While talking to Notorious online today, we somehow got on the subject of ranking interest groups. Some groups are useful and just fun, but as with any hobby, when you meet and gather for one idea or one interest, you are instantly transformed into a geek. This is true for all hobbies, nothing is above this simple rule. A group of friends is seperate from this, however. You are all friends, plain and simple - there is no underlying reasoning for you hanging out. There are only so many people that will fit into your clique.

I know it's natural for any hobby to spring into knowing other people with similar interests. The only hobbies I can think of that you could see other people and not be labeled a total dork are things that are inherently social. Such things as seeing your favorite band in concert, seeing your favorite sports team, or auto and boat shows.
The problem with every hobby is there are extremists. (Even those "safe", inehrently social events have extremists.) It's the extremists that show you how bad things can get if you don't balance your life with something grounded in reality. You know the extremists, for movie-goers and book readers it involves dressing the part of their favorite characters. Any time your hobby moves you to dress the part, you're in too deep. You need to stop your hobby and do something else for a while. Get a job, get a girlfriend/boyfriend, spend more time in public.

When your hobby takes you past that threshold, you must realize: no matter how many other people are also dressing the part, they're just as gay as you are. To be all into D&D or RPGs is one thing, but when you move into Live Action Role Playing (LARP), you have just catapulted yourself into utter faggotry. Enjoying anime is also a hobby that many people enjoy, but when you start dressing as such, you too have just taken the plunge into the Canyon Gay. Star Wars fans and Trekkies are not immune either. There are dress up extremists here too, even extremists that know how gay they are!

But let us not look only at fiction. There are also other "non-ficion" hobbies that can be take just a bit too far. Most of you know I'm into ham radio. This can be taken to the extreme as well. Other over-the-top hobbyists include:

LAN Partiers - why can't they just attend and play?

Civil War Re-enactors - We need more s'mores schnapps, cap'n!

Gun shows - "teeeen, hut!"

...and whatever the crap these people are doing.

Pray tell me you see the difference in enjoying something and taking it too far. Dressing up to a convention is like wearing a thong to go to a Sumo wrestling match. Or dressing up as a clown to eat at McDonald's. "Hey look everyone, I'm dressed like a cow so I can buy milk at the grocery store!"

It's okay to have a hobby, and to enjoy your hobby, but you must, for the love of all things right, do all things in moderation.

Lastly, what is not okay, and should be punishable by death is the act of being a furry. There is no excuse for this, for the hobby itself requires the participant to both dress up, and fornicate, usually homosexually, since most females never stoop to such low levels for acceptance.