Cooking
Photography
Pottery
Fitness/health

Video games (what a surprise)
Baking
Hiking
Reptiles

genealogy and old house/ownership history
IDing antique store photos, finding descendants of the individuals
art history
gem stones and jewelry
gardening in general + flower arranging
birds
cats
antiques; typewriters, for one thing

Curious about other people to a point (clearly, more interested in things that happened 100 years ago, haha), but introverted and private, yes. :) And OCD? Unfortunately!

This post was edited by teatree on Thu, Jan 10, 13 at 21:00

Crocheting
Snowmobiling
Going to Auctions/Antiques
Baking

Philosophy (in grad school for it; esp medieval, analytic)
Theology and church ministry (was once a lay preacher and loved it)
Irish traditional music
Writing (fantasy fiction mostly)
Latin language and lit

Water gardening
Conifers
Reptiles
Amphibians
Inverts (over 8k roaches in ten species)
Photography

Superhot pepper gardening :-)
Medieval re-enactment (swords, spears, axes, bows)
Hiking, snowshoeing, camping.
Writing, poetry, short stories
Music, singing and performing with friends
Drawing black and white

Josh

45 years of horticulture specializing in propagation
Cooking
Model railroading
Photography
Computers

Palms and gardening
Body building
Collecting sharkteeth and other fossils
Tattoos
Majored in music

Non C&S (with joy, even, sometimes) gardening
Frisbee (not F. golf) in the park
Reading
Languages, specifically trying to keep some semblance of my Korean and Japanese
Hiking the hill
Rock / gravel collecting (you never have enough different types of top dressing)
Cooking
Photography

This post was edited by cactusmcharris on Thu, Jan 10, 13 at 18:24

Casual gardening; flowers and vegetables (that is until this past summer when the deer discovered my little dirt patch because I don't have a dog right now). It wasn't much fun trying to keep them out although that could be a passion in itself.

I guess I just like nature in general. I love aquariums as long as I don't have to take care of it. Which means we don't have one now. My favorite are Discus fish, but they are soooo fussy.

The ocean: just watching it, tide pooling and snorkeling when I get the chance, but I live in the High Desert so I don't get much of a chance.

Disney Theme Parks--never can get enough. But I will be cutting down on my annual trips to be able to visit more places before I die.

I love Halloween; old movies and now that I have a better digital camera I really like taking pictures.

And I think I may have a touch of Asperger's syndrome.

Hope that helps.

Bonsai
Crossfit
Guitar / Drums / Music
Football / Baseball
Eating

;-)

Neotropical Ornithology (nicely intersects with my passion for cacti & succulents)
National Parks (Membership Director of the National Park Travelers Club)
Baseball (Season ticketholder for the AZ Diamondbacks!)
Backpacking/camping
Wine
Fitness/Running/Yoga

Ok....I'll stop there! (I love LOTS of stuff!!)

Art - Too many forms to list. I see art and opportunities to be creative throughout every day. For me, art is a lifestyle.
My Kids - goes without saying.
Music - Yes, it's just more art but I spent years pursuing it.
OCD - nail on the head.
Hot Peppers, Culinary Herbs
Like Tom, I am passionate about eating food.
I think all of us like photography, more art.
Writing - Poetry, Lyrics, Short Stories - more art
Science
Politics
Hiking/Camping/Traveling
Dance - More art. I've been really in to watching dubstep videos on YouTube. Check out Dragon House if you want to have your mind blown, Jeff knows.

My Son
Anything to do with Harvard, because of said son
Poetry and Poets
Plants, indoors and out
Nature in general
Birds
Animals of all kinds
Paleontology
Astronomy
Antiques
Strong and Dark Ales and Beers
Benedictine
England
Philippines, and a certain pinay.
Beatles, still
Beauty in every form
Numismatics
Much, much more.

This post was edited by kaktuskris on Thu, Jan 10, 13 at 17:29

Genealogy
Traveling
Camping
Gardening
Bird Watching (I am a self-proclaimed "bird nerd")
I do have a 55 gal. aquarium with fish and 2 tanks, each with a leopard gecko (used to have a 4' iguana)
Anything to do with any animal
Reading (Stephen King and Dan Brown are my faves)
Listening to music (most kinds, but I favor the Beatles and anything '80's)
Knitting/Cross stitching
Collect nutcracker soldiers and matryoshka dolls
Am interested in German history and language
I don't have OCD of any kind, and I am interested in other people....moreso what makes them tick, but I am a "live and let live" kind of gal as well
And, yes, I'm eccentric....in high school I had a pair of Chuck Taylors that were fluorescent orange on the outside and bright yellow on the inside. The tops were so high that you could wear them up, sort of like the old boxing shoes, or fold them over so they looked like regular high tops.

Nancy :)

I make it a point to wear old boxing shoes, so with your comment I feel bucketfuls of affirmation.

Studying vintage Native American jewelry
SyFy channel (zombies, ghosts, spaceships, Giant Anythings devouring entire towns)
Mosaic work
Collecting funky folk art
Figuring what to do with a 1960s pink bathroom
Gardening, but only with tough natives (no daffodils)
Dragging home another pick up load of boulders to roll around the yard
Terrible cook, can't boil water (husband keeps me from starving)
Really annoying detail wacko
Horrible housekeeper (soooo boring, and what's the point?)

Love eccentric people (although I'm quite normal myself)

Jeff, I can picture you in the old shoes, doing the dance in the ring!

Aquariums with live plants and oddball fish
Astronomy
Bird watching-specifically hummingbirds, plus I hope to some day own a conure of my very own
Received a sewing machine for Christmas. Pretty obsessed with that lately
Fitness-boxing and Pilates
Cooking
Letting my house get dirty until someone is about to come over, then I frantically clean as if I have OCD
I guess I'm interested in my kids, too.
Welding, specifically tig and stick
Tv. I love tv.
Double majored in math and biology.

This post was edited by LoveMyGreenBabies on Fri, Jan 11, 13 at 1:01

Wow. I KNEW I was right !
Now I have to ..... well...... maybe not !...... I think I will just ask the guy who puts the ( online ) newsletter together to just add the link to this post. You guys are great in helping me put this together. It is fascinating - the similarities .
Some of my other passions :

The Bible
The study of Temperaments ( Why You Act The Way You Do (book- Tim Lahaye ))
ROCKS/stone/concrete slabs ( for building walls etc... ) and JUST TO HAVE.
Landscaping/gardening of all kinds
Art
( realism,abstract, FOUND,funky ......I love doing all of them BUT I loose track of time when installing "constructions" in landscaping )
Pets : Name something , I probably raised a relative of it.
Music ( though naming something like that is like sayin "long walks at the beach" )
"other purposing" ...using stuff in ways not orig. intended, ..... started when I was 4 !
Cartoons, Godzilla ( and all his friends )
Like others said : Just to name a few. I do, or have done, been interested in MOST of the things you all have mentioned so far !
Geno

Chain sawing
Gardening, and LANDscaping especially with xerics and natives
vegetable gardening
Land conservation. Trimming underbush on 1.7 acres right now, creating brushpiles for critters
creating swales to hold back water. Stream forming to slow down water in my gorge and keep my soil.
environmental politics
photography,
art
reading
I get a long with people just fine. They tolerate my thorns and my humor

Gardening/Landscaping (I have a thing for rocks too)
Nature - love watching nature - birds at feeders and whatever else visits the property/garden
Reading
Hiking,skiing,running, was obsessed with Ultimate for several years but don't get to play where I am now
Most things geographical, but esp. human-environment relations - i'm a geographer
Creating things - painting, cement stuff
Love travel but don't find time to do it much right now
Our elderly cat
Suspense/Mystery shows (guilty pleasures)
Sea glass collecting

Crochet, up cycling and any other crafts that strike my fancy
Snakes. I have a 5ft. Ball python
Brewing beer
Craft beer
Cats

orchids
photography
"critters" (snakes, lizards, tarantulas 'Oh my!')
orchids
carnivorous plants
cooking/baking
orchids
reading
gardening
miscellaneous plants
did I mention orchids?

HMMM. Lots of C&S people here like gardening.

ok wanto...... How about if they had to give up C&S--- OR -- gardening.....
( theyre not the same thing in ohio : )

My observation is from conversations in actual club meetings . Not from a keyboard. The dynamics are different. If cactus people are more introverted - it would be easier-- to come here. Maybe >gardenersI have belonged to 'garden clubs' where only half were men. ( sometimes much less ) The Ohio C&S club is mostly men . THAT is unusual !
Yet-- Central Ohio C&S men love C&S so much, they are willing to go to meetings without a date. My observation was that in spite of the fact that C&S are plants -- most of the members do not garden. Many live in apts.

Which makes me wonder if people come to this site because they want to talk with others BECAUSE they dont have friends/clubs to talk shop with ?
None of my friends like C&S. It's fun to see plant pics and share ideas and experiences ONLINE ( here ) as,again, the dynamics are different.( I dont have to get dressed, give up an evening.....)
I come here mostly in the winter as I have no gardening to do.
In spring/summer/fall, my C&S are lucky to get hosed down ever 3 days !

( all that changes as I return every winter.... then cant wait to throw em all back outside in the spring ! Ha ! ). ....only to fall back in love in the winter....ahhhhh......

Lets face it. Not that many people love C&S. Maybe it varies state to state ?
I'm sure there are more cactus lovers in calif. and texas than ohio......

I guess in the end, I cant choose. I THINK I'm a gardener... who loves C&S.

I would give up C&S because I can't give up caring for my land or eating. I have a fair amount of friends. I come here because I am out in the country and this takes less time than coming to a meeting. I travel 60 miles round trip to a Master naturalist class and I have not even thought of joining a C &S group. I go to this forum because I do not watch TV ever so reading and the forum, political meetings, friends, is how I spend my evenings. When my friends gather, I do not talk cactus, we talk local politics, life and a host of other things more pressing.

In Texas we have water rationing in the cities , so Xerics and C&S are a growing proportion of the nurseries. My cactus are outdoor cactus. And we spend a lot of time covering and moving our tender plants in and out in the cold. I like cactus because it fits in my busy life. I can tell you that if I had to have grow lights and protect cactus from rain and deal with them indoors through a long winter, I would find other plants to like. I like to neglect my plants.

I don't like it when my friends make generalizations about me. I understand that your are writing an article and using us for research and a article would be unfinished without a few conclusions, but I do find it irritating to be lumped into the class of lonely hearts because I have a few thorny cactus and share on a forum.

".......but I do find it irritating to be lumped into the class of lonely hearts because I have a few thorny cactus and share on a forum......"

Sorry you misunderstood that, wanton..... " Lonely Hearts " ? I never even implied that.
Is this where the arguing firestorm starts ? No thanks.
Geno

I do understand that words can be misunderstood on the net. Generally there are few Flames here but feathers do get ruffled and then are fairly quickly smoothed out.
A few quotes might explain why I understood things the way I did. It wasn't one line, but the set of them all together;

"nerds ..... and tend to be private, not gregarious"
"to be "serious" and not curious about other people. "( jeff, you are such a glum lot)
"Hopefully, I will hear from some of you. At LEAST the few curious ones ! "
"Which makes me wonder if people come to this site because they want to talk with others BECAUSE they dont have friends/clubs to talk shop with ?"
"MOST are eccentric ."
"Some may be OCD."
"TEND NOT to be gardeners"

Yes , the quotes are out of context and I feel that you are ariving at these generalizations by your observances derived from your experience at your "club" in Urban Northern Ohio. We have many people here with differing experiences from all over the country. C & S mean different things to different people. We do laugh and carry on and, granted, Cactus lovers are a strange lot. I WEED opuntias out of my front field, and trim back man-sized thorny plants, and I have the neighbors cows eating 200lbs of my favorite opuntia. all my agave are in ground agaves or headed in that direction. I donate time to help others deal with out of control prickly pear "forests" on overgrazed land. There are others here who only have outdoor cactus. And there are those here that have collections in northern apartments. I just wanted to say, that you need to watch out for generalizations based on one type of C&S gardening, . We are a varied lot here .

Otherwised , I enjoyed reading about peoples interests.
Peace, Mara ( a dirty loud, partyloving jokester, pseudo cowgirl/farmer/artist type) You got me on eccentric.

I can understand where Mara's coming from. I don't think it's a big deal, but while I do think it's fun and interesting to read everyone else's interests, it's probably not a good idea to now throw out possible reasons for people being how they are, or how they appear to be from these small answers. That part isn't fun like it is to see who shares interests similar to our own. I'd leave it at those types of similarities, having to do with hobbies, and not take it further into reasons why and psychology stuff.

But then, I don't think you were trying to really say that loner types come to this forum. For instance, with "Which makes me wonder if people come to this site because they want to talk with others BECAUSE they dont have friends/clubs to talk shop with ?" I think the important part of the thought is that perhaps some of us come here to talk because we don't otherwise have too many friends to talk plants with, or as much as we might like to talk plants. I know that's true for some people because it's true for me. At first I almost read the sentence without the last part of it, and if you were to do that, then it'd be suggesting we come here as lonely loners. :) The idea could still bug some people, but it doesn't me; I just think it's an unnecessary discussion. It can feel like looping strangers into stereotypes. Just easy for it to be off-putting, even though you didn't intend it that way. I hope your article turns out fun and how you're hoping. Thank you for starting the discussion about everybody's interests; I know a lot of us enjoyed that.

This post was edited by teatree on Sat, Jan 12, 13 at 21:26

Yikes, I said "all over the country...I should say, all over the world. We have people from South Africa, Vietnam, England,Europe, Canada,, Canada, Canada, Australia, Mexico

I don't think it a big deal either.

about the characteristics. I can fill in a name with each characteristic on the list. But even the OCD, we have one admitted OCD and two admitted slobs. So there is that. As much to disprove a point as to prove it. Yea, there are some reptile lovers , but there are some I think that you might find this bunch of people more diverse and gregarious then your Cactus group if the list is taken as a description of the lot. We are not a glum lot and our characters are all over the place.
That said, I would say that we all do have one thing in common . We all are enthralled with beauty, Many thing of beauty, beautiful plants and gritty soil. That is played out in our interests

This post was edited by wantonamara on Sat, Jan 12, 13 at 23:34

Welp, back to interests.

Math
Reading
England

Wow. Somebody asks about generalizations and gets a bloodied keyboard. The original poster made some general observations about her group. Wanted to know if this held up to what other people are are seeing. Somebody jumps up, takes the general observations as pigeon-holing, and takes it personally, even defending her/him self against something that was not mentioned until that point.

Keep in mind that this is a forum that just about anybody can post on. If you think the subject is silly, accusatory or doesn't apply to you, then move on. To come back on and belabor the point is a bit much. Generalizations (and the "wondering" of the original poster might not even be that) are just that, general. It means not everybody adheres to all the generalizations equally. For somebody to stand and pointedly tell somebody else that they aren't like the "generalizations" is excessive. It is acting like somebody pointed a finger at you, like you are so affronted that somebody would call you ______ (fill in the blank). That feeling compels them to come back and explain in detail why they are different. Harsh, or egotistical, neither is pretty.

If I were to come on here and make a generalization that all Agaves are succulents, somebody, somewhere in the world would come up with one growing in the swamp. Great, but maybe the generalization still holds.

It also was said that the original poster's (o.p.) Cactus club was urban. Didn't read that from her. It also was implied that the o.p. said she was familiar with a Cactus club being a "lonely heart's club. Really? The the o.p.'s words were thrown back at her. First of all, Urban Northern Ohio were your words, Wantonamara. You have obviously never been there. To call it Urban Northern Ohio shows that you have decided that northern Ohio must all be urban. Mostly farms from Cleveland to Indiana. Go there sometimes, the farms are much more prosperous that anything you'll see west of Abilene. Generalizing here. It cuts lots of ways this generalization thing.

I don't often post here, and I didn't for years because of the hard tone some people take. I was here when Spike Hernandez (his pseudonym) opened up shop in about 1996. I've seen that hard attitude drive very knowledgeable out, not that they were involved in the kerfuffle, but who wants to read somebody's attitude. I know I'll avoid opening some posts now (including this one ever again), and if 10 people do that it gets quiet around here. Drama is best left to live plays and old movies.

Who said anything about Lonely Hearts? I must have missed something.

BMX generally street and park
Reptiles (I have a bearded dragon and a mali uromastyx) and just animals in general
Juggling
Soccer
Health sciences
Herbs
Listening to music
Chile peppers- Just barely getting into them
My newly found obsession: fat plants
Being outdoors
And Alaska, although not very C&S friendly

Seeking answers to life and it's little mysteries.
Example : There is so much more thread strings laying about the house only when I help my wife with her sewing. Yet I never use the thread or the machine.

Photography
Cooking
Gardening to include : Herbs, veggies, fruit trees and corn
cant forget to feed the chickens and hens.
Puzzles: Jig Saw, word, math, logic, mazes, Professor Layton
Collectable teddy bears

Also a C&S club member I confess I too enjoy a real neat fatty and a thorny plant as much as the next person. My current mystery in life and it's little pleasureful events would be: "Lonely Hearts Club" is this a new a cultivar ?

@aloefreak -

How difficult do you find it to keep a mali uromastyx? I have live with a beardie in the past, currently we live with a leopard gecko. Always wondered about a mali...

Thanks!

Tom

Languages
violas
tiny outdoor plants
collecting books
haiku
banjo

Pottery
Cooking (vegan)
Programming
3D graphics/animation