What do you collect?

I find this a great source of interesting stories. It seems almost everybody has a collection of some kind - from Kindersurprises to vintage planes/trains/automobiles. While the actual objects collected may or may not be all that enthralling to others I often find that people have all kinds of interesting stories about what got them started, how or where they obtained some of the items in their collection, what they plan to acquire next, what they plan to do with their collection eventually, etc.

I wish I could start the ball rolling with some fascinating relic-hunteresque tale of my own but, alas, I've never been much of a collector. All I can tell you is that I decided a little over a year ago to buy one bottle of single-malt scotch out of each paycheck until I retire. So far I have about 35 bottles - mostly different brands though there are a few repeats. I've got another 6 years until my (planned) retirement. My goal is to accumulate enough single-malt scotch by retirement to last me the rest of my life (I'm not a connoisseur by any means though I may end up as such).

What do you collect?

I'm not sure if it's in the same vein you're talking about but I have a tank full of tree frogs. I got them a few years ago and I keep adding new things and upgrading their tank. I now have a 55gal terrarium with three large white's tree frogs. They're named Big Bunta, Big Buddy and a yet unnamed girl frog that I've been calling Jaba the Frog because she's corpulent. It's a great hobby, I've found as I really enjoy setting up the terrarium with various fake plants and rocks. Also watching them eat crickets and sing when it's raining is a lot of fun.

I collect masks. Every time I travel someplace, I purchase different masks. They hang on my walls and every time I look at them, they remind me on those trips and people I met.
Trips are usually most pleasurable times for me, and constantly reminding myself about them, makes my day to day living very positive.

Originally Posted by Kai

Also watching them eat crickets and sing when it's raining is a lot of fun.

That's very interesting. What else do they eat? Do you have to change their water often? I had fish before and I had to invest a lot of time for the upkeep. I stick with birds for now

Originally Posted by Svetlana

That's very interesting. What else do they eat? Do you have to change their water often? I had fish before and I had to invest a lot of time for the upkeep. I stick with birds for now

You never really have to change the water. They have a water dish that I pour fresh water in every other day or so. I just dump it through the screen lid so it's super easy.

They eat most anything that moves. I feed them crickets because you just buy a bag (they're about $0.10 per cricket, $2.40 for a bag of 24) and dump them in and they hunt them down and devour them. You can feed them stuff like those little worms and stuff but I've had bad luck with those escaping and growing into ugly beetles in my tank. Beetles are hard to digest so I stick with the crickets. They can also eat earth worms and pinkies and stuff if you want to feed that too them.

Originally Posted by Svetlana

I collect masks. Every time I travel someplace, I purchase different masks. They hang on my walls and every time I look at them, they remind me on those trips and people I met.
Trips are usually most pleasurable times for me, and constantly reminding myself about them, makes my day to day living very positive.

Svetlana, do any of your masks have particularly memorable trips or stories associated with them?

Originally Posted by Blondin

Svetlana, do any of your masks have particularly memorable trips or stories associated with them?

Blondin,

Usually they do have meanings and stories. For example, in Cuba, I bought two masks, one representing good harvest and the other one, represents cows. They even had a pagan religious ritual using these masks for better year.

In Africa, I bought cheetah mask that looks more like giraffe. I got it because it was chipped on one side and I knew no one else wanted it which made it special for me.
Since they are all hand made, I usually look at it closely, inspect the carvings and the way colour is applied and try to imagine the craftsman. Every place I went, I just wonder, who are the people who make those masks for living?

Even though I don’t know the meaning of all of them, you are right; they remind me of people I met and places where I bought them. That’s in itself refreshing.

Originally Posted by Kai

You never really have to change the water.

Sorry, I don't actually know what the tree frogs are, but instinctively I imagined frogs living in water. So, I guess they don't require kind of care fish does.

Originally Posted by Kai

I feed them crickets because you just buy a bag (they're about $0.10 per cricket, $2.40 for a bag of 24) and dump them in and they hunt them down and devour them.

The noise doesn't bother you? I have a pet Gecko and I can't feed her crickets because the chirping drives me insane, and they bite her.

Nah, white's are pretty beefy. They eat anything that moves so the crickets get killed pretty fast. Any that escape find themselves in cat territory which is no better than frogs.



They only have a small dish of water. They like dirt and fake plants mostly.

They're also called dumpy frogs because they're known to be obese lil guys. They're also called smiling tree frogs because they look so happy