History. For the last 3 to 5 years I've gone hog wild on learning about various wars and conflicts, particularly the American Civil War. Finally went to Gettysburg in March and had a massive Nerdboner the entire time.
Friday OT - Weird Interests
- Thread starter Angie
- Start date
Possums. I found one that was actually dead. Told the ranger. She examined it and told me it had not been tortured. That is apparently a thing since they are slow and weird looking. Then she told me about possums for over an hour.
Reminds me of the time me and a friend went to Boise and went to the Birds of Prey museum. Most of the workers are volunteers from Middle School to College Age. I was looking at a bird and this 11 year old girl went up to us to ask us where we were from etc. Then she asked us what our favorite bird of prey was and we had no clue.Possums. I found one that was actually dead. Told the ranger. She examined it and told me it had not been tortured. That is apparently a thing since they are slow and weird looking. Then she told me about possums for over an hour.
She was like "let's find you one" and proceeded to give us an impromptu tour of the entire place and talked in great length about each bird, their given name, their scientific name, where they came from, how the museum acquired it, and any "features" in terms of how it captured prey. What we thought was a quick thing to do turned into an almost 3 hour event.
That’s awesome! We have a bald eagle nest about a block away from us on the edge of town.
I love to hear people who are enthused about things in nature. My possum ranger was about the only person I saw for days besides husband and mail carrier during Covid. She said the dog and I were often the only park visitors besides drive thru people. I think she was lonely, so I also learned a lot about bald eagles, bats, and people who drive too fast in the park! And she cried with me when the dog passed away and I was out there alone.
This will be my 18th year fostering a cluster of bluebird houses.
There's other stuff, but that's enough for here.
There's other stuff, but that's enough for here.
I've always wanted to get into this more. I have a cheap detector my Dad bought my Son a long time ago that I mess around with once in a while. Would like to get something nicer and spend more time at it but just haven't pulled the trigger.
My friend you should head northwest, I hear ours is pretty good comparatively.
Was trying to think of something for me. Since I'm big into music I didn't want to list records or CDs or even misc music memorabilia like posters etc.
One thing I have always found fascinating were radio station record surveys. I have a wide variety but have really zeroed in on the ones I listened to as a kid or teen. Those were the ones we could actually tune in on our AM radios.
WLS, KIOA, KSTT, KCRG are the main ones.
This was when radio still had a bit more variety in individual markets. Yes, most of the national hits were on all of them, but it is interesting to find songs that were huge hits in some markets that did not even chart in others or nationally.
Probably the coolest ones in my collection are 2 from early 1963 from WLS. This is the first appearance of the Beatles (Spelled Beattles in this case) in the US. One week they are #36 (out of a Top 40) and the other week #40.
Edit: One of my favorites is from KISU which was the Iowa State radio station back in the day. They didn't do many and they are very tough to find.
There is actually a website that collects the survey data and actual images from other music nerds like me that can submit.
One thing I have always found fascinating were radio station record surveys. I have a wide variety but have really zeroed in on the ones I listened to as a kid or teen. Those were the ones we could actually tune in on our AM radios.
WLS, KIOA, KSTT, KCRG are the main ones.
This was when radio still had a bit more variety in individual markets. Yes, most of the national hits were on all of them, but it is interesting to find songs that were huge hits in some markets that did not even chart in others or nationally.
Probably the coolest ones in my collection are 2 from early 1963 from WLS. This is the first appearance of the Beatles (Spelled Beattles in this case) in the US. One week they are #36 (out of a Top 40) and the other week #40.
Edit: One of my favorites is from KISU which was the Iowa State radio station back in the day. They didn't do many and they are very tough to find.
There is actually a website that collects the survey data and actual images from other music nerds like me that can submit.
ARSA | The Radio Surveys / Record Charts Site
An historical archive of Radio Surveys & Nostalgia.
www.las-solanas.com
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Check out the Hoover Boys on YT. Best metal detecting channel there is IMO. Bunch of friends in the Baltimore area who search colonial era fields for old home sites. They also hunt in tidal water near old colonial era wharfs. Crazy what they find.
We went to the Morton Arboretum once in April and didn’t realize they had so many flowers
That's a hilariously cute and sweet story. Little "Boss of the Birds" girl. She's probably a university professor or on the city council - or will be.
Minnesota birding. 87 counties and getting as many species as I can in each in my free time.(a lot of driving) Then there is daylisting. Website logs sitings for Minnesota birders so seeing let’s say a robin on all 366 days of the year. I have 25 species on that list. All this plus all the Minnesota life bird species (386).
Fellow Minnesota bird nerd here. It makes you do strange things like contemplate a drive to southern Minnesota to maybe catch a glimpse of a Garganey.
Funny to see a few mentions of maps here. I have loved maps (and city populations, etc.) since before I can remember. My mom says I used to have a puzzle map of the U.S. that I could put together unassisted when I was 4. Most of the states were individual pieces, except some of the northeastern states were joined together since they would have been way too small. No idea where that interest came from, other than I just knew how the states fit together. I knew all the state capitals by 4th grade (again, no idea WHY, because we didn't focus on that IN school). I have a box that's got all kinds of old road maps of various states, some that go back 70 or so years. Also have three raised relief maps that are framed in the den: one of Point Reyes, California; one zoomed out of the North Bay in California; and one of the entire state of California.
I started collecting music as a kid, buying 45s (look it up, youngsters) when I scraped up enough allowance. Ben Franklin in Nevada carried a bunch of current songs back in the 80s. I'd bug mom to take me to the mall to visit Musicland whenever we went to Ames so I could see what they had. Today, I still have pretty much everything I've ever purchased, which includes over 1700 CDs, 800 vinyl albums, 300 12" singles, 800 7" singles (45s), and 250 CD singles. I don't buy much music anymore, maybe one or two new releases a year. It was kind of weird when I realized at a certain point that I owned everything I ever wanted for music and there wasn't much left to track down. The hobby of collecting mostly ended about 10 years ago when I reached that point. In the collection, I have nearly everything Barbara Mandrell ever released on CD and vinyl. I think I'm only missing about half a dozen vinyl singles from the early 70s.
I've always had a thing for houseplants, too. I don't have an overabundance of them, as there are only 17 of right now. At one point, I had over 40, but after a couple of moves and being placed in locations that some absolutely did NOT like, the herd was thinned out over the years. My oldest is a plain old philodendron that I bought in 1986 and it's still going strong. I had a ficus tree that my grandmother gave me when she got tired of caring for it. Not sure when she bought it, but it died from what I assume was old age at an estimated 48 years old. I enjoy having them in the house - the greenery really livens up a room.
I started collecting music as a kid, buying 45s (look it up, youngsters) when I scraped up enough allowance. Ben Franklin in Nevada carried a bunch of current songs back in the 80s. I'd bug mom to take me to the mall to visit Musicland whenever we went to Ames so I could see what they had. Today, I still have pretty much everything I've ever purchased, which includes over 1700 CDs, 800 vinyl albums, 300 12" singles, 800 7" singles (45s), and 250 CD singles. I don't buy much music anymore, maybe one or two new releases a year. It was kind of weird when I realized at a certain point that I owned everything I ever wanted for music and there wasn't much left to track down. The hobby of collecting mostly ended about 10 years ago when I reached that point. In the collection, I have nearly everything Barbara Mandrell ever released on CD and vinyl. I think I'm only missing about half a dozen vinyl singles from the early 70s.
I've always had a thing for houseplants, too. I don't have an overabundance of them, as there are only 17 of right now. At one point, I had over 40, but after a couple of moves and being placed in locations that some absolutely did NOT like, the herd was thinned out over the years. My oldest is a plain old philodendron that I bought in 1986 and it's still going strong. I had a ficus tree that my grandmother gave me when she got tired of caring for it. Not sure when she bought it, but it died from what I assume was old age at an estimated 48 years old. I enjoy having them in the house - the greenery really livens up a room.
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Ran down and saw it on Wednesday! Had to go ask the boss for a half day like in The Big Year scene
I love presidential history and reading and learning about past presidential elections. Really just love all recent American history.
