Do you collect anything?

[zridling]

I suppose you can collect almost anything. And your passion? (If you don't collect anything, I admire you!)

[allen]

I do not collect anything in a dedicated/meaningful manner--there are some things I'm less inclined to have self-control in purchasing -- but it's more impulsive than collective.  For example, I love lighters -- and purchase far more of them than I need/can use. The end up used, lost or broken 90% of the time, however. I have no central repository for them.

I love hats and sort of collect them, but in a more utilitarian manner.  They can be costly and I'm not willing to go broke so I only purchase a handful a year -- A Fedora every six to twenty-four months, a ballcap every now and then.  Again, though, not really collecting as I use rather than present them.  It's not collecting if you're not hoarding and protecting, is it?

The closest thing I have to a collection is liquor bottle tops -- which isn't a collection based on uniquenes but on archival.  When I finish a bottle of liquor, I keep the lid.  Not surprisingly, it's a pile of very-similar bits of plastic, as I tend to drink always the same three or four things with only the occasional variation.  I've been hoarding them for about four years -- it wasn't intended as such, but it essentially started around the time I became a father.  So I guess it's a diary of how much he's driven me to drink.

[tinjaw]

Apparently I collect ToDo lists. And like a true collector, I keep them in their original form. Nothing is checked off. I insure that I don't actually do anything on these lists so I am not forced to damage this collection by scratching something out. My collection is quite large and it is spread throughout my home and office cubicle.

[f0dder]

I collect software and broken relationships

Do you collect anything?

[mouser]

I am a recovering book collector.. expensive habit 

[f0dder]

I am a recovering book collector.. expensive habit 

-mouser (April 08, 2008, 09:06 AM)

Yeah, it can be - I've almost run out of (programming related) books that I want, though.

[cranioscopical]

Do you collect anything?

I'm glad you asked!

Modesty has prevented my speaking out sooner.
I don't want to appear boastful,
And please don't bruit this about,
But I have assembled one of the finest collections in the world.
It's taken years,
And it's not been without cost.
It's required my wardrobe to be constantly updated,
And exponential increases in closet space.
What's more the conditions have had to be just right
And carefully maintained.
Whatever the sacrifice, however,
It paid off in the end.


Say what?
What is it?

Oh...

Spoiler

pocket fluff.   

[nudone]

Apparently I collect ToDo lists. And like a true collector, I keep them in their original form. Nothing is checked off. I insure that I don't actually do anything on these lists so I am not forced to damage this collection by scratching something out. My collection is quite large and it is spread throughout my home and office cubicle.

-tinjaw (April 08, 2008, 08:32 AM)

hahaha. spot on.

[app103]

I am a packrat in every sense of what that word can mean, including being a digital packrat.

My collections have collections. And what I mean by that is that I seem to collect dust collectors the most.

I am one of many in a long line of weird packrats that collect the oddest stuff.

This conversation will explain exactly how bad it is and how far back it goes:

http://cranialsoup.b...ons-of-packrats.html

 

[brotherS]

Another interesting topic

I used to collect some physcial items, these days it's more virtual. Nothing obsessive. And yes, I still 'collect' books, but not in a way to get to a complete collection of something (say all German philosophers of the last 2 centuries), but to learn what I like to learn more about.

"Who we become are the people we hang out with and the books that we read."
-- Author unknown

"Miss a meal if you have to, but don't miss a book."
-- Jim Rohn

[laughinglizard]

I am a recovering book collector.. expensive habit 

-mouser (April 08, 2008, 09:06 AM)

I'm a digital packrat. I collect information about all sorts of things, I don't seem to be capable of focusing on one area. Probably because I'm interested in more things than I could learn about in several lifetimes.

Along the lines of Tinjaw, I collect information managers. Something to manage all the bits of stuff on my hard drive. I've been using Scrapbook, and I like it, but now Evernote has come along as an online option and I'm back to waffling again.
All the others are successfully collecting digital dust in folders on my hard drive.

And books, oh I love books. I don't think I have too many at the moment, but that would be because I discovered that Powell's bookstore will buy your books. You get store credit for them, which is ok with me.

I donate books to my local library for the collection or the book sale. The town and the library aren't all that large, so I make sure to contribute.

As for the rest...........its an ongoing process of uncluttering and simplifying.
Errrrrr, that doesn't apply to software.

[Darwin]

Where do I start?

Artie Shaw recordings
Beatles albums and bootlegs
Wristwatches
Pocketwatches
Fountain pens
Software

I'm really only actively collecting software these days... I've listed my passions in the order in which I acquired them - the Artie Shaw obsession goes back to when I was 7 or 8 years old, software to my early 20's (and going strong almost 20 years later!).

[zridling]

I'm nuts about accumulating (not collecting) things I'll use. For example,

• if I find a pair of shoes that are comfortable and attractive, I'll race to the store to buy a second pair, because I know they won't make them like that next year, or they'll tweak something and screw it up.
  
• I've bought far too many "lifetime" licenses, only two of which were hassle-free. (XYplorer and WinRAR)
  
• I spent 35 years buying great books like mouser, only to have moved them so many times that I finally replaced all but one with their digital versions!
  
• I do collect hi-quality erotic art pictures (Met-Art, Playboy, Perfect10, etc.). I never go back to look at them twice, but someday I think I'll enjoy looking at them in the nursing home.
  
• I have also spent the last two years burning movies (from 1922-2008) from sources like Netflix, and now have over 1300 — every one of which I like to watch.

Fortunately, if all that disappeared in a fire overnight, I could start over and replace them all. Even the shoes.

[Darwin]

I can't believe I forgot books! They are my oldest passion, and I still buy and read 100's of them a year. I'd be lost without books...

[Deozaan]

I collect Pokemon.

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

[Stoic Joker]

Hm... (no particular order):

Guns
Knives
Stuffed Animals (as in teddy bears, not things that have been killed)
Applications
Operating Systems
Source Code
"art" (as zridling mentioned)
Computers (Captain Obvious strikes again...)
Misc Junk (We just moved, so I'm a bit low...)

That's all I can think of at the moment.

[zridling]

Knives are natural collector items, given the art (and tech) that goes into them. I've known some custom designers who have spent a year making one knife! I also knew a guy who collected everything that Apple ever sold. He had a high-paying job and could afford it, but his house was useless because he had entire rooms filled from floor to ceiling with Apple hardware devices. What a waste of cash.

[brotherS]

Knives are natural collector items, given the art (and tech) that goes into them. I've known some custom designers who have spent a year making one knife! I also knew a guy who collected everything that Apple ever sold. He had a high-paying job and could afford it, but his house was useless because he had entire rooms filled from floor to ceiling with Apple hardware devices. What a waste of cash.

-zridling (April 09, 2008, 07:15 AM)

Err, yeah, I wouldn't do that. On the other hand: if everyone would stop wasting cash, whole economies and industries would collapse.

[iphigenie]

I don't think I collect anything - by the normal definitions of collecting.

If I collected anything it would probably old science instruments and books, I find these fascinating, but I dont think one old physics book counts as a collection. I could also imagine collecting writing tools - pens etc - as I love a nice pen. But I only own what I use. Or vintage cameras, I own two, but use them for photo effect. But I could imagine collecting.

I do, though, like most people in the west, own too much stuff.  I dont mean I am a packrat - I'm atually quite good at getting rid of stuff. I dont mean I am anything like those people on TV, house looks nice and tidy, not cluttered. But I still have a lot more stuff than I need. So much stuff it weighs me down, so I have started clearing down. Even on books - 150 given away in a year. I'm mostly making sure I use up my stuff before I buy any more.

I do have one thing catalogued, but I dont think of it as collecting. I *did* read a book a day for a while and ooved to a place without a convenient livrary - as a result a few years down the road I own 1500 books (counting cookbooks and comics and stuff). That is not a collection to me because I do not seek any kind of coverage or completeness or topic or anything.

I cannot resist a clever board game, even when, like now, I have noone in the region to play them with. Banned myself from the ebay board game forum and from bgg

[brotherS]

I do, though, like most people in the west, own too much stuff.  I dont mean I am a packrat - I'm atually quite good at getting rid of stuff. I dont mean I am anything like those people on TV, house looks nice and tidy, not cluttered. But I still have a lot more stuff than I need. So much stuff it weighs me down, so I have started clearing down.

-iphigenie (April 09, 2008, 08:30 AM)

I agree, and I want to throw more stuff out too. What you wrote reminds me of two quotes:

"Neat and organized are not the same thing."
-- David Allen, author of Getting Things Done

"The things you own end up owning you."
-- Tyler Durden in Fight Club

I did read a book a day for a while and as a result I own 1500 books (counting cookbooks and comics and stuff). That is not a collection to me because I do not seek any kind of coverage or completeness or topic or anything

-iphigenie (April 09, 2008, 08:30 AM)

Speed reading? I imagine I could read a comic or cookbook a day, but some 300 pages of information? No way!

[cranioscopical]

I own 1500 books

-iphigenie (April 09, 2008, 08:30 AM)

BOOKS!  Life is full of irony. When I moved to where I now live I disposed of almost all of my books -- almost 7,000 at that time.
(I did keep a small collection of what I consider to be essential reference material.)
Now, in these larger premises, I have an empty main floor room which could have been the perfect library.

Occasionally I become glum about the books that are gone (when, for example, I find that the local, rural library has fewer of something on its shelves that I used to own). Mostly, however, I feel liberated by the absence of all that STUFF. Having access to the internet helps, and I've found that buying a few volumes a second time -- when really pressed -- is better than housing material that's not essential.

I'm now reasonably good at using and then disposing of newer items. For some reason it's much tougher to dump stuff that's decades old, no matter how useless it may be. Perhaps the need to hang on to junk comes from living though some hard times, including rationing.

Now that I come to think of it, my workshop has an inordinate number of tools. (It takes a certain dexterity to use all 10 electric drills at once,  especially when manipulating a brace-and-bit or three.) I suppose that's a collection, but in my blinkered way I never really thought of it as such

[Lashiec]

I don't think I really collect anything, simply I buy things I want

But for now, I don't have so many crap at home that I'm forced to live outside of it

[iphigenie]

Having had to start working hundred of miles from home (leeds>london) it was quite obvious to me how my life would be easier and more mobile if I owned less stuff.

When you consider what to do next and some tempting ideas just feel like "too much hassle" you know you are too entangled in stuff.

But then I have a nomadic streak, I like moving to something new every few years.

[iphigenie]

I actually don't speed read. I spend my commute reading, a bit on the lunch hour and an hour or more in the evening. That's an average paperback in 2 days, easy, although now I waste more time on the net and less reading. Then there is going back to leeds for the weekend and that is easily 3 books!

I have been a reader from a very young age. When I was about 10 I had to be a member of 3 libraries, the school one, the local town one and the one in the larger town next door (because there were limits to how many you could take out and I could not go more than once a week or even less to some of them, and 3 books a week was just not enough!). Got special dispensation to go pick books in the adult library by 12 (age limit is 15) because I had outgrown the books.

And I wasnt a geeky kid, I'd still spend my saturdays in something like the girl scouts crafting, building rope bridges, putting plays together etc. I didnt spend all my time reading. I had friends.

What I never really had was a strong sport or music hobby - I skied and hiked but these arent "2 nights a week" activities. This is where many children spend their time growing up. I put that time reading books (and on the 'puter after i got my zx spectrum). So if you dont have an instrument or a sport to rehearse, that is a lot of time for reading or doing creative hobbies, which I did.

Still read loads through uni although it was cramming textbooks

I only lost it when i launched a startup and lost my life in it

Still, I have too many books now, and I am becoming more ruthless with disposing of them after a read (bookmooch!!)

[Crush]

I have the biggest game-collection in germany - I think: 2 big cupboards full of rarest titles (most of the CDs don´t have a package!).