Blake's Cool Website

“—but it’s actually a matter of intense debate whether the anglican church actually counts as protestant. sure, it began around the same time as the protestant reformation and was definitely inspired by it, but it isn’t actually descended from the lutheran church the way that, say, the presbyterian church is. furthermore—” —blake

if youve already been to my about page you know im audhd. this means i frequently acquire new interests. the length and intensity of the interest varies between genres of topic—my wikipedia binges are usually a few hours over a few days, while my media hyperfixations can last months. there are a few topics that qualify as special interests due to the exceptional length and intensity of them.

on most topics on this page i am more knowledgable than 99% of the public and less knowledgable than 99% of experts. i cant have a conversation with a normal person on the topic because i assume they know more than they do. i cant have a conversation with an expert because they have to explain everything to me. this is known as the Blake's Razor

the one xkcd where ponytail and cueball are talking and ponytail says "silicate chemistry is second nature to us geochemists, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the formulas for olivine and one or two feldspars." and cueball says "and quartz, of course" and ponytail says "of course" and the caption says "even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field."

i am the walking embodiment of this xkcd

anyway without further ado here is a very long list of shit im into (comprehensive? exhaustive? perhaps? who knows!)

Special Interests

interests ive had for years at a moderate level of intensity

Christianity

i was born and raised conservative evangelical protestant. i took my religion very seriously growing up and cared a lot about figuring out what the "correct" beliefs were. as ive grown older and my politics and personal beliefs have developed, my relationship with christianity has become too complex and personal to talk about on a public website. however, two things have remained the same: 1. i care a lot about ethics and think very deeply about how to behave ethically in the world. 2. im real, real autistic about christianity.

christianity is one of the most influential religions in the world. in my part of the world (Appalachia, in the USA) it's damn near inescapable. if you're a usamerican and know shit about christian theology, the history of its development, modern day christian cults and conspiracies, you will see christian ideology everywhere and you will not be able to unsee it.

these days i see christian hegemony as far more negative than positive (and i canNOT tell you how annoying it is to be autistic about christianity when i actively think fewer people should know or care about it). but i still find christianity really interesting and i enjoy learning and talking about it. luckily i dont think my infodumping could be confused for proselytism when it's all shit like "hey can i tell you about the i kissed dating goodbye movement and why its founder stopped being a christian"

Animals/Biology

when i was a kid i liked to go up to random people—adults, other kids, strangers, teachers, neighbors—and tell them whatever animal facts i could think of. "did you know aphids are born pregnant? did you know that a rhinoceros horn is made of the same material as your skin and hair? did you know that the fastest animal in the world is the peregrine falcon, which can reach diving speeds of 200 miles per hour in flight?" what im trying to say is that i have always always been like this.

i no longer want to be "a veterinarian or a zookeeper or anything to do with animals", considering that i'd need a biology degree, which would require math. but i still love animals and know a lot about them.

The English Language

Media Hyperfixations

movies, games, etc. that i have hyperfixated on as stories and worlds and made ocs/fic plans for

Kingdom Hearts

June 2023 - present

OC: Lamia

Favorite Character: Xigbar

this one completely caught me off guard. i did not grow up with kingdom hearts. id never had any interest in any of the games.

Video Game Hyperfixations

different from media hyperfixations in that ive hyperfixated on them as games and invested hundreds of hours into them, potentially even 100%ing them

Other Random Interests

stuff ive gotten into for like a week or a day or something and still find kinda neat to learn and think about