Ever felt your hobby is looked at as a joke?

I've never encountered anything but positivity toward my hobby of sword collecting. Everyone who sees them wants to hold them and know more about them. Within my collection, my kids, their spouses, and all my grandkids each have a special sword that will be theirs when I'm gone. Two of my sons-in-law are now collecting their own swords. Local high schools have had me bring swords into the classroom to talk to their history students. The police have asked me to identify a sword used in a murder. The local Medieval club has had me come in and talk to them about swords. Credibility doesn't lie in the things that interest us. It lies in who we are. If we have personal credibility, then those around us will be positive toward our hobbies.

One of these days I'll have seen them all.

Your point about insurance reminds me...I need to do the same. A couple years back at Otakon, in Baltimore, I was chatting with fellow while sitting in line waiting for the dealers room to open, and he'd shown me a youtube video he'd made, more a slideshow really, of his collection. He had so much stuff crammed into so many places, it was less impressive than it was confusing to look at. Sort of like picking the prettiest zebra on a safari. He then informed me that he had his collection insured for "about half a million" and my only reaction was to wonder why he bothers to insure something he'll never be able to buy again...but understanding that, in the worst case, at least he gets money.

I'm somewhere between dealing with the grief brought on by the loss, and the comfort of knowing I'll get some money back should anything happen to them...but I'm mostly banking on nothing happening that insurance would cover, anyway. My house is no target for theft, my location not prone to natural disasters, so I'm not so worried.

...Oh right, this was a thread about playing ninja. I'd have verbally berated the girlfriend before correcting her; I play SAMURAI, NOT NINJA.

Gotta agree with Sean on this one.

If your idea of owning a sword is to go in the backyard and make believe your tishiro mafune, while wearing a fuscia body suit, pink cape and yellow souwester boots then maybe you can get a room at the VA central state bugatorium over at Edge Hill.

If you can't differentiate between play, fantasy and reality then the same may apply.

If, on the other hand, you derive an aesthetic joy at the history, technology, and art that is manifested by this thing called "sword", you can simply IGNORE other opinions. ( At age 20 it's still hard to not worry if other people see you as constantly having your fly open. This too doth pass. )

Like a lot of you here I also collect guns and for some reason if I drop $2500 on a custom revolver I get subdued positive response. If I drop $2500 on a custom sword, I get the "are you crazy look". That I dont understand.

But then, what is normal? Isn't being normal actually being different from you neighbor?

For the most part everyone in my life is cool with my hobbies. My buddies sometimes give me flak for spending money on swords, but it's all good natured ribbing and when I bring 'em along they all demand their turn with 'em. Heck, the first time I brought down my H/T Longsword my buddy sat there all evening long cradling it, feeling the balance etc.

My girlfriend doesn't get my hobby, but then again she's got hobbies that I don't get either and we're both kinda OK with that. We've got enough in common outside of our hobbies to have a good, stable relationship.

Meh. I don't take me seriously, why should anyone else?

I know I have weird hobbies. Even my most 'normal' hobby - riding horses - is weird to some people. Whatevs. It used to bother me in high school, but now I don't care.