magnus archives (really cool horror podcast) and Northernlion (YouTuber with an impossible amount of content and a style of humor up my style)

Tell me about yours so I can have others for when these obsessions inevitably fade away :(

Oh I FEEL. I almost definitely have ADHD (not officially diagnosed because you need specific credentials to diagnose and no one near me is qualified, but I have had multiple mental health professionals tell me they're pretty much positive I have it) and if I am not hyperfixating on something I immediately begin to feel bored out of my mind. Currently my only obsession is this site, but it has just been announced that Mass Effect (video game series) is being remastered, so I think I will probably be replaying that and returning to that old obsession soon. And that usually kicks off a Dragon Age (another video game series, same game studio) obsession, so hopefully I will be able to keep myself properly entertained for a good while. 

You should go to YouTube and search for "DIY Paludarium build" or "DIY aquarium waterfall build"

I've recently discovered Paludariums and aquascaping in general and it is a m a z i n g

It's also really soothing to bring up some of the videos you can find if you search "DIY cement aquarium" or "DIY cement fountain/pond" and just relax and watch them. Really satisfying and amazing.

If you like learning things, look up how to build no-water change aquariums, ecosystem tanks, or Walstad tanks. Lots of really interesting biological functions go into those and it's a pretty neat chemistry lesson too. I've decided weeks to that lately and just finished building a semi-paludarium aquarium with live plants, a home-built filtration system, waterfall, and (hopefully soon) breeding population of mystery snails, corydoras habrosus catfish, endlers live-bearers, and a hybrid wild type Betta species.

You can go down some pretty wild rabbit holes this way...

Looked paludariums up and if 1. I had space and 2. If I weren't utterly incapable to do something so awesome I would like to do that very much ;w;

With cute snails ;w;

Glad you enjoyed it!!! It's super enjoyable to watch people build them. Can confirm its not as hard as it looks. Just takes lots of patience and styrofoam everywhere hahaha. 

Takes up less space than I thought! Originally it was gonna be a 10 gallon but I managed to talk my SO into a 20. It sits on our side table beside the couch. But it is a bit of a pain to get set up and TBH I spent waaaaay more money than I originally hoped/planned. Got a bit in over my head.

The snails are super cute O:

Persona 5, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Hollow Knight and D&D are currently taking over my life

Gardening has currently peaked my interest! For the past couple of days I’ve been watching YouTube videos on how to start a garden and reading up on advice for newbies. I’m very excited to get some raised beds set up and plant veggies :D

It depends honestly.   Winter into spring it's shed hunting (looking for antlers) so that's why I love Keld's avatar so much, it's like a wolf after my own heart.

Late spring into summer, it's growing pumpkins and sunflowers. We're actually putting in a fence so at least we won't get bears and bunnies in the garden.  Deer, well... they can jump 8 feet or more, so we'll still be dealing with them eating our plants that reside in raised beds that have to be redone. 

Right now, it's painting ceramics to get ready for whenever we have a fair again.   Then once deer breeding season is done, I'm going to start plotting my routes for shed hunting. 

I have a lot of obsessions if I'm being totally honest.  Doesn't help having Asperger's, I obsess over whatever peaks my interest.  At least with looking for antlers it's free, and I'm not wasting a ton of money on it. 

Snakes!

God I can probably name so many snake morphs and species, I just love them!

One I specifically like is the Northern White Lipped Python, the Southern one is very bitey while the northerns are just chill. They have this really neat rainbow-like shine to their scales, and their eyes are just such a dark black/brown color, unlike some other morphs.

Oh! Hypos are a color morph, they basically add a lot of pigment to the pattern (kinda like a redish orange most of the time) Lusistics are the snake form of Albinos, seeing as actual Albinos are fatal Lusistics are breeders substitute, since its often a recessive gene in snakes. They also have really bright blue eyes!

Never handle a Burmese or snake longer than you by yourself, if it's longer than 15 feet have help, no matter how much you trust the snake. They are still feral and not domestic. 

Spider morphs are painful for the snake seeing as the color gene also affects their balance. it was actually banned by the board of reptiles and snakes and exotics. A lot of breeders were happy but some had a meltdown even though these snakes had no sense of balance and would often die of starvation due to the way their heads would just shake, or they would fall off of things.

Pastel Ball Pythons are amazing, they look so soft and they even have lilac colors! there's one pastel gene called Banna because of the bright pastel yellow they are.

Milk snakes and Coral snakes are very different. there patterning for one, and their heads for another. Milk snakes are "Red touches black" and Corals are "Red touches Yellow" Also Milk snakes have a really pug-like nose and are actually more often mistaken for Garters with the Tricolor pattern even with the longer nose they have. Hognoses have this color pattern also!

Okay my ramblings over even though I could go one for longer I think I've typed enough-

Invader Zim, which has been going on for over a year now. I've read SO MUCH fanfiction and seen many animatics and animations and even written some of my own fanfics and planned an animatic (unreleased and unfinished). Very long fixation.

And then for a while I was obsessed with gold panning for some reason. I thought about buying some paydirt XD I started watching KleshGuitars and I'm still subbed and still watch his videos. Although I'm not as obsessed anymore, it's still quite fascinating and I'd still like to pan. Maybe one day I'll get that paydirt.