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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
I am one of the developers for Project Rubi-Ka, a server emulator/private server for the classic sci-fi MMORPG, Anarchy Online.
AO is now nearly 25 years old and no longer has any developers at the company that released it, but it is still running.
I have written over 2,000,000 lines of server emulator code for AO. I am now probably one of the world's foremost experts in how the game works.
During the pandemic I decided to get a barbell and start lifting at home. Fast forward a few years and I have a full on powerlifting rack and weights and completely changed my physique from "skinny runner" to "quite stout". I've never felt or looked better in my entire life, and will yap uncontrollably if anyone mentions lifting within earshot
My special interest is everything. Well, everything except getting my ADHD treated.
For many years now, unions. It started when I became a union organizer in 2021. I love the rich history of the labor movement, the unending struggle against capitalist forces, the drama, the conferences, all of it. I'm going to Labor Notes this year as a rep for my local!
I tend to have distinct phases of special interests, and I still find the topics interesting after they fade. The earliest I can remember is tractors, then space, then castles and knights, then guns, then ww1, then ww2, then computers and programming. Now it's unions
I'd really like to play D&D.
I used to play all the time with on again off again groups. Even when I wasn't playing I was still immersed in the culture and constantly thinking of fun quest or character ideas. But, adulting gets in the way and I haven't had a group to play with since COVID.
I know it's not for everyone, but I play online weekly-biweekly and it's great.
Very excited that the Draw Steel VTT just dropped
HISTORY AND HUMAN EXPERIENCE!!
And with history i mean EVERYTHING Music, philosophy, archetecture, theologie, society, musical theory, design, aso!!
EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE JUST IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!
Currently on developing a mod (well development is on a hold because so many things happening that keep me buissy so there was no update since last august sob crying) for europa universalis 4 that expands on religions! So many interesting proto-protestant groups! The evolution of christianity really is interesting!
You sound a lot like me friend
I'm between sprcial interests rn
Got tired of sharks?
Mapping!
Presently I'm using aerial photography to produce a map of local cycle ways and walkways.
For the past several years I’ve been slowly teaching myself audio production and engineering. I worked as a professional musician for decades but never bothered to learn that side of the craft. So once in a while I’ll go down YouTube rabbit holes, watching tutorials on, say, creative uses of EQ and/or compression, or an analysis of the mix of a well-known song, or bouncing ideas and feedback off a small group of friends. Then I try to apply that to the songs that I’m working on.
The results I’ve gotten from my learning approach are decent, but I’m always comparing my own work to that of other established recording artists, and I have a lot yet to learn.
It’s a shitload of fun too.
Man I have so many interests. Playing basketball, lifting weights, learning Linux, learning how to self host, doing stand up comedy. Learning how to code a video game.
Most things animated. If I'm watching any type of television or movies, there's a very high chance it's animated with a higher likelihood of being a cartoon. I don't watch as much yt storytime animators, but at one point I did watch at least Dan Plan ( I think that was their name ).
But I also have a special interest that really leans into that: anthropomorphic animals. A ton of the cartoons I watched growing up contained anthro animals and now I am known to occasionally search specifically for anthro animal/furry content for new games to look at or shows/movies to check out. Biggest reason I got into BEASTARS.
My hyperfixations jump around a lot though mostly it tends to stay in the STEM arena of things.
Currently I’m trying to design a language framework for building as low-level a language for reality as possible. Strangely (or not) I’ve touched very little in the way of linguistics and I’m wayy out of my depth in the field of logic and of all things category theory as well as philosophy because holy shit it’s kind of amazing we can communicate anything at all lol
In addition to that (and somewhat tangentially related) I’ve also been diving into the science of spiking neural nets and neuroanatomy in an effort to create an extensible self-supervised net I could then copy train to do a variety of tasks for me. Like the previous fixation, I am also very out of my depth in this project (also there are a lot more knowledgeable and well funded people who will almost certainly beat me to the punch), but even if I fail it’s already been a fascinating journey. Oh and I greatly dislike python so I’m basically reinventing the wheel multiple times in rust so that likely doesnt help my progress lol
Too many. I collect special interests.
The one that's lasted the longest are:
Filmmaking (specifically no/low budget filmmaking) with the premise being that regardless of tools, there are things that anyone can do to improve their product without a large budget. (ie. remembering to record tone for later editing. Planning your shoot for the proper time of day. Using reflectors even if you can't afford lights. Blocking and Business, Shooting enough coverage for later editing, etc...) A large amount of quality in low budget films comes from taking the time to actually plan things out rather than just showing up with a camera and pointing it at volunteer actors.
Things like proper blocking, shot planning, etc... are free. With digital cameras, film isn't a commodity and there's nothing stopping you from filming enough angles to give the video editor something to work with rather than just constant two-shots. Editing software itself is free.
Point being, there is no excuse for lazy filmmaking, even if you don't have access to expensive equipment. Planning trumps equipment 90% of the time.
Okay...rant over.
Reefkeeping. Been into it for well over 25 years. Had several reef tanks over the years, with my largest being a 225 gallon that I had to break down last year (still pissed about that one).
Clouds!
And other weather phenomena, of course.
I just think they're fantastic and they change so often and tell us so much
Making music. I play several instruments, some in perhaps an unconventional way.
Right now it's biochem/microbiology. Found an entire lecture series on the bay and have almost completed it. Current lecture is on codons/anti-codons, all of them are 3 base pairs with Uracil/Thymine (resp.), Cytosine, Adenine or Guanine (TCAG which I like to remember as 3CAG; FREE PALESTINE)
Transport RNAs are specific to one of twenty amino acids by the anti-codon on it's base. The tRNA attach to their amino acid and slot into the ribosome in accordance to the codons on the messenger RNA it's translating. This creates a chain of amino acids that naturally fold as it's created because some aminos are polar and attach to each other. This is what is known as protein folding.
Like anal beads and some beads are magnetic, so when you pull them out some attach to each other creating loops and bends.
Ugh way too many. Water plants, machine vision municipal waste sorting, building waste recycling, air-glass thermal energy storage (no phase change, ambient pressure, air as the working fluid), seabed warfare, and the role of geography on political violence (ornery hillfolk through the ages)
Everything. 
But especially game development.
May I recommend you growing fungi home as hobby in these interesting times?
Would be difficult atm. I am pressed for time, kept so far away from what I desire most.
My family learned thirty years ago never to utter the words 'Doctor Who' in my presence.
Ive always kinda been obsessed with truth. Its not a good obsession. outside of that I can be a bit of dilettante sometimes delving deeply but for a period and you can't really stay at depth if you keep moving around as in any field things change a lot. There were times I was into scifi/fantasy/reading and technology and its not like Im not anymore but its more like its not that unusual anymore compared to when I was young.
I have 4, one for each decade of life
It feels a little generic, but video games. I’ve been playing them since my dad got a Gamecube around launch, and I’ve been reading about them since ~2011 when I discovered Steam and graphics cards. I learned within a year of watching the store that sales on Steam generally update Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I’ve checked what goes on sale for at least 90% of the Tuesdays and Thursdays since then.
I used to read a lot of IGN, then Kotaku, then r/games to keep up on everything. Now I mostly listen to a couple gaming podcasts (Minnmaxx and Triple Click) and that covers enough big and small games for me.
I like to say that I have a near encyclopedic knowledge of gaming from about 2007 onward, meaning for a given game I can give you a general idea of the genre, reception, notable influence on or from the industry, and I can usually recall at least 5 seconds of gameplay. The most exciting thing for me in conversation is when someone brings up a game I haven’t heard of or know nothing about.
Harpsichord music of early XVIIIth century.
Here is the last piece i study https://youtu.be/cBpRWE87lzc?is=zw5Pn0FJAR2ndeGK
It seems to change by the week, but lately it's gone from linux to radios to electronic components/circuits
Growing cannabis. I'm a noob, but it's just so fun! Got 320 grams from my last plant.
License plates.
Modernist literature between end of WW2 and the start of postmodernism, especially British, Irish, French and Italian
Currently it’s buying stupid but vaguely useful things.
I spent $50 on a SDR radio that can listen to a very wide spectrum of stuff. Also got a cheap pair of GMRS radios and got hooked onto the local repeater tower for about a 50 mile radius of communication.
A friend had a gas coming from their oven on occasion so I got a sensor for about $70 to try to fix it (and did so successfully)
I have more flashlights than any one man needs, but they do come in useful.
I just got a lock pick set and a practice lock. Probably never use any vague skill I’d develop, but if it saves me calling one locksmith, one time, it’ll have paid for itself.
A good pair of binoculars is just nice to have.
Tools of any sort.
Non-stupid prepper stuff should some crazy shit go down. Water purification, solar systems, weapons.
I’d like to try one of the mesh networks, but have more pressing hobby-crap to pursue.
The concept of change, i think? I was shamed for my special interests as a child so I've tricked myself into thinking I dont have one. I am surrounded by plants, I keep little brass figurines of butterflies, am constantly distro hopping, system swapping in tabletop games (and relentlessly trying to meaningfully maim and heal my characters). Hell, I'm getting a degree and working a job in two fields that I had no familiarity with as of last year.
