What are you investigating right now?

[Sapphire Harp]

I'm pretty sure you know what I mean (and it's not school related...)

You come across some idea, quote, fact, or whatever... You start googling it... Spend a couple hours reading about it... The next thing you know - you've got six books on order from either the library or amazon...

Until you become satiated and / or your new interest (obsession) comes along, that is.

So... What is the topic of the day that you just can't learn enough about right now?

* * * * *

Personally, I'm incredibly well focused on reincarnation right now (which is why I wound up making that half-baked thread the other night...)

I've been reading Buddhist things as they intersect with it, reading Brian Weiss, reading Paul Von Ward, catching relevant Coast to Coast shows...

It's strange how much believing in reincarnation might alter your notion of life & reality... I still don't know where I am (belief-wise), but the scenery's definitely changing. (Threads to come later on...)

* * * * *​

P.S. My thought for this thread was something like the 'About You?' thread... Off topic half the time, but never stopping - as the thinking never stops either, does it?
​

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

i am wondering if there is link between choice of whether to be buried or cremated and personality

i mean, i am rather stupid so most of my obsessions are really silly (Yo Yo's, Gwen Stefani, watching Silence of the Lambs 20+ times in just two weeks....)

i think the thread 'stupid INTP's' is i=kind of relevant to me, but closer to 'average' INTP for me. although i just went through a period of dissecting IQ tests (yay for scoring 154!).

Intelligence means a lot to me, which is why i spend most of my time obsessing over why i am not Intelligent

 

[Latro]

It's not actually school-related technically (I'm not working on a school project or anything) but I'm looking over some articles in the ACS database, at the moment mostly on nitrogen fixation. I'm mainly looking for possible research topics.

I don't get those situations like you're describing though.

 

[Xel]

Wittgenstein, Logic, and the french revolution at the moment. I had been really interested in economics but that got put on hold as other things presented themselves. I can only read so many books at once.

 

[Ogion]

Great thread idea, Sapphire!

For me it was last night the game Portal, which i will buy today or tomorrow You know, i wanted to go to sleep at around midnight, then i discovered a youtubevid about the game, and the next thing i know it's 11am XD

Ogion

 

[Anthile]

RPG systems. I think I read over a hundred rulebooks and tons of supplement material to create my own, perfect system - but just to find out that they are all inadequate and they all share the same flaws. Luckily, just yesterday I found the ideal system for my purposes and now I have to change it to fit my needs.

 

[flow]

Looking for the next great band.. most of my quests are for new music.

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

Wittgenstein, Logic, and the french revolution at the moment. I had been really interested in economics but that got put on hold as other things presented themselves. I can only read so many books at once.

I'm sure you've come across this. But isn't it hilarious how Hitler already looks discontent and kinda angry, and Wittgenstein already looks like a space-case? (This was a picture from their kindergarden class.)

Right now I'm working on improving at the ancient chinese board game Go. I'm reading some books in .pdf format.

On a sidenote, if anyone wants lessons in Go, I'd be happy to provide! It's simple to learn, but there's always more to learn. It's a game very geared towards INTPs.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?WhatIsGo

 

[RubberDucky451]

Usually for me it's when I'm deciding to buy something. If i want to purchase a TV i will learn all about interlaced and progressive scan displays etc.

Currently my interest is in Typography, and I've been downloading books and such on the subject.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

I'm sad to say I seem to spend more time looking for an obsession than actually being obsessed. Or maybe it's that I sometimes am too easily satiated with what I've learned about a given topic. I'm not proud of this.

I guess the last major obsession was with the events surrounding the battle of Stalingrad. The most pivotal battle of the most pivotal war in world history. Enemy at the Gates is a great book and an absolutely horrible movie. The old PBS doc. series Battlefield did a great episode on the battle (the whole series was great). Online resources have been sketchy.

I may be getting close to wanting to dive into archeology further. Especially in techniques. Anyone got suggestions?

 

[Agent Intellect]

i used to be obsessed with physics, then it sort of turned towards biology/neuroscience, but it has come back around towards physics (i've just been watching some of the Richard Feynman lectures online). i'm reading a physics book right now and have two about the brain that i haven't read yet. also, i've been playing a lot of chess online lately (feel free to come and play me at chess.com, screen name is Iron-Tom).

 

[Wacomydikid]

Famous serial killers. It all started because of the silence of the lamb movie. But because of all the reading on diferent case I became even more paranoid. I keep looking over my shoulder.....

 

[Tyria]

I was reading about Michael Vick the other day (since he may get to play in the NFL). After doing some searching, I found out that the one of the co-owners of the Home Depot actually owns the Atlanta Falcons.

Needless to say, following random tangents of ideas on wiki can provide hours of entertainment and information...

Edit: I watched Red Dragon for the first time, so I was also reading about serial killers as well. Some of the I had never even heard of, but it was an interesting read. I've always had an interest in crime/police/prisons that bubbles up after watching movies like that (or some other police investigation, etc).

 

[Sapphire Harp]

I guess the last major obsession was with the events surrounding the battle of Stalingrad. The most pivotal battle of the most pivotal war in world history. Enemy at the Gates is a great book and an absolutely horrible movie. The old PBS doc. series Battlefield did a great episode on the battle (the whole series was great). Online resources have been sketchy.

I can see why you'd find that topic worth going crazy on.... I don't know what you'd want to describe the battle of Stalingrad as... but I do know that it would be the most absolute extreme example of it... I'll definitely check out that episode of Battlefield if I can get it...

I wonder if there are any books specifically on the archaeology of battlefields? I'd sure as hell be interested in that... I've heard of some recent historical breakthroughs about battles because of archaeology... Thermopylae and... Isandhlwana, I think...
​

RPG systems. I think I read over a hundred rulebooks and tons of supplement material to create my own, perfect system - but just to find out that they are all inadequate and they all share the same flaws. Luckily, just yesterday I found the ideal system for my purposes and now I have to change it to fit my needs.

Have you been searching in preparation for Ceres IX, Anthile? What all were you checking out? And what did you find? I'm mighty curious.
​

Currently my interest is in Typography, and I've been downloading books and such on the subject.

Are you into calligraphy, too, Rubberducky?

* * * * *
​

Wacomydikid... Did you see the 'Computer Language Programmer -or- Serial Killer' quiz?
​

 

[RubberDucky451]

Are you into calligraphy, too, Rubberducky?

Yeah a little. I would love to get more into it but i need the proper tools. Hopefully I'll learn some basics with the class and meet some interesting people too.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

I wonder if there are any books specifically on the archaeology of battlefields? I'd sure as hell be interested in that... I've heard of some recent historical breakthroughs about battles because of archaeology... Thermopylae and... Isandhlwana, I think...

I haven't found any books on the subject but there is a series on the History channel called Battlefield Detectives which basically uses archeology and other sciences to better determine if an event occurred as history records, or things like why an event occurred as it did.

Here's a wiki link to the Battlefield series. It's detailed and thorough which I just love!

 

[EditorOne]

I am going to get focused on executive level intrigue, whether I want to or not, because the quicksand of reality these days in my field of endeavor has never been more apparent. Anyone know of any books with insight into lying, cheating, scheming, backstabbing and fingerpointing? So far as I can tell the only way to really survive is to enthusiastically kiss ass. Results seem to not matter, witness the huge bonuses paid out to executives of companies so badly managed we had to bail them out with tax dollars. Kissing ass is not a Watsonesque trait, and enthusiasm for anything is in short supply these days, so this should be interesting.

Other than that, my obsessional cycle deals with authors. I'm going through the local library's fiction shelves pretty much alphabetically, skipping much that looks cloying or opaque. But when I do find an author I like, I read all his books. And sometimes, if they are based in geography that is real, I'll delve into that on a parallel track. Florida keys and Everglades, James Hall, right now. (I have no television, so I'm reading about a book every day and a half. Panic is finishing the last book in the house when the library is already closed....)

I'd very much enjoy battlefield archaeology, and I do Civil War living history in part to understand more about it at a very personal level. Staying warm and dry and fed using 1863 technology really gives some insights. It is an ongoing obsession, 18 years now and counting. Do it for awhile with serious attention to authentic details and you understand the difficulties of assembling and maneuvering men without radios, using their historic formations and tactics. The history books get more comprehensible.

 

[LucielaMinerva]

Uh huh, uh huh. Readin' bout it for a friend whose uncle has cancer. Wish I could be there for him. He must be feeling really sad I think.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

i can't invest much faith into online Rorschach tests

said my sickness quotient was 81%

i mean, i gave answers like...

the dark, sinister and mutilated inerds of a whore, jack the ripper springs to mind

2 chickens heads licking a spoon on dead animal skull


i also recognised most of them as being Bugs/Insects - is this some psychological thing?

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

is this some psychological thing?

It means you are one fucked up dude! *<----------insert old green smiley here.

 

[Ermine]

Nothing special, but we're trying to read Godel, Escher and Bach, and trying to find new anime/manga.

 

[preilemus]

discordianism

 

[Citizen X]

I'm right now "researching" about Squalene in vaccines after reading some conspiracy theorist's rant about the swine flu vaccine.

I'm also reading a lot on arms dealing since I started reading Frederic Forsyth's "The Dogs of War" and my curiosity was picked

 

[Kuu]

Absorption chillers. Reading a book by Buckminster Fuller. And searching for a decent mac software for CAD (I loathe autoCAD and windows, must get rid of them once and for all).

 

[Sapphire Harp]

Reading a book by Buckminster Fuller. And searching for a decent mac software for CAD (I loathe autoCAD and windows, must get rid of them once and for all).

Oh, hey! I've been using Vectorworks myself... It's a pretty good CAD program and it's fully Mac supported. It also happens to be the industry's standard for theatre drafting software, so there's also that. Of course, it's a pretty expensive bugger...

I haven't really tried any other options. I learned drafting on Microstation back in high school and that is still the program I love... (My impression was Microstation was created with the neurotic mathematician in mind... with a sense of precision that I really appreciate.) But they haven't been offering Mac releases for at least six years.

Good luck with your search!
​

 

[Zero]

The StrengthsFinder, which I'm about done with because it's too frustrating. I want them to change my results, but I don't think they will.

There's a lot of crap I need to get done, so I think I'll avoid an obsession for a while.

 

[Thread Killer]

Believe it or not, astrology. It's very interesting when you get into the more intricate dynamics of it.

However, I have a good comprehension of it and am wishing to find new territory to investigate with it is scientific, historical, whatever. I have an open mind.

 

[Carnap]

Psychosis, schizophrenia, acute psychosis in normal people, psychiatry, anti-psychiatry, psychoanalysis.

These are my new obssessions of the month ! Nutrition is out, psychosis is in !

 

[Vrecknidj]

... at the moment mostly on nitrogen fixation..

I was looking into this last year. If we somehow find a way to screw this up, globally, we can end all of our other problems rather quickly. Rather dramatically, and badly, but quickly.

Dave

 

[Vrecknidj]

Famous serial killers.

This week's Newsweek will give you some fun reading.

Dave

 

[snowqueen]

I haven't found any books on the subject but there is a series on the History channel called Battlefield Detectives which basically uses archeology and other sciences to better determine if an event occurred as history records, or things like why an event occurred as it did.

Here's a wiki link to the Battlefield series. It's detailed and thorough which I just love!

http://www.bajr.org/Documents/BAJRBattleGuide.pdf

http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/battlefieldarchaeology/

link to Amazon using 'military archaeology' as a search term

 

[RobertJ]

http://senseis.xmp.net/?WhatIsGo

Hitler looked like a dick even as a kid.

 

[mikal]

At this very moment- mesopotamian and egyptian mythology.

And these days- everything else about Mesopotamia and Egypt.

 

[Adamastor]

I am studying about german literature (more specifically from 1750 to 1825), its movements and relation the european literature (that I know nothing about ).
So I am learning a bit of german, since it is always better to touch the original and make your own assumptions about what was written...

Before I was learning about Perl (In spite of reading about 25-30% of the llama book and stopping I am going to continue) to understand better the openkore software handle the sending and receiving of packets.

 

[Anling]

I like to study vertebrate flight (and morphology in general) and linguistics.

 

[Enne]

uninterruptable power supplies. ;-)

 

[Anthile]

I learned more about stochastics so I was able to back up what my intuition already knew: the best day to open a new thread is Tuesday.

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

Ancient chinese history, taoism, and the origin of Go.

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

right now I'm investigating the things that make me feel oppressed, the dominance of social types than would love nothing more than to see people like me burn, drug freedom, religious freedom, nutritional freedom, true health, basically things that we supposedly have(at least in the US) but really don't

 

[Jaico]

Right now, criminal psychology. I blame Poirot...

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

personality type, myself, dna, the mind, god, better places to live, health, drugs, vitamins and minerals, to name a few

 

[Miss Led]

Sewing, Taxation law in England, English law in general and this personality thing.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

~ ~ ~ Two Month Hiatus ~ ~ ~
​

What's everyone up to now, these days? Looking into something new?

* * * * *
​

Surprisingly, I'm still going on with reading about reincarnation. I found a "critical examination" of reincarnation by Paul Edwards which I'm going to get to soon... Supposedly, his book goes about debunking the whole notion.

We'll see. Anyway, I could use a counter-point to all the advocating literature I've been reading... Even if it's a poorly done one. Amazon reviews come in at 2.7 / 5, so... who knows.

Your turn, if you please...

* * * * *

P.S. I was going to wait until I moved on to some new thing, but it wasn't happening with any kind of speed...
​

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

Two month update on my subjects of interest:
I've had a very large hiatus for studying the game Go. I dunno... I just feel like I've had other priorities. My mom was actually pressuring me to go to the local Go clubs more often, because she thinks that I'm not hanging out with enough people.

Ancient chinese history is also on hiatus. My dad has an audio lecture about chinese history, so I might borrow it to hear more. But it's not high priority.

Taoism, however, is sticking with me a lot. I'm totally en captivated by it. Since I posted last I got "The stories of Chuang Tzu". It's one of the two main Taoist texts (the other being the Tao Te Ching) but it's not nearly as formal as the Tao Te Ching. It consists of stories and a lot of subtle comedy. I also read "The Tao of Pooh", which is a Taoism-for-Westerners kind of book.

But for Taoism I feel that I have moved beyond the information-collecting stage, and I'm trying to properly solidify it into a philosophy I can communicate to others. I feel that it is the most applicable ?religion/philosophy/psychology/conceptSystem?, and that having an understanding for it makes life much more clearer, bearable... even fun!

I'm also trying to find a synthesis between Taoism & reincarnation, Taoism & God, etc. It's a pretty obvious theme in my posts (at least to me).

New research topics:
I just ordered a book on Islam. I want to understand the Islamic golden era, and see if there is a good argument that I can make to encourage fundamentalist Muslims to embrace the principles & values they had during the golden era of Islamic thought.

I mean, we use Arabic numerals (1234567890) and call it Al-gebra & Al-gorithms for a reason.

 

[Kidege]

Half an hour ago, the College de France (Omnia Docet's such a cool motto)

Today, basically all I talked about in the forum: Miguel Hernández poetry, Piaget's theories, Edward Said's ideas.

It's been a so so day. I've done other stuff, mostly.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

*tries to explain*

*gives up*

 

[Cogwulf]

I'm not investigating anything at the moment, although I should be investigating the solidification of molten metals

 

[INTPINFP]

*tries to explain*

*gives up*

The gist of it is that I've finally got the perfect theory for explaining everything you ever wanted to know about the nature of reality, our place in it, and our perceptions of it; however it's difficult to explain, because it's even more difficult to understand, like trying to explain how a modern computer works to someone who's never seen technology before.

ah I know the feeling, the english language isn't big enough for your needs. Give it your best shot.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

In summary each individual has the responsibility of god over their own actions, choices and by extension the resulting outcomes of those actions/choices.
i.e. you answer to nobody except yourself, you create your own mis/fortune, you decided what is sin and what is virtue.
If one does not believe in a higher power (while so is by my reckoning is refusing to take responsibility for oneself) then one must be hir own higher power, one must do for themself what theists beg a god (ironically of their own creation) to do for them.

However my argument is worthless until I explain the reasoning it's built upon.

 

[sotired34]

Trying to turn salt into rocket fuel, but I just don't have enough current! Also, i am finding ammonia production to be nearly impossible, and that depresses me.