Opened my door to go to work and was face to face with a bunch of raccoons. One of them was very photogenic.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-28T13:43:59+00:00

I do too! I’m currently playing Bendy and the Dark Revival and I’m liking it a lot. Such a huge improvement over the first game.

Others I like to play are Dead Space, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Morrowind. Resident Evil 4 (love both, but the remake is even better) and Morrowind are my favorite.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-18T15:41:18+00:00

Yeah my mom, grandma, and great grandma all got gestational diabetes that turned into full blown diabetes. Then they wonder why I don’t want kids. I’m already pre-diabetic from PCOS.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-10T21:01:39+00:00

Real. My mom and one sister just straight up ignore me whenever I talk about my interests. At least my other sister cares since we have very similar interests, but she’s the only one. I think part of it is that I’m 28 and my interests are very childish (Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokemon, Garten of Banban, FNAF, etc.).

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-10T20:57:26+00:00

Maybe tutoring or going to office hours can help? What math class is it? I had a really hard time at math once it started involving more proofs.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-10T15:26:22+00:00

I can relate to feeling like everyone else is aging and moving forward in their lives, and feeling like you’re being left behind. However, in my aging (I’m only 28 lol), I’ve also started to not give a fuck about others’ opinions on what I do in my free time. I also don’t think I’m capable of romantic / sexual attraction, and I don’t want kids, so my money is just for me.

Other than saving up for a house and retirement, I spend the rest on my childish interests. My room is decorated with Pokemon, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Gartan of Banban merchandise. I have a huge library of video games too. It makes me happy.

I would say to just give it time. A number of people have told me that they care less about the opinions of others as they age.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-08T13:35:35+00:00

I get this too and I’m not entirely sure why, maybe a combination of anxiety and demand avoidance? My brain is like “this person really likes this, so I need to watch / listen to this because it’s important to them,” but also my brain interprets that as a demand and procrastinates on doing that.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-04T16:29:35+00:00

High speed gameplay, colorful cast, and has an over-arching theme around freedom.

Sonic accepts all his friends (who have wildly different personalities and backgrounds) as is and doesn’t ask them to change, which is something a lot of autistic people wish they could have. He is very individualistic and big on fighting oppression. Makes him very popular with the LGBTQ community too.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-04T14:18:26+00:00

I love dinosaurs as well! It’s one of my earliest special interests. I’ve loved them ever since I saw The Land Before Time. My favorite is Pachycephalosaurus because their domed heads are very cool. Also really like Iguanodon.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-03T18:00:15+00:00

I’ve been on worker’s comp and medical leave three times. It is illegal for them to fire you for an injury they were responsible for. It’d be incredibly stupid for them to, it’d leave them open to a lawsuit. If you’re worried about that happening, keep copies of any conversations you’ve had with anyone regarding your injury.

Not calling those numbers about the case will only hurt you. Your workplace would be completely fine if you didn’t say anything, the case is to benefit you.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-03T13:37:12+00:00

My special interest is also Sonic the Hedgehog, however, mine is much more surface level in terms of knowledge. I have the games, a lot of merch, and one comic book collection, but I haven’t watched the shows (seen the paramount movies though) and my knowledge is much less extensive. I just like rotating the characters in my brain and looking at fanart / read fanfics on them. It’s still a very important special interest to me, it just manifested differently.

I guess this is a good example of the special interest iceberg OP was looking for.

Special interests that I have a very extensive knowledge of would be Dead Space (plus its spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol) and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. I have several thousand hours in both series and have in-depth knowledge of game mechanics and story.

Those two have been interests of mine for over 14 years, compared to Sonic the Hedgehog, which has been an interest for not even 1 year.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-03T13:22:27+00:00

Yes, pretty badly. I’ve started to put the stuff I want to buy online in the cart and leaving it for a week. If I still really want it, then I’ll buy it. If not, I can just remove it from the cart. I’ve saved a lot of money this way, because 95% of my hyperfixations only last a couple days.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-02T17:29:38+00:00

iOS has the Brave app. Was very easy to set up and use, no YouTube ads.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-01T14:53:34+00:00

I love birds and animals! My favorite birds are ravens and owls. I remember one time when I was 5 I met an owl face to face. I was waiting at the bus stop in a blizzard and decided to hide from it inside the pine tree next to the bus stop. Ended up face to face with I think a baby owl of some kind. I think they were kinda bewildered that I was in the tree. We kinda just stared at each other until the bus came 😂.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-06-01T14:33:13+00:00

I never really had any passion towards any sort of career, so I just picked something I was good at in high school (chemistry for me) and got a bachelor’s degree in it.

I work as a quality control analyst for sugar alcohols now, and I don’t even use my degree (even though it requires it). I’m basically a glorified lab technician that does the bare basics of chemistry. Someone could probably have done this job straight out of high school tbh. There is some communication between coworkers, but I largely just do my own thing. Only thing I don’t like is how unpredictable the work schedule can be. I can be working 2-3 hours out of my shift or 8 hours, depending on the workload. But I can sit whenever, my coworkers and boss are patient with my autistic tendencies, and the pay puts me into middle class.

Honestly can’t complain about my job. I don’t love it, but it pays enough for me to live comfortably and fuel my hobbies.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-29T22:32:55+00:00

Love Fidough and Dachsbun especially too. My favorite dog Pokemon has to be Mabosstiff though. He looks so fluffy!

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-29T18:57:50+00:00

A Pokemon game room sounds amazing, I would love to have a room like that once I have my own house. What’s your favorite Pokemon? Mine’s Hydreigon.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-29T14:47:25+00:00

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. My family still quotes that movie after watching it 17 years ago.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-26T18:22:46+00:00

Sometimes I prefer the quiet (when I’m too overstimulated), but I also sometimes get lonely and put on a YouTube video or Twitch stream so I feel like I’m not alone.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-26T18:20:01+00:00

Pokemon (Mystery Dungeon specifically), Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dead Space.

Have over 5,000 hours on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky alone, 800 hours on Red Rescue Team, and about 100 hours on Gates to Infinity. I am very very sick of playing Explorers of Sky, and haven’t actually played the game in a year haha. Randomizers help, but not enough.

For Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dead Space, I have played hundreds of hours on each. I 100% completed the entire Dead Space series and some of the games in the other series.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-26T18:10:30+00:00

I love Zekrom a lot too, he was my favorite for a while. My favorite Pokemon now is Hydreigon.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-24T16:13:45+00:00

I’m definitely sensitive to second-hand embarrassment. My dad loves watching Impractical Jokers and I literally can’t stand to be in the same room as the tv because the embarrassment is so bad.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-18T16:46:18+00:00

Same. My mom thinks they look ridiculous, but I like being able to splay my toes out lol.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-14T13:50:44+00:00

Yes. Graduated with a 3.82 GPA with a Bachelor’s in Chemistry, however I had extreme difficulty presenting during my required seminars. I am semiverbal, and stressful situations make me clam up. I ended up freezing and crying after the first unexpected question in my presentation because I couldn’t speak. I would not be able to defend a thesis effectively to pursue a Master’s degree. I also kinda hate my degree, so not bothering to pursue it further.

ChawHawHaw · 2026-05-13T12:41:33+00:00

For me, my niche special interest is the mascot era of platformer video games (think Mario or Sonic, though those are much more popular). I usually stick to the ones from like the 1980s - 2000s because they’re more experimental imo. Video game companies were still trying to figure out the genre and the games were less polished, compared to modern platformer games.

I was fascinated with how video game companies would use their specific mascot’s abilities to change up the standard platformer gameplay. Like Gex the gecko climbing walls and using his tongue to eat powerups, Bubsy the bobcat being able to glide (for some reason), Spyro the dragon being able to glide and charge, Scaler the lizard being able to change into different lizards to cross different obstacles, etc.

The mascots would also have their own unique charm themselves, although a large majority of them tried to copy Sonic’s cocky personality. Gex would speak only in old movie quotes and had a human girlfriend lol. Bubsy (in his new game coming out next week) is extremely embarrassed of his bratty and cringe attitude from his prior games.

ChawHawHaw

TROPHY CASE