A roughly chronological, annotated study by reclaiming, completely ripped off from eilonwy, who took it pretty much word for word but broadened, from blergeatkitty.

Props to Eilonwy for being part of, if not the outright cause of, several of these. I'll iterate what both previous authors said about being rather "very, very into" than truly, clinically obsessed. This list does not include stuff I'm into that is not a fad or passing fancy. Examples of non-fad things I'm into: sustainability, environmentalism, interior design, social justice. Right, seems kind of odd to put that in with MLP and Star Wars. Y'all let me know if there's anything I've missed.

Very Young

*Star Wars - this is a life long obsession but I will mention it just this once

* Electronic Survival Shot - a toy I never got but yearned for, plotted for, saved up for years to buy only to find no one had heard of it by then

* Ranger Rick - and anything about animals, the environment, plants, etc.

* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

* SheRa - and maybe HeMan a little too

* Baseball - playing, not watching

* Playing in the basement - dress-up, making plays, digging through boxes

* My Little Ponies

* Mixing toys of similar sizes together - MLP, Puppy in My Pocket, Precious Places, Star Wars, Lincoln Logs, etc.

* Several Disney movies - The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Aladdin to name a few

* Having an evil queen who makes all the children into homeless orphans - purely based on my love of the Pound Puppies show

* Having the village flooded and everyone living in boats - also includes an obsession with playing on that rug that has a round pattern that looks like it could be the edge of a lake

* J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books - I can't tell you how many times I made Laura act out that scene between Smog and Bilbo in the cave. We read directly from the book

* World War II - following my first reading of the Diary of Anne Frank

* Writingt - starting long stories and never finishing them

Pre-College

* Hanson - this never really stopped but it's calmed down to a general, intense love rather than a stalkerish plastering of my bedroom with their photos (from magazines, not from my own camera... that would be truly weird)

* Arthur C. Clarke - anything by this man. Loved it.

* George Orwell - specifically Animal Farm and, to a lesser extent, 1984. I think I've read Animal Farm half a dozen times now

* Writing - poetry

*Jurassic Park, and anything dinosaurs - book and movie, also how I met eilonwy, kind of

* My Little Ponies, again

* Web Design

* Acting - theatre, props, costumes, movies, musics, etc... this was my life

* Newsies, Newsies, Newsies, whoa - can't say enough about how hardcore that one was

* Writing - fan fiction, and having people get wet a lot throughout the course of the story

* Roundhouse

* Mark David

* Christian Bale - got into a fight with my aunt when Batman came out over who liked Christian Bale *first* and I have to say that I shamelessly pwned her when I informed her of his early work, as far back as Empire of the Sun

* seaQuest - Jonathan Brandis, fan fiction, making models

* Comics - X-Men series-es, GenX, and any cheap trash I could get my hands on

* Buffy the Vampire Slayer

* Beatles - and basically any music from the 60s to early 70s

* Hippies - and basically any thing from the 60s to early 70s

College and Beyond

* Comics - Sandman, Pride and Wisdom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and any cheap trash I could get my hands on

* Neil Gaiman - lots of comics, books, movies, and whatnot

* Lord of the Rings movies - thus had to reread all of the books

* Buckminster Fuller - especially geodesic domes

* LOST

* Fashion Doll! - photographing Barbies, making custom props, clothes, and sets

* Star Trek Voyager - Henry, still not sure why but I must stop and watch an episode if I find it on TV

* Firelfy - Serenity, Joss Whedon, Whedon-verse

* Heroes

* Charles Rennie Mackintosh - especially his interior motifs

* Natural and organic motifs, forms, and inspirations - this is an interior design thing, I guess, like Mackintosh, and Bucky

* Trees - especially live oaks

* Reading about spirituality - feminist spirituality, power structures, god/goddess, consciousness, and so on infinitum

* Music - lots and lots of different artists and albums that I can't even begin to mention

* Stephen Colbert - brief, but got to meet him

* Walking in the woods - daily

* Dream symbology, dream recording, Carl Jung

* Dennis Kucinich

* Web 2.0 and 3.0 - anything and everything, but most especially Second Life, Facebook, wikis*

Earlier this month we had a real scorcher; 105F according to the digital readout on the bank down the street. That Saturday Melissa and Dave had invited me to join them in Topeka for dinner. The trip, under normal circumstances, could be done in under an hour... or so I have been told. For me, driving a 1974 VW beetle, it took a little over an hour and a half. The trip out there was long but mostly enjoyable. There are a series of little towns between Manhattan and Topeka so the speed limit alternates every couple of miles: 70 - 30 - 20 - 70 - 20 - 70 - and so on. I don't have A/C in the beetle but it wasn't so bad, not with the windows down and the vents open. Or, it wasn't so bad except for the fact that my the heater in my car is working. Always. On. Full blast. 105F weather.

See, my dad was kind enough to "fix" my heat right before I left toasty Tallahassee for the future chill of Manhattan. Only his "fix" involved wiring it in the open position. Now in his defense he has extensive VW experience and thought he was doing right. But when it's 105F and hot engine air is giving me a permanent wax on my left calf I tend to feel less than forgiving. To compensate I put the Mamma Mia! soundtrack on full blast and shamelessly dance-lipsynced my way through the miles.

I digress but the point is that by the time I arrived in Topeka I looked like I had been sweating to the oldies. I was soaked and hoarse from the sing-a-long but the promise of delicioso mexican foods peeled me from the vinyl diaper of the driver's seat. I found Melissa and Dave waiting for me with a big bowl of queso and a basket of chips. Melissa and Dave are excellent company. Three thumbs way up. I was even tasteless enough to joke with them about the terrible ordeal of making it to Topeka in a hot tin can. We had a nice, long dinner and then wished each other well, see you soon, stay cool. Ha ha ha. Sunset was approaching and I had a long road ahead of me. I resolved to enjoy the scenery, engage in another round of Mamma Mia! and take my sweet time getting home.

A little way outside of Topeka there's a little place called Rossville. There the speed limit drops to 20 and a police car sits on the edge of the speed zone, just waiting to catch an unsuspecting out-of-towner. As a granny driver in an antique VW, I delight a little too much in watching Audi race car drivers get snared by the secret police. I kept it under 20 all the way through town. That's how I keep it real.

As I accelerated back to cruising speed I entered a sky of honey and a sea of corn. The sunset was beautiful. The air was cooling rapidly. I can't remember now what song was playing. Suddenly the something was wrong. The car was slowing down. I pressed the gas. Unresponsive. Maybe the engine stalled? I turned the key. Nothing. I need to pull over. The shoulder of the road fell abruptly on both sides. There was a deep ditch and then rows and rows of corn. Maybe I can coast further down the road and find a pull off. Both of the idiot lights came on and then a thick cloud of smoke rose from the rear of the car. I need to pull over right now The smoke trail grew. I pulled the car as far over as I could safely. All this occurred in a just a few seconds.

I knew right away that something was very wrong. I never would have guessed what had really happened. Jumping out I saw fire coming out of the engine. From this point on everything is a blur. I think next I flagged down a car. While they called 911 I went back into the car and grabbed what I could. I saved the GPS, the iPod, maps, glove box papers, cloth grocery bags. The tool kit behind the back seat was too close to the fire. I left it. There were other items, too, but I truly believed that the fire truck would arrive before any real damage occured. I was just getting those things that I knew would be destroyed by smoke and heat.

I spent the next few nights going over in my mind all the things I could have saved. My tools. The tape adapter. knobs and dials. Silly little things that seem important. The front seat would have required only a moment to remove. But within seconds I knew the fire could spread to the fuel tank and so I took what I could and moved away from the car. I'll spare you the details about the tears and the drama

Three police cars, one fire truck, and many curious onlookers later the fire was finally extinguished. I told the police officer that filed my case work that the real tragedy was the loss of the sunbug floor mats. But - I continued - I was really glad that I didn't install those pop out windows or spend more time on the paint job. Then I cried more. He replied that, if it made me feel any better, the last car he watched burn up had a man inside. Pausing, I turned to him and said... Of course that doesn't make me feel better. What is wrong with you?!

Epilogue
For those who have already asked - or will ask - I am fine. Completely. And this story is shared only for your amusement. It was rough at the time but I got over it pretty quickly. Apparently the Universe just really wanted me to have a new car. Who am I to argue?

The tow guy suggested I scrap it but the damage isn't really that bad. Most everything on the bottom half of the interior is still there. I think I can salvage two windows. And I'd been talking about making the car electric anyway so... who could ask for a better excuse? More information about the rebuild wil be made available later in the semester.

Photos of the VW Bricket available on Flickr and info on the new car at Honda.com. It's my first time I've paid more than $1000 for a car. Let's see if I can keep it from bursting into flames. :P