And he's off!

Back in the, ahem, glory days of music, a one-hit wonder group called Animotion put out the synth-pop classic “You’re My Obsession”. Come on, you remember it…don’t act like you don’t. Cast your mind back now to 1985 (I know, I know, very tough for some of you) and remember with me to the catchy tune warbled by Astrid Plane and Bill Wadhams:

I will have you
Yes I will have you
I will find a way and I will have you
Like a butterfly
A wild butterfly
I will collect you and capture you

Okay, well, those of you who know me know that I can get pretty damn obsessed with something and am unable to let it go. I’ve been known to play a new video game for an entire weekend, stopping only to take brief naps before getting back up and on it. I watched the entire “Band of Brothers” series for the first time from start to finish with only a three hour break to sleep. Syd Meier’s “Pirates!” famously captured my full attention for 72 hours straight one holiday weekend back in college. The Marx Brothers dominated my life for a good three months back in the early ’90s and I did everything from watch the bulk of their movies to reading each of their autobiographies. Hell, I even began writing a screenplay based on their lives.

I learned in college that the term for this behavior was sometimes called “the greyhound effect” and it’s truly fitting. Think of a greyhound in a race — the dog has one objective, and one objective only: get that “rabbit.” These creatures are bred to focus so intently on their objective that they are blinded by anything and everything else. I know this feeling all too well.

This obsessive trait of mine doesn’t stop with video games, movies, or books though. It’s also a dominant factor when I take on Web projects…just ask Scoot. When I get interested in an idea of my own creation it’s all I can think about and until I get it down on paper or see the project through to its completion, I simply cannot rest. While many people use the term “in the zone” to describe someone that has found their groove, I use it to describe the state of mind I’ve entered when I’m obsessed with a new hobby, idea, or, even a person. Of course, I give the term a little more credit than it truly deserves and capitalize the letters.

“Oh Christ,” winces Scoot, “Ken’s in The Zone.”

Ninety-nine percent of the time, my obsessions have never been damaging. Back in college I did become pretty caught up in the world of blackjack as my Computing Services co-workers could attest to back at UMKC. We set up a makeshift casino in the server room and would deal for hours upon end until the clock ran out, leaving then to go to the actual riverboats (back when they truly ran up and down the Missouri River) to hit the tables. Overall I did pretty well, finally developing a system in which I would start with either $60 or $100. I’d stay at the table until I’d tripled the $60 or doubled the $100. After that, get up and get the hell out of there. The fun part, then, was getting up and moving to another table to start the routine all over again. Right, Witcher? Eh heh heh.

In the end, I’ve always come away from these obsessions having learned and/or mastered something…so it wasn’t all wasted time, right?