Edwin McCain

I've been keeping a personal diary since 1997.  Actually New Year's Eve of 1996, every day, something.  Sure, there would be some weeks I'd have to sit down and do a massive catch-up for the week, forgetting nearly all of the details but "I got up, dressed, went to work, watched TV..." But some words got on the page and I've been doing that for over 47 journals.  It's a lot of words on paper.  It's a lot of journals spread across a few boxes and drawers, and even though I have so much captured, I know there's a large part of my life that I just left out.

Case in point, the music that I like to listen to.

I did a deep-dive not long ago and realized, I only rarely mentioned favorite songs or albums I'd bought recently even though in reality I obsessed endlessly over these songs.  Albums or specific songs would be on repeat on the CD player until one of my parents told me to come out of my room and spend time watching TV with them instead. I'd just switch to my headphones and keep on listening.

My deep-dive through the past few years made me realize that for a good portion of my life as CDs had started to become less available, I'd more or less stopped listening to music.  I'd given away my CD player, stopped turning on the radio during the day when I cleaned, and only occasionally I'd turn on Media Player on my computer and spin up some tunes.

Then the pandemic happened.  I snagged up Bastille (Give me the Future) and I started buying up other albums.  Mostly ones I could still get in CD form so that I'd have a copy for my car as I drove back and forth to work, ripped it to my PC, listened to it until the next thing came along.

I was back BABY...

Sorta?

Let's fast forward to winter of 2025.  I'd gotten into this band, Twenty One Pilots, they'd put out Blurryface some 8 years before, I don't know when I picked it up.  I remember when they put out Scaled & Icy in 2021, right after the pandemic. Hell, I live in the frickin' town they've been performing in since I moved here, but they were barely on my radar.  But for some reason when I heard about Clancy, I was like - you know what?  It's time to get something brand new.  I'd heard something on the radio, I don't know which song they put out first, but I had it in my hands pretty close to release this time.

It was constantly in my car to the point that my husband bought us tickets to one of the three showings in Columbus, and even though we'd seen Fall Out Boy earlier that year and I was blown away by that concert...this one was just something ELSE.

The fans were COSPLAYING.  These were MY people.  How had I been missing out on this?  There was a whole deep story and lore, characters and music videos and people were obsessed to the point they were writing fanfiction and drawing pictures of these two guys from my town, and that pretty much sealed it for me.

I bought up every other album I was missing (that was in print) and later picked up the ones that weren't from other fans on the internet.

When they announced the final record (sob, I'd come into this so late) I ordered two copies, got tickets to the first tour date and have been waiting on eggshells for the next release, post, clue, video, etc since then.

But, why the heck would I title this "Edwin McCain" - isn't that some dude and his band from the 90's?  Why aren't you talking about Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun here?

Well, let's go back there.  There was a dude who had a song on Dawson's Creek and it blew up and I bought his album, and then two more before they just disappeared (to me).

And now tonight, I put on a random video from Rick Beato, he'd just posted today, I didn't know who he had on, thought it would be a cool video to have on in the background while I wrote in my diary (see, I'd bring it back around) and the guy's voice was just sorta familiar.  Then they finally said "Edwin..." and I'm like WAITAMINUTEISTHIS... EDWIN MCCAIN?  I KNOW that guy (his music).  

Rick I'd found after watching far too many music reviews and deep-dives into how music production was made, something I've always been fascinated by but never got further than composing Mario Paint tunes.

Sure enough, I'd watched 30 minutes of this chat they were having and it struck me that this was the dude I thought had just fallen off the radar at some point.  He's been out there, still doing his thing, but not putting out big fancy songs on the radio.

What struck me was when Rick asked what Edwin would call his music genre and he couldn't answer.  He's kinda considered an Indie band now but the songs were always all over the place on their albums.  There'd be a pop rock hit, followed by some countryfied anthem, blues, and then some religious song after that.

And it occurred to me - this is what I always looked for in music.  It's my calling card so to speak.  Great vocals, songs that maybe didn't make sense, but did to me at the time, made me cry, made me dance, put on repeat for hours on end...and throw in a bit of God in there somewhere.  A confusion sounds, themes and everything in between.

Edwin McCain fit that label for three albums.

Twenty One Pilots fits that for over seven albums (I now own EVERYTHING).

Bastille's jumped around everywhere (listen to Bad Blood and then Ampersand and you'll get it)

Matchbox Twenty

Fall Out Boy

You'll get it.  It needs to be different, it needs to be filled with feeling.

I used to take pride when I'd find a pop band that thanked God in their thank you notes.  That used to mean a lot when I could listen to a song that was 'sorta religious'.  But Edwin wasn't apologetic, on one of his final albums he straight up wrote a song "Jesus, He Loves Me".

But it's odd how things have changed to me in that regard.

It's not that I have given up on religion, but I have given up on the people who preach it their way.  And oh boy are my eyes opened to how many people use it to better themselves and no one else.  I remember the hollow preaching of my final church who's pastor literally spoke the same sermon three weeks in a row - 'lean on your fellow man' - okay, that's great, what's next?  "Depend on your Neighbor..." okay, that's kind of the same thing.

He really needed a paycheck... oh, sorry, tithings.  

They moved locations before we went to church again and couldn't find them again.  I know, it's rather weird, that's a whole different story, probably not for another time.

Listen to a few of these songs for me.

"Darwin's Children" - Edwin McCain

"Implict Demand for Proof" - Twenty One Pilots

"Trees" - Twenty One Pilots

"Save My Soul" - Bastille

These are people who know, on a deep level that they're teetering between two sides.  The side we all went to be saved, we want to have hope, have faith...but it's difficult.  VERY hard to know too much because then your eyes get opened up and you realize that it's not that easy.

Once you get to that point in your life you have a couple choices.  You can choose to throw yourself into that Faith - but you'll feel fake for it the rest of your life.  You can choose to throw it away, but you'll always feel guilty because of the WHAT IF?

Or you can stay on the fence, always teetering.

Like a musician who can't pick a genre.

Like a 50 something guy who fought like crazy to become a pop hit for a brief time in the 90's and then decided, you know what, I don't care anymore, and went back to playing small stages because that's where he decided he belonged.

And I really enjoyed hearing about it now, years later.

I recently re-discovered a guy named Peter Mulvey I met a few times in college who's also still playing.  But that's another story for a different time.

My Life With Anime Figures - Part 8 (Nendroid Kitchen)

     I'll be the first to admit, I'm pretty jealous of some of these figure photographers I've been following online.  If it weren't for the fact that I just don't have the funds (or time) to do the amazing stuff they do, I'd probably start my own Facebook page and try to get a following like they all seem to have.  And maybe eventually I'll have enough photos to try to do it myself.  Perhaps even enough to produce a book and try to get it funded.  Nah...  Well, a girl can dream, right?

     Anyway, today's "My Life With Anime Figures" surrounds the creation of a little kitchen for my Nendroids.  Why a kitchen?  Because I could get decently sized furniture from the Calico Corner toy series, and the kitchen set was adorable.  Plus, I love miniature food.  Today you won't see all of my collection of tiny food, but will probably bring out the rest eventually in the upcoming months as I try my hand at more of these.  I also have more Nendroids to photograph and will probably do more changes to the furniture itself in the future too to make it more unique.  But for now, these are mostly test shots as I decided to build a 'stage' for my figures.

      

    So I had furniture, food, and figures, but I didn't have a room.  I considered making a room out of a cardboard box but I realized over time it might break down from use and I also wanted something stable enough that I could move it out of reach from my cats.  After some hunting I found a sturdy unfinished bin I was able to cut the front off to give myself two corners of a room.  I've seen some setups with only one corner, but I wanted to have some opportunities to switch sides of the room (which you'll see in the photos to come.

     Now that I had a blank room, how to decorate it?  Paint it?  Cut holes for windows?  I finally landed on scrapbook paper since I could tape it on and remove it as I pleased.  I found an adorable set of paper called "Olivia's Kitchen" at Hobby Lobby that had plenty of old fashioned food themed papers and also had some types of repeating patterns that would look good for flooring.  I settled on the checkerboard design because even though my Nendroids aren't in the old days, I like the old fashioned style look in kitchens.  Plus the furniture, especially once I get it painted, will probably look more old fashioned anyway so it will all fit in.


     Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the room by itself with just wallpaper and the window, or with furniture installed but no Nendroids.  But I'm sure you came here to see photos of the figures anyway, so here's one of the first setup photos as I was testing lighting.  I realized pretty early that because of the three walls there wasn't going to be a really good way to get natural lighting in this space.  The flash washed it out terribly, and closeup photography kind of needs natural lightning.  I tried turning it to the window, but the shadows appeared in strange places.  So I pulled out a couple random lamps, one from IKEA which gives a sort of natural glow and another LED spot lamp that was just too focused.  But I do think perhaps it might be of some use in the future.

     As you can see in the photo of Umaru on the right, the soft warm glow on the right side of the room was from the IKEA lamp sitting inside the room.  The light focused on the fridge is the LED light that was just too hash and pinpointed.  I think maybe it'll be useful for the glow from a computer screen or something, so I'm keeping it nearby just in case.  Unfortunately no matter where I put the soft light of the other lamp it just didn't light up the room as I wanted.  So I snapped various photos while moving it around to different positions and then headed to bed that night.  During a bout of insomnia, it finally hit me that I could 'float' the lamp above the box if I built a strut-like system on top.  (Again, I'm glad that I splurged for the wooden container as opposed to a cardboard box which wouldn't have held the weight of the lamp and strut system).

     Here's an unedited photo of what the room looks like lit with the lamp from above.  I also added a fun window and painted clouds and gave it a night shine.  Attached it using double sided tape, so again, I can change it and move it where I want.  The lighting it sort of like you'd see in an old kitchen like this where they really didn't put many windows and there was usually only a little tiny light above.  I'd love to add upper cabinets someday, but we'll see.  I also added a second "wallpaper" to the right side of the room to make the seating area a bit different.  Eventually I'll fix the seam, but for now it does the trick.

So now that I've got half-way decent lighting, I have a kitchen, if not completely finished, and I've got some Nendroids hanging out, I thought I'd have a little fun with it.

Umaru raids the kitchen!

Hanging out by the cool fridge on a hot summer day (with Nyanko-Sensei)

 Snow Miku (2015) Hangs out in the Dining Room.

Tsukiko is munching on steamed buns she brought over.

And finally... Umaru raiding the kitchen in the middle of the night!

     This finally photo was actually my favorite because I got to play with Photoshop and do some color changes to make it look like it was night.  I'm very excited to be able to do more with this kitchen as time goes on and hope to expand it by adding photos and curtains and other fun things as time goes on.

     I hope you enjoyed today's blog!  Please feel free to comment below and follow me!  ^_^

My Life with Anime Figures - Part 1 (Trigun)

After spending a ridiculous amount of time watching vlogs about people opening figurines, showing off their collections, reviewing figurines and even pointing out the differences between bootleg figures and the real, I decided to start my own series of blogs on my own collection.  Since I don't own video editing software (although I'm sure my husband would love to get me into it if I asked) I'd much rather write since that's why I went to college.  Plus, with my super camera, it's awfully fun just to take pictures of the figures I've collected over the years.  Plus it's just a fun trip down memory lane.

I hesitate slightly to say that the Trigun figures to the right were my very first anime related figures.  I think they were, unless you count various Pokemon or perhaps a random other series.  These were, however, the first figures I bought at an anime convention.  Rewind the years back to 2004 in January near the beginning of the year when Ohayocon first moved to the Columbus Convention Center.  Well, more accurately the convention space at the Hyatt, as they weren't really big enough to expand into the convention center itself.  They had the dealer room in a banquet room across where then was only a row of windows letting onto a circle drive where people could be dropped off.

For giggles, here you see the back of my head as I was dressed as Milly Thompson from the Trigun series.  Behind us (unbeknownst to me) a rather popular cosplay photographer stood on a chair as my photo was being taken with a Wolfwood cosplayer by a Chii and Witch Hunter Robin.  Those were the days!  Fewer people cosplayed then just attended in normal clothes, and there was less anime you could easily get your hands on, although that would change in the next few years.  At the time, there were very few figures you could get without buying them at a convention or expensively getting them shipped overseas by someone sketchy.  I'd imagine a lot of the figures were either very cheaply produced (like my Trigun figures above) or super expensive.

Back to when I bought these figures.  So when I first walked into the vendor room I was by myself, only a little over a $100 in my pocket for three days of spending and food (I had a debit card but no credit cards at the time...or rather, most people didn't take credit in the dealer room then!)  And the moment I walked in a guy in a booth called me over and said, "I know what you're looking for!"  He pulled out a plastic bag and shoved these figures at me, as well as another bag with the mini-busts to the right.

Well, more accurately, only the Milly, Wolfwood, Meryl, a Knives, and transformed Vash, I'd later get the rest of the series through much searching.  At the time the sets cost me $40, and I willingly shelled out the money before I realized I would be stuck eating one meal a day the rest of the weekend.  Was it worth it?  Totally.  The guy who sold me those figures still runs the circuit and I see him at Ohayocon and even Tsubasacon (he's out of the Columbus area, Anime Palace if you've ever met Wade, you'll know who I'm talking about).  I'm still amazed to realize that there were some hardcore anime fans who really loved what they did and wanted to share what they knew with fans.  I was a fan of like three series at the time: Trigun, InuYasha and Chobits.  Only later did I start collecting more figures and getting into more series as it became easier to pick up at local stores like Best Buy.

Now, the little figures (gatchapon mostly) were fairly easy to come by at conventions.  However, if you wanted a more expensive one, well, you had to plan for it and it was still pretty hard to get them online because many of them would charge as much for shipping as the figurine themselves.  Or maybe you'd have a friend like mine who just happened to have a Vash figure that they didn't want anymore.

This beauty (although I think this particular one might be my husband's...we have a couple in the household now) was bent backwards, missing some parts, but oh gosh I wanted it so badly that I ended up getting ripped off by a couple of friends who wanted to unload it since they were strapped for cash.  I think I paid $60 for it (and for awhile you could find it for $30 until it became a bit more rare but still costs only around $40 on eBay).  It was one of those figures that I both loved, but also hated because I had mixed feelings on how I came to acquire it.

At the time the McFarlane figure was the only one available directly to the United States, and it would be a year or so before the other sets would be released, but the popularity of the other figures didn't last very long since only the busts covered the majority of characters in the series.  Quite a few were produced over the years and the older photo here doesn't have all of my figures, but since I didn't feel like pulling them all down and dusting them off, I thought I'd just put this up here to finish out talking about the first set of figures that I've collected over the years.

Originally most of my money went to buying figures strictly from Trigun.  Mostly Vash, but a few others as the years went on.  This collection is not by any means comprehensive.  I have friends who have quite a few more than this, but I enjoy the range it has as a set of figures.  Mostly because you have good guys and bad guys, anime and manga based, official paints as well as 'repaints' which were mostly Vash's special black and silver coloration.  Sometimes I wish they'd explained why Vash also came with a black coat in those early figures, even though it eventually came to fruition in the manga series years later, I've always wondered if Yasuhiro Nightow came up with the idea or whether it was in the mind of the figure creators.

In the next blog I plan to go to my next set of figures:  CLAMP

Fandoms: Obsession or Hobby?

I've been thinking about fandoms lately, and of course, being a person who has jumped through dozens of them over the years, I thought I'd talk about them today.  For someone who spends a lot of time keeping up with the more geeky fandoms throughout the years, I feel at least a bit comfortable talking on a surface level about just about anything.  Fandom (which, by the way, my spell checker does not like the word, and I keep getting squiggly red lines when I type) is a word that, at least to me, means something that a lot of people like and spend a lot of time thinking about and usually entails spending copious amounts of money on and takes up most of their lives.  This can range from a television show to a football team (*cough* OSU *cough), can be for a single actor, or for certain characters from movies.  It can be an anime or live action, it can be for a toy or a collection like baseball cards.  You name it, there's probably a fandom for it.  Food, furniture, plants, hobbies... well, the list could go on forever.

My own personal list has been fairly brief over the years, although when I get into something new, that old fandom is still back there in my mind, creeping up from time to time when I meet someone else who has the same obsession over the subject.  But I'll get to my opinion on whether these things are mere hobbies or obsessions a little later on, don't worry.

1.

The first memory I can remember about my own personal fandom starts with My Little Pony.  Flashback to 1985, and they'd just switched from "My Pretty Pony" to the first generation of My Little Pony and I had a very small collection of ponies.  (For the record I was more obsessed over animals than dolls, and threw away my very first Barbie after chewing off her hands when I was 5 or 6)  I continued to collect the little pastel ponies throughout my years until I turned a teen, and even during the short time period where the ponies weren't being released by Hasbro (and the period where they looked stupid) I still thought about the ponies and would 'save' them from flea markets and garage sales where I could.  I still have my entire collection of ponies until this day, they probably hit the 100 mark now.

What's interesting about my first fandom was that I wasn't a member of a fandom when I was growing up.  This was a hobby, a collection, an obsession over little plastic toys with brushable hair.  It was much later, only in the last four years or so that I suddenly became a member of a fandom.  The Brony community was created and suddenly here I am, a member of this group of pony-lovers.  It's the one fandom that I don't believe I'll ever outgrow, even when the cartoon ends again or they change to some other strange pony style down the road.  Would I call this more of a hobby or an obsession?  At this point in my life I think it's still more of a hobby since I don't go to Brony conventions or spend much time talking to other fans.

2.

My second longest fandom started in 1993 with the release of the Super Mario Brothers Movie.  Strangely enough, this was another fandom that just wasn't a fandom when I liked it at the beginning.  I knew only one other person who liked the movie and we obsessed over it for a year or two until my friend went onto other things and my obsession turned into more of a collection.  Much later, almost the 20th anniversary of the movie, and I discovered a community of like-minded individuals who had been even more obsessed about SMB then I had been and started up small conventions and showings, began comic books and helped bring about the release of the Blu-Ray of the movie.  I still love SMB:The Movie even though now it's also more of a collection that sits in my closet then something I go out and actively participate in.

3.

A very short fandom that I still feel appreciative of was Batman Returns.  I had a crush on Danny DeVito's Penguin.  I cried when he died in the movie and was carried out into the water by the penguins.  For six months or so I wondered what it would be like to have flipper hands and be the Penguin's daughter.  This was, of course, one of my stranger fandoms and again, another where I've never been a member of a group...although I'm sure there's others like me out there!

4.

Pokemon.  Do I need to say much about them?  My first Game Boy was a clear purple "color" which didn't have color of course.  My brother got both Red and Blue, I took Red, he got Blue and we both managed to get through the Elite Four.  We both gave up trying to get all the pokemon and cheated using a Game Genie (or was it a Shark in those days?) and filled my pokedex and got a blue mew for the heck of it.  Since then I've gotten just about every other pokemon game (minus a few over the years when friends had them) and also got into the card game for awhile.  I still collect the toys from time to time and just enjoy talking about pokemon.  I think this was my first "true" fandom as almost from the very start I knew other people who liked the games and we talked about them over the years.  Plus, I'm still a fan, although more on a fringe way I suppose as I haven't bought some of the reboots lately and have fallen out of things recently.

5.

Highlander: The Series.  Let's switch gears and think TV shows.  I had a stint with X-Files around 1997 or so where I got posters and journals and cards and my room was papered with magazine clippings that looked like I was a shut-in.  However, that was only because I couldn't afford much of the Highlander stuff that came out until after I graduated and was in college.  I was a huge fan of Adrian Paul and later Peter Wingfield.  This was one of my most expensive fandoms as I spent a ton of money on buying the VHS sets that came with a bunch of extra cool stuff.  I still use a bag that I got from that and have some jewelry items I bring out from time to time.  I see people wearing Highlander jackets on occasion out and about too, so I know that even though the fandom died back, it didn't die off completely.  In fact, there's been tons of references just lately to the Highlander series in various cartoons and TV shows (like Forever, for example).

Highlander was the first time I really obsessed over a show and all I talked about was the series.  I wanted to be an immortal.  I met people online who also wanted to be immortal.  I wrote fanfiction, I tried my hand drawing artwork (and failed miserably, but I knew friends who could draw excellently) and I made my first website about the series.  It grew for years into three websites, forums and eventually even a meet-up.  I met a bunch of people and hung out with friends from other states, chatted online with people from Europe and exchanged artwork and presents.

Unfortunately, this series upon it's end, basically meant the end of the fandom for me.  Mostly.  My friends and quibbled about real-life things since we really had nothing else in common besides the series, and when it was over and we'd talked it all out, that was it.  A few friends went into new fandoms (two of which went onto Russel Crowe, another onto Outlander years later), and eventually I just fell back on my pokemon fandom for awhile as I really couldn't keep up with them.  I didn't like Russel Crowe, I couldn't get obsessed over him, and I didn't want to.

6.

My pokemon fandom had a combination with my short stint as a gamer. I won't say that this fandom of tabletop and cardgames was actually a fandom for me.  It was more like a "I need to like these things to get a boyfriend" thought for a few years.  Unfortunately I went through nearly everyone in the gaming group I was in until I realized that just wasn't going to work and mistakes learned, I moved away from that fandom back to pokemon and it's grandmother Anime.

7.

Trigun.  Anime was always on the backburner for me from the time that Sailor Moon was released, Pokemon, and a few shows here and there until suddenly I was watching Adult Swim at night and there was Cowboy Bebop, Inu Yasha, YuYuHakusho and Trigun.

Vash the Stampede was a crush of mine for quite a few years from 2002-2006.  Heck, I think I obsessed over him a bit longer than that too, although in 2006 I met my future husband and that basically ended my obsession.  However, Trigun was something unique to me when it came to the fandom.  Trigun had a small fan base in the USA with the release of the anime.  There were a few people online who had created websites, they had created some translations and had a limited amount of information available on the web.  But, most of it had been abandoned.  It became a fandom that I pulled up out of the dirt, brushed off and started all over again.

I started up my own website and posted things every day.  I created my first blog of sorts with the daily updates.  I had some fun things to see, started writing some fanfiction, and met some others who liked the series too.  I answered questions about the show and started collecting the manga even though it only existed in Japanese at the time.  I met people who had available to them the brand new chapters as they came out in Japan.  I pulled translations from them, eventually helped start a translation group, and then watched it go it's own way.  At the peak of my website, there were hours where the bandwidth allotment was reached and people couldn't visit until the next hour.  I had people emailing me every day with questions and information.  I chatted with people on AIM for hours about the topic and I was the person you went to for information about the series.

I'm still proud of my Trigun fandom.  I pulled up and brought it back to life and kept it running for quite a few years.  The fandom itself is pretty small now, but I still have the number one site for information about the series (except of course the Trigun Wiki page, but what do you expect?)  And I still have Trigun posters and pictures on my wall that I look at on a regular basis.

But is it an obsession?  No.  Not any more.  I don't spend hours thinking about Vash or Wolfwood taking me on adventures and spending time being a gunfighter on the desert planet.  I don't draw Vash non-stop, nor do I write fanfiction on the subject.  I still watch the show from time to time, still look at the manga, and I can't convince myself to throw out the magazines I had when they were first released even though the books have all been released and the series is completely translated.  But it's a collection, a memory of the fandom, and I'll have the website for awhile yet, but even that will eventually fade away as well.

8.

The Future.

I don't have a fandom that I'm really a member of at the moment.  I don't like anything so much that I'll go out of my way to spend hours talking about it.  I don't go out and spend time with others who like a certain thing and I don't write fanfiction or draw or share photos of anything.  Well, I suppose you could say that I like cats a lot, but I think that's more of cat-scratch fever than an actual obsession.  (Look it up - the virus of cat-scratch fever can actually effect your brain.  I almost think that people who are immune to this are those who become dog people or no-pet people)

But does that mean I'll never find another fandom?  I'm not sure.  I still collect My Little Ponies and Pokemon, I still watch anime, so I suppose in the greater sense I'm an anime fan.  But am I obsessed?  No.  This is more of a hobby.


OBSESSION OR HOBBY?

And now I will finally get around to speaking on the topic of this blog.  Are Fandoms really obsessions or are they hobbies?

Actually, they're both.

A fandom normally starts out as a hobby.  Perhaps you've watched a couple shows.  Maybe you've found yourself looking up information about the topic on Wiki or IMDB.  Maybe you've added yourself to a fangroup on FB.  Perhaps you buy a few knickknacks or a T-shirt.  Most people actually treat a fandom as a hobby.  I'd say, at least typically it starts out that way, and it just depends on how much time you spend thinking about it.  An hour a day?  Hobby.  Twenty-four hours a day?  Obsession.

Until Highlander, most of my fandoms were hobbies.  With Highlander and Trigun I had an out-right Obsession brewing.  I spent all of my free time on the topic, talked about it and enjoyed every single minute.


OBSESSION FANDOMS:  GOOD OR BAD?

I'm sure this is a mixed debate for people when it comes to fandoms.  A sports fan might argue that a person who only plays video games all day is wasting their lives, but that same sports fan might have a house full of OSU memorabilia, spend all their time on fantasy football, and the rest of the time trying to avoid blue and gold at all costs.  Are they any less obsessed than the video game player?  Nope.  Is it bad?  Probably not.

Obsessions tend to happen to people who are single, and they usually happen between the ages of 13-25.  Mind you, I'm speaking of fandom obsessions, because obviously there are people obsessions that can happen whenever and that...well, I won't go into that.  Anyway, most of these people are looking for acceptance into a group.  Find something you like, find others who like the same things you like, and that equals acceptance and something to talk about and just really makes one fit in.

On the flip side, some obsessions can also lead to some people shutting themselves in, obsessing over something that they don't share with others, and can lead to some far worse things.  There always must be a certain buffer from allowing oneself to fall into that category.  There's usually far worse things involved in these situations, so I won't go into it more than this.

I think for those who are single, obsession fandoms are great.  They open up new friendships, new relationships, gives them a creative release, brings them into a group where they can feel loved or at the very least, accepted for who they are and what they like.  This goes from a group who enjoy a single character from a TV series, to people like the Bronies, who do a whole lot of good in their communities.

I think for adults, and especially for those with families... obsessive hobbies should be watched.  Why do I say this?  Well, over the years I've witnessed quite a few different obsessions lead to some problems in family life and home.  A family full of OSU nuts?  Okay.  One gal who LOVES an actor so much they're willing to go to New Zealand in order to stalk the guy... Not good.

A person with a family should always be obsessed with their family first.  Why?  Because, it's their family, and they need to look out for them.  If the the family are all fans of the same thing, or at least marginally, they create that unit of acceptance that the single fan creates with their fandom.  They create a circle of acceptance, equality, and understanding.  That's great.  But it's all about the family first and how everyone fits in.  My family is obsessed with anime and figures.  It's a fairly all-encompassing fandom, but one we share.

A person with a family who is not obsessed with their family first, most likely is not happy with their family.  They aren't happy where they are and it can cause trouble in that environment.  The first such person I saw in this situation was during the end of my Highlander days.  Both she and her husband enjoyed playing video games, watching Doctor Who and going golfing.  However, she was also completely obsessed with Highlander and loved Adrian Paul and Peter Wingfield.  But after the series ended and she began her obsession with Russel Crowe, she joined groups online and started making plans to meet him.  Now, he's a pretty big celebrity, so this was a pretty big thing.  At the end of our friendship (and I have no idea where she went next as I've never been able to find her on Facebook) she was getting her jaw worked on and getting a divorce.  She hadn't even slept in the same bed with her husband for years, so I think she'd already written off the marriage pretty early.

A more recent situation was were a friend of mine got into My Little Pony, called himself a Brony, and then started meeting other people and spending lots of time on the internet.  At first his wife joined him in the pony obsession.  (At least to an extent, as most Bronies are single until they find that special "Somepony")  But then he went off onto Adventure Time, and again, they both found interest in the cartoon series.  But then his hobby turned into an obsession with writing fanfiction and finding others to include in his inner circle.  This no longer included his wife, however, and even his long-time friends who tried to find interest in his fandom (my husband and I), found ourselves in this strange less than 6-month battle as fandom obsession turned war.


CONCLUSION

In conclusion... heh.  I spent far too much time writing essays in college to let them go.  Strangely enough my blogs still take essay form.  Forgive me!  You just learned something!  Intro, content, conclusion.

In conclusion, I believe that fandoms are better left hobbies, rather than letting them get into the obsession category.  However, I do believe there is good in allowing a fandom to take over your life, just so long as you don't forget those around you.  Make friends, use them to learn new things and expand your horizons.  Find others who share your obsession, but don't lock yourself away with it.  Share your stories and drawings, share your interests, ideas and thoughts, and don't feel ashamed of it.  Those who shun you for those activities are not people you want to hang out with!

Love your fandom and take good care of it.  Don't find yourself shunning others who want to be included, they are just trying to find a place in life too.  Don't keep your fandom from your family, maybe they'll want to get into what you like too.  Find things to surround you to keep you happy, but don't spend a fortune on dust-collectors (ahem, self!) and try not to go too over the top with your decor (ahem, OSU room people!)  Love what you like, share what you love, but also keep your eyes open to new things that could interest and create a new fandom for you.


MY FANDOM FUTURE

Where will my fandom go in the future?  I think it'll always be with anime and cartoons, childish things, yes perhaps. I'm already infected with liking cats, so...can't help much there I'm afraid (ahahaha!)  But will I ever get that series I'm totally obsessed with again?

Well...only time will tell really.  I kind of don't think so though.  Typically my fandoms, the ones where I really got into it so much that all of my time was spent thinking about them...those were when I was single.  I crushed over guys (whether human or animated) and I spent my time thinking about how much I wanted to be with them and for their lives to coincide with my own.  But I have a husband now.  I don't think about Hollywood movie starts or characters from TV shows with any romantic interest, nor do I want to.  I enjoy being a fan of anime WITH my husband.  I enjoy liking what he likes but I also have stuff that he does I don't care for and he doesn't care for some of my things.  I feel like if I were ever to be obsessed, truly obsessed as I had been in the past, it would take away from my home life, it would take away from those things that I hold dear to me, and I think it would take time away from them (my family) so why would I do that?  If I ever did get completely obsessed again...I think I would worry about myself as it would show signs of being unhappy, and I'm not unhappy.

But...then again, time will tell of course.  Maybe there is a way to be completely obsessed with something and also be happy with one's family.  Heck, I've seen plenty of OSU families, so it's got to be a thing!  Perhaps if we find something to be obsessed with together, that is where our future will lie.

I'll try to enjoy my fandoms - and I hope, dear reader, you will enjoy yours as well!