You're a Shinsengumi Otaku IF...

1) Your eyes hurt staring at kanji you've never seen before. trying to translate a passage that reads something about "big bird" and "duck". You wonder vaguely if you have the right book in hand.
2) You have dreams that Rurouni Kenshin was actually about Saitou and the Shinsengumi, not the diminuative samurai and his friends. You believe that Watsuki was just forced to include "them" for "creativity" purposes. Ummm isn't that tall man with the kodachi, unmistakably Hijikata? *nods*
3) You insist that the Shinsengumi didn't really "lose" the war, even if all the history books says so. You'll go around happily saying, they won the hearts and minds of the "people".
4) You make a Shinsengumi haori for cosplay
5) You make a Shinsengumi haori for wearing around the house, to the grocery store, etc.
6) You look at a room you've painted blue and think... "hmm... some white triangles would make a nice border along the top"
7) You go through the asiles of the Japanese bookstore, scanning the spine for one that has the three kanji for Shinsengumi
8) You wonder how you can import the Tokyopop German editions of the PMK manga series, reasoning that the two weeks of German you took in college will be enough.
9) You pester the various US manga companies to license Shinsengumi manga titles. When one is licensed, you feel a sense of satisfaction.
10) You send images of the bishie guys of Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi to teenaged girls to get them started on the Shinsengumi
11) You wonder if the Shinsengumi Nikes came in your size
12) You makes schedules on when your art talented friend can make a plushie, gashopon figure, haori, painting of your "boys in baby blue" -after- the friend finishes the "cop" project you gave her a few weeks ago.
13) You think of ways to make this friend move a little "faster", one particular favorite is when you sharpen your imaginary katana and delight in executing the gatotsu.
14) You engage in "playful" competition *screech* *pull* *kick* for the Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi boys, knowing you'll lose to the teen generation. Gone are your days of youth.
15) You've actually instructed your parents to paint your room "asagiroo" even if you know you're not going home for a -few- "years".
16) You invent better lives for the Shinsengumi boys... Where none of them dies, they are actually living in modern day Tokyo (or wherever) and paired with your preferred "pairings" and ends up dancing (or drinking) the night away.
17) You don't really mind that somehow in another place and time, the boys in baby blue are attracted to each other. You actually develop a certain "yaoi pairing" preference. *cough* Hijikata x Saitou, Kondou x Hijikata, Saitou x Okita... And the list goes on...
18) Because of this... You look for doujinshi and BL games in the net! And declare "Kami-sama is GREAT" because he generously points you to them ^__^*
19) You are convinced that Roy Fokker of SDF Macross is a cross between Rurouni Kenshin's Saitou and Real Hijikata.
20) You are convinced that the opening song for Macross was inspired by the Shinsengumi... Particularly the following lines...
The brave youths who arise
Fight to protect their loved ones
All through the days of their voyage
As the war rages on.
Slashing through the Darkness,
the beam of light extends.
Will there be a day when it will fade away? "
21) You actually try to cook a dish that you saw them eat in a movie or anime... Or worse, what you read! Never mind that you don't have the tools nor the ingredients, you're a very "creative" chef...
22) When you wear your favorite blue shirt, you say, "this is my Shinsengumi shirt!"
23) When baking, you think it's adorable and normal when your little sister wears two spatulas in her belt, samurai-sword style, and declares herself to be one of the Shinsengumi
24) You wonder when you'll have time to do all of those art projects...
25) You sign up for icon contests to share the Shinsengumi love
26) You own Rurouni Kenshin in English and Japanese
27) You seriously consider how hard it would be to track down vol 7 in every launguage that Rurouni Kenshin was printed in.
28) You knew exactly what I was talking about with volume 7 of Rurouni Kenshin, and think it's reasonable to want to hunt down multiple copies of it.
29) You stare at group images of the Shinsengumi from RK, wondering if some little "detail" points to who could be who.
30) You tie on your Shinsengumi headband and do you best gatotsu pose with a yardstick for pictures.
31) You think that baby blue is the most manly color -ever-!
32) The wallpaper of your pc is Shinsengumi-related. As is your cellphone, pocket PC/pda, laptop...
33) For every forum you are on, be it anime or cross-stitching, you have a Shinsengumi-related icon.
34) You actually have a theme song fitting each ones of their deaths…
35) If you don’t have a theme song… You have a poem or a short story or even a novella.
36) You squeal when you find another “treasure”, whether it be a keychain, a shoe, a toy, a book or other merchandise (including a BUS!) that is branded “Shinsengumi *insert brand name here*”.
37) You go insane whenever a new video is found and spend the entire evening (or morning) figuring out who’s playing who.
3 You pick Saitou in every Rurouni Kenshin game you play but give preference to his Bakumatsu counterpart.
39) You shout from across the hallway to your friend that you just found the Shinsengumi on a wood block print by a famous master! Never mind that the master died a few years before the Shinsengumi was formed, never mind that someone is telling you that’s Chuushingura.
40) You wish you had those plates, tea sets, glassware so you can entertain your friends and family “Shinsengumi” Style.
50) You write the “Aizu company” whose products you’ve seen on Ebay, that amongst their lacquer goods, they should seriously consider producing lacquer chopsticks. To encourage them you show financial forecast that are slightly doctored.
51) You can find something good about each member, even Takeda Kanryuusai.
52) You can also mention something not so good about them, after all love hurts. Ouch!
53) You have the kanji for the Shinsengumi's motto 'Makoto' scribbled, painted on your school books and jotters. Then you forget to write in the rest of your school motto...
54) You routinely sketch a Shinsengumi-themed manga, never mean if your art skills are equal to a 6yr old's, and show them off shamelessly to assorted, long-suffering friends.
55) When your friends give their honest opinion, you threaten them with a bokken Serizawa-style for mistaking Okita for Serizawa.
56) You write fairly pointless (and longwinded) fanfics featuring the group in AUs where they won and really wish it were true.
57) You believe in a past life, you were one of them (nani?!)
58) You have an army of Shinsengumi plushies, most notably standing out are Saitou and Hijikata.
59) You make your own Shinsengumi t-shirts. Got Miburo?
60) You post on dating personals, "Looking for a truthful guy that lived during the Bakumatsu."
61) Now that reality has set in and you no longer believe you were one of them in a past life, you settle as someone around them, their wife, daughter, son or page... heck even their dog.
62) You pretend to be the lone girl in the Shinsengumi and delude yourself into thinking each Captains and Officers has a hidden crush on you!
63) You know it's bad, you know it's wrong, you know it's taboo... But you've actually written a Mary Sue (which may or may not see the light of day) detailing your torrid love affair with one of the Captains.. *snicker*
64) As a guy, you've actually challenged (in your mind) one of the ferocious Captains, the results of which doesn't really matter as long as you get the "experience"!
65) You've actually wanted to become Hijikata's page, eventhough all of Tetsu's experience warns you of the horrible things the Demon Fukuchou can do to you.
66) You've spent countless hours trying to get past the first scene of Gunrou-den, never mind that you've died more than 100 times now and all you've managed to "teach a lesson" to was the wall.
67) You write your own songs over the valiance of their end, and actually sing them! (In Japanese!)
68) You get numerous tatoos of yaoi pairings all over you, and actually make up stories about them.
69) You dress up as a captain, and walk around town challenging people. (Also in Japanese!)
70) You take pride in your cosplay uniform, making sure to take "Public Transportation" so that the others unfortunate enough not to have attended a convention can have the -privilege- to be graced with "Shinsengumi" presence.
71) You've actually had Saitou Hajime counsel you on how to get a work promotion or decide what job you'll tackle next.
72) You've actually had Kondou calm you down when the promotion or new job doesn't go so well.
72) Sometimes you pretend to be the Oni Fukuchou when your subordinates are being lazy.
73) You've actually spent many $$$ buying Shinsengumi books you don't have the capacity to read.
75) You've looked at the pictures (or movies) of the sword style you're favorite Shinsengumi uses and try to emulate them, using your Star wars light saber.
76) You've babbled about them so much to your non-anime-liking friends that they can even spot Shinsengumi stuff from across the room.
77) You petition Mythwear to make a nice Shinsengumi messenger bag like they do for anime series
78) You see Shinsengumi dolls and think how nice it would be to make a Shinsengumi dollhouse/compound
79) You spend hours looking for fanart for Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi that shows off how hot your favorite character is.
80) You still regret passing on the Peacemaker Kurogane coasters you saw at con last year
81) You look at the marketplace forum on hnk and realize that you -could- make an entire Shinsengumi-themed tea setting...
82) You send your favorite PMK Nagakura fan some band-aids because you know it will make her giggle incoherently for an hour.
83) When the RK Series 3 action figures came out first in a "mystery box" release, you "felt" all of the boxes in search of the Saitou... and when you opened it up after paying you make a shriek of joy so loud when it did turn out to be Saitou that everyone in Waldenbooks turns around to look at you.
84.) Your boyfriend gets jealous because you pay more attention to the Shinsengumi than to him.
85.) You want to get a tattoo of the kanji for 'makoto'.
86.) You compare your friends to members of the Shinsengumi.
87.) You and your boyfriend argue about who would win in a fight: Okita or Saitou? (Okita, duh!)
88) You import Shinsengumi movies although you know you'll never get a translation.
89) You import various manga although you'll never get to read them, you know you'll be content just "looking" at them.
90) You make a list of the anime characters that looks like your favorite Shinsengumi Captain, or at least acts like him.
91) You collect pictures, sound files, documents, etc etc anything at all that has a label "Shinsengumi"
92) You dress up the tots you happen to be babysitting for your relations in little blue haoris , go 'KAWAII!', snap photos of them for upload at your workstation desktop.
93) When you go to the Land of the Rising Sun, the Shinsengumi history tour wins over Disneyland or Ginza shopping, hands down... even you have no clue what the tour guide is saying because you don't know Nihon-go.
94) You want to own a collection of haikus just because they were written by a certain guy in the group who wishes to remain anonymous.
95) You try to figure out what said guy is writing about with the help of a Japanese for Beginners textbook.
96) For that nice Shinsengumi-themed room you've made, you sew throw pillows covered in blue with white triangles along the bottom
97) You search through websites that sell jewely made with kanji characters for a Makoto one
98) You check the fansub sites daily to see if anyone's picked up Gintama yet.
99) You wonder if you can hunt down some of those Nikes...
100) It's bedtime but out of the blue you decide to make -another- list, privately, on why people should worship Saitou and the Shinsengumi...
101) You wonder what it will take to get the -other- list from Kizu-san.
102) You shop paper lantern shops and sites, looking for one with the "Makoto" kanji
103) You PM random people on messageboards that list the Shinsengumi as an interest.
104) Because you can't get the Shinsengumi Nikes, when you buy your new pair of tennis shoes you pick out the ones that have the baby-blue trim, because it's "close"
105) You buy a bunch of Legos. Your little sister comments that you should make a Yagi house (where the Shinsengumi stayed in Kyoto) building. You dismiss it but can't <b>stop thinking about it</b>!!

Thank you to Safetygirl, Umeko, KamiyaSeizaburou and Wolf of Mibu for the list! You can find the original posts here and feel free to add more! Eventually I'll update this list on the site whenever I can. ^__^*